Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
This is such a hard thing to do and to maintain, and I wholeheartedly take my hat off to all the men and women out there doing this! My husband and I both run our own businesses, he is a builder and I have my clinic, so we really have to keep each other in check. We both want our family to come first, adventures with the kids, making sure family dinner is a mainstay and we do our best to make it happen. Just like all the other families out there trying to make their priorities happen, sometimes it works amazingly and other times it gets on top of us, but that’s life and we keep working on it. I do find sometimes when I’m putting together a treatment plan for some of my families, I’ll be thinking ‘Oh yeah, I need to be doing that too’, so I feel fortunate to be able to learn alongside my clients too!
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
Challenges are what drive us. I do not believe we will ever be without them. The family-work-life balancing act is definitely high up on that list, especially as it continues to shift and change as the kids grow and our needs change with them. Anyone who has or is running their own business knows that there are so many challenges in that respect, but there is fun and freedom in there too. I believe the trick is to focus on the fun and the freedom and then you can overcome the challenges together. I am especially grateful to my incredible support network of beautiful friends and family, however near and far, and in particular, my husband Pete, who has and continues to help boost my confidence and push me to face those challenges.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
On the one hand, you always seem to be running short of time, yet it can push you to make the best use of your time. Then there is having to manage all the finances, which can be tedious, and then getting to manage the financial side of things can also be really rewarding. There are always so many hats to wear when you run your own business, and this can be quite confronting at times. Yet having the freedom to chase your dreams and move your business in any direction you choose is really quite exhilarating.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
There are so many. For me, it’s trying to nail down one and actually commit to doing it! I’d really like to take my business on the road, maybe do a rural run out west for a few weeks once or twice a year, to bring naturopathic nutrition to the outback towns where I grew up. I know how difficult it can be to get access to a lot of different health care options out west, so bringing it to them is something I’d really like to do. I’d also really like to push naturopathic nutrition to teen sports, encouraging them to introduce proper sports nutrition education and facilitating this alongside a push to deliver quality food and drinks in the actual sporting complexes and venues. I feel like there is a lot of room to move here and it’s those little changes that can have such a profound impact on not only their sporting performance and recovery but also their health and health literacy long term.
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