Join my tribe of empowered women. Get fitness tips, life hacks, and inspiration delivered to your inbox.
Luwame
Join my tribe of empowered women. Get fitness tips, life hacks, and inspiration delivered to your inbox.
Luwame
Empowered Women Empower Women. Here is where you will read so many inspiring stories of women just like you who had a dream and created greatness.
I’m beyond excited to bring you a new series called Empowered Women Empower Women! The goal here is to share stories of inspirational and highly motivated women who have accomplished greatness and are helping other people in some format (services, products, volunteered time, written content, etc.). These women want to see you succeed and their stories will empower you to do just that. I ask a set of 10 questions, and they respond with their heartfelt explanations of how they got to where they are today. It’s sincere, honest and real!
I plan to feature one story a month and hope to use this platform as a tool for all women to gain the positive insight, confidence, inspiration, motivation and the courage to chase after your dreams. It’s all about understanding that there is truly nothing stopping you from following your dreams but your mindset.
I had a successful corporate career in my 20’s, but I eventually burned out because I wasn’t living an authentic, purposeful life. I had always been passionate about all things healthy and beautiful living, and I’d secretly always dreamt of creating a platform for empowering women from all walks of life. But it wasn’t until I became a mother that I found the courage to put those dreams into action. Perhaps because I deeply desired to raise a strong and confident daughter, who would go after her dreams. And what better way to model that for her than boldly stepping out in pursuit of my own dreams? So I launched Bella Diva Lifestyle in Fall 2013, motivated by my daughter Bella Fiori who was a newborn at the time.
Today, I’m a Confidence & Wellness Coach for millennial women seeking to navigate life and career on their own terms. In my coaching, I start out with deep coaching around my clients’ mindset, life purpose, and inner confidence. And we finish by implementing lifestyle changes that make them shine on the outside. To me, self-confidence is the ultimate definition of beauty & wellness. Because confident people are naturally happy and fulfilled. And happy people are kind and generous to themselves and others.
My biggest hurdle when I first started out was self-doubt. Although not as fulfilling, there’s security in working a 9-5 job. But in my heart I knew I needed to pursue entrepreneurship. And yet, the fear was so strong that I almost didn’t launch my business. Luckily, my husband was encouraging so he pushed me to go for it. And...
A hurdle I’m still facing right now is definitely time management! There just isn’t enough time to do all the things I want to accomplish between drop off and pick up time. There are client sessions, blogs to be written, business development tasks, speaking engagements, emails that need responding…so I have to literally pick just three things I can prioritize each day between 9am-3pm. Then there’s working out, errands, cooking, play dates…it can get overwhelming if I don’t plan out my week on my calendar.
Wellness Coaches are passionate about changing their clients’ lives and making a positive impact in this world! Of course, every wellness coach is unique in her/his approach, and there are so many different ways they make their contribution. Some wellness coaches are focused on nutrition or fitness, while others incorporate confidence building or life coaching strategies into their practice. Wellness coaches also vary in terms of their educational backgrounds and coaching skills. Every wellness coach you meet is unique
The two years I spent getting my MBA, I would have skipped that and dived sooner into building my business. The MBA would be useful for advancing my career had I gone back to corporate. But I ended up launching my business right out of business school. I honestly didn’t need an MBA because I’d acquired enough business skills from my corporate days. Looking back, I realize that I went to business school to buy myself enough time before starting my business.
Hmmm, I’m done having kids, so I’ll probably focus on growing my business (hopefully taking it globally). I’ll also be the mother of a nine-year-old and a five-year-old at that time so I should be deep in motherhood. Other than that, hopefully still healthy, active and young at heart! :)
I’m not sure there’s really such a thing- balance! I think some things just become more important than others at different stages of life. For instance, right now my daughter is into play dates, so I see way more of my mommy friends than my single or married friends with older kids. So it’s safe to say my social life isn’t what it used to be. And as much as I’d love to blog three times a week, I’ve accepted that I can only blog once or twice a month for now so I can make more time for my growing coaching practice. I’ve discovered that you CAN have it all in life but not everything at once. You have to prioritize the top 2-3 things and do those well. Right now my two top priorities are growing my business and expanding our family.
I’ve done many great things in my life, including being the first to graduate from college in my family, traveling the world and starting a business I love. But my greatest accomplishment by far is becoming a mother four years ago. My daughter is the reason I’ve found my life purpose, reinvented my life and fallen in love with life again. From my kids I’m learning not only about being patient and living in the moment, but what it really means to love unconditionally too. Bella Fiori & Jordan Immanuel are my greatest accomplishments.
I’m fairly new to the blogging scene, so there’s so much I don’t know. But one key advice that was given to me is to express your authentic voice. Figure out what you love then add your own twist to it. If you want to blog about motherhood, maybe you can focus on the struggles of the working mom or the challenges of the working mom. If you’re into wellness, maybe you can narrow it down to fitness and within that focus on weight loss or clean eating. Try not to be too generic and find what makes your blog different.
What you start out doing is not what you’ll be doing five years from now or even a year from now. Because you’ll grow and evolve along with your business. And that evolution will open doors to new interests and opportunities. So be open and flexible. For instance, I started out as a Health Coach, but as I dived deeper into my coaching, I discovered that most of my health/nutrition coaching clients also lacked the self-confidence to pursue other life goals. So self-confidence became a huge focus of my coaching.
I hope you realize your value as a child of the most high. Long before you became a mother or a career woman (or both), you had a life and dreams all of your own. So I hope you never stop nurturing yourself and your love projects. I hope you never stop taking care of yourself, or that you start now if you haven’t been. I hope you know that making your wellbeing a priority is not selfish because when you're healthy, relaxed and sane, everyone around you benefits - including your kids, spouse, clients, etc. And when you deliberately do something daily that makes you feel healthy & beautiful, you permit everyone around you to do the same. This is both my hope and wish for you.
I hope you have enjoyed reading Tigisti's remarkable story, stay tuned for monthly featured posts from other empowering women. Contact me if you would like to share your story and empower our readers. As always, I'd love to hear from you.
Yours,
