MAD LOVE MONDAY - Nicole Broadhurst |The Lust Project
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Officially, I am a Registered Acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medical Doctor, specializing in sexual and reproductive health. Unofficially, I sit with people and try to sort through the messiness, and intricacies, of being human haha. I guess you could say I’ve always been drawn to human sexuality and sexual health, I noticed very early on how crucial our sexuality is and how much it contributes to our over health and well-being. Just like our Mental Health is an important focus and can tell you a lot about what is going on for a person, the same applies to how we go about our sexual health and how we view it.
I have always been fascinated with entrepreneurship and the business side of things. I was that typical kid that never liked being told what to do and had to figure it out myself (sorry Mom lol). I think as human beings we crave creation and creating things in our life and my job just so happened to be something that I wanted to create for myself.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: “Expansion is NOT linear”. I constantly have to remind myself of this quote, along with many of my clients. When it comes to growth and creating, (a business / family / art etc) the process has a natural expansion and contraction to it. Sometimes it feels like you’re killing it and others it feels like you’re taking two steps back but in the bigger picture you’re growing.
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In order to grow, I definitely set a lot of goals for myself. Goal Setter! (for all my Lululemon crew out there haha). A big one I’m in the middle of is launching a project that I have been working on for a very long time. It’s my Soul Project and it involves a lot of beautiful people so there is a lot at stake. With launching it, I want it to have a global impact in the realm of Sexuality. How people view it, what they know about it (for themselves and sexuality as whole) and how it is spoken about. Who knows, after that maybe books, talk shows, speaking engagements, workshops. sky’s the limit ! =)
That’s what I love about being an entrepreneur, there is really no limit to what you can create. I love that I am really in control of what I get out of my business. I have no one else to blame if things go wrong, but that means I am always the solution as well. It can be scary but so empowering and rewarding.
Although it is rewarding, there were SO many times I wanted to give up! Haha, ALL THE TIME. In school there was more times than I could count and when I first started practicing, I questioned myself constantly. I haven’t had that feeling in a while though. It gets hard and some of the remedial tasks are daunting but the pay off far outweighs that.
The only way I got through it, honestly, was to keep going. There was no other option than to keep going. I also recognized early on (thanks to my development training that I got a chance to have while working at Lululemon for years) that I had this story about me not finishing things. Once I recognized that, I was able to see when I was wanting to quit because I was scared. I had to experience what it was like to go through something difficult and get through it. I had to see the other side. Everything you desire is on the other side of that discomfort you experience.
If I never kept going I wouldn’t have the cool, boss babe moments that I have. Like when I got my first full week of bookings and I started a waitlist for clients to get in to see me. As a practitioner that is a huge feat, and something that a lot of us strive for. I achieved that relatively early on after school and that was very rewarding for me.
As a practitioner, getting your name out there is an important focus and my website has been a great way to do that. Just like Instagram, it’s great because it gives me an opportunity to give information, resources for people, advertise, and educate. . It’s a fascinating little business tool.
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With being in the health and wellness industry we talk a lot about “work-life Balance” and I have a slightly controversial view on it. I think the concept is talked about a lot but not really understood. I also think in this day in age we glamorize being “busy” (or “grinding” haha). With being an entrepreneur a lot of my “down time” is spent on developing myself and my business. To be honest, if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t be able to grow the way I have and at the speed that I have. It takes a lot of work to develop a business and a brand and that’s not always balanced. I am just now at a point where I can begin to adjust my schedule to something more centred around myself and take my personal time into account. If I demanded that straight out the gate, I would not be where I am. A lot of practitioners come straight out of school and have a sense of entitlement - they think they should get paid a top wage, have a clinic give them clients, all the while working 3-4 days a week with hours that work for them. Balance is not a perfect straight line, it is crooked and in the bigger picture it ends up being balanced. Sometimes you have to sacrifice areas of comfort in order to accomplish something bigger than you imagined you could. With that being said, I’ve noticed the importance of self awareness, if I know my patterns that show up when I am under higher levels of stress then I know I need to balance it out with things that fulfill me (ie: gym, time with family/partner, mindless television, nature, journalling, budgeting, creating etc).
I’m really excited to learn from and see what other YEG Boss Babes are up to and see their growth. I want to see how women view themselves in roles that would typically be male dominated. I think women have a vast array of qualities and seeing how they apply those to success in business is so cool to me. If one of us wins, we all win.
