We recently connected with Colin Easom and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Colin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It’s been a relatively smooth road so far, but it’s taken a couple of years to get from the vision of running a plant-based coaching business and bed & breakfast to getting it off the ground. The property we bought in 2021 was pretty run down, so we’ve had to invest a lot of time and effort into the renovations. We’ve taken on as many projects as we can ourselves, but some projects have required contractors.

Working around Covid and contractor availability has been an interesting experience! But it’s been motivating to see the progress along the way and look back at the before and after pictures. It’s also taken us a couple of years to get the certifications we felt we wanted to have to be able to offer a professional and well-rounded experience for our clients. Roy and I are both certified plant-based lifestyle coaches with Mainstreet Vegan Academy, and we gained plant-based nutrition certification through Cornell, and plant-based chef certifications with Forks Over Knives.

Getting the word out there that plant-based lifestyle coaching is available has been a little challenging. A lot of people have questions and express the desire to move into a more plant-based lifestyle, but committing to coaching can appear a little daunting I guess. We’re very aware of this and aim to meet our clients where they are in a nurturing and encouraging way rather than with any judgment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I became a vegetarian in the early 1990s on ethical grounds. Then, after seeing what goes on behind the scenes in slaughterhouses and farms, I decided to go fully vegan in 2010. I didn’t want to be part of a food system that deliberately causes abuse and suffering purely so I could put meat on my plate. It was a very ethical decision in those days.

Since then, I’ve undertaken lots of research into plant-based diets, and I’ve been enjoying watching the vegan movement unfold. I’ve come to realize that there are huge environmental and health benefits to not eating meat too. When I met my husband, Roy, who had just had a heart attack, we began discussing the benefits of plant-based diets, and Roy was all in. I helped guide him to a whole foods plant-based diet, and he’s seen significant improvements in his health since then. He was so pleased with his results that he wanted to give back to the community so we agreed to launch our coaching business.

When we mention the multiple benefits of plant-based diets to people, there’s a lot of interest, but people don’t know where to start. Our goal is to simplify the process for people and help them move towards more plant-based options in their life.

We run a plant-based B&B alongside the coaching business. Additionally, I’ve just gained my certification as a meditation teacher, and Roy and I both recently certified as Reiki practitioners. We’re now offering meditation and Reiki sessions into the mix for potential clients. Roy also recently obtained a sound healer certification, and I’m pursuing a yoga teacher certification – so there are more great things to come! So if you want to learn more about a plant-based lifestyle and take classes over a weekend, or if you want to relax in a peaceful environment, meditate, and wake up to a tasty, healthy breakfast, we have somewhere for you to stay.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Social media has been a huge source of clientele for us. There are various vegan and plant-based Facebook groups, especially groups focused on vegan travel, that we’ve been posting to. Posting about our bed and breakfast in those groups has been highly successful for us. We’ve also been featured by a Tucson-based social media influencer who happened to stay at our bed and breakfast and loved what we were doing. Once we were featured on her social media channels, we received a large influx of guests and clients. Word of mouth has been highly successful for us too, with a lot of people approaching us saying they heard about us from a friend. As we move forward in the business, I can see us having a booth at local plant-based festivals and maybe partnering with other local vegan businesses to generate additional interest.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think the thing that’s helped us the most is being authentic and putting the guest or client at the forefront. We’re a very small business enterprise and that means we can really focus on our clients and guests. Taking the time to truly listen to clients, to sit and chat with guests, getting to know them and their backstories, their goals and dreams – that allows us to connect with them on a personal level. We then tailor our support and coaching to the client rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach. I think that makes us stand out from other businesses offering the same type of services.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ranchoveganoaz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ranchoveganoaz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ranchoveganoaz
• Other: Happy Cow: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/rancho-vegano-tucson-290461