Lara Nercessian: Solo Q&A Episode On Business, Beauty, Wellness, Mindset, Personal Style & More

Speaker A: Hi, everyone, this is Lara Nastasian. And welcome to the Boss in Hills podcast, where I speak with inspirational founders, thought leaders and CEOs to share their unique stories, careers, mindset, habits, and more. This episode will be a solo episode of what my producer refers to as necessities. I'll be sharing my insights and expertise to support you in your incredible journey. Please enjoy. I am very excited about this particular episode because it is something I haven't done in quite some time now. It is a solo Q and A episode and I'm going to be answering the questions that you submitted on my Instagram stories over the past week or so. And I have some really incredible questions that some of you asked and I'm really excited to dive in and share all of the things with you. The first question that I received is that I would love to know more about your diet and workout program. So I'm going to answer this in a couple of different ways. I'm going to break it down in terms of what I do from a diet and food perspective, and then I'm going to talk about what I do from a working out perspective. And then I'll also talk about my active recovery protocol as well. So food wise, I feel like I'm the kind of person that has always been quite mindful of what I eat. Not in a restrictive way, but just in terms of the fact that I pay attention to my health and I pay attention to the kind of food that I'm putting into my body. Now. I recently had a DEXA scan done, and if you're not familiar with what DEXA scans are, uh, they give you a very nuanced, very detailed report about the composition of your body. It goes into everything from, like, body fat to muscle to all kinds of incredible insights. And one thing that I realized through this DEXA scan is that I really need to continue to increase my daily protein intake. This was probably like one of the biggest things that I got from this DEXA scan. And so I am not a nutritionist, I am not a personal, uh, trainer. I'm not an expert in this space. So I'm just going to share what I've been working on based on the specific insights that I received about my own, my own body. So food wise, my particular protein goal is that I hit 104 grams of protein every single day. And I realized that that is a lot of protein. And so I've really been prioritizing getting enough protein in every single meal. And so what breakfast usually looks like for me is usually I will have a piece of sourdough toast and I'll get this like fresh from the bakery. And on the piece of sourdough toast I'll have like a really clean, high protein cottage cheese. And I will put a little bit of honey on that. And then I'll usually have two boiled eggs. And I usually hard boil these eggs so that I'm not boiling eggs every single morning. But I've got like a batch of them in the fridge that I can just cut up and have on, on my breakfast plate. And then I'll do like a side of, uh, vegetables of some sort. So either it's like cooked spinach and some cooked mushroom, or I might do half an avocado and then I will have a piece of fruit as well. And that to me is like a very balanced breakfast, uh, plate that keeps me really full. And of the eggs and because of the cottage cheese, I'm getting some, some sort of protein in that meal. And then that will usually keep me pretty full until close to lunchtime. And then what I would do is I will have either a protein shake again to try and get my protein intake up. So in this protein shake, what I will do is have like 30 grams of a really clean protein that I use at home. It's called raw. And then I will put in just water, um, spinach, baby spinach leaves, a banana, one teaspoon of almond, um, butter. And I'll put that, uh, through this. Like I'd make a smoothie with it. And that keeps me pretty full. Or I would do, um, like if I'm working from my gym, sometimes I'll eat out at my gym and I'll do something like a lamb bowl or something like that, A lamb bowl or um, a plate with chicken. And so it will have like either lamb, a little bit of rice, some sauerkraut, um, a little bit of salad on the side. It's a very, very well balanced kind of meal. And then for dinner what I will normally do is some kind of protein. So usually steak and vegetables and sweet potato or sometimes chicken or a piece of fish. And that to me is like a really wholesome day of eating. And then I will have, uh, usually one to two coffees. So I'll do a cappuccino in the morning, uh, one or two of those. And then at nighttime I will have peppermint tea. And if I'm having any kind of sweet craving, I'll do a couple of dates, maybe a spoon of, of almond butter or something like that. That Usually helps curb my sweet tooth and that's usually what my diet would look like during the week. On the weekends I can be a little bit more flexible so I tend to have something similar for breakfast or I could go out for breakfast or I could be going out for dinner but I'll usually opt for um, steak or something like that. That's really going to help me get my daily protein and I just genuinely enjoy a really good cut of steak. Like I am such a steak girl through and through. Anytime I go out for dinner I will get steak. I literally was out for lunch just before I came into the studio today. I got steak. I just love, um, just agrees with me and it works for my body. And again going back to that protein intake, it really helps me achieve that. I don't aim for perfection with my diet and not every day is exactly the same but on the weekends I can be a little bit more flexible. I definite definitely enjoy a dessert or a chocolate croissant or something like that. Um, and when I do crave chocolate, I have been buying this brand called, I think it's called Loco Love and it's just a much cleaner chocolate brand and I find that one of those really kind of helps with my sweet cravings as well. But I will be a bit more flexible on the weekend. So I guess you could say I roughly follow an 8020 type principle. Maybe it's closer to, to 9010 where I'm eating clean 80 to 90% of the time and I allow myself to indulge in, in things that I enjoy or have some fries on the side of a meal or have a dessert, uh, things like that. I really do don't deprive myself from enjoying life and enjoying food. And I find that whenever I have tried to restrict what I'm eating too much, I can tend to then want to binge later. And so I found for me just not depriving myself and not guilting myself from having a sweet treat or having some fries or having something that I'm craving, not making that mean anything about me. The other thing that I will say is during winter I love making really hearty wholesome soups. Uh, my really good friend Belinda actually shared this amazing soup recipe with me and we are both a beautiful obsessed with it. It's this really hearty, ah, vegetable um, soup that's got like turmeric and um, like all these incredible nutrients. It's got kale like so many vegetables and you just feel really good eating that and that with a piece of sourdough toast with a little bit of butter for dinner is also really hits the spot during those colder, um, winter nights as well. So that is typically what my diet looks like. And again, I just want to preface with this with the fact that I'm not a nutritionist. Um, this isn't to give diet exercise. I'm simply just sharing what works for me now in terms of my workout routine. So I recently signed up for St. Haven, which is an exclusive members only club and they just recently opened up their first club in Sydney. And this has been such a game changer for me. It has really upped my work workout routine and it's also really up to my active recovery routine which I will get into as well. So what I do from a workout perspective is I work out by doing weights, uh, class three times a week. And that enables me to actually pick up heavy weights, which is something that I didn't do for a few years. And I've really been enjoying getting back into lifting heavy again. And so that will look like heavy squats, squats, deadlifts, um, work workouts using the barbell, but then also free, um, handheld weights as well. And so the fact that I do these three full body classes, some of them do focus more on lower body, some of them are, ah, full body classes. I don't just work out upper body because I feel like the full body workouts actually give me everything that I need from that perspective. But that's something that I find has really been upping my game from, um, fitness perspective, from a body composition perspective. And so those three weight sessions a week have really, really been so good for me. And I'm noticing a difference even in just how my body's been changing in the last two months. So that's been amazing. And then I also do a Reformer Pilates class two mornings a week as well. So I work out five days per week. I would do three weights classes per week and then two Reformer Pilates classes per week. And I find that that is a really solid balance for me. Now the thing that I wanted to talk about was active recovery because I have access to so many incredible recovery and longevity tools and equipment that I've never had access to in this kind of way before. It's really enabled me to cut down my recovery, but also means that I'm not just walking around constantly sore. I'm minimizing my chances of getting injured, especially when I am working out, uh, consistently five times per week. And so what this could look like is at the end of A workout. I will go and I will do like a full body red light therapy session or I will go and put on compression boots for 30 minutes and I can be on my phone doing emails, posting on social media, like I'm passively multitasking, masking. And at the same time there's like lymphatic compression boots that are, um, working their magic, uh, helping me to recover. And um, I found that that's been really powerful as well. So I've been doing that a couple of times per week. And then they also, at my gym have got a hyperbaric chamber as well, which like pumps all this oxygen into your body. And it's just so incredible in terms of the effect that it has. A 45 minute session in the hyperbaric chamber has been really, really incredible. They say it really helps with creativity as well. And I completely agree. I did go into the hyperbaric chamber and I had all these creative ideas and I was just in this like state and this zone of being able to work and be really efficient with what I was doing. So that's been amazing. And then once a week what I love to do is hot and cold therapy. So they have a class that I've been doing called Fire and Ice and essentially go between 90 degrees in a traditional sauna to then, uh, 7 degree pull or a 3 degree, um, plunge, depending on your personal preference. Do I have to say that? I do go in three degree plunge and I stayed in there for three minutes and I was extremely proud of myself. So I've been doing that once per week and then I've been stacking on red light therapy and the compression boots onto that. And that's been like a really amazing Sunday type of active recovery day. And I've really been enjoying that as well. So that is kind of what my current diet and workout routine looks like. I find that I'm the kind of person that is constantly refining, constantly evolving, um, I'm constantly mixing things up and refinement, I think is a really big piece of it as well. I'll do certain things for a while and then I'll reassess and see how it's feeling, how it's working for me, and then I'll mix things up again if I need to. But that's in essence what I do from that perspective. Question two. I actually had two very similar questions, so I will answer these together. So the first question was I would love to know more about your style, inspiration and outfits. And then another question that came through that was Similar was what is your best style? Advice and tips, please. Okay, so I have so much to say about this particular topic because my personal style really started to evolve once I started to actually own and define, uh, what my personal style was. And I want to explain what I mean by this because previously to actually understanding and owning my own personal style, what I found would happen would be that I would look at what other people were wearing. I would see certain outfits, say on social media or on certain brand websites and I would be like, oh, I love that dress, oh I love that jacket, etc. And I would buy these things. But then what I realized was that I would buy things that weren't actually in alignment with my own personal style. And so what would end up happening was I would spend a lot of money on these items of clothing that I loved on other people but didn't make me feel like me. And I had a really huge breakthrough around this because I realized I'm spending so much money and I love it on that other person, but I'm not loving it on me. And I realized like I was buying things that weren't actually in alignment with my own personal style. So I started to actually ask myself lots of confronting open ended questions around personal style, like what is my personal style? How do I actually want to present myself? What actually makes me feel like I'm looking and dressing like the best version of me? But also from a budget perspective, was I actually buying things and choosing items of clothing that matched my current real lifestyle? Or was I purchasing clothing for some past lifestyle, for some future lifestyle, or for some kind of imaginary lifestyle that didn't actually exist? And what I found was that I would spend a lot of money buying dresses and things like that that I would wear as a one soft. But then when I went to dress for Day to day, I would have nothing to wear. And this is why I would always have this experience of I've got a closet full of clothes and I've got nothing to wear. And so when I started to buy clothing in accordance with my actual real lifestyle, as opposed to some kind of imaginary lifestyle, I actually started to create a wardrobe where I, I always had something to wear because I was really discerning and intentional with what I would buy according with my actual lifestyle. And so you can actually do this for yourself. Like you can look at what proportion of time do you spend doing certain types of activities? So what is the proportion of time in your week that you're spending working? And what would be the typical outfits that you would be wearing when you go to work versus in the evenings, what would you be wearing versus on the weekends, what would you be wearing? What are the typical activities that you would do? And I realized, like, I love a beautiful dinner, I love a beautiful lunch. But most of the time what I'm doing is I'm living quite an active lifestyle. I'm out walking my dog. I'm having like a casual coffee or brunch or breakfast or something like that. I don't need all these ball gowns, like, hanging in my wardrobe that's taken up all my wardrobe spend. But I've worn it once in the year, if that. So I started to actually be more intentional with what pieces of clothing I was spending my money on that would actually suit my real lifestyle. And so when I did this, I was like, this is interesting. I'm actually sleeping. Think 30% of the time, like, on average, if you get eight hours of sleep per night. But I've completely skimped in the pyjama category. I'm wearing old rags to bed, and this is just not really the vibe. So if I'm going to be spending a third of my life sleeping, wouldn't it be worth me investing in some quality evening wear? Like, as in not evening wear to go out, but like nighttime wear for home? If I'm spending a lot of time, you know, doing things, uh, around the home, like, wouldn't it make sense for me to have outfits that make me feel put together, where I could run down to the coffee shop and still feel put together, but it's not over the top and it doesn't feel like it's a big effort to get dressed. So I started to invest pieces of pieces of clothing in accordance with what my actual lifestyle was. And then I would also start to ask myself questions like, could I see myself wearing this to work? Could I then also see myself wearing this on the weekend? Could I then also see myself wearing this in the evening? And if I could answer yes to all three, then I knew that it was an item of clothing that was worth investing in because it wasn't limited to just wearing it once in a while. And then when it did come to evening wear, I would be really discerning about how I was spending money. So I might spend less money on evening dresses, but when I do buy them, I'm. I'm buying something that I know I could get more than one wear out of, and that feels worth it to me, or I'm not spending an extravagant amount on something that I'm just going to wear once. And so this is how I started to really build out my curated wardrobe and I started to invest in timeless, classic pieces. Because what I uncovered through doing this process was that I'm someone whose personal style is timeless and classic. I'm not really someone who buys into a lot of trends. I don't have this, like, big, bold, um, colorful wardrobe. I'm not someone that wears a lot of patterns or a lot of florals and things like that. So this is where I stopped getting tempted to buy things that weren't actually in alignment with my own personal style. So I started to look at what are the pieces that I could invest in that actually match my personal style that I actually would get a lot of longevity out of as well. So is this a quality item of clothing? Is this item something that I could see myself wearing in five years time from now, in 10 years time from now, could I see myself wearing this across multiple different occasions, across multiple different contexts? And is this a quality piece of clothing in that I believe it would actually stand the test of time? And I started to purchase clothing that I that would actually answer yes to all of those questions. And so this is where I would invest more. Like, I would be happy to go and invest thousands of dollars into one really good black blazer that I've now had for six years and looks brand new. And I always feel put together, um, whenever I add that black blazer to any outfit. And I really just started to own my style in this way. So I think in terms of, like, answering this question, knowing what your style is, purchasing items of clothing for your realistic lifestyle, and how you actually proportionally spend your time based on different types of activities? And could you see yourself wearing this item in 5 or 10 years time from now and still loving it? And is it a high quality item that's not going to fall to pieces? Because my husband always says this, but he always said to me, buy cheap, buy twice. And sometimes we think we're buying we're getting away with something because it's cheaper, but then that item of clothing doesn't look very good after one season. You've got to throw it up, throw it out, or you've got to donate it. And. And it's like it doesn't have the same longevity of I bought something, yes, it was more expensive, but the quality of the item, I'm going to get a lot of years and a lot of wear out of it. And that's how I really think about shopping and and personal style. The other thing that I will say is I also recently had my color analysis done and I found this to be a, uh, very worthwhile investment. I think I paid something like $350 to have a 60 minute session. And honestly, to be able to dress in accordance with my actual colors means that, that I'm, I'm always going to look my best when I know I'm wearing my colors, when I know I'm dressing in accordance with my own personal style. And so I think those elements have really helped. And then the other piece was, you know, where do I get my style inspiration from? I think I used to really look to things like Instagram for, um, style inspiration. I've also gotten really inspired whenever I've traveled. So anytime I travel overseas, I, I find that that can really help open, um, up my personal style. But I feel like these days I know what my personal style is and so I can really tell, like, does this item fit within my personal style? Yes or no? And I just kind of put outfits together based on what really grabs me and what, what I can answer yes to all of those questions that I ran through earlier. So hopefully this answered those two questions combined around personal style. Question three is advice on how to get unstuck. I'm always exhausted with busy schedules. I'm trying to find more balance. I'm going to answer this question in two parts because getting unstuck, um, and, and feeling constantly exhausted with busy schedules and trying to find balance, I'm going to separate those two things. So in terms of how to get unstuck, the only way you can get unstuck is to move. What actually creates unstuckness is forward movement and momentum. So what tends to happen is when we are afraid of making, making an incorrect decision, it creates stagnation, it creates a stuck energy. And that is when we are afraid to move. And stagnant energy is like stagnant water. It starts to rot and smell a little bit after time. And we don't want to do that. We want to create constant momentum. And how I've been able to create constant momentum in my life is by having a bigger vision, uh, for the context of my life and knowing the general direction in which I want to take my life towards. And then asking myself, if I were to reverse engineer the big vision of what I want to create for my life, would this decision, would this opportunity, would this move take me one step closer towards that vision that I'm wanting to create, or would it take me away from that vision that I'm wanting to create. And if it is something that I believe based on the current information that is available to me, it's going to take me one step closer, um, towards that bigger vision, then how could I not listen to that? How could I not make that move? I've got to be able to trust that if this is coming through for me, that this is something that I feel called to do, there's a reason why it's on my heart's desire to do it. And I've just got to take one step towards that vision coming to life. And where we get a little bit tripped up, um, in the human experience of all of this, is that we get so overwhelmed by potentially making the wrong decision or potentially making the wrong move or something not working how we want it to work. And because of that, we get really afraid and we fall into fear of making the incorrect decision. But if you're the kind of person that is willing to make one move at a time, one step at a time, towards the direction that you want to move your life towards, then even if it is one wrong move, so to speak, you're either going to learn through contrast that that's not what you want and you can then course correct and pivot, or you're going to learn something really valuable from that experience. And when you look at your life like that, it's like, how could you possibly lose? You're either going to grow or you're going to win. You're going to learn or you're going to win. So how could you possibly lose in that equation? You can't. So sometimes the feeling, thought of the fear is actually worse than the fear itself. So the thought about the fear that we have is so strong that it actually stops us and prevents us from making a move. So what I would say is think about the bigger picture, uh, context of your life. Is this opportunity, this decision that's immediately in front of you going to help you one step closer towards that vision? In that case, can you take that one step, that one micro step, and not worry about having to figure everything out right now? But you're just making one post at a time. You're making one decision at a time, you're making one step at a time. And by that it is going to create so much more momentum than the stopping and starting frequency. Because every time we start and stop, it takes so much more energy to be able to restart again. Whereas when you're already in motion, it's easier to keep moving, even if you need to pivot. So momentum is the aim of the game. So that is my response to part one of that question. Now, in terms of the piece around, constantly feeling exhausted with busy schedules and trying to find balance. So I know that this may be a little bit of a, um, controversial response. However, when we constantly tell ourselves that we are busy, then we are recreating that reality for ourselves. And the thought of telling ourselves that we're constantly busy, that we're constantly exhausted, usually serves as a defense mechanism of some sort of thought. Because the reality is that it is more comfortable as someone who identifies as being a, uh, perfectionist, it's more comfortable for us to tell ourselves that we're too busy to do something and that is the reason why we can't do it, than to confront the fact that there is a fear about what would happen if we were actually to do the thing and it didn't actually work enough favour, um, or if it led to some kind of negative consequence that we're looking to avoid. I did something that felt scary to do. That thing that I did did not yield the kind of outcome that I wanted it to create. I now feel disappointed that I did not get the outcome that I wanted to create. And I don't want to sit with the feeling of disappointment because. Because it's too uncomfortable to feel disappointment. So I would rather avoid any potential pain or any potential disappointment and use busy as the reason for not doing the actual thing that I know I'm here to be doing, than to actually do the thing and deal with any potential fallout or any potential pain or any potential disappointment appointment. And this is the perfectionist procrastination cycle to a T. So the person who submitted this question, I dare say you identify as a perfectionist, that this is a pattern that you have created in order to keep yourself safe in order to get. Not. Not get hurt, in order to not be disappointed, in order to not feel any kind of pain. Pain. So my question to you would be, are you able to stretch the capacity of being able to feel the feelings of pain, the feeling of hurt, the feeling of embarrassment, the feeling of rejection, the feeling of failure, and you're willing to actually do the thing that's going to drive your vision forward, then constantly use busy as the excuse for not doing the things that you know deep down you want to be doing? And the ironic thing about all of this in the comment around, I feel exhausted by this. This is another unpopular, um, opinion, shall we say, around this topic, is that burnout and exhaustion rarely comes from doing too much. Burnout and exhaustion usually stems from the feelings that we have about the things or while we're doing the things. So, for example, usually someone will not get burnt out because they simply just worked too many hours. The cause of the burnout would be that they worked a lot of hours. Yes, but they were having a lot of feeling thoughts about the work that they were doing, about what else was going on around whether they were good enough, around trying to prove themselves. It's all of those feelings and all of those energies that's actually more exhausting than actually doing the thing itself. Let me give you an example around this. If you, uh, knew that you had a really difficult conversation that you had to have, have the difficult conversation might take five minutes, and it might take 15 minutes, and it might take 30 minutes, but you could spend hours, days, weeks, or months thinking about this conversation, dreading this conversation, avoiding this conversation, ruminating about all your frustrations because you haven't had the conversation. So is it the conversation itself that's taking a lot of time and energy, or is it all the rumination and all the energy and all the emotion surrounding the conversation that is taking up all the energy? And usually it's the latter. So the more you're able to get attuned with yourself and your thoughts and actually start to pick up on these patterns of what am I actually avoiding, and why am I recreating this busyness in my life? And I'm actually willing to sit with the discomfort and look at the thing I'm avoiding instead of just avoiding the thing I'm avoiding. The more impactful you'll be. Because I'm more interested in being effective with my time than I am being busy with my time time. And if there's something uncomfortable that comes up, I'm willing to actually sit with it, feel it, process the emotion. Instead of avoiding the emotion, I'm allowed to feel the emotion, and then I can move through it much quicker. And that also creates a lot more momentum. Whereas when I'm constantly ruminating on something, I'm staying stuck in it. And then I'm creating this busy loop, which is just trying to protect me from getting hurt. So this is quite a huge conversation. But in essence, this is. This is what I want to say in response to these questions. So I hope you find that helpful. Okay, Question four. How to overcome my fear of showing up online again. This is a really big question, and I could devote an entire podcast episode, I could, in fact, devote an entire program to this particular question. But what I will say in relation to the context of this Q and A is that the right of entry, the point of entry to show up online, is extremely low. And what I mean by that is that anyone with a phone and access to the Internet can now create a personal brand, can now show up online, can now create content. The accessibility is more available to, to humanity than ever before. But whenever we think about entering into anything, entering into an industry, entering into a profession, entering into a job market, there's always got to be a point of entry and embarrassment. And being willing to be a beginner is the point of entry for creating content online. And what's sometimes really difficult about this is if you're the kind of person that's already created success in your career and in your life, you now don't want to look like a beginner online because you've created so much success in other parts of your life that you want to instantly receive the validation, the accolades and the success in your online brand to match the success that you've experienced in your career, as an example. But the issue with that is that we have to be willing to be a beginner. We have to be willing to actually look a little bit foolish or embarrass ourselves or stumble or get our words wrong or not get it perfect. Because that is the only way you are going to improve, is by putting in more reps. And so if you think about, we'll use the gym example, since we were talking about working out earlier on in this episode, if I went into the gym after not lifting weights, heavy weights, for quite a few years now, and I expect myself to just be able to deadlift 100 kilos, I'm going to break my back. Like that is not going to work. I have to be willing to start again from the level that I'm at and know that by consistently three times a week, I'm showing up to the gym and I'm lifting heavy weights, and every single time I go back to the gym, every single time I do another class, I can actually add another 2.5 kilos onto the barbell. That is going to create so much more progress, so much more strength and so much more longevity than me trying to pick up 100 kilo barbell and break my back and get injured on the first time. So it's like we've got to look at our personal brands in the same way. Being willing to start where you're at, uh, being willing to put in the reps, being willing to be a work in Progress as you continue to build your brand is the only way you're going to build momentum, is the only way that you're actually going to have longevity with the work that you're doing now. One of the things that really helped me in my journey was actually not making it about me. Because this is what we do. We get into our heads, we worry about, how do I look, how do I sound? Did I have the perfect thing to say? But actually, if you're more willing to look at the progress that you're making than trying to be perfect, then what will end up happening is you're able to then focus on creating actual value for the exact person that you want to be speaking to, which is very different than worrying about how good you look. If you are only worried about the external validating metrics of, uh, how good do I look? How good do I sound? How many likes did I get on this post? How many views did this get? This hasn't gone viral, then you're going to have a very difficult time in building up your personal brand and showing up consistently online if you are willing to focus on the value that you are here to provide and think about who you're here to serve. I, uh, would always think about it in the context of the power of one. If this piece of content helps at least one person on the other side of it, it's always worth it, even if I don't feel that great about it. And what was so interesting was early on in my journey, I really practiced this. I really practiced this because I would be so worried about, like, is this piece of content good enough? Uh, are people gonna like it? And then as soon as I was able to get out of my own way and ask myself the question, do I believe this could at least help one person? Yes. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and post it anyway. They were, ironically, the types of content that I ended up receiving the most amount of feedback about how it had helped the person that had been on the receiving end of it. Because of me being consistent in building up my personal brand for the last decade now, the amount of opportunities that have presented themselves to me, the business that I've been able to create, the work that I've been able to do with my clients, the fact that I was able to transition out of my corporate career into running my own business, all of these things have happened as a result of me building my personal brand and being willing to look like a beginner, uh, ten years ago. And they say the best time to start was like 10 years ago. But the second time, best time to start is today. So if you're at this point in your career or your brand journey, what I would say is just be willing to start, be willing to be a work in progress and focus on the power of one. Don't make it about how good you look and how good you sound. Make it about the value that you want to provide to the other person and continue to refine and evolve your content from there and you will have a personal brand that has far more longevity and long term success than one that's just concerned about looking good and getting a lot of views and likes. So that is my response in relation to that question. I came to a powerful realization recently. Women who choose to work with me, they become, become more magnetic, more solid, powerful, confident, convicted, connected, more alive. They fall in love with their relationships, their careers, businesses, brands, messaging, money, style, and ultimately the quality and experience of their lives. When women walk with me, they know their potentiality becomes limitless and they begin to recognize that anything and everything starts to become possible. Like my client Steph, who said that after working with Lara for four months, my life has been transformed in so many ways. I have fallen back in love with my business after years of overwhelm and burnout. My personal relationship relationships have never been stronger. Um, and I now have an incredible sense of focus and drive for the year ahead. Through her insightful guidance and techniques, I've gained clarity on my vision and the tools to achieve it. Lara came into my life at the perfect time and I could not be happier. Um, I could not recommend her more. When these are the kinds of results that you're interested in, then I would love to welcome you in. You can apply for my one to one private mentorship simply by sending an email to helloaranercesianuh.com or by visiting laranacesian.com private to apply. Question 5. Who is the most influential business person you have interviewed and why? I love this question so much. And ironically, this question was submitted from someone who is a very influential business person themselves. So shout out to the person that submitted this question because they were an incredible guest that I had the privilege of interviewing. It is difficult to pinpoint just one person because what I have had the privilege of experiencing through, um, having my podcast for the last six or seven years now and also interviewing hundreds of people over the course of my career is that I have genuinely learned something from every single person that I've interviewed. And this is such a powerful thing that podcasting has Unlocked. Um, for me, that was not something that I actually thought about or expected when I did start my podcast back in 2019. And what I realized is that everyone has got a story. Everyone has got something that I can take away. I've got so many insights and so much wisdom and so many aha moments from interviewing podcast guests, both on my own show and now also for CEO behind the scenes as well. If I had to, to only choose one person, and this is so hard, but I'm going to have to say Elena Cardone. Elena Cardone was the first person I ever interviewed on my show, Boss in hills back in 2019. I was so nervous to interview her. She's such a big deal, and I was just this, like, teeny little girl that was doing this podcast as a side hustle. And it was my first ever interview, and I had had no clue what I was doing, but she was an absolute powerhouse. And I think what happened for me, sitting across the table and interviewing Elena in person and seeing who she was behind the scenes and seeing how she was with her girls and how she was as a wife and how she was as a mother, and how she thinks about wealth creation, how she thinks about impact, how she thinks about influence, how she really believes in doing good for the world, that unlocked something so big for me all those years ago. That had a profound impact. And I think what I really gained from her was just the willingness to think so big, because I think that she was talking about at the time, you know, like, having this vision of, you know, making a billion dollars, becoming a billionaire to now the number is $10 billion. And I was just like, whoa. Like, her willingness to think so big is what's been such a driving force for her and Grant's success. And I think I learned so much through her and just saw what an incredible human is she is, both online, but in person as well. And I think to have that synergy and that consistency between everything that you see about her online is the exact embodiment and representation of who she is in real person. That also really unlocked something huge for me. So, um, if I only could choose one person, I'm gonna go with Alayna. Question 6. How long did it take you to establish your morning routine and how do you stick to it? So my morning routine started back in 2016 when I really felt tired. Tired of giving myself the breadcrumbs, tired of leaving my own well being to the end of the day, tired of pouring from a completely empty cup and just feeling so depleted and not including myself in the quality or the experience of my day. And it was kind of born out of, of that necessity of I'm tired of just giving so much and not giving anything to me. And so how I started my morning routine back in 2016 was I just decided that I wanted to do something, just something for myself before I started giving all of my energy away to other people. And it started by the decision to change how I was training. So I was training at the gym in the evenings, and depending on how my work day had gone, would determine whether I would make it to the gym or not. So what would end up happening would be that I would be ready, my bag was packed, I was ready to leave work and go to the gym. And someone always had something that they had to come over and ask me at 5, uh, 55pm and that would mean that I could. I couldn't get my workout class in, I would miss the gym. And then I would just go home and watch TV and eat dinner and not feel like I did anything for myself in that day. And I really did not enjoy that feeling. So the way that it started for me was I started to just shift the time that I would work out. I wasn't a morning person, but I trained myself to become one. And I actually started to fall in love with the process of how I felt after getting up early, going to the gym, and that feeling that I would get all the endorphins that were, like, pumping through me. And I felt like I had so much more energy. I felt like I was included in my day. I felt like I had prioritized myself in my day instead of giving myself the breadcrumbs. And I genuinely started to fall in love with that feeling. And then I started to add in different elements. I started to bring in things like meditation, meditation and gratitude and reading and investing in my mind. And I started to just love the compound effect of that. But I really started with one thing at a time. I didn't go from 0 to 0 to 100 overnight. I just started by saying, if I could just work out a couple of times a week before work, that is a huge win. And then I started to gradually habit stack and build different types of habits on top of that. And I would also say my relationship in terms of the second part of this question, which was, how do you stick to it? I used to stick to it with hardcore discipline. Like, I was just like, I'm relentlessly disciplined and no matter how I feel, I'm still getting up. It's dark, it's cold, I'm tired, it doesn't matter. I'm pushing myself to get up and do the thing despite how I feel. But I feel like my relationship with discipline has actually evolved and changed a lot, lot over time. It's less about discipline for me now and it's less about overriding how I feel just because, because I've already proven to myself that I can honor my word that I can do what I say I'm going to do. Like that's been a huge thing that's building up that self trust. But now that I've built up so much internal self trust, I don't need to keep proving that to myself. I know I'm a woman who can honor her work. So for me it's now less about discipline and it's more about the fact that I am relentlessly devoted to myself and it's a very different energetic frequency to discipline. Discipline is I need to keep pushing, I need to keep proving I need to do it no matter what. Devotion is more about getting in touch with how I actually feel and how my body actually feels and learning to, to honour uh, myself and my body at the highest level. So sometimes that could look like. And actually today is a perfect example of that. I made a very rare occurrence by going out on a weeknight last night because it was someone who's very close to me, their birthday and I wanted to be part of their celebrations and this was such a beautiful dinner but it ended up far are surpassing my bedtime. And so last night by the time I got home I was like, I know my body needs more sleep. And even though I wake up at 5 o' clock most days and I get up and I work out at 5:45 in the morning and I do all the things last night intuitively I knew my body was going to want to sleep versus the gym. And so I canceled my class last night and I allowed myself to sleep in until 7:45am this morning, which is such a rare occurrence for me. But my body thanked me for it. And so devotion is. I follow the thread of what would actually feel is of highest service to me in this particular moment. I follow the thread of what would feel mostly most satisfying to me. I follow the thread of what would actually serve me more. Would sleep serve me more or would working out serve me more? And so I've really transcended my relationship with that. It's more about the fact that I'm relentlessly devoted to myself and it's not about Perfectionism. And it's not about pushing through no matter what. It's about the fact that, that I'm so in tune with my body and my intuition and intuitively feeling into what I need, that that is the highest service to me. And so that's how my relationship with my routine has evolved over time. Question 7. I would love to know all things, beauty and routines. Your favorite products for skin and for hair. Okay, I'm going to start with hair first. Hair is a really easy one for me because it is actually so simple and it has actually been so effective. And never in my life have I had more compliments about my hair than I do now. Like, it's almost like a topic of conversation everywhere I go. It's kind of crazy. However, I, um, don't do that much. And what I mean by that is I only book in a weekly blow dry every single week with my hairdresser, um, Red, who does my blow dry every single week and I don't touch it for the rest of the week. That is my honest answer. And so the fact that I only wash my hair, get my hair washed once a week. I only have heat applied to my hair hair once a week and no tongues, no hot irons, nothing like that. It's just a hair dryer. And he uses only Orbe products in my hair. So he'll use like Orbe mask or Bay shampoo and uh, or Bay conditioner. Um, that's the only product he'll use. It really agrees with my hair. I do have Orbe shampoo and conditioner and products at home, but I don't use them anymore because I don't wash my hair anymore. And that has been the biggest game changer. So only Aubrey products only get a blow dry once a week and then I literally do not touch it for the rest of the week and then I will get a color touch up like every five to six weeks. And that's literally it. And I cannot begin to tell you how much time I have saved day to day because I really don't spend any time at all on my hair in the morning. And I used to spend so much time having to do my hair in the morning and now I just rather, um, get into my work day and do other things with my time. So once a week is the greatest investment that I've ever made. And I also work while I'm getting my blow dryer, respond to messages, clients, emails, inquiries, all the things. And it's making my, my time every single week. So that's What I do from a hair perspective in terms of skin. Okay, so I, uh, have a morning skin routine and I actually screenshot the products that I use. So I actually use, um, it's is clinical, I think it's called Extreme Protect and it's like a combined moisturizer with SPF in it. I've got an is clinical. Uh, I think it's called Pro Heal Serum. I use that every single morning. And then I use another ultraceuticals product. Um, it's like another serum. So those three products on my skin every single morning. So I do the serums first and then put them is clinical moisturizer on top. And that's all I do in the morning. And then, um, after my shower I will, will just moisturize my body as well because my skin can tend to dry out, especially while it's colder, um, during winter months. And then in the evening, what I will do is I will always make sure that I have removed all of my makeup and I will use, uh, I think it's like a cleansing balm by rationale. Um, so I'll use that and like a cleansing like foam as well to take all the makeup off my face whilst I'm in the shower and then I'll apply whatever moisturizer I have. So at the moment I'm using La Prairie products because I have been so privileged to be gifted so many extraordinary skin care products over the years that I have all these amazing skincare products to use. And right now I'm using La Prairie in the evening. So that's all I do from a day to day perspective. So it's very, very simple. So morning is like two serums and a moisturizer. And this is something that the person that does my, uh, facials, which I'll share in a second, she like prescribed those to me based on my actual skin requirements. And then this is what I do in the evening as well. Just take my makeup off, use whatever moisturizer I have. And then I do a, um, monthly laser Genesis facial as well. And so I book in for that every single month. And I find it just really helps with my skin tone with hydration, with fine lines. So that's what I do, um, on a monthly basis. And then I might do like more luxury facials and beauty treatments and things like that say like every six months. But in essence that's what I do from a beauty perspective and the products that I'm currently using. Okay, question eight. This is the final question that I'm going to have time for in this episode. And I'm actually really excited that someone asked me this question because I have something so exciting to share. I wasn't actually planning on talking about it in this podcast episode, but since the question came up, I'm going to answer it. So the question is, will you be hosting any more in person experiences? The answer to this question is yes, I am. Um, and I'm so excited about it. I get asked so much about this because every single time I have hosted an in person experience, which isn't very often, but when I have, they've been absolute magic. There's something palpable that happens in these experiences and in these rooms that just can't even put in in put into words is a felt experience. And one thing that I have had reflected to me with my clients over the years is that I have a way of bringing incredible women together and bringing incredible humans together into a space that feels expansive, that feels like home, that feels like you find your people. And because of these experiences, friendships have blossomed, business collaborations have come about. Like there's so much goodness that has come about of these in person experiences that I was really contemplating and feeling into the energy of bringing something new forth. And so I'm really excited actually to share that I'm bringing forth a very unique INC and limited edition supper club series. This is gonna be a curated space of women in a very intimate, luxurious environment. I'm actually gonna be hosting two of them in Sydney and one of them in Perth and the first one is taking place on Thursday 30th July at Saint haven't, which is a private members only club in North Sydney. And it is going to be such a vibe. I don't want to say too much about this in this particular episode because like I said, I wasn't actually planning on hard launching this yet. So let's just call this the soft launch. If you're happening to listen to this podcast episode, then you're probably going to be amongst the first to hear it. But. But the vibe is going to be intimate, curated, high level, but like really powerful, expansive conversations over a beautiful dinner. And all I'm going to say for now is if you feel like you want to be in that room and just like hearing me say that, you know, you want one of those seats on the table, then you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email, hello aranese.com and we can have a conversation and just make sure that you're the right fit for the space. And it would be my absolute pleasure to hear from you. But I'm really excited about what is going to be transpiring, uh, from this series. I have a really amazing feeling about it. And for me, I love curated intimate spaces. They're my absolute favorite. And if you just know you want a seat at that table, it's going to be a beautiful dinner with, like, really curated types of conversations. This is the experience for you. So that's what I've got up my sleeve. And the first one will be 30th of July. So this is going to conclude this episode. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate all of you who submitted your incredible questions as well. I had so much fun answering all of these and, and I'm just excited for the future and everything that is to come. So thank you for being here. I appreciate you all so much. And if you enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to share it and subscribe, rate and review the show and I will be back soon with another episode of the Boss in Hills Podcast. Take care everyone and bye for now. Thank you so much for listening to the Bus in Hills Podcast podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you are listening. Please also share it with someone in your network who you know would really value the insights and wisdom that were shared in this episode.