Case Study
By Kathryn Jellis
Kathryn Jellis had stopped enjoying running her business. This is how she re-found her passion and started turning one of her hobbies into a potential parallel career.
Re-finding my focus
Alison was an amazing help to me when my industry was going through great changes and I was being pulled into doing more marketing work, instead of the media relations and overall reputation building work that I love.
She helped me to see that by saying yes to every project offered, instead of focusing on doing the work that I enjoyed most, I’d managed to make myself miserable all by myself.
Most of all, she empowered me to ‘live true’ by allowing myself to gravitate more towards the clients and projects that ‘felt right’. Within a very short time frame I was able to clearly see that the work I excelled at doing most, was also the work that I enjoyed doing most. Ultimately, she gave me ‘permission’ to focus on the big picture society issues that I most connect with.
That enabled me to start feeling proud of what I was great at doing again, instead of getting frustrated with myself for not being better at the marketing activities I hated doing! Why I was trying to force myself to do things I didn’t enjoy in hindsight is a mystery, but it’s thanks to Alison’s patience, humour and professional expertise that I was able to get the clarity I needed to start making the decisions needed to take myself and my business in the right direction again.
Although it wasn’t easy going back to clients and telling them I wouldn’t be doing some of the stuff they’d hired me to do, they respected my new found confidence in where I could most add value and I’m really enjoying getting clients into the national media again.
At the same time, Alison also stretched me to think about ways I could turn some of my hobbies, such as writing, into a potential second career. Even helping me to come up with an amazing brand for a blog, based on my passions, and – most impressive of all – an available domain name to go with it. Writing about the things that really matter to me, in a way that’s successfully connecting with others, has been really energising and taught me valuable new skills.
I’d got trapped into feeling that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, when that really isn’t the case if the bird in your hand is making you feel miserable. Alison helped me to see that I have an amazing portfolio and that lots of people would love to work with me. The only thing that was holding me back was my confidence and willingness to be a bit more selective about the work and clients I took on.
I can’t thank Alison enough and would definitely recommend her to anyone that’s feeling a bit stuck as the insights and inspiration generated will help you to see yourself in an entirely new and better light.