In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Tara Chatzakis about her morning routine, how to overcome business obstacles, investing in yourself, the meaning of life, and much more.
In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Tara Chatzakis about her morning routine, how to overcome business obstacles, investing in yourself, the meaning of life, and much more.
Announcer
Hey, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.
Ryan
Hey, Tara, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How are you?
Tara
I'm fine, Ryan, thanks for having me on the show. It's great to be here.
Ryan
Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you. Why don't we introduce you to my audience of Morning Upgraders tell us who you are, and what you do for a living? And then give us maybe a witness happening in your life right now. Something going really well.
Tara
Okay, so my name is Tara Chatzakis. Bit of an unusual surname. I'm a coach. So I work with women who are business owners, who maybe feel stuck, have limiting beliefs, and need to get over those things just to progress in their business to create more success, more abundance, more joy, more happiness, and big win that's happening in my business right now. So my podcast, I have a podcast too. And it's just got to the top 3% in the world globally. So I'm really proud of that. And also, I'm working with my coach. So my own coach, some of the things that have come up for me that I'm like, oh, crikey, I didn't realize I still had those limiting beliefs. So we're always working on ourselves, as well as helping other people.
Ryan
But also in the top 3%. Congratulations. What were the small hinges that swung a big door to make that happen? Or was it just slow and steady, consistent progress?
Tara
It was slow and steady, I think. And I went, I started 18 months ago, I think it was rough and it went into the top 10%. And then it was in the top 5% for about eight months. And then it just toppled up. So yeah, it's all good.
Ryan
That's great. That's really great. What an accomplishment. Let's talk about your morning routine. How do you start your days?
Tara
How does that my day? So before I get out of bed, I always give gratitude. So I give thanks for the day ahead, give thanks, I'm still alive, and I'm here for another day. Then I have my coffee in the garden, usually listening to the birds, then it's meditation and exercise. Usually, meditation can be between 30 minutes, and an hour and a half. It depends on how deep I go. Because it changes every time. It's not always an I can't always sit there for a long time. It depends on how manic My mind is. But I try to do at least 30 minutes. And then my exercise is between 10 minutes and 30 minutes as well. So then the morning routines that I like to go with. It sets me up for the day.
Ryan
When did you start doing a morning routine?
Tara
I've been doing my service routine, a new exercise routine. I've been doing this one since just before Christmas, but I've been exercising and meditating for probably about a good 12 months before then I was doing things like journaling as well. But I just prefer to do that later on in the day. It is just my mind is needed to come in first thing rather than putting it on paper.
Ryan
Yeah, I'm the same way. I've changed my morning routine several times since I started. And it's like, like the case of anything like the trial like just fine-tuning and, and learn as you go. Yeah, my like fourth routine.
Tara
It's got to keep changing. Because if you keep doing the same thing, you're gonna get bored, aren't you?
Ryan
So, yeah, no, yeah, I totally agree. You said your coach women, I guess like what are your What are like the biggest obstacles that you see, I guess let's talk about like, running their businesses? What are some of the biggest obstacles that you see that women are facing? And how do you help them?
Tara
It's usually so the businesses are normally fine. They just think it's to do with their business, it's usually something that's coming up within them a limiting belief or something that's stopping them from moving forward. So it's usually subconscious, the subconscious devil at work somewhere in there, one lady, she wasn't actually a client of mine, but a client of a friend, she was doing really well in her business. And it was, she sort of stopped. Everything seemed to have stopped, she wasn't growing. And it was her relationship with her son. So it can be anything that's not related to the business. You know, if you've got the best strategy, and you've got the business, and you know what you're doing, and you love what you're doing, but you're not progressing. It's usually something internal. And that's usually what stops me in my business. It's always something that I have to work on personally, not my actual business itself.
Ryan
Yeah, it's so interesting, I find it so fascinating how mindset is such the big lever. It's also interesting that they don't teach you as you're growing up, like about mindset. It's all about not going on a rant here. But I think it'd be very, very helpful if we were taught more about this, controlling our minds early on. So I'm trying to do that with my daughters because they're not gonna get exposed to it anywhere else in the education system.
Tara
It's not very beneficial to anybody. I don't think personally. So I don't want to go on a rant either.
Ryan
I'm doing this optimized coach program right now this guy Brian Johnson. It's a 300-day program and it's videos and worksheets and other stuff. It's not like one-two Coaching as you do, it's, it's more like for the masses, but I'm, I'm one month in as we record this, and yeah, most of it is all mindset training just different ways to look at handling challenges, how you look at obstacles, you know, we're gonna get into health and fitness and all that because it's like a holistic program. But so far, it's like, I don't know, maybe 80% mindset?
Tara
I think it has to be though, doesn't it? I mean, as I say, if you've got the best strategy, which this guy could give you, Brian could give you that in the beginning. But if your mind isn't on board, or you don't believe you can achieve it, it doesn't matter what people give you, you're not going to fail immediately, because you just don't have the tools internally to create the change that you're looking for.
Ryan
You mentioned failures, how do you handle failures in your business? Do you have like a framework that you follow to get through them?
Tara
Failure is not really a, maybe I shouldn't have used that word, I would say challenges. So failure could be a pivot, maybe you have to redirect or change something, there's something that either isn't beneficial to what you're trying to achieve, or that needs tweaking. So like I said, with your mindset, it's usually that that needs to be changed before you try and do something else. Otherwise, you're just going to get the same results as you had last time.
Ryan
Yeah, yeah, I heard a phrase, once that really stuck with me, it actually might have been in the training, but it's, you know, they don't use failure. It's more about like you either win or you learn, you know, so if something doesn't go work, well, you learn from it. That's interesting.
Tara
Yeah. And if you're trying to improve your health, if you go into it thinking it's not going to work, then it won't work. So you have to have that mind to start with. So you're not going to fail, but you're not going to get the results you want.
Ryan
Exactly. So personal growth. Why are you so interested in it? And if someone wasn't convinced that it's important to invest in yourself, what would you say to them?
Tara
I don't know of any super successful business owners who don't have help, who don't have a coach for either their health and fitness or their business, or their mindset. Spirituality is always somebody that needs to teach you something, you can't expect to know everything yourself. And the easiest way to find how to do something is to work with an expert. So you know, you didn't you before you went to school, you didn't know your math, you didn't know your English, you didn't know whatever you were learning there. And it's the same in business, we just seem to forget that once the education or when skills are finished, we think we're done. But as we're growing, and we're changing, there's always something new that we need to learn or a way to help us improve what we're doing and get the best potential out of ourselves. And I think you need to work with somebody to do that. Because otherwise, it's going to take you longer to get the results or to achieve what you want to achieve. As you know, you can't watch all the YouTube videos and get all the free booklets because it'll take you forever working with somebody who's a professional and an expert, helps you achieve what you want, much quicker, and it's usually much easier as well.
Ryan
And it's so true what you said about always learning I was struck by the fact that Warren Buffett as massively successful as he is, and honestly, as old as he is, I think he's in his 90s. At this point, he still reads five hours per day, I think that right there is like, Wow, holy, well, you need to know like, that's right. There's summarizes the importance of like learning and self-education. And because like you said, things change, things change. You know what, you know, now you might need to learn something new to get through the next chapter of your life or business.
Tara
I think self-education is really important. For studying, run of the mill, education, let's say that's the same for everybody. We all learn differently. And we all have different, we need to take different things from what we're learning. So I think learning one-to-one basis, or searching out what you need to learn specifically, and doing your education is so much more effective.
Ryan
I know, this is a pretty common question, but I'm just gonna, since we're on the topic of self-education, I'm going to ask, are there any books that have impacted you the most in life or business? Whichever way you want to take it.
Tara
Yeah, lots of books. I'm a huge reader. I actually found out the other day that I'm because of my human design and the kind of person that reads five books at a time and dips in and out of them, which I do all the time. And I just thought I was going crazy, but I'm not. So I would say one of the ones that really changed my life was Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley. That really opened up the law of attraction to me, which is you know, it's a field that I work in now. And I didn't really know much about it before but he was he the way he explained it was so easy to understand. It made sense to me and it was it resonated with me on a quite deep level. So I will say that book changed the course of my life.
Ryan
I have not heard of that one. So I'm actually making notes you've talked about getting that audible, Infinite Possibilities. Okay, is it a big, heavily academic book or a pretty quick read?
Tara
No, it's not academic, it's about the law of attraction. But the way he phrases it and the way he talks about it just made perfect sense to me. It was one of those books where you read it. Oh, that's why that makes sense. That's why this is, this is how I feel, or this is what's happening in my life. And it just connected all the dots for me. So it's not an academic book, but it's it, it just transformed everything for me. So and it was a period. It came at the period when I needed it as a university because it gives you what you need, just when you need all the right connections or the right people.
Ryan
What habits do you have that really feed your growth, feed your fulfillment, and happiness?
Tara
I do a lot of reading. Not quite Warren style. But I do a lot of reading because I believe I have to keep my knowledge up. I have to keep up to date with things. I always work with a coach, because I think it's really important for me to work on what's holding me back and my limiting beliefs so that I can give more to my clients. I meditate regularly. Daily, I meditate I exercise, I think it's important to have a healthy mind and a healthy body. I read the 5 am Club. I read that last year. And it made me laugh because one of the first rules of being a successful entrepreneur was don't die. And I thought that was just perfect because you wouldn't get very far if you're dead, can you? Yeah, definitely mind. And body exercise is important to me. And being in nature as well, because I find that I have a lot of I connect with the universe more when I'm in nature. And I relax and I get more intuitive downloads as well at the same time. So that those are the main things that helped me grow and keep me grounded as well.
Ryan
You mentioned being outdoors, like getting the sun, have you heard of a product called Happy light?
Tara
No, I haven't.
Ryan
One of my recent guests mentioned it. And I'm like a sucker for these things. So of course, I had to buy it. It was like $40 or $50. And it's basically UV light therapy like you're outside getting sun but like right now it's like, the tundra here in New Jersey, cold and snowy. And so basically, I use it in my morning routine where I have, you know, I'm journaling and I'm reading and I had the light shining into my eyes like a crazy person. But it actually really like I don't it's very energizing, I find that it's hard to drink coffee, in addition to the happy light because other I'm like, I'm like just going crazy. But then wow.
Tara
That sounds really cool. Actually, a lot of people have sad isn't it that they have in the winter. So they probably use that kind of light to help them with that. I'm quite lucky where I am, because I'm on the very, very south, just off the south coast of the UK. And you know, it's a beautiful sunny day today, it gets cold, but it doesn't we don't get snow. So it's not. It's not too bad. I usually managed to get out every single day.
Ryan
So, that's nice I do when it's warm out. But it's the mid-30s right now, which is fairly warm for right now. But still not really walking, walking weather by any means. So, Tara, I got one last question for you. It's a personal question. So I want you to answer it like through your lens and through your experiences thus far in life. I want to talk about the meaning of life, like what your, what's your interpretation of it, the meaning of life?
Tara
I think we're here to be happy and have fun. I think that's the whole premise of being here. And I think of the body like a bit like a warning signal, let's say so if you're feeling sad and unhappy, is because your body's telling you or your cells telling you, this isn't the right thing for you, or this thought that you're having isn't true, it isn't right for you. And then when you feel happy, which is our default state is because whatever you're doing or saying or thinking is perfect for you. And it's in perfect alignment with your journey here on earth for this period. Because I think we come here and there are certain things we want to achieve we want to do and then we come back the next time for something else. I don't think we're ever done with our genuine life. So I think the main reason for being here is to be happy and have fun because, you know, it's called the game of life. If you're not having fun during the game, what's the point?
Ryan
I mean, I'm actually about to publish a blog post about you know, life is short and I went to a funeral for a client who was still young as the late 50s built a really big business, and then got cancer and passed away three or four months later. So I'm like man, I'm in just like those kinds of situations. Make you think and I love you mentioned the warning signals, like really paying attention to how you're feeling and being in tune with that. It's really powerful. Thanks for sharing.
Tara
You're welcome.
Ryan
This was great. What if people want to connect with you? Where should we send them?
Tara
So my website is Tarachatzakis.com. I'm also on Instagram a lot. And my handle is Chatzakis. Exactly. So they're the best places to find me.
Ryan
We'll link those up on the show notes page because that name will 100% be misspelled.
Tara
It definitely is usually.
Ryan
Alright, Thanks, Tara. Appreciate your time. Thanks, everyone for listening.
Tara
Thanks, Ryan.
Ryan
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