Marissa Costonis is the health change guru and Amazon best-selling author of Change Bites, 5 Change Management Strategies to Transform Your Health. Marissa is a Certified Health Coach by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and previously spent over a decade in change management consulting leading a variety of transformation initiatives around the world. When she developed severe neuropathy and several health problems began to pile up, Marissa was forced to completely change her diet. Overwhelmed and confused, she began to apply all the leading change models and frameworks to simplify her own health transformation with great success. The “5 Bites to Health” process was born. Today Marissa conducts individual and group coaching programs, workshops and enjoys guest-speaking engagements to share her unique approach and support others in their journey to health.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Women around Marissa
- Teddi Mellencamp
When business started difficulties overcame:
“The little details were a bit of a challenge. I got caught up in things like does my website have to be perfect? Do I have to perfect all of my programs? I was used to working in such a huge organisation and I had so many tools at my disposal and while I could use all that knowledge and the process some of the day-to-day operating procedures became a challenge. And so what I found I had to do was say get yourself a website that half works, that works enough, get your program halfway in place and sort of put together as much as I needed to and just go for it. Because I may not have all the tools and the resources at my disposal the way I did in management consulting but I had to leverage what I could, leverage my network, talk to people, get what I could together and just move because if I had to wait until I had all the resources of such a large organisation I would never have taken my first step gotten my first client”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck by Chip Heath and Dan Heath Book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Switch: How to change things when change is hard Book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Leading Change Book by John P. Kotter
Favourite Quote:
“think big, start small, scale fast”
Recommended Online Resources:
- CB Insights – The CB Insights machine intelligence platform catches every private company financing and angel investment database Get real time information on start-ups, VC firms, angel investors and transactions in the United States Spot new deals, sales leads, prospects, and unlock the playbooks of competing venture capital companies
- Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter – The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy – Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“When you help other people you are actually helping yourself…. The more I tried to help other people it just comes back to me tenfold… So no matter how busy you are and how crazy you are trying to get your own business off the ground sync up with other people that are in a similar state, it doesn’t even have to be in the same industry and doing the same thing, it could just be in a similar stages you or maybe stage a little behind or a stage ahead, and try to help them and you will be amazed how much comes back to you”…[Listen for More]
More About Marissa Costonis:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
Other Quotes From the Chat with Marissa Costonis:
- “I tuned in to people around me, I used my network, and I also just tuned in my everyday life, I started listening to people’s stories and asking questions ”
- “if you are feeling drawn to a topic or area just go with it, soak it up and open your mind and open your perspective and just listen to the people around you it does actually start to come to”
- “following your gut and trust and take a risk and influence enough that you can still be authentic and things have your voice then let the rest of it go ”
- “learning just enough to have you be successful I think that that is the best way to go”
- “start small what can we do today… we call them quick wins in consulting… What is one or two or most three things I can do this week and one thing I can do today to get me closer to that vision. And then scale fast”
- “scaling is about leveraging your network”
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