From Corporate HR to Spiritual Life & Soul Business Coach: My Story
This is the companion article to Episode 1 of the Soul & Strategy podcast (My story of becoming a Spiritual Life & Soul Business Coach)! If you'd rather listen, hit play above. If you'd rather read, grab a tea and settle in ✨
I get asked a lot how I became a spiritual life and soul business coach. And the truth is, nobody leaves high school and decides that's the plan! So in the very first episode of Soul & Strategy, I shared the whole journey, the detours, the doubts and all.
Growing up between Spirituality and a "practical" career
As a kid, I always felt drawn to spirituality, to healing, to health and wellness. But I had no idea what job that would actually look like! So I tried everything. An internship at a hospital because I considered becoming a vet. An internship at an architecture office in London because I loved creativity. I even thought about joining the police at one point, mostly because I loved being outdoors and craved adventure.
One thing I knew for certain was that I did not want a corporate job, even though I couldn't really explain why. Sitting in an office in front of a computer all day just never felt like me.
None of those paths stuck. Even during the hospital internship, being surrounded by sickness and death made it very clear that wasn't where I belonged.
Takeaway for you: if you haven't found your calling yet, look back at your own breadcrumbs. What did you always love as a kid? What topics or feelings kept showing up, even when you couldn't name why? There is often truth hidden in there.
Finding Yoga (and myself) during COVID
After high school I moved to Australia for a year and worked in hospitality, which I genuinely loved! I discovered I was drawn to management, to leading people and seeing the bigger picture. That led me to study international management, and from everything we covered, HR was the one part that lit me up.
So I moved back to Australia to do my Master's in HR, arriving just weeks before the country closed its borders for COVID. Looking back, that timing was almost too perfect to be a coincidence.
During COVID I took a part time HR job. And even early on, something in me kept whispering, that can't be it. Is this really the whole thing? I told myself it would probably get more interesting with more responsibility. But deep down I already knew it wasn't the right fit.
At the same time, I was practicing yoga daily through livestream with a local studio. I felt so connected to the teachers and the vibe that when I found out they ran yoga teacher trainings, something in me said yes before my brain had even caught up. I didn't join to become a yoga teacher! I joined because I was endlessly curious about why yoga made me feel the way it did.
During that training, on top of a full time job, I felt more focused than I had ever felt in my life. Zero distractions. Complete immersion. That was the first real sign that I had found something meant for me.
Takeaway for you: follow your intuition even when it doesn't make logical sense yet. I didn't do the training to launch a career. I did it because I felt called. That training became the very first step toward building my own business, long before I called it that.
The moment I knew: Training to become a Spiritual Life Coach
I started teaching yoga on my own terms, before and after my full time job, three mornings a week. It was intense, but it gave me so much energy back rather than draining me, which told me something important was happening.
Around the same time I completed a 12 week self development course on manifestation and limiting beliefs. Once again, I felt that same deep focus and joy. And one day, sitting on my bed, a thought landed: what if I could do something like this myself? What if I could be the coach?
I let that thought sit, without forcing it into a plan. And then in 2023, the woman who had run that 12 week course, a well known spiritual life coach in Germany, announced she was opening a training to become a certified spiritual life coach. I signed up within hours. The training sold out within 48 hours, a thousand spots gone. She didn't run it again for another two years.
That training was eight months long, plus another four months focused entirely on building a business. Partway through, I was made redundant from my corporate job. The timing felt strange at first, but it gave me the space to fully commit.
Takeaway for you: when something is genuinely meant for you, you often feel it before you have any of the details. I said yes before I knew the price, the format or even if it would suit my life in Australia. That inner yes mattered more than having it all figured out.
It took me five months to sign my first client
Here's the part people don't always talk about. Once I finished training as a spiritual life coach, I took on a part time job to cover my finances while building my business. And it took me five months to sign my first paying client.
Five months of doubt. Five months of asking myself what I was doing wrong and why it seemed to be working for everyone else. That's the honest version, not the highlight reel.
What finally worked was running my own solo workshop. I had already been co-hosting women's circles alongside a sound healer, weaving in yoga, visualisation, and journaling from my coaching training. Those sold out every time, but they never converted into coaching clients. It was only when I hosted a workshop entirely on my own that I signed my first client, and a second one followed from that same workshop a few months later.
Takeaway for you: if you've heard that you can replace a full-time income within three to six months, know that this isn't the full picture for most people. Building a soul-led business takes time to learn how to run it, to figure out who you actually want to serve, and to experiment with your offer and your delivery. That's normal, not a sign you're doing it wrong.
From Confidence Coaching to Soul Business Coaching
My niche wasn't fixed from day one either. I started as a spiritual life coach, then noticed most of my clients were really looking for one thing underneath it all, confidence. So I leaned into what I call quiet confidence, that grounded, inner kind rather than the loud extroverted version.
That work naturally attracted coaches, counsellors, naturopaths and other practitioners who wanted to build their own businesses. And that's how I moved into business coaching, even though I resisted the label for a while! I had to work through my own mindset around what a business coach even was before I could accept that this was my path.
What I love about where I landed is the combination. We work with the inner tools, limiting beliefs, fears, confidence, and we also build the tangible strategy and plan to get there. That blend of soul and strategy is exactly why the podcast carries that name.
You are allowed to change your niche (and your business)
From yoga teacher to spiritual life coach to confidence coach to soul business coach, all within about three years. If you're currently trying to lock in your one true niche forever, I want to release you from that pressure.
Make a decision, commit to it for now, and know you're allowed to evolve it later. I recently stepped away from teaching regular yoga classes altogether to focus fully on coaching and this podcast. Yoga was the beginning of my business, not the whole of it, and I've simply outgrown that season.
Key Takeaways
Look back at your own breadcrumbs. The interests you had as a kid often point toward your calling.
Follow your intuition even before the plan makes full sense. The next step doesn't need to look logical yet.
It's normal for a soul-led business to take longer than three to six months to replace a full-time income. Give yourself room to experiment and your business permission to grow in its own timing.
Your niche is allowed to evolve. Commit to what feels right now, and let it grow with you.
Loved this episode?
If this story resonated with you, if you have a calling you haven't quite acted on yet, or you're in the messy middle of figuring out your niche, I'd love for you to come along for the rest of the journey! Hit play on the full episode above, and if you enjoyed it, follow Soul & Strategy so you don't miss what's coming next ✨
You can also come say hi on Instagram @sabinelehnhardt, I'd love to hear which part of the story resonated most with you.
With love,
Sabine 🤍
