IAM125- Health Coach and Nutritional Practitioner Passionate About Teaching Women on Sustainable Health Lifestyle

Laurence Annez is a certified nutritional practitioner and health coach. It was through her own health struggles that she found nutrition, healing, and the passion to help others in their health journey. She is passionate about teaching women with PCOS how to ditch belly fat, cystic acne, and irregular cycles by showing them how to nourish their bodies and free themselves of pain through nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset changes. She believes that the key to a healthy life is a sustainable change that feels good and is different for each person. Today she coaches women all over the world through her coaching programs.

• CEO Hack: Strictness with my morning routine
• CEO Nugget: Failure is only a stepping stone to success, taking the risk and surrounding yourself with winners
• CEO Defined: Having the power to design the life you want

Website: http://laurence-annez.com/

Instagram: @laurence.annez

Facebook: Laurence Annez Health & Wellness

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/183220068951436/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Laurence Annez of laurence-annez.com. What I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Laurence so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Well, Laurence is a certified nutritional practitioner and health coach and was through her own health struggle that she found nutrition healing and the passion to help others and their health journey.

She is passionate about teaching women with PCOS how to ditch belly fat, cystic acne, and a regular cycle by showing them how to nourish their bodies and free themselves of pain through nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset changes. She believes that the key to a healthy life is a sustainable change that feels good and is different for each person. Today. she coaches women all over the world through her coaching programs, Laurence are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Laurence Annez 1:18

I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:19

Alright. Let's do it. So the first question I had was just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Laurence Annez 1:25

Yeah, so I think that I was always kind of made to be an entrepreneur, I was kind of born into a family of entrepreneurs. My dad had his own airline company, then he became an inventor and started his own company with various products and inventions that he came up with. And my mom has her own French tutoring business. So my parents were always working at home, kind of making their own schedule and designing their own life with lots of travel. So I grew up with that. And I kind of always knew I wanted a life that allowed me the freedom to travel, make up my own rules, and design my day-to-day life, especially growing up with entrepreneurs. So it took a while for me to figure out what to do.

So I went into lots of different various jobs like tourism and customer service and writing until I found my passion for nutrition and coaching people to really live their very best lives because I went through a lot of struggles with my health. And that led me to go into nutrition school and find something that I was really passionate about. So I'm totally committed today to make it happen.

When I graduated from nutrition school, although I found my passion, I felt a little bit lost, on how to be calm as an entrepreneur and how to get into sales and understand the business. So I decided to start investing in myself, and I started investing in my business. I hired coaches and started following some programs. And that started to really get me the confidence and the structure of where to go and how to really have a business.

So now I do a part-time job along with my coaching business that I'm growing. And obviously, the goal is to become a full-time online coach so that I can really be able to travel and support myself fully. But I was told time and again as well to choose a niche that I really resisted for a while. I really didn't want to do it because I think a lot of us just want to help everyone when it comes to health coaches and nutritionists. But everyone kept repeating to me that you have to find a niche.

So I decided to choose PCOS because it was a condition that I have and I struggled with. So I was really frustrated with PCOS and seeing lots of women with PCOS not really getting answers to their health concerns and their questions even from doctors. So I started to see a huge opportunity for me to look into PCOS and PCOS coaching.

So I began to understand the need to transfer my knowledge to others. And now, it's been about almost a year since I began to really focus on PCOS and coaching PCOS specifically. So it's something that really lights me up day to day and it gives me purpose every day to really strive towards and build my business. So it's more than just having a business. It's really impacting people on a day-to-day basis.

Gresham Harkless 1:25

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I imagine that you having been able to, you know, to deal with PCOS and be able to help yourself out and now you're able to help so many other people out as well, too. I'm sure that definitely was a great way to kind of, I guess, transition into niching down as everybody's just telling you to do.

Laurence Annez 4:14

For sure. Yeah, it really does help when you have your own experience dealing with something because people see that it's relatable. You've been through the same struggles as them and you can understand it a bit better, I think. So it did make sense to me. And it's probably a lot easier as well to get into coaching around something that you're familiar with and something that you have to go into the books and you don't really have experience with it yourself. So yeah, it's definitely I don't regret it. So I'm glad I listened to those mentors and those coaches. I think it was a great idea.

Gresham Harkless 4:44

Yeah, they're probably listening and shaking their head like they're happy that you listened to them.

Laurence Annez 4:48

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 4:50

So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear exactly what you are doing for these people that have PCOS.

Laurence Annez 4:57

Yeah, so I basically provide one on one coaching via phone and video because I'm really focusing on building my community online, to be able to travel wherever I want to that's really the life that I envisioned for myself. But I do also provide workshops around where I live. So in Vancouver, so I coach my clients with nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset practices. So I specialized in nutrition, but I also have seen a huge need to address lifestyle and mindset as well, those were two things that were kind of stagnating my progress with my health until I addressed them. So I become very passionate about incorporating those as well. And continuously learning from this myself, of course, I think everybody in this kind of sector or as an entrepreneur, in general, is always looking to improve themselves.

So it's something that I focus on for me and my clients, I focus on a lot of emotions and mindset work as well, because I think it's all connected together. So I also created an online self-paced course for clients to gain in-depth knowledge and resources for their healing journey to kind of go about themselves and learn a little bit more because one on one coaching is very customized and personalized. But there are a lot of underlying factors that are important to understand with PCOS.

So that's why I created this course. And I focused on PCOS, specifically, as I mentioned, and hormonal imbalances. I also have a podcast and a Facebook group where I provide weekly content to listeners and viewers. So I go over common questions or topics that people are interested in. So I do have lots of different platforms with free content that I provide. And then my coaching is one on one very personalized. And I also have this online course that you can go at your own pace.

Gresham Harkless 6:41

Nice, nice, nice, and I'm sure you probably get this question a lot. But for those people who are listening, what exactly is PCOS? Could you explain what that is for us?

Laurence Annez 6:49

Yeah, so it's polycystic ovarian syndrome. So it's basically defined as high androgen. So those are male sex hormones and chronic ovulation. It's the most common hormonal disorder in women of reproductive age. It's like an endocrine metabolic disorder. There are many signs and symptoms that come with it, but specifically characterized by irregular cycles, sub-fertility, difficulty getting pregnant, and then androgen symptoms like acne and hirsutism. So that's excess hair growth in places you wouldn't usually see it like on the face or chest area.

So that's kind of an overview of what it is. But it can become a little bit complex. But it's very much linked with blood sugar imbalances and hormonal imbalances. So there's a lot to address with it, like stress, inflammation, blood sugar, so it is really something that you have to address from a holistic point of view because it's not just one pill that's going to fix it. It's really addressing the whole picture.

Gresham Harkless 7:44

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that's exactly what I was gonna ask because, you know, based on what you were saying before, it kind of seems like some people might think that there's one thing that you can do, and it cures all, but just like we are complex, and there's a lot of different parts sounds like you know, anytime you might be dealing with something like PCOS, you also have to look at all the pieces.

Laurence Annez 8:00

Yeah, for sure. And I think for health in general, it's like that and for all conditions, but PCOS even more so because there is that complexity to it there. There's just not just one trigger to it as well. But I definitely tried so many things like pills and creams for acne or different diets. And it wasn't until I actually put all the pieces together that I started to see a real change.

Gresham Harkless 8:22

Interesting. Well, that's awesome that your course you know, you were able to help yourself, but also reaching back to kind of help other people as well, too. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this is kind of like differentiate you or what you feel kind of sets you apart.

Laurence Annez 8:35

Yes, I would say being authentic and building a safe community for women to share their struggles, because, for a long time, I was ashamed of myself and of my health struggles and PCOS. I had really bad acne and pressure. And just lots of symptoms that came up that I felt ashamed of. And I didn't really understand. So I didn't want to share it, I didn't want to talk about it, I was secluding myself a lot really isolating myself. So for a long time, I just hit the dark. And then as I started to build this community and start my health coaching, I began to see so many women struggling and also kind of hiding themselves.

So it kind of inspired me to share my struggles. And now it's become really a lot easier for me and even talked about things that were really difficult. So now I'm proud of myself for the battles that I went through. And I think that the best thing that I can do is to share my truth and encourage other women to do the same. So I've created platforms online, like my Facebook group where women can share and can really talk about things that they're struggling with and encourage each other. And it's just a safe place for just women to talk about things that they usually don't feel like they can talk about. So I think that it would be just really sharing my truth and encouraging women to do the same.

Gresham Harkless 9:50

Yeah, I love that and the fact that you're able to tell your story. And by telling your story, it sounds like you're empowering other people to tell their stories, but also to kind of, you know, be a part of your community so that you're able to kind of help everybody for my entire level.

Laurence Annez 10:00

Sure, yeah, I think it's really important. And just communicating and making, just creating a safe space for people to just voice what they're feeling and what they're experiencing. I think that is part of the healing journey.

Gresham Harkless 10:01

Absolutely, absolutely. So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be an app or book or habit that you have. But it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Laurence Annez 10:23

This is a hard one because I have so many tools. But there's obviously not just one thing, but I think that something that really helps me every day is my morning routine. So I'm very strict with that. I'll wake up earlier if I have to, to get the morning routine done. And it's something that I look forward to. So it's a combination of things, I usually start with meditation. So even if it's like 5 to 15 minutes, just like deep breathing, sometimes I'll think of mantras or visualization. I just kind of get my day off in the right tone. And then I have like other different things that I add to my morning routine, I always get a workout in, and I like doing different visualization exercises.

I've created a kind of PowerPoint movie vision board that I play with one song that gets me very motivated and that I've kind of associated with the life that I envision. So there are images of things that I want to accomplish or feel or reach in my life. And I play this every morning and night with the music and it's sort of become ingrained in my brain.

So that's another visualization technique I do. I also list I tried to list three goals for the day. It's very difficult, though, because I like to kind of list 15 things to do. But as we know, that's not very effective. So I'm trying to keep it to three goals for the day that I really need to get done. And then I also like reading motivational books, something like one of my favorites is You Are a Badass by Jensen Sincero. I don't know if you've heard of it.

Gresham Harkless 11:54

Yes, I have. I haven't read it. But I heard about it.

Laurence Annez 11:57

Yeah, I've read it three times already. But something like that, that really gets me pumped up and gets me in the right mindset. So it's a combination of different things that I use, sometimes they'll be the same, and sometimes they'll be a bit different. But that's kind of how my morning starts off. And then I feel ready for the day, I kind of know what I need to focus on. And I'm in a good mood. I have like a good mindset. So that's something that I do day to day, and I think it's really important

Gresham Harkless 12:21

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I definitely think that's obviously what I always say to win the day, you got to win the morning sometimes. And when you're able to win the morning, then you're it's able to put you at a higher likelihood of winning the day. So it sounds like those things kind of help you to do that.

Laurence Annez 12:33

Yeah, for sure. I think we can all kind of create our own morning routine that works for us. Obviously, it's not going to be the same for everybody. But yeah, I think it's really important to start the day off, right?

Gresham Harkless 12:43

Absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Laurence Annez 12:53

First of all, I would say that failure is only a stepping stone to success. So even though I'm at the beginning stages of my business, there are lots of roadblocks, and lots of frustrations, this has really been a game changer for me, I am learning from other coaches, because it's really about the long game, and that they went through a lot of roadblocks and failures. And it wasn't until they understood they learned from their failures that they got to success.

So it's really about taking risks and messy action every day, putting yourself out there. And starting before you're ready, I think that I really postponed the start of my business because I didn't feel like I was ready. And instead of looking at failures as bad, I looked at them as getting one step closer to your success and using them as a roadmap.

And then another thing that kind of ties into that would be surrounding yourself with people who are one step ahead of you or investing in a coach I think that is something that everyone could benefit from because somebody who can be a mentor to you will be really important when you do get to those roadblocks or those days where you just want to quit.

So I think that's another something that's really important to see somebody who's doing something that you want to do or who is at the stage that you want to be and that's going to be inspiring, and who can really get you through those tough days.

Gresham Harkless 14:07

Absolutely, And I love that phrase, you use the messy action because I think sometimes we want everything to be perfect. And we won't take action because it's not perfect. And a lot of times you may take that messy action, and you just kind of build upon that and continue to improve. And next thing you know, you're exactly where you want to be.

Laurence Annez 14:22

For sure. Yeah. And I learned that from my coach. And so I've started to do that. I've definitely seen changes, even if it's just small actions every day. Just do it. Just get out there. And it will turn out to be either a lesson for you or it will be a success.

Gresham Harkless 14:36

There you go. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So I wanted to ask you what being a CEO mean to you.

Laurence Annez 14:48

I would say being CEO means having the power to design a life that you love and taking full ownership of it.

Gresham Harkless 14:55

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I love that. And Laurence, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule, what I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then how they can get a hold of you and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing.

Laurence Annez 15:09

Sure. So I also have my podcast in addition to healthy podcasts. It's not really focused on PCOS, sometimes I will go into PCOS a little bit more or kind of steer it toward that. But it's really about your health in general, which goes into the mindset, nutrition, exercise, and lots of science in there. So it's really focusing on how to build your best life. I also have my website, I have lots of recipes on their blog posts, you can check out my services for my coaching courses.

And then if you are suffering from PCOS and you want to join a community online, I have my PCOS holistic support group on Facebook that's growing. It's a great community of women. I do live videos there every week talking about different questions and issues people have. So it's a great place to learn and to support each other and just kind of share your experience with PCOS. So you can find that on Facebook and I will give you the link to that if you'd like it.

Gresham Harkless 16:03

Yeah, absolutely. And we'll have that in the show notes as well.

Laurence Annez 16:06

Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 16:07

And I appreciate you again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Laurence Annez 16:10

Thank you so much for having me. I had a blast.

Outro 16:12

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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