Debs Johnson

My background before joining Unlimited Potential

Before joining Unlimited Potential in 2013, I had a varied background working within sales support in pensions and investments at Standard Life. I was next a PA to the HR Director at Bupa, until I moved into the internal communications team as Communications Co-ordinator, and then into external communications as Assistant Manager. After having my daughter and being made redundant, I worked for Salford City Council in the Children’s Disability team as a part-time Direct Payments Officer. After my Daughter started at nursery, it was time for a change and a full-time role again. I saw the role advertised within the Being Well Salford project with Unlimited Potential and thought it sounded like a good match for my personality, skills and experience, so I applied and began my journey into the health and well-being sector.

my role at Unlimited Potential

My role within Being Well Salford was as a Being Well Coach. This involved working with a team across the localities with individuals mainly referred by their GP due to various lifestyle issues. I was also involved in a project looking at alcohol use and behaviour change called Shifting the Curve.

I was in this coaching role for a few years until the project came to an end and I was transferred to another organisation. However, I came back (I missed the place too much!) to Unlimited Potential to co-ordinate the FACT project (Fuelling Ambitions Creatively Together), which exposed young people to meaningful experiences of local industry/business, outside the ‘norm’ of school and home life, and exposed industry/business to future local talent and their new ideas.

I realised that while I enjoyed the change to education, my heart and experience lay within health and well-being. I had the opportunity to take a role as a Community Connector in Wellbeing Matters. This was a new and innovative social prescribing project where I and five other team members were able to create and shape a new service. It aimed to support people to connect to local community assets to support their well-being and independence, reducing the need for intervention by health and care services.

what most benefitted me from being with Unlimited Potential and what difference it made to me

Unlimited Potential had a huge impact on my life. It has a way of supporting its staff that gives you the scope to think in a different way, not to place boundaries on your potential, and to strive for the things that make you happy both personally and professionally.

With support, I created a personal development plan to which was attached a budget. With guidance, I was able to explore the dreams that I thought would always just be dreams and never a reality.

Having the opportunity to work on different projects at Unlimited Potential gave me confidence in my abilities and the courage to step outside my comfort zone (at times, VERY much so!). My line manager was always there in the background, trusting me and guiding me when I needed the support or was doubting myself! He was very much a cheer leader and an enabler for me to consider what more I could do.

What I went on to do next would not have happened without that support.

what I have gone on to do/achieve since I left Unlimited Potential

Since leaving Unlimited Potential, life has taken a different turn in some respects. Whilst I still very much enjoy my work on the Wellbeing Matters project where I now work for the Big Life group, I am now also a fully qualified dog groomer with a level 3 diploma and a certificate in dog first aid and safety.

I started studying through my personal development plan at Unlimited Potential and was able to use my personal development budget towards my diploma.

Since qualifying, I set up my own holistic dog grooming business, Paws Fur Thought, which I do on a part-time basis alongside my health and well-being work.

I enjoy the fact that my roles are varied and that I am able to use my creative skills with the dogs – it utilises my brain in a very different way to working one-to-one with people!

I am one of the biggest dog lovers you could meet. I am the person in the street who smiles at dogs and greets them before the humans! So, being able to combine working with dogs and people is a huge bonus to me.

None of this would have been possible without the support, development opportunities and belief in me from Unlimited Potential. I am truly grateful to have been an employee and I look back on my time there with fondness and happy thoughts. I still keep in touch some of my colleagues to this day, which is testament to Unlimited Potential.