We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Cox a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Heather, 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.
It was February 2019. One month into my cross country move.
I was living in my sisters apartment at the time with her & her roommate to save some money. Just shy of a year from quitting my full time corporate job to go all in on starting my own business.
Up until that point, I was doing okay for myself. I had a consistent income coming, making enough to make ends meet. But then things started to shift.
I started to doubt myself, asking questions…
“Can I really do this long term?”
“What makes me different?”
So the night before my 28th birthday I cried myself to sleep, thinking that maybe the few good months I had were just luck. And maybe I should just go back to doing what most people told me to do in the first place…keep my corporate job.
But the next day I woke up and I made a decision.
I was going to do whatever it took to make my business a success.
I had doubts every single day about whether or not this would work out long term. I didn’t have much evidence to support that I’d be successful.
But I kept telling myself “just keep showing up, just keep doing the work.” And making the commitment to that decision changed the course of my business & my life.
It taught me how strong the belief in ourselves truly is. That it doesn’t matter who believes you in, what evidence you have to support your pursuit of success, or if you fail along the way.
What actually matters, is that you have the belief in yourself.
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.
It all started with a New Years resolution.
Struggling with weight most of my life, I spent 10+ years trying different diets. I would follow the likes of Weight Watchers, Beach Body, Herbalife, etc. to try & drop the weight.
While some of those things worked in the short term, I always found myself gaining back the weight.
So in 2016, as we were getting ready to ring in the new year, I made the commitment THIS would be the year I finally solve my weight problem. Any free time I had was dedicated to researching about nutrition, fitness & overall health. Twelve months later, I was down 30 lbs.
I had unlocked the “secret” I had so long been searching for to solve my weight loss struggles. (And realized I didn’t actually need all the supplement and programs I was forcing myself to stick to.)
This led to a lot of questions. People wanting to know what I did and how I did it. Which sparked the idea of “maybe I can teach people how to do this for a living?”
Two years later, I set out on the venture of starting my own health coaching business. I knew the feeling of frustration & lack of hope these women had when it came to losing weight, because I’d felt the same way. That’s why I created The Flexible Diet Reset Method, to help women solve their challenges with weight loss, reset their metabolism and feel more confident in their own skin.
And since launching the business in 2018, we’ve helped over 500+ women overcome their struggles with weight loss.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Growing up, I always thought I was a bit different. After graduating high school, I didn’t have much of a desire to go to college, but did it anyway. I thought that’s what I was ‘supposed’ to do. You graduate high school, go to college, graduate college and enter in the corporate world in some 9-5 job with benefits and a 401k.
Venture outside of that and people tend to look at you a bit different.
So I followed that path I was ‘supposed’ to, graduated college and got a job in the corporate world with my 401k and benefits. But during the 5 years I worked there, I always felt like something was missing. I enjoyed the work and loved the people, but there was no sense of passion. I was living the same day over and over again with very little purpose or passion.
That’s when I realized something had to change. Knowing how much time we spend at our jobs, I wanted to stop just existing and start actually LIVING.
So I went against everything I’ve been taught about how our lives should look and quit my corporate job to start my own business.
I learned that what were ‘supposed’ to do is nothing more than a story we’ve been told. That there’s no path we have to follow. But instead, we have the choice to create that story and path.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Authenticity & showing my clients who I truly am – the good and the bad.
When I first started my business, I thought I had to show up in a certain way. Thinking people want to buy from an expert, someone who has it all together.
This meant no flaws, no imperfections, no showing that I struggle too.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Because people aren’t inspired by perfection, they’re inspired by triumph. By knowing that you’ve been where they’re at & have overcome what they’re looking to do. That they aren’t alone & you’re on this journey with them too.
I heard a quote from one of my mentors that has been the foundation of my business – “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
When you make your clients feel seen & heard, when you show them your authentic self, they connect with you on a deeper level and you’ve start to build that trust. And the more people you can get to know, like and trust you, the more the business grows.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hcfit.kartra.com/page/apply
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxfit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.cox.98622