Anna Garcia is a playful, vivacious and inspirational facilitator/ relationship specialist committed to guiding individuals through their journey of self-discovery back to love & peace post painful relationships & events.
She is the founder of discoverME, the confidence-building programme series that has changed the lives of hundreds of women in London through its transformational work with schools and children’s centres.
Anna has dedicated the past 10 years working with women to discover how extraordinary they are, to have them know their power and to understand how to be in their relationships with others and most importantly, with themselves post loss or relationship breakups. She has been showing women how to reconnect with their own journey again, whether they are in a marriage, single or separated, she has been gifting this to women throughout the world.
Please tell us what
is a typical business day for you?
Well there’s on the stage & off the stage days!
Its very simple really; I’m either on a stage
speaking to large groups of women or on the phone to the those who are could be
coming to my next programme; and then my life is like a call centre..!
My business at the moment is focused on two key
areas:
1) Public events for women: RELATIONSHIPS INTENSIVE
2) Private training for school staff or parents:
discoverME:
My day starts at 5am and ends around 11 or
midnight.
The first two hours are dedicated to the upkeep of
my spiritual, emotional & physical wellbeing. These are my holy hours,
which set the frame for the rest of the day.
I tend to lunch or dine with clients or prospective
clients most days of the week.
I like to work from my local Health Club I get
there for early morning workout or swim and
then use their business lounges or café areas during the day to make calls and
meet with people
Administrative work is done in the evenings or
weekends when client facing or calling isn’t a core activity.
I then make sure my last hour in the evening is for
winding down, centering and taking care of my emotional & spiritual
wellbeing.
What made you start
the business and how did you get started?
I loved my job as a facilitator within the
employability industry but my soul was screaming for something else.
So I did something I wouldn’t do today, or
recommend, which was to leave my job and start from zero. The financial stress
was high and totally unnecessary if I'd just kept my job, but that was my
journey I guess.
I had no idea 10 years ago when I began, that I'd be
in the speaking business today.
I started as a facilitator with small employability
related confidence building programmes as a subcontractor for an employability
organisation in Greenwich.
One fateful day however, whilst delivering a confidence
& employability programme for a small group of unemployed in a children’s
centre we were hiring as a venue, the manager came up to me and said,
‘‘Who are you and
what did you just do?
How come those people
are coming out so happy,
lets talk! I want
this for my parents’’
and that’s when discoverME was born and it all
began!
A confidence building programme for parents, which
has now been running in the south east for 7 years, successfully supporting
hundreds of women to get back into work or education or to leave abusive
relationships.
Until my lifes’ most fateful day when I met my
mentor almost 3 years ago and he saw in me way beyond what I was seeing and
proceeded to prepare me for the journey of becoming a relationship specialist
speaker to the public.
Today I continue to run the discoverME programme
series during school hours from the clockhouse community centre in Woolwich
once a term for 4 Fridays. These parents are funded by their schools or self-fund.
And its work which continues to transform families.
Today I am debuting the Relationships Intensive
programme & Dealing with Break up programmes which is aimed at the striving
woman who wishes to get to know herself deeply so that she may understand and
embrace her relationships with sovereignty & power, without losing herself
in them.
These programmes will now run every other month or
so. Our debut programme is on the 19th November 2016 at the Devonport
House Hotel in Greenwich, London.
What would you say
has been your greatest accomplishment in the business world to date?
Going from small groups to mass, being able to
reach 100’s of people’s hearts at a time has been the most life changing and
business changing experience. This took getting over myself, and out of my own
way, by coming face to face with one of my greatest fears and allowing the
business to evolve as life intended. In my first year I reached as many people
as I had in the 9 years prior to that. It’s a big difference.
What
has been your biggest challenge in business so far?
With change and growth come challenges,
and knowing how to surf these waves is vital.
After experiencing great success for
the first time last year, I then began to experience the changes of growth, for
example; losing long term clients, receiving criticism, ‘losing’ friends,
facing fears of failure (the more you gain, ironically, the more you feel your losing)
All of these things together got to me and
I allowed fear to take over.
I was set to face one of my biggest
challenges in business; letting go of my old self.
This led to what I now describe as a
nervous breakdown / spiritual awakening. This very painful period lasted for
about 6 weeks.
It was the biggest learning curve ever,
I never ever lost faith though.
I trusted great people around me and
gave myself time to heal & grow in confidence and self love again.
Having come out the other side, today I
know it was my fear of growth and letting go of what didn’t serve me anymore
that was holding me back. And I also know there will be many more of these
times of growth but I now face them with a lot more self love, self trust,
faith & wisdom
What
are your future plans for the business?
Relationships
Intensive & the advanced programme, Dealing with Break up, will become
my focus over the next two years and be run consistently in the UK and in
Australia. I’m very excited about these programmes and the plan is to love up
& empower as many wonderful women out there looking to deepen their
relationship with themselves first.
If you
had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Get myself a business mentor from the
first moment, particularly one who’s already achieved what I would love to
achieve and follow their advice whilst still listening to my quiet intuition
within.
I would’ve listened to the best advice
I ever got from day one, get on the phone and create momentum, quit waiting for
business to come to you. This has been KEY.
Why
is it so important to inspire young women in particular to follow their dreams?
Women will be the CEOS of their
families (Chief Energy Officers) and so if they’re out there realising their
dreams, they will shine a light for many with their joy & commitment to
greatness.
Even in this day and age, there are
still in many families, lower expectations for girls than boys. Shining a light
for girls, shows them they can grow beyond the expectations surrounding them.
What
advice would you give to somebody who wants to start a business in your
industry?
Very simple & with a lot of love:
1 * Find yourself a mentor; it’s the most
profitable & money saving investment you will make
2 *No need to reinvent the wheel, find a niche and
replicate what others have done well.
3 *Always come from love and service in business,
people buy into YOU, not your product or service.
4 *Work on YOU.. You ARE the greatest
asset.
What
or who inspires you in business and why?
Oprah Winfrey; what we see today is the
embodiment of mass service, but what got her
there was a massive amount of work, sweat & tears. Overcoming her
insecurities and fears seem to have played a big part and like Oprah, asking to
be made an instrument for humanity has been my inspiration.
What is
your favourite inspirational quote?
“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing
and right doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.”
Rumi
