Have you ever thought about the correlation between a weight loss journey and entrepreneurship?  I've recently connected the two.  If you spotted the correlation yourself, then awesome and I'd love to hear how you see them syncing up.   So summer 2016 for me is about 2 key objectives, a) starting my business, and b) weight loss and getting my fitness back.  To achieve both I've been spending the first part of the early morning on the treadmill where for one hour I walk and run to achieve around 9000 steps. My aim is to average around 12000 daily steps.  This morning effort really boosts that number to achieve my daily step count. It also helps with the 2nd objective of starting my business by helping me get clear, having a healthy mindset and achieve my daily 'to do' list about what I need to get done.  Apart from this morning exercise boost, the majority of my day is very sedentary. I spend a chunk of time in front of the computer or in meetings, a car or just relaxing. Its pretty hot outside so going out really isn't advisable so getting my exercise done first thing is crucial. I'm not a afternoon gym person nor an evening person so the mornings gets it done.  

​anyway....

So during these sessions I've been listening to a podcast called 'Tips of the Scale'.  It's a great podcast and community about people sharing their weight loss journeys.  I have found all these stories inspirational and really help boost my own weight loss journey.  Me and weight loss have always been at odds but I know I'm healthy and fit.  I don't have an issue running a 10km run and so I do pride myself on that achievement.  This coming winter I plan to get some more runs under me. I'm even contemplating doing the 42km Dubai marathon as opposed to the usual 10km - which I've been doing for 6 years. Still not sure. The distance does bother me!!!

I was listening to a particular podcast with a lady called Elizabeth Benton and she spoke about how alot about how weigh loss and motivation is a mindset thing.  I heard her loud and clear. There are times on the treadmill where I just want to stop and give up but I try super hard to not listen to that inner voice and tell myself that this is awesome and my body needs this fitness. 

But as I listened and ran I thought about my other key objective and that was starting my social media business.  I realised as Sam (the host) and Elizabeth chatted that there were similarities between a weight loss journey and entrepreneurship.  I'd never made the connection before.  But here it was. So I wanted to share with you these connections and so when you are next at the gym or know someone on a weight loss journey you can totally relate to them.  Only the topic is different. 

Entrepreneurship is an all immersing experience

The other day I interviewed a very smart and astute business woman called Saana Azzam - she is the founder of MENA Speakers and she said, 'Entrepreneurship is an all immersing experience'. I couldn't agree more with her statement.  The whole subject of passion for your idea, creating it and making it happen just totally takes over your life. You eat, sleep and breath the subject and are constantly fired up by the energy that this passion it creates.   You spend your time talking, sharing, building, thriving and trailblazing all in the name of your idea so you can see it become the vision you had in your head.  Weight loss is very much the same.  It is an all immersing experience. With weight loss its an all or nothing experience.  You have to exercise, pay attention to your food, educate yourself, stay informed, read and just embrace it, in its totality otherwise you will not break old habits or achieve the goals you so want to see and feel.

Isolation

With both weight loss and entrepreneurship there is a heavy sense of isolation despite in both cases you will have the support of family and friends around you.  When you are building your business you spend a lot of time in front of the computer reading, building and strategizing. A lot of this time can be on your own or quite lonely.  Unlike in a large corporate office you have teams or individuals that are involved in the same projects or tasks as you.  The same with the weight loss journey. It can, a lot of the time be done in isolation. You go the gym but folk rarely speak or interact, you go to dinner and you are having internal conversations with yourself about the menu.  What looks good, what's off the menu for you, how can you compromise so  you can still enjoy yourself but have something yummy!  You do these conversations in isolation too.  Well I do!!  Ultimately you have to make the effort yourself, you have to take responsibility even with community and friends around. That is what isolation can be.

Endless Courses and Diets

Elizabeth spoke about the number of different diets she had done during her life to lose weight. All promised weight loss and all promised a new level of confidence.  She would lose the weight and then as soon as the diet was done she would see the weight return. An endless cycle of torcher for her mentally as well as physically.  Entrepreneurship is very much the same.  How many of you have bought the, 'I went from $0 to a six figure dollar sum in 4 months - and my life change forever' courses?  Who has done it?  I have.  Eventually you learn schemes and quick fixes NEVER solve the problem long term nor do they deal wit the fundamental space in your head which makes all of this effort happen.

The Emotional Journey

Weight loss and entrepreneurship are both emotional journeys.  You've seen that classic iceberg picture where it dissects the iceberg so you can see the tip and what goes on under water and that truly is a mental and emotional journey.  There are great days, awful days, give up days, I'm done days and the best days.... oh the cycle goes up and down like the stock market.  Its the same with your weight loss journey... those days when you've worked out all week, you've kept to your plan and then you get on the scales and nothing has changed or you've even put on a pound. Those days are the worst.  Then there are days when you eat a burger and you are having an 'off' day and you lose weight!!! what is that all about!!!  Anyway the key thing is, is that that too is an emotional journey. For both entrepreneurs and those on their weight loss journey they all have to constantly stay aware of their thoughts so they don't impact your feelings and land up creating a negative day or experience.  I find this correlations the most fascinating!

Have to Find Like Minded People

Finding people like yourself really is crucial to your growth and your confidence.  I find that when I speak to non like minded people they can often question my intent or direction and then land up causing me confusion and mental misdirection in my head.  That really does annoy me particularly for both my journeys through weight loss and entrepreneurship.  I have to remind myself that I'm dealing with their fears and reckless attitudes, not mine!  When I was younger found myself to be more easily persuaded by someone else's ideas and thoughts. Today I still have that a little bit but i do make sure I remain in a questioning state as best I can. Its a muscle I have to keep training I suppose.  Its the same with both entrepreneurship and weight loss - find people that relate.  Find people that you can connect with and 'get' where you are coming from. Its so easy to be sucked into negative non-like minded people who might think they are coming from a place of caring and sharing but for you its all wrong and it you don't nip it in the bud you could fall pray to negative thinking and falling from your objectives and mission. Find your Tribe.

So, what do you think? I'm sure you can see the correlations yourself and probably a lot more like I mentioned earlier.  Both journeys are filled with hurdles, bumps, detours all sorts of moments and you just have to forgive yourself when the negative stuff comes around and just push through. Both are long term goals that require consistency, energy, positivity and mental strength.  I'm working on both and its without a doubt tough  They are both heavily intertwined and not separate objectives for me - they both feed from the same source and if I can keep the power up hopefully by the end of year I would have lost the stone I'm hoping to lose, ran a number of 10km or further distances that i wanted and my business is pushing through to it s 6 month anniversary.  Its a social media service for women in business, business if you are interested.  

Thanks for listening or reading, which ever way you consumer your knowledge.  Do let me know where else you see a correlation in your own journeys. It might not be weight loss and business start up but that's ok. I'm looking for patterns.  Have an awesome day.

So at the weekend I was badly introduced by a colleague to someone I was very interested to meet.  It caught me completely off guard and it didn't leave a great first impression.  I realised then that I need to work on my own 30 second elevator pitch.  So when moments like that happen again I can take control back.  Weirdly enough I had helped in the creation of one for my husband recently and so when he is in a business situation.  I think he's got a great one. Here's what he says!  

I like it because it has all the skills, confidence and goals of a quick, clear and understood pitch. Control is firmly in his hands and I think he leaves room for the person he is expressing it too to ask more questions.  ​What do you think of it? Do you like it? Do you think it can be improved? Do you get what he does and how can help. Do let me know!

So, Why an Elevator Pitch?

So anyway.... after last weekend I really think its important to have one for myself.  It also reminded me of how important it is when you are introducing someone else too. So my first question in the future before I introduce someone to someone else is to ask if they have an 30 second elevator pitch or kind of create one based on a few key principles.

​​There are some great benefits to having a good elevator pitch like:-

a) Helps you be more clear and confident about who you are and what you do.  How often do we get derailed with thoughts when we meet people for the first time or feel less confident when we meet someone we are super excited to meet yet nervous too!!!  A clear, confident pitch just eases all of that!

b) It take the, 'uh..er....' moment out of the equation and you don't have to worry about sentencing a collection of exciting nouns, verbs and adjectives because you have already done it and its ready to go.

c) As you practice it, you become more and more connected with your pitch and you become more passionate about it. The way you say it becomes more embedded in you and you become more authentic.

d) If you are of a nervous disposition when you meet people for the first time and feel awkward setting the pace of the conversation then having a pitch could relieve some of the anxiety that's created in these first few moments.

What Makes a Good Elevator Pitch?

​Through my research I've discovered that a good pitch has some clear elements

a) A goal. What are you trying to achieve with your pitch. So personally I reckon you should have may be 2 or 3 'go to' pitches based on your audience you are talking too. Clients or potential suppliers will have different themes so it makes sense to me to vary your pitch slightly.

​b) Describe the problem your business aims to solve and then share how your business solves that problem.  Keep it simple too. Too many problems you are trying to solve can be overwhelming for the person you are pitching to. We want them to remember what you did, not leave them saying....'uh...he does a number of things but can't remember what'..

c) Identify your unique selling points.  It is important identify your strengths, your products or companies key attributes and wrapping them up into the rest of your pitch so you sound clear, understandable and actionable.

d) Simplicity is also a key point.  How often do you read a company's 'about us' page and you get dizzy reading the words because they've tried to be clever by weaving fancy words together?  I know I have and I land up reading the sentences two or three times just to 'get' what it is that they do.  So work your magic on being simple and using language that is conversational as best you can. 

My Pitches (Always Work In Progress)

So reading up examples and keeping in my the key elements I created two pitches because I do two key activities. Here they are: - 

My Podcasting Pitch.....

'I’m a podcaster and I interview and share the stories of the entrepreneurial women of the Middle East.  From across the region, I get to speak to women who are trail blazing, creating changing, building businesses and thriving.  My platform is an audio blog which you can listen to anywhere at anytime via ITunes, Stitchers, Soundcloud, my website or via social networks.  I have been credited many times for helping my guests feel very proud of their accomplishments and helping them summarize their efforts.  For the listeners, these ladies offer shared experiences, opportunity, success and the real story of how it really is to have a business in the Middle East'.

My Social Media Pitch.....
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​I love social networks and their ability to create, connect and share with family, friends, colleagues, clients, and suppliers.  Because of its power I’ve created Facebook groups as large as 40,000 members and created fan pages with a total of over 30000 fans.  I have helped numerous people over the last 6 years find the right platform for them and then helping them generate their own leads.  I want to help small businesses brainstorm the right strategy for their businesses. 

So what do you think?  Did I get it? With all these types of things they can be refined and improved as we use them, so I'm going to start with these and then go from there!  See how my audience responds.

Great Resources To Help Create Your Pitch.

Like I said earlier though I didn't do this without some help and inspiration from articles and examples out there. So if you want to check them out, these are the links to the articles that I looked at to help create my pitches. I hope you will find them useful too.

​a) Crafting an Elevator Pitch
b) The 7 Key Components of a Perfect Elevator Pitch [with Video]
​c) A quick guide to writing your elevator pitch (with examples!)
​

And Finally, Practice, Practice, Practice

Make those sentences an extension of yourself so they naturally roll of your tongue and put you in the right light and send the right impression. I won't be making this mistake again.  Authenticity is important these days and builds trust and relationships. 

Do let me know what your elevator pitch is. If you have comments about mine, then please do share. I don't want what happened at the weekend to happen again.  Its just embarrassing.....

The Learning Curve Podcast - THE Podcast for Women Entrepreneurs in the Middle East.
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How many of you out there feel disconnected with the styles and fashions that you see on the run way?  How many of you look at it and think, 'I could never wear that!'. Well my next guest, Antoinette Chorlton wants you to see how runway wear can be 'real wear'.  She wants to help women reconnect with their love of fashion and style.

From a young age her dad indulged everything 'fashion'. She shopped with him, got creative and really connected with her style and what would become, 'Antoinette'.  But as her working age got closer her dad wanted her to have a proper career and not go down the fashion route. 

But Antoinette is a savvy, hard working and positive person, skills her father engrained in her.  She did follow her dad's advise but her love of fashion remained.  Today she is an international fashion stylist and the is the founder of 'Glamour on the Go', a style agency focused on fashion events and style presentations.  She is also the co-founder of Moda Africa - an international fashion agency introducing and representing African Fashion Designers globally. And the founder of her newest endeavour - Shop My Closet.  A fashion event for high end & designer pre-loved clothes.

A mum, wife, daughter, & thriving business owner, she is a making 'Glamour' easier to connect with and helping women find their own 'fashionista'.  In this very open and sometimes 'laugh out loud' comical conversation, Antoinette shares her journey with us from her childhood to how she envisions 'Shop My Closet' being a household name in the Middle East. - Listen Now

One of my resolutions for 2015 was to start writing about all the stuff I have learnt and spoken about over the last few years.  I have helped, advised, shared, answered loads of questions on social media and one thing I always regret is not actually taking the time to write this knowledge down and show what I know.  So, this year as part of my growth strategy for my podcast show is the sharing of my knowledge and what I have learnt, what I find and share it with you. 

So what will I be writing about?  Simple put I've created 3 categories and each week I'm going to write something from that area.  Those categories are a)Social Media, b) Podcasting & Podcast shows and c) Resources & tools. 

Each week along with a podcast interview I'm going to be writing an article and share some links to useful places to go for more information.

Its my 2015 blog challenge!!  Let's do this.....