[00:00] Katie: Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness, and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:35] Katie: Welcome to a brand new episode of the Focus B show. I am thrilled to be here today with Rita Ferrario. Louisa is a rebel transformative leader. She mentors conscious business owners to help them to become inspiring and impactful transformative leaders. She has coached a mentor in Fortune 500 companies and world leading organizations. Hello, Luisa.
[01:05] Katie: Welcome to the show.
[01:05] Katie: It's so wonderful to have you here today.
[01:08] Luisa: Hi Kathy. Thank you for inviting me. So happy. Yeah, wonderful.
[01:13] Katie: I feel we have so much to discuss. I can't wait to get started. I'm thinking about the fact that you focus on Rebel Transformative leadership, and I'm wondering, where do you feel you're different in your approach towards leadership? Because it's Rebel Transformative, both those words feel like a very different approach to regular leadership, high performance approaches.
[01:37] Luisa: Yeah, exactly. So Rebel actually comes from two different starting points. The first one is that I studied and learned along the way different ways of, let's say different styles of communications, and one of them is called Rebel, according to a certain program and so on and so on. And it definitely resonates with the way I approach things. That is basically when you wish to personalize everything. Also the way you speak, you sometimes invent new words or you invent new habits and you do not just comply to the normal things. So it's a little bit disruptive. But it is also meant when you exaggerate things, for instance, using words such as, wow, amazing, so cool. So this is the kind of rebel communication style. But then I am a rebel. I have been a rebel in my own life. So probably this is the fourth or the fifth career that I have in this lifetime. And I went a completely different way than I was probably expected to go. If we think about my parents, my friends or relatives, they did things that had nothing to do with what I do. And they were thinking in a very conventional way. And for me, that way was not matching who I feel, who I perceive I am. So when I started working on myself, that was 25 years ago, I realized that authenticity is something that really resonates with me. And if I want to be authentic and in an attempt to put myself first each time I make a choice. So the only person that I needed to stick to is myself. And so that shows up sometimes in a way that really doesn't match what other people do. And another important thing that is connected to the Rebel word is that I really like to speak for myself and not for others, and not on behalf of others, even if I am an advocate for different things, such as kindness, for business and very other important things that make the difference. And that has a huge meaning in the business world. I like to address things from my own perspective, not because it is better or worse, just because it is my perspective. And so this is a way to acknowledge that I am who I am and that I am okay as I am. I think that this is a very hot topic, the one related to the wrongness of us. And so I call myself wrong. Yes, sometimes this is something that I still do. It is a lot less than usually people do. And then I was used to do in the past. So this is the rebel part.
[06:15] Katie: That's the rebel aspect and the transformative.
[06:18] Luisa: Aspect then a transformative aspect. So I see that, for instance, on LinkedIn, many people describe themselves like transformation, blah blah, transformation lead, transformation, blah blah. And this is okay. So if I am a transformation leader, it means that I address transformation. I start a transformation, I deal with transformation. What I do instead is to transform things, to transform people. Obviously, if they wanted to be transformed with my help, if they are willing to do that, if they are totally engaged and committed in doing that. So I cannot do anything without the choice of the other person. Okay? I can just address my own stuff and not someone else's. But yeah, at a certain point in my life, I realized after studying and practicing for many years, energy techniques, helping people in overcoming many issues related to emotional intelligence and other things related to emotions and also to the mindset, I realized that my presence really transform things and my tools really transform things. So it makes a lot more of sense to me to call myself transformative instead of transformation or transformational. I know that from, for instance, as you know, I am a leadership coach as well as a leadership mentor. I am also a trainer for people who want to get a certification in coaching. And usually in coaching we say that the coach is egoless. This is something that I totally agree with. I just wanted to add that it is almost impossible to be in a system, to be part of a system and not having an impact on the system itself. Okay? So again, in terms of authenticity, I do not want to fool myself thinking that if you coach someone or I coach someone, I can do what you do and you can do what I do. This is not possible. I don't know.
[09:06] Katie: I agree with that. I mean, I feel that anytime someone is involved in a process, even if they detach from their opinions and their ego, their energy also be there the way they ask the questions, even the words they use. So all of this has an impact. I'd like to come back to what you mentioned sort of briefly as you were talking about transformation, which is the energetic tools. Could you share maybe your favorite? I want to say three tools because I want to hear all of them. But maybe just start with one tool that you feel has had a great impact in terms of transformation or leadership.
[09:39] Luisa: Yeah, this is a tool that was born at the end of the from an engineer, an American engineer who realized that there are some energetic points on the body. And I mean, we know that this is not a discovery. This is just that he realized that those points that are typically the points of acupuncture, of the Chinese acupuncture technique or of the Shatsu, can also be tapped with a technique that is called the tapping technique or emotional freedom techniques, because it's a pool of techniques. And it had amazing results also with veterans coming back from Vietnam who were really destroyed inside and were unable to move on with their lives. So he had amazing results on that. And this technique was at the very beginning was used just to address topics that were health related, so physical health or mental health and then we started to take it into the business world. I used this technique with myself for many years. I'm still using it sometimes. Not every day as I was used to do before. But for instance, I have a syndrome that is called the fibromyalgia. And all the diseases that are related to this syndrome were very strong in my life to the point that I was not able to carry on a normal life because of a lot of pain in the bones, in the muscles, in the junctions, many other things, and inflammation, so on and so on. And so I used this technique to clear, to clear a lot of stuff that were on different layers of my being. So for instance, I don't know if I am using continue of my being. So for instance, I cleared stuff that were on my physical layer or on my emotional layer, on my mental layer, in terms of mindset, beliefs and so on, and also in terms of identity. That is in my opinion the most interesting one because sometimes we got trapped by ourselves because we think that we are a certain kind of person or a certain kind of entrepreneur or a certain kind of leader and we actually are not, or at least we are not just that. So we close ourself of so many other possibilities of succeeding, of feeling, fulfillment and so on and so on. So this is a technique that I use. Basically it is about tapping. This is why it is called tapping on some points on the physical body. And yeah, to help this process you can just tap or you can also use some sentences, some specific sentences or just sentences, or just words, it depends in order to help the process of clearing and then to creating again a new reality.
[13:54] Katie: And how did that work when you started using it? What was the impact of these techniques on your own physical, mental, emotional and identity level?
[14:08] Luisa: I had really transformative results. Amazing transformative results. Yeah. So people who were used to know me 15 years ago or 20 years ago, when they talk to me today, they cannot recognize the same person that I was back then. And I was talking the other day with my partner and I was telling that thinking about a specific situation that occurred in my life 20 plus years ago, I really couldn't remember who I was back then. And so I think that this is really amazing because we know that the body is completely new after seven years, but we tend to forget that because we are always in the body, day by day, hour by hour. And so we are basically and whole together. And if we do not look at ourselves from outside, that is something very useful to do. We get lost in who we think we are and we do not connect and we do not align to that, again, authentic part, that authentic core that we really are. So I do not remember if I.
[15:46] Katie: Answer your question, the question was around how this had transformed and impacted you. You definitely did answer that. I'm thinking from what you're saying, that I'm sort of deviating a bit from this topic just because you made me think of something, which is that as I've changed the last few years through coaching, maybe I haven't done NFT yet, but I have heard of it. I started to have a similar feeling to what you described, which is looking back in your case, it was maybe 1020 years and sort of not really remembering what it was like to be that person. I had a similar feeling when I looked back to before coaching. I always have in my mind before coaching, before personal development, when you're not taking responsibility for your actions or you have a bit more of a blame mindset and these sort of things. And sometimes when I go back or I remember I feel like a different person and there's a lot of things that haven't changed. I've always loved music, I've always loved reading, I've always enjoyed being with people. But then there's a lot of things in my perception that have changed. And this is leading me to the question which is when people change a lot, this happened to you probably even more so with everything you experience on EFT. This happened to me and pretty much anyone who's benefited from coaching. And you do transformative work. When people change so much, how can they sometimes mentally adjust? Because what I've found is when we change and transform quite fast, sometimes it can be a bit disorientating because we look back and we think who was I then? Who am I now? And we have this sort of backlash between who we used to be and who we've become and it can be a bit confusing. I don't know if my question is clear, but I'm just wondering how do you help people? Basically the question is how do you help people to adjust to their new identity after they go through the transformation?
[17:38] Luisa: Yeah, this is a very important question. Thank you for asking me. So what I noticed, for instance, working with leaders or with business owners, what I notice is that when they go through a deep transformation, the most critical aspect that they face is not with themselves, but with the world that surrounds them. And so what I suggest them is to explain in very simple words to people who are close to them. Could be in the business environment or could be in family environment or also close friends what they are now experiencing. And so I also help them to use other tools or other ways of communicating things because we are not actually worried or distracted or taken away from our own transformation as we are so sensitive, even if we do not want to admit that we are basically antennas able to catch anything. So as we are so sensitive, we start to feel worried because people talk to us and it looks like that we look at them like that because it looks like we do not understand. We are no more on the same communication level. The wavelength where we communicate is different. Okay? So I help them to bridge between the two different layers of communication in order to establish a new wavelength that can make sense. And that, in a way, can also help people outside to start their own transformation in case they wanted to. Obviously, because transformation is always intentional and we have to be willing to transform ourselves or other stuff that are related to us.
[20:06] Katie: Yes, such a wonderful way of putting this with the wavelengths. I've definitely had this type of realization interviewing people like yourself on the podcast and just feeling this sort of alignment of communication like it's on a whole other level. And sometimes we don't have this with other people, we don't have it with everyone and we can't always know in advance who we'll have it with. And I'm very curious to know maybe if you could explain in sort of a simplified version of how do you help people that sort of have this new level of communication or this extra level of awareness? How do you help them bridge that gap with the people around them that maybe don't see things in the same light that makes sense?
[20:49] Luisa: I think that my answer will not be totally unexpected to you because you are a coach as well. I train them in asking powerful questions instead of telling people what to do, how to do things. I think that I posted something today on LinkedIn around that because this is the best way, in my opinion, this is the best way to connect with ourselves and with others. This is a very kind way. It is a very engaging way, it is a very powerful way. When we enter organizations and we have the opportunity to help business owners transform things that do not work anymore, we always start with questions. And questions are a wonderful tool. Again, very kind, very full of possibilities and with so less charge in terms of judgment. And this is something that we absolutely need to offer to ourselves and to people. And so, yeah, basically I teach them, I train them in asking powerful questions. So to train the way they listen and to listen with their ears, to listen with their eyes, to listen with their bodies, to listen with their 6th sense, to rely on intuition, that is probably one of the most beautiful aspects of being human beings. And it is such a power. But we decrease the importance of intuition. But it is very important. So yeah, basically I help them with.
[23:14] Katie: That powerful questioning and coming back to intuition or coming to intuition because we're not going back, we haven't spoken about it yet. How can people train their intuition? What type of exercises or practices can they put in place to develop a higher sense of intuition?
[23:34] Luisa: Oh, that's a tough question.
[23:37] Katie: You know this though.
[23:38] Luisa: Yeah.
[23:38] Katie: I'm sure you have a billion ways to strengthen our intuition.
[23:42] Luisa: Yeah, absolutely. So one thing that I do is an exercise that I got from another energy technique that I use. This technique is called psych. So psychology and kinesiology. The process is much more complex than the one that I'm just sharing that basically almost comes from the kinesiology part. And let's say we are thinking about an issue, a challenge, a repeating thought, something that is stressing us. It could be during nighttime, it could be during daytime, it could be while we are having our meal and we would like to enjoy our meal. And instead we are thinking about stuff that we are going to do. Okay? So one thing is that to connect with ourselves and to cross our fingers in this way. I don't know if you can see. Yeah, exactly. This way. Okay. And you can do either way, this way or this way. So the wrists, is this a wrist? Okay, the wrist can be here or here. And you can do the same with your ankles. And you just stay like that with your hands on your belly. And you just close your eyes if you wish. Otherwise you look down on a spot on the ground and you let the thought go through your mind and through your eyes. If you can also envision the thought, for instance, as if it was a writing, I don't know, made in bricks, for instance, or like a graffiti. Okay, you can use your creativity in the way you wish and then you help this, let's say, block path away. And then you put the intent of discovering something new. And this is a wonderful way to invite the mind to open up to new possibilities. And the important thing is that we do not judge what comes up when we do this kind of processes. Because again, our intuition is always on, always. But we diminish it. And we do not basically trust our intuition because again, we call ourselves wrong. And basically we just needed to remove the things that are between us and the intuition and then the intuition will show up. But again, it is very important that we do not judge ourselves. We can then write down what happened, what we visualize, if we visualize anything, the feeling that we had, it doesn't matter in that very moment what happened. The important thing is that we continue to grow the relationship with our intuition. So with our, let's say, evolved mind and keep the conversation going with this. Evolve the mind? Yeah. And then yeah, trust the intuition. Yes. And write things down. And then at a certain point you will have the full story because you have like small pearls of a necklace and then you understand the whole picture.
[28:41] Katie: I love this. This is like a magic, just like magical hearing. Because I feel that the whole part about intuition and what you said about we reduce it, it's so common. And I think it's because we have a tendency in today's world to validate and respect more the logical aspect. And I know this because I come from a background in engineering and I studied math and physics. But the more I tap into my own intuition, first of all, the happier I become. But also the better results. But not results only in a performing sort of way, but in an aligned way. So the more the clients that I have a good match with or just everything is more aligned somehow. And both the body has answers. Some days it might feel like doing one type of workout more or another. And before I used to have a lot more of a Yang approach and Yang perspective, a forceful sort of no you'll exercise every day instead of deciding what felt right and aligned. And this analogy with exercising can be used in business, can be used in relationships with friends, it can be used everywhere. And I think time and time again when we don't listen to our intuition, something happens that reminds us, oh yes, that's why I had an intuition fat whether it's going or not to an event or seeking this and that relationship. So the more we can tap into it I mean, I can't remember a single time where I had a very strong intuition about something and I was wrong. Whether positive negative. Positive, negative, anyway, are funny terms, but yes. So I love everything you say about intuition.
[30:17] Luisa: Yeah. And intuition is strictly connected also to what I called success plus fulfillment. You cannot have success, real success, if you are not fulfilled. So this comes out from following our intuition and choosing with intentionality and trust in ourselves. This is why I use the hashtag put yourself first. Because if we do not trust ourselves, if we do not love ourselves, if we do not believe that we can be someone or do something, who else can do that?
[31:08] Katie: It all begins with our own.
[31:11] Luisa: Yes.
[31:11] Katie: Trust and acceptance. I remember last year when I was working with a different coach. I remember that every session we finished, which what was the main insight? And every session of my insight was trust myself. Trust myself. Trust because I go through all this long winded process to just come to the conclusion I know the answers, I can do this. I have the energy. And I feel again, this is where the logical approach sometimes gets in the way is this tendency to always seek more information or more processes or more strategy when after a while it's good to have a bit of this knowledge but after a while the intuition can really do all the work. We're already approaching the end of the episode. Luisa, what would you like to say as a final word to sort of conclude this talk around energy and EFT and intuition? It's been fantastic. What would you like to say as a last word on this?
[32:04] Luisa: A friend of mine recently shared a very nice exercise that we can do that is again, something that can help intuition to show up. And she suggested this is a gift that I would like to share with you and with your audience. She suggested to grab a super technological finger, so a white piece of paper and a pencil and to take, I don't know, a week to do that. Okay. Here and there. It's just something that you do on a regular basis during the week. It might be that you just take 30 seconds now and then a minute into hours and then 20 seconds after tomorrow. But the important thing is that you are consistent. So basically, let's say that you have a topic that might be a challenge of yours. You put the name of the challenge in the center of the paper and then you start to draw things around, sort of a mind mapping okay, but the important thing is that you draw even if you are not good in drawing, it's okay, it doesn't matter. I mean, it's just for yourself and nobody else. So you started to draw things that you think are related to that challenge and that could be disabler or enabler, it doesn't matter. It could be things that you already have, it could be things that you need, it could be resources, it could be pillars, it could be really anything. And after a while, after you do that for a week because sometimes you might draw a little thing and that is taking 20 minutes. And then the day after you draw another thing or you draw three things because they come to your mind and at the end of the week you really realize that what is missed, what you are missing in the whole picture. And for instance, this friend of mine, she shared with me that she has been an entrepreneur for almost her life and she was very good as an entrepreneur. The only thing is that she was not producing enough money to keep the business going. And she realized that when she did this kind of exercise and she realized that in order to be fulfilled and not just successful going back to that concept, her company also needed money. Not just the money that were needed to cover the expenses and so on and so on, but also a lot more money in order to engage new people, in order to be able to speak in a bolder way, in order to impact the world in a much bigger way than she was used to do. With that struggle that she was experiencing, she was happy on the side, but on the other side she was not fulfilled. And so yeah, this is an amazing exercise that I suggest everybody to do.
[35:55] Katie: Yeah, I love that. That's fantastic. And anything that's on pen and paper and help us to get that mental clarity that we all need can only be good. So drawing is a new approach but brainstorming, brain mapping, journaling, anything that gets us out of our head and out of technology I think is good.
[36:13] Luisa: Absolutely.
[36:15] Katie: Thank you so much Luisa. You've shared so many insights and so much magic and joy and energy. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
[36:23] Luisa: Thank you to you.
[36:30] Katie: Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Be show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.