Becca Sandler: It is of paramount importance to safeguard your own wellbeing around Christmas

Christmas is a time of laughter, family and relaxation, but for many, it’s the most stressful and unwelcome time of year.

Here to talk you through the importance of mindfulness, wellbeing and physical health is Enterprise Nation member and founder of Balance with Becca, Becca Sandler, a transformational life coach, workshop facilitator and yoga teacher.

Becca takes us through her background, the way she stumbled into entrepreneurship, and how her small business aims to alleviate the stresses and strains inflicted on society over the last couple of years.

If you would like to become an Enterprise Nation member and take advantage of the learning resources and expert advisers on offer, just like Becca, sign up for free now.

Did you always want to own your own business?

So, I grew up in Hertfordshire and thought I wanted to be a performer on the West End - having been classically trained as a singer from a young age. However, when I didn’t get into a drama school at 18, I decided to go to university to study drama academically instead of vocationally.

If you’d told me then that I’d be running a transformational coaching and facilitation business six years later, there is no way I would have believed you!

After university I jumped into the corporate world, working in various organisations’ HR functions, whilst developing a keen personal interest in the wellness space.

As the pandemic hit, I was made redundant from an executive search firm which dovetailed perfectly with fracturing my hip, from attempting to run 100k in May 2020. Safe to say it was a hard couple of months, mentally and physically.

But having a fractured hip and losing your job does give you a lot of time to think. And so that is exactly what I did…

I got to asking myself questions like: what is it that you really want to do Becca? What lights you up and gives you butterflies? Who do you want to spend two-thirds of your life with? What impact do you want to have in the world? So, with a pot of Earl Grey tea, a jug of oat milk, an A3 pad of paper and some sharpies, I got to work.

Once I had answered these questions, I thought I would have landed the jackpot…and I had in a way. I knew that I got lit up by the prospect of making a difference to people’s lives and supporting their change, and I got really excited at the prospect of being able to do this full-time as part of the wellness industry.

I knew that I wanted to not be sitting at a desk all day every day, looking at spreadsheets or PowerPoints. I knew I wanted to be active and agile and work on a personal level with people from all different life stages.

I wanted to collaborate with like-minded, strong-headed grafters, and work with inspiring and intelligent people, who might be feeling the way that I was feeling when made redundant. Or people who had had a huge life change thrown at them.

I wanted to change lives, whilst keeping it personal. How could I achieve all of the above?

That is when the idea of setting up my own wellness business floated into my consciousness. I could set up my own business, providing bespoke packages for individuals and corporates! I could retrain in disciplines that would support others to create change and transform.

So that’s what I did! I retrained as a transformational life coach and yoga teacher and started building my business, Balance with Becca.

Tell me more about Balance with Becca

Coaching is a space that provides clients with an environment in which they can think clearly about their world and figure through the complexities of life, with another person dedicated to listening to them, hearing them, and asking expansive questions to get them to think further or more clearly than perhaps they have in the past.

It is a confidential, non-judgmental, non-advisory and collaborative container created by the coach and client working together. It will focus on the client’s own thoughts, challenges and goals.

Transformational coaching, which is what I provide, is a powerful way of exploring our personal beliefs and values and how these shape our experience of life and create our thought patterns and behaviours.

Transformational coaching can facilitate a journey of self-discovery and exploration which can give you a greater level of self-awareness, the ability to examine and reshape many areas of your life, where you deem fit and a designated safe space for exploration that you most likely would not have been able to do on your own.

Coaching with me differs from coaching with other industry professionals for a couple of reasons:

• My personality and work ethic. I am an incredibly passionate, intelligent and diligent coach, who is dedicated to continuing my personal and professional development in order to show up as the best coach that I can be to my clients, whilst remaining dedicated to weaving fun and humour into my coaching sessions. We have fun whilst setting, working through, and smashing goals.

• My training as a yoga and meditation teacher. It works for some clients, it doesn’t work for others. I have the ability to weave elements of a yogic practice into coaching sessions should a client want this. These might include breathing techniques at the start or end of a session, or visualisation during a session.

• My unique lived experience. We all have such a diverse and varied set of skills, knowledge base and experiences to bring to any table and I am no different. Although I never advise clients, sometimes people will come to me because of my background in HR, experience of living with a visual impairment or the fact that I have made the transition from corporate life into running my own business.

With Christmas just around the corner, how important is it to safeguard wellbeing?

It is of PARAMOUNT importance to safeguard your own wellbeing around Christmas.

As a holistic wellness advocate, when I talk about wellbeing, I don’t mean making sure you get your downward-facing dogs in between your prosecco and your turkey. I’m talking about your wellbeing as a whole, which should consider all kinds of wellbeing including:

financial, mental, emotional, nutritional, social, spiritual, environmental and of course physical.

The festive period can be a really challenging time for people for a plethora of reasons. Whether it's staying out late, at work Christmas parties, feeling the pinch of Christmas present buying or dreading heading to a political family dinner table, we each have our own set of priorities at Christmas time.

But do we ever take a moment to consider the eight kinds of wellbeing that always exist in our world?

Journaling can be a wonderful place to start before we dive straight into the blur that Christmas can sometimes become. It can bring some conscious thought and expression to the front of our minds, before all the gorgeous food and laughter and cheer.

What’s the most rewarding thing about running your own business?

Seeing the challenges that my clients overcome and knowing that I was a part of their journey to achieving what they want.

You also help clients with their physical health, tell me more about that!

So, the other side of Balance with Becca is the yoga and meditation side of the business which can of course help with your physical health - my teaching helps strengthen muscles and build flexibility and mobility for people of all ages.

I also love working with breath work practices (pranayama), as they can not only support strong circulation and reduce symptoms of physical and emotional anxiety but also support your immune system and strengthen your resilience, especially in the winter months.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to prospective entrepreneurs looking to start their own wellness business?

Be patient with yourself.

Take your time to figure out what your Ikigai is.

Ikigai is a Japanese philosophy that can help you figure out your purpose and passion in life. It also gets you thinking about how to make money from this whilst bringing the world something it needs.

But this isn’t going to happen overnight!

Some questions to consider:

• What do you love?

• What are you really good at?

• What can you make money from?

• What does the world need?

Take time to really figure out what your answers are to these questions.

How do I do that I hear you ask? Well, once again I’m a big journaling advocate, or you might want to invest in a coach or strategist in order to help you think about these out loud.

But once you’ve found the intersection of all your answers, you’ll have a solid business idea that you’ll be happy to graft through even when no one else is awake or listening or bothered.

Moving onto Enterprise Nation – how did you first get involved with the platform?

I was introduced to the platform by my brother who is also an entrepreneur but in the drinks industry. He invited me to an event years ago and I have been hooked ever since.

How has Enterprise Nation helped you grow your business?

The Lunch and Learns have been such a source of knowledge and inspiration. I’ve met some really great business owners through connecting with the speakers after events and have been able to put into practice a lot of what they have taught.

It's also a great platform to connect with other entrepreneurs, and I’m looking forward to meeting some people IRL at some of the exciting events that 2023 has to offer.

Looking to follow in Becca's footsteps and grow your very own businesses with the help of Enterprise Nation? Become a member for free today!