From Media to Nutrition – the Story of a Mid-Life Career Change!

Have you ever thought that it might be nice to ditch your current job and do something completely different? That’s exactly what Lissa Leader did and she shared her inspiring story with Women’s Business Link in their ‘From Passion to Profession’ webinar series.

Lissa began her career in media and advertising where she spent over 20 years working for global media organisations including BBC Worldwide, The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. Extensive travel, long hours and multiple times zones were the norm for Lissa and as the years progressed, the erratic work routine was starting to take its toll.

Lissa came to realise that she couldn’t sustain a further 20 years in her current line of work and decided it was time to change direction. However, as many of us know, the perennial question is what to do when we want to break free from the role we have been doing our entire working life. To help find an answer to this, Lissa thought about her interests and personal passions, and whether any of them could form the basis of a new career. Having always had a keen regard for nutrition and health, she decided to explore the nutrition sector. This resulted in her heading back to college at the age of 41 to complete a 3-year diploma in nutritional therapy, spending every other weekend in the classroom whilst also continuing to work full time! 

This level of commitment may seem daunting, but Lissa is keen to point out that if you are training in something you are passionate about, the drive to continue comes naturally – especially if the hard work will ultimately reward you with a change of career. 

And it seems that investing her time and money to re-train certainly paid off! Lissa now runs her own business, Nutrileader Limited which provides bespoke individual nutrition consultations and a range of corporate nutrition services. 

Lissa clearly loves her new profession and her job satisfaction is evident. She says how rewarding it is to help people change their diet and lifestyle habits to address their health concerns and optimise their wellbeing. She also enjoys the variety in her daily work routine: on one day she could be delivering a workshop or running a staff nutrition ‘clinic’ as part of a corporate wellbeing programme; on another, she’ll be conducting a private client consultation and creating a personalised nutrition plan to address the individual’s concerns. 

When asked whether she has any advice for people considering a career change, she offered the following tips: 

• Pick something you are already interested in. If you are passionate about what you do, it will motivate you to keep going even when times are tough. Your passion and commitment will also be evident to your customers.
• A career change could mean you need to re-train. Assess whether you have the capacity to do this financially and also whether you can commit the time.
• Consider the effect your career change may have on your family – it impacts them too! 
• Minimise your financial risk to minimise the stress – for example, consider doing part-time paid work to ease the financial pressure, ensure your bills are paid and give you the headspace to focus on developing your business. If your part-time work can enhance your business in any way, (i.e. a role in the same industry sector), so much the better!
• Draw on what you already know. Could your former industry colleagues benefit from the service your new business provides? Perhaps you could approach them as a potential client? After all, you understand their needs because you previously did their job!

Often, the final thing holding you back from taking the leap is you! Perhaps it’s therefore time to be brave and go for it – we spend many of our waking hours at work, hence it’s important to enjoy what we do. Lissa’s view is that we only have one life, so live it well!

If you are interested in a having a nutrition consultation or if you are considering nutrition as an element of your corporate wellbeing programme, Lissa would be happy to help. Get in touch: lissa@nutrileader.co.uk or visit her website www.nutrileader.co.uk