About this episode
About Andrea Raco: Andrea Raco, is a Certified Success and Life Enrichment Coach, an Author & Copywriter, and the Founder of Coach for Life - a coaching and consulting agency specializing in helping women create a business they love and craft their Masterpiece life through partnership, collaboration, and tried & tested solutions. Andrea's creative passions culminate as a connector & Curator of Gold Key Club ~ her private online space for Ladypreneurs, Supermoms, and Sisters making a difference in the world with their unique talents. What We Discuss In This Episode: A little bit about what I do on a professional level. I'm a Success and Life Enrichment Coach and a Business Strategist. Coaching is such an interpretive description and often, people have no idea what it means, so to make it a little more clear, what I'm passionate about is helping women design their Masterpiece Life or a business they love. I specialize in blending tried and tested success principles with individualized solutions and provide a customized coaching experience where I partner with my clients. Through consultation and co-creation, we tackle what's most important to help them move forward toward their goals. I've been building the coaching practice full-time now for six years and I'm delighted with it. I absolutely love the relationship I have with my clientele and what I'm extremely passionate about is my private Facebook community. Why is this cause/initiative particularly important to you? Gold Key Club is my passion project. It is a community I curate and is dedicated to bringing strategies, solutions, and inspiration to women looking to live their life by design and create a business they love. It's about connection and collaboration and I get very excited about facilitating those helpful connections and getting people the help they need. How did you get started? I've been coaching people for 30 years and started as a writing coach when I was in university. Following graduation, I became a Commercial Insurance Broker and built that career for many years and even took a turn in direct sales for a bit. What I loved most about all of those roles was helping people and making a difference for them. We had 4 kids in 3 years and 3 months so I left the insurance profession behind to raise my children and when they were all in school full time, I became certified as a life coach and started Coach For Life instead of going back to the insurance industry. That put me in direct control of my schedule and gave me the flexibility to be available for my family too. What was the biggest obstacle you faced? How did you overcome it? Building my business was a slow start actually because just after I become certified and started to put the pieces of the puzzle of my business together, my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma. This put my business development plans on hold and it really did look like he wasn't going to make it. It was a real life-changer for us. Our kids were little, My daughter was 9, my middle son was 8 and our fraternal twin boys were 6. We live far from family so we didn't have much support. That was a very challenging time. Miraculously, they found the right chemo cocktail for him and he turned the corner just in the nick of time so our kids were able to keep their father. Then, a year later, just as he was returning to work and we thought we were in the clear, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer - so more treatment and recovering time. I'm convinced that my cancer was a result of his diagnosis. It was such a stressful time, there was so much uncertainty about our future and the future of our kids. It was terrifying really. I wasn't sleeping, wasn't making wise food choices, certainly wasn't exercising. My weight ballooned, there was no self-care plan whatsoever. It really was full-on survival mode. Those were, by far, the most challenging times for us and I'm not sure which was worse - watching my husband battle his cancer or facing that cancer monster myself. Honestly, that experience totally changed us. It shifted how we divided up our time, what we prioritized in our lives, the experiences we wanted to create for our children, how we spend our money. It all shifted. Today, I'm SO grateful for every day. My health comes first to prevent a recurrence and we prioritize things that bring us more joy. I can't stress enough this point for your listeners: if regular, self-care isn't a part of your daily life - it's time to change that right now. That's why I love what you do and how you do it, Lynne, you make adding self-care into your daily life so simple - and it's so important. What TIPS can you give our listeners who are looking to transform their lives? The most impactful strategy I can share with your listeners who are looking for a transformation is to be intentional with their time. Time is the True Currency of Life, this was an important lesson that Cancer taught us - we can always make more money and we can improve our relationships or increase our business or improve our health - but every minute that passes, every day that slips away brings us closer to the end of those for us. That's a hard, cold, fact. So if there's something that speaks to your heart or stirs your soul - stop wasting your precious time. Go for it. Make a plan to achieve what it is that you want for yourself - THIS is your life. You don't get another shot at it. And time's going to pass by anyway...so honestly...don't waste another minute, another day, week, month, or year. Figure out what you want...and go for it. BONUS: Can you lead us through a quick practical exercise? Ok, so I know, I know, goalsetting gets a bad rap. No one likes to set New Years' Resolutions anymore because they're afraid to fail, but here's a newsflash...FAILURE is simply a stepping stone to success. Missing the goal is not a failure if the lesson is not lost. All you have to do to NOT FAIL is adjust and try again. Find another way, employ a different strategy, learn something new to help you win. And GOALSETTING is THE Key to designing the life you love. We can't hit targets we don't see so set some targets. When you become a master at setting goals, you'll become a master at winning in life. So, take a few moments, grab a notebook or your journal and pick 1 area you'd like to make changes in your life. Oftentimes, at the beginning of a New Year, it's about health or finances, but it could be anything, your love relationship, your family, your business, your hobbies, and talents...anything you want... pick one for yourself. Write that down. Next, think of the ultimate goal in that area. What is it that you want to achieve? Visualize what success would look like for you or mean to you if time and money were no obstacle. Write that down. Did you know that when you write down your goals, you're way more likely to achieve them? Next, WHY do you want to achieve your goal? What is motivating you? What will be different for you when you get there? How will your life be affected? How will others be affected by your success? Write that stuff down too. The next step is to figure out what you have to do to succeed. What do you need to learn? Who do you need to talk to? Who do you need to BECOME to achieve success and win that thing you want? Last STEP - PLAN It Out. Figure out the smaller, stepping-stone targets you'll need to hit to get to the ultimate goal. And Celebrate along the way. This is a lifelong process...so be sure to celebrate those milestone wins as you get closer to creating what it is that you want. Our mind is an incredible thing and once you set it on something, and commit to doing the work to achieve it, it'll work day and night to help you find solutions to make that goal a reality for you....but it all starts with design. You have the paintbrush...YOU also have the power to create your masterpiece. What do you attribute your success to? There are so many factors that have contributed to the success I've enjoyed. I've had some incredible influencers and encouragers in my life. I've always had an unrelenting determination to win. No matter how long it takes or what it takes, I'm focused on learning what it is that I need to know and doing what it is that I need to do to win that goal. I refuse to accept failure and I also refuse to accept victim mentality in my coaching practice too. There's always a solution to be found. There's always a path forward. If one way doesn't work, no problem, we'll find another way. And I attribute that attitude to my father now that I think of it. It was something he taught me as a kid. He was a big planner and always strategizing about how to make things work out. I've also always been a reader - a student of life really. We have the wealth of knowledge of the entire human race at our fingertips, literally, and entire generations are wasting their precious time on TicTock. It's heartbreaking, really. What are some daily habits that keep you focused and motivated? Oh, this is a great question! We are what we do daily and the choices we make determine the life we lead. Ever since my cancer diagnosis and the diabetes diagnosis that followed my chemotherapy, I dedicate the first 2 hours of the day for self-care. It includes a 60-minute workout, a healthy breakfast, a coffee, lemon water and a date with my journal to set up my day for success. I make choices to support my health at every meal and snack, stay hydrated throughout the day and then I finish up the day with a quick note in my journal evaluating the day - what did I win? What didn't work? What needs adjusting for the next day. This little daily debriefing practice only takes a few minutes and helps me sleep sounds knowing that the next day will be awesome too. It's how I win the day - every day. Final thoughts for our listeners If you're a solution-oriented woman on a mission to design the life or business you love, I'd be delighted if you'd join me in my private community. You'll find a bunch of like-minded women in Gold Key Club and we share strategies, solutions, and inspiration to win - in life and in business. Free Resources from Andrea Raco: Stepping Stones To Success - A Guided Journal for anyone who'd like to attract more SUCCESS and ABUNDANCE into their life. It includes a brief journal prompt and a mini gratitude practice for each day - designed for 10-15 minutes of introspection and inspiration. This tool is a fantastic way to start off the day on a positive note, or close out the day and set the next one up for success. https://livinglifenaturallypodcast.s3.amazonaws.com/Stepping+Stones+to+Success.pdf Slay Your Time Dragon - A Practical Guide for the Busy Entrepreneur - this outlines how to set up an Entrepreneurial Schedule so you can focus, get more done, make more money and still have time for yourself and your family. https://livinglifenaturallypodcast.s3.amazonaws.com/Slay+Your+Time+Dragon.pdf Connect with Andrea Raco: Website: www.coachforlife.ca Email: andrea@coachforlife.ca Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.raco/ Coach for Life Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AndreaRacoYourCoach4Life Copy Doc Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thecopydoc LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-raco-coachforlife/ Blog: https://coachforlifeconnections.blogspot.com/ Connect with Lynne: If you are looking for a community of like-minded women on a journey - just like you are - to improved health and wellness, overall balance, and increased confidence, check out Lynne's private community in The Energized & Healthy Women's Club. It's a supportive and collaborative community where the women in this group share tips and solutions for a healthy and holistic lifestyle. (Discussions include things like weight management, eliminating belly bloat, wrangling sugar gremlins, and overcoming fatigue, recipes, strategies, and much more so women can feel energized, healthy, confident, and joyful each day. Website: https://holistic-healthandwellness.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holistichealthandwellnessllc The Energized Healthy Women's Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/energized.healthy.women Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynnewadsworth Free Resource: Hot flashes? Low Energy? Difficulty with weight management? If MID-LIFE & MENOPAUSE are taking their toll then I've got a solution for you! I've taken all my very best strategies and solutions to help you feel energized, vibrant, lighter & healthy, and compiled them into this FREE resource! Thrive in midlife and beyond - download my guide here: https://holistic-healthandwellness.com/thrive-through-menopause/ Did You Enjoy The Podcast? If you enjoyed this episode please let us know! 5-star reviews for the Living Life Naturally podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or Stitcher are greatly appreciated. This helps us reach more women struggling to live through midlife and beyond. Thank you. Together, we make a difference!