Focus on small successes. If you do this, you will be more successful in your work.
Develop a solid personal system for yoga as soon as possible- and make it a lifetime of memorable moments. It will pay huge dividends sooner rather than later.
Carolina Herrera Florez, entrepreneur and visionary leader, is CEO of www.Magentastars.com, which provides user-friendly and personalized yoga services for people and organizations all over the world. Her company serves businesses in the medical, legal, law enforcement, financial, and general business industries.
Concurrent to founding her company, Carolina has spent over a decade as a health coach. The nature of the role suits her well, she carved her own personal yoga path. Now a sought-after thought leader. Carolina lives in Dallas, TX. She has served as an ambassador to the internations.org community. On her free time, you can find her playing tennis, hiking, walking her dogs, or listening to podcasts about yoga, health, business-wealth and life.
Where did the idea for your company come from?
With my focus on work and career, I did not take the time for my own care. I became overweight and used cigarettes to help me relax. While caring for patients and being a very busy health professional- I injured myself for life. I had to make lifestyle changes of my own. Ever since I realized I had to make changes, I have been on a mission to make the process be fun. I found yoga a while ago, and did self-study yoga. In 2016 I completed 200 hrs of memorable hot yoga moments on a mat during teacher training. Practicing led me to find my own personal yoga path and I share it through magentastars.com.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My typical day includes a lot of email correspondence between clients, employees, and vendors of all kinds. I do my best to segment my days into blocks of time when I work on my most important tasks, without any interruptions from email, phone calls, texts, or meetings. Segmenting my day to include at least of 10 minutes of personal yoga practice keeps me organized, focused and refreshed, and it helps me work through a lot more tasks and projects than ever before. I also have more free time to do and recognize things I enjoy.
How do you bring ideas to life?
If I have an idea for something that will help us grow or innovate in any way, I email my team members and ask for their thoughts. We don’t respond to ideas immediately. Usually, we’ll add an idea to our weekly meeting agenda so everyone can have a few days to think about it before discussing it as a group.
When we discuss ideas, there’s no rigid or formal process — it’s a free-for-all. Usually, the person who sent the request for brainstorming kicks it off, and then we go through it together until we arrive at a conclusion we all agree on. If we can’t reach an agreement, I will usually make the final call.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Almost across the board, we’re seeing an increase in a result driven requests from many different types of companies, agencies, and individuals. Because there’s so much need for results today, people are increasingly relying on a system for companies to accurately demonstrate proven results. Health and wellness results services seem to be growing the most, and we really like working with both.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I strive to always do take 10 minutes a day to relax my brain and get focused on my breath by using my personal yoga. I don’t like putting breathing on my personal mat off or — even worse — not doing breathing at all because breathing at times is not fun or takes time away from important tasks, with little or no immediate payoff. I think of this time as mental hygiene, to explore clarity and focus during my day on all the other important tasks.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Develop a solid work ethic and network that is supportive as soon as possible. Focus on small successes. If you do this, you will be more successful in your work and obtain successes. Check in with daily habits to ensure they continue to support the small successes that one day will scale into a major accomplishment.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, the use of certain words or phrases and breathing on a mat — these all are part of your whole person and personality. There is a makeup to you as a person. The subtleties of human characteristics all add up to tell you a lot about a person or company. For instance, body language- which can range from posture- to words, eye contact, muscle and voice tone, the use of words has an impact on communication off the mat.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
About a year ago, I met with a business coach expert to see what he and his company could do for me. Once he told me the benefits he’d experienced by focusing on PR and social media, it dawned on me that I could benefit by doing the same. Since then, my website traffic has skyrocketed, and numerous people have messaged me on Facebook, Instagram to ask about our services.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Have a 5 year plan and work with a business coach.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I had a hard time accepting and researching a teaching style that the yoga and wellness industry would accept as innovative and refreshing. It took me 2 years — and a lot of wasted time and money — before I finally realized that I should be focusing my energies on reaching an audience and building a brand and focus on a target market that would pay off with new clients and increased work.
As a result, we now have more yogis working with us. We reply to more yogis because we have the references and experience to win them.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
If you have a solid health care career, start a consulting side business. Increasingly, people are starting health and wellness companies in the U.S. and around the world who don’t have a clear strategy towards obtaining results for clients.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
An amazing whole body massage.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
We use Hubspot to track employees’ time and productivity. It saves us anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours per pay period because we’re not having to verify everything in spreadsheets.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“Talk RX” — this book will enable you get a firm understanding on how a systematic approach to communication can have effects on your health. I find learning to communicate valuable, as inner- personal work always needs to be done- in regards to what we call communication. We humans move through life stages and our communication is our only vehicle for connecting with people and moving forward with our own development.
What is your favorite quote?
“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health”. Dalai Lama
Confidence isn’t just confidence. A calm mind, and a regular practice to calm your mind can contribute a lot more and have different perspectives on things. Why not have a regular exercise practice or calming the mind through yoga? what do you think about a yoga class or whether you have ideas that can improve your own yoga practice? Practice your inner wisdom on purpose, and I know the key to sustaining growth is taking advantage of your skills and challenging them.
Key learnings:
• By segmenting your day into blocks of time and include a regular personal yoga practice, without interruption, you’ll not only stay organized and refreshed, but you’ll also learn to be productive with your own health.
• Before you move forward with a persona yogal practice, get input from your teacher- studio, personal yoga wellness coach and health professional.
• Always strive to get your personal yoga practice done. Don’t put off tasks or avoid it altogether just because they aren’t fun or don’t offer immediate gratification.
• Be aware of your body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions, as well as the words you use — these all reveal a lot about you. Be conscious of the message you’re conveying to the world.
• Read “Talk RX” to get a firm understanding of the importance of communication and how a systematic approach to communication impacts health.
Connect:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.