Most books on coaching and business focus on surface-level actions like list building, client generation, and marketing. This book, however, recognizes that unless you address the deepest, most unconscious “shadow” layers of your operating system, you will self-sabotage your growth at every level. Your shadow is composed of your fears, old trauma, and insecurities. It’s the reason why most business owners struggle to stand out, attract ideal clients, and create consistent revenue. Here is the magic: your shadow actually contains the secrets to accessing your unique genius and gifts that can help you powerfully connect with your ideal clients and become an unstoppable leader in your industry. The powerful techniques in this book have been adapted from ancient wisdom, behavioral psychology, and the author’s private coaching practice. Anna shows you proven methods in an easy-to-practice format that will help you clear your biggest revenue blocks, identify your unique identity as a coach, and create a structure for your thriving business. Included in this book is the author’s guide to building a six-figure coaching practice, with tools that have helped her students and clients create sustainable growth in their businesses and bring in an additional $5,000–$20,000 in monthly revenue. This book is a must-have for coaches and entrepreneurs in all industries. For every book purchased, a tree will be planted.
My Movie ANNA
[00:00:00] Best Book Bits podcast brings you Anna Tsui, international coach, speaker, author, serial entrepreneur. She believes that building a successful business and living a joyful existence is much easier than we’re being conditioned to believe. Author of the book, shadow Magic. Anna, thank you for being on the show, Michael.
So nice to be connected with you. Thanks for having me on. No worries. Now, an amazing book, and we’ll deep dive into it soon as well. I think this topic of the inner work and shadow stuff and all that amazing stuff has now come to the fold and surface. And I know a lot of people are talking about it, but tell me a little bit about your background, how you got started into this work and what led you on your journey.
So where did the journey start for yourself? Oh, that’s a great question. I think maybe a lot of your listeners, I was natural, intuitive. Very sensitive, but always in hiding or didn’t know how to deal with all of these like feelings that I had. And then I realized that feelings were actually if, when I listened to them cuz I’m a serial [00:01:00] entrepreneur.
When I listened to my gut instinct, when I listened to my feelings, they always guided me. in the right direction, unless, of course, and this is what I, what propelled me to write the book unless they’re like the shadow feelings, which help me distinguish what is the difference between our kind of like fear versus our intuition.
And so I have a history of doing serial entrepreneurship, a bunch of different startups. And I’ve been on this coaching journey, meaning coaching other people. Excellence and their brilliance for the past 10 years. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. And you deep dive into the book a little bit about your experience as well.
What started first? Was it was it the coaching? Was it healing? Was it, like what was the first. First thing that you did for someone out there that’s you know what? I want to start and helping people in this particular area what advice would you give them to start? Or what was your experience on starting?
My experience was I was always the one that people told too much information to, too much personal information to at parties, and I’m sure a lot of people can relate and it’s okay, but I love to listen. It was fascinating to me. And then [00:02:00] one day I was at a party and someone was like, will you be my coach?
And I was like, what is that? And that got me into the coaching world. But before that, my hobbies really were in the world of energy and learning, energy healing. I’m a certified reiki master. I’ve been trained into going into the Kasha records, which is really esoteric, but now it’s getting really popular.
I don’t know if you noticed, but now the esoteric, like astrology, human design, a kosha, crazy stuff like that, right? It’s becoming more main. . And I think that’s just people moving into trying to make sense of all the crazy changes that are happening in the world and it brings up a lot of our shadows, right?
And so people are trying to figure out what do I do with all this? Tell me a little bit about why you wrote the book. The book is for coaches, cuz that was a lot of the clientele that I worked with, helping them overcome their self sabotage. But it’s really for any entrepreneur or anyone who’s. Why do I always get in my own way?
And I wrote it with basically all of my client anecdotes. Those are all true stories because we realize that whenever we are about to launch a program [00:03:00] or about to start a social media campaign or do something that’s new and that will get them growth. Weird things started to happen, but it was the same things, right?
So there were certain patterns that certain clients would have, they would always get sick before a big launch or some things, and it was legitimate sick, they would get a sore throat or they would actually lose their voice, but it would happen pretty frequently or. Their lives would go crazy.
They would’ve in-laws visiting them, right? And everything legitimately was they got too busy to go through their sales and marketing plan, right? And I realized, oh, hey, there’s a pattern here. There’s something deeper going on underneath. And that’s really what the book is about. It’s about helping people see that actually it’s their unconscious that’s running their.
And really informing their showing up or lack of showing up. It’s not really our consciousness that’s running our business, like who I think I am. It’s actually my unconscious that’s running the show, which is, scary, that’s the reason why I wrote the book, just so people can plan for it.
[00:04:00] Yeah, absolutely. And being a coach myself, I can totally understand the self-sabotage and just the unconscious things that come along with it as well. You kick off the book with chapter one, talking about the force within and one of the little subheadings is what if no one signs up for my program?
Now I’ve been here before, so spent time and time, money, effort, energy, emotions on grant, the program, and then you market the program and you do your first live webinar. Been there, no one shows up even I’ve got a big audience and like, how, where does a coach go from there? When they first had that first initial failure.
Now I’ve overcome that and I’ve done quite successful in my coaching stuff, but we can always go that next level. But tell me a little bit about where does a coach go from there? When they experience that first sort of son of failure and no one so up for their. Or how am I gonna get clients? Or why can’t clients to pay me a higher rate?
There’s so much stuff that goes internally. What? What do we do? Oh yeah. And I, to be honest, I don’t even have that fear anymore. And I’ll tell you why and how I [00:05:00] overcame it. So I know once I’ve announced my program, it’s gonna be crickets. I know it. So I plan for it. I don’t expect anything else. And if people show up or if people express interest, then that just adds more fuel to my motivation.
But I think what people, what happens is we spend so much energy launching something and before it even gives momentum, we give up on it. We give up on it because this internal yeah, self-sabotage, but it’s really this internal self-protective mechanism comes up. Don’t make yourself even more visible.
You lose. And then we hear these voices and we actually, we are the ones that abandon our project, our launch, our program, our service, because it feels unsafe. But if we can plan for that, if we know you know what, I’m just gonna do five posts and after five posts, then I’ll come back and reevaluate.
But really planning for the crickets, planning for people who don’t show up allows you to just give yourself that. To have fun into experiment and to get re [00:06:00] excited about the program that you’re launching. Because if you’re not excited about it, then no one else is gonna be excited about it.
Yeah. And also bringing consciousness to the unconscious. So you talk about the executive self versus. The shadow self as well. So going into launching a program or something like that, when you operate from your shadow you talk about it in the book, a couple of things happen such as, self sabotage, spirals, and you block yourself, you begin to lose confidence.
But when you operate from an executive leadership, Space you are able to recognize yourself, sabotage and realize that’s showing you important lessons about your personal growth. So it’s bringing that consciousness into the unconscious aspects of ourselves as well. Yeah. Michael, I’m so impressed by your speed reading skills and just like the level of comprehen, I know you’re in this industry, it’s it’s amazing.
So that’s a great question. And actually the energy of consciousness is a really powerful energy. So I love that you brought it up because our shadow stuff really, it’s our scared inner. . And children, what do they need? They need a strong authority figure to feel [00:07:00] safe. And so for many of us, we don’t realize that cuz we don’t have, like you mentioned, that consciousness and What Actually, when you become conscious of your shadow, you embody this energy that’s really strong and makes your shadow feel safe, and your shadow will test it just like a little kid.
Or if anyone has like a pet, right? Or a dog. I have a dog, he’s very stubborn. He’s an English bulldog and he will test you at every. Every minute. And so if we can stand in our consciousness, it actually allows our shadow self to be more at ease and it becomes less powerful because it’s this inner child’s oh, I don’t need to be in charge anymore.
I don’t need to kick and stream and claw my way to safety. And so that consciousness that you mentioned is so key and it’s very powerful. Just the. . Yeah. But it’s easy for you to say, Anna, you didn’t grow up, severely insecure, depressed, growing up in the projects from an immigrant family being bullied, broken nose, gangs and parents arguing.
It’s easy for you. You were brought up on the right side of the road. That sounds like a great rap video. I should make a song. [00:08:00] Yeah. Eminem eight Mile. Can you tell me. Tell us a bit about your background and how, what I just said then was tongue in cheek and how that actually related and was your upbringing.
Yeah, absolutely. So exactly what you said, just, immigrant family. I think looking back using the terminology today, it would be, it would’ve been a toxic household. A lot of ptsd, a lot of anxiety, of mental disorders. We were poor. And I got picked on a lot and I realized later on in my adult years that I got picked on because I was just in that victim mentality.
Like I was almost like, pick on me was my energy, right? I know I’m different, I’m insecure. I know I look different and I eat different things and I speak a different language, so everyone just pick on me. And I didn’t realize that until my adult life. But I’m so thankful for that upbringing and I’m so thankful for my parents as challenging as they were.
Because I really think that if we didn’t come, if we didn’t come through all of this contrast right, and difficulties our greatness in who we really are wouldn’t really come out. So like they really were [00:09:00] instrumental in. Yeah, I I can second that as well. So thank you for sharing your story. I have was on a podcast recently and I expressed that I was the youngest child and my parents never really told me what to do.
They didn’t tell me what not to do, but they didn’t also tell me what to do. So what it did, and gave me this incredible space of no one telling me I couldn’t do something or did stuff. And because of that I just did. For a long time and then created great stuff as well. So I thanked them that, I had this lane, full way, highway lane open, no traffic, no one on the road all the time.
And I was like, and it’s not good or bad, but . Yeah, I do. I do thank him for giving me that space and just to leave me alone, but still had that loving home. It was strange. Very strange. Anyway, we’ll move on. That’s great. Yeah. It was cool. Sounds like a party. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was looking back.
It’s a bit weird. You talk about the energetics of a business and this chapter really got to me as well because your business is alive, literally. [00:10:00] Can you talk about the energetics of a business? Oh, I love this because everyone who has a business right now, and it can even be like a hobby or a side hustle, right?
Or it can even be a relationship like your marriage. It has its own life force. It has its own aura. It even has its own birthdate. So if you think about it, your business and corporation date, you can actually get an astrology tree chart reading, right? It’s actually a legally binding date. It’s a legally binding entity, right?
I have an LLC here in the us and everything about it is an entity. And it’s the same in your marriage, right? It’s an entity. So you can do things for yourself or you can do things for the marriage. You can do things in your shadow space, right? Or you can do things as an executive of your business.
And so when we see our business as something that’s really alive that wants to thrive, and that means it has clients already built in, right? It has a strategy already built in. It has its own strengths and weakness. And so if we tap into the energy of our business right now, all of your listeners just feel into it and [00:11:00] notice if it feels really weak, if it feels like it could use a little bit more love.
Or if it feels really vibrant, just notice the size of it, right? Does it feel tight and small and insular, or does it feel vast, like it encompasses the whole globe? Just tapping into the energy will show you so much about how viable your business actually. Yeah, I used to think this stuff was like woowoo years ago.
I, I wasn’t ready for it. And it’s funny, I look back now and I had, I was invited by some of the, if I said their names, people would know their names cuz they’re the most well known public personal development people around the world. And one of the guys is, was I’m a Christian slash Buddhist.
To do both things, but he was really deep into Christianity and teaching all about God and things like that, which is great. And I’m into that. But then his whole program, and I couldn’t believe it was based on the inner child traumas and stuff, and I was like, man, I’m all good. don’t need any of that.
I’m like, but it was my ego blocking me going, What he was really, and I’ll look back now in a bit of, laugh it off a little bit [00:12:00] because the work of a business, as you say, we need decisive leaders who’s committed to making a bigger container of light and expansion, which you write in the book as well.
And it is about coming from that space of expansion. But when we are in the ego or the self-sabotage or the inner child or whatever it is, we are very locked into a certain position and we don’t want to open any wounds. It’s not even going back to open up things. But we’re, we are very closed ourselves cuz we’re very logic, we’re very logical as a leader.
We need to be open enough for things to flow into as well. So what’s blocking a lot of people from even getting into this particular work of shadow work? It can be really painful. It can show you parts of yourself that you might not wanna see cuz you’ve spent your whole life. Trying to look successful.
And I think especially when you get to a certain age, you know when you leave your twenties, which I’ve left for a while, when you leave your twenties and you become like truly an adult and settled in the world and you have a list of accomplishments, you’re known for something, right?[00:13:00]
That’s just. How much stronger your ego is. It’s just adding more walls to you. Being flexible and nimble. And like you said, we’re a part of this like infinite source, right? Who we really are is very multi-dimensional and very dynamic. So the stronger that we identify to this ego, to our accolades, to the things we were good at, 10 years ago, and the things that people say that we’re good at, the more that we don’t want to show.
we maybe fail the more that we don’t wanna experiment and fail. And so then it becomes a really rigid like stuck structure. And so if we, if any of your listeners are really finding that they’re stuck in the same place, like maybe you’re wearing the same clothes from, back in the day, or you’re like talking about something, but it doesn’t feel like it’s hitting your heart.
It means you need to open up those walls. It means you really need to move beyond this ego identity and. Put stuff out there that gets [00:14:00] people to respond to you in a good way or in a negative way. Test yourself. We are so much stronger than our ego, cuz really our ego is a survival mechanism.
It’s our inner child, it’s our unconscious. It’s not like the strongest part of us. It’s just like this part of our mammalian brain. So the thing is if we don’t recognize our ego and our shadows and our. You don’t really get to recognize the consciousness that’s so much bigger that, like you said, is completely tapped into abundance.
The ego is not tapped into abundance. It’s not tapped into flow. It’s tapped into like scarcity and like staying the same. And so if we find ourselves sabotaging ourselves or being stuck, or we’re making the same amount of money every year and things aren’t really changing, chances are you’re in self-sabotage eco space.
So just be the consciousness that’s aware of it and you really don’t even need to do much. Life will come to. , right? Like you said, you’ll find people that you wanna learn from. You’ll find videos you’ll like, start shedding people that you don’t wanna follow anymore. Life will bring you what you focus on.
So just be [00:15:00] like in your consciousness. It’s a strange world, the universe. It’s funny that you say that when you said life will bring everything two, I’ve got this screensaver and I can’t share it through here, but basically it’s a man on a cliff and there’s a big finger behind him flicking him off the cliff and the caption says God, and then below there, there’s his hand under the cliff.
The guy’s free falling, he’s being click flicked off the mountain. And it says also God flicks you off your path of where you’re at. But he also catches you. And I had this personal experience myself. So a couple months ago I had a full-time job, a great high paying job great lifestyle, been doing it for ages, really easy.
I was very bored. I’ve always wanted to leave it. I finally gave up and I was like, , gonna retire. I’m not doing this anymore. It needs a semi-retirement. Right? People can’t say that. I’m like, I can say it. Let me own it for a couple months. So it’s semi-retired. Very bored at home December, January.
Not bored, but basically a lot of time with the kids. It’s great. Yeah, it’s great. And then yesterday got the phone call for the business opportunity that [00:16:00] I didn’t even know existed, but it came to me and it only came to me because I’m involved in these other businesses, which is great. And my business partner believed so much in me.
He’s you have to join this new business venture I’m on. And it’s like the universe moves you. It gives you something completely different and it’s what kind of ride is this? So you look back and connect the dots, but it’s like you gotta just have faith that go with the flow, go with your intuition.
Step into spaces where it might be a little bit dark and unknown, like the dark forest, but someone will come in and shine un white and it will all make sense as well. So just wanted to. . Yeah. Yeah. And you know why that special adventure? I love that story. So that arrow of the finger flicking being God and the hands holding you being God.
Guess what? There’s another arrow of the guy , right? Jumping off the cliff also. God, yeah. . Yeah. God, I forgot about that one. They forgot to put that one in. Correct. And we forget that [00:17:00] we are the ultimate expression of creativity. We can actually change, move. The thing with the ego is it’s stuck in the, that’s what I wanna get onto as well.
When you said, when you were stuck, the ego, from my understanding of it, it’s not just block, we’re in habits, certain habits and habitual things that just get us stuck and I was stuck. In certain areas, and I knew I was stuck. And I call it I call it a loop, like in the matrix. We’re stuck in this loop and you can see other people’s loops and it’s oh my God, I’m in a loop.
I’ve gotta get outta this loop. I’ve gotta break the chain, walk out the loop, walk into the unknown and start a new loop. And it’s like we are just human, but. How do we, let’s say we’re in an environment right now that we don’t want to change, and we could talk about this in a sec, but one of the things I wanted to talk about in your book, you talk about you were the medicine, and I know I’m just going off topic, but indigenous cultures call this our gift and it’s now our unique, our uniqueness is our own medicine as well.
What do you have to say about that with our [00:18:00] medicine and our uniqueness and how do you tell clients and get them to actually express that uniqueness in their life? Yeah. If you look at your life you are, you’re a medicine for somebody, right? Like you, we’ve given ourselves our own medicine and you know anyone who’s you’ve been through a lot of personal growth, right?
You’ve been remedying parts of yourself, like things that you don’t feel are right, and that journey, you become like this big medicine, and chances are it’s medicine for your people. So it could be medicine for your family. It could be medicine for your clients, your community, right? But it’s just who you.
And if you allow yourself to really own that, that you are this like walking healing energy that actually helps us escape the loop of the ego. So the ego is always based in fear and self-preservation. It’s always like seeing like scarcity. It’s like rooting the news about the economy, right?
And inflation and all this stuff. And I’ve heard this thing now where there’s , people are there’s like this like social depression that I saw yesterday and it’s [00:19:00] basically people have less friends, less good friends than before, and it’s one right now versus three good friends from, the seventies.
People are less likely to have children now. There’s like all of this stuff going around, and so if you are. In a space of just loving yourself, that energy of love, right? That energy of accepting yourself, you are instantly out of that loop because that loop is always being fed by scarcity, by things that we see in social media, the news, other people, right?
If you allow yourself to just spend a moment with your kids, a moment in nature, it’s really simple, right? But the more we do it, it becomes, So healing because that love energy and that ego energy can’t coexist, right? Like abundance and scarcity can’t coexist. So just do a jump. One of my very good friends and I’m actually helping him birth a book as well, pretty much lives in the forest, and he’s literally we call him Jesus because I can share his [00:20:00] stuff through there.
His name’s a shout out to Jo. Lives in the forest. He’s the most highly spiritual, energetic vibe person you’ve ever met. and, but it’s one person. This is the way the world works and how people judge. It’s like someone’s got their head in the clouds, meaning they’re very spiritual, floating levitating.
And then someone’s got their feet on the ground and there’s this judgment of, oh, but you don’t do, you have a secure job of secure income? And then people like you don’t understand. I’m tapped into source energy. It’d be like, no, you don’t understand. And it’s this constant battle between people that are just feet on the ground, head in the.
And there’s this balance, I think there’s a balance between two. There’s also a very thin line between enlightenment and schizophrenia. I listened to a podcast recently about that and I can totally understand that too, cuz some people don’t know if they’ve tipped over the edge. A little bit too much as well.
I need to come back down to reality. But anyway, I’m waffling on it the moment, but I really wanted to talk about your struggle is your strength. And one of the things you talk about in the book is, the not so secret sources that most [00:21:00] business. A functioning from a deep level of fear and insecurity that make their business and brand un unstable and reactive.
The underlying dysfunction causes them, to make poor reactive decisions give away their personal power shrink in vulnerability. What are we doing? Why are business owners operating from this state? And how can we change this state of fear and in. Oh yeah. So definitely do a self-assessment if, and this is in the book too, and I think it’s in the free download that’s Write the insight.
Yeah. Your unique insight worksheet. Yeah. Is that the one? Yeah. And there’s there’s one in there. I can’t remember if it was that one or some other one where basically you just list the task in your business or the sections of your business. So like finances, how confident you are you in the financial aspect of your business, bringing in money, saving money, spending money.
How confident are you? Sales of your business, having sales calls, how confident you in marketing and basically if you’re not at a level, let’s say so one outta 10, 10 is super confident. If you’re not at an eight or above in [00:22:00] terms of confidence in those areas, chances are you’re running on self sabotage.
Chances are your ego is keeping you from doing the things that you probably know that you need to do to have a thriving. And so if you just again, feeling into the energy of your business, if you’re less confident than you’d like to be, then that’s a sign that your ego’s probably running the show.
You also talk about, good point. You also talk about the inside job as well. And one of my personal experiences recently, I went to all these networking events, probably about three in the last week, and they were great, met some great people, but. I didn’t go there looking for, to expand my network cuz you know, I’ve got, I speak to a lot of great people and I wasn’t going there for looking for work or promoting myself as well.
And conversations came up and people was what do you do for work? And one person would just be like, oh, I’m unemployed. And you watch their reactions and I do it as a joke. And then people are like, oh, okay. And then one’s oh, I’m Samara Raton. Oh, okay, that’s cool. She like, And then the other one’s no, look, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve got five businesses, or I run the worlds largest three books on website or, oh, I run a global Top [00:23:00] 40 podcast and oh, I’m actually got a property business through here.
And you can have a, and they’re all true, but. Watching people’s energy change when you have, like your words, create other energies, but also your own words, change your own state as well. But one of the things with the inside job was I realized after everyone’s do you wanna join this network in event or this company and do this work?
I was like, I need to go home and work on my own inside job because, , I’m now at that point where I don’t need external business. I need to just find that internal driver within myself to get my own stuff sorted within my own business systems and my own stuff as well. So how important is it for you as a coach, coaching business owners and coaches to sometimes stop.
Maybe look inward on the inside job of not just yourself personally, but your own business systems as well. It’s the inside job, and you’re absolutely right. And I know coaches who did really well and went into seven figures like but then their whole lives fell apart and they’re like, [00:24:00] okay, maybe this isn’t for me.
And whenever. And let’s just bring it back to something like a launch, right? Something that people can relate to. Like I’m about to do like a selling my new program or whatever it is. If I don’t do the inside workforce, which is the most essential work, then I’m gonna go out there like hoping and praying that someone’s gonna buy.
But if I am so confident and grounded that of course this is gonna sell out, right? The energy that I show up from is completely different, and that’s what happens. So like I, I say if you’re not really gonna allow yourself to be really confident or even just excited about a thing, then don’t even launch it, right?
Because then your ego and all this stuff is gonna come in and fill in the void. So like the inner work, the energy that you come from dictates what happens in your reality. For sure. Yeah. You talk about do the inner work. People probably listening now saying, all right, tell me how do I do the inner work?
What is some of the first steps for someone to do the inner work? Do they have to hire someone to have to read a certain book, do a mantra, do a breath exercise? Like where do people start doing the inner work? Aside from [00:25:00] listening to this podcast, ? Yeah. Go to where you are most. go to right now. The thing where you’re, and it could be something really silly I don’t like what I see in the.
Like my face is different. My, maybe I’ve gained some weight. I don’t really know, like what clothes are flattering to me now, I don’t even show up on zoom or do anything on social media because I’m really insecure about how I look. Go to where you’re insecure and work on that and love yourself through that, because not only will you be a hundred times happier, Right and find, you’ll release all this energy that could be creative energy for your projects and your business and your family because chances are what we’re insecure about is where we have most walls, and that’s where we’re blocking off love.
And I can tell you there’s a direct correlation. If you don’t have what you want in your life, it’s because you’re not allowing love to flow. And you mentioned flow earlier, right? Like that flow within into the universe where you don’t have love flowing. There is no possibility for abundance. And usually where the walls.
Are [00:26:00] insecurities, and you know what it is as well. It’s also people. It’s definitely got to do with the fear and insecure as well. But I do these podcast shows like all the time now, which is great. I, And I love it and I’m very comfortable and confident to sit here and just have a conversation, look at a webcam, but, , if it’s just me in the studio with the webcam and turn it on and have the same energy to say, Hey, it’s Michael here.
I’m actually running and I run multiple programs, but I don’t promote. So it’s like my own insecurity is I’ve got this audience. I don’t tell them that, I’m a book coach and I work with authors all around the world and entrepreneurs speak their. They speak, I write it. I work with, very busy entrepreneurs and things like that.
I don’t tell them, I don’t tell them I’m too, business consulting or other YouTube consulting. I don’t tell them my programs and my packages. What, do people get to a point where, like, how do you distinguish between the voice of the. Of the sabotage. You wrote that in the book as well, like what’s stopping people from, even though they might be confident they’ve got all these stuff, but just to promote, [00:27:00] like they get everything there, but like stopping people from promoting.
Is that an insecurity or what is that? I’m just trying to work it out myself. Why don’t I promote my programs and my stuff to my audience? Oh, yeah. It’s because it’s giving you some important aspect of your identity, right? So why does a part of you feel safe not promoting Michael? , if you wanna answer that question, don’t know.
I think I’ll have to, I’ll probably have to check with you. Off one on that one. Yeah. Cuz for me, when I I was hitting an in income ceiling, I was just making the same amount of money every year. And then when I ask myself why, like, why, what is this giving me? Because it gives a part of me.
Some sort of a sense of safety or it feels good to a certain part of me that I’m not making more than this amount of money, even though the big part of me like wants to make more money. And then when I asked myself, it was like the silliest answer, but it was, it hit really deep. It was, if I make more money then I’ll have to like really take care of my parents and people will come after me and I will feel bad and I will give them all my.[00:28:00]
right? It was a weird thing, but we all have these little things, right? Maybe it’s if I tell people what I do and then maybe I won’t have time for my family cuz I’ll be so successful. Or they won’t believe me. Yeah. And I’ve got the answer. What is it? What is it? Yeah. I found the answer. So the answer is it’s cuz I run the world’s largest.
Book summary platform and it’s free. And I pride myself on educating the masses for free and I educate millions of people every year with the videos and the audio stuff as well. That is one of the reasons because I’m really passionate about decentralization and free. , but I’m not serving anyone if I’m not telling them about certain, if I can’t help someone birth a book or help create a great YouTube channel or start a podcast show or do a course, what’s, there’s no, I’m not helping them. So I think I’ve gotta get across that. And the other one is cuz I make money on other businesses that aren’t free. So I’m like, I’m cool with money there and I’m cool with my charity work, which [00:29:00] is Best book Bits, which is me giving back and it’s like mixing the two. Yeah, a clash of identity and values as well.
Cuz one aspect, I give all this stuff away for free. For a, I’ve been doing this for 15 years with the book summaries and things like that. So I think that’s the identity thing that I need to shift a little bit. That’s probably the inner work I’ve gotta shift. Yeah. Oh yeah. So it’s like you just need to expand your identity to be both.
Correct. Yeah. Cause I’m like, I’ll make money over there and I keep money over there and I, and do things for free over here. But anyway, this is not a I don’t want this to be a coaching session through there as well and people are like, I don’t care about your life Michael, let’s move on. I wanna know about my own shadow work as well.
Moving on, you talk about, yeah, your self sabotage can destroy your rocket launch for sales as well. One of the things I really like what you said, there are three reasons why clients don’t buy. It’s cuz they don’t really want the. Which is really true. Like people don’t buy cuz literally they’re like, ah, too hard, basket out.
I really don’t want the result. Number two, because they don’t believe they can get the result, [00:30:00] which is, it comes down to belief and number three because they don’t believe that you can help them get the result as well. Oh yeah there’s a lot around client psychology and I think the insight here is if we’re really.
That what we’re offering is perfect for our specific client. It’s not perfect for everyone, right? But we need to be really clear on that kind of specific avatar that it’d be really helpful for. And I find that when you’re clear on that connection, then it gives you the confidence to really talk about it when you’re talking to that specific avatar, that one client, right?
Because what we, what happens is all these other people come and they’re not your perfect. And then, they’re not a good fit for the program and all of this stuff. And then we judge ourselves based on that. But we need to remind ourselves that as long as my offering is good for this one person you’re gonna attract the people like them, and then you’re not gonna talk yourself out of it.
Because a lot of times I think we talk ourselves out of, can I really help them? If you can help one person and you [00:31:00] really help them and or you. Look at the younger version of you. If you can help the younger version of you who is going through that similar problem, then yeah, you could probably help a bunch of other people who were like you.
So just be confident in that. Yeah. And yeah, you’re absolutely right as well. One I’ve been coaching for years and as I said before, I don’t promote it too much, but when I started coaching, I just did a coaching page and I wasn’t very clear on the avatar of who I wanted to coach. And then, I read Russell’s books and all the funnel stuff as well, and he talks about, your ideal client, talk about your origin story.
And then slowly but surely, I started to attract the right clients that I wanted to work with as. unconsciously, right? And then now it’s I don’t coach too much now because I’m not, I’ve done so many books and so much stuff. It’s like I only work with, infopreneurs entrepreneurs, people that wanna write books, authors, high level business owners.
That’s my jam people. I can have great conversations with, like this instead of me being a teacher, I also want to be the learner and, get into their lives as well. But [00:32:00] yeah, really interesting. Thinking about the end client and who you actually want to serve as well. Just to segue back, I found the answers to some of the questions I was trying to think about before.
, this is a live coaching session, everyone some stories on how self sabotage shows up in your business. Look for these major areas of self-sabotage. Number one, avoidance of key revenue generating activities, which is sales convergence. I frequently don’t do the 4%, which is the key revenue generated activities, resistance to standing out.
I don’t wanna do a video. I don’t wanna put myself out there. I don’t wanna mark it. I don’t wanna run ads. This is self-sabotage. Not speaking your truth before what I was saying, not actually expressing how you feel and where you’re at waiting, or the alternative stuff wanting. over authenticity. So seeking approval instead of just being your unique self and, letting your light shine and speaking your truth.
Acting from a place of fear versus connection to clients, which is great. This is all your stuff by the way that you’ve put in the book. Placing priority [00:33:00] on other people’s needs and opinions before your own. Trying to look good versus being real, not being honest with your needs and doing too.
My biggest issue, my plate is so full that I’m the one that put all that food on it and I’m like, I’m too busy cuz I’ve got too, I’m doing too much. Anything you want to expand on or touch on or any of the other ones that, that pop out to you? The doing too much. And I think this is perfect for your audience cuz clearly.
your audience is, they’re intellectually hungry, right? And so there’s a difference between being like intellectually stimulated and oh, this is a good idea, this is a good thing. And physically in your body saying yeah, this is this is what feels good for me to do. And it’s like a lifelong journey.
And they’re personality types that need to do a lot. You clearly all that personality type, right? Because you’ll get bored. I also, I just had a baby and I’m already. Planning this next thing in my business because I need that. It’s, oh, congrats. Thank you. It’s like self-care, right? [00:34:00] So don’t ever feel bad for doing a lot, but be discerning with, is it just like your mind is really inspired and has all these cool ideas, check in with your body, check in with does feel like as good as, oh yeah, I would love to go to the movies right now with my friends.
Like that feeling of yes. go for that. Yes. If it’s not like that, hell yes. Like people say, avoid it or wait a few days right before you take on the new project. I came across a quote I think two days ago that’s changed my life. When I say changed my life, it’s really changed my thinking and it goes like this.
Every know that you say to others is a yes that you say to yourself. So it’s every know that you say, look I can’t, it’s not in my sta I say it’s not in my stage in season right now. Let’s circle back to this in six months or 12 months. But I really resonated with me cuz I was like, you know what?
I’m a people pleaser and I love opportunities and I love doing way too much cuz that’s just how I’m wide and that’s my own [00:35:00] uni unique gift as well. But I realize now that I have said yes to too many things and I’m paying the cost now because my time is so stretched thin. I’m not enjoying the moments because it seems like a work and it should seem and thinking back on it you knew that you didn’t really, it didn’t feel like a true Yes. Yeah, that’s right. Yep. Yeah. So that’s what we get, right? You always get what you get . So those listening a no to others is a yes for yourself. So start saying no to others and start saying yes for yourself as well.
Wrapping this up, part three, you talk about becoming whole, the wound is the key to wholeness. How do we make ourselves whole? What’s, how do we go from self-sabotage, the inner work, when does it go full circle? And we start to, the vision of process. How do we close up the wound?
Yeah. There’s something even called like shadow marketing, where if you become, like you said, I love that you use the word consciousness, the [00:36:00] more conscious you become of your own self-sabotaging tendencies, of your own fears, of your own, the voices, guess what? Almost all of your people have the same exact shadows and fears and voices and so you can almost like, just pull content from your own head , right?
Yeah. And it’s so powerful because it connects to people instantly and so like our shadows are ego, like when you become conscious of it, it’s really just a wealth of connection. So bring consciousness to your shadow. It becomes an ability. You have this ability to use it to connect versus use it to wall yourself off from other people.
So do it. Yeah, and it’s interesting and it’s also, you said something before like the journey you go on is the light. You can shine on someone else’s journey who hasn’t walked yet or is walking that path as well. You can turn around and walk back down a trail and say, Hey, by the way, here’s what you’re gonna expect.
And this is the beautiful thing about being a coach as well, young. You need to be a few chapters ahead of someone to help shine light on their path and journey as [00:37:00] well. We’re 42 minutes in. And the biggest topic I wanted to talk about is regarding money. So you talk about in the book, many people have money blockages cuz they attach too much of their sense of self-worth to how much, Money.
So money blockages probably one of the biggest things around in terms of even not just coaches, but clients as well. I can’t afford that. And it’s just money is the thing. I call it a lock. Money is the lock that blocks and we put these money block between coaching clients being a coach and clients Put that in between.
I know on the other side of money is the result because 50% of the result comes from the decision. So when a coaching client pays, Upfront. They’re pretty much 50% there. Can you talk about money blockages on both angles from coaches and clients as well, and how? How do we deal with money in the coaching space?
Yeah. Number one money blog from coaches, number one money thing. They don’t even ask for the sale. They don’t even ask for, they don’t even like really dive into the topic with [00:38:00] the person. And they usually undercharge especially for women. Women usually undercharge because we get in their heads about it.
So that’s like the number one thing for coaches is their own worth and just saying the. , right? Saying the number that you feel is really aligned. And then for clients, for, here’s the thing for me, myself as a client who I always hire coaches, I just made a big investment recently, right? If I, and it doesn’t matter how much it is, like this was a very big investment.
I actually had to borrow money and go into debt, to invest in my business. But I did it but I did it so easily because, you know why I believed in. . I was like, Anna, are you gonna make this work with your current life situation? Are you gonna make this work? And I was like, hell yeah.
And so whatever amount it was, it felt good for me to do. It didn’t even feel like a risk. Of course there’s a risk in there and I, they’re like, pay people back. But the thing is that it’s like when you really believe in yourself as a client, you hire different coaches. So I found that if I am like in this state of, I need someone to save me, I need [00:39:00] someone to really help me with my business, like I’m struggling.
You’re probably gonna hire the wrong coach cuz you’re gonna hire the coach who says a lot of good things cuz we’ve all been there, right? I’ve hired coaches like this and they say all the good things and like I’m gonna build this magic thing for you. And then it doesn’t work out mostly because like I wasn’t in that space to really make it work.
And If you believe in yourself and for coaches, you wanna get a client who they are really motivated because they will have the best results. And I found that the best sales strategy, honestly, is almost like pushing people away. Like what you said, say no, just say no to people who are making money.
The big issue because they’re not gonna get the results if they’re already like in fear space and there’s nothing that you can say that can get them to see the vision. Just say no to them because I’ve had many instances where that client actually costs you more time and money than you need.
Yeah. So I know you know that feeling. . , no, it’s at, and that’s one of the reasons why I choose your ideal client that you wanna work with, and then understand all their fears and shadow stuff as well. But amazing stuff. I will have to wrap it up through there [00:40:00] as well. But I will leave some space where I will give people a bit of a breadcrumb.
In the book as well. You also talk about the. The six figure coach as well. And how to actually go beyond that. So if you’re a coach or want to be a coach, where can people find this book to read more about the shadow magic and Yeah, all about coaching and shadow work as well. Yeah, so much to the dismay.
My publisher, I actually put up half the book for free so you can download it and it includes some juicy stuff. So you just go to my website. Suite a n a t s u i.com and I think it’s four slash book. And then you can just put, it’s not fancy, it’s probably just gonna send you an email for a link for you to download and you can just check it out.
And if you like it, purchase it. You like me? I gave my book away for free plus shipping. Just because again, back to the shadow work. Look, . Where can people find you socially? Where do you hang out socially If people want to connect and say Good day, or just follow your work. Yeah, right now I’m just on Facebook.
So just find me on Facebook and you’ll see my, my son, I post pictures of him on there a lot. And yeah, I interact with people out there. How old’s his son? [00:41:00] He’s less than three months. Oh, wow. Congrats. I remember that. He brand new. Thanks. My son’s four and I’ve got a daughter who’s newly too, but is that your first as well?
Oh yeah. First, first baby. Yeah, no. You look really good. I you look really good for first time no sleep as well. Me too. Anyway, we can talk offline about this, but yeah, congratulations. Thank you for the book. Yeah, congrats on being a first time mother as well. That’s really exciting. And yeah really good conversation.
Thank you for you’ve, I’ve really taken down a lot of notes as well, so you’ve helped me in in some ways that I’ll start implementing as well. But enjoy the rest of your day and tomorrow you go follow Anna and we shall speak soon. Okay? Thank you. No worries. Thanks so much.
