We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carina a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carina , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

If I look back in time, I am grateful to see I took the leap to start my business when I did. I was incredibly hesitant. It was March of 2020 – COVID kick off – and I was contemplating building up my side passion as a full time job or just continue to do it as a passion project and be ready to go back to work when they called us.

Starting my business then and deciding not to return back to my job gave me the power and freedom I needed to help me and my husband move back to our home town and has been a game changer as we’ve started our family.

I’ve been able to build up a successful business where I work from home and take care of our two children in their infant and toddler years.

If anything, I would have started sooner!

Carina , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Carina Osuna and I started a Financial and Fitness Consulting business called Core Life Habits.

I got my degree in Nutrition with the anticipation to go into Nursing School or become a registered dietitian. Only to realize I wanted to be a part of peoples lives in proactively changing their health vs. reactively. I went off to become a Personal Trainer and was working with people to loose weight, gain strength, feel confident in their skin, and make an incredible difference in their life.

As I started my career I grew a passion for personal finance as I was learning for myself how to best manage my income as I started working. I found so much similarity in personal health and personal finance. It’s all about being engaged in your process, developing healthy habits, and sticking with them! Easier said then done though..

As you become an adult and leave your household and sports/activities, it’s not so easy creating the self-discipline to maintain a healthy lifestyle and manage your money right. I offer one on one coaching experiences that meet you where you are, customize your plan to what you need, and help you take one step at a time towards your goals. Whether it’s to lose weight, get out of debt, start building and protecting your financial future for yourself or your family, I’m here to help you get clarity on your goals, create a plan, and help you see that follow through!

Something that sets me a part from others is that I go beyond in creating a life long relationship with my clients. Once you are a client, you are like a dear family member to me. I don’t just want to know you through the coaching experience but I want to be a supportive cheerleader and part of your life whether we are working together or not. I am a source of support, no judgement zone, friend, and accountability buddy here to make sure you reach your dream destination!

My most proud moments are seeing clients come back and tell me what a life changer it was to help them establish these foundational habits. I’ve had clients pay off over $100,000 of debt, free up thousands of dollars in their monthly income, lose 80 lbs, and gain confidence in themselves that they never thought they had. When I get to change someones life, there’s no words to put to it in how it makes me feel to have been a part of that journey to get there!

The main thing I want people to know about me and the Core Life Habits brand is that you are never at a place where you don’t deserve the help. You deserve to have someone who doesn’t judge your starting point, meets you where you are, and supports you both emotionally and logistically through the process. When you come to me, know that you are in good hands and I am here to serve you and your goals!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As a service based /virtual business, I am lucky that my overhead and initial capital wasn’t a large amount. I did save up money with my full time job to purchase the certification program, a computer, and other sources of support like a business coach and coaching community to help give me the guidance I needed to be successful.

Taking the time to save up these dollars personally let me start my business debt free and doing it on the side first gave me the space to grow slow so I never incurred business debt and wasn’t growing slower than the money being spent.

For anyone out there starting a business, give yourself the space to save /fundraise what you need to start and start on the processes that don’t cost you as much. It’s okay to grow slow!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

This was initially my side hustle and turned into my full time business/career. It took me about 2 years to make the transition.

I never returned back to my original full time job but had found another one that was more flexible and work from home so I could devote more time / have the flexibility I needed to ramp things up.

I was a part of a larger organization that would refer clients to coaches + connected with my social media audience and current circle of family / friends / collegues to share what I was doing. The need was there and having those existing relationships built the trust from the get go for those to reach out for the help.

In any service based business, I truly believe it’s all about building genuine relationships with people and being someone who wants to help. From there, keep sharing what you do, your passion behind it, connect with others, and it grows from there!

Key milestone. I was seeing more and more clients than I had the time / space for and had others reaching out. The hand off isn’t going to be a direct transfer of income you earn right away but you want to build it up as close as you can to that and be ready to run when you say goodbye to the corporate job!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://corelifehabits.com
• Instagram: corelifehabits
• Facebook: not active on here
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carina-osuna-17039a104/

Image Credits

Rikki Raquel Photography – Rikki Munoz
Dove Eyes Photography – Riley Jones