From Rock Bottom to Life Coach: Sonia Pace on Football, Burnout, Bullying & Finding Your Purpose

What do you do when you've spent years doing everything right and still feel completely lost?In this episode of the Meet Your Inspiration Podcast, Meri and Rich sit down with Sonia Pace : ICF-accredited life coach, personal trainer, radio host, and passionate advocate for athlete wellbeing. Sonia's story is layered, honest, and ultimately uplifting.From a sports diploma that went nowhere to years of office jobs she was brilliant at but hated, from a divorce that knocked her confidence completely, to a fitness transformation, a personal training business, a wellness hub, a stint at Sky, and a dark period of her life, Sonia has rebuilt herself more times than most people manage once.And now? She's channelling all of it into coaching ex-athletes and footballers through the hardest transition of their careers: life after sport.In this deeply honest conversation, Sonia covers:🔹 Growing up as the only girl playing football and always following her own path🔹 Years of office jobs, stewarding and security work, brilliant at everything, fulfilled by nothing🔹 How a divorce knocked her confidence and sent her into hiding🔹 Winning a local fitness transformation challenge and how it sparked everything that followed🔹 Training with Miami Pro competitors and becoming stronger than the guys in the gym🔹 Leaving a job that denied her time with her dying father, one of the best decisions she ever made🔹 Losing her dad one week into the first COVID lockdown and how she kept going🔹 Online bullying that got so bad that she had dark thoughts and what brought her back🔹 Discovering life coaching mid-burnout and realising it was what she'd been doing all along🔹 Why ex-footballers get lost after sport — gambling, identity crisis, no one asking the right questions🔹 Her upcoming podcast interviewing former sportsmen and women about life after the game🔹 Training for the Yorkshire Three Peaks two years after a torn meniscus🔹 The Europa League final, a chaotic coach journey, and the tattoo that tells the whole storyThis episode is for anyone who has ever felt pigeonholed, lost, knocked down by someone else's opinion or who wonders whether athletes are really okay behind the game face.💬 "From feeling very low from bullying to realising I want the pain to end. This person isn't ruling my life. I'm in charge." — Sonia PaceContact Sonia 👇LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-pace-88806319/🙌 Many thanks to our sponsors:https://www.hempsteadhouse.co.uk/https://whatsoninkent.com/https://theitrustapp.com/Special thanks to Charlie Smith for the help with editing 🙌 Book gift - https://www.dr-ant.co.uk Tropic skincare gifts - https://www.tropicskincare.com/meridonikyankoleva ✊ You can support us 👉https://buymeacoffee.com/MeetYourInspiration