Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara Codd and Nicola Spencer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sara & Nicola, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)
One of the questions we often like to ask our clients who are having a hard time with their fitness journey – be it consistency, motivation, or other obstacles that might be popping up is: “if the scale weight didn’t change, would you still exercise and eat healthy?”
Some people say no, but the vast majority say yes. This is often because they recognize the positive impact that regular movement, adequate nutrition and self-care play in our overall well-being.
In a world that is fixated on aesthetics and external appearance, it is easy to get wrapped up in nutrition and exercise as a way to change the way we look. Our best advice for clients? Focus on all the other ways in which healthy habits affect your day to day life.
Whether that’s increased energy to pour into your work or your family, increased confidence to take risks or set boundaries, more physical strength to explore or do the things you love, better mental health and clarity – the benefits are endless.
Having specific body focused outcome goals is fine, but those cannot be the only reason we engage in healthy behaviours. There are bound to be ebbs and flows in your consistency, motivation, and body, so having multiple reasons for taking care of ourselves (and multiple strategies) is so important for our overall well being.
When we can focus on who it makes us, not what it gets us – our entire mindset shifts, and it makes the process a lot more enjoyable.
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.
We are Sara & Nicola, and together we make up the Paradigm Nutrition team. We’re business owners, nutrition coaches, podcast hosts, coach mentors, and lovers of the gym, food and feelings. More importantly, we’re humans learning and growing as we navigate our business and personal lives.
We’ve both had our own unique experiences navigating our health, wellness and body image. Some really great, some not so great. Because of those experiences, we both started supporting others with their nutrition and helping them overcome body image struggles. After meeting nearly 7 years ago, becoming very close friends, and a lot of conversations around what we felt was lacking in the nutrition coaching space, we decided to join forces and started our business Paradigm Nutrition & Performance in the fall of 2019.
At Paradigm, our goal is to help humans reimagine what their nutrition and training can do for their overall wellbeing. In a world that is fixated on aesthetics and weight loss above everything, we aim to help people learn about food, their own nutritional needs, and how to create habits that fit within their lifestyle to support their best selves, keeping long-term health at the forefront.
We also work with other nutrition coaches and provide mentorship to help them become better leaders, communicate better with their clients, and ultimately create more impact in the space and more income for themselves.
Through our own experiences and working with hundreds of women, we recognize the power that comes from women taking care of themselves. When one woman shows up as herself unapologetically, sets boundaries and puts herself first, it paves the way for those around her to do the same. This is at the heart of what we do – creating a stronger and healthier world, one human at a time.
Our goal is to help our clients navigate their own nutrition or business – so they can figure out where & how they want to exist, and help create the lives that support their big & bold dreams – whatever they may be!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When we first started our business, we had this idea that we had to be “professional”. At the time, we defined professionalism as always having it together, being fully prepared, knowing everything… Essentially we internalized it to mean being “perfect”. But we quickly realized that putting so much effort into looking perfect was not only exhausting, but it created some unfavourable impacts to our relationships with our clients.
When we pretended to know everything, live perfect lives, and have it all together we weren’t able to connect with others on social media, let alone our clients. Pretending to have it all together created a hierarchy between us and our clients, which did nothing to encourage trust or foster a deeper relationship. When we pretend to be the expert in a client’s life, we take away their autonomy and potential for growth. And for us, that meant not living in integrity with our values. So rather than showing up in a way that fits conventional norms, in running our business we came to learn that professionalism doesn’t have to look the way we’ve come to know it. Instead, showing up authentically has become a much more important goal to strive for.
By breaking away from conventional ideas of professionalism, we have been able to show up for clients in a way that offers opportunity for collaboration, for the client to become the expert in their own lives, and for us to act as a positive support in their process. We’ve been much more able to build close relationships with peers and support and connect with countless wonderful humans on social media. In the end, breaking up with professionalism allowed us to feel more at ease and joy in our work as it removed a lot of the pressures to look and sound like everyone else.
In our business and coaching practice, we’ve replaced professionalism with authenticity and vulnerability. And the work we’ve been able to accomplish with our clients has completely transformed – from the way we interact, to the process we follow, to the results the clients achieve! To run a professional business, you don’t have to look or sound like everyone else.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
As service providers, the vast majority of our clients come from referrals. This has been the result of taking the time and putting in the energy to provide a great service for our clients, to listen to their needs and to foster relationships of trust and mutual understanding. We’ve played around with different referral incentives including shared savings, direct asks via questionnaires etc., however we have found that the most effective and best fitting referrals come organically from happy clients.
Instagram provides another big chunk of our clientele, which we have grown via organic content creation. We aim to provide value via educational content, but also content that relates to our clients and truly allows to see themselves inside of our coaching spaces. We pride ourselves on addressing nuance in health and wellness, and breaking through industry myths and misinformation to help empower our audience to learn about the science behind nutrition and training and truly find what works for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paradigmnutrition.net
- Instagram: @paradigmnutrition_
Image Credits
Sunday’s Photography