Energy Coaching

“If you put a small value on yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.” – Anonymous.

It is intriguing that most entrepreneurs, specially the ones in the service business, have a big resistance to talk about what they do.  As if their services are of no value at all and they are being fake.  Sometimes it is not a question of not believing in what they are doing but simply not knowing what they are selling!  Do you know what you offer to others?

I had a client who was a coach.  She was trying very hard to sell coaching all around town with very little success.  She just couldn’t get it why people were not interested in the coaching process.  The truth is:  People are not interest in the process.  No one is!  If you have a horrible itch on your leg and you go to the dermatologist to be cured, would you be interested in listening how the medicine will work and how the antibodies will come together to fight the fungus on your skin?  I didn’t think so.  You want the medicine right away!  You want to get rid of the itch pronto!  In other words, you go to the doctor to get relief from the itch; not to hear about how it will go away.

Do you know what you offer to others?  Is it freedom and prosperity?  Is it an end of their financial troubles?  Is it relief from suffering?  You need to speak in terms of outcomes; not process.  That’s the language we all understand.  That’s what we buy.  Try to express the essence of what you offer in two or three words.  Look at mine for instance: “I help entrepreneurial women stretch their thinking, re-invent themselves and bask in freedom and prosperity” – it has a target audience in it (entrepreneurial women) and it has some clear outcomes (stretch their thinking, re-invent themselves, bask in freedom and prosperity).  When you perfect the exact description of what you offer, you’ll never hesitate to share it with anyone at any time.  And you will smile while you are sharing it because you believe in it so much.

With energy,

Ana

Ayurveda is a culture of well-being.  Its basis are the understanding of the human being as a whole and that there can only be health if the trio ‘body-mind-spirit’ is balanced.  According to Ayurveda, the cause of all our diseases is the accumulation of toxins in our body.  If we adopt ways to eliminate the existent toxins and to prevent new ones to show up in our body, we would have achieved complete health in the broader sense – total physical, mental and emotional well-being.

On Friday morning I took a culinary Ayurveda course with chef Lakshmi Harilela from ‘Love True Food’, here in Hong Kong.  Our group learned some of the Ayurveda theory and cooked a few delicious recipes which later became our lunch.  Lakshimi is another great example of someone who is passionate about what she does.  She found balance in Ayurveda and runs her business with so much love that she decided to name it just that; ‘Love True Food’ (www.lovetruefood.com).

It’s refreshing as an entrepreneur to find others who live the same way I do and who love what they do.  As a coach who helps entrepreneurial women, it is even more satisfying to see a young entrepreneurial woman who is so committed to her passion of spreading the Ayurveda message through her business.  Thanks Lakshmi for a phenomenal class!

Finding our passion is a blessing.  Committing to it is pure bliss!

With energy,

Ana

Traveling is a wonderful thing.  It opens our minds, it relaxes us, it makes us think outside of the box. In the excitement of it all, I’ve been far and away from the blogosphere.  I miss it and I am back with a bit about my trip that I believe will be relevant for your business as well.

I normally do not favor talking about myself, however the experience we had in Brazil was phenomenal and produced some fabulous results to our company almost straight away.  We organized a conference with all our reps from all over the country in our headquarters in the city of Florianopolis.  We had a couple intentions in mind and one of them – the one I want to share with you today – was to share our vision and our values with our reps.

We are crystal clear about who we are as a company and how we make decisions.  We know what our vision is and what our values are and they determine every single move we make on a daily basis.  The fact that we were able to put those two things down in words and to communicate them to our team proved to be a recipe for success.  When we communicated the vision and our values to our reps we also showed them a slide show on where we apply them in our business.  They saw how we live what we believe and how it is possible to run a company with clarity and integrity.

They left the conference inspired and asking how they can create their own vision and discover their own values as well.  I created a program for them and shared within a few days after the conference.  We immediately saw the results of this; sales are up and our new line has made into three major department stores in the country literally overnight!

It’s essential to have a clear vision for our businesses and for our lives.  To know our values is to know what drives us and what makes us move forward.  To me, this is the most important part in the process of creating a business.  If you don’t know where you are going and what tools you have to get there, how in the world are you going to make it?

Feel free to share your vision with me and to contact me if you want to know more about how to create your vision and to find out about your values.  Once you know that, making decisions will be easier than ever before, you will save time and energy and clarity will be your constant companion.  Now, that sounds like a great way to run a life and a business!

With energy,

Ana

When we headed to the Amalfi Coast in Italy to celebrate my husband’s birthday, I wasn’t expecting to find so many people living their passion through managing their own business.  Being a coach who coaches mainly entrepreneurs, I have my eyes trained to spot people who are happy doing what they love and making a living out of it.  Still, I wasn’t exactly looking for “happy entrepreneurs” during our romantic getaway!

It turned out that many of the great restaurants we visited, were owned by happy entrepreneurs who are in love with their lives and their businesses.  Livia and Alfonso together with their two sons, own the two stars Michelin restaurant “Don Alfonso” in the small city of St. Agatha on the Amalfi Coast.  The family turned their wonderful state into a successful multi faceted business.  Besides being a delightful restaurant, “Don Alfonso” also has a charming and exclusive bed and breakfast which offers gourmet cooking classes during the summer.  They also bought a farm where they grow their organic vegetables and produce their own organic olive oil which they use to prepare their fabulous food.  Wish you could take home the delicious olive oil you just tasted?  Not to worry; they sell it at their magnificent library adjacent to the restaurant.  While at the library, you can also buy a copy of Alfonso’s beautiful book with his restaurant’s story and magnificent recipes.

As we tasted our delicious meal, Livia came around to say hello and to welcome us.  She had a natural glow which I can identify as something always present in a person who lives her passion.  She shared a bit of their story and invited us to tour their cellar and to step into the library to find out all about the cooking classes.  Before we knew it, my husband and me were making plans to come back the following year to stay at their bed and breakfast and to visit their restaurant in Macao as soon as we arrive to Hong Kong.  Wow, that was a first class sales pitch!  And all Livia was doing was simply sharing her passions with us!  Now, that’s a great way to approach your next potential client. How about thinking of it as sharing your passion instead of selling your services?

Talking to others about your business is simply sharing something that you deeply love and believe.  People do understand the genuine energy that flows from your eyes and from your words when you do that.  You are no longer “selling”; you are “sharing”. And that is very attractive!

Go ahead and let the “sharing” begin!

With energy,

Ana

PS:  If you are interested, check out “Don Alfonso’s website at http://www.donalfonso.com/en/restaurants.htm