One of my key values is community: I love connecting with other small business owners and get inspired by how they run their businesses and live their lives. In this interview series I’m asking lovely small business owners to share how they run a slow, gentle and profitable business.
In this post, Rachel Chrystal shares her journey to a slow, gentle and profitable small business: I love how her practical strategies for creating more space in life and running a business that works for her. Enjoy!
Rachael Chrystal is a coach for women who want to thrive in their lives and their work.
She brings her expertise as a coach, doctor and yoga/embodiment facilitator to support her clients to build the inner confidence to live a life and career that they love, whilst prioritising their wellbeing.
Find out more about Rachael through her website.
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What does living a slow and gentle life, and having a slow, gentle and profitable business look like to you? What does a day look like for you?
A slow and gentle life and business to me is having the time and space to live and work in a way that allows me to thrive, rather than just survive. It’s about finding time for stillness, nature, and connection each and every day. Being able to spend quality time with loved ones and being able to take care of my wellbeing, rather than it being an afterthought.
It’s about feeling energised and passionate about my work, rather than being constantly exhausted and just trying to make it to the weekend.
Ultimately, a slow and gentle life and business is about being able to take care of my needs, so that I have the capacity to make the difference that I want to in the world.
I have a multi-hypenated, or portfolio career. This means that I generally spend two days a week (on average) working as a GP (and where working slowly and gently isn’t really an option!), and the rest of the time I’m either working in my coaching practice, or teaching yoga and somatic movement classes.
Ultimately, a slow and gentle life and business is about being able to take care of my needs, so that I have the capacity to make the difference that I want to in the world.
Most days start with journaling in bed (I’m a big fan of Julia Cameron’s “morning pages”), then 10-15 minutes on my yoga mat, usually for meditation or restorative yoga. I then take my dog, Buddy out for a walk around the nature reserve near my house.
I’m usually at my desk in my home office for around 9, as I work best in the mornings, and feel most energised and focused then. My first client session is usually at 10am at the moment – this allows me to get any admin tasks out of the way before I get started with seeing clients. My coaching is predominantly done online, over zoom – but I also do some face to face work with clients who are local, often outside in nature as “walk and talk” sessions – which I love, and I find that these offer really powerful outcomes for my clients.
My afternoons are a little slower – I make time for a dog walk, usually around 3pm, which breaks up the afternoon. I’ll make often make time for a mid-afternoon yoga nidra, too, which I find especially restorative.
I don’t have a set time for finishing work – I tend to be guided by my energy and find that everything balances out over time.
Monday evenings I teach two yoga classes. On these days, I always make myself take at least a couple of hours away from work in the afternoon, so I can show up to teach feeling fresh and energised.
What inspired you to live this way? Which choices and changes did you make, or have to make?
I initially was attracted to the slower pace by necessity – working long, stressful hours simply wasn’t working for me and my wellbeing. When I started my first business, teaching yoga in groups and 1:1, I was also working full time, doing long hours. I was constantly exhausted. I knew this wasn’t a long term solution.
As soon as I was able to swap my full time role for part-time, more flexible work along side my business I vowed that I would do what I could to maintain the slower pace that I knew I needed for my wellbeing.
It is my yoga practice that has kept me committed to the slower pace – carving out the time to practice yoga every morning mean I am able to experience the difference a slower pace makes to my wellbeing, creativity and presence – which inspired me to continue to pursue this over time.
As a coach, it’s really important that I’m able to show up to client sessions as present as I can be – so it’s important that my days are spacious enough to allow this – and this is one of my main driving forces in maintaining a slower pace: I see it as my responsibility to my clients and my work. I schedule breaks between client sessions to allow me to replenish my energy and make sure that I’m tuning up fresh to each one.
It is my yoga practice that has kept me committed to the slower pace. Carving out the time to practice yoga every morning mean I am able to experience the difference a slower pace makes to my wellbeing, creativity and presence.
I also make sure that I have time booked off work every 2-3 months so I can switch off and relax completely.
On the days that I work in my business, I generally try to keep at least one day free of calls to allow me some flexibility with my day, and to allow me to get stuck into writing my weekly email newsletter and client resources without my attention being scattered.
What three tips would you suggest for readers who also want to create a slow, gentle and profitable business?
Review and audit your time and energy regularly – notice what tasks and services really energise you and which ones don’t. As part of this, also review your pricing and check that all your time is being covered for each service you offer – it’s easy to not account for all the extra things involved in delivering a service to a client which take up your time and energy and really needs to be incorporated your pricing. And don’t be afraid to let services go if they don’t feel aligned in terms of your energy
Don’t be afraid to experiment and explore what this looks like for you. Maybe you want (or need to ) take a big chunk of the day time off and work in the evening, or at the weekend. Just because you need to work at times that other people would usually have off doesn’t mean you can’t have a slow and spacious business.
Review and audit your time and energy regularly – notice what tasks and services really energise you and which ones don’t.
Establish your non-negotiables and prioritise what I call your “daily requirements” (which are the things we each need to do to keep ourselves healthy and happy). Put these in your diary and fit the work around them. For me, these are my yoga/meditation practice, writing in my journal, walking my dog twice a day and running or gym-ming. Once these are in the diary, I can slot my calls, meeting and other work around them
Book in leave and holidays well in advance. This means you can work everything else around them – which is much easier to do than trying to squeeze them in last minute. This allows me to communicate my time off when I start working with a client, so they know in advance when I’m not around.
Remember that working slowly and gently doesn’t mean that you are slacking off, or being lazy, which is what I initially worried about. Instead, I’ve found it’s actually about working more intentionally and creating the conditions for me to do my best work.
Remember that working slowly and gently doesn’t mean that you are slacking off, or being lazy. It’s actually about working more intentionally and creating the conditions for me to do my best work.
Thank you Rachael, for sharing this peek into how you are running a slow, gentle and profitable business. I am so inspired by your take on a slow, gentle and profitable business, especially the focus on working in a way that works for you, and intentionally taking space and time for rest and movement. Find out more about Rachael and the work she does on her website.
If you’d like to answer these questions on slow, gentle and profitable business, do get in touch with me. More interviews on how to run a slow, gentle and profitable small business are coming soon! Sign up for my newsletter below so you never miss one.
And, if you want to create that slow, gentle and profitable business that truly nourishes you, discover how we can work together here.
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