Women In Business - Abbie, Founder of Nala Coaching
This week I am chatting to Abbie Sorabjee, founder of Nala Coaching. Abbie is a property investor of 5 years and has a portfolio of 19 properties across the UK, valued at £1.5 million, and a 3 dwelling development. She is also the founder of Nala Coaching - a bespoke property investment coaching company to help others build their own property investment businesses. Abbie is an inspirational girl boss, waving the flag for all those ladies who want to break the mould of property investment being a man's game - and doing a kick ass job of it! I met Abbie at one of the social media marketing courses I run in Southampton, and we have been working together on growing her digital presence - I'm very thankful work with such an exciting business.
Without further ado, let's dive in and find out how Abbie set up her property investment empire, what keeps her motivated, and how she balances being a successful girl boss with wellbeing.
Tell me a little bit about your business - where are you based, what services do you offer to your clients?
Nala Coaching provides bespoke, one-on-one coaching programs with a personal mentor (me!) to not only give you all the information you need, but also hold you accountable to take action and build the business and lifestyle of your dreams.
I am currently based in Wiltshire, but about to move to Kenya! Because of this big move, I am moving all of Nala Coaching’s services online so that I can support my clients from anywhere in the world via online course, resources and video calls.
That is so exciting! Kenya will be such an adventure, I cannot wait to see your Instagram posts and catch the wanderlust bug. Tell me a little more about you and your background - I’d love to know more personal details about you like where you grew up and what you wanted to be as a child; as well as what inspired you to become a girl boss?
I grew up in Cambridge and I wanted to be a cat or a clown. When I realised those weren’t especially lucrative careers, I chose to study to be a chemical engineer. However, once I started working as a process engineer, I quickly struggled to fit my life into the standard 28 days of holiday a year.
Thankfully, I came across a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. In this book it describes how education is so important, but in our traditional schooling we only learn how to be really good employees or maybe self-employed, but always exchanging our time for money. We don’t learn how to become a business owner or an investor and get our money to work for us. Suddenly, I realised I had done exactly that – studied really hard to become good at working for someone else. I decided to take control and signed up to training courses to learn how to become a property investor so that I could build a business and lifestyle of my dreams.
After 18 months, I left my full-time job to focus on growing my property investment business and I have never looked back. Property has given me so much freedom and a life I could barely dream of whilst I was working full time. However, my true passion is working with people and helping them achieve their own potential. So, about a year ago, I decided to also found Nala Coaching to help others in a similar situation to me to start building their own property investment businesses.
I love that. Most of us certainly do study so hard to make the big bucks for someone else. It's so important to work towards YOUR dreams - whether that is setting up your own business or climbing up the ladder to be the CEO of an empire!
How did you come up with the idea for your brand?
My husband grew up in Kenya and so we have visited there many times. We are even about to move there for a while, so it is safe to say I find African culture very inspiring. Nala is an old African word meaning success and helping others to achieve success in property investment is at the very core of Nala Coaching.
Branding tells a story - yours is so full of adventure and inspiring in such a playful way! You certainly keep busy - how do you keep a balance between work and personal life?
This is definitely something which I have to keep an eye on. In the past, I have found myself working late into the evenings and over weekends and holidays. Whilst sometimes this is unavoidable with the unpredictable nature of property timings and working with clients who still have full time jobs, I am now learning to set myself clearer boundaries. If I know I will not be at my best for a call at 7pm one evening because I will be wanting to spend time with my husband, I do not allow myself to schedule that call. I only allow myself to schedule meetings, calls, viewings etc. when I know I will be able to give them my full attention and enjoy spending that time on my business.
Work/life balance is a struggle for so many business owners to keep on top of - setting boundaries is so important to give your best level of service to clients. What inspires you to keep growing?
The past 5 years have seen such a dramatic change for me in terms of how I live my life and what I now believe is possible. I am so grateful that I took that leap back when I did and seeing what is achievable in just a few short years inspires me to keep going. I know that if I keep progressing and growing, in five more years I will be in a position I couldn’t have even dreamt of when it all started.
And how do you wind down after a long day?
Nothing beats spending time with my dog as a way to relax and ground myself. Whether it’s a walk, a play or just a cuddle, she can turn any day into a great one.
My dog is also my go-to soul for when I need to wind down. There's an energy about having an animal pal that just beats anything else and invites peace and joy to any day!
Any business owner would be lying if they said every single day is stress free and smooth sailing. I want to bring more transparency and honesty into the behind the scenes of building a brand. Tell me about a challenge you conquered in your business:
The biggest challenge I have faced so far with Nala Coaching is my imminent move to Kenya. So far, most of my coaching has been very much face-to-face. Learning to provide the same level of support remotely is going to be a huge change. However, I am working on transferring all of my content online and familiarizing myself with platforms such as Skype. I’ve seen some great success stories of remote learning businesses, so I know it is completely possible, I just need to be prepared!
To wrap up, share a quote you live by and get inspired so other girl bosses out there can feel that energy and keep working at their dreams:
"What would you do if you weren’t afraid?"
I love this quote – it reminds me that usually the biggest thing stopping me is my own fear. Barely anything ever turns out as bad as I think it could, so this encourages me to cast my fears aside and go for it.
Fab - thank you Abbie!
If you're inspired by Abbie's boss babe vibes, or want to find out more about becoming a property investor yourself, you can connect with Abbie on hew website Nala Coaching or social media handles below:
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