We recently connected with Hannah McChesney and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

The defining moment in my career as health coach came about 20 years before I became one. I was diagnosed at the age of 30, with a degenerative blindness, call RP (retinitis pigmentosa). I’d been having a hard time seeing at night, and didn’t see stars anymore. The eye doctor told me I would be blind by 50. No hope. No cure.

Flash forward 26 years later and I am not fully blind. I credit it to my lifestyle and diet changes that I started In 2009. That was the year I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, I was thrilled that I lost 45 lbs and slowed down aging. Most significantly, by following this anti- inflammatory lifestyle, my RP degeneration halted,

Mark is a leader in the ancestral health movement and started the Primal Health Coach Institute in 2016. Wanting to spread the message, I am now a Certified Master Health Coach, with two other certifications as well. I work with clients mostly with short term programs, as I believe quick wins early on will ultimately lead to lasting change.

Hannah, 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?

I was so thrilled when I changed my diet and lifestyle, that I became a proselytizer in the ancestral health movement. Besides losing weight, and looking about 10 years younger than I am, I halted my degenerative blindness. (Diagnosed at 30 with Retinitis Pigmentosa, the doctor told me I would be fully blind by 50. I am now 56 and am not anywhere near fully blind, thanks to my diet and lifestyle changes).

As a Certified Master Health Coach, I work with clients, putting them through short term programs that usually result in quick wins. These wins can put them on the path to lasting habit change, either with or without my guidance. Most of my clients come to me not knowing how to change their health but knowing they need to. I start them on a short path to build confidence for their longer term goals.

Most of my programs are under 30 days, like my sugar reset (10 days), protein challenge (10 days), basic reset program (21 days), gut health + reset program (28 days), keto adaptation (30 days), sleep and stress mitigation programs (both 30 days),

These are all run through the My Coach app, which has daily texts, a lesson and goals to achieve. I have a longer program as well for a deeper dive into ancestral health (12 weeks), as well as a gut health deep dive, for clients who need it.

My proudest accomplishments have been not going blind (not even close)! I’ve also been so thrilled in helping others with tough diagnoses attain quick wins on their path to health. These programs I put them on have a very high success rate (about 96%). If someone has the intrinsic motivation to change, the knowledge, some guidance and accountability, they can do it. And my success rate demonstrates that.

Currently I have three certificates from PHCI, including the first level of health certification, the Master Health Coach certificate (ACE) and the Human Microbiome in Health and Disease certificate. I’m also studying for my board certification in the next year.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being an entrepreneur at heart, I tend to look for opportunities in many fields; niches that are needed and not yet served.

When I was a real estate agent – which is basically running your own business – I noticed a profound changed in the market in 2009. Even though I was one of the leading salespeople in the office, my deals weren’t closing.

There was not much I could do about it, as financing was so strict that deals easily fell apart.
Being a part-time photographer in the past, I pivoted to photographing houses for real estate agents that still were doing business, moving away from full time real estate.

That business then dried up because agents were so pinched they couldn’t afford photographers, I did another pivot outside the field.

Instead I went completely outside of the field, and started dogwalking for a leading company in my city. Within a few years, being trained and confident about my abilities, I went off on my own (around 2011). By March of 2020, I had a successful business in Chicago, with three subcontractors and was in negotiations to sell it.

During lockdown in 2020, I started thinking about what I really wanted to do, which was health coaching. I took more classes for accreditation during this time, and have been building my business ever since.

The lessons I took from changing my business a few times are 1) I have many interests, 2) some businesses make it, some don’t and it’s good to be philosophical about it, 3) if I can see a need, someone is probably willing to pay me for it.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Coming from an entrepreneurial background has really helped me with health coaching. When I was a real estate agent I was trained in the psychology of selling, and phrases like, “ All they can do is say no”, “Give, ask, receive”, “They won’t care what you know until they know that you care”, echo in my brain all the time.

The biggest help has been seeing a need, and then marketing to the audience that has that need. The need I see is that people want quick fixes, want things to change immediately, and quick wins in health.

Those wins can happen in health with the right short term programs. The quick wins won’t change many long terms issues, but they give peole the confidence to invest in themselves to make long term habit change either on their own or with their beloved health coach (me!).

In our field we are urged to find a specific niche, like a disease we overcame (Hashimoto’s for example), or a demographic that resonates with us (menopausal women). I know myself too well and don’t want to be that limited in my scope.

That’s why I’ve decided to offer many kinds of short term programs, see what resonates with people, and grow my business from that. Right now it seems to be the 10 day sugar detox, with the protein challenge and 21 day reset program the second and third most popular programs. (Interestingly, I’ve mostly had men in my programs, especially former athletes.)

Finally I’ve learned to be really patient with growing my business. It does not gross $100k overnight, and I’ve learned that every $50 program I sell is one more satisfied client, building towards the future of my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.hannahmachealth.com
• Instagram: @hannahmachealth
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/lusciouspaleo

Image Credits

Vikram Shah