What's In A Name?

 I was sitting chatting with a friend the other day and we were talking about my business and my brand. She is a brand photographer and she was wondering why the farm part was in the name since coaching is my main focus.  

I had to think, because in my mind the farm was the start of it all and it was such a part of the evolution.

Covid hit us all like a ton of bricks.  It slammed into many of us and took our breath away.  It made us feel alone and small and scared.  I had never worked a remote job and did not have any desire to.  I loved the hustle and bustle of an office and had left my VNA job to have colleagues and coworkers that I could connect with.  Then SLAM, I was home in my kitchen with Rob and the dog.  Neither one talked much and, like many of us, I fell into a deep sense of loneliness.  

Then came the ADHD brain… lets become a bit more self sufficient.  We got chickens.  LOTS of chickens.  And we built gardens.  Then got rabbits. 

During all this time, I was becoming more and more frustrated with the sick care industry.  No matter what I did as a nurse, I felt like I was not mattering to peoples lives.  I was not helping them.  I was one more health professional letting them down.  It hurt my heart.  I went into nursing to serve, not add to the suffering.  

Soooo we tried to build up Phoenix Farms.  

For any of my friends who homestead or who even microfarm, it is not a money maker without alot of work, planning, infrastructure and people.  I was one person.  Sooo Homesteading was not going to be my way out of healthcare.  

Then I found coaching.  Or truth be told… Coaching found me.  

I was hooked!  I wanted to help people be well.  I wanted to be the one to help guide them to wellness.  BUT the farm was still a part of who I am.  I love my gardens, I love my farm fresh produce.  It is a big part of my WHY. Why I want to coach, why I want people to learn about how to take better care of themselves.  Why people need to get reconnected to the earth and to their food.  

So when the time came to become a real business, the farm was the beginning of my wellness, so it became part of my identity. 

My goal in the next 5 years is to have garden groups who come here, get their hands in the soil, get some group or 1:1 coaching, and go home with yummy things they had a hand in making.  I want to show people how small changes in their lives, over and over, can make BIG shifts in their living!  

Whether it be baking bread, shoveling shit, weeding the garden, pulling up our big girl panties and facing the challenges of the outdoors….. Or our minds.  To me it is all interconnected.