Friday 28 October 2016

2inspire Inspirational Woman: Anna Garcia, founder of discoverMe & Relationships Intensive

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 cafĂ© 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



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