With a Biology degree, Honours and personal training qualifications under her belt, Melanie wasn’t sure what to pursue as her career.

After dabbling in both fields for a bit, she started an environmental consulting business. As a busy director and GM with 40 staff, Melanie had her fingers in many pies, building business systems, products and teams and soon found herself burnt out.

Melanie realised that you can only be your best if you have physical and mental wellness.

This was the seed for her career change. She decided to reinvent herself and marry her beliefs, skills, values and strengths. Melanie retrained to be a wellness coach.
Coaching, being a new industry, Melanie saw a gap in the market and built a successful wellness coaching business “Melanie J White Coaching”.

As a Coach Trainer and Business Mentor, Melanie helps qualified coaches to build the skills, systems, structure and confidence they needed to create their own successful, client-centred coaching businesses through her programs Passion to Profit and Straight Line to Success.

Who’s your favourite entrepreneur and why?

“Brooke Castillo – she is courageous and is boldly doing business her way, carving her niche in the world, creatively and 100% unapologetically.

She is definitely a role model for me and for our industry (coaching).”

What do you enjoy most about running your own business?

“I love the freedom to have evolved my business and to combine my passions for both health and wellness coaching with business coaching. Every day my work has an impact, and it is meaningful and fulfilling.

Each day, I wake up excited to help small business owners to clarify, package, describe and sell their services and to define success on their terms.”

What 3 pieces of advice do you wish you’d been given when you started?

1. 1. Back yourself. You have great ideas….now find the courage to pursue them.
   2. Seek qualified help from the start. I wasted a billion hours and dollars on piecemeal free and low-cost training courses when I actually needed a focused, guided and consistent program with the right person to get tangible results.

What advice would YOU give someone thinking about starting a business?

“No matter how much experience you have – hire your own coach right from the start.

I assumed that 20 years running my own business was enough, but I didn’t realise that I lacked emotional balance and had blind spots around fears and limiting beliefs that were preventing me from getting the success I deserved.”

What skills and knowledge areas would you recommend those starting out in business get acquainted with quickly?

My Top 3 Skills List
A new business will grow quickly and easily if you have good communication skills, specifically:

1. Confident verbal communication that attracts, engages and converts clients in an authentic way
2. Being able to clearly and simply explain the benefits of what you do
3. Having a process to manage your thinking and emotions so you can always feel calm, confident and in control.

My Top 3 Knowledge Areas
You can always hire people to help with things you’re not good at. But I think every business owner needs knowledge in three areas:

1. How your product or service benefits the world
2. Which systems are best suited to your business most efficiently
3. How to create specific and effective plans to save time, anxiety and money

What does your IDEAL business look like? Even if you’re not there yet, what would it look like if your business was ideal?

“I wish to lead by example by living and working on purpose, on my terms (I am 95% there).

This means I get to define what success means to me so I never need to compare myself with others.

I set and achieve my realistic goals and I get to pay it forward by connecting people along the way and doing a little voluntary work.

My business has a steady flow of leads from JV partners and word of mouth referrals.

I offer a few simple but effective services that get results that my clients want.

I offer incredible value and am paid well for it; this means I can work 3 days per week and take 5 – 8 weeks per year holiday.”

What problem does being a Member of the HerBusiness Network solve for you and your business? And, how?

“Living in a little country town, HerBusiness is an incredibly generous membership that connects me with ‘my people.’

In a short time, I have met many wonderful women who are like me – it feels like home. I really value the connections and relationships I am building.

I am also able to find service providers to help me and can refer them to my clients who need business support outside of my scope of practice.

I am loving being part of this amazing group!”