SHIFT to: Health Coach

PPhoto by Whitney Wright on Unsplash

Hello, shifters! I had the privilege of chatting with a former educator turned health coach for JPWellness, all the way from the United Kingdom, John Plunkett!

John was a primary school headteacher who “fell out of love with all the crappy bits of the job.” Doesn’t that sound familiar, friends? So, two years ago, he resigned and started his own business.

“My mindset is that you have one life, live it.”

You see, John wasn’t always a teacher-education was his second career! Prior to teaching, John was a member of the British Armed Forces. After five years of serving as an intelligence officer, John decided to obtain a degree in sports science and continued on to earn a teaching qualification. Thank you for your service, John!

“I became a teacher as I wanted to make a positive difference to young people’s lives.”

John told me that as a primary school teacher, he taught the national curriculum to his class. In John’s country this means “English, maths, science, religious education, history, geography, physical education, art, music, design technology, information technology.”

That’s a great deal of preps!

When I asked John why he chose to leave teaching, he informed me that he once loved teaching. However, when he became a headteacher, John spent less time teaching and more time in an office.

Now, John found himself spending his time analyzing data and making budget cuts. These budget cuts meant making people redundant, which I just learned means to dismiss or fire them. John quickly became stressed and miserable. (No wonder!) So, John took action and shifted out of teaching.

What did John transition to?

Still driven to help people, John decided to put his sports nutrition education to use and build his own business as a health coach. “This includes weight loss, weight gain, nutrition for more energy and sports nutrition.”

Transferable skills:

During our conversation, John brought up transferable teaching skills that help in his new career: “Lots of transferable skills from teaching such as communication, listening, public speaking, empathy, guidance and support, encouraging people and coaching people with their mindset.”

“I think as teachers we can see how we can help others but we are not naturally very good at helping ourselves.”

After resigning, John began driving to cover his expenses while building his own empire. Having a degree in sports science, he was confident in his background knowledge of health and nutrition but John acquired business training for only £41 or roughly $55! That’s a steal! There are very few companies that offer such a small monetary investment in order to shift out of education.

John also stated that while his background helped drive his desire to begin a new role as a health coach, it is certainly not a requirement.

The company offers all of the training needed to be a successful health coach! Shifters, John is now an international distributor looking to take his business into schools in the UK to teach educators about living healthier lifestyle!

So, John’s initial investment was about $55 with free online training events each week plus “regional and national training events take place each month.”

“I’d like to show people a different lifestyle where you do not dread Monday morning but look forward to it instead.”

John can help you SHIFT to a Health Coach role, too!

You don’t have to be an educator to connect with him here: