Your lifestyle is the foundation of your work vision

When I start working with a person, the first thing we identify is the lifestyle they want to live. Everything else comes after. Whatever business you build, and whatever career you create, it will be built on the foundation of your life vision.

Most of my clients are expats, immigrants and global citizens whose family members live in other cities, countries and even in multiple corners of the world. The like staying connected to them and seeing them more than just during the annual holiday. This lifestyle indicates a business and type of work that allows them to be flexible and mobile enough.

This week I bring golden inspiration from my grandma and I share about an in-progress concept for women CEOs. Because we're often in-between. We're becoming. Things are not just ready yet (and might never be). Let's embrace the first drafts, shifting businesses, up-and-coming neighborhoods, and lives that are very much in the making.

Love life and tell your truth

Last week I lost my grandmother and I was lucky enough to spend the last week with her. I had an insight about two years ago that was telling me that whenever the time will come, I'll be with her before she departs this earthly life. I almost forgot about it, and remembered it right after she left. I feel blessed to have witnessed and ending of her long and rich life.

I reflected what are the key lessons she taught me indirectly by modelling it to me, or purposefully sharing her words and wisdom, at times in her honest and unfiltered way. At the end, I came to appreciate her directness saying exactly what was on her mind, and at last I was ready to embrace this quality in my own personality, too.

12 things I learned from my grandmother:

1. Be you no matter what. Live alone, with a partner, with a dog, or as you wish. Be you.
2. You change, and things come to an end. No explanation needed. Follow your gut.
3. Tell the truth, and tell your truth.
4. Simplicity and honesty bring clarity.
5. Cultivating a garden takes a lifetime, and every day there is something that you can do for it.
6. When you can't see anymore, use your other senses. When you can't use your senses anymore, use your heart.
7. Formal education is great but you can learn in many other ways. You can even learn by sitting in your own kitchen in a small village. She completed eight grades of school, barely left her house for 30 years, and quoted Shakespeare.
8. Life comes with uncertainty, don't try to figure it all out. Live it.
9. Don't take things too seriously. Laugh, even if only a few hours left from your life.
10. Love life.

One thing that I learned form her by not following her footsteps:

You don't have to "smell the flowers that you've picked" forever. This saying means that whatever you've chosen you must follow through no matter what. I gracefully disagree. You can pick new flowers, you can take new paths, you can switch jobs, start a new business, and choose different relationships. You can quit and close things that are no longer serving you, and your life purpose, and you can build new ones, even if it means you build anew with the same people, in the same business but this time, differently.

Client stories

Sometimes a coaching process ends without completion and this is OK. We meet for a period of time and the process encompasses a certain challenge, a specific part of the person's life. It might help you take the leap, create your next vision, or get out of being stuck. At other times it's a big catalyst for anew, and help you grow, build and evolve.

These are the results my clients are seeing:

"I realized that regardless of what I do, my lifestyle is the foundation of my vision."

"Being a creative can be fun, exciting and rewarding, but also challenging, exhausting and quite lonely sometimes. The journey is never over. After 10+ years I am still learning and growing and I am grateful for that!"

"I have moved out of my 'Golden Cage' and?I created the freedom and luxury of being at home in multiple places and cities."

"I finally moved forward in my business and have had great results: my company generated more sales, I made a shift in our business model and I am developing a new product line."

"The impact has been nothing short of transformative. [I experienced] a profound shift in my mindset that has revitalized me both personally and professionally. I cannot recommend her coaching enough to find your way in this wild life!"

"Her approach gave me an encouraging push to pursue the path best suited to me even though it wasn't what I had at first envisioned."

"I realized that I am limiting myself with ‘either-or’ thinking and that I am trying to ‘solve’ the unknown future with old mental thought patterns. I learned to integrate multiple dimensions and perspectives into how I see reality."

"I could discover the capacities I needed within myself. The capacities were there all along, of course, but you helped me to recognise, own and nurture them."

"She took me deeper in coaching than I had gone before and helped me reflect to identify areas of my character that I hadn’t really noted before. It felt like a gift to myself."

What's in my clients' mind when we start working together?

"I want to embody the entrepreneur, leader and woman who I am at my core, without wearing masks to look “professional” or hustle in a masculine culture."

"I want to bring my feminine energy to my business, and embody it fully. Grow in cycles, build mutually beneficial partnerships, operating sustainably, being patient and compassionate, showing up creating my own serendipities, play for the long-haul, be rooted and free, trust myself, listen and hold space, work and act in alignment with my values."

“I want to experience being creative, and feeling excited at work. I've been working hard, hustling, building the company, raising funds, and focusing on making progress. I miss the joy part and I’d love to explore how to bring it back into my life.”

“I'm looking for help with being a better leader. I’m in an intense period at my company, dealing with investors, expanding the team and rethinking our product. I haven’t had much time to think about leadership and how am I in that lately. I’d like to reflect, set direction and be more intentional with it.”

"I was recently taking on a new leadership role and this time I’d like to be more intentional with it. I tend to overdeliver and take up a lot of responsibility - voluntarily and unconsciously - until I realize that it’s too late and I’m heading toward burnout. I want to be proactive and grow into a conscious leader, pick my battles wisely, and set myself up sustainably for success for the long haul.”

The Nourished Leader

I've been nurturing a container to combine the type of works I've been doing in the past 5 years: startup consulting, leadership coaching, team development, holistic guidance, and personal growth. This method is starting to shape into form under the name of The Nourished Leader. I first thought it's not ready to be shared yet, then I decided to be open about it as it goes through its own evolution.

What inspired the methodology is my work with founders, business owners and startup CEOs over the years. I first helped them as a right hand in strategy, business operations, processes, funding, and culture. I came to realize how much the leader's personality and maturity alongside with the company's evolution plays an essential role in the business' success. This is how coaching came into the picture. As a next step, I involved co-founders in the process, and later also teams. This is how shifts, and changes spread across the entire the organization.

The path to success for an entrepreneur can often be a solitary one. But you don't have to do things alone.

When partnering with the CEOs, I came to understand that there are multiple facets of our work: the business aspect, the development of leadership skills and personal attitude, mental and emotional agency, mindset, and the conscious balance between feminine and masculine energies. Since most of my clients identify as a woman, embodying their feminine power is part of a successful process. This is how a concept for wholeness are coming together including elements like:

Executive Coaching

CEO's Right Hand

Team Development

Conscious Leadership

Feminine Embodiment

Authentic Existence

Liberated Lifestyle

Sustainable Growth

Joyful Living

Value Alignment

I'm eager to develop the concept further, and I'm looking for woman CEOs and founders who'd like to test it out and give feedback. How can you qualify to be part of it?

You're active in the following industries: adult education, coaching and training, consulting, femtech, food tech, and holistic health and medicine, and products that are delicious, and represent creativity, colors, and beauty.

You identify as a woman CEO, business owner, or female (co)founder.

You strive for wholeness, and willing to fin the delicate balance between heart and mind.

Your company has min 1 and max. 200 people.

Tag women who would love this and book a Spark call to get started.

Quote

"Success lies in the Zone of Genius so find out what you love to do"

Question

Are you in the best possible pot to bloom?

What is the range of pots that will support your talents, temperament, and enthusiasms?

This was the first newsletter in 2025, as always, thanks for being here with me.

I appreciate you.

Let me close this with my set of emojis for 2025. What are yours?

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Stay blessed,

Zsanett

Hi! I am Zsanett. I help women, leaders, and entrepreneurs thrive, stand in their power, and turn their biggest dreams into reality. You can find me here: www.zsanettczifrus.com