‘I was put on this earth to help people get healthy and empower women’

Edel Owens on finding her ‘passion and purpose’ and the importance of ‘work-life sway’… By Keeley Ryan

An Irish health coach and nutritionist has told how the need for a change led her to discover her“passion and purpose”. Edel Owens established her company, Optimum Health, in January 2020. And she told Chic how she has“never looked back”since then. She recalled,“i was teaching for a long time at that stage, it was about 18 years. I really enjoyed teaching but I didn’t see it as my end goal. And plus, I was starting to plan my family and I wanted more work flexibility.

“I’d always had the model of my parents, who worked together and had a successful business from home. My mum raised seven of us. I knew it could be done, that working from home model where you’ve still got a lot of time with your children — and that really appealed to me.

“I think I was sort of done with that early morning commute and the hectic, frantic rush of trying to get the children to granny and grandad’s or a childminder or that sort of thing.

“I think it was out of that flexibility — and I was just ready for a change, to be honest.

“Optimum Health came about because I was ready for change. I was ready to do something different. But also, it had to do with striking that right balance between working life and family life. I set the business up in January 2020 and I mean, I’ve never looked back. I absolutely love what I do.

“It makes me jump out of bed every single morning and it’s the sort of thing — you know what people say,‘even if you weren’t getting paid for it, you’d still do it’.

“It’s my passion and my purpose. I know I was put on this earth to help people get healthy and empower women to realise that actually, they don’t have to compromise. They can prioritise their family, themselves and still follow their dreams.”

Edel also opened up about what it was like trying to establish a new business in the

“it’s funny, the things you learn the longer you go...”

But in terms of the actual business and technical side, I had a lot of learning to do.

“I remember in those days, even working weekends because I felt like I had so much to learn and so much to do that I couldn’t get ahead unless I worked harder.

“But I’ve since realised, from doing a lot of work on my mindset, that it’s totally counterproductive to work harder.

“You need to take more time off to allow yourself to have the energy to be more creative.

“It’s funny, the things that you learn the longer and longer you go into your own business.”

And Edel also opened up about the journey that she has undergone over the last couple of years — and what it has taught her about herself.

She said,“what I think I’ve learned about myself is that I’m actually a really intuitive person. I’ve learned to really listen to my gut — and nine times out of ten when I do that, it’s the right decision.

“And I’ve also learned that there’s no such thing as failing. It’s all learning.

There’s no point in beating yourself up or self-sabotaging, because every little thing is a win and a sweep in the right direction towards your goal.

“It’s about celebrating all the little things that we do — it’s not just about the big gig, it’s about the whole journey and what leads you to that point.”

As for what is next for Optimum Health, Edel told how she has plenty of exciting things in the works.

She said,“my plan is to take it to that global stage. I want to be an internationally -recognised business. I want to be helping people all over the world.

“In effect, I’ve started to do that with online clients from different parts of the world. But it’s really just — I think that as much as I can do this by myself, I need to get a team behind me. I probably need to start leveraging the skills of other people, as well.

“It’s really just about expansion, growth and possibly collaborating with other health and wellness experts to see what we can come up with and how we can collaborate to help people in other ways.” ■