Sarah Saffari is a Fitness Entrepreneur, Business Coach, Health Scientist, and a Sales & Marketing Ninja

Transcript

Full transcript page · Interactive episode

============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================

[00:00] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada.
[00:02] SPEAKER_00: eBay Canada is here to help.
[00:04] SPEAKER_00: They've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years
[00:08] SPEAKER_00: and have recently launched their up and running program
[00:11] SPEAKER_00: to meet an urgent need to get businesses online today.
[00:16] SPEAKER_00: New business sellers can get a free e-commerce store for 90 days
[00:19] SPEAKER_00: when they visit ebay.ca slash up and running.
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: Offer open until August 22nd.
[00:26] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: The number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:34] SPEAKER_02: I'm Angela Faye, host of the British Columbia edition,
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: coming to you today from NINIMO.
[00:39] SPEAKER_02: On this Canada day, very excited to be celebrating
[00:43] SPEAKER_02: and spending some time with Sarah as we celebrate our national holiday
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: as well.
[00:49] SPEAKER_02: So I would like to just quickly introduce Sarah Safari from CE-owned.
[00:54] SPEAKER_02: Now, one fun bit of information is that Sarah's actually
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: stuck in Columbia right now.
[01:01] SPEAKER_02: So we're so close because our hometowns are only 30 kilometers away
[01:06] SPEAKER_02: between NINIMO and Vancouver, but we are a world apart right now.
[01:09] SPEAKER_02: We are.
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tell me a little bit about you Sarah.
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: Tell me, Sarah, is your entrepreneurial journey?
[01:17] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so in terms of travel, yes, I'm stuck in Columbia.
[01:22] SPEAKER_03: I have been and I will be for another few months.
[01:24] SPEAKER_03: So there's absolutely no flights until September, internationally.
[01:29] SPEAKER_03: So that's a thing.
[01:31] SPEAKER_03: But in terms of my entrepreneurship, the journey,
[01:34] SPEAKER_03: all that kind of stuff, it started in Vancouver, Canada about three years ago.
[01:39] SPEAKER_03: When I ended up opening a gym after having a one month trip in South America,
[01:46] SPEAKER_03: I was in Panama and I saw a couple in Panama.
[01:49] SPEAKER_03: And they were working online.
[01:52] SPEAKER_03: They were going on an excursion shortly after and they were making money
[01:56] SPEAKER_03: doing all that at the same time and I was just shocked.
[01:59] SPEAKER_03: It was the first time I had ever seen in my life the possibility of being able to travel,
[02:05] SPEAKER_03: being able to have that freedom and at the same time being able to make a living.
[02:09] SPEAKER_03: And so I remember going home from that trip and just researching and researching
[02:14] SPEAKER_03: traffic throughout how I could do the same because of the time I was using personal training
[02:19] SPEAKER_03: as my side hustle.
[02:21] SPEAKER_03: And so I ended up at that time once I got back, hiring a coach,
[02:28] SPEAKER_03: moving out of my parents' house, leaving my nine to five,
[02:32] SPEAKER_03: and just opening a gym in Vancouver all at the same time.
[02:37] SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of where I started.
[02:39] SPEAKER_03: That's where I started working with personal trainers and eventually through that development,
[02:44] SPEAKER_03: I was able to start CEO and last year.
[02:47] SPEAKER_03: And just giving a snapshot of what CEO owned is.
[02:51] SPEAKER_03: So we're a coaching and consulting company.
[02:54] SPEAKER_03: So what we do is we essentially help coaches build their online business in two ways.
[03:00] SPEAKER_03: So either if they're starting from zero, they just have no idea how to get started,
[03:04] SPEAKER_03: how to essentially use the blueprint to create a business and build it to six figures.
[03:11] SPEAKER_03: We help them step by step build that business so that they can be successful.
[03:15] SPEAKER_03: They can't get the right clients and be able to do that in a step by step manner.
[03:20] SPEAKER_03: Now the second type of client we help is essentially someone who has already gone some clients.
[03:26] SPEAKER_03: They have some momentum, but they don't know how to scale.
[03:29] SPEAKER_03: They don't know how to grow even bigger and what they need is systems that are going to allow them,
[03:35] SPEAKER_03: systems on a team that's going to allow them to be able to do that.
[03:38] SPEAKER_02: We talked a little bit about your business model as well.
[03:41] SPEAKER_02: And something that I thought was really intriguing when we first met was the discussion about the golden handcuffs.
[03:50] SPEAKER_02: But you just give me a snapshot of what that means for you.
[03:54] SPEAKER_03: So for me, what happened was I grew up in a family where we struggled with the law.
[04:01] SPEAKER_03: So I immigrated to Canada when I was two years old.
[04:05] SPEAKER_03: And we didn't do so well.
[04:09] SPEAKER_03: My parents fought a lot about money.
[04:11] SPEAKER_03: Finances a bit was a big thing.
[04:13] SPEAKER_03: So I just remember for me was ingrained in my mindset that lack of money means lack of happiness.
[04:19] SPEAKER_03: And that was a huge thing for me.
[04:21] SPEAKER_03: And so I grew up with the desire to make a lot of money because I wanted to avoid those fights.
[04:27] SPEAKER_03: I wanted to avoid sadness.
[04:29] SPEAKER_03: I wanted to avoid all of that that I kind of was exposed to growing up.
[04:32] SPEAKER_03: And the only thing that I knew, the only way that I knew how to do that at the time was for me through school, through being either a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer.
[04:42] SPEAKER_03: And so that's why originally end up doing a health science degree.
[04:47] SPEAKER_03: I was going to either do physical therapy or a law or go and be a doctor.
[04:53] SPEAKER_03: I really didn't know, but I was just playing with those fields honestly, mostly because it had merit.
[04:59] SPEAKER_03: It had societal acceptance and there was a wealth aspect to it, which was obviously appealing to me considering what I wanted growing up.
[05:10] SPEAKER_03: And so that was kind of what led me to have that desire.
[05:14] SPEAKER_03: But once I had gotten back from Panama and I saw this opportunity to start my own business, I went from this desire to build the online business to end up opening a gym because that's what my coach had told me to do at the time.
[05:27] SPEAKER_03: And instead of creating a life by design, I ended up just following someone else's blueprint of what success and wealth meant.
[05:37] SPEAKER_03: And as a result of that, what ended up happening was I was working in the gym from 3am or 4am till 10pm.
[05:45] SPEAKER_03: And honestly, I was making what was to me at that time a lot of money. It was making $10,000 in the $20,000 months.
[05:52] SPEAKER_03: And I just remember I had told you this before as well. I just remember looking at the bank account and being like, whoa, like this is a lot of money.
[06:01] SPEAKER_03: I had never seen that kind of money coming in before. I didn't really, I didn't even know how to feel about it, what did you do about it.
[06:08] SPEAKER_03: But I knew something was working.
[06:11] SPEAKER_03: And at the same time, that was the first time that I had seen the discrepancy between having a lot of wealth and having that financial freedom.
[06:20] SPEAKER_03: And also feeling like I was in golden handcuffs because I was really unhappy.
[06:27] SPEAKER_03: I felt like I didn't have any of the time freedom. I felt exhausted. I felt burnt out.
[06:33] SPEAKER_03: And it got to a point where it was a drag for me to show up to work. So it was really weird.
[06:39] SPEAKER_03: The thing that I had worked up in this whole life, the thing that I fantasized, I imagine it being this glorious thing that would bring me essentially happiness.
[06:50] SPEAKER_03: It was also the first time I felt actually the most miserable and the most locked down in my life because now I was locked down not to a nine of five, but to essentially golden handcuffs that I had personally crafted for myself.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: Well, and that's interesting. And I can't help but comment that, you know, in this strange pandemic world that we're living in right now that I think a lot of people are finding themselves in that position today collectively.
[07:23] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's one thing to go through that experience for yourself, Sarah, right where you're finding, OK, you were on this pathway that you had created and it was successful by societal definition and yet you were depleted.
[07:37] SPEAKER_02: And today, lots of people are going through these experience in many ways. But we're all experiencing it together in some ways. So.
[07:47] SPEAKER_02: I give you a lot of credit and a lot of privilege to have experienced it three years ago. So you're probably on the other side of not suggesting that things aren't affecting you right now, but you're clearly in a place where you've got your life by design a little bit early.
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: Would you consider your business a bit recession proof or pandemic proof?
[08:10] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I would. And I want to ask you that question. But I also want to address what you what you said about what happened to be three years ago.
[08:18] SPEAKER_03: I think that, you know, there's a big difference between the people who end up being successful, whatever that means to them and the people who don't end that ends up coming down to their perception and their idea.
[08:29] SPEAKER_03: Is this experience what I'm going through in this moment is it serving me or is it hurting me? And if you can take every experience you have whether it may seem on the outside as something maybe neck it up and you can turn that around as something that's going to serve you so that you can turn that around and serve others down the line.
[08:49] SPEAKER_03: And well, then you're always always going to to be successful. You're always going to be able to help other people. And so now when I look back and I think of like, okay, you know, I ended up putting myself like voluntarily in these golden handcuffs. And how does that serve me now is now that I know that I can now teach my students how to never have to go through that and instead be able to on purpose create a life of design.
[09:16] SPEAKER_03: And because now I know they're going to come in. The first thing they're going to say is I need to make money. I need to make money. And I know that from like a soul heart level, what that feels like.
[09:28] SPEAKER_03: And at the same time, I want them to create wealth, build a business of service with intention rather than just go go and say, whoa, like what have I, what have I created, right?
[09:43] SPEAKER_03: So that's the, that's the biggest thing that I think I've noticed. What was that question that you had following her?
[09:49] SPEAKER_02: And do you feel that your business is a bit recession proof or pandemic proof?
[09:54] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I do. I do. I'm really happy to say that as well for a few reasons, right? One is that it's online. So I don't need to worry about going to into work or going into my job.
[10:08] SPEAKER_03: And so a lot of the time when you know when this happened when originally started happening in April March, a lot of people stop going work. A lot of people stop showing up.
[10:17] SPEAKER_03: People could not, you know, be together. And so when something like a virus happened, you lose work, right? And so the fact that I'm online, the fact that I can essentially if I need to isolate and still work is one of the factors.
[10:31] SPEAKER_03: And the second thing is just the nature of the work, right? So consulting and high ticket consulting and coaching in itself, you don't need 90% of a population.
[10:41] SPEAKER_03: You don't need a vast majority of issue working with. You need 0.001% of that population to have a highly successful business.
[10:54] SPEAKER_03: And no matter what with regards of whether you're in a recession or not, there will always be people ready and willing to buy a product that has the value of the service there.
[11:08] SPEAKER_03: If you have a great product, you've great positioning, you have great marketing, and you are serving on the back end, you'll always be successful and you'll be recession proof.
[11:18] SPEAKER_02: That's a great question. So something that we talked about in our when we first met and then even now is you were doing fitness training first and now you're doing online coaching. And I remember you saying to me that you, you have a natural, you know, attraction to teaching.
[11:37] SPEAKER_02: How did you discover that about yourself? And is that maybe a piece of the magic that makes, you know, what you're doing successful.
[11:45] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a good question. So I'm just like the teacher and me, right? Yeah, I think it was through trial and error. It was honestly it was through trial and error. It was through doing tests online. It was through awareness.
[11:59] SPEAKER_03: It was through working with people. It was through diving in and saying what I was good at and what lit me up and what got me excited and what gave me more energy versus the pleated my energy.
[12:11] SPEAKER_03: And so think where it also can be the lines can be learned for a lot of teachers in particular because I am one is the line between the coach and the teacher.
[12:22] SPEAKER_03: So although like I can coach and I'm very good at it, there is a big difference between the teacher and the coach. And so once you kind of start understanding, well, what is a teacher?
[12:33] SPEAKER_03: What is a coach who is an influencer? And what are these differences? And then where do I line in that? Where do I lay in these lines? Then you can use that essentially what I like to call your superpower to shine and help other people because think about now that I know, oh, I'm a teacher. I'm really good at teaching.
[12:52] SPEAKER_03: I know, okay, Sarah, you need to get on stages. You need to be doing things like podcasts, you need to be writing and you're essentially doing things where you're teaching a larger group of people.
[13:02] SPEAKER_03: Whereas the coach says, I want to be there with you for every step of the process. One on one and I want to hold your hand. I want to take you through it.
[13:11] SPEAKER_03: And both are completely necessary. All of us have a specific edge and a superpower in one area. And once we can bring that to our conscious awareness, then we can start utilizing it to our best ability.
[13:26] SPEAKER_02: Brilliant. And I'm going to go back and just bring back your comment, which is you discovered it by trial and error, right? Like actually jumping in and doing it and figuring out what lights you up. I love that. I love that.
[13:38] SPEAKER_02: Let's, and so I love your, how did you come up with CEO? I know it seems so simple. Yeah, it's just so punchy. I love it.
[13:46] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Sarah, I do like it as well. Yeah, that's interesting. Honestly, it was my business partner and I.
[13:53] SPEAKER_03: We just came up with a bunch of names. We played with the word CEO. We you see on does one. We asked a bunch of our friends. They all said, bye for that one's winner.
[14:02] SPEAKER_03: And then we just decided to go for a simple catchy. And I think it gives a very quick description of what we do.
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: Perfect. And I know and that's all I had a chance to kind of go through your website. And I see that you have a, you know, a free mini business course, right? That people can download it. And then you have a.
[14:20] SPEAKER_02: The more coaching mentoring side, which is more the higher ticket price that guides people in a more accountability way.
[14:27] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you got it. Okay. And something I wanted to ask again is, do you, are you seeing any trends of your, of the type of client?
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: I know you started off kind of teaching the fitness, you know, teachers, but you've kind of expanded now. Are they in any particular geography or any particular niche?
[14:46] SPEAKER_03: Yeah. So let's ban on that a little bit. So initially we did start out working with fitness people, simply because my business partner Hansi and I were both background had in fitness.
[14:58] SPEAKER_03: And then as time went by, we started offering the service to other people because the same principles lie of marketing and sales across the board for certain businesses.
[15:08] SPEAKER_03: And so now we work with, you know, anywhere from sexologists to mindset codes to relationship codes to the personal trainer to the life coach.
[15:21] SPEAKER_03: So in terms of that, we do work with anyone who does have a service based business. We do just we just tweak certain techniques to be able to help them in their messaging because at the end of the day, what's going to be the most important.
[15:35] SPEAKER_03: And it's going to attract either I pay clients versus low paying clients is going to be your messaging and how you position yourself in the marketplace to consistently attract the right people into your world.
[15:47] SPEAKER_03: Because what happens a lot of you will have a, well, when they first start their business, they say, I just can't seem to get quality leads. So leads is just potential clients. So if they feel like they can't get potential clients, we take a look back and say, well, who are you speaking to?
[16:02] SPEAKER_03: Do you genuinely understand your ideal client? And if so, I want you reiterate that back to me and go speak at your ideal client, see if they resonate with it.
[16:12] SPEAKER_03: Because the answer to that is no, the chances are you aren't attracting your ideal client.
[16:17] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is powering Canadian small businesses. Go to ebay.ca, slash up and running to open your online shop.
[16:29] SPEAKER_02: Something that you said, you touched on it a little bit earlier, but we definitely talked about it before was the effort that you're having to put in right now to shifting the mindset, you know, and it could be the simplest that positivity.
[16:45] SPEAKER_02: But what is the extra bit of work in mindset that you're having to do today that today.
[16:52] SPEAKER_03: So I think there's a huge relationship between mindset, neuroscience, trauma, and awareness.
[17:02] SPEAKER_03: And so what we do is a lot of neuroscience and combination of mindset. What I really want to meet by that is just teaching people to become aware of their subconscious thoughts.
[17:13] SPEAKER_03: Because 95% of our thoughts are actions the way we act. Everything we do is from a subconscious level. Right? And 5% of that is conscious.
[17:23] SPEAKER_03: So if you and I, for example, we're going for a drive or having a good conversation, let's say we're going on the mall, we get to the mall. And once we get there, I ask you two questions.
[17:32] SPEAKER_03: The first question is, what do we talk about during our drive to the mall? And you can tell me verbatim, we draw this, we draw this, we draw this, and you tell me all the details of this.
[17:41] SPEAKER_03: And I ask you a second question, and I say, how do we get there? I have no idea how we got there.
[17:46] SPEAKER_03: So then the question becomes, who was driving the wheel during the time that we were having this conversation? And the answer to that is your subconscious mind.
[17:56] SPEAKER_03: So your subconscious mind sometimes people will think it's evil, it's the devil, it's servu, it serves you, it's there to help you, it's there to make things more practical so that you're not constantly inconsistent about it.
[18:08] SPEAKER_03: The issue there lies when we get to a point where our subconscious mind thoughts, behaviors, and patterns that don't serve us become automatic in our legs and we let it control us.
[18:22] SPEAKER_03: And so what's happening now is now you're running under a program that's 95% of your day.
[18:28] SPEAKER_03: So what ends up happening is do wake up in the morning and they'll say, I want to cheat, I want a great life, I want to be wealthy, I want an amazing relationship, I want to travel the world.
[18:38] SPEAKER_03: And then a week will go by, two weeks will go by and say, well, why aren't I getting these things? Why can't I do this? Why am I not getting myself there?
[18:45] SPEAKER_03: And what's happening is, well, you're still working under 95% of those same subconscious programs that make up your personality, that make up who you are as a being, that make up how you think, that make up how you perceive the world.
[19:03] SPEAKER_03: And so what we need to do is bring those subconscious thoughts number one to our conscious awareness and pick and choose which ones we want to keep and which ones we want to.
[19:13] SPEAKER_03: And so the basic idea and neuroscience is nerves that wire together, fire together. And so more nerve that's happening.
[19:21] SPEAKER_03: Yes, and so what happens more nerves that wire together, they continue to fire to get the stronger and stronger and stronger.
[19:29] SPEAKER_03: And so what we need to do is over time through strategies, through mental rehearsal, through a number of other strategies that we use, you need to unwire and unfire those neural patterns that no longer serve you.
[19:42] SPEAKER_03: And replace them and rewire them, you want that do serve you to the point where these new patterns, these new thoughts, these new behaviors become your subconscious program.
[19:55] SPEAKER_03: And from like an image perspective, from your brain, you actually change the structure of your brain. That's why we have no plasticity inside of our brain.
[20:04] SPEAKER_03: And so when you start changing these patterns, you're bringing them to theologically changes. And people will start asking, you know, what are you doing?
[20:12] SPEAKER_03: Like what is that you do on a diet or you're working now, you're like, no, you know, I'm just doing the work and the way you're able to change that.
[20:23] SPEAKER_02: And it's great. And you have that or it's the glow factor, right? And you absolutely ooze that Sarah, by the way.
[20:30] SPEAKER_02: So, love just being in your presence. I have a little bit of fun and let's let's switch tax a little bit and go from Vancouver is hometown. But you know, tell me about Columbia and living there and what life is like right now.
[20:46] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're the first person I talked to that's stuck in it in another country. So let's share that.
[20:53] SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, let's talk about it. So our 14 started like near the end of March. I had just gone back from a business trip and it was starting to, you know, get serious sort of.
[21:07] SPEAKER_03: And so what I mean by that is I remember the government saying, okay, we're doing a weekend quarantine.
[21:12] SPEAKER_03: We had no idea this would end up being like five months later. We still in it. And so start with a weekend quarantine two, three days.
[21:19] SPEAKER_03: He extended it for a week and a month and months. And so as we know a lot of months have gone by. But from a day to day perspective, what it's been like is we have something called a said you know.
[21:32] SPEAKER_03: And what that is is like based on your ID number. So Colombians, they have like a Colombian ID. If you are an ex time head out. So if you're what we call green guys or green ghosts. So like, you know, yeah, expats.
[21:46] SPEAKER_03: You use your passport number. And so they give you about two days maximum per week where you're allowed to walk in, go to the grocery store, get your groceries and walk out.
[21:59] SPEAKER_03: So you have to go straight there. It has to be the closest grocery store to your house. You don't get caught by police during trouble. You definitely have to wear your tap of focus or your mask.
[22:09] SPEAKER_03: And they wash your ID. They wash your shoes. They spray you down. They take your temperature. And then once you get in there, you do your thing. You leave. They make you switch your mask. They take your temperature again. And then you're done. And you can you can go back in. So it's been pretty intense.
[22:31] SPEAKER_03: And that's a. Wow. It's definitely loosening up a little bit more like some businesses have slowly opened. I would say overall it's been good in terms of the number of cases. It's kept things like relatively stagnant or if it's in just a little bit at a time.
[22:46] SPEAKER_03: But it was an interesting experience. Again, like I think you have two choices and how you see the situation at Annie, you can just choose to allow it to help you grow or you can choose to be like damn you know, I'm stuck in quarantine for a very long time.
[23:03] SPEAKER_03: At least I think I chose to you know work on the right way and just pick up new hobbies continue to build business. Stay motivated, motivate others because the time where a lot of people were struggling in so many ways.
[23:17] SPEAKER_02: And so obviously you you're in the allow it to help you grow. You know camp. So what what have you done differently yourself in in the last few months.
[23:30] SPEAKER_03: Yes, so so I think that there's you know, I think that it's kind of like this is kind of a funny analogy, but it's kind of like alcohol amplifies the personality you already have. So if you're generally like a giddy happy person, you're drinking, you're just going to be more giddy, you're more happy, you're going to be more social right.
[23:51] SPEAKER_03: And so I think the quarantine is actually very similar. So so I think that if you are a go getter, a type A personality, very motivated, ambitious, I think that quarantine amplifies that for you because in order for you to have any level of productive productivity, motivation and consistency to keep going, especially when you're quarantined, what people who maybe you may have not chosen to be quarantined with.
[24:19] SPEAKER_03: But when you're external environment, you can't control the only thing that you can control is your internal environment. And from me, I chose to do that every single morning and keep that as a genuine practice so that for me what that looks like.
[24:36] SPEAKER_03: And what it did look like is long meditations in the morning, right. So I've been doing very long guided meditations for an hour in the morning, which for some people it's crazy, but I built up to it, right. And so I make sure that every single morning I wake up and I get over myself before I start my day because if you can get over yourself, well, and there's nothing that's going to pull you back in your day because I think the only thing that ever pulls us back is what's up here in our mind.
[25:05] SPEAKER_03: And so I start with the meditation and then I would typically come down, have my coffee, do some journaling, do some gratitude, do a meditation course that I'm working on, pick up courses.
[25:17] SPEAKER_03: Then I would typically start my day of work. I would definitely go to the grocery store the days that were my grocery days just to get some air. And then I would finish my evening with either reading some kind of knowledge building myself back up or getting creative and writing poetry or playing piano.
[25:33] SPEAKER_03: I bought a keyboard on YouTube, like just doing those things to also keep some play and fun because, you know, regardless, like, especially as a woman, like an entrepreneur woman, it's really easy for us to get really caught up in the type A in the go getter and the ambition, especially if you're inherently feel like you're firing, right.
[25:59] SPEAKER_03: And so I think also we are inherently people, we just want to chill, we want to play, we want to be in our feminine, we want to have a good time, we want to laugh. And so I think that embracing that side of us feeds not only our personal life, but we show up in our business not much better.
[26:17] SPEAKER_03: We show up for our students, clients, our business that much better when we get to have that play time, we get to have if you can't have social time, have a sky date, if you can't, you know, go out with your friends, play some piano, watch us listen to a song, just creativity and different forms so that you can just feed those different sides of you and you'll always show up better in your work for yourself so that you can show up better for everyone else as well.
[26:44] SPEAKER_02: I love it. I'm a little bit curious, could you touch on the difference in one of the unique things about Canada's podcast is that first of all, we're national so we have hosts and each province and, you know, we're kind of touching on the different communities across Canada and we like to bring that out in part of our, you know, showcasing the distinctive and so Canadian, you know, entrepreneurialism, if you like.
[27:10] SPEAKER_02: And so you are born of great it's been British Columbia, but you also are spending time in Columbia, so can you touch on the difference of the cultures of the country, but also the culture of the of entrepreneurship that you have seen that's different between the two.
[27:30] SPEAKER_03: That's very interesting, that's actually a tough question, so if I'll start with the entrepreneurship one, so it's, I can definitely see it, so I'm very much exposed to prior to quarantine because obviously now like a little bit of social separation, but in normal pace, I worked in an office where essentially you would get to connect, you would network with a lot of entrepreneurs.
[27:55] SPEAKER_03: Now 90% of the entrepreneurs there were ex-Junhares, so like expats from the US and from Canada as well. And so when you connect with them in terms of cultural difference, there really isn't any because you're working with Canadians who are doing different things, different businesses, but they have to see mindset as you are like wanting to do it from abroad and having the idea, you know, having the travel bug,
[28:23] SPEAKER_03: you wanting to do all this different stuff, but what I find is really cool is the mix and the connection between Colombians and Canadians. And so a lot of the time what happens is, you know, you'll meet Colombians in the office and you'll be able to connect with them, maybe you can exchange business ideas with them so often have I seen Colombians and Canadians partnering with one another and just being able to build businesses in different areas based on the environment.
[28:53] SPEAKER_03: So there's a lot of different areas of expertise together and that's been a really beautiful thing just seeing, you know, the welcome on both ends of each other's culture and working together as a team. And maybe sometimes it's areas in Spanish that Canadians help with or vice versa with, you know, a Colombian who needs help with the English. And there's always a lot of collaboration on both ends, which I thought was amazing.
[29:18] SPEAKER_02: Do you think there's any particular niche sector that Colombia excels at? Honestly, it's all over the board.
[29:28] SPEAKER_02: If I were to give you an example, would total be so biased based on my friends. So great, great. Okay, fair enough. And what inspires you right now, right? You're, you're as far as reading or motivation. I know you said you're doing, you're doing a lot of meditation, but what are the things that are jumping out at you that are sticking?
[29:47] SPEAKER_03: And you're looking to revive you to get you inspired and motivated and energized. Yeah, a few things. One is my students. Okay, no, yeah, yeah, our students, it's huge. I think nothing is more rewarding than watching your students when watching your students grow. And, you know, my partner and I have built the business and the first thing that we said was we can help people.
[30:13] SPEAKER_03: Get them from where we were to where we are. There's nothing for us more fulfilling than that. And so just being able to see our students go from ground zero to complete freedom to being able to be either maybe at home with their kids if they want to be and be financially free or be able to quit their nine to five that they've hated for so long and be able to start traveling.
[30:38] SPEAKER_03: Or, you know, just whatever it is that they wanted and seeing them being able to fulfill that and watching their growth and being a small part of that growth has been huge for us.
[30:50] SPEAKER_03: And then the same thing like on a personal level for me is is growth internally, right? Because I think that as a teacher and with the desire to continue to be a teacher and with the vision knowing that I, I want to help a lot of people.
[31:07] SPEAKER_03: Right. And I do really want to help change people's lives on a bigger scale as well. I think that if I don't consistently day in and day out, do the internal work that's necessary to be able to show up as a leader for the people who might need to hear the message.
[31:25] SPEAKER_03: Then, you know, that's that's doing a disservice to them and doing a disservice to myself as well. So I think I have a big commitment to consistently doing the work every single day so that I can show up for them a lot better.
[31:41] SPEAKER_02: Awesome. For me, this is a hard ass. So I don't know how you're going to answer this. But where do you see yourself in five years?
[31:48] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a good question. So I'll just answer truthfully. I have absolutely no idea. I have absolutely no idea. And I genuinely don't believe in the whole five-year rule. And here's why.
[32:01] SPEAKER_03: A lot of the time, like, you know, I used to do this. I used to have a six-month plan, a one-year plan, a five-year plan, a ten-year plan. And then I started seeing how life really pans out.
[32:11] SPEAKER_03: You know, I started seeing how life can change so fast. How things can happen that can trigger cascades of events or maybe one person comes into your life that triggers a cascade of events or opportunities or all of these things.
[32:25] SPEAKER_03: And I think what I've learned as a result of that is to be open and to be open to opportunity, to be open to change, to be open to meeting people in all sorts of ways.
[32:38] SPEAKER_03: And that in itself, to choose to live in the unknown every day, has brought about more opportunity than any kind of planning ever has for me.
[32:48] SPEAKER_03: So although I have a general idea of my goals, my desires, my ambitions, and how I want to grow, I want to spend, honestly, the rest of my life being open and in the unknown just to an extent.
[33:00] SPEAKER_02: And I relate to those comments. And I just imagine like a whole entire portion of our audience going, ah, like the engineers with the systems.
[33:10] SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, that's just, you know, it's a scary concept. So how do you personally reconcile the difference between sort of open opportunity and planning and system structure? What do you think?
[33:22] SPEAKER_03: Yeah. So I think there is definitely a fine line between the two. I think there is a fine line between, you know, completely living in the unknown.
[33:32] SPEAKER_03: And then obviously having some level of structure, some level of change that is going to be important. And so I think I want to address this for us because you've mentioned the engineers.
[33:42] SPEAKER_03: And so when it comes to that, I totally get it because, you know, I was actually personally like a controlled freak. I wanted everything determined. I wanted everything with a level of certainty.
[33:53] SPEAKER_03: And honestly, a lot of times when our students initially onboard, they'll ask questions and rightfully so of like, can you guarantee this?
[34:01] SPEAKER_03: If I do this, will raise it right? Because we like our human nature, our desire, like whether you're an engineer, a lawyer, a doctor, you know, a receptionist, whatever you are, we want some level of certainty.
[34:13] SPEAKER_03: And so what we do as a result of that is we create this false sense of certainty. At the end of the day, all of us to the degree that we allow are we are living in the unknown.
[34:26] SPEAKER_03: And so whether we want to tell ourselves the story that there is certainty that, you know, our life is mapped out to some extent, you know, we really don't have that certainty in that in a sense is a false sense.
[34:40] SPEAKER_03: Now there is a difference between me putting myself in a position where I say, yeah, maybe I'll be in Argentina in two months versus like, well, I have this amount of time planned out.
[34:50] SPEAKER_03: And so I do want to draw that discrepancy. And so I think that at the end of the day, it's, there's a few things that are important. And you have to find out what are my values?
[35:00] SPEAKER_03: What do I hold to highest degree? And what do I want with these? What kind of results do I want to create with these? And map out those enough to the extent that you have a direction that you want to go in and a lot for opportunity.
[35:16] SPEAKER_03: Because what I notice happens a lot of the time is sometimes will be so rigid in our plan, in our goal, in what we want to create that that tunnel vision, disillusion, potential opportunity, yes, will change our lives.
[35:33] SPEAKER_03: So I think if we mix the both, we all feel we got a lot of more.
[35:38] SPEAKER_02: But I think it's really interesting in this particular and this day and age and going forward the find balance between staying open opportunities and planning, right? There has to be a magic sort of comfort level in there. What do you think Sarah?
[35:53] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah. I would say that at the end of the day, have an idea of where you want to go. Have an idea of your vision. Be clear on that vision, be clear on the goal and go for it 100%.
[36:05] SPEAKER_03: And if an opportunity comes your way, I want you instead of cutting it off and focusing 100% on the plan that you already have, I want you to just take a minute, a second.
[36:17] SPEAKER_03: Reflect on that opportunity and ask if it serves the ultimate goal that you have.
[36:23] SPEAKER_03: And if it can potentially help you and if it can potentially lead you in a direction that will serve and in ways be able to partner with the goal that you have and go for that old hand.
[36:35] SPEAKER_03: Because that way you have some level of certainty, regardless of what that means, and you are staying open enough to opportunity that can help grow whatever that looks like for you.
[36:48] SPEAKER_02: You just use the words being all in. And I just want to touch on that because the definition of all in I think for me is just being so confident and certain that
[37:00] SPEAKER_02: that regardless of whether it works out perfectly or not, you can be attached to this behavior, this action, because it is aligned to your goals.
[37:11] SPEAKER_02: And I just I've had some people's talk about being all in what does that mean? It means different things to different people, but for you, it clearly resonates with the idea that whatever you're doing, put your energy behind it, put your commitment behind it.
[37:28] SPEAKER_02: And then boom, it will lead you to where your goals would you agree?
[37:32] SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I want to add is that this is the thing that I've noticed about business.
[37:38] SPEAKER_03: And so sometimes I wonder, what is the difference between the people who end up making it or successful in business versus the people who aren't.
[37:45] SPEAKER_03: Because I remember the first time I started becoming successful in business, I looked to my dad and I was genuinely confused.
[37:54] SPEAKER_03: And I said, Dad, why everyone in business? Why is it everyone doing this?
[38:00] SPEAKER_03: Like, and I just really didn't grasp that idea. And I think that a lot of the times, we'll say we're all in.
[38:08] SPEAKER_03: And we mean it when we say it. Like when we say, what committed I want to do this, we're committed, but business isn't easy.
[38:15] SPEAKER_03: Business isn't lazy. And you have to face not only so many things from the entrepreneurial perspective, but with yourself.
[38:25] SPEAKER_03: You have to look at yourself in the mirror. There's no boss guiding you. There's nobody telling you what to do.
[38:31] SPEAKER_03: There's nobody really there to guide or lead. You are now the leader. And as a result of that, you need to do your own introspection.
[38:40] SPEAKER_03: You need to look in the mirror, some lies in that. There are then you ever have before.
[38:46] SPEAKER_03: And so if you're not willing or potentially too scared to do that consistently day in and day out, then unfortunately a lot of people do end up giving up.
[38:57] SPEAKER_03: And so I think the idea for me personally was I couldn't imagine.
[39:03] SPEAKER_03: The thought of going back to a nine of five was thing that was like, I didn't even exist. The thought could not exist.
[39:12] SPEAKER_03: It didn't matter. It was like, okay, so it doesn't matter how many times I fail because the number of times I fail means I'm that much closer to success.
[39:20] SPEAKER_03: And I've noticed that mindset among every student will say things like, yeah, you know, I got on four sales calls and they all said, no, but that makes me so happy because it tells me the sixth one is going to say yes.
[39:32] SPEAKER_03: And I'm that much closer to that next one. Awesome. How can people get a hold of you post podcast, Sarah?
[39:39] SPEAKER_03: Few things so they can either follow me on Instagram at Safari Sarah. So that's S a F F A R I S a R H or they can check out our website at the CEO. Coach dot com.
[39:54] SPEAKER_02: Sarah, thank you for your time. I'm so glad that we had a little snippet of Canada day celebrations together.
[40:00] SPEAKER_02: Day safe and healthy in Columbia. Thank you for having me.
[40:04] SPEAKER_02: I'm Angela Faye, host of the British Columbia edition. Thanks for listening and watching Canada's podcast.
[40:11] SPEAKER_02: Canada's number one business podcast by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
[40:16] SPEAKER_00: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is here to help.
[40:22] SPEAKER_00: They've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years and have recently launched their up and running program to meet an urgent need to get business online today.
[40:33] SPEAKER_00: New business sellers can get a free key call the store for 90 days when they visit eBay dot CA slash up and running.
[40:42] SPEAKER_00: Access eBay's 170 plus million buyers around the world with eBay Canada.
[40:49] SPEAKER_00: You can stay local sell global and power up that's eBay dot CA slash up and running.
[40:56] SPEAKER_00: Offer is open until August the 22nd.