Susan Finn 0:08
Welcome to this episode of rise above noise where I get to shine a spotlight on somebody in the rise above noise community who's making a real difference, and helping other entrepreneurs with their business growth. I'm Susan Finn. I'm a digital marketing strategist with rise above noise for over 15 years, I've been working with transformation creators, and I know how transformation creators, right Lightworkers coaches, consultants, how we often feel overwhelmed and helpless, when trying to do all the things to grow our business. So that's why I offer structure in a personalized roadmap for you to show up, right, that's marketing, show up and feel empowered to show up with an ease and a flow so that you're attracting your aligned clients. So in today's spotlight, with Christos, we talk a little bit more about how you can put yourself first, play the long game in business, and know how you can work less to produce more, I know you're going to get some great takeaways from today's conversation. Let's get right to it. Before we get started, I do want to give my little introduction a little I think it's I say little right, we have that tendency to go Oh, it's just this it's little this, but it is an I, it's my it's my big why it's my vision, it's my core value, that now more than ever, our world needs transformation creators, like Christos, like my coaches, like my consultants, my lightworkers, we need people now more than ever to show up. So that's marketing marketing is showing up to show up to shine their light so that they can be found, and so that more people can reap the benefits of their wisdom. I'm going to quick share my screen. And for anyone who hasn't already and not. If you've seen this already, well, I was just going to be. So I truly believe that marketing is just a vehicle for showing up allowing you to reach more people. And it's all the things it's its website and its email and it's networking and it's being on somebody's podcast, somebody's webinar, it's having your own event, it's being unaligned, it's the all the things, and so you can't do all of the things well, so you've got to be really particular. And I know that's what Christos and I will be talking about is being very intentional with our actions to move the needles. But if you think about how you can show up and make more of a difference in the world, many of the people that I speak with, when I talk about marketing or email marketing or digital marketing, they have a visceral like, oh, I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to push but honestly, I offer everybody the mindset shift. That if you can think about, it's just a way for you to show up, it almost becomes an obligation, because somebody out there is searching for exactly what you have. And you're not helping anybody if you don't show up. So knowing that transformation creators often feel so overwhelmed and helpless, when it comes to like doing all the things pressing all the buttons, making all the connections, when they're trying to grow their business. And that's why I offer a structure. And it's here's a visual representation of it, it's and we personalize this roadmap for each person that I work with, so that you show up. That's marketing, and feel empowered, for the showing up with ease and flow. So the first pillar and they're not necessarily Sara Lee sequential, but they do all work together is to really get a clear idea on who your ideal clients are. And more importantly, and I know that Christos will talk about this today, what are your core values? What are your non negotiables so important to understand that otherwise, you're going to get torn into a million different pieces, creating compelling content. I could talk about that all day long. I'm just going to say one word here. Maybe it's three letters FAQ. FAQ is compelling content. And the same thing with proof of concept which is just collecting and using testimonials, case studies, referrals, all of that I'd say making sure that people understand what it is that you do. We'll be talking a little bit about this today to organizing and scheduling yourself. So that you don't have that time suck so that you don't always feel pressure. You know where you're going, you know how to get there. And all you need to do is do the things. So we have to figure out what the things are, that's a big part of it. And keeping in touch with your audience, with your potential clients, with people in your communities in your referral partners is a huge part of that, of course, I live in the world of email marketing, and Contact Relationship Management Systems, that people are really good about picking up the phone, or sending direct messages or sending snail mail. Of course, I live in the digital world. So that's where I talk about, but all of it is so that you have a clear path to showing up. And being in service. I can find my button here, I'll stop sharing. And I encourage anyone to join the rise above noise Facebook group, meet me over in the IDEA Lab, where Christos and I are both featured experts in that group, which is amazing how it's growing in exactly these areas, people who are transformation creators, helping others will hop on a call with me. Those were my calls to action today. love a good call to action. Right. So to now I'm going to introduce you to my friend Christos Oh, Christos, I probably should have asked you how to say your last name.
Christos 6:37
It's totally fine, Susan. It's annually. That is
Susan Finn 6:40
what he said. So this is Christos, I don't want to mess it up. He is a wellness coach for entrepreneurs, and he helps solopreneurs stay on top of their business by putting themselves first and he uses a combination of ancient wisdom and modern tools, which I can't wait to learn more about that. I asked Christos what his superpower is and he said that it's it's meeting people where they're at. And giving them the tools they need, I would imagine to stay on top of their business and put themselves first Christos, can you tell me more about that how you came to realize this was your superpower and how you use it in your work. Suzanne, thank
Christos 7:28
you so much for the introduction. And thank you for inviting me here to pleasure. So that's a beautiful question. So my background just to give you an idea, it's I graduated as a mechanical engineer, simply completely unrelated. It seems unrelated. But it's not. Because I learned a lot of problem solving skills there. But as I moved forward, I realized that it was not my passion. Even though I love the science of engineering. I didn't like the lifestyle of the engineer. And I started transitioning to something more for free, you know, like a digital nomad. And that's when I started going into business, online business web development, graphic design. But then I realized I just do it for the money. And then I eventually transition to something which is so fulfilling right now. I started as a health and nutrition coach. And then it transitioned to holistic wellness coach for entrepreneurs. And the main reason for that is that when I started working with people for weight loss and health and fitness, I realized that there's something else going on underneath. And this is true for most people. So the surface problem was like diet in the beginning, but it was some kind of emotional eating, stress, anxiety, relationships, all these things together. And I realized that if I want somebody to succeed the mate and make a sustainable change in his or her life, he or she should do something holistically. And we should sit down and see exactly what's going on relationships, business, stress, anxiety, nutrition, sleep, everything. And I feel that this is my superpower because I have an a lot of knowledge about nutrition, sleep like self care, the well being and I also have experience with anxiety and stress. I faced a lot of anxiety in my life, panic attacks and things like that. So this is why I wanted to help people meet them where they're at, instead of having like a specific service, you know, a curriculum with a 12 week program, which is kind of I never resonated with that because everybody's different is exactly meeting somebody, we're exactly where she's at and giving them the tools they need to move forward. If he or she needs more sleep, like to optimize or sleep we're going to focus on that. If we need to focus on productivity, stress nutrition exercise. Well, I'm going to give you tools about that. So meeting you where you're at right now, instead of giving you enough fluff and many different videos which don't resonate with you. So yeah, that's why I decided to work many one on one with people and also do some small group coaching. So I can have this individualized approach with people.
Susan Finn 10:04
I love to hear you say that and what I loved about it, like it just sprang out at me was the holistic approach to wellbeing, right where so many people will focus on one thing or the other, like you're saying, but that also understanding that, and I'm just going to quickly go to like, where I work, right? Same thing, I work with people where they're at, I'm not, I do have a 12 week program that I'm putting together. But it's not like you have to follow these steps. It's just to make sure that people understand all the facets of marketing, but in your right, so but when I work one on one with clients, it is definitely like, where are you at where you need to go? So here's what I understand about what you're saying, then. For you, your challenge, then is how do you, you have to stay on top of a lot. A lot of modalities, a lot of information, you must have to do a lot of research, when you've talked with somebody and I know you're very intuitive. So I know that that comes into it. And I know all of your education comes into it. But what if I mean, how do you how do you? That's the question, how do you stay on top of all of the things
Christos 11:15
that is beautiful. It's, first of all, what I always do with my clients is We're like two human beings having having a conversation. I'm not like that, let's say mentor, the teacher, I don't like this kind of dynamic. We're two equal human beings, and made just being a few heads of step of somebody is enough to help them move forward. And sometimes I may not even have the answer. And this is fine, because we cannot have all the answers. But I'm here to hold some space and help the other person to actually find their own answers. And that's what we do. And you know, exploring what's going on based on their values, asking questions, holding space, and trying to find their own truth. I never tried to impose my truth and my clients because everybody's different. So I'm, I'm trying to explore what do they need right now. And how they can actually move forward to achieve their goals. So if it's my zone of genius, like nutrition, stress, stuff like that, I may give some advice. But it may also be something unrelated, quote, unquote, like, I could also give some relationship advice sometimes, or try to explore this space, just because it also interferes with the business or the well being. Because everything comes together, if I tell you what to eat, if I tell you to sleep well, and all these things, and you're stressed because you're financially burdened, or you're in debt, or you're not going your lesson to be suffering, then everything that I'm saying it's going to land on deaf ears. That's why I always try to go deeper to see exactly what's going on to address the underlying problem. And then build on top of that.
Susan Finn 12:44
I'm picturing you. You know, I've been listening to Tom fantastic talk about story branding, and how we show up in our business. And I'm picturing you right now, as the guide, kind of like walking through this division, I'm getting a view walking through this like beautifully wooded path, and just having a great conversation with somebody, and they're telling you, and because of what you said, you hold space for them. And everybody's truth is different. And you said you only have to be kind of one step ahead of them. I'm feeling like what you're doing is guiding them to their own truth. Like you, you're the coach, right? You're, you're the person the guide, they have their inner knowledge already. And you're helping them to understand that they already know and to stand to be present in their truth so that they can go forward. Knowing is that a good way to would that be oh,
Christos 13:48
this aligns perfectly Yeah, because everybody has a different truth. And also, we live in the information era, I don't think we need more information. We need more implementation. That's where I come in, you know, and this is what my mentor always used to say to me. Put everything else for like, all the information you have for free and charge for the implementation. And this is what I do. I give everything that I have for free with my content. And if somebody needs extra support to start implementing this, then this is where we can actually come in and start helping him one on one group coaching and all these different things.
Susan Finn 14:22
So what would be, of course, you can't talk about specific clients, but what would be an example? Maybe somebody you're working with now you just finished with where they realized their own power through working with you.
Christos 14:40
That's a great question. So many different exam examples come to mind. But it's, for me, it's like my last client which we were navigating through. We started with nutrition. You know, one of my client who started was nutrition trying to win was weighed and all these things. And we started going deeper and deeper and realize that there's some kind of, you know, internal stuff going on there, some stress, some anxiety, financial things, all these things that were manifesting as emotional eating. And we try to unravel that together. And trying to eliminate some limiting beliefs and some blocks that he had. So he can actually work on a foundation, because this is what happens with people, for example, with diets, the yo yo dieting, if you feel it, I'm sure you have. Because if you don't change who you are, if you don't change your identity, you're going to fall back into your same habits. This is always the case for most people, if we don't change who you are. Same with alcoholism, for example, if you actually are an alcoholic, and you're addicted to alcohol, and you're in the same same environment, like having alcohol in your house, you hang out with the same people who you used to actually hang out with and going out for drinks, you decide to quit, it's going to be extremely hard to do that. Because you have all this peer pressure and all the environment to tell you, you know, you have to drink because this is who you are, this is what you were like who you were four years in your life, it's almost impossible to change like that. And this is where we go deep with clients trying to create they have an exercise called clients named to point out it would be like Susan 2.0. So creating the second version, like the next version of yourself. And the more right now, it's the idea of the Good Wolf and the bad wolf. And they say that this is like a quote from indigenous Americans actually, like, I don't know if you know, this kind of metaphor, but they say that you have like the Good Wolf and the bad wolf, and the one who is going to survive is the one who you actually feed. So if you feed the Bad Wolf, or like the 1.1 version of yourself is going to be big, it's going to expand, it's going to take all your space. But if you start feeling the other version of yourself, you know, the next version of yourself, who you want to be changing your identity one day at a time, then eventually the Good Wolf is going to become so big, it's going to be the bad golf, and you're going to actually have this change in your life. But it happens slowly in one day at a time.
Susan Finn 17:10
I love that analogy of which will fool you feed. And I know that just we didn't just before we got on to I talked about all the head trash that I had in my head, right? So as entrepreneurs had this conversation yesterday with somebody, we have such a roller coaster, oh my god, I'm amazing. I got everything. And then all of a sudden, like this morning, I was like, Oh, what the heck am I doing? Like, why don't I go get a job. And then I get to do this right. So now I'm back Oh, going up, because this is what I love to do. And that's what I talked about my client with my clients is let's find what you love to do, and make that your thing. So we have three topics to talk about, we can probably tie them all into a conversation, we need to put ourselves first, as you kind of just mentioned, right like feeding the Good Wolf. Exactly. But then the other things that we were going to talk about is playing the long game in business, which I think also ties in with how to work less and produce more. So let's talk about playing the long game working lesson producing more.
Christos 18:13
That's beautiful, actually, everything ties together. And it all starts with the foundations. Many times we get caught up in into our work, you know, we get stressed, anxious and all these things. And all we have to do is take a step back, relax, take a day off, go for a walk, spend time with some friends sleep well eat a high, like a nourishing meal, you know, like something good for us. When we start taking care of ourselves, and we sleep well, we exercise with good food, all these things are going to help us have a strong foundation. So we can actually address all the challenges that come in our way. If we're stressed, tired, fatigue, anxious and sleep deprived, it's almost impossible to operate from a high level of from a level of high performance, it's almost impossible. And when you feel like that, it's very difficult to make good decisions, everything looks like a huge mountain in front of you, you get caught up into even the smallest thing you get irritated. It's so many different things. And we think that we need the next productivity hack, you know more marketing tricks or like more productivity, but if we don't have the foundation, then nothing else will because we are the most important aspect of our business. It's the same as your car, your car cannot operate without an engine. And we are the engine of our business. So it's almost impossible. This is because I always do this with clients we start with self care first, this the most important thing optimizing sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress management, all these things. And then we build on top of that. If we have that and if we practice patience if we have the right systems and time management and all these things which are beautiful tools but they come on top. There's a pyramid you know like on the base of the pyramid you have the foundations, which is like sleep nutrition exercise, and then you go top like time management and other things. But the most important thing is after the foundation's, you need to have systems, some specific goals to aim for and some specific systems to move forward. And this is the only way to play the long game. To be honest, I've done this myself, I burned myself out multiple times, and pulling all nighters and working like 14 hours a day, there's something that we tend to forget, which is called the law of diminishing returns. I don't know if you shared it. But the more we work, the less productive we become. That's another problem. We don't realize that. And many also, many entrepreneurs treat downtime as wasted time. But in reality, downtime is wisely invested time for our business. And it's the same like going to the gym, if you go to the gym, you need to work out hard, this is true. But without rest and recovery, you cannot move forward, you're going to burn out. So the actual like, muscle synthesis happens during the recovery is the same with our brains. Something we do with clients like work deep work sessions, followed by rest and recovery. And this how you play the long game, instead of burning yourself out is the idea of instead of a blazing fire, you're like a hot searing cold, you know, like burning like at a specific rate, steady rate every day.
Susan Finn 21:15
I'm taking this in the Facebook page here because it's so good. Not a roaring fire. slow burning ember. I love that. I know that it's it's so hard, right? The thing is, for entrepreneurs, we get so distracted, oh, we need to be on tick tock, we need to be on LinkedIn, we need to be here. We need to be there. I need to be funny. I need to be serious. How do entrepreneurs how do the entrepreneurs that you speak to balance out? Or how do you advise them to balance all the things?
Christos 21:53
That's a great question. And the most important thing that I always tell them is like something I tell myself to always put it on the calendar. If you don't schedule it, you're going to forget it. Even if it's time if it's like a daytime date night with with your spouse, if it's like time with friends, social time, exercise, going for a walk, and all these things, put them in your calendar and have a specific system with different colors. And it's very important. Because if it's on the calendar, you also have something to look forward to, you know, you look like your workday and then at night you have your date night and it's like okay, let's do this, you know, it's something exciting. You want you're actually looking forward to that through your workday, which is important. And if you don't have a calendar, if you don't have a system then it's almost impossible to move forward. Because we get lost we get distracted, you know have so many different things to do as solopreneurs who have to work where so many different hats, sales, marketing, content creation and coaching all these things, which are difficult to juggle. And without the right system it's almost impossible to play the long game and keep moving forward. And another thing that I always tell them is patience if I find somebody who is actually impatient to move forward and like make money and all these things, I'm asking them why and why do you need to do it now can you like take some more time you know be more patient because everything in nature takes time. We have this notion that we need something now you know we live in the era of in the US you have same day delivery with Amazon right? With Amazon Prime I think so. Yeah. We live in this era of instant gratification. We want everything now. But everything takes time if you like if you see nature, if you look outside it's everything takes time.
Susan Finn 23:38
That's so true. I love I love everything that you're saying here and to just go back to the calendar for a second I in the rice together membership that I have. We had or the previous one that I had we had a Friday morning planning time I still do it with a group of people led by Kathleen Lawson. And that one hour a week we just hold space for each other okay everybody look at your calendar what's coming up. Now look at all your post it notes and your planner and all the notes you've written everywhere. Make sure everything makes its way onto your calendar. And spending that one hour and I like that we do it on a Friday I asked recently one of the polls I took was when when do you do your planning some people do it Friday some people do it Sunday night some people do it Monday morning. I personally like the Friday morning one because I close my computer at one o'clock I go walk on the beach with my dog that is my reward as you were talking about and my head is clear for the weekend. For the most part I don't work on the weekend and Monday morning. I don't have to shuffle through figuring out what I'm doing. I have my plan for the day. It has made 1,000% change in in my my feeling of not stressed my feeling of knowing what I'm doing in my momentum and getting stuff done.
Christos 25:04
That is beautiful. Yeah, because we we actually reenergize, we do what we love. And then we come back to our business with fresh eyes, you know, with energy. And we're like, okay, let's do this, instead of doing it from a place, as I call this in my content creation, usually my posts, instead of operating from a place of desperation, we operate from a place of inspiration.
Susan Finn 25:22
I love that. I love it. So good. So good. Oh, my gosh, it always goes by so quickly, as we're starting to wrap up today, tell me where people can find out more about you. Maybe get on your list. Do you know kind of just I know that you have a weekly open room that people can go into I went last week, you guys, it was really interesting. I loved it, I learned an awful lot about myself by listening to the questions that other people were asking.
Christos 25:56
That is beautiful. And thank you for your kind words exam, because this group is exactly what I wish I had when I started out as a coach. And if you're a coach or consulting, service based business owner, and you're actually watching this, it will be lovely to actually see you on the call. Because we try to address everything that's going on. It's a safe space where you can share what's going on in your life and your business, what struggles you have everybody shares. And my mentor and me facilitate that. And my mentor actually has been doing coaching for almost 15 years now. And he has this beautiful energy, all this experience. And he can help people navigate through their struggles through their minds, blogs, through their limiting beliefs. And it's so beautiful to watch that unravel in front of your eyes. It's so beautiful. So I will leave the link in the Facebook group probably. Okay, great. You can also follow me on LinkedIn, I also have a Facebook profile. I'm not really active, but I'm mainly active on LinkedIn. And this is something that I also tell my clients and my friends, my network, try to be active in one platform, maximum aptitude because it can be very distracting. It's very difficult to manage different platforms. You can find me on LinkedIn on Facebook, not so active and all from building my website. You can of course, follow us on the IDEA Lab too. If you want to be a part of the idea of community. I'm also there. And of course, I would love to see you on the call. Like it's every Thursday, it's I'm not missing the time zones. It's 11am ESD. And 10am. CST time. Yeah,
Susan Finn 27:24
yes, yeah, I suppose thank you so much for spending your time with me this morning, I know you're gonna hop off for that other call. So people can go right over there, I'll get the I'll get the link in there. I'll find it on the IDEA Lab, and send it right over to this Facebook group as well. And I'm looking forward like we have such a nice group over there. And Idealab shout out to Suzanne, which Suzanne Taylor king what she's putting together in the idea lab with. So like, if you guys go on there, I'll drop the link in here. If you go into that group there every day, there are so many learning opportunities. Now I know Chris just said Don't get distracted by all of the learning. But in the meantime, I have learned so much I have connected with amazing people throughout the United States and other places, Greece, Canada. And it's just a really nice. What's the word I should say? Like it's just another level of thinking it's got it's a broader, more can do. Let's all do this together kind of community. And so I'm so glad that I've met Christos there and we'll be spending more time in there. Chris does have
Christos 28:36
it was lovely to meet you here. Thank you so much for the invitation. And take care.
Susan Finn 28:42
Have it I hope you enjoyed this episode of rise above noise. Did you grab some takeaways from our talk? I really did. I really liked Christo says tips on how to play that long game in business by putting ourselves first and how to be very strategic. With our calendar that was my favorite takeaway and work less to produce more. I'm going to repeat what I've said a number of times now more than ever. Our world needs our transformation creators to be successful in their ventures to show up in service and make a real difference in our world. If our only true currency in this life is our time and our energy. Then as we work at building our businesses, we really need to practice that efficiency and flow and be strategic set up our systems create guidelines create non negotiables that's going to allow us to shine in our own zone of genius without sucking our precious time and our energy. Thank you can see how our rise above noise community is really revolutionizing how serve As professionals show up in our marketing to make a real difference in the world, I want to thank you for listening in today, and I look forward to seeing you in one of the rise above noise communities.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
