My Greatest Lesson: Stop selling, start educating

A cancer diagnosis inspired Marijana to change her whole business methodology. Here she shares her experience and the benefits she gained.

My background is as an economist. Money and how it makes the world go round was ingrained in the way I worked. Even when I changed my career to become a weight loss coach, my methodology was based on selling. I was focused on consistent marketing, social media, push, push, push, sell, sell, sell.

And then I was diagnosed with cancer

I was a nutritional coach, I had been eating healthily for 30 years and I got gut cancer, which is usually directly related to food. In my case, the doctor said it was down to a gene mutation. My sister, father and grandmother have all died from cancer.

When I was diagnosed, I was at stage 2. There were holistic options available but I didn’t take them. I was scared that my cancer would progress, so I ended up having surgery to remove half of my gut. It was what my doctors recommended, it was drastic, and I still experience the effects. But I survived.

Following my diagnosis, I did extensive research and started to understand more and more about the effects of sugar on our health and I wanted other people to know too. At the same time, I realised that the way I was living, really as a workaholic, was preventing me from self-care.  These thoughts led me to think about why there are things that we know we shouldn’t do, but we do them anyway.

Something in my mind clicked

I decided to start doing things the way I wanted to do them, not how I was ‘supposed to’ and I changed how I work entirely.

I became passionate about sharing what I had learned. I’m trained to sell, but after I got cancer, I let go of my emphasis on making money and shifted my focus to one of educating. I turned my focus away from weight loss coaching and towards educating people about sugar. I turn up to networking events and I’m no longer thinking ‘Ok – who can I target in the room?’ I simply share my knowledge. And it works!

I don’t have a business plan anymore. I don’t have a goal to hit this year. I don’t spend endless hours planning my social media – I post things when I want about what I want. And I plan time in the day for me, for self-care. I do things my way and I wake up in the morning and I feel alive.  

I believe I survived for a reason. My reason is to give back to the world with education. Many people think they can’t cut sugar out of their diet. They think they can’t have desserts anymore, they won’t enjoy coffee, but there are easily available alternatives that taste just as good. My main course now is called ‘Life is sweeter without sugar’, and I believe it. I’ve found my authenticity after cancer. I’ve discovered that you can follow the path that you choose and it will be just fine.

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