Lilly Wang Discusses the Human Experience and Staying Positive During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Edmonton's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:07] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Mario Toneguzi coming to you today with Edmonton's podcast, a member
[00:13] SPEAKER_01: of Canada's podcast network, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:18] SPEAKER_01: in Edmonton, Alberta, so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: Today's guest is Lily Wang of Lily Wang Coaching in Edmonton.
[00:29] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us today, Lily.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Mario, so much for having me.
[00:33] SPEAKER_01: Okay, tell me a little bit about what you do and how you got started in doing this.
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: Sure. So what I do is I do coaching and consulting.
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: I work primarily with small businesses and entrepreneurs with a hope, a dream and a vision.
[00:47] SPEAKER_00: How I got started in it was I started teaching a lot of workshops when I was much younger.
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: This is a decade and a half ago, way before it was cool.
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: My workshops were on goal setting, how to keep your new year's resolutions.
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: From there, I did more consulting work.
[01:04] SPEAKER_00: So my consulting work spent the World Health Organization.
[01:08] SPEAKER_00: One of my clients was the government of Cambodia.
[01:12] SPEAKER_00: I worked kind of around the globe quite a bit.
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: And it was through consulting work that I then got further into coaching work.
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: I find that consulting is important for businesses.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: It's very transactional, but coaching where where my passion really lies is very transformational.
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: And for the right business owner who wants to improve and who wants to grow and develop as a person in order to develop their business that fit the match can be absolutely remarkable.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious like how you got started in this like a little school for this or just something.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: An idea popped in your head that you wanted to do this.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
[01:52] SPEAKER_00: So how I got started in coaching was like I said, because I had the absolute privilege of working with small business owners, corporations, top leaders were talking in Cambodia, Geneva, Switzerland,
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: in Europe, in Asia, Toronto, and so on.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: Then that work became very transformational.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: And the transformational relationship automatically would have qualified it as coaching.
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: I just never knew that coaching was a real thing.
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: But the work along along the lines, it was always coaching.
[02:25] SPEAKER_00: And that's how I really got into it.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: It's just very naturally through supporting entrepreneurs and supporting anybody with a dream and a dream of something very, very different from what they have now.
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: So you're based in Edmonton.
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: Tell me what the benefits are of doing business in Edmonton.
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: The benefits of doing business in Edmonton.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: I think that in Edmonton and Alberta at large, there's a lot of potential.
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of capability.
[02:53] SPEAKER_00: I think we've had decades of just tremendous growth.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of natives to the city may not see it that way, but I assure you when we compare it nationally and internationally,
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: we've just had immense amounts of money.
[03:07] SPEAKER_00: But that's shifting a little bit.
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: And I think more people are looking into the greener avenues, right?
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: More entrepreneurial ways of using oil and so on and so forth.
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: So the benefits of doing business for me here is that where there's a person, where there's people wanting growth.
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: Where there's people wanting something different.
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of potential to do some good work together.
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: Okay, what's your vision for the business as you look forward and into the future?
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: Sure, the vision for my business is I meet more and more entrepreneurs.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: We're talking startups, solar partners, small and medium sized businesses who really want to grow.
[03:48] SPEAKER_00: I, as you know, Mario, we've talked about it before our recording.
[03:52] SPEAKER_00: I'm very into quantum physics, right?
[03:54] SPEAKER_00: So I'm absolutely hard-nosed and bottom line.
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: I'll get you results when you work with me.
[03:59] SPEAKER_00: However, I really believe in the spiritual capacity to inform us to help us do better business.
[04:06] SPEAKER_00: So the potential that I see really is the person who's very self-aware and there's so many in our city.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: The person who's very self-aware can do a lot of good financially, personally and so on.
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: Can you explain a little bit in sort of layman terms of what you mean by quantum physics?
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir. In layman's terms, quantum physics has been so misunderstood because some popular teachers and we're and also social media has been saying it solely as the law of attraction.
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: And that's been horrifically misunderstood, not because we as people are misunderstanding it, but because certain teachers with influence with a social media platform have simplified it so much that it's not what it truly is.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: I'd say that quantum physics is at its core the idea that we can have B or do anything.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: And why is that the case, the case is in a quantum universe, in a quantum way of looking at our world, we have so many opportunities.
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: I think about it this morning when you got up, you had the opportunity to brush your teeth to get water to get coffee to not brush your teeth to not get coffee to text somebody to not text someone.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: Once you look at it that way, you actually had a million different opportunities as it were a million different doors opening or closing and you had the choice of taking them.
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: The reason why so many of us don't see our lives that way, we don't think of ourselves as full of potential as having so many opportunities is because we're primarily driven by habits at this point.
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: And sometimes our habits are not very good habits right there they're not supportive of us.
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: So quantum physics in the layman's term is really getting back to the core of us, which means getting back to the idea that you have so many opportunities available.
[06:04] SPEAKER_00: My job is to show you how in each and every way.
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: So what has been the biggest challenge you faced in your business?
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: I think it's challenge I faced on my business, oh my god, I only get to say one, eh?
[06:20] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've had so many, I think any for anyone who's wanted more, wanted to be more, do more have more, there's always so many challenges.
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: It's just the name of the game.
[06:30] SPEAKER_00: I certainly moved a lot, I've changed industries a lot.
[06:34] SPEAKER_00: So many years ago, my aspiration was to work with the World Health Organization, right?
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: So be a consultant with the United Nations.
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: And that's been amazing, but transitioning from that to working with startups, learning to work with startups and entrepreneurs and then transitioning from having learned that become good at it, then moving back to Canada.
[06:54] SPEAKER_00: And yet again, it's a transition. And from Canada, I was based in Ontario, had a lot of clients in the United States, but now I'm an Alberta.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: So now I'm now learning to be more local.
[07:05] SPEAKER_00: So I think to answer your question, the biggest challenge has been very continuous, always there, which is, you know, in my next phase of my life and business, how do I yet again learn to step up and learn to rise up to that occasion?
[07:22] SPEAKER_01: Over the years, since you've been doing this, is there any single piece of advice on being an entrepreneur that has stuck with you?
[07:33] SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
[07:35] SPEAKER_00: There's so many different pieces of advice, depending on where in the stage you are, but the one single piece of advice that stuck with me that I absolutely use in every coaching session with every one of my clients is.
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: Remember that you have so much potential people forget that people forgot that when they were five they forgot that when their teacher, you know, criticized them when they were 15, if we got that when their parents said, no, you can't be the prime minister, you know, people forget that as an entrepreneur, if that's what you want to be, it's your right, it's your privilege to remember that you have so much potential.
[08:09] SPEAKER_00: We have to just start unlocking it.
[08:12] SPEAKER_01: Okay, super now obviously we're in the midst of this crisis that's gripped the world. How is the coronavirus affected you and your business?
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: How is the coronavirus affected me in my business? Okay, so remember a couple minutes ago, I said that one of my transitioning aspects of my life was learning to grow locally again after working abroad for so long, working with American clients for so long.
[08:39] SPEAKER_00: I'm learning to be in my home learning to be in Alberta. That challenge of course was well now that I was learning to grab real coffee dates, right real coffee professional dates with prospective clients before starting our six months three months together.
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: I was just getting really, really comfortable with that comes COVID now, but so I guess it's just having really committed to that really committing to learning how to meet locally, work locally, going back to virtually.
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: So the challenge is just pivoting yet again. I mean, I made a big pivot two to three months ago. It was hard at the time. I was just getting very good at it. If I may say so myself took a lot of courage to change like that, but now it's just it's just about pivoting again and encouraging my, you know, my network, my colleagues of colleagues, friends or friends who would have wanted to meet me in person, encouraging them that although it's not exactly the same, I'm still the same person.
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: You can still see and hear me and we can still do it in this way via zoom.
[09:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you see any silver lining out of all this?
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: Yes, definitely. Like we said, we don't have to wear the nicest or tightest fitting pants. It's a really good silver lining.
[09:57] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any advice for fellow entrepreneurs that can help them be guided through this crisis at this time?
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: Sure. I mean, that's the bulk of all my work right now is is all my work is about the advice and helping of entrepreneurs through this time.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: But I mean in one or two sentences, Mario, I'd say remember that at every moment you have a choice to be positive or negative, to be grateful, appreciative or on the other hand to be moan, what's been happening.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I understand brick and mortar stores are closed, I understand I see it. It's it's exactly what I deal with every day, but even then right what are the opportunities, even then, which are the clients you can reach out to thank them for their business three months ago.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: There's always so much you can do and I understand it's tough I understand.
[10:52] SPEAKER_00: But just remember at every moment, you have the option of choosing a better feeling thought a better more supportive productive thought versus one that's, you know, just of based on fear or criticism or even boredom, like choose the better feeling thought and you'll take the actions.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: Even though maybe on the surface, it may not seem like you're doing much, but if you're contacting those clients cleaning up your systems, that's a lot of stuff that you're doing that you could be doing.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm going to switch gears a little bit here on you and ask you some personal type questions. Some of the best ideas that we have, you know, come outside the office environment, etc.
[11:31] SPEAKER_01: What kind of interest did you have, you know, that you pursue on a personal level that may be avenues for you to get inspired and think up of ideas about your business.
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: Very good question. So many things again, I definitely as a coach, I invest in coaching, so I'm always learning from mentors.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: And that's I say that's so genuinely that's not because it's my industry, but it's it's really true. All my very successful mentors and friends do the same right there and turn learning from other mentors.
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: So I'm often listening to something very, very supportive inspirational, motivational or I'm watching something I'm taking an online course.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: And yes, this is in my free time. You know, I feel that a people can veg out and do Netflix three hours a day.
[12:19] SPEAKER_00: We can do something inspirational for at least an hour a day. It's simply very true. So that's one thing. Another thing is I try to just have some nice music on and just do free flow writing.
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: Usually that's about the vision I have for my life, the things I want to achieve, the kind of a person I want to be.
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: But if that's a little bit difficult for some of our listeners right now, because of the situation of a lot of fear and uncertainty at this moment, I would say start with gratitude.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: Train yourself today right now right after you finish listening to this. Grab a notebook and pen and write down three things for which you're grateful.
[12:58] SPEAKER_00: If you do that today and you did that again tomorrow and the day after that, you would get used to the habit of seeing things in a positive way.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: And when you're used to that from there, you'll get inspiration to work on yourself again to build your business again.
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: It's something that's worked for me so many years. I mean, I've certainly had my shares of ups and downs, so many of them as well.
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: But it's something that's carried me through the down through the hard times, you know, when when things are hard, we don't stop when things are hard.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: I advise us I would suggest let's rise, let's rise to the occasion.
[13:35] SPEAKER_01: If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what do you think you would do as a career?
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: I would say I mean, I do so many things now. I'm teaching, I do workshops, so I facilitate, I do consulting, I do coaching, I do mentoring.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: So that's already what five things. So if I weren't doing these five things, I think my whole life of enjoying these things is just depending on the year.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit more of one thing over the other, you know, I've spent years on a telephone crisis line supporting people who are in crises.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: I've spent years coaching, I've spent years mentoring kids, I spent years consulting with organizations.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: I see the next many decades of my life, always a combination of some of those things.
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of people, they, they were taught in school to be pigeonholed, they were taught to focus on one thing only and get good at it.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: Although there's merit to that argument, I would, I personally from what I've seen from what I've seen my very successful mentors do is, be who you are as a dynamic person.
[14:40] SPEAKER_00: There's no rule that says that you can't be more than one thing. School, school's taught us being accountant and that's it. Why not be an accountant and a really fun musician on the side? Why not?
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: Mm hmm.
[14:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[14:54] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Um, do you have a favorite place that you've traveled to and why?
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: Oh my God. Now I don't want to offend anyone, any of our listeners for.
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: This is so personal.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: Um, oh my God, I don't know.
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: Oh, the favorite country or all so many, you know, as you know, I've worked around the world. So I've really been to a lot of countries.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd say that outside of work, I really like being in Prague.
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: It was at a time when I was really busy. I was flying back and forth between the UK and continental Europe.
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: And so I went to Prague with two girlfriends. It was total relaxation for two to three days. The weather was so warm for anyone who's in Canada listening to this.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: I'll say that again, the weather was so warm, not hot.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: Just nice springtime weather is just really, really relaxing.
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: So I really like that. And I figure for an entrepreneur who's working on their own thing, especially whether you're putting out fires or just highly ambitious and want to move forward, you're probably very busy.
[15:55] SPEAKER_00: If every couple of months you can completely devote yourself to two days of no work, it'll be so worth it.
[16:01] SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard, but try.
[16:04] SPEAKER_01: Okay, speaking of travel, okay, I'm going to present a scenario to you. Okay, there's a small, beautiful tropical island in the middle of the ocean with only one phone booth and no internet.
[16:15] SPEAKER_01: We're going to drop you off there. There's absolutely no technology.
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: And anytime you can use the phone booth on the island to call the boat and we'll come pick you up.
[16:25] SPEAKER_01: So how long do you think you're last before making that phone call? And what do you think you would do until then?
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: How long would I last?
[16:34] SPEAKER_00: Well, thank goodness, although I am still technically a millennial, I am not at all one. I got Instagram a year ago.
[16:41] SPEAKER_00: So I'd last longer than a couple hours, I'd say.
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: I would say, you know, the weather's nice. I have food, I have some basic shelter, and it's a pleasant time. I'd honestly last a couple weeks.
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: I, like I said, I'm highly spiritual.
[16:57] SPEAKER_00: You know, we have these material things we want to need in our world, right? Is that a higher income, more clients, a nicer functioning car? These are really important things, but in order to get them, this is what I teach you have to have to work on yourself.
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: So if I got two weeks on an island, right, no phone distractions, you know, not needing to reply to 100 direct messages a day.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: You know, that's, that's, that's really peaceful. I mean, I'm thankful for the messages, but what I mean is two weeks of just uninterrupted time to meditate right right my next speech, focus on my vision.
[17:33] SPEAKER_00: Boy, and if that's paid, thank you very much. I'll do it.
[17:37] SPEAKER_01: Okay, great. Lily, is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[17:42] SPEAKER_00: Oh, sure. Um, wow, that was quicker than I thought. Well, your fast paced. I like it.
[17:49] SPEAKER_00: I would say whoever, whoever is listening, if you're an entrepreneur, you are a parent, you're a teacher, you remember the community, whatever you're going through right now, and this could be very evergreen, right?
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're listening to this during the COVID crisis, maybe you're listening to it when the world is back to normal.
[18:06] SPEAKER_00: But one thing I found is for sure, it's the human experience that defines us and the human experience is always up full of ups and downs, COVID or not.
[18:17] SPEAKER_00: So if you are a human, then you have ups and downs, then it stands to reason that it makes sense that we learn how to pull ourselves up from the downs, right?
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: And the best advice I would say, I mean, this could be a one hour conversation, but in just a couple sentences again, I just, if you're listening, I advise you to just remember every moment you have the choice, understand it could be harder challenging right now.
[18:42] SPEAKER_00: But rather than just vegging out, we're just feeling bad about the state, or maybe you have to let go, let people go and just feeling guilt, always remember, you have that opportunity, that ability to choose a better feeling thought.
[18:56] SPEAKER_00: Are you grateful for the clients that you do have? Are you grateful for the fact that you can afford bread and toilet paper right now, right?
[19:03] SPEAKER_00: There's always a better feeling thought and as we practice that every day, I promise you your outlook will change and your business will grow.
[19:12] SPEAKER_01: Okay, thanks, Lolli, for joining us today on Edmonton's podcast.
[19:15] SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me and I hope you've enjoyed it.
[19:19] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Edmonton's podcast on Canada's podcast network.
[19:26] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed the show today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[19:40] SPEAKER_01: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.
[19:49] Speaker UNKNOWN: Bye.