Meet Arianna: Coach and Motivator
Arianna Rose is truly a hero in the entrepreneurial world. Her focus on bringing value and genuine connection to her space as a transformational life coach is truly set apart from many women in the industry- she is not focused on self-gain but truly desires to share the lessons she has learned to respect her mind and body with the world around her. I have read her interview over and over again because of the wisdom she brings to the world of female empowerment. Check it out plus audit your life here!
Can you share a little of your journey with us and who you are?
My name is Ariana, and I'm originally from outside of Baltimore, Maryland, and now I’m in Brooklyn, NY. I love it here! My journey is one that I’ve lived out and all of the pieces just fell into place. After I realized what I had been building for myself in school, I went to University of Maryland in College Park. I graduated in 2011, and while I was there, I studied abroad in London for a year. While there, I had what I describe as my first experience of an epiphany, which was in relation to myself and my health. This all happened when I was about 19. I was raised in the 90s in a really healthy family- my mom cooked dinner for us every night- no joke! In that regard, I always had the building blocks for proper nutrition, but I kind of allowed my lifestyle to get the better of me. I was at party school-I was a really good student- but I'm also a really social creature. The social piece kind of took over when I went to live in London- I had this moment where I was actually on spring break in Greece and things kind of caught up with me in terms of my health. I was only 19 and my knees were killing me, and I was out of breath going up stairs. I didn't weigh myself at my highest weight, but I had weighed myself around that time and was 230 pounds so I was really overweight for 5’ 6”.
I was so insecure at the time that when people would tag me in something on Facebook, and I felt that I looked terrible, I would un-tag myself. I didn’t want to face that part of myself. So when I found myself waking up in London miserable, I decided to make a change- in the first two months I lost 35 pounds. This was just by cutting out all of the crazy stuff I was eating. I couldn't run for more than two minutes at first so I would go out, and I would push myself to run for 40 seconds, and I would do that six days a week. Then the next week, I would go out and run for two minutes. Then the next week, I would go out and I would keep building on it. By the end of my semester in London, I was running for 45 minutes straight! This was just the beginning of me realizing that we all hold the power within us to create our own life.
It’s crazy to think how young I was when I started this journey- I was 19. But I had never harnessed that energy in my own journey. I feel so much happier with my body at the age that I am now in my late 20s. Looking back, I wish I could’ve taught my younger self how to take care of my body, and kids needs to be taught this stuff. Kids need to know that you should be respectful of adults but you don’t have to listen to everything an adult tells you. Dream for yourself! You should live into the things that that pull your heart in the direction of being passionate! We have to treat ourselves with respect, whether that's through health and nutrition or mindsets or self care, self love, whatever it is. You’re not in your passion to compete- that would leave us all empty!
Fast forward about 10 years. I went through this incredible transformation with myself, and I started to build on these mindset changes that I saw my own power to create. We all have this power! When I started sharing this with friends and family, people started coming to me for coaching. In this way, my business really built itself naturally.
Simultaneously, I was already doing freelance work in New York for planning events- a skillset of mine. But there's a difference between a skill that’s a job that you're good at, and a skill that you have that you really have heart for. When I realized the difference between those two pieces, I started to move in this direction of coaching because I love helping people be empowered in their own life to become the vision of what they've always dreamed plus help them get rid themselves of all of the limiting bullshit that is instilled in us by family and social circles throughout our lifetime. Together, we strip those limitations away to get down to the core of the truest, highest version of self!
2. What is the mission of your brand? How does it empower women?
The mission of my brand is to uplift and inspire women. I work mostly with women, and I work mostly with women who are in business especially entrepreneurs. There are so many limiting beliefs and doubts that can hold us back, and when we get to a place of something like entrepreneurship where you really have to harness your own power, it’s important to notice the pieces that are holding you back like fear and self-doubt. It’s also just as important to notice the places where you have strengths. A large piece of how I live out the mission of my brand is coaching women through looking at those pieces that may be holding them back- to not to shy away from the roots of where those mental blocks are coming from. This allows women to process through it so they can move in the most powerful direction of their dreams that they want to build their life around and empower themselves to be the only person that they need to go out and get that done. Everything we are searching for in this life can be found within this internal empowerment.
3. What is the biggest challenge you have had to press through as a female entrepreneur? What are the steps you have taken to overcome it?
The biggest challenges as a female entrepreneur is a pervasive theme amongst all of us, even those of us who have had incredible success, and it’s this: we oftentimes subconsciously take on the role of pleasing and taking care of others whether that’s in a family setting, or a spouse relationship, or a mother and a child setting, or just being that person among your friends.
It can definitely be a real skill, but it's also a detriment to some people when boundaries aren't set up properly. I work with a lot of female entrepreneurs where women compromise their own values to try to serve or please somebody else. When we do this, even though you’re helping someone, you're actually disempowering yourself.
So it's really hard to discover your own path of coming into your own power when you’re living just to please others. I think a lot of times women can fall when they start to discover their own power. They think: “Well, I don't want to be too loud and cause too much noise and out shine somebody else.” But this is only because there's this whole dynamic of women being second in the workplace. This is why it’s a subconscious thing t when women start to discover themselves in the business realm.
In order to help women overcome this, when I do my coaching, the first thing I set out to do is to empower each and every woman to understand that they are everything that they need to be right now. Second, I consistently emphasize to women to never compare your beginning to someone else's middle. This automatically strips our power from us. It automatically makes us feel inferior in a bunch of ways, and it automatically makes us feel like we need compromise something to be better. It also feeds into the lie that I don't have enough value that I naturally bring to the table by just being my badass self.
One of the most simple steps as well to take to overcome this role of pleasing others is to not get caught up in you too many different perspectives and courses and downloads. You have to target people that align with your values and only take to heart the resources that align very specifically to who you are.
4. What sets your brand apart from others?
Many brands out there these days are providing information that is just a huge distraction. The work they are doing is not coming from a genuine place- they’re just doing it to get a paycheck. A ton of information pushing just for information’s sake to get followers but not providing value to clients.
With that in mind, I am set apart because I bring integrity to my work- I have been fortunate to harness a good following on my Instagram platform in particular, but I reach out to women in a very genuine way. A lot of women give me the feedback that they thought I would be stuck up but I proved them wrong by genuinely caring about them as a human being. This is why all of us are really just an illusion of how we live our life if we can't bring real value from the work that we do to change and touch someone else's life. What’s my strategy for this? I provide BEFORE I expect.
This actually allows people to put their trust in something and know that I'm willing to invest in you if you're willing to invest in yourself. People are really intrigued by that style of working with somebody because it gives them the attention and the significance that they are needing at that moment in their life. A lot of times when people are caught up on their tasks, they're not moving in a swift direction into their future because they're caught up on a mental roadblock in the middle- whether that’s feeling unworthy or looking for answers that you haven't found. So I give them the time of day to feel as important as they should feel to their deepest core.
When I do this, people start to put their guards down. No bullshit or keeping up with the Joneses. I am committed to working as hard for you as you're going to work for yourself. That really brings out an entirely different level of depth to our work that my clients and I get to do together.
5. How do you collaborate with others working towards a better world?
First, a tip for people getting into business: Provide value first and think about compensation later. I do this in the way that I provide business services, and in the way that I network with people who are my peers. I seek to put my message out there as much as I can because I want people to realize their own value that they have to change the world. I had a time in my life as I shared in my journey where I finally realized my value, and now I offer myself and my knowledge to give people access to the discoveries I’ve made in my life to honor and respect my body and mind. I provide my value to people without expecting compensation and return initially.
I just happened to get back from a trip to Australia with a really well known mentoring program looking to expand globally, and they brought over a bunch of people from the States who are top in their field. We got to not only network with all of these people who are having an incredible reach and impact with people here in the United States, but we also got to work with an agency while we were over there. Sadly, there were quite a few people who I spoke with on the trip who were upset about not being paid in addition to having their flight, food and hotel paid for. These particular people had reached very high levels in their careers so it was the expectation in their mind because of how far they’ve come in their careers- but that’s what makes me and other women unconcerned with that truly different. I was there not to get compensated but to collaborate with these people and expand my own knowledge and build with people who want to make the world a better place. My outlook is you help me expand as I help you grow- it’s an exchange. If I was to stifle that because I am worried about a paycheck makes no sense. If I don’t serve you, I actually hurt myself in return. In summary, collaboration for me means working together towards our larger goal of changing the world.
If you have a foundation for wanting to uplift others and change the world, you grow by lifting others. I should never be jumping at every opportunity that comes to the door because it has to be an opportunity for me to help make the world a better place. This has all allowed me to discover things about myself and the impact that I can have on other people which is something I could never put a price tag on.
6. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of launching their brand or business?
The first piece of advice comes from my father who is an entrepreneur and business owner himself. He says that at all costs, you have to figure out how to be resourceful rather than leveraging someone else’s.
Once you are indebted to someone, you are indebted to them. It’s really hard to get out of that place. Count on yourself as much as you can, even if it puts your back against the wall. Learning to live comfortably in the realm of the unknown will serve you in the most incredible ways throughout your life. I say all of this because you might not be placing the highest value on yourself that you can. So my second piece of advice is I encourage people to really assess what they're bringing to the table, and to know the value of the skills that they have starting out. This might mean that you have to offer your services for free in the beginning, and build those relationships that you can then count on later down the road. If I throw in money to something that has no value already, it was a waste. Finally, spend as much time as you can researching yourself and your craft. It has been said that it takes 10,000 hours to build a skill so put in the work, put in the time, read books, and invest in yourself before you expect someone else to invest in you. We all have to do the work to understand our value. You're the only person that ever existed that has those special traits, talents and can deliver that type of information and impact the world in your own unique way. No one else will ever do it again like you.
Feel free to schedule a call with me here! I can’t wait to get to know you for you.