Australian Single mum Rhiannon Rees went from living in a tent on the streets of Canada to owning a successful coaching business.
With a business degree, and a masters in homeopathy, I'm no dummy. But two years ago I was living in a tent on the streets in Canada with my four-year-old son Jaiesh.
"These makeshift living conditions were only meant to last a week while I figured things out after a messy divorce and the breakdown of the once-successful spa I co-owned in Whistler, which had 35 staff.
"When things started to get tough, I took house-sitting jobs to save money. But after three years of lugging stuff between places, I couldn't find the energy to find another, so I borrowed a friend's tent as a stopgap. But then a week turned into four months.
"I had no permanent place to live, had staff wages to pay and was working harder than ever. Every weekday I'd wake Jaiesh at 4am and drive to a cleaning job I took on to make ends meet. I'd drop him at day care, go to the spa for a day's work, pick Jaiesh up, make dinner, put him to bed and then consult with clients again.
"By the time we'd become tent dwellers, we were living off Food Bank handouts and tidbits from the restaurant I cleaned.
I kept telling Jaiesh it was a big adventure, but I'd cry myself to sleep at night. Maybe it was the struggle to find a daily shower that did it, or having to fold down our home every night, but my self-esteem was sucked out of me until I had none left."
"One night I was reflecting on how much our life sucked. I dreamt up the most ridiculous amount of money I could earn in a month so we'd never have to live like that again and scribbled it down.
"Then I received a call from my mum in Australia with news she was really sick. I managed to borrow $10,000 from friends to get us home and we landed back in Australia in September 2008. We arrived at Mum's one-bedroom Housing Commission apartment, where she was hunchbacked and unable to take more than three steps without gasping. I signed up for the single parent payment and we lived with Mum for the next year, weaning her off a cocktail of pills.
"I bumped into a friend who had once suggested I'd make a good business coach. Before the spa, I worked in marketing for Colgate-Palmolive and was a product manager for Pacific Dunlop, responsible for $40 million worth of accounts. Something inside me clicked with the idea of coaching, but the ActionCoach course cost $25,000. It was the top coaching firm worldwide, so it was that or nothing.
"The bank rejected me for a loan initially, but eventually I got it and travelled to Las Vegas for the course in January 2009.
"It was devastating to leave my boy for over two weeks, but I had to go. I threw myself into the training, which ran long hours most days. Everybody was sleep deprived, but I was like a pig in mud.
"I began to claw back some of my confidence and was awarded most inspirational person there. I had a second chance to live and everything I've touched since has turned to gold.
"Because of all the crap I've been through, I can transform people's lives in amazing ways, because I have hit rock bottom myself. I find avenues for their business to increase turnover without much extra effort and have helped businesses up turnover by 1000 per cent.
"I've now started a wellness and motivation retreat in Queensland (www.lovelivingthedream.com), with Tai Chi, nutrition and training led by experts. I'm also writing a book about dealing with the everyday challenges of life. For the first time in years, I have some free time! I've been working so hard to grow the business and look after my son, there hasn't been a moment for myself. So that's exciting – I'm taking up yoga.
"Early this year, I earned the amount I'd scribbled down in the tent. Mum is now employed as my PA, and we have two other part-time staff.
"I love working as a business coach and Jaiesh and I now live in a great little two-bedroom terrace near Centennial Park. The sun is shining and I'm going to make hay while it does."
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