Laurence shares her personal journey with PCOS and how it inspired her to coach others.
She emphasizes the importance of nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset in overcoming health challenges and building a sustainable, healthy life.
Laurence also discusses her online courses, coaching programs, and the supportive community she has built for women with PCOS.
Website: http://laurence-annez.com/
Instagram: @laurence.annez
Facebook: Laurence Annez Health & Wellness
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/183220068951436/
Previous Episode: iam125-health-coach-and-nutritional-practitioner-passionate-about-teaching-women-on-sustainable-health-lifestyle
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Transcription:
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Laurence Annez Teaser 00:00
I think everybody in this kind of sector or just 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 go about themselves and learn a little bit more.
Intro 00:26
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 Harkness 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 00:53
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 and Laurence is a certified nutritional practitioner and health coach.
It was through her own health struggle 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 the belly. fat, cystic acne in 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 sustainable change that feels good and is different to 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?
Laurence Annez 01:44
I am.
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Gresham Harkless 01:45
All right, 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 01:51
Yeah, so I think that I was always made to be an entrepreneur. I was born into a family of entrepreneurs. My dad had his own airline company. Then he became like an inventor, 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, making their own schedule and designing their own life. with lots of travel. So I grew up with that and I 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 going to nutrition school and finding something that I was really passionate about.
So I'm totally committed today to making it happen. When I graduated from nutrition school, though, although I found my passion, I felt a little bit lost how to be common entrepreneur and how to get into sales and understand the business. So, I decided to start investing in myself. I started investing in my business.
I hired coaches Start 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 work 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 time 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, 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 it, with PCOS and seeing lots of women with PCOS, not really getting answers to their questions. health concerns and their questions, even from doctors. So I started to see a huge, a huge opportunity for me to look into PCOS and PCOS coaching. So I started to understand the need to transfer my knowledge onto others.
And now it's been about almost a year that I started 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 04:22
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I imagine that you having been able to, 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 transition into niching down as everybody was telling you to do.
Laurence Annez 04:37
For sure, yeah. It really does help when you have your own experience dealing with something, because people see their, 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 for 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 these mentors and these coaches. So I think it was a great idea. Yeah.
Gresham Harkless 05:07
Yeah.
They're probably listening and shaking their head. Like I, they're happy that you listened to it as well. So, I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper in here exactly. What are you doing for these people that have the PCOS?
Laurence Annez 05:18
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 envision for myself, but I do also provide like workshops around where I live, so in Vancouver.
So I coach my clients with nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset practices. So I'm specialized with nutrition, but I also have seen a huge need to address lifestyle and mindset as well. Those were two things that were stagnating my progress with my health until I addressed them. So I've become very passionate about incorporating those as well.
I'm continuously learning from this myself. Of course, I think everybody in this kind of sector or just 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 go about themselves and learn a little bit more because one-on-one coaching is very customized and personalized, but there are lots of underlying factors that are important to understand with PCOS.
So that's why I created this course. And I focus 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 like 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 just go at your own pace with.
Gresham Harkless 06:59
Nice, nice, nice. And I'm sure you probably get this question a lot. But for those people that are listening, what exactly is PCOS? Could you explain what that is for us?
Laurence Annez 07:06
Yeah. So it's probably cystic ovarian syndrome. So it's basically defined as high androgen. So those are male sex hormones and chronic and ovulation. It's the most common hormonal disorder in women of reproductive age. It's like an endocrine metabolic disorder. There's many signs and symptoms that come with it, but specifically characterized by irregular cycles, sub fertility, so having 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 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 is a lot to address with it, like stress, inflammation, blood sugar.
So it is really something that you have to address in 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 08:00
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that's exactly what I was going to ask is, based off of what you were saying before, it seems like some people might think that there's one thing that you can do and it cures all.
But it just like we are complex and there's a lot of different parts. Sounds like anytime you might be dealing with something like PCOS you also have to look at all the pieces.
Laurence Annez 08:16
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. 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 08:39
Interesting. That's awesome that you're, of course, you were able to help yourself, but also reaching back to help other people as well too.
So, now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and this is like your differentiator or what you feel sets you apart.
Laurence Annez 08:50
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 of PCOS.
I had really bad acne and depression 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 hid in the dark and then As I started to build this community and start my health coaching, I started to see so many women struggling and also hiding themselves.
So it inspired me to share my struggles and now it's become really a lot easier for me and even talking about things that were really difficult. So now I'm proud of myself for my 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, yeah, just really sharing my truth and encouraging women to do the same.
Gresham Harkless 10:04
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 be a part of your community so that you're able to help everybody from an entire level.
Laurence Annez 10:14
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 10:25
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, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
Laurence Annez 10:36
This is a hard one because I have so many tools, but there's obviously not just like 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 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 a meditation. So even if it's five to 15 minutes, just like deep breathing, sometimes I'll think of like mantras or visualization just to 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. I like doing different visualization exercises, like 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 associated with the life that I envision. So they're 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 becoming ingrained in my brain. So that's another visualization technique I do. I also list, I try to list three goals for the day. I'm, it's very difficult though, because I like to list 15 things to do, but as we know, that's not very effective, but 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 a motivational book, something like, one of my favorites are You Are Badass by Jen Sincero. I don't know if you've heard of it.
Gresham Harkless 12:03
Yes, I have. I haven't heard it. I haven't read it, but I heard about it.
Laurence Annez 12:06
Yeah, I've read it like 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. Sometimes they'll be a bit different, but that's how my morning starts off. And then I feel ready for the day. I know what I'm going to focus on and I'm in a good mood. I have a good mindset. So that's something that I do day to day and I think it's really important.
Gresham Harkless 12:29
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I definitely think that's a, obviously I always say to win, to win the day, you gotta 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 help you to do that.
Laurence Annez 12:42
Yeah, for sure. I think we can all 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 12:50
Absolutely. Absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?
Laurence Annez 13:00
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, lots of frustrations. This has really been a game-changer for me. I'm 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 my start of my business because I didn't feel like I was ready. And instead of looking at failures as bad, looking at them as getting one step closer to your success and by 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 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's at the stage that you want to be at, that's going to be inspiring and who can really get you through those tough days.
Gresham Harkless 14:14
Absolutely, absolutely. And I love that the phrase you used, 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 the messy action, you just build upon that and continue to improve. And next thing you're exactly where you want to be.
Laurence Annez 14:28
For sure. Yeah. And I learned that from my coach. And so I've started to do that and I've definitely seen changes.
Even if it's a small actions every day, just do it, just get out there and it will turn out being either a lesson for you or it will be a success.
Gresham Harkless 14:43
There you go. There you go. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO.
And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?
Laurence Annez 14:55
I would say being CEO means having the power to design a life that you love and taking full ownership for it.
Gresham Harkless 15:01
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I love that. And Lawrence, 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 ahold of you and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing.
Laurence Annez 15:16
Sure. So I also have my podcast, Addicted to Healthy Podcast.
It's not really focused on PCOS. Sometimes I will go into PCOS a little bit more or I'll steer it towards there, but it's really about your health in general. That goes into mindset, nutrition, exercise, 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 there, 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 coaching. videos in 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 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 16:08
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll have that in the show notes as well.
Laurence Annez 16:11
Awesome.
Gresham Harkless 16:12
And I appreciate you again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Laurence Annez 16:15
Thank you so much for having me. I had a blast.
Outro 16:18
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and 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 Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr.
Thank you for listening.
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