Valuing Your Health In Business

Heather McLellan joins Joanne Lockwood to explore what happens when health and business collide, and why many entrepreneurs overlook planning for the one risk that can stop everything: their own capacity to work.

Drawing on Heather’s background in occupational health and her personal experience of a rare stroke and a blood cancer diagnosis, they discuss the practical and emotional realities of being unable to work. The conversation covers financial vulnerability for solopreneurs, the confidence hit that can follow extended absence, and why self-employed people often return too fast and push too hard.

They move into prevention and preparedness: delegating key tasks, ensuring others can access business-critical systems, considering legal and financial safeguards such as power of attorney, and having contingency plans that extend beyond IT disaster recovery. Joanne also shares how caring responsibilities for parents can create major business disruption even when the business owner isn’t the one who is ill.

Finally, Heather outlines how a graded, phased return to work can reduce boom-and-bust cycles and support long-term sustainability, alongside foundational self-care practices like sleep, nutrition, and exercise. The episode leaves listeners with a clear message: valuing health is both a wellbeing priority and a business strategy.

One-sentence summary

Heather McLennan’s message is simple but hard-earned: if you do not value your own health as fiercely as your business, you may lose both.

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Synopsis

Heather McLennan has spent nearly 30 years helping people return to work after injury or illness. As a healthcare professional in occupational health and rehabilitation, she believed in the restorative power of work. But five years ago, everything she taught was tested. A rare stroke, followed swiftly by a rare blood cancer diagnosis, forced her to apply her expertise to herself whilst running a growing national business. She was no longer the expert at the podium — she was the patient, the business owner in limbo, the woman asking, “Who am I now?”

What she is trying to change is not simply how businesses handle sickness absence. She is challenging the silent assumption that the business must always come first. She wants leaders — especially small business owners — to recognise that they are their greatest asset and their greatest risk. Because when we refuse to plan for our vulnerability, when we pretend illness only happens to other people, the cost is not just financial. It is confidence. Identity. Dignity. Families absorbing shock they never prepared for. Heather is building a quieter revolution: work that works for the human being behind it.

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10 Small, digestible concepts for easy learning

1. You are your business’s biggest asset — and its biggest liability.

If you fall, the whole structure may wobble. Protect yourself accordingly.

2. Recovery is not a weakness; it’s a full-time job.

When you are ill, your primary responsibility is healing.

3. Waiting to feel 100% can keep you stuck.

Sustainable return is gradual, not heroic.

4. Going from zero to full throttle invites a crash.

Boom and bust cycles are common when pride overrides pacing.

5. Confidence can disappear overnight — even for experts.

Illness can shake identity as much as it shakes the body.

6. Most crises are not truly unexpected — they are unspoken.

We avoid planning for what feels frightening or disloyal to imagine.

7. Delegation is not loss of control; it is continuity.

Sharing access and authority protects more than just cash flow.

8. Stress is information.

If your business is the primary source of anxiety, something needs re-designing.

9. Family impacts are business impacts.

Illness ripples across households, not just balance sheets.

10. Create work that works for you.

Success without well-being is a hollow victory.

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The “why” in the story

What they believe is true about people

Heather believes most people want to contribute. Work gives purpose, structure and belonging — but only when health makes it possible.

What they cannot unsee

She cannot unsee how quickly illness can unravel identity, income and stability. She has watched families fracture under pressure. She has lived the shock of being the capable professional who suddenly wasn’t sure she could stand up and speak again.

What they are no longer willing to tolerate

She is no longer willing to tolerate the myth that “it won’t happen to me”. Nor the culture of pushing through, proving strength by ignoring warning signs.

What they are trying to build instead

She is building a way of doing business that plans for humanity — with contingency, compassion and deliberate pacing.

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Narrative structure

1. The trigger

In 2019, Heather — a woman who helped others rehabilitate and return to work — had a rare stroke, closely followed by a blood cancer diagnosis. She was running a national rehabilitation company at the time. Then came the global pandemic. She says she did not have a written contingency plan — she was “living it”.

2. The tension

She struggled with more than treatment. She lost confidence. She questioned her identity. How could she stand on a stage speaking about return to work when she doubted her own? Meanwhile, the business needed leadership. Others still expected the same Heather.

3. The insight

The longer someone stays away from work, the harder it becomes to return. But equally, rushing back at full capacity creates collapse. The answer lies in phased, intentional reintegration — and in planning before crisis hits.

4. The pivot

After a later injury — a broken ankle — Heather reassessed again. Managing a large team while protecting lifelong health conditions no longer aligned. She chose to leave that business structure and reshape her work around sustainability. “Create work that works for me,” became her mantra.

5. The destination

A future where business owners are not martyrs to their own success. Where planning for illness is as normal as backing up data. Where recovery is not shameful. Where work and health move in negotiation, not battle.

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Five key takeaways and learning points

1. Illness is not rare — ignoring it is.

Over a third of working-age people live with long-term conditions. Pretending you are exempt increases risk.

2. Your identity is fragile when tied only to productivity.

If work is your sole measure of worth, illness can feel like erasure. Diversify your sense of self.

3. A phased return protects your dignity.

Starting small and building gradually reduces relapse and restores confidence.

4. Planning is an act of love.

Contingency plans protect partners, children and colleagues from chaos.

5. Growth is not always expansion.

Sometimes scaling back is the healthiest strategic decision you can make.

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Ten distinct ideas explained

1. Health as infrastructure

We insure buildings and laptops, yet often ignore the human body running the enterprise. When that infrastructure fails, systems stall.

2. The emotional cost of absence

Extended time away doesn’t only shrink income — it chips at esteem, routine and self-belief.

3. Phased return as self-respect

Gradual reintegration says: I matter enough not to break myself proving my value.

4. Unseen labour of recovery

Hospital appointments, waiting rooms, anxiety between tests — these consume energy invisible to outsiders.

5. Family ripple effect

One illness can mean another person leaving work. Financial strain and emotional shock intertwine.

6. Leadership identity shock

When others can manage without you, it raises difficult questions about ego, relevance and purpose.

7. Stress-driven growth

Businesses can expand out of fear — fear of failing, disappointing, losing income — rather than genuine alignment.

8. Self-compassion as strategy

Gentleness during recovery is not indulgence; it is risk management.

9. Exit as evolution

Leaving a business model behind can be less about defeat and more about alignment.

10. Negotiation, not balance

Work and health are dynamic. The aim is not perfect symmetry but ongoing adjustment.

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How people should change as a result

1. Think

• Stop assuming serious illness is statistically unlikely for you.
• See yourself as core infrastructure, not an expendable operator.
• Recognise recovery time as necessary investment, not lost productivity.
• View delegation as protection, not dilution of authority.
• Understand that scaling down can be strategic, not shameful.

2. Feel

• Move from denial to preparedness.
• Shift from guilt about rest to respect for it.
• Replace bravado with honest vulnerability.
• Soften self-judgment during periods of reduced capacity.
• Swap fear-driven hustle for intentional pacing.

3. Act

• Write a simple contingency plan for your business within the next month.
• Ensure at least one trusted person can access key financial systems if needed.
• Build — or begin — an emergency fund for personal income gaps.
• Schedule non-negotiable health practices: sleep, exercise, preventative appointments.
• If returning from illness, design a four-week graded plan before your first full day back.
• Have explicit conversations with family about “what if” scenarios.
• Audit your workload and remove one stressor that is no longer aligned.

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One thing to remember

Your business can only thrive for as long as the human behind it does.