Today I interviewed Lorna Sophocleous, a business owner who mentors stressed out, overwhelmed women entrepreneurs and corporate women. She helps women who want to give up on weight loss because they are so tired of failing. She helps to facilitate the change they really crave and empower them to design their lifestyle as it’s really beyond the weight loss.
What is interesting about the interview is how Lorna started her business with an expertise in nutrition, but then had to acquire the business skills necessary for creating a sustainable business. Read on if you are thinking about starting your own consulting business or could benefit from Lorna’s insights on losing weight…
Kevin: Lorna, you started a company called Lorna Wellness At Any Age, which specializes in helping women obtain optimal nutrition and health. What inspired you to launch your business?
Lorna: I have struggled half of my life with yo-yo dieting, overeating and overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to lose it and keep it off. It hurt my self –esteem and confidence as well as my body image so I am very in tune with the women who feels the effects that this devastating spiral can be. I have conquered it and am totally passionate to help women get it handled once and for all as well.
What sets me apart is that I mentor women on how to master themselves and manage their emotions which gives them the ability to be resilient in life as you master your emotions. Once they lose the weight, they are free from the negative spiral and negative mindset, which keeps them disconnected from who they really are and their real beauty.
Q: Did you make any career changes to start your company, for example, leaving a corporate job? What changes did you go through to become a business owner?
A: I did not leave a corporate job. I was studying Nutrition back in college and always had a tremendous love for taking care of the body although at times I was not by overeating and struggling with my weight. My love for taking care of me by eating and exercising started when I was 15 years old. I loved the opportunity in this field as a working mom as it provided such flexibility.
I had to learn a lot about the computer and technical things that are required for an online business to be successful. I am still learning and growing my business!
Q: Give us an interesting fun fact about the research or development process you went through to start your company.
A: I love the area I am coaching women in and when I went back to school to be a Holistic Health Coach, I was still struggling with my weight. I sought out a mentor who was in the field at the time. The school teaches you over 100 dietary theories and I experimented with a few of them and started noticing I was losing weight without really trying! So getting support and taking the pressure off really helped me and I really did not expect to get this problem handled by going back to school but you teach what it is you need to learn!
Q: When you were first starting out, what is one piece of advice you wish you would have had?
A: I wish I had known that diets didn’t work! I also wish I had learned what was really going on with me and that I was using food for emotional comfort. The awareness of that helped me to understand my behavior instead of just mindlessly following a diet. Deprivation does not work and it leads you down a path of perfectionism and you just can’t keep up with that. Then you cycle into feeling like a failure and it’s hard to break free when you are deep into these cycles. You feel like there’s no way out. Now I can help women get out of that self-sabotaging pattern.
Q: Did you encounter any unanticipated difficult obstacles while starting out?
A: I did not know how much it would take to put packages together for clients as each one I customize to their unique needs and all the marketing necessary to get known in the field.
Q: Which marketing activities have helped you generate clients?
A: I have made some valuable workbooks and ebooks which helped me grow my list. I send valuable information to the people who joined by list in a mailer a few times a week. I am active on most of the social media sites as well.
Q: How did you acquire the knowledge necessary to be successful in marketing your business?
A: I took a few courses, read on my own and I hired a coach.
Q: How have you grown your business knowledge?
A: I have taken many courses for additional education to stay cutting-edge as things are always evolving in the field of nutrition.
Q: Are their specific websites, books, groups of people, or methods you have found most helpful?
A: I loved the course I took that explained all of the bodies systems and how to eat to keep them functioning optimally for optimal health. I love anything to read regarding the psychology of eating.
Q: Where can people find out more about your company or personal website?
A: My website is www.lornawellness.com and you can find me on all the popular social media platforms such as facebook, instagram, linkedin, periscope, blab and twitter. Here’s my Lorna Wellness page on Facebook, and my handle on twitter and periscope is @integratedyou. You can search lsophocleous on Instagram to find me as well.
More About Lorna Sophocleous
Lorna does exclusive, one-on-one coaching and holds their hand through the process as she has gone through this herself.
She helps clients by providing them an effective way to conquer their overeating that effortlessly fits into their lifestyle for sustainable results.
This shedding process opens doors in transformative ways that the women could not have envisioned for themselves when deep in the depths of this problem ‘weighing’ them down.
Lorna’s approach is extremely effective because each woman starts to tune in more to their needs and understand how to make the choices to support their desire of losing weight and staying healthy as you cannot be an effective wife, mom, entrepreneur or business woman without your health.
Lorna’s transformative work empowers women to go beyond the parameters of what they they thought possible for themselves.
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