Today I interviewed the brilliant Polly Jukes to ask her all about running her business.
1) Describe your business – what do you do?
My company is called Rural Connections. I am a Mind and Body Coaching and in my practice, I incorporate NLP, Reiki, Mbit, and positive mindset coaching, as I believe you need to work with the body and the mind to get a lasting result. I work from home and remotely. Depending on the individual client’s need I work on re-wiring your mind, beliefs and help you implement the changes you want, balancing your energy and helping you activate and align your three brains in your head, heart and gut. I also help you to be mindful of your gut, for maximum immunity and happiness levels. I share the tools and techniques that you can use in life to stay the version of you that you want from the resilience you have created.
2) What made you decide to start up your own business?
The photo attached is the epitome of happiness, I am now, but it has been one hell of a journey to achieve this true lasting fulfilment I feel energised, and I have evolved into who I always wanted to be, but thought I would never be her. I am the survivor of all forms of abuse, mostly from my alcoholic parents, the daughter of a mother who took her own life, neglected and left to be feral and I was eventually was placed into foster care which was a really positive experience for me. I have made several attempts to end my life thankfully unsuccessful as I thought this was the only way to destroy the inner bitch, which was constantly wiping the floor with me.
I had been on a journey of personal discovery as I was not feeling as I wanted to be. I was shut down and simply existing in life, I had an inclination there was more to life and I wanted to feel happy and fulfilled but I did not know where to start. I had turned to alcohol to suppress my negative emotions but unfortunately, this also shut down the positive ones. I had some counselling in my past to help me get over my traumatic childhood and deep-rooted self-sabotage. I did not want to go to counselling again so I came across coaching this helped me to look forward and to get to know myself, making peace with the past and it helped me develop healthy coping mechanism to cope in life. I was hooked and fascinated and I really wanted to be able to help others become their best self’s and to show people there is another way to evolve, become energized and be empowered.
3) What did you find hard in the beginning? What help did you get?
My biggest obstacle was me my self-confidence and belief in my services. I was terrified of sharing my story as I had such shame attached to it. I had spent years programming myself not to feel emotions. I was the queen of suppressing them! I slapped on my happy face persona and got on with my life. No one really knew the depths of the self-hatred I truly felt on the inside. So to be open and honest about how I really felt was completely alien to me. I judged myself so critically; I assumed everyone else thought the same way.
After completing my NLP course I had done a lot of internal work on myself and one weekend I decided to create a facebook business page with a video telling some of my story it was watched over a thousand times, my business was launched and had weeks full of clients. I had the support of my amazing husband and friends. Then fumble my way through it, in an aimless direction. I decided I needed a coach to help me with the issues that were popping up and causing blocks, it was a case of another level another devil. I wanted to grow my business, as the more people that knew about it the more I could help. I was recommended Ruth’s Accelerate your Success course from my friend Sarah and it sounded like just what I needed and it really was, especially being with like-minded, supportive ladies. When I started implementing the teachings I started to gain control of what felt like a runaway ship and started to put a direction in that I wanted.
I uncovered that I had a fear of success, this tracked back to my past, to stay small and invisible and then nothing bad will happen, a learnt strategy as a terrified child from my unconscious, once I could make sense of it I could adapt it with an adult perspective.
4) What is the most rewarding thing about your business?
I love the transformation of when people first come to me and throughout the session visibly watching them grow in confidence and become the version of themselves they want to be. I love sharing the wins and being on hand for the challenging time because let’s face it life’s up and downs are still going to happen, this is the true test of my sharing and how they have embodied it. I love it when they repeat back to me my sharing’s this shows a change in their perspective of their world.
5) If you could go back and give yourself some advice what would you say?
Great question, I would like to say just do it as I put off taking the steps to create my business for years but I really do not feel like I wasn't ready and looking back I can see the right opportunities came up and the right time. I would say follow your gut instinct. Believe in yourself as everyone around you does, it is just you; your uniqueness is your magic. It is ok to speak from the heart and be vulnerable. I would advise shifting my focus from what will others think about me to how can this help others? Which is my driver but it got a bit muffled out at times.
6) What are your plans for the future?
I am doing a hypnotherapy course this year which I am super excited about. We are currently building a cabin on my farm in a rural secluded area, with plenty of outdoor space. I would love to work with children that have experienced foster care to help them with their mindset and self-esteem as I felt this lacked when I was in care, my foster parents were incredible but this is defiantly missing in the system, especially looking at the statistics.
I am planning on retreats as we are in Cornwall. This would incorporate coaching, yoga, sunrise walks on the beach and focusing on taking time out from all the craziness. Creating time to get to know you better and re-charge in a personal growth environment with like-minded people keep up to date on.
Thank you, Polly.
