Profit With Purpose by Anna Goldstein

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Profit With Purpose by Anna Goldstein





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Sep 13, 2018



Despite the hazards to himself, Sanderson thought only of helping others and emerged from the wreckage with a mission: to encourage others to do the right thing. He also is the author of Moments Matter: How One Defining Moment Can Create a Lifetime of Purpose. Dave has been featured on NBC, ABC, PBS, and many other media outlets. 

Take us back to that day when your plane crashed, what was that day like?

Dave has never been afraid of flying in a plane. In fact, Dave is a frequent flyer who has traveled in different airlines in different parts of the world. Dave wasn’t supposed to be on that flight, he was scheduled for another flight. Within a minute after the plane took off, Dave heard an explosion. He looked out the window when he heard the explosion which came out of the engines of the aircraft. They were flying over the George Washington bridge, only about 400 feet above it. They were roughly a 1000 feet above sea level. As the plane started to plummet towards the Hudson river, at that moment Dave felt as if he would not live to see another day. Dave was the last passenger to be rescued safely from the plane. He helped several passengers before exiting the plane.

What was the moment when you realized you were alive?

When Dave got out of the plane, he swam towards a ferry after which he went to a hospital. When the EMT took Dave’s blood pressure and it was unusually high, that is when he realized he was alive since he had blood pressure.

How did your life change after this traumatic incident?

Dave was back to work just a week after the incident. He took a flight the very next day to go back to his home and within a week took another flight to Michigan for business related work. Dave was going to Michigan for a corporate business trip. He was supposed to travel with Delta airlines. Dave recalls it was the toughest flight of his life. Just after recognizing himself as a hero in US Airways, no one really realized who Dave was when he got on the flight. Dave was also getting a lot of attention from media as well. The weeks following the incident were extremely hectic for Dave and he feels he should have stepped back a little and spend time with his family.

How many times have you flown since that incident?

On average, Dave flies for over a hundred times in a year. It has been nine years since that incident and Dave thinks he has flown almost a 1000 times after that incident.

How has this incident changed you as a person?

Dave feels this incident changed him in a lot of different ways. It has helped him to prioritize his time. Dave used to schedule all of his time around his business. Dave has started to spend more time with his family. He was able to change his relationship with his family after this incidence.

Do you think your life would have been different if you had missed out on that flight?

Dave truly believes he would have lived a completely different life had he not been on that flight. He thinks he would still be working for the company he was working for at the time of crash, he wouldn’t own his own company. He thinks the biggest difference would have been in his relationship with his family. Dave started to spend a lot of time with his wife and kids after the crash. Dave thinks God put him on that plane for a reason and for a purpose.

You mention you create meaning out of things, what was the meaning you extracted out of this tragic event?

He has been asked this question in many TV interviews. Dave thinks if the event didn’t happen, he can not even count the relationships he would have lost due to his previous lifestyle and his workaholic nature. He thinks he might have even lost his marriage and as a result would not have been able to spend time with his children. Dave considers it as a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to bring about a shift in his perspective of various things. Dave got to talk to a lot of other people who were on the same plane as him and they considered it a tragedy.

Where were you in terms of your speaking career before the incident?

Dave spoke all the time in his job but he was presenting all the time. Dave was around great speakers. He always wanted to speak but he always thought he had no content. The first time he was asked to speak publicly was in a local church. That is when he picked up the art of speaking publicly. During one of his speeches, a woman approached him and said she did not believe in God, did not believe in miracles but Dave’s survival story had her believe in God and miracles again. That is when Dave realized he had already impacted someone’s life through his speaking.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice he has ever been given is to be humble in life. Even if you are good at your work, you should not get too cocky because there will always be someone who would be better than you.

How can we connect with you?

You can find more about Dave and his public speaking through the following website.

Sep 6, 2018

Katie taught herself, and now teaches others how to live in the darkness and plug back into the light. For a long time, she lost her joy, her happiness, and the LIGHT-ness of life. Through her own experience of learning how to GLOW in the dark, she knows that if you have the right tools, and get some solid support to help you along the way, you can live, love and thrive, in any circumstance. Katie is also the co-creator of Inner Glow Circle (IGC), an ICF accredited coach training and personal branding company for women. Their mission is to provide an inclusive educational edge to women who want to start their own coaching business.

What does profit with purpose mean to you?

Money is the main resource that we tend to talk about, worry about and stress about. There are so many other resources that we can focus on. Katie has come across a new idea called ‘melts model of resources’. The idea is to not look at our resources separately, they all melt together. We hear people complain about being broke and sometimes it's about money but sometimes money is not the issue. ‘MELTS’ stands for money, energy, love, time and space. When we separate these things out, we may have one of these things in excess but we will not be completely fulfilled in our lives. We may be profitable when it comes to money but we would be naturally in debt when it comes to love or energy or space when we separate these things out. Many of us only focus on the money part whenever trying to achieve profits.

You talk about dealing with depression in your past. What reasons contributed to depression and anxiety in your past?

There was a phase in Katie’s life when she was dealing with chronic illness. She went undiagnosed of Lyme disease for almost ten years. After diagnosis, she underwent rigorous treatment for almost three years. The treatment of this disease is rather complicated and one can easily get into depression due to the medication used for the treatment of this disease. It was also during this time that her brother overdosed and passed away. It was a big struggle for Katie and her family. She also went through a bad breakup. She was caught up in a toxic relationship with her fiancé. There was a lot of trauma and grief in Katie’s life at that moment. Trauma and grief suck the energy out of an individual. She has fully recovered from Lyme and it has been a complete year now. Her brother passed away three years ago, she called it off with her fiancé two and a half years ago. Katie has made peace with her past and moved on in her life.

Tell us about your company?

Katie’s company is called ‘Inner Glow Circle’. It is an all-inclusive mastermind and mentorship experience for women from different walks of life. Her clients are female entrepreneurs, working moms who are seeking excellence in their professional and personal lives. Katie aims to create a life for her clients that glow from the inside out.

How did you transition from owning a tanning salon to becoming a life coach?

Katie’s first business revolved around the tanning business. She had women come over to her salon and start discussing their problems. Some of them would start crying during the appointment. Katie developed an ability to be naturally open to people willing to share their vulnerabilities with her. Women would come to her salon with problems to share and issues to discuss. They would leave with hope and inspiration. Katie started to think about getting herself trained around giving advice to people with vulnerabilities in a professional manner. She started to explore a couple of different programs. Initially, she wanted to go into the nutrition business because she has always been an advocate of healthy eating. She started her masters in nutrition but dropped out of the program. She started to train as a coach after dropping out of her master’s program. She felt she could make a bigger difference in the lives of people around her if she became a coach. She launched her practice while she was still training as a coach.

How did you start your coach training program?

She started this program when she started Inner Glow Circle. She started her spray tanning company in 2012 and by the end of the same year, she had started coaching informally. That is when she developed and started her coach training program. She really went into full practice and established herself in the following years. She was quickly able to turn her investment into profits.

What are some of your favorite self-care practices?

Katie is a big fan of using Epsom salt in her baths. It is good for muscles and detoxing. She also makes sure to do some sort of exercise on daily basis.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she has ever been given is from her dad. He once said to her that 'The best way to fail is to give up." Katie always tell the women she works with to never give up, stay in the game and keep playing.

How can we connect with you?


Aug 23, 2018

Karen Frazier is the author of books about metaphysics, crystal healing, energy healing, dream interpretation, and nutrition. As a professional writer, she has written and published over 14 books. She has extensively studied alternative healing, Reiki, hypnotherapy, crystal healing, Feng Shui, dream interpretation, and more. 

What was the beginning of your career?

Karen used to write as a little kid. She recently found out some of her poems she had written when she was only seven years old. She has always tried to add writing as a part of her job. She worked as a personal trainer and she turned her job into writing by writing a personal trainer manual. She worked as a patient outreach person in a national health clinic and she turned it into a writing job. During the 2008 recession, she was working as a marketing communication specialist which is actually a marketing writer. The writers were the first to be affected during the recession. Karen saw this as an opportunity to explore herself further as a writer.

Do you think good writing comes naturally?

Karen thinks that an individual can learn to write reasonably well. However, to write in a way that your writing touches people is something that comes naturally.

What is your favorite book that you have written?

She likes her first book about crystals titled ‘Crystals for Healing’ the most. It is the first book in which she talked about energy healing for the first time and she is very passionate and interested in energy healing.

Can you tell us a little bit about the healing powers of crystals?

As a kid, Karen loved collecting rocks. She kept a box of different rocks in her basement. She has always been drawn to rocks. She considers crystals ‘love letters’ from the earth. They have this beautiful earth energy and they have a vibration on their own. When you put something that vibrates at one rate next to something that vibrates at a different rate, the two move into the phase and vibrates more closely together. Pendants and lockets consisting of crystals can be worn to fully utilize the healing power of crystals. If you are low on energy, your vibration will raise to your vibration and you will lock into phase.

What kind of crystals can be used for profit and purpose?

For profit, Karen suggests using green crystals. They are the color of money. The best crystal that can be used for prosperity is called citrine crystal. Karen recommends to place it in the south-east corner of the home or in the cash box or in a wallet. For purpose, any crystal that is a sixth or seventh chakra crystal is good for purpose. Sunstone is good for creativity.

You practice Reiki, can you tell the listeners what exactly Reiki is?

Reiki is a form of hands-on energy healing. It originated in Japan. The way it works is that you place your hands on the person you want to transfer energy to. You can also heal people from distance as well. You can send healing energy to people who are lacking in it. Reiki is a practice in which someone can draw in the energy from someone who is attuned to the energy.

What does being attuned to Reiki mean?

If you want to practice Reiki, you have to go to a class and get yourself aligned with the energy by someone who is already attuned to that energy. This is done through a series of rituals.
Do you think energy is a feeling?

It can be a feeling. Although you don’t have to define it in terms of feelings. Karen believes everything is energy and everything we do moves energy into some kind of an action or form. Our thoughts and the actions we do, as a result, all creative energy. If we direct the energy, then we are likely to get things in our lives that fulfill us.

What is an intention you had that come to its fulfillment?

About nineteen years ago, Karen was in a bad marriage, had a three-year-old son and worked at a job she did not like. Every night she would sit down and write about her feelings and her intentions. She used to write about her good health and to have a job that would fulfill her creatively. She used to write about being in a fulfilling relationship. She used to visualize all of it every night. She did it for almost two months. Within a few years, she was able to get all of these things she used to write about. She got remarried, was in a healthy relationship. She had found herself a new job where she could afford to write from the comfort of her home.

What is an intention you had that did not come to its fruition?

Karen’s body is often her teacher and it reminds her to love herself more. Karen suffers from Celiac disease which means she cannot eat some of the commonly known eatable items like bread. About three years ago, she made an intention to try to get rid of this disease and eat bread. It did not work out for her. Karen says she is happy it did not work out for her because her intention should be to love her body and take in food only that is good for her body.

Do you always write down your intentions?

Karen still writes down her intentions but less frequently. She now visualizes her intentions in meditation now.


If you want to write a book, just sit down and do not censor yourself, just write. Just get everything on paper and then worry about organizing it and arranging it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Her father used to say to her to have an open mind all the time. This, she thinks is the best advice she has ever been given. Later in her life, a friend named David said to her that she shouldn’t be so open-minded that her brains fall out.

How can we connect with you?




Aug 16, 2018

Jillian Turecki is interviewing podcast host, Anna Goldstein as the interviewee. Jillian has appeared as a guest previously on the podcast. In this podcast, Jillian and Anna talk about coaching and what it means to Anna.

What does being a coach mean to you?

For Anna, being a coach means of great value. She grew up around great coaches. She grew up as a tennis player. She had coaches in her life when she was as young as nine years old. They played a big role in her life from the very beginning. Being a tennis player helped her avoid trouble. It kept her focused. She got into coaching by being a tennis coach which was her first job. She has had the relationship with the word coach from a very long time. She started her company 10 years ago and back then, coaching was completely different from what it is now. Coaching back then was mostly associated with sports. The meaning of it has now changed. Anna doesn’t view herself as somebody who would have all the answers for your problems, but she would try to bring out the best in you, to equip you with tools that would help you perform at your optimal level.

What is the most useful or profound advice you received from your coaches?

She learned a lot about how to deal with loss. Since tennis is an individual sport, when you lose its all on you and when you win, you get all the credit. She would take losing really very hard. She was trained by her coaches to not give up and train harder after a loss. The ability to recover from a loss is something she also integrates into her personal development programs. She also learned about the importance of fundamentals from her coaches.

Whenever we are trying to learn something new, we can get a bit fancy and focus more on advanced topics to learn. However, we should keep revisiting the basics because we can only work in advanced areas if we have solid foundations regardless of the skill or sport we are trying to learn.

How has returning to the fundamentals helped you as an entrepreneur and as a businesswoman?

She got lost after her first job as a tennis coach in New York City. Within 2 years, she got burnt off. She used to work seven days in a week, was available all the time. She jumped from job to job, apartment to apartment and relationship to relationship. That is when she returned to the fundamental of tennis that she had learned all along from her coaches. She used to put herself in a positive state like listen to music or jump a rope before playing tennis. She had a proper diet routine when she used to train for tennis and realized that during her burnout phase, she was not on a proper diet. When her life was out of order, her food was out of order.

You mention that you underwent depression in your past? Why were you depressed and how did you cope with it?

Anna was hard on herself. Her self-talk was demotivating and she was mean to herself. She used to tell herself that she would never be successful in her life, that she was overweight and there was something wrong with her. She always carried along this thought with herself that she was depressed. She wasn’t connected to herself. This is why she is so committed to different spiritual practices because it helps her connect to her inner-self. Meditation helped her a great deal to cope with depression and anxiety. She also hired herself a coach to help her life her life to its full potential.

Is it true that people who get into life coach business need to had to have some sort of experience with difficulties in order to help others?

Anyone who is in this business had to overcome something in their past. People who choose the path to be healers are often people who have looked at it more closely. Coaching is actually a modernized therapy, a form of healing.

How do you think therapy and coaching can be integrated in practice?

If you have a mental condition, you need to hire yourself a therapist or a psychiatrist who can prescribe you medicine. Anna comes in contact with a lot of people who have been in therapy. It is great for developing awareness, learning about yourself. Coaching is about implementation and evolvement into letting go of old identities. Through therapy, you can identify the problem areas and through coaching, you can integrate action items in your life to resolve pain points. Anna herself has undergone therapy in past and also hired a life-coach for herself in her past.

Do you agree that happiness and joy can only come from inside?

Anna thinks it is the starting point for all your joy and happiness. If you do not have certain tools to understand your own mind, nothing that you achieve would be able to help you boost your self-esteem. Meditation helps you get familiar with your mind; every individual’s mind is different. People see reality in different ways. Meditation allows you to look at reality from different angles. Meditation can also help with love and kindness, forgiveness and peace.



Aug 9, 2018

Dr. Lindsay Padilla is a teaching + learning consultant. As an owner of many degrees, her experience as a sociology professor, and teaching adult learners online —She’s honored to pass on what she’s learned to trailblazing entrepreneurs who want to create digital courses. She now specializes in translating 1:1 client work experiences into signature courses, group programs + membership sites, as well as mapping out instructional content.

How did you get into academia?

She always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She kept following that path growing up. She worked up towards becoming a high school teacher. She started her teaching career by teaching eight graders while her friends were still partying in college. She got her first sociology class because her mentor gave this one class to her. She fell in love with sociology and realized the potential of sociology at a high school level. She decided to get a master’s degree in sociology. That put her on the path of graduate school. In her graduate program for sociology, she had a course called ‘Teaching Sociology’. It is very rare to have a teaching course in a grad school.

Do you think our educational system can be limiting and we do not always need a college degree to something valuable in our lives?

Lindsay thinks it’s a very complicated matter. As a sociologist, Lindsay gets to study about society, people, institutions and large mainstream patterns of our culture, their origin and how they impact us. The labor market is tied to the school system. She believes we have been stuck in  very traditional ways of delivering education. We live in a credential society, which demands a degree to get certain jobs and unlock certain things in life. This is what we are told and this is what is only partially true.

What made you transition out of academia and into entrepreneurship?

Lindsay recently started a podcast in January called Academics mean business. She has been an entrepreneur for almost two years now. Two years ago in summers, she was getting paid by clients for helping them create courses. She has been teaching online for the past six to seven years. She was always the professor on campus who was known for conducting online meetings with her students. She had a lot to share with entrepreneurs starting online programs around teaching and learning. She helped various clients with it. She saw the potential of transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship. Lindsay felt she could have a greater impact on people around her if she became an entrepreneur.

What do you think makes a good teacher?

Lindsay believes everyone is a teacher. Lindsay believes it is something very common among all human beings. We teach our children, pass knowledge on to our friends and family. Teaching is about an outcome. As a teacher, one needs to set by themselves certain goals that they can help an individual or a group of people achieve through their teachings. Good teaching comes from the inner self of the teacher. A teacher needs to be aligned with the knowledge he or she intends to share. Lindsay says there is a lot of impostor syndrome in the realm of online teaching. Many people doubt if the online courses and online teachers can actually help others and if their knowledge itself is self-sufficient. This prevents a lot of good teachers to put up their courses online. Good teaching comes from being your true self in communicating what you know. Many teachers try to build an authority around themselves and it drains out all the excitement from learning. A lot of research has been carried around this issue and the results indicate that teachers who try to undermine students are responsible for creating an environment which diminishes learning and the power of education as well. Good teaching comes from interaction with students, listening to them, working on the feedback received from students and doing it better the next time.

How do you make online learning experiential?

We have to work with the medium that is transporting the knowledge. Online interaction can never be like a face-to-face interaction. When it comes to online education and the incorporation of experiential learning, a big part of learning is to motivate students to try out various things themselves that they can learn from the course. We need to make sure we have the required information in our online courses that can help students take their first action step and explore further on the basis of things they can learn from our courses. We need to support them and guide them in this phase of experimentation.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

“Done is better than perfect. Everyone is doing the best they can”.

It is more of a daily mantra for Lindsay. It helps her get going in her business and she knows the end result may not always be perfect but she needs to keep moving in her life, to strive for better outcomes no matter what. This also helps her to be compassionate with others because she believes people around her, in their limited capacity, try to do things in the best possible manner.

How can we connect with you?

Her website:



Aug 2, 2018

Karen Salmansohn is known for creating a new breed of highly graphic and feisty self-help books — like her best sellers How To Be Happy, DammitPrince Harming SyndromeInstant Happy and The Bounce Back Book — self-help books that she   describes as being for "people who would never be caught dead reading self-help books" She has sold over 1 million books. Her research-backed happiness tools have been featured on CNN, Oprah, Psychology Today, The Today Show, etc – and will empower you to live a live of love! Recently she launched an inspirational jewelry line on Her jewelry line is a combination of her passion for design and short inspirational sayings to pick you up.  In this episode we talk about how she transitioned her career in advertising to becoming an author and entrepreneur, the value of doing things differently/thinking outside the traditional route, how to manage worrying and so much more.

How did you get into the jewelry business?

Karen says she is a writer who loves to design. Karen loves to play with words as she is a writer and she loves to merge words with design. Karen has worked in ad-agencies in past and she knows how only a few words can be made so powerful with a good and illustrative design. Karen says it was not that far of a leap from designing books that had short powerful word combination to designing jewelry which had short powerful word combination.

How did you get onto this path of writing books?

Karen says she started off as a funny writer who loved psychology. As a kid, Karen used to read magazines such as psychology today and mad magazine. She took a lot of jokes from these magazines and added in her books. Karen loves to add humor in her writings and always likes to laugh about life. It has been a part of her personality from a very long time. The first book that she wrote was not about self-help, it was actually a novel with a touch of humor. Karen says when she started righting self-help books, most of the books already published were not funny or humorous to read. Karen herself felt embarrassed whenever she read a self-help book. She did not want anyone to see her reading a self-help book. When she decided to write such a book, she felt it should be written in a way that someone caught reading it shouldn’t feel embarrassed. She wanted to purposefully write self-help that feels funny and entertaining. She noticed there was a gap in the market. It is also how she naturally writes.

How did you get started in writing self-help books?

Karen always loved psychology and philosophy. She loved playing with words and pictures. Karen’s major was in psychology and was a philosophy minor. She found herself a job in an advertising agency because she felt that is where she had to be. She thought she could merge psychology and her love for writing and design, all in her job. She felt it would be satisfying for her. However, Karen did not like this job and felt she was selling her soul. She felt she needed to write more. She started to write her first novel. Even after writing a bunch of novels and publishing them, Karen still found herself reading psychology and philosophy. It was still her guilty pleasure. It was always a part of her personality. One day she went to a buy a wedding gift for her friend. She wanted to get something special and unique. She came across this book titled ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’. She loved the design on the cover of the book and felt like giving it as a gift to her friend. However, she was not sure of giving the book to her friend before reading it herself. She got herself a copy and read the book. She was greatly moved after reading the book. She became so obsessed with it and would talk about it all the time. That is what got her to write her first self-help book titled ‘How to be Happy, Dammit’ which became an instant best-seller.

What stood out the most to you in that book?

It was a Buddhist book. Karen never came across a book in which so many aspects were put together in a coherent manner. It talked about Buddhism, psychology, and neuroscience in a concise and well-organized manner.

Did you face any initial rejections when you started to write books?

Her first published book was a novel. She sent the book out on a Friday with a beach towel and a bottle of suntan lotion to the publishers. She did it to stand out and told the editors the book would make good beach reading. She got an offer next Wednesday for this novel. To get a contract for her first novel, she really did not face rejections of any kind and was lucky enough to publish it without any major hindrance.

Can you give some tips on anxiety, depression and pursuing one’s dreams?

Karen writes a lot about anxiety. She wrote a book titled ‘The Bounce Back Book’ In which she talks about resiliency and how people can bounce back from tough times. She also launched a course on her new video learning site ( for the anxiety cure. She wrote the bounce book because she had gone through sexual assault. It was a very challenging time for Karen. She started to stress a lot after that incident and gained weight.

What action step would you suggest to someone wanting to turn their passion into a pay check?

Karen herself was in a job she did not like. She thinks we need to believe in ourselves. Find out how other people are doing the work that you do, see if there is something different you can do to turn your work into your passion. Karen also suggests one needs to have a concrete plan because following your passion without a plan can be a problem. Karen started to freelance when she had a job in advertising. She knew she wanted to write but also wanted to make sure money would not be a problem when she would start writing her novel.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she has been given has been passed down to generations in her family. Her grandmother used to say this to her mother who in turn would say the following words to Karen “If you keep doing what you are always doing, you will keep getting what you are always getting”. It simply means if you want different results in your life, you need to do something different.

How can we connect with you?


Jul 26, 2018

Chris Winfield is known as the "The Super Connector" and has worked with entrepreneurs, authors and people from many of the world’s best known companies, including Disney, Virgin, Macy’s, Viacom, Conde Nast, Intuit & NBC to help them get more publicity, make connections and give their messaging something I call, the 'Unfair Advantage Effect'. It's what happens when your 'Unique Position', plugs into a 'Mass Audience' and leverages 'Media Credibility'... these three qualities create your 'Unfair Advantage and turn you into a Trusted Authority in your market. Which only makes it easier and easier to work your way up the 'Power & Impact' food chain. Once the acceleration starts, the momentum just continues to multiply. Not only has he helped his private clients in my New York Agency, but he’s personally been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NBC's Today Show, USA Today, Fast Company, Forbes, and hundreds of other media outlets. He’s the Editor-at-Large for Arianna Huffington's ThriveGlobal, a columnist for TIME, Business Insider, INC. and the host of a show for Entrepreneur Magazine.

Were you a shy kid growing up?

Chris was not shy at all. He had a lot of friends right from his childhood. He does a lot of work around networking and meeting people but he still has an anxiety or a feeling of not belonging to a particular group. Chris says his ultimate goal is to remove that anxiety and feeling of not belonging to a group within himself and from the people he works with.

Do you agree that anything new is a little bit anxiety provoking?

Chris truly believes that whenever human beings undergo something new or different, they are bound to experience anxiety. There is also a scientific explanation to that. The amygdala of our brain which is also called the lizard brain wants us to stay safe. It resists change and Chris feels that is where the anxiety comes from. However, he thinks it is completely natural to feel that way whenever we are about to do or experience something new. What really matters is what we do in response to this feeling of unease. How we respond to it and what action do we take to deal with our anxiety really matters.

What was your most recent breakdown breakthrough moment?

The most recent major event was about almost six years ago. This happened when a company that Chris had co-founded completely imploded. Every bad thing you can imagine seemed to happen back then. Chris says throughout his life he had been able to succeed in his professional life through building connections and networking with people. He started to think more in terms of himself rather than the people around him, even his family. He shares this incident when his company was almost near to its bankruptcy and inevitable closure. Chris recalls he was on an important call and back then every call seemed very important. Chris was so busy on the call that he even ignored his three-year-old daughter when she came to her asking for something to eat. Chris only realized this when he saw his daughter take something out of the refrigerator and prepare her meal on her own. Chris says he had been so much involved and occupied in this call that he even ignored the single most important person in his life; his daughter. He hung up the call, sat down and realized he had to change everything in his life. He did not know what that meant and how he could do it. It started off with some very small changes. One of the things he realized was that he had become very disconnected with people around him and very focused on what he could get.

Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? What does spirituality mean to you?

Chris definitely thinks he is a spiritual person. For him, spirituality means having a strong relationship with the higher power. For him, it is God. When he remembers God, he realizes he is not the one who is running everything and that is really comforting for him. A lot of times, we are not in control of a lot of things and to rely on some external omnipotent entity can be really soothing. He believes in free will and he believes that the better his actions would be, better would be the outcome. However, at the end of the day, it comes down to his relationship with God because Chris believes you cannot control the outcome of everything in your life.

What inspires you to improve your life and the life of others around you?

The feeling he gets when he is able to help someone realize the fuller idea of themselves or enabling them to see their full potential is a great source of inspiration for Chris. When Chris talks about connecting people, it means connecting them to other great people or to their full potential.

You have this coaching program in your business named ‘Unfair Advantage’, what is it about?

Unfair Advantage came from a small mastermind group that Chris was a part of. The group is called the ‘dad mastermind’ and it consists of famous entrepreneurs like Todd Herman, Jonathan Fields, Ryan Lee, and more. Chris attends this meeting every 45 days. It was in last March when the participants asked Chris to do what he does best. Chris had no idea what they were talking about. They said they describe Chris as their unfair advantage because he is always able to connect them with the right people for media, or partnerships or clients or a contractor, whatever they need it, he finds a way for them through his connections. Chris thought about it for a while and realized he had been doing this excessively for the past five years. In this program, Chris helps entrepreneurs get the right kind of publicity for their business. Through his vast connections and extremely good networking skills, Chris helps young entrepreneurs showcase their services and helps them publicize their businesses.

What do you do to be more open and resilient to challenges and difficulties?

Chris spends a lot of time on himself. He works one-on-one with an energy healer. He does a lot of journaling as well. He tries to take every advantage that he can take. Anything that he feels can be helpful for his self-improvement, Chris makes sure to make the most out of it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice that he has ever been given came from his mentor. He introduced Chris to gratitude. He asked Chris to text him three things Chris was grateful for every day. He once said to Chris “You have a responsibility to be a better person”. It is so unbelievably simple to follow this advice. Chris starts each day of his life to become a better version of himself by the end of the day. Chris says the easiest way to improve yourself is to help someone else become a better version of themselves. This would eventually help you become a better person.

How can we connect with you?




Jul 19, 2018

At the beginning of the year I set an intention that I wanted to learn how to sing and some of that was because I wanted to explore accessing my voice more getting in touch with speaking from my voice and really feeling the energy of my voice and hoping that Wanda will help me get over some of my fear of public speaking but also just released some blocks around really speaking my voice and in the beginning of the year I had somebody that was assisting me on getting me on podcasts. And so she had reached out to somebody for me to be interviewed on her podcast. And so then she interviewed me on her podcast her name is Ariane and she actually is a voice coach. So at the end of the podcast, I told her what my goal was and I hired her to become my voice coach so we would talk every about every week sometimes twice a month. We would do singing lessons and so we built this relationship and then I interviewed her on my podcast for episode number ninety one which was claiming your voice the power of your voice and in the podcast, she said something that stood out to me and she was talking about the Avatar course.

I became curious about it. I had heard her talk about it several times but then she said a couple of things on the interview that stood out to me. At the end of the interview, I asked her about the Avatar course -- in which she told me she would talk to me about the Avatar course and we set up a time to talk about it. I knew that I would benefit from this course but had a lot of resistance around going to the course. I mean leaving my family going by myself. I just felt resistant to it. But at the same time, I felt like this calling like I knew that it would help me. And I knew that it would bust through some of my blocks that I felt like I had been experiencing. And you know she told me that the course was July. At this time, it was the end of June and I thought "I can't make it happen that quickly." It was too much of a mind shift for me to just be like "Alright I'm going to leave." But then we talked about a couple of things. She said, "You know your evolvement will help your family will help your son." And that really resonated with me. So I said to my husband, "I need to go on this trip. It's these dates." He said, "Okay." I booked my trip and I was ready I was ready to go but I was still feeling a little fear and resistance around it.

Three weeks later I get on the plane fly out of Florida and I get there. It was different from any other personal development or self-development course I had ever been to. There were people from all over the world. It was very unfamiliar. There weren't a lot of people who were my age (I'm 37). So a lot of people were either older and there actually were kids there that were doing this work too. And I had really had no idea what to expect. So you know I signed up I got the books and I started doing the workbook. And then you get assigned to a one-on-one mentor. I didn't know I would get one-on-one attention like that.

Essentially what we did was we really dove into our blueprint what beliefs have we formed what ideas do we have about our identity the world our self and just through asking questions through the question in the workbook and through different exercises just exploring what comes out right. And it was really profound. I mean the number of breakthroughs I had.

I don't think I've ever had that many breakthroughs in my life so much so that I started feeling unstable like I was feeling under rounded and they actually had to walk me through like a five-step process of getting more grounded through actually touching physical things like they had me pick up an object and hold it and describe what it felt like and then compare it to another object that I had picked up and describe what the difference between the two objects just so I could get more grounded and present in the room because once I kind of busted through my old belief system maybe feel really in balance and I guess I'll just tell you a little bit about a process that they took us through it I'm jumping way ahead to the work. But all breakthroughs begin with a breakthrough in belief. So it's like what beliefs are you operating from. And I consider myself somebody who's pretty introspective I guess. I do this work with clients so I ask myself these questions all the time and I could spew out my living beliefs pretty easily. Even the woman that was working with me was like wow this is this seems pretty easy for you. But the big difference for me was understanding the origin of the belief and I've done this before with clients and things like this but this was different because once we identified what a belief was we looked at it and we looked. Is this helpful or is this impeding? Now it is interesting because some beliefs like there is a belief I had that I'm fortunate. And while I thought that would be helpful I realized it was actually impeding. And the reason why is I was settling for things because I'd go Well I'm fortunate or at least I have this. And it was actually an impeding belief rather than a helpful belief. So if you can identify like okay like is this belief impeding or is this helpful. A lot of the beliefs we have.

They came from society our parents, teachers, maybe even the sports arena siblings culture religion and they were using the term in this course indoctrination meaning you didn't deliberately choose to have this belief this belief was kind of imposed on you in some way. So the next layer was to uncover. Was this something that was deliberate or was this indoctrinated. And so if we take my belief I'm fortunate I picked that up from someone along the way. It wasn't something that I think I intentionally chose. That's different from me but really choosing the belief. But I probably heard someone or somebody say along the way. Well, you should be lucky for what you have or you're very fortunate. And while that is true I was actually using it in a way that was impeding and therefore it wasn't deliberate. So the other piece is that if your attention is on these old beliefs or these beliefs that are impeding it robs some of your attention and if you don't have free attention then you don't have a choice. So a lot of the time we don't actually sit down and take out the trash that's in our mind. We just keep going. Imagine if you had a car and you never took it in the shop to get fixed. Like obviously that car wouldn't run well but also if you know were experiencing you know a bumpy path and you took it into the shop. The first thing one of the first things you would probably do is lift up the hood and a lot of time we don't investigate our beliefs or our thoughts or what the inner workings of our mind we just kind of keep going and we're not really taught this these skills in school and it's quite uncomfortable.

I mean I felt very uncomfortable because some of it is like it's surprising you don't even know what's going to come out sometime. But in the end it was so freeing. Afterward, I could literally feel a release and then I did feel like I had more free attention and then I can direct that attention towards what I want what I want to create. OK. So you might be thinking Anna all of this is great. You know some of it makes sense some of it might be a little bit confusing but like. Now what. What do I do? How can I identify what are some of these beliefs that are blocking me and part of my blueprint that isn't getting me the results that I want. And that's a great question because there is a process so essentially you know I used to think that that is true that your beliefs create your reality. But now I understand that it's an experience. Reality is an experience right. So like if you and I go to the same movie we each are going to have our own experience of that reality. So whatever your experience is is the reality that you're creating where does your experience come from? It doesn't come from the movie out there it comes from your own internal experience. So, if something is hard or let's say you're stuck in some area in your life whether it be health relationships your family a business your career. Look at that. The first question is what would I like to change?

So then you identify what you would like to change so if you have a moment I would say pause this and write down what is it that you would like to change. The next question is what belief might someone have in order to experience a let's say fear of talking to people that you don't know though if you have a moment pause this and write down the question and write down your answer the next question is how do you prove that this belief is true. So writing down like behaviors habits patterns tendencies that you do to prove this belief to be true. So I'm going to give you an example. This was an example taken from the workbook. It's called resurfacing techniques for exploring consciousness resurfacing by Harry Palmer.

So the guide asks, "What would you like to change?"

STUDENT: My fear of talking to people I don't know.

GUIDE: What belief might someone have in order to experience a fear of talking to people. He doesn't know.

STUDENT: People might say something bad.

GUIDE: How do you prove this belief to be true?

STUDENT I've got examples. I've seen it happen. I've done it.

(keep going until there is a breakthrough)

GUIDE: What other belief might someone have. In order to experience a fear of talking to people he doesn't know?

STUDENT: I might say something stupid.

GUIDE: How do you prove this belief is true?

STUDENT: I said something really stupid to my friend's wife.

GUIDE: What other belief might someone have in order to experience a fear of talking to people he doesn't know?

STUDENT: Don't talk to strangers. It's good advice for children. Aha. I just realized something. It's not because I don't know them that I don't talk to them it's because they don't know me. I'm the stranger. The belief is strangers are dangerous.


This is a beautiful process. That's the end of the process. But it doesn't always end there. But the idea is to keep asking the question about what belief might someone have in order to experience the fear. You can do this around comparison. You can do this around any area that you're stuck and then you want to ask yourself the question how do you prove that believed to be true and you keep going with it. Now I'm going to tell you another step that I've integrated on my own with this question is to almost all beliefs are motivated by three things they're either motivated by modeling someone like we saw somebody do it or we heard somebody do it. That was in our sphere most likely growing up that had an influence on us in some capacity. My mentor my mentor that was there told me a great story about this she said that when she was in her 20s she had this fear of birds and she couldn't figure out where it came from me you know and it was just like you know she was she had this fear of birds and she said and then one day she went back to her hometown.

She lived on her own at the time so she went back and visited her mother and she saw that her mother was afraid of birds and she realized oh that belief wasn't mine. It was my mom's and because she was able to understand that that belief wasn't hers. She could let it go. Another motivation behind forming beliefs is resistance so there's resistance behind some behavior. So let's say your mom was super unorganized and then you became like a neat freak. So you're kind of do the opposite or obedience like somebody said like you know you should grow up and get a 9 to 5 job and you just like follow the rules. So identifying where the motivation of that belief began. So that's a step that I've been adding to the equation it is part of the process but this is a really big process but I just wanted to give you a snapshot and share a little bit about some breakthroughs that I had with the intention of hoping that you can get use out of this and if you have any questions you can always reach out to me.

If you want to set up a complimentary coaching call to learn more about this process and how I can help you go to

Jul 12, 2018

Jillian Turecki is a relationship expert, yoga teacher and public speaker who for 18 years, has been studying the art and science of fulfillment. Under the masterful guidance of Anthony Robbins, Jillian is certified by the Robbins Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention known for employing innovative strategic solutions to the most pervasive difficult problems. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity about what makes a relationship thrive, her mission is to help both singles and couples strengthen their relationship with themselves so that they ultimately transform their relationships with others. Jillian is expertly trained in working with the individual, couples, and families, and is sought out for her compassionate, direct, and very authentic style of coaching and teaching.

Our entire experience of life boils down to relationship. From the intimacy we crave with a partner to the success we achieve through our work. None of it is possible without understanding our own psychology and the psychology of those we relate to. We never learned this at school, but it is learnable. To be able to communicate masterfully, that is, to transcend our insecurities, hurt and reactivity is a skill essential to our personal fulfillment.”

What do you think is most important in a relationship?

If we talk about an intimate relationship, there are a lot of things that are very important to maintain a healthy relationship. The most important part would be respected. It is very difficult to be in a relationship if you do not have respect for yourself. If you do not respect your partner in a relationship, it is impossible to have any sort of intimacy.

What do you have to say about self-respect? How can someone disrespect themselves?
Self-respect is about honoring where you are and also giving yourself a little push to move forward and grow. Self-respect starts by respecting yourself first. Many times we start disrespecting ourselves through our thoughts that we have about ourselves and doubts e have about ourselves. Most of us indulge in destructive self-talks, addictions or bad habits which actually implies disrespecting ourselves. Every individual needs to decide what self-respect means to them since these standards can vary from person to person. For some people, self-respect might mean saying no to more things and for others, it might mean saying yes to more things. It all depends on how you are living your life and what you need.

How closely do you think respect is to settle down in a relationship?

It varies from person to person. You should always ask yourself what respect means to you and share it with your partner. You have to share that with yourself. Jillian thinks it is very important that people have an honest conversation with themselves when they are disrespected by their partner and share it with their partners. If you feel perpetually disrespected, you need to look deep into it. Make sure you stand up for yourself and make sure to show the other person to respect you as an individual. It is very important to have a conversation with your partner about self-respect if you feel disrespected in a relationship.

How can someone build their self-esteem again if they have been in a toxic relationship in past?

If you have low self-esteem regardless of the fact that you are in a relationship or single, you need to work your self-esteem very quickly. It is very difficult to build any sort of intimacy in a relationship if you have low self-esteem. If you are single and you are searching for a partner thinking in the back of your mind that this person would help you boost your self-esteem, that is probably the biggest mistake you can ever commit. People around you can only help you grow, but it is down to you to improve your self-esteem. The fastest way to improve your self-esteem is to commit yourself to grow and to do things that make you feel alive.

How can we improve our communication in relationships?

All the rules that apply to real-world communication cannot be applied in a relationship. Communication rules in relationships are totally different. Jillian shares three ways to improve your communication to the next level in a relationship. They are the following:

  • Listen more than you speak. Listen to understand, rather than to reply.
  • To understand that you do not just communicate with words, you also communicate with your body.
  • To not always use the words “I feel” because it implies you are giving away a judgment on something.

If you are in an intimate relationship with someone, that person is definitely aware of your energy even if they do not think in terms of energy and cannot put it in words. Human beings can naturally feel other people’s joy and stress.

Can you talk a little about emotional fitness and how we can integrate it in relationships?

Emotional fitness is definitely not about not feeling your emotions. If you have a habit of stuffing your emotions, then you are emotionally not fit. Emotions do two things; they either move through us or get stuck in us somewhere in our bodies. All of us have some emotions that are stuck in us. Emotional fitness is not about being perfect rather it's about self-awareness. You have to be super-aware, you have to take action and you have to have insight in yourself.

There are two action steps that can be taken to become aware of yourself. It takes a little bit more effort on the inside and it involves writing down what makes you come alive, what makes you happy or excites you. Commit yourself to make space for that action or habit that gives you the freedom to explore yourself and gives you joy. The second thing that can be done to become emotionally fit is to begin your day by doing something that can help you reduce stress. You have to prepare yourself to deal with stress. Stress is more about how you respond to it and how you integrate it in your body.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she has been given was from her mom who often used to say to her to “pull up her socks” when Jillian was struggling through her life. It was more like a metaphor which meant to get her head together and move forward.

How can we connect with you?

You can connect with her through her website. Her website’s URL is

Jillian is planning to start a membership program for people who want to gain emotional fitness and deal with stress in way that does not effect their mental and emotional fitness. You can find more about the program through her website.

You can also follow her on Instagram through the following URL

Jillian recently launched Emotional Fitness Monthly, the first ever membership based plan 100% focused on teaching people just how to do this.

To learn more about how to join Emotional Fitness Monthly:

Her newest course, “Grit and Grace: Rehab for the Broken Hearted” is for a limited group of women going through an intense breakup/divorce. To apply for a phone consult, please email at

Jul 5, 2018

Where are you stuck? What’s holding you back?

We have all these reasons why we can’t do the things we can’t do what we want.

But what’s really holding us back is fear.

The number one thing that stops us is our fear. Now any time you're feeling stuck you can ask yourself What am I afraid of?

And you can keep asking yourself this question.

And when I ask clients this questions it usually boils down to fear of failure and if we fail that we won’t be loved...

I hear… I’m afraid of failing or being rejected (Which in some form is failing).. so we’re going to lump rejection into a form of failure…

And we’re afraid if we fail ….that it means were not good enough…and if we’re not good enough…we won’t be loved.

Fundamentally this is the thing that we all are afraid of. Every single human being has fear and experiences fear often. But how you manage it is what makes the difference in the results you create. Its what separates those who are being bold — taking action — and intentionally designing their life… from those who are living by default… making all types of decisions and choices from a place of what if it doesn’t work out…what if i fail.

So, if you're wondering why am I not doing that thing that I want to do… I know what I want to do but I”m not doing it… I know i want a new job but i’m not applying.. i know i want to be in a relationship but i’m not putting myself out there… i know i want my own business but i’m not starting it… i know i want these amazing clients but i’m not promoting myself…


If you want to know why your not doing something — why your stuck — it’s because there is some conscious or subconscious fear — …looking stupid..not being perfect…not getting the love or the approval we desire.

When I've asked clients what does it mean if you fail? There might be some type of loss…loss in money, loss in identity, loss in relationship…

But most of the time… if we simplify it — it means something didn’t work out the way we want it to.. or expected it to or imagined it would.

Let me say that again.. something didn’t work out the way you wanted it to or expected it to or imagined it.

DOES THAT MEAN YOU FAILED? ABSOLUTELY NOT. And this is where most people stop, quit or give up.

They try something — it doesn’t work out… and they say they failed… and they quit! AH.

Failure could be trying and it not working out or failure could be not trying right.

So let's just try to do stuff and if it doesn't work out you know if it doesn't work out right away like try again and try again the first time you walked you didn't stand up and just start walking. You fell down you stood up again fell down you stood up again. Right. This is part of the process right of. You expect it.

Expect some failure. Expect some rejection. And don't give it any meaning about you that there's something wrong with you or that you're not good enough.

  We're just we're just kind of self-loathing and creating this storyline of how limited we are — we we’re not…  if something doesn't work how does it mean that there was something wrong or we're not enough. Right? Just follow the logic.

We really need to investigate how or mind are working - and just see… how we are holding ourselves back.. instead of growing into embracing imperfections, stumbling along the way, and becoming more resilient, more confident, more interesting, more brave, and courageous.

Take those steps — send that email, make that phone call… in fact… i want to invite you to expect failure… don’t be so afraid of it… make friend with it… we have become so sensitive… you can handle if someone says NO to you…believe me.. you can handle it… LEARN

If you are learning… you are WINNING.

See how that lands if you say “I failed”  versus “this didn't work out.” It's a lot more gentle. And within that space of something not working out we can expand on that and ask what didn't work out? what can we do differently next time? and then we can then we can really access the learning opportunity. Right.

But if we use these really big overgeneralized words of failure or rejection. And when we use these really harsh words like I'm a failure or we begin to strengthen this idea or belief about ourselves that we’re not good enough and we actually want to go in a different direction we actually want to want to start to cultivate an understanding that we already are enough. We want to strengthen our potential of possibility …and what’s possible for us… to consciously create and design a life we love! 

Jun 28, 2018

Jessica Huie is an award-winning entrepreneur and recently wrote a book ‘Purpose: Find your truth and embrace your calling’. Jessica had a difficult childhood being expelled from school at 15, becoming pregnant at the age of seventeen. However, she managed to turn things around and landed herself an illustrious career in publicity where she managed to work with some of the world’s biggest stars. 

How did you manage to write a book about finding your truth and embracing your calling?

Jessica says there was nothing strategic about writing this book. She spent the last 20 years of her life being able to achieve success in her life. She went on to achieve one goal after the other. She was constantly thinking about new goals and aims in her life. The book was a complete detour of her past experiences. Her father was terminally ill and she was caring for him. It was the first thing in a very long time that she was able to free herself from the addiction of continuously working. For the first time, she was present and in the moment. She wanted to be there for her father. One night, at 3 in the morning while she was attending her father, she picked up a pen and started to write on the back of an envelope. She found herself in the stream of consciousness and those few sentences written on the back of the envelope later became the most important part of her book.

What did you write on the envelope?

It was an expression of what she was feeling at that time which was unlike anything she had experienced before in her life. She found new strength in her life that she never knew existed before. She was heartbroken but inspired in some way by this incredible love that emerged in despair due to her father’s terminal illness. She could think of many childhood memories she shared with her father and how her father had a great impact on her life and on her personality.

There was a moment where she sat holding her dad’s hand and she recalled an event from her childhood when she was seven years old. She had a friend in school who had a ‘pink shiny coat’. Jessica says her family did not have the money to buy that pink shiny coat. She was incredibly jealous of this coat. One day at school, she took her friend’s coat and dumped it in the toilet. The incident was traced back to her. One evening while Jessica was in her bed, the phone bell rang, her father picked up the phone and dashed in Jessica’s room after the call had finished. He asked Jessica to dress up quickly and told her they were going to that girl’s home to apologize for what Jessica had done to her coat. On their way to the girl’s home, her father lectured her on the importance of being honest, the importance of not envying anyone else and the importance of being accountable and responsible for our actions.

Do you think your greatest breakdowns are opportunities for greatest breakthroughs?

Jessica thinks everything happens for a reason. When we feel like everything is falling apart, most of the times these are the things that are not meant for us. There is always a lesson or an insight that we can take from those experiences. As human beings, we are stubborn and we try to hold on for what we think is right for us. Most of the time we stay on to it because it is comfortable to hold on to that position or job and also because it is frightening to venture into the unknown. Ultimately, it is down to us to live the same life and suffer or to muster up all the courage and design a new life that is meant for us.

What attributes connect you to your purpose?

Our values and what is meaningful to us connect us to our purpose. We step into the truth when we take into account our values, what we stand for, what is meaningful to us. We start to channel those values through our talent in order to be of service to the world. Since we are all wrapped up in this world, our purpose will always be linked to in who we can be for others.

What are some of your accomplishments that you feel proud of?

Jessica is proud of the fact that she managed to write a book (Purpose: Find your truth and embrace your calling.) that had a huge impact on all its readers. The other proud moment was when she took her daughter and parents to Buckingham Palace where she was rewarded by the Queen for her entrepreneurial services.

What do you think you did that helped you get rewarded by the Queen at Buckingham Palace?

Jessica thinks the award from the Queen was largely because of the multicultural greeting card business that she started 12 years ago. She was looking for a very specific greeting card for her daughter. While searching for the card she realized there were no cards in the market that represented the multicultural people that make up most of London’s and the country population. In that moment, she felt compelled to do something to change that and so she built a whole business around it. Jessica thinks that was the first time she responded to her inner calling.
Do you still run the greeting card company?

It is still running in a smaller capacity. Industry around greeting cards has changed drastically over the years. The introduction of digital cards has changed the space. The company is still running but Jessica herself is not much involved in that business anymore.

How can people know what ideas to follow?

The ideas that give you goosebumps are the ideas to be followed. They should move you and the ideas should be compelling.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she has been given is that in order to be successful we have to make ourselves vulnerable. This is not just confined to professional or financial success. It can also be related to love, happiness and fulfillment. Jessica has come to realize that everything we want requires vulnerability.
How can we connect with you?

You can find more about her work and her book through her website.
Her website’s URL is
You can also follow her on social media through the following links



Jun 21, 2018

Patricia Lohan is a coach, a healer, and a Feng Shui expert. Patricia is amazing at magnetic life by continuously clearing the baggage that holds you back. She’s seen first hand the power of your surroundings and how Your inner world (your mindset/history) completely affects your outer world (environment) and vice versa… so when you work on both simultaneously, you’re set to achieve great things! Her aim in life is to bring her knowledge and positive power across the world, showing people they can achieve anything they want with the right mental attitude and tried and tested techniques.

What does Feng Shui mean?

Feng Shui originates from an ancient tradition that aims at creating homes and workplace that is for good health and harvest. Feng Shui is about creating powerful environments that can help bring about change in life. The environment that we surround ourselves with has a deep impact on our personality and on our performance in life.

Why do you think creating powerful environments is important?

The environment that you live in and surround yourself with can actually be a reason for stopping you achieve success in your life. When Patricia talks about creating a powerful environment, she talks about creating a magnetic environment for what it is you want. Patricia says she has come across many clients in her practice who have been on the path of self-discovery and personal development but they still feel stuck in their lives. She has been able to help them by transforming their environment and aligning it with their personality and needs.

How can we better organize our space and improve our environment?

The first thing is to make sure we have organized our space well. Patricia says general day to day things that you have been using lately but are not put in their right place are not a mess. However, you need to look out for things that you have been holding on to for quite some time but they have no use in your life other than the fact that they are connected to some event or you have an emotional connection with them. Patricia once had a female client who had been divorced for fifteen years but was still holding on to her wedding dress. She approached Patricia because she had long been trying to get in a relationship but all in vain. Patricia asked her to get rid of her wedding dress and within two days, she found herself a date and went out with the guy.

How do you set up an environment at your home that is actually magnetic?

Start with your front door. It is the place from where energy comes in. Try to figure out if your front door looks inviting. Does it have a number to make your door easily distinguishable? Does your door have a welcome mat? Make sure your front door is easy to open as well. Feng Shui has a lot of things about symbolism and struggle. If your front door is a struggle to open, it could mean that you are undergoing some sort of struggle or stress in your life. The next thing to put your attention is on the first thing you see after you open your front door. Does seeing it make you feel happy to be back home? Does your energy rise or fall every time you enter your home?

How do you identify the prosperity area in Feng Shui practice?

There are two different schools of Feng Shui. The one Patricia practice is called the classical flying stars school. They use a compass to find the prosperity area. The southeast part of your apartment, home or your office is your prosperity area. It could be a corner of a room, center of a living room or any other part of your home or office. Once you find that area, make sure to fill in your prosperity area with things that give you joy and fill you up with happiness and positive energy.

Were you always neat and organized?

Patricia thinks she is still not the most organized person especially in comparison with her husband who is extremely organized in all aspects of his life. The biggest shift for her was when she moved into her apartment in Dublin when she decided she would not move out of this apartment until she meets her soulmate and decided to make her bedroom her sanctuary. She thinks it was the best decision she ever made because it started her on this track of really looking after her stuff and also made her love her bedroom so much that whenever she would enter in her bedroom, she would feel happy.

What is one thing that is essential to make a magnetic environment in terms of prosperity and profit? 

In terms of prosperity and profit, first, you need to find your prosperity area and make sure everything is properly organized in that space. Have a look at your kitchen as well as it is also linked to prosperity. Make sure that cooking utensils are clean, organized and well kept.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice that she has ever been given is to be persistent in life. She got this advice from her father. Patricia started her business on her own and initially, it was just about being perseverant.

What were you doing before you started your business as a coach?

She was in a family business of hospitality for seven years. She left it, moved to India to become a yoga teacher. She learned about Feng Shui in India and that is when she had her spiritual awakening. Patricia describes it as a scary transition of moving to Dublin and starting her new business around coaching and inculcating Feng Shui with it.

What advice would you give to someone seeking spiritual awakening?

Just keep following the whispers. Patricia had no idea why she decided to quit her family business and go to India to become a yoga teacher. However, when she got there she felt like being at home. She followed those whispers and that led the way for her spiritual awakening. Try to tap into your inner intuition and try to believe in your gut feelings.

life coach nyc

How can we connect with you?

You can find more information about her work through her website. Her website’s URL is
You can also follow her on Facebook and Instagram.



Jun 14, 2018

Ariane Leanza Heinz is a private vocal consultant. She believes your voice is as unique as your fingerprints and has the potential to be clearly heard when exposed to the right training. We are using our voices every day of our lives, and still, there is no class in school that teaches us how to efficiently use it. She starts with breathing techniques —aligning your spine and ribcage with minimal effort, she will bring you to the recognition of your own inner breathing system, which is directly linked to the nervous system and affects our ability to publicly present or speak. Ariane guides people of all professions: professors, singers, TV anchors, Ted Talk speakers/// and many more to discover their voice, gain confidence and presence. Her goal is for each person to optimize their breathing and get voice clarity — for their message to reach the heart of their audience.

Why is it so hard to access the depth of our voice?

Most of us have put up a layer around ourselves. We try to exhibit identities that are not linked to our true self. This prohibits us to access our inner spiritual voice. We try to think and act in a certain way resulting in a deviation from our true self. These actions are obstacles in our way to access the depth of our voice. We try to mold our personalities with certain expectations from our parents, teachers, society and even ourselves. These are expectations not aligned with who we are. It throws us off the grid.

How do you help people train for TED Talks?

Most of the speakers who are preparing for a TED talk present their content to Ariane. Ariane works on the content of the talk. She helps them focus on habits and actions that these people always do when they are in public but are not aligned with their personalities. Sometimes it is as simple as pointing it out to her clients and they can easily get rid of it. Sometimes, it involves working more with her clients to make sure they get rid of certain actions and habits when they are in public. Most of the people who give TED Talks are highly intelligent individuals and they have the ability to grasp a lot of information and to go along with all instructions in a very short span of time.lif

Can you share a story of an individual who you trained for a TED talk?

There was a client who had so much energy and was so much enthusiasm that he wanted to convince everybody with his thoughts. Anything he would say, it suggested the same monotonous tone where he was trying to convince people with his ideas. Ariane told him to calm down a bit and it is not necessary to convince everybody in every phrase. Ariane looked at the entire content of his talk and at all the intentions he had in each part of his talk.

How do you work on someone’s voice and help them in a situation where they are afraid of addressing something or speaking up?

When we are afraid of something we have our gazelle brain coming in. By a ‘gazelle brain’, Ariane means it's like a gazelle meeting a lion who now has to run away to save its life. Similarly, we try to avoid or get away from a situation where we are afraid to speak. The brain does not comprehend the difference between a danger or a situation where we are nervous. Ariane employs ‘The Silent Number’ system in her program to deal with such situations. It helps you reset your nervous system. She had a client who was struggling to find a job and was always nervous during the interviews. After only a few months of coaching by Ariane, she was able to secure a job.

How did you manage to regain confidence in your life and help others struggling with confidence?

Ariane was born in Geneva and received her formal education in Geneva. After completing her graduation, she got a job as a teacher involving music and art. Ariane shortly started to feel she wanted to do more in her life. She was looking for something more challenging. As a result, she got an opportunity to teach a senior class than what she was already teaching. However, soon she realized she wanted to be a performer rather than a teacher. She started to write her own songs and decided to move to New York to actually perform. She moved to New York on a student visa to study further. She lived in New York for 10 years. During her time in New York, Ariane wrote a lot of songs but always had trouble performing on stage in front of a live audience. That is when she came across the avatar course that helped her do inside out work and regain confidence. Avatar course is about consciousness work, going to the deep root of our patterns and changing them. She did it and was able to change her life. This was also the year she married her husband with whom she had been in a relationship for past five years but could not commit because of those patterns.

Can you share with us a deep-rooted pattern that you worked on?

She never knew why she wasn’t able to commit fully to her relationship. In her workshops in the avatar course, Ariane discovered that the reason she wasn’t able to commit to her relationship was that she never wanted to be like her mother who was just a housewife and did not manage to build up a professional career. She believed if she got married she would not be able to excel in her professional career.

Can you briefly explain what the avatar course is?

It is a nine-day course and puts you in power of your life. You learn tools to create your life and also to destroy the patterns that limit you to live your life to its true potential. You have nine procedures that you can do on yourself once you are done with the course. One of Ariane’s friend was able to stop smoking within 15 minutes through the methods used in this course.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice that she has been given is to never think that the truth that she knows or believes in is actually the real truth. There is always something to explore.

How can we connect with you?

You can find more about her work through her website. Her website’s URL is

Jun 7, 2018

Laney Schwartz is a food blogger and creator of Life is But a Dish. Before she ventured into the blogging world, she was an elementary school teacher. She has built a career harnessing her two favorite things, TEACHING and FOOD. Her goal is for you to have confidence in the kitchen and to create a place for you to find easy, approachable recipes to use in your everyday cooking. Behind every recipe, photo and blog post is her – just an everyday mom, home cook and girl who’s obsessed with food.

When and how did you start your blog?

She launched her blog in October 2014, however, she had been planning to start her blog long before that. Before starting her blog, she was an elementary teacher and taught kids in 1st  and 2nd grade. One day while at work she came across a food blog and was impressed by the woman who was running the blog. Laney almost couldn’t believe that the blog owner was actually able to earn money by sharing pictures and recipes of her foods. She wanted to do the same for herself i.e. run a food blog. There are two things in life that Laney really loves doing. Those are cooking and teaching. She knew if she could start her own blog, she could do her two most favorite things in one and therefore started planning for her blog.

Did you always love cooking?

She has always loved eating and she has always loved food. She grew up in a family of great cooks. Her mother and grandmothers were cooks. In her childhood and school days, she never really got to cook because she was surrounded by cooks who always prepared the food for her. Laney didn’t cook until she got to high school because that is when there was no one around to cook for her. During this time, she discovered she really enjoyed and loved cooking.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Laney believes she gets most of her inspiration from people who are in the same business as her. She has met many food bloggers through Instagram and Facebook. She follows them on regular basis. Laney also credits her audience. She feels she has a very engaging audience and whenever someone from her audience shares a picture of food that was prepared by following Laney’s recipe, that is itself a source of inspiration for Laney.

How many followers do you have on Instagram?

She has about 27k followers on Instagram. It took her almost four years to build the audience.

How do you make money from your blog?

There are many different ways through which you can earn money from a blog. Laney’s main source of income in blogging is through brand partnerships. She works directly with brands. She uses products of certain brands in her food and shares the recipe on Facebook, Instagram and in return, she gets money from these brands. Initially, Laney was open to all sorts of offers from all brands at minimal returns. After four years in the food blogging and being able to establish herself as a successful blogger, she now has the independence to choose the brands she wants to work with.

Other ways to earn money from a blog are to put advertisements on your blog and that generates income based on how many people click on those ads through your website.

What are some of the best practical tips that can be applied in the kitchen?

When you are cooking, something that can be really overwhelming is when you are not comfortable to try something new and only feel comfortable in cooking by following a recipe. If you want to cook some food by following a recipe, always make sure to go through the entire recipe before going to the grocery store. This is because you will know beforehand what to do with all the items once they are bought from the grocery store. Many times you start following a recipe, you are halfway through the process of cooking and you see a recipe step where you were supposed to prepare a certain food item beforehand e.g. put something in the refrigerator overnight. You didn’t expect this to be on the list, you didn’t prepare for it and you start to freak out. Knowing what to expect before starting to cook can help avoid these problems and you can only know what to expect if you read the recipe from start to finish before you start cooking.

Always try to stay as organized as possible when you are cooking. Try to keep a big bowl right next to your cutting board so you can put the waste material in it. This will help you avoid creating a mess in the kitchen and make it comfortable for you to cook your food.

What is your most popular recipe?

Her most popular recipe is Turkey Meatloaf.


Just start. There is no perfect time for starting a business. You need to be consistent in your business as well. You also need to come up with a concrete and practical approach to generate concrete on your blog. Laney believes starting a blog can be a bit overwhelming especially if you set unrealistic targets. It is always fine to start with less; you can always add more later in your business. The most important thing is to stay authentic and you will always find the right audience for your blog who will like you for your work. If you try to follow other people, it may result in a burnout in long run.

What's your ultimate goal? 

Laney’s ultimate goal is to write a cookbook. Recently, Laney has been presented with an opportunity of writing a cookbook but she believes it is still too soon to dive in this venture. As of this moment, her main focus is to grow her business and attract a larger audience to her work.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
There are many ups and downs in the life of an entrepreneur which can sometimes be demotivating and heart wrenching. The best advice she has been given is to never quit regardless of the constant failure and dejection that an entrepreneur can come across. You need to believe in yourself and in the services that you provide as an entrepreneur.

How can we connect with you?


You can also connect with Laney through the following social media platforms.





May 31, 2018

Kathleen is passionate about Conscious Connected Breathwork therapy and knows first-hand the energy, healing, peace, and joy it creates in one’s life.  As a certified and insured Breathwork Coach, she has worked with many masters in the field of Conscious Connected Breathwork therapy. For over 10 years, Kathleen has used her Breath coaching and intuitive skills to support individuals in clearly identifying their areas in need of growth, healing and focused goal creation.  

When did the idea of breathwork entered in your life?

She thinks breath had been calling her for a very long time because for the majority of her life Kathleen was extremely unsatisfied. She was seeking from a long time and she just did not feel good. She always tried to wore a smile, hung out with friends and family, went to parties but never felt sufficient in her life. She started to take personal development classes, workshops, going to different churches, reading different books but she still felt something was missing in her life. She did not enjoy her job either. She eventually ended up in Maryland at Innver Vision Institute for Spiritual Development (IVISD) with Iyanla Vanzant and that is when she felt her life started to change for better.

You mention you had a great childhood so how and when did you start to feel unhappy and unsatisfied in your life?

Kathleen recalls events from her childhood when she was as young as nine years old. She shares this particular story where she was upstairs at her home along with her sisters. She remembers she wanted to be involved in this particular event, to take action for herself and for her sisters. She heard her mother whimpering from downstairs and begging her father not beat her mother. As a child, it was difficult for Kathleen to process all of it. She knew her mother needed help but as a child, she could not do much about it. At that point, she felt it was her responsibility to protect her mother and do whatever she could do to keep the peace. She was always vivacious and outgoing but at that point, all she could think of was about her mother, her sisters and herself. Her mother divorced her father and at that point, the thought of being insecure had already taken its place in Kathleen’s mind. These events had a traumatic impact on Kathleen’s personality as a child. She grew up feeling unworthy, and undeserving.

Do you still speak with your father?

Her father passed a long time ago but Kathleen made peace with him before he passed away. She did a lot of breathwork to make peace with her father and was willing to forgive him. She wanted a vibrant and a thriving life for herself and felt it was only possible if she had the courage to forgive her father and move on in her life.

Why do you think breath plays an important role to gain confidence and clarity in life?

Breath helps us release cortisol which is basically stress. We as human beings are continuously bombarded by our surroundings; our senses are constantly active by the things that surround us. Most of us are almost always in fight or flight mood and that can result in excess accumulation of adrenaline in one’s body. If your body is flowing continuously with adrenaline, you are going to get adrenaline fatigue. You are likely to suffer from headache, high blood pressure, unease in the body and overweight. Breathing helps deal with stress causing hormones (cortisol) and also increases the count of endorphins, a group of hormones attributed with happiness and satisfaction.

Can we integrate breathwork with words and convert to stories related to things that arise?

Although as subtle as it is, breath can stir the emotions. In her personal and professional opinion, Kathleen believes sometimes our emotions are triggered in breathwork because we are resistant to expressing our emotions otherwise. Breathwork can be integrated with words to make the healing process easier and gaining deeper consciousness and clarity.

How did you build your business around breathwork?

The life of an entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted people. One needs to be mentally strong to start their business no matter the services they provide. She worked with various coaches while building up her business from scratch. She still works with them on daily basis. She has got a business coach, a life coach, and a breath coach. Kathleen believes we all need support whether we are entrepreneurs or not. She believes she has been able to build up her business due to a lot of breathwork with her breath coach.

Are their different breathwork exercises for different types of healing?

She may ask her client to do a certain breathwork involving a specific area of the body. Lately, she has been doing breathwork around solar plexus. She does breathwork where she asks her client to inhale the color yellow and exhale the color yellow into every single cell of their body. Sometimes, she feels her client is resisting in a session and then asks her client to change the rhythm of their breath.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

She read the following line in a book “Above all else I would like to see things differently.” When she repeats this to herself, it brings her peace and so that is why she thinks it is the best advice she ever came across. She also shares the advice given by her mother who once said to her that “God is always with you” and that also brings her peace.

How can we connect with you?

May 24, 2018

Tamar Daniel is an award-winning fashion designer with 15 years of global experience working with top fashion companies. She loves marrying her passion for helping women further their careers with making luxe clothing that builds confidence. Tamar started out designing for Topshop and moved to Philadelphia for a position with Anthropologie. In 2015 Tamar founded her company TUXE. Her brand has been worn by top celebrates such as Meghan Markle. TUXE has been featured in The Oprah Magazine, Vanity Fair, and many more. Tamar lives with her husband and four kids on the main line and is always looking for a female entrepreneur poker game. 

How did you come up with the idea of combining coaching with fashion?

It came about in two ways. Tamar learned that most of her customers brought a certain product because they had a very specific end use in their mind. Most of them bought a certain product just to boost up their confidence psychologically for a certain event.

The second event that led to the idea of combing coaching with fashion happened when Tamar engaged a coach. It was a new thing for her and she was not used to of it. She really liked the whole process of coaching helpful and actionable. She thought she could be of great help to her customers if she could combine coaching with fashion and that is how she came up with this idea.

What makes your product unique?

When Tamar was thinking of starting a bodysuit company, she really did not know if it was a sensible idea. To get around her confusion and doubt, she conducted several focus groups where her aim was to learn about the popularity of bodysuits among women. She gathered all the information related to bodysuits, how most of the bodysuits were only comfortable in first wear and the ways through which bodysuits could be improved in their production to provide a better overall experience to the consumer. She got to work with her factories to engine the product in a smarter and thoughtful way making her product unique.

How did you get Meghan Markle to wear TUXE?

Tamar built a relationship with her fashion stylist.

Did you have any business before you started your brand TUXE?

She started a sketchpad business in 2011. Tamar has always been good at fashion sketching. Sketchpad is a book filled with 420 figure templates in 20 different fashion-forward poses. Tamar came up with this idea to help aspiring fashion designers who love to sketch clothes but do not have the skills or the patience to draw proportional figures. She still owns the business but with some shares of a Californian publishing company.

What was it like growing up in London and Israel and then coming to the States?

Tamar has lived in different parts of the world and she believes she is comfortable living almost anywhere. She is able to adjust quickly to her surroundings. She easily adapts herself to different people, weather, and culture.

Did you always want to be a designer?

Tamar spent most of her Sundays at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London where they have an amazing permanent display of fashion throughout the ages. She felt at home whenever she was there. She started sketching from a very young age. She did not know anyone who did what she loved doing and it's hard to be something you don’t see anyone doing. She thinks as soon as she could put words to what she did, she wanted to be that i.e. a designer.

What was it like when you started your business?

Tamar had been working at an Anthropologie for quite some time. After giving birth to her fourth child, she decided it was time to quit big corporations and start her own line of work. She started with the sketchpad business but it was over for her because she got it licensed for a publishing company in California. She decided to start her own line of clothing. Tamar believes she did not prepare herself well before starting her business. This cost her a lot of time and money in the initial phases. In her first year, she invested a lot of money in her business with almost no returns. Tamar had realized she needed to change her approach towards her business.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Tamar gets inspired by people building businesses especially women. She likes to read a lot of business publications, blogs, and articles. She follows people who are in a leadership position who has done something unprecedented and who are not making excuses to grow continuously in their lives and business and inspire others.

What has been something that you have been really proud of?

Tamar became a surrogate mother for a child and that is something she has really been proud of doing in her life. She is still connected with the child’s mother.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with the listeners of this podcast?

Tamar talks about being relentless in life. Sometimes, in life its all about being consistent and perseverant. Tamar loves the word relentless as it is symbolic of continuous hard work and not giving up no matter how hard it gets.

How can we connect with you?

You can connect with her through her email. Her email address is
You can also follow her on LinkedIn. Her LinkedIn profile’s URL is

You can also know more about her brand and products through her website. Her website’s URL is

May 17, 2018

Stephanie Jiroch holds an MA in Media Psychology, has ghostwritten for some of Hay House’s top authors and is the co-author of the Amazon best-selling book Before You Quit Writing, Read This! She is a life-long lover of words, Stephanie helps entrepreneurs, start-ups and small to mid-size enterprises reach larger audiences, gain raving fans and attain financial success through the art of storytelling. After spending years in the traditional marketing industry she quickly realized that brands with ordinary stories were far too common. Tired of the same old marketing tactics and selling strategies, Stephanie’s passion is helping companies stand-out from the crowd through psychology-driven brand strategy and story creation.

What is the biggest thing you have been able to conquer?

Stefanie always had a problem in opening up with people. She was not able to connect with anyone on an emotional level. She found it hard to accept love and was reluctant in sharing this emotion with anyone. It was only after she managed to connect with people, she met her husband whom she has been married to for past five years. The reason she had this idea around love and to be in a relationship with a man stems from the fact that Stefanie never had a relationship with her father. She had no brothers or sisters. Her mom passed away in 2003 and she had no immediate family member in her life. Those were difficult days for Stefanie as she was close to her mother. After her mother passed away, her whole world flipped upside down. Stefanie developed this fear of losing people and hurting herself in the process, therefore she decided not to open up herself to people. She was only 21 at that time.

How did you manage to reopen yourself to love?

She had a boyfriend in high school and Stefanie was still in a relationship with him during her time in college. She was even briefly engaged to her boyfriend. However, she felt she was never in love with him. She felt like there was no real connection and had to call off things between her and her boyfriend. After her breakup, Stefanie did not stop dating people but she never managed to get things past the first date. She had almost isolated herself and never wanted to get connected with someone on a deeper level. Stefanie says just like every other love story, the one involving Stefanie and her husband did not make a lot of sense either. She was traveling throughout Europe and was taking a two-week vacation. She was in Paris for one day and managed to arrive a bit earlier than planned. She was looking for directions on her phone to get free Wi-Fi. That is when she met her husband who approached Stefanie and gave her directions. Stefanie spent the rest of her time in Paris with him, getting to know more about the city and about her future husband. He showed her all the famous places in Paris within 48 hours. Stefanie was back in America when her husband asked her to move to Paris with him and explore their relationship. He was willing to send her a one-way ticket to Paris. Stefanie had not made her mind at that moment and it took her a week to arrive at her decision. She finally agreed and moved to Paris and to this day believes her husband won her over in every possible manner. She has been with her husband for almost six years now. She is a mother of two daughters and thinks only after becoming a mother she realized what true love is.

What was your career like before your mother passed away?

She was pursuing a career in law. Before her mother’s demise, she had a complete plan set for herself to become a professional lawyer and studied accordingly in high school. She decided not to pursue a career as a lawyer after her mother passed away. She went into yoga teacher training instead and started teaching yoga. She had always been into yoga and was an important healing component for her when her grandmother passed away. She had an undergraduate degree in psychology and journalism and so she decided to go in psychology, marriage, and family therapy etc. She started a program in San Francisco at CIIS. She had completed two semesters when she felt a lack of interest in the program. She did not like the fact that as psychologist we need to diagnose. She felt it was limiting. She left the program and started a coaching certificate program. This was way back in 2009.

She was working primarily with women around sexual health, sexual empowerment and was also conducting workshops related to yoga. She also managed to work as a copy-writer and ghostwriter simultaneously. She was making extra money doing this work. She also got hired as an assistant to one of the best selling author in New York City. She was ghost-writing for this person and was also working as a Virtual Assistant(VA) for him. It was easy money for her Stefanie and she no longer had to be in the same place to do her work. She stopped teaching yoga, she stopped taking coaching clients and went full time into doing VA work.

How do you help somebody with the art of storytelling? What are some key questions we should ask ourselves to extract a story?

Her company BrandPsyche Strategies, mostly help women entrepreneurs and startups. Stefanie finds their brand story and shares it with the world. She focuses on finding their purpose and also makes room for profit. She does not like the idea of women quitting as entrepreneurs and going back to a job although some of them have good and lucrative business ideas. She helps them build stories that are able to attract their ideal customers.

One of the things you always want to do when starting out is to look for your competitors. What cause are you championing and who is on the other side of it? It does not have to noble or something big, it could be about some small issue that you plan to tackle. Make sure you are up against something, make sure that through the services or products you intend to provide, you can bring about a change in someone’s life no matter how small it is.

What are the seven mental triggers that boost website sales and increases audience?

There are really some amazing things that we can do to make our stories stand out. Seven things are social validation, reciprocity, scarcity, variety, personas, similarity, and stories. It helps our unconscious brain make decisions in split seconds as to whether or not, as a user, should we return to the social media page/feed or a website. Stefanie in her work helps brand owners deal with their clients by focusing on these areas.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

“It is okay to slow down.” Stefanie believes she has always had a hard time being patient in her life. She wants to get things done as soon as possible. She believes sometimes it is okay to be proactive in life but at times you need to slow down your pace and approaching things with ease. The problem with most of us is that we think we are in a race with other human beings. But the reality is, we all have our own races, we are not running any race with anyone except yourself.
How can we connect with you?

You can find more about her through her website. Her website’s URL is

You can also find her on twitter. Her twitter handle is

May 10, 2018

Abel Costa is on a mission to uplift global consciousness one person at a time. Abel holds a BS in Cognitive Science from the State University of New York at Empire College. He is a Licensed Massage Therapist in the State of New York and is registered as a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist.

As an expert in the healing arts, he studied Polarity Therapy, Reiki, Body Mind Centering and Theta Healing to name a few. His 20-year meditation practice has led him to study all forms of meditation from Non-Duality and mentored in neuroscience with Zoran Jasapovic to Vedic Meditation with Thom Knowles.

As a therapist with 17-years experience, Abel understands how to support the working professional providing the tools to integrate their lives and to facilitate change at an optimum pace in an evolving world.


Abel was born in the Philippines and spent his childhood with his step-father who was in the military. Abel moved around a lot from one place to another. His father was from Hawaii and so Abel visited Hawaii numerous times during his childhood. He always loved Hawaii and later moved to Hawaii.

What was your childhood like?

For many years only his close friends had an idea of his uproots. Abel thinks he is a sort of a person, who does not make many close friends, but the ones he has, they are like family to him. He is comfortable in sharing his feelings, beliefs, and likes/dislikes with them. Abel developed his interest in music, theatre, and dance as a way of channeling some of the pain, using movement and music as a way to focus. One of the things Abel got into when he became a therapist is called biodynamic craniosacral therapy. Abel deals with feelings and emotions that cannot be put into words. Most of these feelings and emotions are held in our body, in our psyche that we are not aware of. However, it influences our everyday life, our perceptions, and our decision-making process. Abel believes his childhood was influenced by such feelings and emotions which could not be put into words. He lived in a family that didn’t talk much. There was never any talk about Abel’s real father.

How did you get on a path to healing?

Abel believes it chose him. It was a slow gradual process. When he was young, he was obsessed with dancing and playing the piano. He was just 18 when he got into a ballet company where he was trained rigorously. When he got to New York City by the time he was 19, he heard about a person called Bonnie Cohen who is the founder of Body-Mind Centering school. Abel took a lot of yoga classes in New York and the best teachers he had studied with this woman. His best dance teachers studied with this woman. Bonnie Cohen teaches people to be embodied in their body on a cellular level. Through this woman’s work and through Body-Mind Centering school, he got on a path to healing.

Can you talk a little about mirror neurons?

Mirror neurons were discovered in the 80’s. Researchers conducted studies involving monkeys who were made to imitate humans washing dishes. The end result was that the dishes washed by humans were clean but those by monkeys were not clean although the monkeys were made to copy each step of humans. This is because monkeys were able to replicate the actions performed by humans but could not interpret the underlying intention of washing a dish. Mirror neurons help human beings learn through actions of other human beings and also help them learn the underlying intention of every action.

Has dance been a part of your meditation?

Abel believes it was an integral part of his meditation. He believes dance allowed him to be in his body. For Abel, being in this world was a painful experience as a child. Dance allowed him to feel his body in a three-dimensional space. Abel credits this to his teacher who went an extra mile for all of her students in her teachings. Eventually, Abel was drawn to Body-Mind Center school led by Bonnie Cohen. Abel thinks that was the foundation of the healing process for him. He was able to learn about different healing modalities through this school. He spent a whole decade learning and exploring different healing modalities. It was not just bodywork, it was everything including theta healing, learning to access his own intuition and do readings like a psyche person.

What is Feldenkrais method of meditation?

Feldenkrais method of meditation aims to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through an individual’s body movement. However, the movement is very minute and slow. You look at the whole body skeleton and structure.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Some time in past Abel moved to New York where he started a project with a co-founder. It is called the inner-peace project. Abel was having issues moving back to New York after being away from the city. New York is now a hub for meditation schools and coaches. You can come across numerous coaches who are just into their practice and already claiming to be best at their work. And then there was Abel, who had been in this business for almost two decades but felt uneasy starting his work in New York. Her advice to Able was to “just do you” which actually meant that Abel should just focus on his own work and put in practice his vast experience to help him through his work.

How can we connect with you?

You can connect with Abel through his website. His website’s URL is


May 3, 2018

Cindy Cornell, a leadership and executive coach, came to coaching after an accomplished career in business where she was known for being highly motivated with a strong results orientation. In addition to and perhaps more importantly than helping her coaching clients to achieve measurable results, she helps her clients to lead happier lives. She holds the Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coach Federation and is certified in both Executive and Life Coaching by Results Coaching Systems and New York University. A lifelong learner herself, Cindy is an adjunct member of the coaching faculty at NYU. She is also an accomplished trainer and professional speaker, creating customized content that leaves audiences in productive action.

Can you talk a little bit about the power of language?

How we show up to anything is how we show up to everything. When she is in a conversation with people, she is much attuned to the language they use. We put ourselves down very often in regular conversations by not accepting compliments from people that are generously given to us or putting a limiting belief out there that may have been true for us at some point in our life but does not hold true for other people in their circumstances. We hang on to those ideas and those beliefs. The more we think about them, the truer they become in our mind. Cindy in her coaching helps people come out of stuckness and through curiosity help them towards the path of awareness.

How was your experience coaching Anna Goldstein?

It was a joy for her to coach Anna. She believes her job as a coach is not to be the expert in anyone’s life rather helps people find their own wisdom through language and a set of questions. Cindy says it was great to watch Anna in her early days because she was committed to her ways of thinking and had the ability to judge herself justly and harshly. Cindy believes Anna allowed herself to grow through awareness and explored her interests to bring in what she wanted in her life.

Can you tell what a mind map is?

The idea of a mind map is that of a freeform. Get a clear piece of paper, get some colored markers and put an idea in the center of the paper. If you are starting off with a particular challenge or a goal that you want to achieve, write that in the center of the paper. After that, create branches from that idea and it will start to look like a spider or even a tree with roots. Each branch might mean an action step and could have smaller sub-branches associated with it. Mindmap allows you to make better decisions in your life and allow your mind to see things from a different perspective.

How can you relate coaching with neuroscience?

One of the things Cindy loves about coaching is that it has really evolved in the last few decades. It has come from so many other disciplines like philosophy, psychology, and adult learning theories. There really are so many different influences on coaching. The contemporary neuroscience is particularly interesting for Cindy because it allows us to see physically and chemically in the brain how we create new habits and what is actually happening in our mind. Cindy in her training helps her clients believe that they can train their brain just like we can train our bodies.

What are some of your favorite questions as a coach?

One of her favorite questions is a follow-up question and it is simply “what else?” You might come up with an idea or two. Cindy in her coaching encourages people to explore different ideas.

Her second favorite question that she often asks in her coaching process is “What does wild success look like?”

Third most commonly asked question in her coaching is “What was useful about our meeting today?” She usually asks this question at the end of her session with her clients.

How did you get into coaching?

Her background before becoming a coach was in business. Cindy had an undergrad degree in accounting, had her MBA in finance & marketing. She was actively involved in finance, operations, and international business for a couple of decades before becoming a coach. Cindy had to go back to school to train and become a professional and a certified coach.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The most synced piece of advice that she has been given is to “always begin as you would like to proceed, to start as you’d like to continue”. Keep in your mind what your end game looks like and create a space for yourself that is going to help you achieve your end goal. If you want to have a challenging conversation with someone, you don’t have it from a place of angst or accusation, rather from a place of mutual respect and shared vision. You need to bring in that energy with yourself and other people will match with it. If they are not in the same space as you, you wait and hold until they ready to do that.

How can we connect with you?

You can find more about Cindy through her website. Her website’s URL is

You can also follow her on LinkedIn through the following URL

Apr 26, 2018

This is one of my favorite topics because I had an experience when I was 17 years old that changed my life forever. I think it’s one of the reasons why I do what I do. But, when I was about 9 years old it was the first time that I had ever gone to a tennis camp and I hit a ball and the coach was said, “Whoa whoa! Do that again!” And I did it again. After the first day of camp, he called my mom and told her you to have a tennis player in your hands and that I should start playing tournaments. So like any good mother would do, she enrolled me in my first tournament a couple of months later after I had practiced and took some lessons. And I played in my first tournament which was a Round Robin, which basically means you play everybody in the tournament.

Well, I lost every single match. And an umpire that was there went up to my mom (my mom was getting a lot of advice at this time) and she said, “You know your daughter is really good she has a lot of talent but she needs to improve her mental game.”

And so that was my intro to this idea that there was more than just skill at play here. That performance isn’t just about what you’re good at. There’s also a mental component that’s really strong.

Fast forward several years later, and I started playing more tournaments. The more tournament’s I played, the better I got at winning and doing well. But I still struggled with the mental game for several years.You see I would sometimes win easily and other times it was a struggle for me (even against a player I knew I could beat). Despite my challenges, I ended up being ranked number 7 in the mid-Atlantic.

And then when I was a senior in high school I was in the Maryland State Tennis Championships (that’s where I grew up, I was seeded number two which basically meant that I was supposed to come in second place. But I knew deep down inside that I could win this tournament. And so I started working with a Sports Psychologist to help me with the mental game. And one of the things that she taught me was visualization.

I would go meet with her at her house, and I would sit on her couch, and she would guide me through a visualization —  I would see myself on the court playing in these matches for the Maryland State Tennis Championships. I would picture myself, I would feel like I was there, I would I had a certain mantra that I would tell myself and repeat to myself to help keep me focused. I also had this anchoring technique where anytime I got distracted, I would come back and just fix my strings a little bit.

I did this mental rehearsal so much that when I actually went to the tournament it was like my body already knew what to do and I won that entire tournament in a breeze! It was like my brain my body had been there so much in my mind that I didn’t even have to think I was in a total flow state. Just no real thinking required. I was just able to let go and just be present and focused. It was the easiest tournament I had ever played. It was amazing and that experience just was so powerful for me because I really got to taste that visualization works.

Then many years after that, I forgot about visualization. Once I entered the working world, I hit the pavement and hit the ground running. I wasn’t really doing any visualization. And then when I hit a point in my career where things just weren’t working out for me. I had ten jobs in six years s– from 22 to 28 I had literally had ten jobs. I came back to the basics and asked myself, “What do you want?”  I started to visualize what success would look like for me my life and my business. And part of what that vision included was me working for myself.

I wasn’t in a relationship at the time but I wanted to be in a relationship and I knew that one day I wanted to have kids. I wanted to have the freedom and flexibility to be able to spend time with my kid while I still worked. I wanted to do something also that was helping people making a meaningful impact. I wanted to have my own coaching business. And before I went to bed at night I would picture it. I did vision boards. I wrote about it. And now I can honestly say that in many ways I’m living my vision.

It’s not hokey pokey. There have been studies on athletes. There’s a story about basketball players who there are two groups of basketball players. One group actually practice throwing free throws and the other group just visualized. Who do you think did better? The group that just visualized did better because they never saw themselves miss a shot. So they were able to have this level of confidence in themselves. To give you some more science behind it the central nervous system doesn’t distinguish between real and imagined events. I mean this is true about fear too right. Look sometimes we have fear in our mind and we think that it’s real but it’s really not.

That’s why it’s so important to direct your attention towards what it is that you want and create a mental picture and rehearse it because what will happen is the mental imagery impacts what you actually do. Right. So part of where we the brain that controls imagery its part of the cognitive functioning. And so the brain is actually getting trained for performance and it really enhances motivation confidence and it primes your brain for success.

You can use visualization for your career,  interviews, a conversation, relationships, every area of your life.  This is a very very powerful tool.

I’ve included a 10 minute guided success visualization. I would love for you to do it and I would love to hear from you.

Sit back relax and visualize success.


Apr 19, 2018

Yanik Silver redefines how business is played in the 21st century at the intersection of more profits, more fun, and more impact. He is the founder of Maverick1000, a private, invitation-only global network of top entrepreneurs and industry leaders with participating icons such as Sir Richard Branson, Tony Hawk, Chris Blackwell, Tim Ferriss, and many others.This group periodically assembles for breakthrough retreats, rejuvenating experiences, and charitable impact opportunities — raising over $3M+. Yanik serves on the Constellation board for Virgin Unite, the entrepreneurial foundation of the Virgin Group and Branson family. And his lifetime goal is to connect visionary leaders and game changers to catalyze business models and new ideas for solving 100 of the world’s most impactful issues by the year 2100. In this episode we talk about how Yanik got started as an entrepreneur, knowing yourself is key to living your purpose, how to connect with influential leaders, creating a compelling vision, and more. 

What got you started on your entrepreneurial journey?

Yanik’s parents were Russian immigrants who moved to the USA when Yanik was still a kid. Yanik’s father started his own business sooner than later after moving to USA and Yanik grew up working in the family business. Entrepreneurship was something he inherited from his father. Through his father’s business, Yanik developed many skills that shaped his career as an entrepreneur and helped him in launching his own products.

How did you start Maverick 1000? What is it about?

When Yanik worked with his father in his business, he learned about copywriting, advertising and many other things. He took all those skills and applied online. His first successful online venture was called instance sales letter. He managed to create an online presence by creating rich and customizable sales letter templates for people who were trying to sell their products. His business was going good in terms of money and profit but Yanik was not completely satisfied with his work. He looked at where he was in his life and asked himself a simple question “Am I happy?” The answer to that was a simple no. He was making a lot of money and he was helping a lot of people through his work. He enabled a lot of people to create presence and reputation in the online world. But he felt as if something was missing from his life.

This set him up on a new journey and through a lot of research and journaling, Yanik realized he was the happiest when he hung out with other entrepreneurs who shared the same interest as him. This activity of his turned into an idea and that idea turned into Maverick. Maverick 1000 is an initiative to form a society of great entrepreneurs who can collaborate and bring together a revolution in this world. Yanik believes that if one entrepreneur can bring about a major difference in a large group of people, then a thousand entrepreneurs can change the whole world.

What advice would you have for someone trying to align their work with some purpose?

It takes a lot of good self-reflection. Daily journaling can help you clear your mind and find purpose in work. It is scientifically proven that daily journaling makes us happier and help us gain more insight about ourselves and with what is going on with our lives.

How have you been able to establish great relations with business entrepreneurs and leaders of the tech industry?

He thinks he is incredibly blessed to have these intriguing people in his life. He believes he has always been able to bridge the gap between people and connect with them regardless of their conflicting interests. However, Yanik believes if you really want to connect with someone on a deeper level and with authenticity, then look out for mutual interests, beliefs, and motives.

Do you think being an entrepreneur helps establish such connections?

It helps in all sorts of ways. Yanik himself enjoys writing and he knows a lot of people have been able to connect with him through his books, writing and blog posts. If you have your own platform as an entrepreneur, you can connect with all sorts of people through your work. He shares the story of one of his friend, Ryan Holiday who wrote a book titled ‘The Obstacle Is the Way’. Ryan is a craftsman at his work and takes his writing seriously. Ryan managed to meet a senator just through his book. A certain senator read his book, loved its content and invited Ryan for a lunch with him. Yanik believes that as an entrepreneur, one should always try to come up with something that has a lot of value.

You mention in your book titled ‘Evolved Enterprise’ that one has to be exceptionally different. Why do you think this is so important?

Yanik has always been taught that if you need to be extraordinary in your life, you need to do things that ordinary people are not willing to do. You need to get out of your comfort zone. Yanik believes there is too much of mediocre majority around us. If you expect to leave an impact in this world through your work, prepare your self to be exceptionally different and learn to live without mediocrity.

Who has made the biggest impact on you and why?

Yanik thinks he is naturally a person who focuses a lot on future prospects and considers himself a visionary. There have been two people in his life who have helped him on these aspects in his life. The first one is Ari Weinzweig who is the founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. The second person is his friend Cameron Herold who is the author of the book ‘Vivid Vision’. Cameron talks about one’s own intuition and vision in the book. Yanik himself believes a lot in vision and believes that an individual has to look out for potential opportunities, clients, and customers as an entrepreneur.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

If you want to become an expert in any field, you read or study one hour a day for three years. If you want to become a world-class expert, you study one hour a day for five years. Continuously follow where your interests are and work on your interests. Make sure you spend your time daily to improve yourself in a particular skill.
How can we connect with you?

You can find more about Yanik via his website. His website’s URL is


Apr 12, 2018

Hillary Hendershott is the founder and chief advisor at Hilary Hendershott financial. She is a financial coach, money mindset expert, and experienced wealth manager. She has worked for nearly 15 years with people who want to preserve their wealth, make it grow, and eliminate financial stress once and for all. She is also the host of Profit Boss Radio, a podcast that highlights inspiring women who have created success in their financial and professional life.

When was the moment in your life when you decided to get hold over your relationship with money?

There were a few of those moments when Hilary felt that way. She was working in a commission only position during the mortgage crisis. She had a very low income during that period. She had some initial successes and gained some big commissions. She had built up huge expenses. She had already bought a condo but did not have enough money to buy furniture for it. She owned a BMW but was almost out of gas and did not have enough money even in her credit cards to fuel up her car’s tank. Her bank accounts were empty and her credit cards were maxed out. She had got herself in massive amounts of debts. This was when she decided to change her lifestyle and get hold over her irrational behavior with money.

Hilary graduated from college with a degree in economics and that too with the highest distinction. She was a certified financial coach.

What was the first action step you took to gain control over your wealth?

The first thing she did was to move out of the condo and into her mother’s guest room. She rented out her condo. She started to look for new jobs. She found a job as a financial advisor in her father’s firm. She got honest with people about her financial troubles. Hilary stopped going out on parties with people because she knew she could not pay for it and felt no hesitation in telling it to people.

What are a few things you figured out in your life to achieve financial stability?

Hilary had some mixed up mindset about money. Her mother was a frugal woman and would only spend money on important things. She had set up her priorities early in her life. Hilary was never given enough money by her mother to buy presents for her friends or to attend parties. Hilary developed a scarcity mindset. She grew up with this belief that there was never enough money to do things in life and also with a contradictory belief that buying expensive things would help her gain approval from people around her. She used to believe that being rich meant spending money. She only realized it after she got broke that being rich is about keeping money and using it wisely. She lowered her overhead expenses and found new ways to increase her income.

Are there key questions that can help people gain insight into what their money psychology is?

Hilary has a survey questionnaire pdf workbook on her website. Its called ‘mind over money’. It contains questions like what is it you believe is true about money? It asks you to look into your experiences with money. Is it easy to earn money for you or is it hard? Do you spend a lot of time at work just to earn more money? Do you believe working more can help you earn money? By answering these questions, an individual can gain insight to what their money psychology is.

Who are your major clients?

Her website says ‘wealth management for empowered women’. She almost exclusively works with women and especially women are in later years of their lives. Most of them are approaching their retirements or are executives in the workplace. She has had such type of clients from a very long time.

Hilary once had a millionaire client who had no idea about using a debit card. She used to write herself a cheque every time she needed money from the bank. The problem with most financial advisors is that they do not seem interested enough to work with you if you do not have a lot of money in your bank account. From a financial advisor perspective, it is perfectly fine to decline a client who does not have a big bank balance because you want to maximize your profits as well as an advisor.

To tackle this situation, Hilary has recently developed a new program called ‘ignite investing’ for people who do not have a lot of money in their bank accounts. It took her almost a year to launch this program. In this program, she aims to work with people who are willing to invest as low as $25000. She aims to serve these people adequately and efficiently through this program.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Being rich is not about how much you get to spend, it's about how much you get to keep. This quote has enabled Hilary to change her life and the lives of so many people around her.

How can we connect with you?

You can find her through her website. Her website’s URL is

She also hosts a podcast show every Tuesday where she conducts interviews of various people and talks about aspects of financial planning, bitcoins, social security, and interest rate hikes.

Apr 5, 2018

Robyn Youkilis, a certified wellness expert, author of the best-selling book Go with Your Gut, and leading authority on gut health and weight loss.  Robyn’s new book which we talk about on this episode, Thin From Within - The Go with Your Gut Way to Lose Weight is part coaching guide and part cookbook, with 75 delicious recipes, to help readers optimize their digestion and shed weight from the inside out. Robyn teaches you how to feel comfortable, confident and energized in their bodies, and how stubborn weight can melt away when they learn to tune into their gut. Robyn has been featured on Today Show, The Cooking Channel, CBS News, and many more media outlets.

Can you talk a little about your book? What is it about?

Her aim of writing book was to make people passionate about making changes in their lives. She wanted people to have a conversation around the word ‘thin’ in a new way. She aims to promote self-love through her book. She has not used the word ‘thin’ in reference to a body type but because we have just developed an ideal with the word ‘thin’. She wanted to connect with women who were still chasing this ideal consciously or sub-consciously. She does not talk about weight in terms of the number on a scale but more of what it is an individual is chasing. According to Robyn, a desire to lose weight means we want something different in our bodies and something different in our lives. She talks about meal preparation and food recipes in the book that can help you lose weight.

Can you tell us about the benefits of fermented foods?

Fermented foods are typically raw and have some pro-biotic nature in them. Fermented foods are good for your microbiome. A microbiome is a bacterium that resides in and on your body. It is responsible for a number of body processes that help our body run and function properly.

What was one of your first jobs?

The first job she had was when she was in high school. She was a ski instructor and rock-climbing instructor. She also worked as a babysitter while in high school.

How did you get into health coaching?

Robyn says she did not follow traditional route to becoming a health coach. It was not something she wanted to do from her childhood. She was doing odd jobs before going into college and she was also interested in acting. She did musicals as a kid and loved theater as well. However, she opted for international law in college mainly because she always had an eye for atrocities and wanted to help people around the globe. Later, she worked for UN for some time and in local non-profits doing criminal court work. She eventually found her way to Los Angeles and did small acting gigs over there. She started to get into cooking and food. She came across this nutrition school, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition which is considered as the world’s largest nutrition school. She enrolled in one of their programs and graduated as a certified health coach. She opened up a health coaching practice after she graduated. It has been nine years and Robyn has not looked back.

Did you ever think you would write a book?

Robyn says she was never a good writer. She recalls her time in high school when her best friend used to help her in work that involved any sort of writing. Robyn says writing books was something that really happened on its own once she started to list down all the things she was offering to her clients in her programs.

How did you end up getting a book deal?

Alex Jamieson, a famous food chef and health counselor who also happens to be Robyn’s friend invited her to a conference. Alex introduced Robyn to a literary agent over there and told the agent about Robyn’s work. That agent helped Robyn create her proposals for different publishers. Robyn eventually got a book deal with a publisher through her agent and was able to publish both her books through the same publisher.

What failure later became a success in your work?

She was very hesitant in doing group coaching programs in the first five years of her practice. Initially, she tried group coaching programs but was not very successful in it as only one or two people would sign for it. She decided to drop this idea of group coaching and went solo coaching for the next few years. Eventually, she launched her first successful group coaching program Rockstar Roadmap, it was a huge success. It felt fun, she didn’t feel it was forced.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she was given was by Joshua Rosenthal who is the founder of The Institute of Integrative Nutrition who said: “Life is a long time”. It simply means that you don’t have to do all the things at the same time, you need to go slowly and steadily. You can do different things in different phases of your life.

Any final thoughts you would like to share with the audience? 

Robyn advises everyone to take a moment every day just to connect with themselves. Say something nice to yourself before going to bed or in the morning.

How can we connect with you?

You can find more about her work and her books through her website. Her website’s URL is

Mar 29, 2018

Pain is part of human life. It’s not to avoid it, but to go into it with a sense of openness and curiosity. If we do that when pain arises we can use it for positive self-transformation. Pain is a guidepost for introspection -- it’s ultimately an opportunity to awaken and learn.

Mar 22, 2018



Dani DiPirro is an author, blogger, and designer living in a suburb of Washington, DC. In 2009, she launched the website with the intention of sharing personal experiences and insights on positivity, awareness, and self-love — things that didn’t always come easy to her! Since the launch of the site, Positively Present has grown into a global, go-to destination for positive personal development inspiration and resources. In 2012, Dani left her full-time job to focus her attention on growing the brand. Since then, Dani has expanded the blog into many new ventures, including books, a YouTube channel, and online courses.

How did you come up with the name ‘Positively Present’?

She was going through a tough phase in her life. She was unhappy with her job and her relationships were in a mess. This was way back in 2009 and she did a little research online. She came across this website of self-help and they talked about listing down all the things you want or are missing from your life on a paper. Dani made a list of those things and was surprised by two specific things she found on that list. She mentioned in the list that she needed to be more positive in her life and wanted to be more present. She thinks she used to worry a lot back then and fill up her head with all the negative thoughts. She started her blog for the purpose of becoming more positive and more present in her life. That is how she came up with the name ‘Positively Present’ for her blog.

What were you doing at that time for work?

She had a marketing job in a biotech company and Dani felt her job lacked creativity. She likes to be creative in her work and she felt stuck in that job because she was not able to explore her creative abilities. It was her first job after graduate school. She did not quit her job right after she started her blog. She took her time and for a few years she would look at other people’s blogs who wrote about self-improvement, about being happy and present.

How hard was it to relate yourself to the blog and come out open in public?

It took her a little while to put out her name on the blog. The turning point was when she realized that visitors on her blog were increasing on daily basis and her content was being read consistently by the public. She felt accepted through her work, it helped her believe more in her work.

How did you manage to grow your audience?

Back when Dani started her blog, social media was nowhere around. She mainly promoted her blog by talking to people about it, sharing it with her friends who in turn would promote her blog. Ever since the evolution of social media, Dani has changed her ways of growing her audience. She uses Instagram on regular basis to connect with her followers and increase her visibility. When she started out, she was writing every day. Now she makes sure to write on Mondays and Fridays. Somewhere in 2010, she thought she could make a job out of it. She saw other people doing the same, who were able to launch their own products and create business opportunities out of their blogs. It took her a lot of time from a simple idea to be able to quit her job and rely solely on this work. She managed to save money before quitting her job.

How has your life changed as a result of Positively Present?

She believes almost everything has changed in her life since she started her entrepreneurial journey. She feels happy and content in her life. She loves her work and is passionate about it. Dani says she has also made a significant change in her relationships. She tries not to surround herself with people who have a negative influence in her life.

Did you at any point felt you could not change your life?

She felt that way prior to starting Positively Present. She was known as a very grumpy and gloomy kid among her friends. She would always analyze a situation to avoid any difficulties later on. She developed this thought as a kid that she was a very negative person. As a child, she felt she could not bring a positive impact in her life and take on challenges.

What was the first thing you changed about yourself?

The first thing she changed about herself was that she got sober. By being sober, she was not able to escape her feelings that she had been doing in her past. She started to accept the way she felt. She started to look at her relations that were based on real substance. From personal change, she was able to change her relationships and get more control over her life.

Tell us about your artwork and design.

She started out with writing blogs but later got into design and art work. She usually designs stuff for her website on her own rather than finding other people to do it for her. She has always been interested in art. It is one of the biggest part of her business now.

Do you think creativity is linked with happiness?

Dani strongly believes that happiness is linked with being creative and innovate in life. The word creativity feels limiting to people who do not consider themselves artistically creative. Creativity has nothing to do with art though. It could be linked to cooking, raising children or even how well you manage your job. There are all sorts of ways to be creative. It is all about thinking differently.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?

The best advice she has been given is to pay attention to her thoughts. If you really start to focus on your thoughts, you can filter out all the negative thoughts and make sure you get a positive outlook on life. Many times we occupy our brain with ridiculous thoughts that are not even true. We are influenced by some past events or personal stories/history.

How can we connect with you?


