Business Fit Magazine July 2020 Issue 1

Jul/Aug 2020

The

Who Needs

Pillars

of Self-Care for Women

Feng Shui Anyway?

Effective Communication in

Loving Relationships

www.businessfitmagazine.com

o c s a r r a C y Karr our society in y it r g e t in d of values an e c n a t r o p im Teaching the

S.H.E is an organization which functions at local, national and international levels to advance women in personal and business development. It focusses on equality for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and much more. Using SHE’s three pillars of Mindset, Body and Spirituality, we create business with amazing purpose aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the world.

Join the Ambassador program now and become a leader for Latinas in your community Connect with us. Together is Better info@hispanasemprendedoras.eu | +32 468 21 88 87 | +1 (281) 703-1135 (USA)

Dear Business Fit readers, We are experiencing hard times at the moment and since we are all involved in this unusual situation I have been thinking and sharing with my friends and colleagues thoughts about how we can rise up in during these very challenging times.

2020 has been an absolute year of uncertainty and chaos. Do you agree? But chaos pushes us to transform, to move forward or maybe to disappear.

Some years ago I was interviewing my dear friend, Ismael Cala, who is one of the most renowned life and human development strategists, he is also a bestselling author and international speaker. It was the first time that I heard the acronym VUCA, it stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

This is my understanding of the acronym nowadays: Volatile refers to the speed of change in an industry, market or the world in general.

Uncertainty is the extent to which we can confidently predict the future. The more uncertain the world is, the harder it is to predict.

Complexity signifies the number of factors we need to take into account, their variety and the relationship between them.

Ambiguity refers to the lack of clarity on how to interpret something when the information we receive is incomplete or not accurate.

Before it was more as a theory to me and now suddenly, we have to apply and live in it. I have come to an understanding that one of the ways of building a more secure world and being able to better face these many challenges, could be to prevent them from working in our connections with others.

To care about others, to grow in abundance, to create a world where we can all happily live based on education and love.

There is richness provided from mother nature so we should start working as a team, each of us creating holistic businesses without elevating our egos, it is time to connect with our souls on a deeper level. This situation has proven to us that we are all connected dear readers So I would say let’s start working on our values, how we collaborate to build goodness, how we expand our empathy towards others, why don’t we work on our loyalty for a bigger purpose?

This is one of the ways I have chosen dear Business Fit readers, lets RISE together.

VerĂłnica Sosa Publisher www.businessfitmagazine.com

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Spice it Up - p54 Food as Information Dr Gregory Damato

FIT FEATURES

Pashion Fasion - p8 Africa Fashion Week London Princess Ronke Ademiluyi

Resilience Begins with a C.O.A.C.H. State Barbara Dalle Pezze p12 How a Girl, a Homeless Man and a Mosaic changed me Danny Levin p24 Effective Communication in the Conscious Loving Relationship Part one Viola Edward p36

The Self Amita Chopra p6 Self Care Dr Anbreen SlamaChaudhry p58

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Karry Carrasco p28

Who Needs Feng Shui Anyway?

Dina Reznikova P46

Let´s CHECK IN on your Business Malish p14 Business Trends after Covid-19 Fatima Gorezi p20 Lights, Camera, Listen!

Jeff Lazarus p40

ServiceBased Female Entrepreneurs.

Success or Failure?

Iresha Tschunke p50

Publisher & Founder Verónica Sosa Business Fit International Advisory Board Viola Edward Vikki Thomas

REACH OUT For information on advertising or placing an article in Business Fit Contact us: Email: hello@businessfitmagazine.com editor@businessfitmagazine.com Phone: +32 468 218 887

Contributors Princess Ronke Ademiluyi Patricia Allen Dr Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry Amita Chopra Barbara Dalle Pezze Dr Gregory Damato Viola Edward Fatima Gorezi Jeff Lazarus Malish Dina Reznikova Vikki Thomas Iresha Tschunke General Editorial Coordinator Claire Morley Art and Design Director Leo Collier-Bett

The Angel of Innocence Vikki Thomas p18

Graphic Designer Adverts Javier Sanchez 3 Money Blunders Women Should Avoid Patricia Allen p34

Cover photograph by Olga Vallejo @Laparramadrid

Finance

Conversations in the Corner:

Copyright © 2020 by Verónica Sosa.

All rights reserved.

This Magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

M-20318-2017

5

Body

The

Self Doctor of Paediatrics, Raj Yoga teacher and meditator, Amita Rani Chopra, talks to us about the Pure Self and how meditation is the only way to reach it.

The Upanishads are ancient Sanskrit texts of India that are “spiritual teachings” gleaned from the most ancient text ever written, the Vedas.

The Upanishads expound on the ultimate nature of reality which was cognised within themselves by the sages and seers of yore, as the field of Pure Awareness, Pure Consciousness or Pure Self. They ventured to explore the self through meditation and then shared their revelations with us in a language we all can easily comprehend.

This took place over millennia, transmitted first orally and then written down.

Henry David Thoreau, who lived two centuries ago, very close to my present home, 30 minutes

outside of Boston in Concord, Massachusetts, writes of his Vedic readings: “what extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which described a loftier course through a purer stratum - free from particulars, simple, universal. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far summer stratum of sky… One wise sentence is worth the state of Massachusetts many times over.”

The purpose of life is to realise the divinity which already abides within us. We do this through meditation.

The all pervading divinity of the cosmos is Pure Awareness or the field of Pure Consciousness or Pure Existence. All that exists must arise from it.

This includes us and all sentient beings. As such

The universal self is the source from which all forces of nature arise

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we are a part of it, not separate from it. Indeed we exist because of it; we are much like the drop of the ocean that is a part of the ocean yet contains the essential nature of the entire ocean within it.

He who sees All beings in the Self And the Self in all beings No longer hides in fear.

The universal self is the source from which all forces of nature arise. By itself it is unmanifest, beyond intellect and beyond reason. It is the transcendental reality thus no words can describe or define it but being a part of it we can consciously cognise it within ourselves and gain direct experience of it.

For the man of wisdom, In whom all beings have become his own self, How can delusions, how can sorrow Befall that seer of oneness?

•

In this place neither the sun, the moon nor the stars shine.

• • • •

The self has no boundaries, it is all pervading; it is infinite.

It has no beginning and it has no end; it is timeless and eternal.

It was never born and it never dies; It is immortal.

It is changeless, the only constant, though constantly changing; it is immutable.

It is indestructible, weapon cannot cleave it, water cannot wet it, air cannot dry it and fire cannot burn it.

The cosmic self or the field of pure consciousness is often spoken of in various wisdom traditions as the Brahman, the Tao, the Spirit, the Divinity or God, if you will. This universal self is the ultimate source, the source of all knowledge and power, all creativity and all abundance. It is the abode of compassion, light and bliss. Indeed it is peace and it is love.

‘The great spoken words’ in the Vedic tradition are called the Mahavakyas (often used as mantras) describe the self as: 1. Tat Twam Asi - that you are 2. Aham Brahma Asmi - I am the Brahman 3. Aham Atma Brahma - This self is the Brahman 4. Pragyanam Brahma - Consciouseness is Brahman This is how Isha Upanishad describes the self: (Translation by Katz and Egenes)

The Katha Upanishad describes the light emanating from the self:

Neither is there any lightening here.

Wherefore this effulgence?

It is the light of the self that is reflected by all It is the light of the Self alone that makes it all shine.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad describes the self thus: Wholeness here and wholeness there Wholeness arises from wholeness Wholeness having emerged Wholeness alone remains.

Meditation is the only way to the Self. Meditation, to be effective, must necessarily be simple and easy. There are myriad ways to meditate but eventually all paths lead to the Self.

Meditation is awareness becoming aware of itself.

The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root YUK which means to yoke or to unite. The goal of meditation is to unite the individual self with the universal Self.

Meditation is awareness becoming aware of itself.

It is one, unmoving, swifter than the mind.

The senses cannot reach it. It darts ahead.

Standing still it outruns those who run.

Within it the breath of life supports all that stirs.

Maharishi Patanjali who wrote the original text book of yoga in 400 CE, defined meditation as “The progressive quieting of the mind till it reaches its source in pure silence.”

It moves and it moves not.

It is if far away and it is close by.

It is within all this.

It is outside all this.

If you would like to own the wisdom of the Self JUST MEDITATE.

Dr Amita was Chief Resident in Paediatrics at Boston City Hospital and then

practiced Paediatrics in the Greater Boston area and Cambridge for over thirty years. She attended at Mass General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center. She has been a meditator for the past forty years and has been teaching Raj Yoga based meditation for many years.

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Pashion Fashion

The Birth of

Africa

Fashion Week 8

In 2011, Princess Ronke Ademiluyi decided to start Africa Fashion Week, London inspired by the fact that there wasn’t a single platform in the UK and Europe that showcased African Designers, this is her story.

Princess Ronke Ademiluyi grew up in London in the 90’s when ready to wear contemporary African designs were impossible to find, unlike today when they are easily accessible everywhere.

In those days, the only way to get an African outfit was for someone from Africa to bring it to the UK. Strangely, there were many African designers based in Europe, but there was no platform for them to showcase their clothes.

So in 2011, Princess Ronke Ademiluyi set about organising an African Fashion Week in London.

Not an easy task, it was a major challenge trying to convince people that African prints would sell in London when African fashion had no global recognition. Adamant she would share the vibrancy of African fashion with the world, Ronke put a plan together and wrote to over 100 corporate organisations for support. Despite refusals from every one of them she set up a website, hired admin staff and engaged people on social media about the event and hoped for a miracle.

Three months before the event she realised that funding was not going to be forthcoming, so Ronke and her brother, co-founder of the event, took the risk of investing their own savings into hosting Africa Fashion Week, London. Working together they planned the show from start to finish, paying for the venue, hiring a show director and a technical producer. They carried out model castings to ensure they got the right models, booked a make-up team, a hair team, a styling team, backstage dressers and runners and fashion photographers.

Once that was all in place, media invitations were sent out, and designers were invited to participate without charge. The first Africa Fashion Week, London was hosted at Gibson Hall, Bishops Gate in the city of London. It featured 60 designers on the runway, 50 models and over 600 outfits on the catwalk, shown to an audience of 4500 over the two days of the show. And the question on everyone’s lips was - why hadn’t this been done years before? The show was a huge success and provided great networking opportunities for the emerging designers most of whom had never shown on a catwalk before.

Photo credit: Africa Fashion Week London and Joanna Mitroi.

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Pashion Fashion

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Although broke, Ronke began planning for the 2012 edition, again a huge success as it took place during the Olympics. This was the birth of many Africa Fashion Weeks in various continents and a revolution of African fashion began, global celebrities who had never been to Africa before started wearing designs made by African designers.

Due to the popularity of African fashion, luxury fashion brands started incorporating Africa in their designs, and below are some of those brands: •

Africa, the home of modern civilisation, is the inspiration for Louis Vuitton’s SpringSummer 2017 men’s collection.

•

The Burberry 2012 resort collection revealed they were drawing a lot of African inspiration into their pieces.

•

In 2014, Emilio Pucci, known to make use of patterns and vibrant colours, incorporated African beading into his designs, including beaded heels.

•

In 2015, Valentino showed its collection inspired by “wild, tribal Africa”.

•

In 2016 Christian Louboutin collaborated with Senegalese artists to launch the Africaba Tote Bag. Each handcrafted bag incorporated bold Ankara prints which originated in West Africa.

•

Africa, the home of modern civilisation, was the inspiration for Louis Vuitton’s SpringSummer 2017 men’s collection

•

In 2017, English fashion designer Stella McCartney used African Ankara prints in her spring 2018 runway show in Paris.

•

In 2018 for his spring collection, Marc Jacobs sent models, such as Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber, down the runway wearing head wraps which resembled those so inherent in the African culture.

Africa Fashion Week, London is now in its 10th year and is the largest global platform for emerging African designers. It has showcased over 1000 designers from Africa and its diaspora and have employed up to 500 models of different ethnic backgrounds on their catwalk.

Africa Fashion Week London has supported various charities over the years. This has included the QMA international, an initiative campaigning against trafficking and enslavement of young women, which Ronke is personally involved with as a global ambassador and in 2016, she set up a fund helping with the reintegration into society of young women who have been victims.

The first recipient of the fund was a 21-year old young lady who returned to Nigeria after being held as a domestic slave for two years, the fund enabled her to go to university from which she will graduates in 2021 and set up her own indigenous textile business.

Africa has 54 countries and over 3000 ethnic tribes it is a continent with rich fashion culture and at Africa Fashion Week, London we showcase brands telling the authentic African story and at the same time providing African designers with a platform to support their growth.

Luxury fashion brands started incorporating Africa in their designs

Princess Ronke Ademiluyi is a graduate of Law from Thames Valley

University in London. In 2011 she founded Africa Fashion Week London and is on a continuous mission to bring African fashion to the forefront of the global fashion world. In 2016 she was made the global and cultural ambassador of the Legacy of the Iconic Queen Moremi.

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Mindset & Emotion

Resilience Begins with a

C.O.A.C.H. State Our regular contributor, Barbara Dalle Pezze, talks to us about resilience and how we can move ourselves from a CRASH state to a COACH state, transforming this negative inner state into a positive and creative one

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Resilience is defined as the capacity to adapt positively to pressure, setbacks, challenges and change. It is a capacity which influences our ability to be at our best. It helps us thrive during times of extremely stressful circumstances, and it helps to turn disruptive changes into growth opportunities.

During this COVID time, we have witnessed a spread of worry, anxiety, instability. Our mental state is challenged, and it can be an obstacle in itself if we don’t take care of it.

Our mind has a natural tendency to get distracted and as research shows, “as the mind wanders… it easily gets trapped into patterns and negative thinking” (R. Hougaard , J.Carter and M. Mohan).

Especially in difficult times, the tendency to look at our reality through the lens of negative thinking increases, our mind is caught into a negative loop generating and increasing feelings of fear, anxiety, helplessness, and eventually hopelessness.

When this happens, we enter into a negative inner state, a “CRASH state” (R. Dilts & S. Gilligan) which robs us of the possibility of accessing resilience, a great resource we need to face challenging circumstances.

When we are in CRASH state we are contracted and tensed; we are emotionally reactive, and we lose our ability to respond to situations with calm and perspective; our mind is hooked into negative thinking and it is as if we are paralysed by our own thinking, which keeps analysing the situation in an attempt to control and solve it.

When we are in CRASH state we lose our ability to see the bigger picture and we retreat instead into a limited vision of what’s possible; we feel isolated, separated from others, and disconnected from our inner and outer resources; we feel we have the world on our shoulders and nobody is there to support us.

When we are in CRASH state, resilience is nowhere to be seen.

1) First, we want to drop out of our head and

centre into our body. By focusing on our body and paying attention to our breath we connect with a centre in our body where there is calm and compassion.

In so doing, we keep the mind from wondering.

So, the first step to enter a positive state, is to centre in our body to calm down the mind.

2) When we are centred in our body and our

mind is calm, we open ourselves up to a new realm of possibilities. We gain back an ability to sense what’s possible beyond the limitations of circumstances. Instead of seeing limitations, we now sense possibilities.

3) When we are centred and open, we become aware of what’s available to us without being overwhelmed by the circumstances.

4) We then positively connect with our own

resources inside and out. We don’t feel isolated anymore, but we feel we are part of a greater community which is available and supportive of us.

5) By being grounded in our body, being

open, aware and connected, by feeling part of a greater community, we become capable of welcoming whatever happens in our life without judgment, holding the space for whatever occurs with a sense of curiosity and openness.

These five steps move us into a positive inner state from out of which we welcome what comes our way with a renewed sense of possibility. This is a new creative state called “C.O.A.C.H. State” (R. Dilts & S. Gilligan).

From this state our ability to adapt and thrive in challenging situations emerges.

Our goal, therefore, is to access this C.O.A.C.H. state and dwell in it to be able not only to face difficult situations in a constructive way, but also to transform challenges into extraordinary opportunities for growth.

The question is, how do we transform this negative inner state into a positive and creative one helping us face and thrive in difficult times?

Barbara Dalle Pezze, Ph.D. is an internationally established Coach and leadership development expert, with over 18 years of global experience.

Barbara believes there are rarely solutions to problems which do not begin in the hearts and minds of people, hence she focuses her work on the inner work of leadership.

13

Business

Let´s

CHECK IN on your Business Continuing their series on business success and development, Maike Benner and Lilli Rohde, take a look at the WHY of your business and offer ideas and guidance on how to move your business idea forward.

What does it mean to CHECK IN with your business? Well, as mentioned in the previous issue we want to give you some ideas and guidance on how to you can start, maintain and grow your business.

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Everything on the entrepreneurial journey starts with YOU, your WHY, your VALUES and your ABILITY to manage yourself. Most entrepreneurs or wannabe-entrepreneurs think the business idea is enough, and they don´t have to have a clear picture and vision of themselves as business owners. From our point of view, a vision and congruent message are crucial for consistent success. As an extra, it will also help you get through tough times.

My business values

The key factor for your success is your ability for self-management

My business WHY

Let’s have a look at the WHY of your business and at you as a founder and take a dive into your current and ideal values system. We love implementable exercises and want to start with some of them. Take a notebook and a pen and give yourself a few minutes to answer the following questions, always referring to your business: • • • • •

•

•

What is your x-factor?

What valuable skills do you have?

How can you use your skills?

Do you invest in them? Or how best could you invest in them?

Write down what you are passionate about when it comes to your business (i.e. leadership, teaching others, teamwork, numbers, systems etc.)

Reviewing previous years: did you chose your studies, your job(s) based on your passion or because it was a good timing or opportunity to do it. Have your decisions been strategically or emotionally driven?

Write down in another column your “Wish to be” business scenario. What is missing in your current position and what is great?

The answer to those questions gives you a great start to define your business WHY. The target should be to have three to five sentences describing your WHY, like an elevator pitch but about you. Most people, asked about their WHY, start with pitching their products or services, which in general is the classical elevator pitch, but hardly anybody is thinking about writing out the WHY behind the products and services.

Knowing your business WHY gives the emotional and personal touch to your business and helps you to hang in there during tough times, like those we are facing now.

Do you know your (business) values? We are quite sure the majority are saying “of course”. Do you have them written out and do you live towards them in your business life? Most companies have their values written on the home page but how many companies and businesses actually live by those nice designed values? For us it was a game changer to first write down our personal values and add to them the business values. Defining the intersection of similar values was really eyeopening. If you are not acting in your business, or career, towards your values on a long-term run you will lose the WHY and be very dissatisfied.

Our business values are helping us to clearly decide with whom we want to work with, which investments we are making and which not, which projects have priority. To handle your business in line with your values gives you an amazing feeling and you have control and influence over your life and situation.

A break-out question:

How many of us are in a job we don’t like or in a relationship which is taking too much energy?

And it happens over and over again even if you change the job or the partner. We are convinced this happens because you are not living in-line with your values. As an employee do not search for a job just based on the job profile, check the values of the company – do they match yours?

With the choice of a partner it’s even more important to check if you both have the same value system, otherwise the relationship will never work.

My daily driver

How do you wake up every morning - full of energy and pleasant anticipation ready to rock the day? If so, congratulations you already know your driver for the day. A real-life example for a better understanding is the following situation: imagine you must wake up at 5am to get to the airport because you are going on a long-planned vacation with your family and friends. You will get up without any hesitation. You are full of energy, excitement, and positivity. Keep this feeling for a moment. And now try to define for you the daily business drivers which can make you feel like this every day. Helpful is a daily routine and a weekly and daily plan with defined goals and tasks for the day. It is also a great help for you to see what you’ve achieved during tvhe day and what not and why. To know what amazing topics are ahead of you will give you the same feeling of excitement and anticipation.

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Business

My self-management process and structure

As an entrepreneur – and it does not matter at which stage your business is – the key factor for your success is your ability for self-management.

What do we mean by this? Well, for a start as already mentioned the daily planning, besides that you should • take regular breaks • exercise and eat healthily • know your stress factors and be able to handle them • don’t forget to socialise alongside all the work on your plate • set short, middle, and long-term goals for your business and review them on a regular basis Your business success is depending on you that´s why it is particularly important you are taking good care of yourself. You should be in control of your actions and always think at least one step ahead. Before you can outsource some work or hire people, you must be able to handle everything by yourself or understand how it works. As an example, take social media. Most entrepreneurs want to outsource this activity as soon as possible, as it is very time consuming.

But can an outside person transfer your message and values the way you would? Our advice is to think it through first by yourself, then you’ll be able to instruct the person and the message you want to spread will not get lost.

My finances as an entrepreneur

The final phase or exercise we typically conduct after deep diving into the beforementioned aspects are the personal finance and finance mindset. What we mean by this is not so much to dwell in the past and analyse your upbringing and belief system about money. But rather a realistic estimation of the financial resources needed before the business has a chance to take off. We have seen it time and again where founders had a nice little cushion when they started but then some of the following happens:

• focus on the perfect product or service while forgetting to invest in marketing so the product or service gets know • investing initial financial resources in courses, high-end coaching, state-of-the-art webpage, software or outsourcing core tasks only to realise later that no money is left for much needed investments From our own experience we can confirm that it is worse if you think your finances will run out before you can sustain your business. This leads to rushed and wrong business decisions and will dampen your mood and sharpness to create business success.

This is why within the CHECK-IN we have a session on finance where we raise awareness, share our Excel file for our clients to fill in their figures with their personal expenses and business figures.

Usually the result is that our clients • will cut expenses (on the personal side and not hire that much wanted Social Media specialist for their business) • plan sales figures more realistically • will know that they will have to put in way more effort than they initially thought • not quit their job straight away but keep it as a side job • start with an MLM (multi-level-marketing) product that generates some basic income and teaches you the skills you are missing This brings us to the end of this article and the CHECK-IN phase. In the next issue, we will BOARD with the Compagneur Signature coaching programme. We will talk about the WHAT of a business - meaning the product itself, how it is positioned (place, price, promotion). We look at which tools and systems are needed to start a successful business. Also, how to reach your target customers. Here we will discuss the controversial topic whether you need a Business Plan or not. We will argue why you should have one and how to adapt it to your requirements in order to Be Prepared.

• they underestimated time, effort, and money before the first sales come in • the sales projection (if there were any) were too optimistic

Maike Benner and Lilli Rohde founders of MaLish Consulting, an

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international business consultancy and coaching company. Combining their experiences and strengths in people management, financials, tools and system, communication and leadership MaLish offers a variety of services for companies and individuals. www.compagneur.com - www.malish.global/about/malish-business

17

Spirituality

Conversations in the Corner:

The Angel of Innocence

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how:

h, tives on

n on

ur Host

ki Thomas

that I was too trusting. Perhaps a Fool. Or is that innocence?

innocence is presence of spiritual authenticity

I would leave my handbag on the supermarket trolley whilst I moved a few feet to take an item from the shelf. I was told that was irresponsible.

Perhaps a Fool. Or is that innocence?

I believe in karma and I do not even think of the consequences being bad. Yes, someone may take my handbag from the trolley in the supermarket, but I have never brought that thought or energy into my field. Perhaps a Fool.

Or is that innocence?

Maybe subconsciously I was/am open to any circumstances to unfold so that I can learn from them. Perhaps a Fool. Or Is that innocence?

We are pleased to announce a new regular feature in Business Fit Magazine, Conversations in the Corner with Vikki Thomas, she starts off the series talking about the Angel of Innocence.

This angel guides us to step into our own path, to have the faith and trust of freedom and adventure. New beginnings. But what does innocence mean? In Latin innocence means “not harming” and if you view the word from a spiritual perspective, innocence is not lack of worldly wisdom but the presence of spiritual authenticity.

Think of innocence as being what happens in those brief moments when you aren’t caught up in your own thinking, when you are in your heart and aren’t in your mind, like meditation, or going for a walk in nature.

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.” William Shakespeare “Innocence dwells with wisdom, but never with ignorance.” William Blake For me, I used to link innocence with naivety, but I am aware that is just programming. I remember many people saying to me during my life that I was “naive”, that my head was in the clouds and

Then I reflect. I believe I really have had true faith.

I remember when my father-in-law was alive, he used to say to me when I was angry or mad or blowing hot (which was quite often in my youth).

“Vikki, it will be what it will be”. I remember that saying used to frustrate me massively.

NOW they are some of the wisest words I stand by and use all the time. It is not being a Fool, it is being innocent in life and putting your faith and trust in God and the divine plan.

What does your angel of innocence teach you?

Remember, you can call on your Angel of Innocence at any time.

Innocence dwells with wisdom, but never with ignorance

Vikki Thomas’ background is in finance and business in the corporate

world and she also made her successes as a multiple business owner and private property investor. However, she was called to do something more and embarked on a new journey five years ago - her search for meaning and to live her life mission.

Hello@vikkithomas.com - www.vikkithomas.com

19

Business

Business Trends After

COVID-19

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Journalist, PR and Press Expert, Fatima Gorezi, takes a look at the adjustments businesses will undergo in the way they operate, following the challenges brought on

by COVID-19.

The sudden outbreak of the pandemic, caused

by COVID-19, already resembles a giant unannounced wave flooding many things. The sea will retreat one day and leave behind many ruins which will take time to rebuild and will change the perception of how it will be rebuilt from now on.

With the world left in abeyance, we are facing COVID-19 impacts in the form of uncertainty, economic and financial contraction.

International institutions (like the International Monetary Fund, IMF) are constantly talking about the global economic recession and the figures are also indicative of a decline in some of the key sectors and industries. Economists and money scientists also talk about significant changes in the market after the end of the ‘global lockdown’ period.

As for the most affected businesses by COVID-19, certain sectors - air travel, hotels, tourism, and consumer brands which rely on traditional retail for most of their sales - have already been affected by the crisis. The same will happen with industries dealing with large numbers of people, such as popular entertainment - sports, cinema, concerts, business conferences and trade fairs. It is said that fate favours the prepared minds. Fate

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the shift to digital

certainly favours companies which care about all stakeholders (their staff), good workplace practices, and take appropriate action in a timely manner. They are better prepared to deal with and alleviate the crisis, such as the current Coronavirus pandemic.

What do you need to know as a business owner, to continue growing after the crisis? What pitfalls should you avoid, and which kind of knowledge is essential when expanding your business?

How has the Coronavirus crisis changed the way companies do business? What are the trends that have triggered the crisis? Why should companies need to reimagine their business model as they return to full speed? The reasons for all these questions will be explained below

Digital Learning

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the shift to digital. Online learning is one of the trends which COVID-19 has driven the most. Online learning platforms have also been successful for children and students in many countries of the world in order that they didn’t miss the academic school year. In some countries platforms as EdTechPlatforms like Byju’s, Extra marks, Vedantu, etc are eating up the market.

People in business have begun to adapt online learning as well, like mentors in the coaching, health, or self-care industry.

In many parts of the world, people have adapted to conduct their own fitness sessions over the phone or computer, connecting with the trainer every day and not missing a single session. This is encouraging more businesses to invest in digital tools and ideas.

Mobile Marketing

Do you remember the last time you sat down in front of a computer to see or search for information or a product? It’s been a while, hasn’t it?! This is because our phone has somehow replaced the computer.

COVID-19 has enabled businesses to enrich and adapt their websites to the mobile version very quickly and this will continue to happen. Mobile marketing is real and part of the marketing plan and strategy for any company. Using mobile devices to search for a product or service is becoming commonplace consumer behaviour and you don’t want your business not to be on the ‘smart screen’.

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Business You may have heard that platforms like Netflix, Amazon prime etc. have become a necessity for many entertainment lovers.

Delivery Service

Online sales have grown significantly, starting from entertainment and information products such as movies and books to the daily consumption industry.

Many businesses, especially those in the food and beverage industry, or even supermarkets have offered a delivery service during the lockdown period. Yes this can turn into frequent practice and behaviour. Order online and it comes to your door.

Working from home

Working from home over the last few months has become a reality for many companies, entrepreneurs, or even employees. Some studies have highlighted the productivity of work from home and there have even been those extreme voices who raise the question: “Is working from home the future of work?�

It is certainly too early to talk about this today, but we can say that working from home has some cost-saving benefits, not only for the employer but also for the employee. Some studies say that it won’t be surprising if some companies relocate their work from the office to home in the near future.

used en masse. Although businesses lost some of their traditional customers due to many factors (declining revenue, job losses for some people, lockdown, lack of information, etc.), they also gained new customers.

Through non-traditional channels, they reached non-traditional customers. This is encouraging businesses to review their strategic plans to expand their customer base and customer communication channels. Buying is all about emotion, not only numbers and hard facts.

Customers base their decisions on the opinions of others placed on social media, therefore businesses should pay a lot of attention to creating strong relationships and loyalty bonds with them through the use of new communication channels.

AI and Automation

This crisis will further encourage the mass use of AI and machine learning because they save time and capital. Companies will choose automation for some of their work processes because it will enable them to react better the next time they must face a challenge if manual processes are replaced. Small and medium-sized businesses have a better chance of getting ahead faster because they can adapt and change in a short time.

Human capital at the core

People are the real wealth of the company. This pandemic crisis once again gave the deserved place to the human factor and convinced companies to honour their best people. The crisis confirmed once again that bosses and companies need to invest in human resources, hire skilled, talented, flexible, and problemsolving people.

Is working from home the future of work?

Traditional vs non-traditional customer

The pandemic crisis prompted bosses and leaders to look carefully at their business model, so they reached their customers through traditional channels, but also non-traditional ones, while social networks and platforms were

Fatima Gorezi is a journalist, PR and Press Expert, Social Media Specialist,

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and Freelance Blogger. She is the editor in chief for Star Magazine, a national magazine dedicated to lifestyle, art, culture, and diplomacy based in Tirana, Albania. She is passionate about writing and confident at researching a topic and sharing her new-found knowledge.

Mindset & Emotion

How a Girl, a Homeless Man and a Mosaic

changed me 24

Businessman and mystic, Daniel Levin, invites our readers to practice the 10-minute solution of asking how someone is and really listening to their answer and tells us of the unexpected place he found it.

I am blessed with having a developmentally delayed daughter, but I have to say it didn’t always feel like a blessing. You see, my daughter Elisa can’t talk like you and I can. Most of the time she speaks, people don’t understand her. But because she has been with me all of her life, I usually have a pretty good sense of what she is trying to say. But sometimes, I don’t.

When she speaks and I don’t understand, she yells. If that doesn’t work, she tantrums. That can be in a restaurant, a store, driving in a car, or over a friend’s house. And when she tantrums and I don’t understand her, she attacks me by trying to rip my shirt or bite me. This went on for a long time, with incidents like this happening sometimes 5,10 or even 15 times a day.

Finally, one day, I couldn’t take it anymore and in the midst of her increasing rage, I said to her, “Elisa, I want so badly to understand what you are saying, but I cannot understand your words.

Can you please find a way to tell me what you are saying without using words?” From the midst of her rage, a smile came over her face, the kind of smile that melts you right down to your heart, and she looked at me and said in perfect English, “I am, Daddy.”

I was dumbfounded. When I asked her how she was doing that, she pointed to the side of her head and I understood from her gesture that she was putting thoughts into my head. Immediately I realised, I had felt her doing that, but never trusted my instincts and now instead of her rage, both of us started laughing uncontrollably. That was about four years ago, from that moment on, she has never yelled, tantrum or attacked again.

Here is the amazing lesson she taught me that day. I realised everyone I work with, be they CEO’s of companies or employees, leaders in government or the people they govern over, teachers or students, family and/or community leaders; everyone does the same thing. When they speak and they aren’t heard, they yell, when they yell and they aren’t heard they create a scene and when that doesn’t work they try to destroy something. They shoot people in a shopping mall or blow up a building; attack someone’s reputation or destroy a marriage. And when I look at each situation and retrofit it, I realise, just like my daughter these people don’t feel heard.

I have had the opportunity to be with some of the richest people in the world, to sit with them around the dinner table, to meet their kids and their parents and to have conversations with them about the things going on in our lives, and I have had the amazing opportunity to sit with the poorest of the poor on street corners and have those same conversations.

We have no idea the impact listening to these stories might have

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Mindset & Emotion One of those conversations was with Cory, a homeless man. We had been speaking for hours when I looked at him and asked, “Cory, you sit here and watch people all day long, is there something you would suggest people do to make the world a better place?” He didn’t even have to think about it for a moment, he knew his answer.

“I would invite people to find someone they don’t know and ask them how they are doing and then spend 10 minutes listening, really listening to their answer.”

I asked him, “Of all the things you could ask for, why would you ask that?” His answer told me.

He said, “Danny, three months ago, I was having a really bad day. I was just sitting here but as people walked by, they spit on me, punched me, kicked me and cursed at me. I thought to myself, ‘what am I doing here? I am only making people more unhappy” and so I decided that day, when evening came, I would go around the corner to a street where it was dark and just take my life, thinking no one would even miss me. Two minutes after I had that thought, a man came out of nowhere and put his hand on my shoulder and asked me, Brother, how are you doing? Tears started to pour from my eyes and I told him I wasn’t doing well and without missing a beat, he sat down next to me and said, I am here for you if you want someone to listen.”

have no idea the impact listening to these stories might have.

Become part of the 10-minute solution. Ask the people in your business how they are doing and then just listen to them for 10 minutes. Ask everyone, those who clean your floors and run your marketing department; those who restock your inventory and ship your products as well as those who design and create those products.

And more than that, why not take time to run your latest idea by these people and ask for their feedback? Who knows where the next great idea will come from?

In my book, The Mosaic, the protagonist sets out to find heaven, but the people he meets along his journey are not the holy people he expects, but common ordinary people, like the trashman, the beggar, the blind woman, the gardener and the street artist. But when he listens to each of them tell their story, he realises the person he now sees is entirely different from the person he first saw. And he wonders, what would he see if he could see what he doesn’t see. In this change of perception, he finds the heaven he was seeking.

Why not practice the 10-minute solution with everyone in your life; your spouse, your kids or your mother in law and as Cory suggests with someone you have never met before?

Danny, do you know, it took only about 10 minutes and when he left, I realised I could no longer kill myself, because somebody cared enough about me to listen to me for 10 minutes. That man has no idea he saved my life that day.”

Here is another interesting result of this story, it is called The Butterfly Effect, where one small action, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings get multiplied by others doing the same and over time the flapping of their wings creates a hurricane in another part of the world. Just like that man had no idea he saved Cory’s life, Cory has no idea the impact his story had on me. He doesn’t know I tell his story on every TV, radio and/or podcast I am interviewed on and how much that one story touches others. It has also inspired me to travel around the world, doing just what Cory suggested, to sit with people for 10 minutes and listen to their stories. It is my hope to one day create a documentary which will allow us to hear the voices of the voiceless. We

That man has no idea he saved my life that day.

Daniel Levin is rare blend of businessman and mystic who sees what

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others do not see. It has been this one quality more than any other that has thrown him into some of the most exclusive boardrooms to help companies innovate new ways of finding solutions when the old ways stop working. www.DanielBruceLevin.com zenseidanny@me.com

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Interview

Karry

Carrasco 28

Mother of five and wife of Cleveland Indians’ pitcher Carlos Carrasco, Karry Carrasco is a passionate activist and volunteer. She formed the Karry Carrasco foundation to help, educate, serve families, individuals, and children who suffer from extreme poverty and political injustice.

Who are you?

This might seem like an easy enough question but answering it can be incredibly hard. Because I’m being asked to define and label myself, it is difficult to even pick a place to start. My name is Karelis Carrasco, but to my friends and loved ones, I’m simply Karry. I am the founder and CEO for the Karry Carrasco Foundation. I am also a wife, to Cleveland Indians’ pitcher Carlos Carrasco and my most important role is as a mother to my five beautiful children. Outside of that, I am a passionate activist, a devoted friend and a dedicated volunteer in my community.

What’s the best business advice you received and why?

My mother gave me the best possible advice anyone could ever receive, for business and even for my life in general. I remember it as if it was yesterday, she sat me down, looked me straight in the eyes and was completely open and honest with me. She knew I was very passionate about my desire to help others, and she said to me: “Passion is not enough, you also need dedication

Passion is not enough, you also need dedication

and above all else, you cannot let other people limit you from what you’re capable of”. I was still fairly young, so I didn’t really appreciate what she was saying or its implications. But as I got older, I began to understand just how powerful that statement was. In order to be successful, you do need passion, but more importantly, you need to be organised, goal oriented, driven and completely deaf to what other people may say.

What’s the biggest mistake you made in business and what you did learn from it?

The biggest mistake I’ve made in business has been trusting too easily. This was a lesson not easily learned because I just kept repeating the same mistake and putting my trust in the wrong people. I was forced to learn the hard way, trust is something which has to be earned and should not be freely given. When you’re in a leadership position, many people will cosy up to you and try to use you for their own advantage.

More shocking still, are the people who try to exploit charitable organisations for their selfish gains without any regard for the people they’re supposed to be helping. Now I try to be a little more cautious when entering into partnerships and I’m always sceptical of anything that sounds too good to be true, because chances are that it is.

What’s the definition of success?

Success is something which is completely subjective and depends on being wholly conscious of exactly what you want. There is not a one size fits all definition for success because not all of us want the same thing. You have to be aware of your desires, willing to put in the work and make sacrifices in order to achieve it. Simply put, success is a compromise and a commitment to yourself. For me, it is knowing who I am and where I want to go from there.

What has been your motivation?

Everything I have achieved has been thanks to the driving force of having the love and support of my family behind me. My husband and I have worked very hard to create a home together and impress our values upon our children, to shape them into socially conscious little people.

I’m also extremely motivated to continue the work that I do because I’ve witnessed first-hand

Interview by Verónica Sosa

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Interview

the horrors taking place in my home country of Venezuela. Seeing the extreme poverty, the food shortages and the lack of basic supplies, makes you realise just how much help is needed.

This motivates me and forces me to form a compromise with myself to work even harder. I know just how much each donation is worth and how important it is that it gets exactly where it needs to go and to the people who need it most.

This has also created a type of mantra in my life, each donation which doesn’t make it to its destination, is potentially a life that is lost.

I’m very lucky to have an incredible support system of great friends who are just as dedicated as I am and work tirelessly by my side without any type of remuneration except the satisfaction of knowing the good they’re doing. True friends who have strong commitments and are fully invested in the causes we champion. Friends like Norma Camero and Kike Barrios, who spend long hours putting together donation boxes, feeding the needy and travelling alongside me to places where we can make the biggest impact.

Does balance in life exist for you?

Work life balance is incredibly difficult to accomplish when you’re running a foundation.

Some days I’m completely consumed by my work and I’m very conscious of the impact it can have when things go wrong. Any delays or donations which don’t arrive on time means someone who goes another day without medication, or a child who doesn’t get a meal for the day, or has to sit in dirty diapers all day because there is no replacement.

What do you think about relational capital?

I think relational capital is very important because life in general is about creating meaningful connections with other people.

Therefore, managing, maintaining and growing relationships with those around us is key when it comes to having a successful business and a better life in general. Being able to create a sense of belonging within a collective organisation can make the difference between a simple job and a satisfying career. That is what I always try to instil in the people I work with, and especially our dedicated volunteers. They’re already completely devoted to the work we do, but I want to make sure they understand just how much of an impact they individually have.

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Success is something which is completely subjective

Whats your favourite quote ?

La educación es el principal vestido para la fiesta de la vida – Education is the main dress for the party of life - Carolina Herrera

How do you take care of your body, mind and soul?

Being constantly on the go it’s hard to take care of yourself as well as you should. But lately I’ve really been enjoying working out at home, even the kids get into it and do a full routine right alongside me and my husband. I really enjoy doing meditation because I truly believe that it’s a special kind of training for my mind and my heart. I feel that it allows me greater freedom both mentally and emotionally.

I also love getting together with my girlfriends and going out for dinner and drinks. It’s almost a form of therapy, we de-stress, we unload our burdens and most importantly we support each other. Having a group of great women behind you is incredibly empowering.

What is the vision of the Karry Carrasco foundation?

Our foundation is still in its infancy, but as we keep growing my vision involves expanding across multiple countries and to make the biggest impact we possibly can. Our current goal is simply to provide hope for children and families stricken with food, health, and/or educational poverty by providing these basic needs to those who need it most. In the future, I just want to

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Interview

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Main photo: Emma, Karry and Camila Carrasco; Top right: Camila, Emma, Elias, Noah and Karry Carrasco; Middle right: Elias, Karry and Cookie Carrasco; Bottom right: Elias, Noah and Lucas

keep helping, to keep educating and providing for those suffering as a direct result of poverty and political injustice. I personally believe that one of the most important things we do as a foundation is promoting the rights of those in need and in particular, that of children. By giving them a voice and providing a little joy, we let them know they matter, and are important.

I’m also very involved in political activism centred around my home country of Venezuela. The situation there is so extremely dire that even sending humanitarian aid has become a major problem. Last year, along with an incredible team, we crossed the border from Cucuta, Colombia into Venezuela. This was in the midst of riots and protests, the government refused to let supplies in and even burnt donation trucks as a petty act of revenge. We couldn’t sit idly by and not do anything, so we took matters into our own hands, quite literally. I was completely terrified but seeing the grateful look on people’s faces as we delivered food and medical supplies, made it all worth it.

How you want to be remembered?

I want to be remembered as someone who was a good friend, a good mother, a good wife and a good daughter. Someone who never gave up against any obstacles or adversities. Someone who loved fiercely and enjoyed life to the fullest.

But most importantly, I want to be remembered as a kind and compassionate woman, who did her best to help others and make a difference, no matter how small. Sometimes, just being a source of support for someone can have a huge impact, and I always try to be that person for those around me. I especially enjoy the work I do and I would hope that I can leave a lasting impression on the lives of the people I’ve helped, so they in turn can be inspired to help others as well.

Tell us about your family passion?

My family is my life, they fill my heart and allow me to live life to its fullest. One of the things we enjoy most together is travelling. When you have young children, even getting out of the house can be a challenge and with five kids, even more so. But I’m extremely blessed that my kids are very easy going and they quickly adapt to any situation. I love taking them to new places and just seeing the world through their eyes. We get to discover new things, new experiences and everything turns into an adventure together.

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Finance 1) Not Being Proactive

If your parents didn’t help you to build a strong foundation of financial knowledge as a child, there’s little you can do but float in the wind hoping that your wealth will manifest all by itself—no proactivity required.

What gets measured, gets managed Learned helplessness is the fastest route to financial failure, and it’s difficult to avoid if you have no idea where to begin to understand essential financial concepts in making informed decisions about saving, investing and borrowing.

The only way to gain confidence in your money skills is by learning and practicing them, and that requires you to take ownership of your financial life.

Money Blunders

Women Make & What to Do About Them Women’s Financial Empowerment Expert and Wealth Advisor, Patricia Allen, CRPC® talks to our readers about avoiding the big money mistakes and the importance of using financial experts to get the most from your money Oh no, I didn’t know that. Financial wisdom doesn’t arrive by magic on your first birthday, beautifully wrapped in ribbons. It doesn’t evolve as you mature or manifest out of the blue each time you apply for a loan or make investment choices. Just like any other skill, it must be learned consciously and through practice.

Make a fresh start by confronting three of the biggest money blunders many women make.

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• The first step to taking ownership is through awareness of how much you spend, save, earn, and owe. When you know your numbers, you position yourself to achieve your goals and have confidence that you’re on pace to financial freedom.

• Knowing your monthly expenses is equally important. It’s just a matter of keeping track of how much money is coming in and how much is leaving your wallet. This lets you know you’re in control of your finances instead of your finances controlling you. Now is a good time to re-evaluate your budget and free up some cash.

• Your savings rate is critical to achieving financial success. Saving at least 10% of your income is the minimal amount to save annually, but 1520% is even better.

• Knowing your net worth is important for these two reasons. It helps you understand your current financial situation. It gives you a reference point for measuring your progress toward your goals.

• To determine your net worth is to subtract your liabilities from your assets. It’s what you own minus what you owe. Think about this. If you have $2 million in your savings and investments and you have $2 million in mortgages and other debts, your net worth is zero.

Trying to gain financial skills while ignoring these basic numbers is like trying to follow a map with your eyes closed. If you pay conscious attention to which numbers grow and which numbers shrink and why, you’ll grow out of your small mistakes and gradually grow into a greater sense of control and empowerment.

2) Ignoring Lifestyle Changes ~Lifeboat Strategies

Fail to bend like a reed, and you’ll break every time the wind blows. Personal evolution doesn’t require you to feel unafraid. It only requires you to be flexible and adaptable and keep evolving.

No creature ever evolved by insisting their ecosystems should adjust to them, so it’s critical for women to prepare for unexpected transitions and changes.

For women, marriage finances aren’t end-of-life finances. College money bears little resemblance to job-loss money, and yet few women prepare for their minor life transitions, let alone their major ones.

Whether your financial future takes the form of recessions or Coronavirus, job loss or disability, divorce or death of your spouse there are ways to build your “lifeboat strategies” in advance.

Women’s financial security is impacted by divorce and they experience a 41% reduction in their standard of living.

One in five women who gets divorced go into retirement in poverty. KNAPP 2014 • To reduce this probability it is necessary to become more interactive in your financial decisions. Get educated about investing. That will help decrease the possibility of outliving your money.

• We live an average 5-8 years longer than men and have higher rates of disability which increases the likelihood to need long term care.

• Women need adequate insurance protection because we are more likely to have chronic health conditions and earn lower wages than men.

• Build your 1 – 2 years emergency savings to cushion the effects of financial disruptions Living a life of complacency can obliterate your foundation in a single swipe, so keep a wide view of your financial future with all its potential.

You’ll feel a thousand fears evaporate from your life because you’re ready for any financial crises before they occur, and the solid foundation

you’re left with will give you peace of mind and serve you well.

3) Penny Wise ~ Pound Foolish

You build your entire life around professionals who are specialists in their fields: dentists, doctors, attorneys and CPA’s, but for some reason, when it comes to money, everyone thinks they’re supposed to be experts. And most people are not. Financial decisions don’t arrive in a convenient textbook format.

Retirement plans don’t come with investing advice presented in Ted X format with easyto-follow PowerPoint slides. Rely on the best in the field for financial advice, and you’ll reap impressive rewards on your investment.

If you want to enjoy the best your finances can achieve, consult the best professionals. Asking for help is one of the wisest things you will ever do.

The best professionals in the industry will guide you towards your ideal life, and not to their idea of what that life should be.

A study by Morningstar found that advice from a financial planner can add 29% more wealth through retirement.

Avoiding these BIG money mistakes will help you live within your means. Without all that financial handwringing and anxiety, you’ll finally be free to manage your money with purpose and clarity.

When you’re in control of your finances, money becomes a tool to create a life of fulfilment. Wield it well, and you’ll soon build the secure financial future you’ve always dreamed of.

Take ownership of your financial life

Patricia Allen, CRPC® is a women’s financial empowerment expert,

wealth advisor, award-winning author and international speaker. She helps women take charge of their financial lives by empowering them to deal with money with their head as well as their heart. She has built her 25-year practice by providing women with sound wealth management advice and continuous education on multiple levels.

For more information: www.parisfinancialplanning.com

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Mindset & Emotion

Effective Communication in the Conscious Loving Relationship

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Breathwork therapy expert and pioneer of Breathwork and mental health fitness, Viola Edward, provides readers with a two-part article on how to improve communicating with your partner, particularly relevant in these times when we may find ourselves spending greater amounts of time together.

Conscious relationships can be likened to a seed that is carefully planted in good earth. The gardener is aware and has created favourable conditions before starting his work. Likewise, a couple’s relationship, situated in the sunshine of the truth, cared for with respect, watered with love and encouraged with communication, will grow on strong roots and produce many beautiful flowers and fruits. Mutual love develops its strength in the presence of intimacy and trust, so the picture we give of ourselves and the one we receive from our partner needs to be clear and truthful, a faithful representation. By daring to paint an open and accurate picture of ourselves that communicates the colours of our strengths, as well as the shadows of our weaknesses, we plant ourselves and the relationship in a rich and fertile earth.

Communication capital

Communication is a process of exchange of information. Success requires contact, connection, channels, content, transmission and reception and, above all, understanding. However, if we were to compare communication in the couple relationship with the data exchanging operation between a mobile and a laptop, we would be giving a very shallow example of the rich depth and the variety of communication that we, as intelligent multi-talented beings, are capable of. The loving relationship brings into contact the differing yet complementary

character traits of masculine and feminine energy. This tricky connection is simplified and reinforced by clear communication. Partners have different perceptions, but by co-operating and collaborating, exchanging knowledge, ideas and a variety of opinions, by sharing love, pleasure and intimate feelings, by organising tasks and looking for harmony and agreement in a climate of tolerance, they will have a broader range of talents and a richer choice of solutions.

The same two partners, suspicious and resentful and in continuous competitive conflict with each other to retain control, will turn their relationship into an energy-draining nightmare.

Communication channels

Our body senses and organs provide us with many different ways to communicate. We can talk and listen, using our mouths and ears, exchanging information whispering words or speaking, more crudely shouting with noises, grunts, crying or moaning, our ears picking up obvious or subtle information from inflections or a tone of voice. We are tactile and can use touch to connect, passing affection and tender feelings without words, using many different parts of our bodies, giving and receiving, exchanging exquisite (or brutal) energy through contact between our sensitive and sensual skins. The way we breathe transmits a multitude of information on the calmness or excitation of our body state and this can be seen and heard. We inhale enticing aromas, body smells and exhale sighs of relaxation. We sweat, exuding body odour. We can use our eyes to read written words or perceive visual media and also to decipher signals from body gestures such as happy smiles, emotional tears, displeased frowns, bored yawns, embarrassed looks or impatient drumming fingers and the more instinctive body language such as hair standing on end, shocked gasps or the holding of breath. All these gestures when decoded carry messages and perhaps the most subtle of these communication channels is the use of intuition.

Unconscious learning

Trust is a bonding element in relationships

As children, we imitate many of these communication techniques, picking them up through observation of our principle role models, our parents, families and teachers. Children learn well through imitating, accurately mirroring the behaviour and body language of their role models and they learn and use these skills unconsciously without realising the sources.

Unfortunately for the children, when the parents themselves have grown up in a family where communication was troubled or dysfunctional,

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Mindset & Emotion

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the set of skills that are passed on to them can be quite twisted or negatively biased. So, in some cases, as young adults, we will dive into the adventure of a loving relationship with a poorly suited range of communicational skills that will need some refinement if the relationship is to succeed.

How well do I communicate?

Improving communicational skills will begin with creating a picture of how we ourselves manage to communicate. What are our strengths and our weaknesses? Are we in touch with our feelings? Can we express the tenderness of our love through our sexuality and talk easily about ourselves? Is it easy to ask for what we need?

Do we have the courage to say no when it is necessary? This inner picture will help to boost our self-confidence and highlight the areas where we need to improve our skills. We can focus on knowing ourselves better by working with a therapist and bringing into our consciousness intimate and unexpressed feelings.

Building up our awareness helps us to acknowledge and value our qualities, helps us to let go of self-defensive habits and, with the help of intimacy, share our deepest feelings to a trusted partner. In-depth communication with another requires courage and practice.

Trust and truth

Trust is a bonding element in relationships, it holds the partners together, giving time for misunderstandings to be cleared away.

When there is difference of opinion, healthy communication helps to prevent development of the conflict. Opinions can be expressed and owned safely if there is no fight to convert the opinion of the other. Accepting to differ is a mature acknowledgment of the other’s individuality. Hearing a truth can hurt the ego but denying the truth will damage the soul and then the rebuilding of trust takes time and much work. When we realise that we are mistaken, the sooner we move out of denial, apologise and communicate our regret, the less the damage caused. Insisting on our innocence or on being right, when that is not the case, will be temporarily good for our ego but will end by undermining our credibility, devaluing all the other things that we say. Being able to trust in oneself and in the truth of what your partner says is essential, for non-

manipulative communication really nourishes relationship and opens up the pathway to intimacy.

Knowing by heart

When two people meet and begin an openhearted, loving relationship they are creating a private, intimate world of continuous communication about what is really going on within the relationship. There is a profound exchange of sensitive information about themselves. The two hearts, sensitive and defenceless, will hide nothing from each other.

They will know each other by heart. Naked and unashamed, they will share their intimacy with pleasure and love. They will verbalise fears and worries as they express hopes and frustrations and their dreams and their pains. Caring communication involves a running process of feedback within the relationship. The couple dares to share to this extent because they trust in the support of their partner and know they too are trusted. Conscious communication facilitates the encounter between the bodies and the spirits of the partners, preparing the solid foundations of deep intimacy.

Expression and reception

A flow of information requires both expression and reception and to become a successful flow, the communication will depend on truthful expression and receptive awareness. Truthful expression can take many forms such as talking, touching, gesturing and loving and the closer these forms come to expressing the essence of the person involved, the more powerful will be the action. Receptive awareness of spoken words will be listening to hear what is really being said, uncovering the needs concealed among the words and between the lines. Awareness to touch will awaken the body’s senses, opening up the spirit to receive the energy expressed in the contact. Observing gestures will facilitate translating the body’s language into coherent information. Receptive awareness of love will be sensing the love being offered and opening the heart to let love in. Awareness of emotional expression will be through understanding, feeling empathy and deepening emotional connection.

Viola Edward is a Breathwork therapy expert, and multi-awarded Mentor.

Pioneer of Breathwork and mental health fitness in the workplace since 1993, she is convinced that the practice of Conscious Breathing is at the core of every person’s wellbeing. Co-owner of Kayana Breathwork and GRIT Academy, Author Breathing the Rhythm of Success and Who Makes the Bed?, co-author of eight more books.

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Business

Lights, Camera,

Listen!

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Healthcare professional and author, Jeff Lazarus, explains why listening is so important and how we should be using it to our and other people’s benefit while using digital methods of communication.

What a year we are having! Isolation. Distancing.

Lockdown. Quarantining. Loneliness. Whatever you are experiencing, we have been forced by a mean-spirited renegade virus and it wants to take out its childhood issues on us.

As a result, we’ve been torn apart from family, friends, co-workers…and loved ones. For a vast majority of us, loneliness and isolation suck. We get depressed, eat a lot, sleep a lot, and bingewatch every possible show on Netflix, even twice if we have to. We have a need to fill the void of human connection, especially if we don’t have a dog or cat to talk to, well at least a dog to talk to.

Dogs listen. They really do. Why do you think we love them so much?

Okay, Okay, beside the fact they are so darn cute!

We hang on to our pets for dear life because they fill the void of loneliness and lack of connection.

Fish listen. Plants listen. Well, you get the point.

Now we need to get a few human beings on board with the same concept. A human being listening? Seriously? Well, it’s been known to happen, though you often need to pay a trained professional an hourly rate for that magical feat.

To take this a step further, how do we accomplish this in a time of social distancing where we can’t even see each other in person?

How to win with others during the Zoom Boom

Never fear – Zoom is here!! We all know by now that there are several digital methods for us to communicate with one another where we can also see each other. These include Zoom, Skype, Teams, FaceTime, and more. How fun these are for so many people (assuming the technology works and you are able to log on and your camera works)!

At a time when we’re apart from our family, social and business networks, these digital forms of connectivity have provided some fun and partial answers. These days we have Zoom happy hours, birthday parties, family get-togethers, business meetings, board meetings, gaming hour with friends, dating, doggy play dates and so much more.

Seeing one another brings us closer together and makes the experience that much more real.

We can see facial expressions, what everyone is wearing (from the waist up that is, so be aware before you stand up), how their hair looks while trying not to laugh or even what the inside of their home looks like. While all of these video chats can be fun, useful and playful, it also reveals the fact that we also can tell if the other person is listening. Uh oh!

Listening has always been difficult in our society and I think it’s becoming worse. We have become an output-driven society. We teach and practice output and we can’t wait for the opportunity to create more output (i.e. talking, talking and talking). We continuously find ways to put our message out there because, to us, it’s the most important message in the world at the moment… and it must be heard right now! We are a “talkfirst” society, so what is the real goal of listening?

I think we have forgotten.

The goal and purpose of listening is to: UNDERSTAND. If your goal is to talk, interrupt, tell your own story, finish the sentences of others, or get your own agenda on the table, the conversation will likely be the last one with that person or group.

As I’ve stated in my writings, teachings and business practices, listening is the most underrecognised, underdeveloped and underutilised skill among most humans. Sure, we can all admit that listening is important and that we can get better at it BUT how many of us take it seriously enough to do something? Exactly.

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Business

What does listening have to do with video chats?

Quite a lot actually. When you’re on camera, you have to show up and perform. Generally, you need to stay still in front of the camera, make eye contact and demonstrate your involvement with nonverbal gestures. Unlike a simple telephone call, you can’t do what humans swear they are good at…multitasking. When you’re on the phone, you can get away with doing other things like checking email, clipping your toenails, folding laundry, eating, and… going to the bathroom. If you use video chat for business and do any of the previously mentioned, you will be looking for a new job or new client. This is why so many companies want their employees to use video conferencing in general, not just during a pandemic. They want to know you’re engaged.

Guess what? Your clients and co-workers do too.

People sometimes remember the things you say but always remember the way you make them feel. When you give the gift of feeling heard, you will not only be remembered, you’ll be liked.

If you’re liked, you’ll have deeper friendships, better business outcomes, etc. The benefits go on and on.

The best version of you is the one that listens

Video conferencing is your opportunity to flex your listening muscles (and if you don’t have any, start working out ASAP). Telephone alone, as easy as it is, has its limitations, like not always knowing how engaged the other person is. We don’t know what they are really doing. With video conferencing, we can show the other person we are listening and not multitasking. We may still daydream or try to reach for our cell phone to check our text messages without getting caught, but we have the chance to demonstrate consistent eye contact, periodic nods of the head, and laughs at the appropriate times.

We are all in sales. It’s true, we all are. No matter what position you are in or what you do for a living, you are a representative of your corporation, even if that corporation is you. We are selling our services every day to internal and external customers. Now that we’re on video conference, why not sell them the best version of yourself?

The best version is the one that listens. The one which demonstrates understanding. This is the person who will win the business or at the very least, make a lasting connection. Give the person on your screen a chance to believe you are listening and you care. Seeing is believing, right?

We can gesture in meaningful ways like reaching our hands out or putting a hand over our heart.

We can share a picture with them or bring our dog and cat in front of the camera. We can create smiles. Isn’t this a time when we can use more smiles? In business, we can demonstrate we are committed to the conversation, which is a form of good business.

It’s time to fold the laundry, put the dishes away, close the refrigerator and finish checking email.

It’s time to bring out the listening while Zooming, Teaming, Skyping, etc. If you don’t, someone else may pull the plug on you. Ready? Lights, camera, listen!

Jeff Lazarus has a Bachelor’s degree in Interpersonal and Organisational

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Communication and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He is the author of the bestselling and internationally published book, Listen Like A Dog...And Make Your Mark on the World. He has taught public speaking and conducted numerous workshops on listening, presentation skills, and customer engagement.

Time Management Tips Regular contributors Maike Benner and Lilli Rohde from MaLish Consulting share with Business Fit Readers 11 tips on time management from their recently published book.

In the fall of 2019, we were brainstorming about a free online gift we wanted to share with our customers. Since we have a wide customer base which ranges from German medium-sized enterprises to international companies as well as private people wanting to advance with their career or business (as an entrepreneur) we asked ourselves two questions:

1. What pain points have these diverse customer groups in common?

2. Were are we experts in giving them solutions?

The result of our brainstorming was:

time management

Every human being operates under time constraints and the resource of time is limited and non-renewable. However, people who can leverage on time, who are more efficient and effective get more done in the same hours. As we have sharpened and trained our own time management towards perfection, we felt safe to share our gained knowledge.

That is how our online gift - a quiz on time management - was developed. Feel free to do the test and you will receive a workbook at the end to check your results: www.compagneur. com/time-management-quiz This idea of a free time management gift has in the meantime blossomed into our first published book. Here are 11 tips from our book which we want to share with the readers of the Business Fit Magazine.

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Y - Yoyo – effect

Known from dietary books but also applicable to business: we must understand our WHY in business. Then we will put in constant effort and achieve sustainable results. As a Yoyo bounced down, so businesses goes down (and up). Our tip: stick in there, try to use the momentum to push you up again. If you give up now – you will have wasted time without ever harvesting the fruits.

O - Online / offline

Balance your online and offline activities ie. networking. You can combine both - meeting a person at an event and follow up via LinkedIn. Today it might be vice versa, where you first meet online. Develop a system to contact people in a quick and smart way and follow up with them.

Yes it costs time, but people want to be nurtured and spend money with people they know and like.

U - Use a plan, make a list and stick to it

Develop a daily routine to start your day and plan out your day as specifically as possible.

Only deviate from it if an emergency happens, otherwise stick to it. For starters we encourage people not to be too strict if one gets side-tracked easily. What we think is important: note down these distractions, see if there are commonalities and try to avoid them or allow more time in your planer.

R - Repetition

If you want to change something or make it a habit start doing it for 90 days. After this time, it becomes a routine and you are more likely to stick to it. If not – it’s a major waste of time. Social Media is a good example to start with continuity and repetition. Only regular postings will grow your account and make you visible to a wider audience.

S - Short-cuts

We firmly believe there are no short-cuts in business that will make you a star overnight. This means you have to put in the work. But be smart about it and ask for help. For example, a coach or mentor can be a great resource.

U - Use Pareto

This principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is a theory stating that 80 percent of the output is determined by only 20 percent input. Wouldn’t it be great to invest 20% of time, energy and money and get the 80% chunk return? It’s possible: learn to set priorities and channel your energy into work which brings results.

The book is published at Cherry Media Publishing and available on Amazon.

Currently the book is only available in German.

We are looking forward to your feedback and comments or a tip for finding an English publisher. info@malish.de

C - Calendar:

Work with a calendar which matches your needs and preferences. Use colours and categories.

Online calendars can be shared with your team members. A calendar is an amazing tool to keep track and structure your day, week and month.

C - Coach

Everyone should have one, especially a business coach. To work with a coach will give you the opportunity to customise the generic view towards your individual needs of your business.

To work with a coach is kind of a short cut.

E - Eisenhower

The Eisenhower Matrix, also referred to as ‘Urgent-Important Matrix’, helps you decide on and prioritise tasks by urgency and importance, sorting out less urgent and important tasks which you should either delegate or not do at all. A powerful tool which helps to structure your daily work.

S - Say yes

We are taught to say no, but nobody teaches us to say yes. Yes, means to commit to your word.

Yes, means to show up, yes to opportunities which seem too big at first sight and yes to insanity in a positive way.

S - System

Create a system and structure for yourself in your work environment. It starts with data storage (where and how is it stored), your work desk (can you easily find everything you need), your communication internally and externally (subject of emails, time for a reply).

Try to adapt all tips in your daily (work) life and you will see an immense improvement in time management. More tips and quotes on time management can be found on our Malish connecting social media plattforms.

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Mindset & Emotion

Who needs Feng Shui anyway?

The who, what & why of wind & water

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Feng Shui and Bazi consultant, Dina Reznikova, provides our readers with an overview of Feng Shui and how by using it, you can turn your house into a home and give you a sense of inner well-being and inspiration.

Everyone has heard about Feng Shui and has a general idea of what it is all about. Usually something to do with getting more money or a better boyfriend. Not unlike many, good, old folk things such as kombucha and activated charcoal - Feng Shui needs a facelift and considerable rebranding. It needs to stand up to modern day scientific scrutiny and become truly relevant. In this article I’ll endeavour to shed some light on the subject and to dispel some of the old myths about Feng Shui.

The What

Feng Shui is the study of energy pertaining to the built environment. Today it would belong in part to the fields of geophysics, psychology and environmental studies. The language of Feng Shui uses beautiful metaphors which have not been changed for thousands of years. The principles are simple - wind carriers, energy or Chi and water collects it. Modern science can explain them in terms of “rays” or “particles”. Any environment - from your bedroom to your country needs to have a harmonious balance between the two.

Harnessing the salubrious energies around your space leads to health, wealth and happiness.

These principles have been used by Chinese emperors in the construction of ancient cities and palaces.

The Who

Who needs Feng Shui? There is this idea that Feng Shui is something affluent people use to get even more wealthy. That is because historically in ancient China only the rich could afford to hire a Feng Shui master. Moreover the secrets of the craft were greatly guarded and passed on only from teacher to student. Energy exists and influences us whether we like it or not, whether we believe in it or not. It is like oxygen - we might not see it but we all breathe it.

In reality, your home is a reflection of you - your hopes, your dreams, your preferences and your despairs. A good and thorough application of Feng Shui to your dwelling will turn your house into a home. It will turn your home into your castle and provide you with a sense of inner wellbeing and inspiration. You will get a better handle on life and pursue your heart’s desires.

A career orientated person will get a speedy

promotion, a couple trying to conceive will have an easier time of it. An author will be inspired to write while an ailing person will find motivation to get better. Sometimes miraculous things happen, sometimes not - that depends on your character and inner journey. As a good rule of thumb Feng Shui will make your life 30% more healthier and fulfilling.

There is no single accreditation body for Feng Shui. Practitioners come from a vast variety of schools. This makes it hard to pick the right consultant. Some promise everything others are non-committal. I have to say it greatly annoys me when someone “Oh yeah Feng Shui I used to do it - I read a couple of books”. When we meet a doctor or a masseuse we don’t say “Oh yeah I occasionally take a gander through Grey’s Anatomy”. I believe this kind of reputation is what keeps Feng Shui from really going forward in the modern age and being used more universally and holistically like yoga or coaching are these days.

I would classify Feng Shui into two schools the Western and the Classic. The Classic school looks at the astrological chart of the building and at the date of birth of its inhabitants. It pacifies the negative energies and supports the positive ones. This is done by implementing various cures and analysing the psychological aspects of the interior. Furthermore, situation specific suggestions are provided to help the clients in reaching their personal goals.

Western Feng Shui forgoes astrology and skips straight to psychological analysis. Do you have a dirty pile of laundry in your relationship corner?

That is why you keep on having torrid affairs. Is there a pile of junk in your career corner? Behold the reason your job is not fulfilling. Often this kind of analysis is enough to help the client put positive anchors around their home which will encourage a positive shift. However, I believe that for deeper lasting and surer results the implementation of Classical Feng Shui remains indispensable.

The Why

Before I began studying classical Feng Shui, also known as Flying Stars Feng Shui, I had tried every single cure from the western Feng Shui books on the market. The pros - it really made me responsible for my own space and made me think about all the different areas of my life. My finances, creativity, family, health, relationships, spirituality and career. I truly understand that my home is where I spend half my lifetime. Even

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Mindset & Emotion

temporary accommodation where I might only sleep after work, should still be homely and comfortable. After learning Classical Feng Shui I put a fish tank into my wealth corner, I made 100,000 dollars in three months. So go figure.

Finally I would like to address some of the most popular Feng Shui myths. Does the money toad near the door bring luck? Only if you are from China and you have grown up with the toad as a symbol of prosperity. Someone from England will probably think the toad is a prince waiting for a kiss to become charming. I suggest replacing the toad with a financial symbol relevant to your unique taste and cultural background.

Toilet seat open or closed? That only becomes germane if you are doing a flying star analysis and you need to see if you have good or bad stars in the toilet area. What makes a world of a difference is whether your toilet is clean or not.

What about a mirror opposite the bed? Your subconscious mind gets freaked out if you wake up to pee at night and see your reflection in the darkness, your fight or flight instinct kicks in. As a result your body will produce stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. As long as you don’t see your reflection while lying in bed you’re good.

Where do I start? I would recommend master Joseph Yu’s “The complete idiot’s guide to Feng Shui”. Move some furniture. Declutter and decorate your house only with things you love.

Gift or sell all the rest. Create symbols of your goals to serve as mental anchors throughout the day. If you don’t see a lifestyle shift within 40 days - it’s time to consult a professional, well versed in the flying stars system.

In summary - Feng Shui works and gives you a considerable leg up in achieving your goals. It is the difference between a simply talented athlete and one with a great coach who will take him all the way to the finals.

Dina Reznikova is the founder of Dark Unicorn Feng Shui in London.

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(www.darkunicorn.co.uk) She has travelled the world investigating the effects of the built environment on the individual. Dina is a Classical Flying Star Feng Shui graduate of Master Joseph Yu’s academy.

Business

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Service-Based Female Entrepreneurs:

Success or Failure?

Wealth Identity and Money Mindset coach, Iresha Tschunke, looks at the two major reasons for women becoming entrepreneurs and how to avoid the biggest mistake many of them make.

In today’s world, where change is so fast and technology is at its peak, almost anything has become possible.

The dawn of female entrepreneurs has begun

The definition of the word “world” isn’t the same as a decade ago. We are at the peak of mankind’s evolution, even spreading our wings to the most phenomenal existences in the universe.

This has brought advantages and disadvantages.

One I would note as a huge positive influence in the economy is the rising of service-based entrepreneurs. This is an occupation which almost didn’t exist three decades ago, and in

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Business

Having clarity of “why� we start a business is extremely important

One thing I noticed when I work with them is that all the reasons for female entrepreneurs failing, actually comes down to one big fact. One huge mishap which can happen in the blink of an eyem and it can completely change your whole world. Before going into that, let me explain the real reasons why someone becomes an entrepreneur.

There are two major reasons for becoming an entrepreneur:

1. A burning passion, desire, skill and expertise in an area (The reason)

2. The will to create a certain lifestyle (The reason behind the reason)

1. A burning passion, desire, skill and expertise in an area addition to that, it is growing by the day, creating a massive community around the world. One dynamic development I see within this is the female contribution as entrepreneurs.

It is true, that gender inequality is still ubiquitous, but the dawn of female entrepreneurs has begun, and it is growing bigger every day. Myriads of women are coming up with their first business ideas and making their first step into industry.

I think this is one of the most spectacular developments our world has achieved. Our grandmothers and great grandmothers would have dreamt about such a time, and we are proudly living it.

As today’s technology has made it so easy to enter into any industry, so many new entrepreneurs are moving into business. People are stepping away from the traditional working systems, and are more and more attracted to working online, creating opportunities to connect and serve globally and to serve without borders. I believe the recent situation the world has gone through has worked in favour of this new change. But as good as it sounds, does everyone succeed in entrepreneurship?

As a wealth identity and money mindset coach who works with female entrepreneurs, I must say that only a small percentage of these entrepreneurs happen to be on the right path.

This is a shocking fact, but the majority of the newly formed online businesses fail within the first two years.

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In an industry with millions of competitors, being one of many entrepreneurs is not going to bring you great success. As the industry expands, customers are awarded the benefit of selection. And in an era of accelerated change like now, where we are bombarded with so many marketing messages from everywhere, the average attention span of a person is less than eight seconds. (Hurrah, you are way more than average, just by reading this far:) )This is the ironic part of global development. So you as an entrepreneur, should grab the attention of your ideal client within those eight seconds.

This is where your passion and expertise come into play. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to find a void or trend in the market and build a business on that. This is an erroneous assumption, which has led to so many new entrepreneurs failing.

The question is, why? To stand out within your industry, and to scale it up when it is the right time, you need a niche/service which you are passionate about, which speaks for you, where you are ahead of the others and where you are an expert. What looks trendy and good for others is not always your area of expertise. What you need to have is a unique idea with your essence, so you can design it in your way, create an astonishing brand based on your personality, and a marketing plan based on your core traits.

Once you have the right reason to start your business, all you need is to gather the rest of the pieces along the way to create success.

2. The will to create a certain lifestyle Let’s be honest here. What is the reason behind the reasons for starting your business? In my field of work, this one plays a huge role. Shockingly, most of the female entrepreneurs I meet, have a very difficult time creating clarity about what they really want. I have noticed the main reason for this is the “Guilt” most of us carry. We have a belief that we should always put others first, and then ourselves. I gather this has to do with the typical role of a mother which has existed in society for a very long time. Although the world has developed in leaps and bounds, we still follow this old script, which prevents us from achieving our best life.

Having clarity of “why” we start a business is extremely important. Everything else depends on it. So put all your cards on the table and create your business accordingly. So when your business succeeds, you are basically living your ideal lifestyle.

So what is the biggest mistake female entrepreneurs make?

The biggest mistake we make is leaving out one of these reasons. I see people missing one or both of these reasons all the time. Each reason plays a crucial part in your business, and they are the foundations which hold up the rest.

If you ask me which is most common reason people fail, I would have to say that it is forgetting the second reason.

Let us think about the real reason you want to start a business (besides having a skill and passion). It is because you want to create a premium lifestyle. Let’s think that you want to live a life with financial abundance, travelling first class, having money to invest, buying your dream house, and living a luxurious life. You want to create a business which supports all these dreams, all these goals and which resonates at the same frequency.

through your business, your business should reflect the story you are creating, the story you want to tell the world and the image you create.

As an example, if you want to have the lifestyle mentioned about, you need to create a premium brand, a premium service, a premium offer which attracts premium clients, and a premium and unique image that stands out in your industry.

This takes time, but when you start with this clarity right from the beginning, success is not far behind.

Once you have discovered your absolute passion, skills and expertise together with your ideal lifestyle, you get to combine these two and to turn it into an exquisite offer which your ideal clients will be more than willing to pay for.

In online-based businesses, the financial wherewithal is not the only deciding factor in your success, and most of the time, it is something we think of least. I admit it is not easy to find the right way at the beginning, especially as we are shown so many different ideas and methods every day, every minute. But it is very doable and possible.

One big trap we fall into, is rushing to get the business running and using the cookie-cutter approach. Although it seems like a quick fix, this is a meretricious path and we need to get rid of it as soon as possible. The best practice is to find your reason for wanting to start a business and find the reason behind that reason. Only in this way, can you create a successful business which is aligned with your goals and dreams, so through the success of your business, you get to achieve all those reasons behind the reasons that we talked about.

The entrepreneurial world is huge and is growing every day, and there will always be something new to learn. But when one knows what she really wants, she is always one step ahead. The golden era for female entrepreneurs is coming, so be prepared to thrive, create your ideal lifestyles and contribute to the world.

To achieve all these, your business should align with your ideal lifestyle. If you want to create such wealth, such a lifestyle, such a reputation

Iresha Tschunke is a Wealth Identity and Money Mindset coach, the Founder of Elegant Luxurious Living and the creator of “Money Mindset Elite” the VIP Program for Female-Entrepreneurs specialising in creating a wealthy identity working at different levels in their businesses. She is also a writer, speaker and a former university lecturer who has lived and worked in Europe, East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

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Spice it Up

FOOD AS Information

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Spiritual warrior, Dr. Gregory Damato, gives us insight into the information contained in food and how eating the right foods will help the healing and detoxifying of our very beings.

The most famous inventor of all time, Nikola Tesla, once said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”. Everything from a lilac flower to magnesium to the emotion of love to a head of broccoli all have highly specific and measurable unique energy called a resonant frequency pattern.

These are patterns which are measured in hertz to determine their frequency as a vibrational signature. All vibration is measured in cycles per second or hertz and each cycle represents how much light (in photons) a certain substance contains. Light is known to be the most efficient packaging for knowledge or wisdom.

When we look down at our plate, we have to ask ourselves, “is this the highest vibration available now?” If so, then it holds over 500 times more energy and this enhanced vibration contains powerful wisdom and knowledge (packaged as light) which communicates to every cell in our body. It truly becomes high-vibe food. Hence, with each bite, our food energetically coalesces and merges with our DNA and facilitates in either healing, detoxifying and alkalizing our beautiful avatar or contributing to the opposite.

The most perfect state of food we’ll call ‘Entheophotonic’ (literally meaning the light of God within) and represents the origin of unmodified and unprocessed, organic, live food.

This active photon-dripping sustenance can be seen energetically via Kirlian photography.

Putting it all together, in a state of fear we are only able to take in a small amount of information as light, (1 Hz equals 1 bit per second) while in a state of love (528 hz) we are able to take in 528 times more information. In fear we contract and in love we expand.

When we experience certain highly charged emotions, we begin to resonate at that frequency band and unconsciously crave food within that resonance because like always attracts like. In severe stress, anger, sadness or depression (all resonating below 5 Hz) we’ll need alcohol, French fries, a hamburger, fried food, candy or coffee which also resonate within the same frequency band. In a state of gratitude, love or joy we’ll crave healthy, high vibratory food like salads, juices, greens, smoothie or raw chocolate.

In a state of gratitude, love or joy we’ll crave healthy, high vibratory food

Energetic Mergence

Everything we are exposed to is greatly affecting us on the subtle, energetic unconscious level.

Food is information and contains highly specific vibrational frequency bands which facilitate in a variety of essential tasks such as healing and regeneration of the cells, enhancing immunity, balancing emotions, detoxing the blood and every other function of the body.

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Spice it Up

We are mesmerised by rainbow coloured plantbased food. Our eyes become transfixed on these dishes knowing there must be some magic inside these luminescent colours. Each hue represents a specific frequency band and each wavelength represents various phytochemicals containing trillions of bits of information needed by our cellular terrain. For example, the red pigment in beets is known as betacyanin and has been found to be one of the best blood purifiers in existence. The blue hue found in spirulina is known as phycocyanin and is the only known substance which naturally increases the production of stem cells allowing our organs to completely regenerate.

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Each phytochemical contains a rainbow of colours which translate to specific vibrations working like a key in the proper lock and opening the magic which lies behind the door.

When we over-process our food via heat, chemicals or other means, the small teeth of the keys become more and more damaged and eventually become useless to the body and the doors of healing remain locked. We stack these unusable keys and store them as “fat� in the body.

When we ingest our food it becomes similar to dropping an ice cube in a glass of water, the water energetically merges with the ice and becomes

one energy. This energetic osmosis is happening in a real-time manner with every bite we take. We merge with our food and unconsciously share vital information changing us completely based on this new knowledge (vibrating as fractals held within the water molecules and photons).

We are forever changed, and we activate the epigenetic triggers for complete homeodynamis and internal equilibrium of the mind, body, spirit and emotions. Food is real information.

For example, we grab a glass of pasteurised, conventional cow’s milk and drink it down.

Our body, who’s primary job is to facilitate in symbiogenesis and maintain complete homeostasis of the system, first recognises the energy, then the emotions, then the pathogens, then the nutrients, etc based on need, and reacts accordingly. The vibration of the pasteurisation process is like an atom bomb on our system as our body works hard to process the sadness, fear and anger encoded inside the DNA and quickly moves to detox the pesticides and herbicides in the genetically modified feed as well as the white blood cells which have been killed in the process.

Our immune system goes on high alert creating a state known as digestive leukocytosis, creating massive amounts of white blood cells to attack the milk as the thymus gland sees it as an invader because the resonance has been so greatly changed in the process.

Or, we grab a green goddess smoothie with coconut water, kale, bananas, avocado and add some ancient superfoods such as Moringa, Chlorella, Gotu Kola or Reishi and blend that up. This perfectly tuned symphony of vibrating resonance bathes every one of our 66 trillion cells buzzing in harmony as the doors to wellness quickly unlock one by one enhancing our inner grace and beauty.

Photonic Memory

Our food harbours energetic residues from the person who sowed the seeds to the person picking it to the energy of everyone in between.

This photonic memory is stored inside the water molecules within the food. We can begin to encode specific frequencies into our food with mantras or positive intention.

We are what we eat A favourite at our house is to say OM all together to the food on the table just before eating. This mantra energetically resets the memory in the food back to the divine feminine frequency of love. This karmic cycle represents the simple notion that what we give to the food is exactly what we then receive.

Food as Information

In 432 BC, one of the world’s most famous doctors, considered “The father of medicine”, Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food”. This has two meanings: our food should be our primary source of medicine and our medicine (primarily herbal medicine) should be our food.

Hippocrates knew that in order to remain in a sound state of mind and body we would need to consume nutrient dense food as our medicine and incorporate herbal medicine into our daily meals. If we stray from the first rule, we can lean a bit on the second rule and the herbs will keep us healthy. If we were to stray from both rules and consume processed food while denying the medicine growing outside our door, we lose the information being craved by the cells and communication begins to break down. This cycle contributes to 95% of our physical manifestation of disease in the western world today.

As always, the choice is ours.

We are what we eat.

Food is powerful information.

Just don’t censor it.

Dr Gregory Damato, PhD, is a passionate spiritual warrior and has been

rocking worlds for the past 12 years in Australia and Costa Rica with this unique seal for holistic raw food living detoxification, life purpose and symbiotic union of the mind, spirit and emotions in one of the most tumultuous times on the planet.

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Body

The Six Pillars of

Self-Care

Health Entrepreneur, Dr Anbreen SlamaChaudhry, talks about the importance of women practising self-care and explains the six pillars of self-care which women need to remember to practice for themselves In numbers women are half of humanity, but their role is much larger than this proportion as they are responsible for the perpetuation of mankind, transmission of cultures and heritage, and providing education to the next generation to lead their societies. They carry out many roles in their life course: daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, professional, leader, adviser, healer, tear wiper, and many more.

It might be a hormonal physiology-related thing that women usually take charge of the wellbeing of their loved ones. Women make sure basic needs for their household are met, and a basic need that comes on top priority on their agenda is health. However, they often prioritise their kids’ health, their spouse’s health, their parents’ health over their own.

So in order to be able to take of all these roles it is important that women prioritise their own health and wellbeing – that they understand about and practise self-care.

What is Self-Care?

Self-care is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the ability to take

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actions to improve self-health and wellbeing. It is about the actions one takes to be healthier with lifestyle, to prevent illness as well as to care for any ongoing health conditions. It could mean undertaking small yet soothing personal activities such as taking a relaxing bath, starting an anti-stress activity such as a walk or light jog in the park, a yoga session or even playing music or singing in a choir.

Is ‘Self’ getting lost in all the Care that women provide?

Women are self-care champions by providing thousands of small but meaningful actions like choosing appropriate food for family meals, ensuring cleanliness of family members and living environment, organising everyone’s activities to be smooth and seamless. Though women are champions for others, they often tend to forget to maintain that role for themselves.

It is crucial that women have the mind space to acknowledge that their daily - too often mechanically performed - actions are actually foundations of health. Self-Care contributes to enhancing mental and physical wellbeing. It is the cornerstone of health and plays a big role in: • prevention of disease, • maintaining health, and • ability to cope with any chronic illness.

The Six Pillars of Self-Care

Self-care may be a simple organic concept, but it would be good to remind ourselves, that it has distinct components and that they are all interlinked. In a nutshell the six pillars of self-care are: 1. Health Plan - You are your very first healthcare provider and YOU know yourself best. So, you need to establish a health care plan for your life that should be adapted to the stage of life journey you are in, your health needs, preferences, possibilities and your cultural health beliefs.

Make sure that you know your health condition, you are familiar with any illness you might be facing. As you are your first care provider, it is useful to be confident in managing your health through acquiring self-care competencies.

2. Healthy Weight Management - More and more studies link overweight and obesity to poor health. Obesity is a proven risk factor in developing many diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer among others. It leads to many other health problems requiring regular care and treatment.

3. Healthy Environment - Our environment has a great impact on our health. Toxic elements of our environment include pesticides/ preservatives/antibiotics in our food as well as in daily care products and cosmetics use. An enabling environment includes green areas, access to affordable fresh food, water, security and shelter, access to community and care provider support.

4. Healthy Eating - Food provides pleasure and comfort. Food provides energy for our body to function and healthy food will play a large role in keeping it healthy. Here’s a super quick summary to easily remember the building blocks for healthy eating: • Drinking: mainly water • Understanding Food Components: Sugar, Fats, Proteins, Fibres and Nutrients • Healthy plate: what do we put on our plate? What quantities of which component?

Fresh-raw-processed-steamed-grilled-friedorganic-colourful?

5. Healthy Moving - Keeping active is essential to the body’s healthy functioning. Nowadays our busy lifestyle does not allow enough physical use of the body. With this sedentary lifestyle, there is a need for organising dedicated time for physical activity. Exercise needs to be about balance, strength, endurance. Exercise helps to: • burn calories, • ensure effective blood circulation (facilitate the delivery of nutrients and hormones to organs and perform their dedicated tasks), • circulate water through the body thus avoiding water retention (reduce weight, keep kidneys healthy) 6. Healthy Lifestyle - Lifestyle is the way of living one chooses, reflecting his or her values and attitudes. It is influenced by the surrounding community, peer behaviours, role models chosen, cultural background. Lifestyle has a huge influence on health because of its constituent parts. The interconnected building blocks of lifestyle are: • Food • Physical Activity • Rest and Sleep (this is actually a very active time as it gives an opportunity to regenerate and reenergise) • Stress and Emotions • Toxic Load (smoking, toxic environment) • Hygiene Keeping these in mind will help to empower women with sustainable health management skills and knowledge to make informed health choices. It’s about time women started putting the ‘Self’ back in ‘Self-care’

You need to establish a health care plan for your life

Dr Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry is a Health Entrepreneur. She is a medical

doctor (GP), Health and Wellbeing Consultant, Chronic Diseases Patient Education and Self-Care specialist. She is the CEO and founder of Medical Training Services. Her expertise are: - Care Providers-Patients/Community Health Empowerment, - Capacity Building, - Self-Care Education

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