The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Nathalie Lussier’

The interviews on this blog are content rich, and there are times when important information goes unnoticed because there is just so much of it. I have extracted 10 tips based on the responses to the question, “As an invisible mentor, what advice do you have for my readers?” And remember that an invisible mentor is simply a unique leader you can learn from by observing them from a distance. I bring invisible mentors to you, so that you don’t have to search for them.

“Keep wishing, keep being positive about the dreams that you have because your dreams are attainable, you just have to keep going and don’t take no for an answer.” Robin Craig

“I wish I had someone I looked up to who would have been my mentor, because success is highly improbably without the willing cooperation of others.  My advice is to build a supportive network and seek mentors you admire who can help you travel the paths they have taken.” Alex Todd

“Be yourself, be truthful. Stick to your values and beliefs and it’s okay to say no sometimes.” Paul Copcutt

“Trust yourself that what you are doing is going to work, put yourself out there and show people that you care and build relationships. Stick to what you are doing and don’t give up when things aren’t going well.” Nathalie Lussier

“Setup a system to organize your work, immediately. I am not talking about a productivity system or anything complicated like that (though those can be useful for some people) what I mean is a systematic process for achieving your long term goals.

Entrepreneurs tend to get stuck on either the “big picture” or the small details, both of which are myopic viewpoints by themselves. To get anything done you need to be able to have a grasp of the actionable steps that have to be accomplished in order to achieve your goal. These steps need to be real and concrete for you. You should write them down and check them off as you accomplish them. Not only that but every so often you should look back at the list and see how far you have progressed, what you are getting stuck on and just how off the rails you’ve gone since the last time you looked. The more times you revisit, tweak and refine that list of steps the better off you will be.” Steve Spalding

“Find your passion and purpose.  I believe we were all empowered with a gift to give to the world.  I’d like to emphasize the words gift and give.  When we give of ourselves and our talents freely to others, amazing things occur.  This doesn’t mean what you always do is free, but find ways to give back.  It not only makes you feel good but also those you affect.  When you wrap the concept of giving around what it is you have a passion for, you find moments of joy that are truly amazing and almost unexplainable.  If you don’t feel you have found a purpose or passion, begin that search now!” Michael McCleary

“Nurture the people who give to you, always give back. Also, someone I spoke to recently said that one of his mottos was ‘you can’t have two faces’. Treat everyone with equal respect. That is so true.” Gina McAdam

“Realize that what gets everyone up in the mornings is one of four motivations or a combination them: money, power, self preservation and romance, which includes all the arts, and everything associated with the arts. These are the motivators, and put more emphasis on the self preservation and romance side, and less on the money and power side. You’ll be a happier person.” Duke Redbird

“Be yourself, develop your skills and do not take no for an answer. There is always a way. I have had quite a privileged life and I have to realize that some people don’t, so you have to embrace others and encourage them. I have always been supportive of my children and grandchildren and encouraged them in what they did and I believe that I still do that.” Lois Fallis

“Go for the grande, especially if your readers are women because a lot of us don’t think big enough. They may think let’s open up a coffee shop, let’s not create another Starbucks. Think bigger even if you don’t create another Starbucks, what if you end up with a chain of three or four coffee shops? Women need to think better and bigger, and I think that’s one piece of advice that I’d give to almost any woman that I meet.

For everyone else, I would say know your network, and know who you can turn to for really good advice. I think sometimes we build close networks of people who are vested in the outcomes of whatever we do, and we surround ourselves with people. So if your best friend doesn’t want you to get, or take that promotion, that’s not necessarily helpful information, you need to find people who will be able to give you good advice that’s in your best interest and not theirs.

Build a network of core people you can trust to help you build your business life and it turns out that they generally help you with your personal life as well.” Diane Danielson

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Image Credit: Google via Apture

What does success mean to you? Have you ever stopped to think about it? If you do not know what success means to you, how will you know when you have attained it? Take a look at the definitions of success by the interviewees, does any of the definitions resonate with you? Which ones and why? If you crafted a story of success, what would it look like? Sound like? Feel like? What is your story of success?

How do you define success?

Nathalie Lussier
I define success by the way you feel, and I know that some people define it by money, your house and by more tangible stuff. But I think that success is more about the inside and how you feel on a day-to-day basis. If you feel like you are contributing and being rewarded for what you are doing and feeling comfortable in your space in the world, then you are a success.

Paul Copcutt
Being rewarded for doing what you love to do and that lets you lead the life you want to live.

Duke Redbird
Success is getting what you want, but happiness is wanting what you get.

Ron LeBlanc
I think success really is living with your passions. If you are a busker on the street and you’re playing music, or you’re trading on the floor or you’re being a mother, if you are doing what you want to do, that’s success. Living to your talents and your passions is really the measure of success.

Gina McAdam
Being content with what you have, but knowing you have journeyed from here to there and not stood still.

In your opinion, what is the formula for success?

Nathalie Lussier
The formula for success will depend on the person. For entrepreneurs it’s putting yourself out there and deciding what you want to do, how you’re going to help people and going forward and creating great information and being there for people, but also taking a look at all the things that contribute to success, such as are you sleeping enough, are you eating well, are you exercising and creating a legacy, which is one of the things that will be there for generations to come.

Paul Copcutt
Find out what you are passionate about and figure out a way to live a life doing it.

Duke Redbird
Success is when you get what you want.

Ron LeBlanc
If you are blessed with a clearly defined and delineated passion, the formula for success is to be brave and to jump into that passion of interest.

Gina McAdam
The same as luck – the marriage of preparation and opportunity.

As you’ll notice none of the definitions and formulas for success talks about the attainment of money, is that significant? Success is very personal and there are many success formulas. What’s your definition? What’s your formula? In another post, I’ll include some additional and definitions and formulas for  success.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

This is the second part of Nathalie’s interview and there are quite a few nuggets that will resonate with each of us. One of her five life lessons that she has already learned at the tender age of 24 is to learn to accept feedback and not take things  personally. This reminded me of the Four Agreements: Don’t take things personally, be impeccable with your word, always do your best, and never make assumptions.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am known as the raw foods witch, and I help people to eat more fruits and vegetables. I have a background in software engineering and all of my nutritional knowledge is self taught based on the experience of the results that I have had eating this way.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I do not see a big difference between my personal and professional life. I try to live by my values. I am very environmentally friendly and it’s important for me to believe in what I’m doing.  I like to support certain types of organizations, restaurants, where I buy my groceries. I like to have a good balance where I spend time with my family, boyfriend, friends and a good amount of time on my business. In my mind it’s all the same because anywhere that I am, I am going to be thinking about my business, ways to help others, and things to recommend. If someone recommends a book to me and I read it and enjoy it, I am going to recommend it to my clients. My personal and professional lives blend together.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

I think it’s only a half regret, but I think I regret going into computers instead of business school, but at the same time I think that I would have ended up in the same place. But a part of me regrets having that kind of background. I would have liked to know about building a business, marketing and about the legal aspects of a business instead of the technical background that I have. I think in the end I would have been able to learn both things so it isn’t the biggest regret ever.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. To not second guess myself. There were many times when I made a decision and wondered if the other way would have been better. Now I am a lot more comfortable with the decisions that I make.
2. Life is short. There is a lot of heart disease in my family, and that in part brought me to discover raw foods and adapt to this lifestyle and realizing that we are here for a certain amount of time and have to make the most of it, and we also have to take care of our health.
3. My third life lesson is to follow your passion and doing things that you think really matter in the world. So I was working in a very corporate environment, and it was really good money, but it wasn’t what I thought the world needed in terms of what I could offer it.
4. Learn to accept feedback and go with the flow. I am a perfectionist so when someone criticizes my work, my website, I have to look at it and take what’s useful and make the change. I am learning not to take things so personally.
5. I am very focused whenever I have something to do, but I have to tone it down because for a whole week I could be working on my website at the exclusion of everything else or I could be exercising and doing nothing else so I have to balance all of this. I am working on this because I have a Type A go-for-it personality.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I like to read and I read quite a bit. I also like martial arts, swimming, playing games with my boyfriend and friends, card games, board games, that kind of stuff.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Most of my ideas come to me right before I fall asleep, go for a walk and when I shower because I am relaxed then. When I take a break from work I get ideas, all my ideas come to me at once and I have to write them down immediately or I might lose them.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Well-behaved women never make history” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and the reason why I like that quote is because society has a lot of expectations when it comes to gender, and as female entrepreneurs, we have to be bold and be who we want to be and not shy away from our potential and what we can do in the world. For me, well-behaved is bucking convention and going against the norm.

How do you define success?

I define success by the way you feel, and I know that some people define it by money, your house and by more tangible stuff. But I think that success is more about the inside and how you feel on a day-to-day basis. If you feel like you are contributing and being rewarded for what you are doing and feeling comfortable in your space in the world, then you are a success.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

The formula for success will depend on the person. For entrepreneurs it’s putting yourself out there and deciding what you want to do, how you’re going to help people and going forward and creating great information and being there for people, but also taking a look at all the things that contribute to success, such as are you sleeping enough, are you eating well, are you exercising and creating a legacy, which is one of the things that will be there for generations to come.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Start local if you can and one of the things that has been useful for me is doing talks, and demonstrations, and connecting with people in person. Beyond that is building your website and creating your marketing. Having a website has been great for me because people have been able to go there and get information. From there keep building your offerings.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

The number one person would be Steve Jobs and I’d like to know how he keeps his drive and doesn’t get distracted from all the rumors. It would be interesting to learn how he keeps level headed.

Another person, who I have met (she was filming a movie in my small home town and I waited around until I got to meet her. It was a very short meeting) who I would like to meet again is Angelina Jolie and I would ask about her work with the United Nations and all the volunteer work that she does.

I would also like to meet Bill Gates and ask him how he manages his foundation and find out where he is going with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I would like to also find out what motivated him to start the foundation.

The fourth person that I’d like to meet is Gary Vaynerchuk. I feel like I know him already because of all his videos but I would like to ask him how he manages his time. He used to answer all his emails and now he doesn’t anymore, but he does everything himself and I’d love to know how he does that.

I would love to meet Hillary Clinton and find out how she ran her campaign.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

It would have to be Wishcraft by Barbara Sher. It took me out of the way I used to think about life, doing things and achieving goals. I like the way she describes how to get other people to help you to reach your goals. It was very step-by-step which was awesome. One exercise I liked was designing five or six lives and see how they each did and it was really interesting to see how you could have different options and you didn’t have to have one you and you could take different aspects of all those selves and incorporate them into your life right now.

One of the things I wanted is to have clients and do more one-on-one coaching and consulting and the other part was writing so it was really interesting to see how one of the mes would be a writer and the other a coach and I thought to myself that well I could do both, so I did.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

I would take Tribes by Seth Godin which is about leading people where there was no leader before

I would also bring The Purple Cow by Seth Godin as well, which is about how to make your business and your offering different.

The End of Overeating by David Kessler is about how the commercialization of food has made it easier to eat a lot more of it

Nine Lives That Are Holding Your Business Back And The Truth That Will Set You Free by Steve Chandler. And that book is basically just taking away all those things that you tell yourself to keep you from doing things that you really have to do in your business. That book has changed the way that I think about business.

Another book that I really liked is Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robins. I read that one quite a while ago but I think that I could read that one over and over again. That book has everything to keep you going.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

I like the movie Hook and it’s about Peter Pan and I also liked A League of Their Own, which was about women playing baseball during the war.

I really like Sarah McLaughlin and I could listen to her over and over again.

What excites you about life?

There are really very few limits and that excites me, and more people are living an alternate lifestyle eating more raw foods.

How do you nurture your soul?

I meditate a little bit and I love going out into nature, sitting under a tree or by the water and connecting. I find that great for my spiritual side.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I would wish for a solution to our overpopulation, and not a gruesome solution but one that would take into account everything that the planet needs, that people need. The solution could be really simple like people cutting back on certain things that they considered necessities. I want to heal the planet.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

There is sunshine and I am with people that I love.

What nuggets can you take away from Nathalie’s interview?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know what you think about this.  Click on the comment link below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

Today, I present 24-year old Nathalie Lussier. It’s the first time that I have interviewed someone so young, but I thought it important to bring you a diversity of voices. Open your mind, and see what you can learn from this young lady who is not only passionate about what she does, but is wise beyond her years. It was a pleasure to interview her because she is so thoughtful, and she was willing to answer questions which require the wisdom that comes with age. For instance, when asked, “If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?” she responded, “I would have started earlier to try to understand what people wanted, see what they had trouble with and help them in that area.” In my opinion, that’s good advice because we often create products that we think people should want, instead of what they actually want.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.  

I am known as the raw foods witch, and I help people to eat more fruits and vegetables. I have a background in software engineering and all of my nutritional knowledge is self taught based on the experience of the results that I have had eating this way.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I wake up and drink a green smoothie, which is basically fruit and green leafy vegetables. After that I work on the computer, and sometimes I go for a swim during the day because I like to break things up. I do more work on my computer and in the evening I have a big salad with my boyfriend Robin, and later read a book.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I like to get feedback so when I hear that others are enjoying my work or getting a lot of results from what I am teaching, that propels me forward and motivates me.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I would have started earlier to try to understand what people wanted, see what they had trouble with, and help them in that area.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Making relationships a priority is the new way of doing business today. You can really connect with people online with tools like email, Twitter and Facebook. You can really get to know people and build relationships over time, and give them what they need instead of just pushing stuff in their direction.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past two years?

In terms of raw foods, things are shifting away from being very strict, and moving toward welcoming everyone to try eating this way a little bit more.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

1. The first is time management. I would be reading email and responding to them then I click on a link in an email and all of sudden a lot of time has elapsed and I realize that I have not done any work. So what I do is frequently check the time and see how I am doing and ask myself if I have done what I said I was going to do by that time of the day and that is how I handle that threat.
2. Another threat I would say is misinformation. When people hear the term raw foods, they immediately think it’s all or nothing, but the way that I teach it is you can eat fresh fruits and vegetables and get the benefits from that. You do not have to be that strict with yourself.
3. And the third threat kind of relates to the first idea is that I have a lot of passion and am prone to go off on a tangent and do something new and different that does not necessarily relate to what I am doing right now. The way that I deal with this is to focus on what my goals are and where I am headed.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I like to make it fun, informal, down-to-earth and accessible to anyone who is remotely interested in getting healthier, and I like to deliver all my stuff online except for a few things that I deliver personally, which I enjoy. I love to do videos and recipes that are simple so everyone can get their hands dirty. And what’s really fun about the way that I teach things is that I am known as the witch so I like to bring in a special magic feeling to everything that I do.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Most people in my field do not have the type of technical background that I have so I am able to have interactive technologies and videos on my website and this may not be easy for them.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

One of the challenges that I had in the beginning was getting people to visit my website and get interested in my services. I think that’s also a challenge that many people face. I resolved the challenge by writing something that really connected with my audience. In the beginning when I was writing articles, blog posts, I was really writing for myself. I was writing stuff that was useful for my colleagues and myself, but not useful to those who were new to raw foods. So just shifting to write about what raw foods is, and how you sprout your own nuts and seeds and dehydrate stuff has made a difference and my business took off.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

I learned to really listen to my people and when I had no readers to listen to I learned to use Google Keywords to identify what people were searching for in my field. I learned to shift my mindset to what my customers were thinking.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break happened last October about Halloween time. I basically did a big launch, had done a speaking engagement, another audio interview and a couple of radio that same week. It was an accumulation of all these speaking events and giving talks about raw foods that pushed things over the edge and made the launch a big success for me. One talk was at The Big Carrot in Toronto, Canada and I did some online podcasts.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Before the big launch that I did, I tried to do something similar to provide a program for people, and it really didn’t resonate with anyone. It didn’t connect with my audience and my offering wasn’t quite right, the timing wasn’t right either. It was a failure in that I launched a product that didn’t take off, but it was useful to me to see what it took to create a program like that, the time it took and what people really wanted. Learning from that helped me down the line to achieve success.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I always felt that I had this knowledge of what I was meant to do and it had something to do with health, but I became a programmer because I was very idealistic and thought that I could create software that would lead to finding the cure for cancer or something like that. I guess I was very disappointed that things didn’t turn out the way the way I expected. That has made me think about how I make decisions and my expectations of the world. These days I think about my decisions very differently from back then. I was pretty young when I made that decision.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

The toughest decision that I made was to turn down a job offer and go out on my own to start a business. I had a job offer to work on Wall Street in New York City and I also had it in my mind that I wanted to travel and visit China. My boyfriend Robin is from China and I wanted to visit his family. So I made the decision to turn down the job offer and figure out what I’d do when I returned from China. It was a very tough decision to make but it turned out very well.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and one of the events which shaped me was attending a big competition in the US and winning a medal there. And it was great to see what it was like outside of my tiny home town in Ontario. The experience built my self confidence.
2. Another event also occurred when I was younger. I participated in a forum for young Canadians. A bunch of high school students were brought to Ottawa, Canada and we talked about politics and how to change the world and it made me realize that we are all in this together and how we take action is how we differ.
3. I lived in California for four months for an internship and just being there, meeting people and attending a seminar was really life changing for me to be around people with different mindsets. Being there started bubbling some of my business ideas.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Being in business right now.

How did mentors influence your life?

Mentors influenced my life a lot! One of my mentors was my tae kwon do instructor and she was very influential in giving me self confidence. It was good to have someone who believed in me and wanted to see me go far. Other mentors were very instrumental, especially in business, and women I met online were very motivational to me and gave me the power and courage to step out and do this.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Trust yourself, listen to your intuition, and take action.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

One of the ones I liked was a book called Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. Other books recommended are all the books by Seth Godin and the Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Trust yourself that what you are doing is going to work, put yourself out there and show people that you care and build relationships. Stick to what you are doing and don’t give up when things aren’t going well.

What nuggets can you take away from Nathalie’s interview?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know what you think about this.  Click on the comment link below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.