I recently found myself reflecting on my business journey within the context of my Sustainable Growth Framework, Root, Rise and Bloom, which I can assure you has been far from plain sailing.

Clients are often surprised when I share some of the ups and downs of my path, so I thought it might be helpful to tell a bit of that story here.

I didn’t start out as an entrepreneur. After university I was very career driven and spent well over a decade climbing the ladder in comms and project management in the charity sector.

When I decided to walk away from that career to become a life coach in 2012, I had very little idea how I was actually going to make money. I threw myself into blogging, which I loved, but after two years of not earning any money, it became clear that passion alone wasn’t going to sustain me.

That’s when I hired my first business coach.

I worked with him for around eight months, for the rather eye-watering price of $17k.

Crushing the Root stage

Looking back, that period was very much my Root stage, and a lot of what I teach today grew out of the work I did with that coach.

I was full of ideas and possibilities, but completely naive about what getting clients actually involved. One of the first things my coach had me do was fire a “client” I’d been coaching for free for two years. Imagine.

At the time I wanted to do it all. Write a book. Speak on stage. Host a retreat. Create an online course. Run a group programme. You name it, I wanted to do it.

But again and again, he brought me back to one thing: conversations.

In our weekly sessions, he would ask me to open my calendar and show him how many conversations I had booked. Gift sessions, virtual coffees, work together calls. If there were none, we focused on who I could reach out to and how to invite them into conversation.

During that time I ran a 77 Call Challenge, offering 77 free coaching sessions to people in my audience, which I had built through two years of blogging. That year was intense. I coached all day, every day, Monday to Friday. Some days I had five sessions back to back.

I learned an enormous amount. I honed my skills as a coach, deeply understood what people struggled with, and saw clearly what needed to be in place for real change to happen. I also gained paying clients.

That first year, I made 15k. At the time it felt disappointing, especially given the investment I’d made in support. But when I compared notes with others on my life coach training, I realised just how unusual it was to make anything at all in year one. I was the only trainee on my course with paying clients.

In hindsight, that was my Root stage in a nutshell. Focused. Relational. Built on conversations rather than offers. And crucially, it was where I figured out who I liked to work with and what kind of work I wanted to do.

Starting over

A few years later, after stopping work with that coach, I allowed the noise of the online world to creep back in. I was still making money, but it felt inconsistent and unreliable.

Around the same time, it became clear that life coaching wasn’t where my passion lay. Business coaching was. A realisation I wouldn’t have reached without all the coaching I’d done during Root.

In 2017, just months after my first son was born, I launched a completely new business.

2017 and 2018 were tough. I didn’t even track my income in 2017 because it was so small. 2018 became what I now call my burnout year. Hustling hard while being a stay-at-home mum to a baby took its toll. I even did VA work on the side to cover my share of the bills.

At the time it felt like failing. Looking back, it was pivotal.

This was the stage where things weren’t falling apart, but they weren’t stable either. I had proof that my work mattered, but not the consistency to relax into it.

Transitioning to Rise

By 2019, I knew something had to change.

I made myself one simple promise: I wouldn’t launch anything new. Instead, I would double down on what I knew worked. Reaching out to people, offering gift sessions, and creating meaningful content consistently.

That year ended up being my best financially at that point, around 21k.

From 2020 to 2021, I continued to focus on visibility and connection. I strengthened my marketing by repurposing content, using paid promotion, and building relationships with colleagues whose values aligned with mine.

By the end of 2021, I had more than tripled my income.

This was my Rise stage. Less scrambling. More intention. Strengthening what already worked rather than constantly chasing something new.

Hello Bloom

From 2022 onwards, my income and client load have grown steadily year on year.

During this time, I put systems, processes and support in place so I could deliver my work without being buried in admin, tech, or the endless fiddly bits of running an online business.

Business was good.

And then something else happened that I didn’t expect.

With things working so smoothly, I started to feel a little uninspired. Not ungrateful, just under-stimulated. Some of my drive and creativity dulled.

That changed this year, when I completely overhauled my business model. I feel energised again, curious, and genuinely excited about what this next phase will bring.

Today, Bloom for me is about continuing to grow while giving less of myself away. Creating income that isn’t solely dependent on my live presence. Building something that supports my health, physically, mentally and financially.

My word for 2026 is HEALTH, and my business needs spaciousness for me to live into that. I’m here for it.

How long success really takes

When we look at successful businesses, we often assume it’s always been that way. In reality, it took me from 2012, when I first thought about starting a business, to 2021 to truly reach Bloom. That’s nine years of trying to make it work.

I could beat myself up for not getting there faster. But during that time I changed businesses, moved house three times including a full renovation, and birthed and raised two incredible boys.

So there’s no beating myself up here. Just a quiet knowing that real, lasting success takes time to build, and deep gratitude for the journey.

If any part of this story resonates with where you are now, I want you to know that you’re not behind. You’re in the journey, and from experience, that always feels messy while you’re in it.