We were lucky to catch up with Kerri Pagliarini recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kerri , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

In my previous life I was a marketing rep for a law firm and there were always difficult clients. I was nervous speaking to them because I was afraid their complaints would reflect poorly on me and so I would avoid their calls. And that made it worse! So, I stopped avoiding them and truly listened to what they had to say. I helped solve their problem or at least discuss how we could figure out a solution…and it got better! People now more than ever want to be heard. This is especially true in health coaching. Giving my clients the space to talk and be heard has made all the difference in their wellness journey.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I would love to! It really started after my own health journey.

Let me start by saying I love sugar and I have always loved sugar! I ate sugar when I was sad, mad, happy, bored, stressed…you get the idea. I would eat whole bags of jelly beans or family size bags of potato chips (which breaks down into sugar). I knew it was too much but they didn’t seem to be having any negative effect on me. I mean I wasn’t gaining weight so I must be the kind of person that could handle large amounts of sugar.

Wrong!

At this same time, I was always sick, had debilitating migraines twice a month, dealt with painful ovarian cysts and eventually ended up needing surgery.

I was scared, depressed and had no clue what to do. I still couldn’t see the connection between my sugar addiction and my health.

Luckily a friend told me about a book she was reading that changed her life and how she thought about food. It was about candida – a yeast overgrowth caused by eating too much sugar and all the symptoms that come with it. This book too would change my life!

I started working with a holistic health coach, changed my diet and lifestyle and the results have been nothing short of amazing! I could now see how sugar was affecting me. I wanted to share this information with everyone so I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and became a certified holistic health coach. I was first helping women with hormonal issues, but quickly realized that all the women had something in common. And that was an unhealthy relationship with sugar! Helping women understand their cravings and how to combat them is so empowering.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Hands down referrals! I have a network of practitioners that I refer my clients to and they refer their clients to me. My previous clients also share the experience with their network. Building a referral network in your community is the best way to grow especially when you are first starting out.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Things will never be perfect! There was a time in my business that I was completely paralyzed by the myth of perfection. I would wait and wait until I thought things were perfect, until I would launch the program or tell people about my website. It was a huge waste of time. I started listening to business coaches that kept talking about “messy action” instead of things being perfect. It was a scary thought but when I take action, I am moving my business forward instead of being stuck.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Empower-WellnessCoaching.com
• Instagram: empowerwellnesscoaching
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerripagliarini
• Other: https://empower-wellnesscoaching.com/opt-ins/whats-your-score

Image Credits
LeShayne Maddex Photography