When I first met Jennifer in 1997, she was a trained nurse, midwife and health visitor who had spent 20 years working in the National Health Service in the UK.

Today she runs her own business, has become the UK, and increasingly international, expert nurse on smoking cessation. In January 2007 her second book You Can Stop Smoking was published internationally by Virgin Publishing with forward by Richard Branson.

In 1997 Jennifer was in a senior position in the NHS but had reached a plateau and had found there were few opportunities for further skills development. She was very nervous of changing her career as she was newly divorced, had a massive mortgage and a young son to support.

Doesn’t sound like an ideal starting point for becoming an inspired entrepreneur!

... however, Jennifer has now set up an independent training consultancy with a business turnover well into six figures. What’s amazing is that she achieved this at a point in her life when everything seemed to be going against her. Here is how she described her journey.

Inspired to change track

“After I met Nick I realised I needed to change track. Having no money was the root of all my fears. My negative thoughts about debt blocked my creative energy. I had stopped trusting that the world was a place that could support my dreams. After doing Nick’s exercises I realised that what I needed was more self-confidence and inner trust.

I knew I had a passion for communication and teaching. What had to change was my belief that it was possible to follow my instincts and produce enough income to support myself and my son.

Letting her heart lead the way

I decided to take the leap and follow my heart rather than logic. I realized that my strengths were both my skills and professional background. I decided I would target health professionals first and told relevant NHS managers I was available to run courses for them in a freelance capacity.

I used my annual leave to do this work. The feedback I received was great and gave me confidence to take the plunge and set up an independent training business. I produced a training brochure and sent it to NHS managers with a health education brief. From this I got my first new clients. In the beginning, I was providing just one course a month. After each one, I asked the participants for their evaluation and asked the managers what else they might need.

From this I identified the gaps I could offer to fill. Through my evaluation, I discovered I had found a niche in the market. NHS staff wanted to learn communication strategies they could apply to health education.

Baby steps to create an expert niche

When I first decided to try out my dream, the first step I took was to drop my regular hours to three days a week. I then used my two ‘days off’ to work on developing the training consultancy. I contacted the editors of professional magazines offering to write for them. I discovered that magazines are pleased to take pieces describing how ‘theory’ can be applied to ‘practice’, so I concentrated on this area. I referred to the importance of good training in my articles and offered my contact details.

My articles provided information to nurses on good approaches in talking to people about smoking; thereby blending my counselling skills and my training background. They were popular and incidentally also generated some interest in my training consultancy. These articles established my ‘expert’ status in this area.

However, Jennifer has now set up an independent consultancy and training business with a gross turnover, that in some years has reached six figures. After just three years of self employment she needed to employ a full time PA and administrator to help her cope with all the work.

And the money has followed

Jennifer continues - Earning money was never my primary objective and I am slightly amazed that in some of the years since I started working for myself, my annual business turnover was in excess of £100,000 ($190,000, €150,000). I found money has not been an issue ever since I let go of my concerns. I have learnt to trust the process of creation and know that somehow it always works out just right. To this day, I don’t have a formal business plan and have never needed to borrow money from a bank.

I have continued to follow my heart and my inspiration. New and exciting opportunities open up all the time. If I have an idea, I tell people about it. What I have noticed is that many of these shared ‘ideas’ come back as offers of work. I have now presented at events in the UK, USA, Scandinavia, Europe, Iceland, the Middle and Far East and South Africa. I never set out to become an expert, but to make a difference in people’s lives.

My goal was to wake up each day and be able to work at something I felt passionate about and know what I did mattered. Along the way I have become known as a key opinion leader in my field and when I give my presentations I am introduced as an expert, and I feel very proud of that.

I recently interviewed Jennifer and she very eloquently described her journey from being a senior nurse to becoming an entrepreneur, expert and best selling author. Click the play button above to hear the interview!

Jennifer is typical of someone who creates their own niche of expertise through their love of what they do and their desire to contribute.