How would you describe yourself? Who is Sanna?
I’m a Finn with a passion for food. I get excited about helping
people. I’m passionate about inspiring people to live healthier
lives, have more energy and a real sense of well-being.
I guess I’m also quite stubborn and can work very hard if it’s
something I believe in. Being a Finn I sometimes have a bad habit
of saying exactly what I think – sometimes it works in my favour,
but sometimes it’s caused me some embarrassment.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on getting my own business, SannaHealth, off the
ground whilst finishing my nutrition degree.
At the moment, I’m also working (part-time) at a small health
clinic helping them with their marketing initiatives. It’s a
fantastic place to be at. I’m surrounded by like-minded people, so
I’m not only learning about running a small business, I’m also
learning more and more about my own field as well.
In a bigger picture, I’m working on building a life outside the
corporate environment and making a living out of it.
The key to getting my business off the ground is having passion
and believing in what I do. Right now the main thing I’m working
on is formulating a message that talks to potential clients
What has been your journey to what you are doing now?
After school, I started studying biology at the University of
Helsinki. I very quickly realised that it wasn’t something that
really made me tick. So as a way to take some time out to think
about my future I decided to come to the UK as an au pair.
Once I was here, I was reluctant to go back to my biology
studies. So whilst being an au pair, I completed an international
marketing diploma course. After that, instead of returning home, I
found my first job here, working in a small office in north London
as an office secretary.
Very quickly I realized that I needed to get into a larger
company to have more career opportunities, so I went to see some
secretarial agencies in the City. They told me that I interviewed
well but that I needed to type faster.
So I went home and installed a basic typing programme onto my
computer, and practiced as much as I could for a week. I went back
to the agencies, redid my typing test, got a higher score, and
about a week later I had an interview with a company called
Mercury Asset Management, got the job, and that’s how I ended up
in the City.
I was very lucky to be in a growing department, and I was given
lots of opportunities to work outside my normal secretarial
duties, and in very quick succession got promoted a few times. I
ended up working for the company for nearly 10 years. For the last
3 years I was Vice President of Nordic Sales, responsible for the
relationships we had with Nordic banks and insurance companies.
Despite my promotions I realised that perhaps the financial
world wasn’t really the place for me. I had no passion for the
financial markets. I loved the people I worked with, but didn’t
really have the job satisfaction I wanted.
So I set about finding something that I was passionate about
although I wasn’t even quite sure whether I was passionate enough
to have a passion! I was determined that despite this I was going
to find something that was more fulfilling. If I couldn’t find
something that I was passionate about, perhaps I could look at the
attributes that I wanted from my dream job: flexibility, work with
my own ethics, the ability to do it outside London.
I then quite systematically started to go through various
professions ranging from being an optician to owning a cookery
store and measuring them against my list of attributes. It was
with the cookery store that I felt I was getting a bit warmer,
because there was passion there – food. I couldn’t immediately
figure out how to make this into a paying profession though.
In the end it all happened completely by chance. I was chatting
to somebody about my current situation and laughing about the fact
that here I am and my only passion is food and what good is that.
She said that she had a friend who was studying to be a
nutritional therapist, which sounded interesting.
As I started looking into it I got more and more interested.
Then I found that you can study to become one on a part-time
basis, so I it really looked like I had nothing to lose. So I went
to an Open Day at the college and was completely inspired by the
presentations given by the teachers. I immediately knew that this
is what I wanted to do.
At this time I was still working in the City, but I realised
that although the course was part-time on paper, it was hard work
to hold down a full-time job and manage all the homework.
As I knew that this was the direction I wanted to take, I had
to lessen my attachment to my old job. Against the ‘City ethos’, I
went to my boss and explained what I was doing, and that I would
be leaving at some point, but in the meantime, I’d like to go
part-time.
I was fully expecting to get a negative response, part-time
doesn’t really fit the way the City works. But amazingly, my boss
was very supportive saying that he’d rather let me go part-time
and keep me for a bit longer.
From the start of my course I’d had this nagging worry of what
would happen after I was qualified. Would I still be in my current
job, how would I make the transition from working in the City to
making a living as a nutritional therapist, etc? Half-way through
my course I was offered the opportunity to work at a small health
clinic. I thought this is obviously my answer: I can start gently.
At the same time the thought of giving up my comfortable City
salary was frightening. The money was my biggest initial worry. I
felt like if I gave up my salary, I’d end up in the streets – that
there was nothing in between. But when I actually sat down to do
the figures with my husband, I realised: Yes, we will be fine, I
can do it. I think that was one of the most liberating moments in
my life.
So in early 2005 I shocked my boss by handing in my resignation
and I became self-employed. It’s been absolutely amazing. When I
started at the health clinic we were all working in the living
room of the owners of the clinic. Now 9 months later, we actually
have our own office space, we’ve taken on two more members of
staff, and the business continues to grow.
At the start of this year I also received my own license to
practice, so whilst still working at the health clinic part-time,
I’ve started to take on my own clients.
What was the turning point?
I guess that the big turning point was the ability to leave my
corporate job because that really proved that I was committed to
my new career - it wasn’t just something that I was doing on the
side.
The other big turning point is about now, as I start to take on
my own individual clients. Now I’ll actually see if I really can
make a living out of what I’ve been studying.
It’s scary, and there are moments when I think: what did I do?
Giving away all the security that a corporate job in a big company
will give you can be quite frightening. And I do worry whether I’m
going to be good enough.
But I guess at the same time, I do have this big underlying
certainty and I know in my gut that this is what I want to do. And
because I want to do it and I feel passionate about it, I believe
can make it happen.
How are you feeling now? How do you see the future?
Excited, maybe a little bit scared. I see a future full of
opportunities. I may be getting involved in writing a book with a
few other nutritionists in Finland. I feel like I have truly
opened a door into my new career, my new reality almost.
I think the only question is how far do I want to go? Because I
just feel like once I put the message out into the universe – the
next big question is how do I start sifting through the
opportunities that are presented to me.
Would you do anything differently?
No. I’m really glad I’ve had the experience of working for a big
corporation, and had the ‘glamour’ of business travel and
high-powered meetings, suits and business dinners, but I’m also
really glad that it’s no longer my reality.
What advice would you give to other people in similar
situations as you were in?
•Talk to people about your dreams and aspirations – put the
message out there. I found that this has been the most invaluable
thing and I’ve got my best advice from people and situations where
I least expected it. It also makes it more real when you say it
out loud.
• Build a network of people around you who believe in what you’re
doing so that when your own belief is wavering they are still
there to keep you on course
• Trust the universe – it’s on your side!
