What if the biggest barrier to business growth isn’t your strategy—but your ability to feel safe enough to grow?
For Jo Cooper, founder of Holistically Whole, this question sits at the heart of her work. Her approach to coaching and personal transformation challenges the conventional “mindset first” narrative by bringing the body into the conversation through what she calls DNA Recoding.
Humans of Fuzia (HOF), a global thought-leadership platform at the intersection of leadership, entrepreneurship, coaching, women empowerment and socially conscious business, regularly explores these deeper realities of building a business. Its conversations with coaches and entrepreneurs reveal that sustainable growth is rarely just about tactics—it is also about the person leading the business.
From 28 Years of Migraines to a New Coaching Philosophy
Cooper’s business emerged from an intensely personal healing journey. After experiencing 28 years of migraines, followed by PTSD and chronic fatigue after a serious accident, she began questioning why traditional approaches weren’t resolving her symptoms.
Her curiosity led her toward understanding the body differently.
“I started to realise there’s a link between, you know, psychosomatic… the idea that depending on what symptoms we’ve got, gives us clues as to what our body’s trying to communicate with us.”
That experience became the foundation of Holistically Whole and her belief that transformation can begin by listening to the body rather than working against it.
Why Business Growth Is Also a Leadership Challenge
Cooper believes entrepreneurs can unconsciously carry the same patterns into business. Fear of judgment, difficulty showing up online and resistance to receiving more can become invisible constraints on growth.
“We follow the coaches… we follow the strategies. But at the end of the day, if our body doesn’t feel safe to receive, if it doesn’t feel safe to hold, then we can’t scale.”
This offers an important leadership lesson for 2026: growth systems matter, but so does the leader’s capacity to operate those systems.
For entrepreneurs, that means pairing practical business development—clear messaging, an ideal client profile (ICP), sales funnels, delegation, speaking opportunities and scalable systems—with deeper leadership development.
Women in Leadership: Moving Beyond “Do, Do, Do”
Cooper also challenges the pressure many women entrepreneurs feel to constantly achieve.
“It’s very easy to get into the masculine of do, do, do and achieve and tick the boxes.”
Her alternative is alignment: asking what feels good, what feels sustainable and what genuinely feels right to deliver.
That perspective reframes socially conscious leadership—not as doing less, but as building a business model that can grow without compromising integrity.
Execution Tip
Audit one growth activity today. Ask: Am I doing this because it genuinely supports my business, or because I believe I “should” be doing it? Keep the activities that create aligned growth and redesign the rest.
Connect with Jo Cooper
LinkedIn: Jo Cooper
Website: holistically-whole.co.uk
