From corporate sales employee to an award-winning hypnotherapy business owner, this month I feel incredibly lucky to be able to catch up with the founder of Unlock Potential (and my former Glow-up Day client) Suzanne Teale - fresh from her win at the Health and Wellbeing Awards 2026 for Woman in Health and Wellbeing.
Following a successful two-decade career in corporate sales and marketing, over the last 18 months Suzanne has retrained and built a highly-regarded wellbeing practice offering hypnotherapy and wellbeing services to both private clients and corporates.
I caught up with Suzanne to talk about her journey into solopreneurship, what she’s learnt along the way.
A new chapter: retraining in hypnotherapy
Suzanne spent much of her early career in commercial sales and marketing, working across a range of businesses, from the private sector to not-for-profit organisations.
“I love the social aspect of sales. I’ve always loved people… There’s a lot of psychology and human behaviour in there.”
Despite enjoying the work, Suzanne began to think about making a change - and what she wanted from the next stage of her career. Having personally experienced the benefits of therapy and hypnotherapy at different points in her life, she became increasingly interested in how our thoughts influence the way we feel. This led to her making a big decision:
“I kind of thought, you know what? This is what my third chapter is going to be. I think I want to retrain.”
And so she did! While continuing to work full-time, Suzanne began training for her new career, gradually making plans to move away from corporate life.
Initially, Suzanne tried to balance building her new practice with taking on fractional commercial roles. It seemed like the right thing to do - maintaining an income while growing her business, but in the end, something had to give.
“I was giving my fractional roles more time than I probably should have done, and I wasn’t really focusing on the practice. The practice wasn’t growing, my reputation wasn’t growing, and I wasn’t getting out there and meeting the right people.”
After four or five months, she made a decision:
“I decided to cancel the contracts I’d won in that space and go 100% all in on the practice.”
The rest is history. Suzanne has now been focusing on her practice full-time for over a year, building a business around the work she genuinely wants to do.
On going full-time as a solopreneur, and making mistakes
Suzanne knows she has made the right decision:
“I love being my own boss. I like not having anyone to report to, so to speak, except for myself. My success is my own, my failures are my own - and that’s fine, because every day is a school day.”
Learning and re-evaluating has been part of the journey, as it is for nearly every new business. There were marketing mistakes, investments that didn’t quite pay off - and business support that turned out not to be the right fit. One early Google Ads campaign even resulted in an unexpectedly large bill after she left it running while she was on holiday.
These are the kinds of lessons that, in reality, rarely feature in the glossy version of entrepreneurship. But actually they’re the ones that teach you the most.
On not trying to wear all the hats
As small business owners, it can be tempting to wear all the hats ourselves.
However, rather than trying to master every aspect of running a business herself, Suzanne has started investing in specialists who can help her move forward more effectively.
From working with yours truly to improve her website, to bringing in a virtual assistant to strengthen her LinkedIn activity and a social media manager to maintain consistency, she’s discovered the value of building the right support team around herself. And she’s seen the results:
“That’s probably made more of a difference in the last six months than everything I did in the first six.”
This is actually a common shift that many of us make as business owners. At the beginning, there’s an excitement - or expectation - that we need to do everything ourselves. Then, somewhere along the way, we realise that being able to do something ourselves doesn’t necessarily mean we’re the best person to do it.
On the best parts of self employment
This is always one of my favourite questions to ask when I chat to small business owners.
For Suzanne, one of the biggest benefits of self-employment is the flexibility it offers. Her working pattern doesn’t always fit the traditional nine-to-five. She knows she’s often more creative in the evenings, so she’s learnt to work with her natural rhythm rather than against it.
“I’m probably working less days, if that makes sense, but it might be to my pattern of how I like to work.”
This flexibility means she has far more freedom than she did in employment. She loves to meet her friends for coffee, attend a networking event or make time for the things that matter outside her business.
The importance of finding your people
When I asked about the biggest challenges she’s faced, one stood out above the rest that certainly resonated with me was working alone.
Especially for Suzanne, after years in commercial roles, where her days were packed with meetings, pitches and conversations - the shift to working independently was a big adjustment!
“I am a people person. The role I used to do meant I was always pitching or in a meeting or socialising. That was a really big thing for me initially.”
So one of the first things Suzanne did was seek out communities where she could meet other business owners, find peers and simply spend time alongside people who understood what she was going through.
Coworking days became an important part of her routine - they provide both a change of scene and the opportunity to connect with fellow business owners.
“For my mental wellbeing, I need to connect with someone every day. A call like this will just boost my productivity for the day. It boosts my happy hormones. I feel much better when I’ve spoken to someone.”
(This is actually how Suzanne and I met initially - through a wonderful community for small businesses called The Holt that offers both online and face-to-face networking and coworking).
“I don’t need to feel like it’s always trying to give me business. Just giving me connection.”
Suzanne has learnt that sometimes, the value of a networking event isn’t about leads or sales. It’s simply knowing that someone else is facing the same challenge, or just the feeling of not being alone in business.
On investing in your website and the right expertise
Of course, I couldn’t have a conversation with Suzanne without talking about her gorgeous website for Unlock Potential!
When we first worked together, she already had a functional website built on Squarespace. It was doing an okay job, but she wasn’t proud of it, it didn’t reflect the quality of her work - and it wasn’t matching where she wanted her brand to be.
“I’m not a designer, I’m not a creative, I’m not a website builder, so I was kind of doing the best on my own. But I knew it was time to invest in a specialist. Working with you was one of my investments I did not regret!”””
Since working together, Suzanne’s seen that the changes are making a difference.
One of the simplest adjustments was making her free 15-minute introductory call more visible in the website navigation, so prospective clients could easily find the next step wherever they were on the site.
“It sounds really simple, but just you suggesting leaving the free 15-minute chat in the navigation bar makes a measurable difference.
On finding your own definition of success
Suzanne believes you have to define what success looks like to you as a small business owner.
“I certainly don’t buy into any of these seven-figure businesses in 90 days and anything like that.”
Instead, she’s focusing on building something sustainable, learning as she goes and making decisions that work for her circumstances.
It’s so important to learn what works for you. For Suzanne, she knows that lexibility matters. That she needs regular human connection. That not every shiny new opportunity needs to be pursued. And that she doesn’t need to become an expert in everything to run a successful business.
Instead, she’s finding her own way of working - one that plays to her strengths, makes plenty of room for the things that fill her cup - and brings in support where she needs it.
A final thought
A big thank you to Suzanne for taking the time to talk to me, and for such an open and honest conversation. I loved hearing more about her journey, and I’m excited to see how her practice continues to grow.
If you’re a small business owner navigating your own next chapter, I really hope Suzanne’s story reminds you to always trust your instincts. And more than that - to give yourself the space and grace to figure out what success looks like for you.
