Did you know that your MINDSET is one of the biggest determiners of success in your business? The way you approach problems and work towards solutions can be the deciding factor between successfully remedying a problem versus making it 10x worse.
So what type of mindset should you have and what strategies can you use to be successful? To answer this question, Bella sat down with Awilda Rivera, a results-oriented success coach that helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and career professionals achieve the success they desire. Bella & Awilda talk about:
- Awilda’s success story in building her business and brand
- Laying down a foundation by believing in yourself
- The idea that what you focus on is what you will act on
- Why it’s important to have a WHY
- Why spirituality & faith should play a part in your business
Transcript:
Bella:
This is episode 72 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have a peer along with me here. I have Awilda Rivera, who is a results-oriented success coach and she helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and career professionals achieve the success they desire. Welcome to the show.
Awilda:
Thanks for having me, Bella. Really excited to be here.
Bella:
For sure. I love just chatting it up, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do today because I have a feeling you and I are both of the right mindset—together. Not right, but similar, I guess, is what I’m saying. Why don’t you give our audience a little bit more of a background? Where are you coming to us from today? How did you get to where you’re at? Give us a little background.
Awilda:
Sure. In just a few sentences, right now I’m coming to you guys from Atlanta. I’m originally from New York. I have a background in law, graduated from law school in 2009, and started this business at www.awildarivera.com in its first iteration about three and a half years ago. I found that the brand was able to expand into some different areas and have been doing this now ever since.
Bella:
That is so cool. How did you make that pivot from—you know, going into law is a real commitment. So going from that into this success coaching, how did you make that mindset shift?
Awilda:
Yeah, I think for me there was just a lack of alignment between my heart and my mind, and I really wanted to do something that would allow that to be aligned. I got really honest with myself and tried to listen really closely and let my heart do some of the leading for a bit and was able to organically come to what I’m doing now.
Bella:
That’s incredible. And for our listeners, I imagine this wasn’t an overnight process. This wasn’t like you just woke up one day and said, “My heart’s aligned.” It was a struggle, right?
Awilda:
Yeah, absolutely. It definitely was not an overnight process. I had to not just let myself heal from the experience of deciding to make such a big change, but I also had to kind of let my family heal and let the people around me heal because, just to give you a tad bit of context, I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I grew up in New York City in Brooklyn and was the first in my family to graduate from college and from graduate school.
Bella:
Wow.
Awilda:
So there were a lot of—I don’t want to say expectations—but there were a lot of dreams perhaps that they wanted for me that I had to allow for them to mourn so that they could get on board and support me in what I’m currently doing. And you know, everyone seems to be on the same page now.
Bella:
I love how you’re bringing in the experience of others because so many people have expectations of us, and when we want to make that life pivot or decide we’re going to be a pet sitter or a dog walker, sometimes people look down on us, and I could imagine that people would be like, “Well, you’re a lawyer. What are you doing?”
Awilda:
Absolutely, that’s 100% it. And that’s why I think I have a special connection with entrepreneurs like your audience because when you’re doing something out of the box that you feel very passionately about and it seems like your network or your support group isn’t behind you, that can be a very daunting thing. That can be something that prevents you from taking the full plunge into that business and really following your dreams. And I’m just here to say that even if you have one person or zero people, as long as you truly believe in yourself and you start to do some of the work while you’re in your job, you’ll be able to lay a foundation so that you can actually take that plunge. All it takes is for the people around you to see you putting in the effort and getting some of the reward from it. In my first year of business, I wasn’t super profitable—if at all, I don’t think—and thank gosh for my partner, who’s been incredibly supportive. But he saw me through those first very small win years where it’s like, okay, people are coming in.
Bella:
And similarly, for your audience, I want to say that when you’re working with people’s pets, it’s like being a yoga teacher, like I also am. You build a certain amount of trust, and when they trust you with their fur babies to walk them or sit them, they’re going to refer you around. So your business will organically grow as long as you take those first steps.
Awilda:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Bella:
And those first steps are the toughest in the entire journey. They’re the absolute toughest. Tell me more—you talked about yoga, and I know a lot of my listeners actually do yoga and love yoga. I myself only started doing it like about once a week at the beginning of the year. Before, I could never do it, but slowly, but surely, I’ve started doing it. So I know that’s one of your zones of genius. Tell us more about that. I’m curious.
Awilda:
Oh, wow. I love that phrase. I’m going to have to use that and give you credit for it.
Bella:
It’s not from me. I heard it from someone else.
Awilda:
Okay, well, I’m going to tell them where I heard it first. So the yoga came about similarly like the leaving the law, coming into my own. As you can imagine, as we just kind of touched on, that was a very troubling time in terms of figuring out what I really wanted and the decisions. I had been introduced to yoga many years before as a teenager. It’s very athletic, and I kind of turned my nose up at it. People have heard me say this multiple times, but I thought it was just like a lazy person’s thing. I was like, “I’d rather run three miles.” But then when I got into my later twenties and I moved to Atlanta six years ago, I found myself in a place where it was like, “Okay, I’m stepping out on my own in this business. I’m leaving New York where I’ve been born and raised, and I’m coming to this new place. I don’t know anyone. You know what? I need to get to know myself better.” And I found that through doing yoga, not only could I challenge myself physically, but that was only a small part of what yoga with a capital Y is really all about.
And that’s why on my website under the knowledge share section, as much as I write about coaching stuff, I also write a lot about yoga to build awareness and let people know the different aspects of yoga. The fact that asana—what we do on our mat in class—is really just one part. That’s the other reason why I lead international wellness and cultural immersions of which yoga and meditation are a part, so that people can have that experience in a more relaxed environment and potentially bring that back with them as something they want to do when they get home for self-care and personal management.
Bella:
What a diverse woman you are. I just love it. I can relate so much to you. I’d love to talk more about how your spirituality and your yoga and your giving to yourself—it pours into you as an entrepreneur. What it shows you, what it proves to you, what the correlation is between having faith in yourself and the business and your spirituality and faith. What do you see those connections as in an entrepreneur?
Awilda:
Absolutely. I think that—and I want to be clear, I don’t mean, and I’m sure you don’t either, spiritually in terms of a specific religion, right?
Bella:
Yeah, no, just something to believe in.
Awilda:
Exactly, a deeper connection that can apply to anything. Absolutely. I firmly believe that what you think and what you focus on is what you attract. So if you focus on your capabilities and you allow that focus to help you act, success will come because we are sowing seeds that the actions nurture. The seed is the thought; we sow it, the actions nurture it, and then with time, we reap the rewards. I’m sure Bella can testify—after one podcast she didn’t have super acclaim, maybe not even after four—but after all of these and all of her trusted knowledge, now people recognize and she can witness the fruit that the seeds that she nurtured have borne.
So similarly, with self-belief and spirituality in terms of understanding your connection, right? If you’re living in the United States right now, except for a few areas, you’re blessed. If you’re living in any of the first world countries, you’re blessed. There are people right now in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Cuba, Florida, Texas—people that I know—devastated. So perspective and understanding like, whoa, maybe everything isn’t perfect, but what is? Change is constant. It’s all about how you’re looking at it. And if you can believe in yourself and what you can do, then that carries over into all aspects of your life. For me, yoga and meditation and cultivating that connection through different spiritual practices help me to be the best entrepreneur I can be.
A client this morning told me, “My God, how can you be so positive?” And I said to her, “I’m human.” She didn’t know that 20 minutes before that, I was sitting in my car feeling completely overwhelmed with the whole Puerto Rico situation. But knowing that she also has family in an island that is affected, I said to myself, “You know what? Get it together. Take a deep breath. You’re in your car. Your house isn’t underwater. Go and serve your client. Be a servant to the local community by serving her, and let that be an act of service in this moment.”
Bella:
Like seriously, we are so similar and I’m so excited that you’re on this show. When we come back from this quick commercial break, I want to talk about what we do with that negativity because you just brought it up, and I think it’s really important to talk about. So we’ll be right back.
(Ad segment omitted — content preserved.)
Bella:
And we’re back with Awilda Rivera, and we are talking about everything that just touches your heart. Girl, you are such a blessing to have on this podcast and I’m really excited that we connected. I want to continue the conversation and take us back to what you just said about being in the car and you were having all of these negative emotions yourself and you said, “Get it together.” I think that’s so key for our listeners to really understand that moment of strength that you have where you can tell yourself, get it together and push forward.
Awilda:
Well, listen, like I said before, no one’s perfect. I certainly am not. This is a product of a lot of work and a lot of work I’m still doing. I tell my clients all the time, listen, I don’t just coach you guys, but I practice what I preach. I have an accountability partner. I have my systems that I try to stick to as much as I possibly can. I acknowledge when I mess up. I try to be a student as much as I am a teacher—a student of life and a student of myself—because I know that, and this is true for me and in Buddhism too, we’re always learning. As long as we can accept that, we’re on this journey of continuous learning. We’re going to have foibles and mistakes, and we have to just own it. That’s what’s going to make us better and help us.
Bella:
Yes.
Awilda:
You dog walkers have had situations where a dog maybe got ill while they weren’t there, or the walk didn’t go right, or something bad happened and in the moment you’re freaking out. But it’s all about how you handle it. Again, when I said to myself, “Get it together,” it took a little bit. I still felt things. I was thinking about it prior to this call. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it after this call. But you can’t let it stop you. You can’t let it prevent you. Because I thought to myself, even talking on the podcast and making a brief mention could raise awareness. You never know who’s listening. You never know what they’re going to do.
Bella:
That’s beautiful.
Awilda:
The more you can continue to be of service—and you guys particularly, you’re doing good work. You’re actually taking care of animals. You’re being trusted to come into someone’s home. So you’re giving a lot, and you’re very deep-feeling people. So you have to be able to drink as you pour. As much as you give out, you have to give back to yourself so that you can be the best of what you are.
Bella:
Yes. What I’m hearing is that you accept the position that you’re in. If you’re unhappy or sad or feeling down, you own it, you accept it. But then you’re reminded of these constant practices that you have in your life. For some people it’s yoga, for others church, meditation, walking in the park—it could be anything. But whatever it is that teaches you, you have to be pouring into yourself daily.
Awilda:
Absolutely.
Bella:
You and I could come up with a long list of entrepreneurs or mentors that we look up to that all have daily or morning rituals. They all decide, “You know what? I’m going to put me first.” Your business can survive without you being 100%, but it will thrive when you are. You have to take care of yourself first.
Awilda:
Exactly.
Bella:
And you’re right. A lot of people in our industry, we are caretakers. We will give of ourselves even if it means cutting off our arm because that’s what we do. We care for the pets, we walk those dogs, we sleep overnight, and oftentimes we don’t charge enough and end up burnt out. I want to transition our conversation as this podcast starts running out of time into mindset—getting off the fence.
I feel like a lot of people out there are struggling with mindset. They kind of want to have staff and start scaling their company but are too scared to. They’re on the fence and it’s starting to hurt because you can’t sit on the edge of a fence for long—it hurts. You have to get on one side or the other. So let’s talk about transitioning. You talked so strongly about the transition of your own mindset to get out of that car and push forward. How can we translate that into our business?
Awilda:
If there’s anything you’re not sure about, you have to get super honest. You have to say, what is it that I’m trying to do? If you can answer that honestly, you’ll be able to get off the fence. If you are trying to scale, you know you can’t walk 60 dogs. You might try, but you’ll learn the hard way. Why put yourself through that suffering? If you want to move into dog sitting rather than walking, start offering that as a service. You can’t let fear or the what-ifs prevent you from expanding.
Take a step back and ask, what is it that I’m ultimately trying to do, and will this action help me get there? If it will, get after it. We don’t always know the exact route, but we know we have to start moving.
Bella:
Yes! You have to start stepping, be honest with where you are and your why, and then go after it. Even failures are successes. We’re going to fail 90% of the time, but what we learn keeps us moving. Reframe the idea—you’ve got to make decisions as a business owner. I see so many people paralyzed by fear of making the wrong decision, so they just don’t move. Then they despise their life and can’t sleep because they’re working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. This is not why you got into business.
You need to get connected back to your why. Many could make more money working at McDonald’s as a manager with health benefits and predictable hours, but that wouldn’t serve your why. The why was to help pets, to be around pets, to have your own business to be proud of. Get connected back to your why. Be honest with where you are.
Awilda:
It’s a simple but challenging answer: constantly remind yourself of it. Not obsessively, but maybe write it on a piece of paper and keep it above your desk. Or make it a mantra—“I do this work to help others so their pets can be safe,” whatever it is. Allow yourself to be constantly reminded of it, because one thing’s for sure—as an entrepreneur, you’re going to have obstacles. In those moments, you have to double down on yourself and really lean into that knowing that this is the bigger reason.
If you feel like you don’t even know where your why went, take five steps back. Give yourself a journal and do a little stream of consciousness: “What do I like about what I do?” Don’t judge what comes out, just write. At the end, go back and read it. What you like about it will probably remind you why you’re doing it in the first place.
Bella:
I love all of that. You have been such a pleasure to have on this podcast. I want you to let people know, because I’m sure they’ve fallen in love with you—how can people contact you and get around your circle?
Awilda:
They can find me at awildarivera.com. I’m on Instagram at @miss.awildarivera and on Facebook as Awilda Rivera—coach, yogi, spiritual advisor. I also have a 100% free closed Facebook group called The Success Suite, where we talk about personal and professional growth topics. I try to share as many things as I can there. If you’re interested in working with me, I offer complimentary consultations. Just reach out through my site or mailing list.
Bella:
Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show today. You guys, remember to like, share, subscribe, and review the podcast if you love it. And remember to always keep jumping.
For more information, free articles, and coaching sessions, go to jumpconsulting.net.