Helena Zachariassen
Helena Zachariassen is a Life Coach and certified KonMari Consultant based in Zurich, who helps you transform your home, business, and life into an organized haven of tranquility and live a healthy, sustainable, beautiful, and simpler life with less.
Blending her Nordic background, passion for interior beauty, and her coaching mindset with the famous KonMari Method® of tidying and choosing joy, she empowers and inspires people to create unique and life-changing experiences.
She helps you simplify, declutter and beautify every area of your home, business, and life so that you can design a life with maximal functionality, purpose, and fulfillment.
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your corporate journey/venture/initiative.
I originate from Finland, the Nordic country of pure, quiet and beautiful wilderness, and home to 3 million saunas, the one and only Santa Claus, the Moomin Trolls, and the happiest people in the world!
I grew up in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, as part of a small 5% minority of the country’s Swedish speaking Finns. From birth, my family (parents and 3 brothers) and I spent every summer on a remote island in the archipelago in the Baltic Sea. The island had no electricity and no running water, but we did of course have the customary sauna! From a young age I fell in love with the simple and beautiful nature of life on the island. I loved the rough island climate, picking wild blueberries for breakfast, waking up to the sounds of the sea and the gulls, and falling asleep with the never-setting sun of endless summer days. Summer life was blissful and pure.
I’ve always felt called to make a difference and have gained a Masters in sociology and social psychology from the University of Helsinki and a certificate in life coaching. During the past 20 years I’ve worked in different areas of the corporate world, including international business consulting, and specialized in career and personal development.
With a passion for personal growth, I love supporting, empowering and inspiring people to live to their fullest potential. I’m a profound advocate of finding a healthy balance in everything we do. I believe that with the right amount of physical and mental tidiness, together with healthy nutrition, exercise and enough rest, we have more energy and are able to live easier, richer and more satisfying lives.
My vision is to change as many people’s lives as possible. If there’s one person’s life I can help transform, this person might go out there and change another one and so on…the ripple effect has enormous potential. The world needs change makers and we can all do our part in making the world a better place.
In my spare time I love to hike and ski in the mountains, listen to music as well as enjoy some laughter, a lovely glass of wine and a great dinner with friends.
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream of being an entrepreneur at the helm of My Happy Home. Combining my life coaching skills with my KonMari training and my natural flair for organizing I create simple, beautiful, calm spaces, functional businesses and content people, doing work that I truly love, every day.
The KonMari Method® has changed my family home and my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined. It’s made me even more acutely aware of what’s truly valuable to me and I’m clearer than I’ve ever been about the life I want to live.
Being deeply inspired by nature, beauty and simplicity, I lovingly encourage, empower and support my clients with transforming their homes, businesses and lives into serene havens of tranquility and leading calmer and more fulfilled lives as a result.
Was there any turning point in your life that changed your journey? If so, what was it? Please tell us the backstory behind it.
Yes, becoming a mother (of two). For my life I couldn’t believe how much stuff suddenly entered our home, both necessary and less necessary. When both my children were younger than 3, I had had enough. I felt like I was drowning with both physical stuff and mental overwhelm. I felt so deeply that I needed things to change and completely decluttering our home was the first step. This process was so rewarding and clarifying for me and soon afterwards things were just falling into place and I decided to train as a KonMari Consultant with Marie Kondo. Soon after I founded my company My Happy Home and started guiding others towards living a more peaceful, meaningful and connected life, with less.
While the global pandemic of COVID-19 is associated primarily with adversities, it has also brought about a true boom in startups, with successful entrepreneurship in many countries. The pandemic has impacted all of us in one way or another. Would you like to share your experience on a personal and professional level?
The pandemic started 6 months after I had founded my company which presented a huge challenge for me since most of my work was in-person in my client’s homes. At first there was despair, but then I decided to turn things around and a) work on my own growth and b) learning new skills that could later benefit my company. Both of these got me to a place where I was finally happy to offer my services online and create new things as needed. Adaptability was and still is key and I believe we can do all we set our heart to.
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
Very very positive. In a world where consumerism is on the rise and we feel overwhelmed by stuff and busyness of life, simplifying can bring the calm and contentment that so many of us are looking for. Most of my clients are usually surprised at the deep transformation and how much positive change working with me has brought about.
How has your life changed because of your venture?
I love doing what I do and seeing people change and transform in front of me. It’s deeply rewarding and meaningful.
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
Yes
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
There is no “impossible” but rather “I’m possible”.