Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Josie Santi, Founder of Wellness By Josie, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
After studying with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and becoming a certified holistic health coach, I founded Wellness By Josie, an integrative health coaching service and lifestyle brand, to help women everywhere become their happiest selves, using food and lifestyle changes as medicine to bring out optimal energy, confidence, and beauty (because true beauty comes from being your most authentic self).
This is not your typical health brand–we acknowledge that happiness is the ultimate goal, and taking care of our bodies optimally gives us the energy, clarity, and space to live out our purpose. We believe that this one life should be lived to the very fullest, and true health is the way to get there.
Wellness By Josie is here to help you become the kind of woman who lights up every room she walks into, who radiates kindness and positivity, who enjoys both a glass of wine and a green juice, who consistently shows up as her favorite self, and treats her body like she would her best friend.
Tell us about yourself
I've felt disconnected from my body for as long as I can remember. Painful periods, uncomfortable digestion, guilt after eating, chronic fatigue, and inconclusive tests left me feeling out of control and strange in my own body, leading to intense health anxiety, a panic attack disorder, and countless reproductive and digestive issues.
After receiving a degree in religious studies, focused on Eastern religions and ancient medical practices like Ayurveda, I realized that the body was not the enemy; symptoms are how the body communicates what it needs. I did not want to waste this one life being held back by health complications or crippling anxiety, so I started on a long spiritual wellness journey that revolutionized my entire life.
I knew I had to help other women do the same. I see so many women bogged down by physical symptoms, body insecurities, or chronic stress, so I'm on a mission to help women heal from the inside out and live their fullest, happiest, most radiant lives.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Of course, the conversations I have at the end of my programs! It never gets old when my clients tell me how much different they feel and how their lives are so much fuller and happier or how they healed symptoms they never thought they could get rid of. I cry happy tears with them every time!
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
That you don't know what you don't know. As someone with no business or finance background, I believe that everything can be figured out, but the challenge for me was that I did not know what I was missing. Filing an LLC, staying on top of taxes, etc., was hard enough, and there were lots of things at the beginning (and probably still) that I did not even know to ask someone or research.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Don't just start a business to start a business – it is not easy! Only do it if you are so strong on your mission that you MUST do it (that will motivate you through all the hard parts).
- Business IS personal. I think people get it wrong – business is the majority of our life's energy. Make sure what you're doing with it matters and you're using it to genuinely connect with people, not use them.
- If you are mission-driven, the sales part is hard because you'll feel bad asking for money. Think of it instead as an exchange of energy. The energy, time, or money someone puts into something matters for what THEY can get out of it.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://wellnessbyjosie.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josie.santi/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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