Lauren Cohen 0:02
Good afternoon, everybody. It is Valentine’s Day here in North America and many other parts of the world. My name is Lauren Cohen. I am an international, legal, and real estate expert. Here as your host of Investing Across Borders where we teach you how to invest, live, work, and most importantly play across borders. And I’m here today with a playmate of mine that I haven’t seen in over a year except for in passing to drop off groceries or drop off a Dunkin Donuts or say hi to my new puppy or something like that. But we used to spend so much time together, one of my true soul mates Anne Shoshana Deakter. She grew up in this lovely city of Montreal, Canada, I grew up in Toronto, Canada, and she is a soulful entrepreneur, she really helps people find their purpose, find their passion, and ignite the passion so that you can achieve your heart’s desire, both personally and professionally. And would you like to say hello, and give us a little bit more background on you?
Anne Shoshana Deakter 1:05
Hi, everyone. Who am I talking to? Where’s everyone tuning in from?
Lauren Cohen 1:09
Everywhere, all over the world.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 1:14
So like Lauren said, Happy Valentine’s Day. I was in Trader Joe’s today, and you had to see everyone running around with their chocolate and their flower bouquets. You know, I think with COVID, I’ve just totally gotten out of the loop. Like so I’m thinking to myself, well, my husband’s working today online, we’re all zooming from home, like everybody else, we’re all zooming from home, right?
Lauren Cohen 1:43
And by the way, Anne’s husband is a doctor so he’s performing medical services through telehealth. I mean it’s a crazy world. Thank God we have these abilities to do this.
Unknown Speaker 1:52
Well, you know, we said, there are no accidents. That’s like, what do you call it? A soulful preneur?
Lauren Cohen 1:58
Yes a soulful preneur.
Unknown Speaker 2:00
That’s a mouthful for me. So a soulful preneur knows that things happen for a reason. They don’t happen just because. So, one of the things that was really amazing, was that when COVID hit, we were really concerned, my husband and I because he is turning 70 this year and he’s been in the ER for many decades. And when COVID hit he was terrified and rightly so. He’s lost many of his friends, fellow doctors, and you know, I love this expression, a soulful preneur. How does a soulful preneur handle challenge, chaos, world gone crazy? Is you have to make lemonade out of lemons. I know it sounds somewhat trite expression but he was amazing how it happened. It’s like all of a sudden he said to me, I’m not going back into the ER, but I still want to practice medicine. And then lo-and-behold, telehealth has been on the back burner. It’s been there, but now all of a sudden, it took the forefront. And so he shifted immediately from being in the ER, to telehealth. And yes, it’s been an adjustment, but I really believe everything happens for a reason and this is one of the key things I want to leave with your listeners. We have to live in that place, in that consciousness, that whatever’s happening to us is happening for good. Why? Because whether you’re a God fearing person or not, you’re a seeker, you’re a spiritual or you’re not. Listen, we all at some level believe that there is a higher power. That there are source out there. And when things happen, we have to understand GOOD, BAD, indifferent, that because our Creator is good. The things that, even though they might appear bad in the moment, and challenging, in the end, it will be good because the seed level is good.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 2:58
But you have to believe in that seed level to be able to manifest that and whatever you focus on does manifest right?
Anne Shoshana Deakter 4:18
Right. But I don’t think these days, you know, it used to be that people would look at me and go oh…whoo…woo woo.
Lauren Cohen 4:29
Everybody has some woowoo, or I’ll say needs. Get some!
Anne Shoshana Deakter 4:33
You can’t survive this world these days without a little bit of woowoo. I mean, that’s not uncommon now. And even the term soulful preneur, when are we ever SOULFUL selling? When have we ever seen these terms come out like the greats? Like Dean Graziosi, Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson? They’re all talking, how to sell from your soul, how to connect with people. It’s a world of connections. And when a person connects with you, from their soul, this is how you create business today. With relationships.
Lauren Cohen 5:22
Yeah, it’s true. And those of us I think, obviously for myself, I’ve always been working virtually. So it was not a huge transition for me. It’s just that now I have zoom fatigue, rather than driving fatigue. Or a little bit of both sometimes. But I think that for those of us that are used to pivoting, and finding that why. Maybe re-defining our why from time to time, being in touch with our inner selves, and what we want out of our lives professionally and personally. And bringing those two together? Where does that meet? And that’s what I think you focus on, where do those things meet?
Anne Shoshana Deakter 6:05
I always love to say to people, when I teach or when I have a client come to me. Typically, if something’s not working, either professionally or personally, the first instinct is people want to run away, distract with sex, drugs, rock and roll. So that’s the first thing they want to do. When we say to someone, okay, you can move to Florida, you can move across state, you can move, but you’re still you! I mean, in your business, people are cross borders, they’re moving from country to country, you’re still taking YOU with you.
Lauren Cohen 6:44
Yeah, you can. It’s like you say, even when you talk about leaving a place, for example, I’m a Toronto girl, and you can take the girl out of Toronto, but you can’t take Toronto out of the girl. And that’s just a saying, but it’s true of pretty much anything. At the end of the day, the essence of who you are, is what comes through in everything that you do. Even if you may try to hide it, or change it. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t improve, grow, and develop. But the essence of you is still going to come through. And you can’t just fake it till you make it, you actually have to. It has to be, it becomes the essence of you, as you are morphing and growing and changing. And I think that’s where you come in to help people. You help them find their true path and their true desire. Because from time to time, I mean, even for me many times, maybe not as a formal coach, but informally, because there’s been times in my business where I don’t feel exactly like I’m finding my why. And it’s taken me time. And at times, I was so frustrated, literally banging my head against the wall. And Anne was there to say, you know what, Lauren, you just gotta believe that there is a greater power. And I do, and that greater power is holding my hand. Maybe not physically, but instinctively, I know that the power is there. And that power, whatever the source is, that you believe in, whether it’s God or whether it’s just the universe, whatever. It’s that belief that can keep you going because at the end of the day, you’re not in control of everything.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 8:24
Yeah. And not only that, the one thing that I love, that I take from my spiritual teachings, is that expression, just do it. I mean, Nike hit it!
Lauren Cohen 8:37
So true.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 8:39
Right, very on point! Because, here’s the thing, there’s got to be a balance. You can’t sit on a mountaintop and expect everything to be perfect. You can’t expect the universe to take care of you and manifest everything. And you can’t also be the one who thinks like, you know, give yourself a pat on the back, I did it. I made it happen. So, at some point, l there’s this dichotomy. We live in the physical world, and we live in a spiritual world. So we’ve got to create a balance or what I like to call a bridge. We’ve got to build a bridge from the physical to the spiritual, because everything you want in your life, personal professional, is in the spiritual world. We have to download it from there, we have to cross the bridge from the physical to pull it from the spiritual and bring it over. That’s a huge part of the process. And by the way, if you look at Tony Robbins, his first part of his shtick is all about mindset.
Lauren Cohen 9:55
That is so true. Because he wants you to be in the right mindset to take in what he’s sharing. And it’s so true that it’s all a path to greater development to open your mind. And if you’re not open to it, it’s never going to happen.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 10:21
Yeah. So, that’s the thing I’ve come to realize. Once that seed level, that mindset box is created, that’s when you just do it. And I’m not saying, you HAVE to. I love to tell this story: There’s a flood, and the water is rising and rising, and this man is going from the first story to the second story. And now he’s outside on top of his roof. And he’s, you know, going to his higher power, like, Are you kidding me? I believe in you, save me, save me. And two seconds later, a boat comes along and the driver says, Hey mister, can I help? The man responds to him and says, You know, God will save me Thank you very much, I don’t need you. Then the waters up to his nose! And he’s about to drown, and a helicopter comes overhead and drops down the ladder. A guy says, Mister, mister, can I help you? Do you need me to help you? No, no, he answers, God will save me. So then he goes to the pearly gates. And he meets his maker. And he says, What?? I believed in you, I depended on you, and you let me drown? What’s wrong with you? How come you didn’t help me? And God says, What are you talking about? Of course I helped you, I sent you the boat, I sent you the helicopter. And this is the point. Each one of us, to succeed in life, to cross that border between: I can do it all by myself, and there are so many people in my life, there’s my higher power and the people who will come into my life. And you’re one of those people Lauren, for your audience. You are a messenger. And not only are you a messenger, you’re a messenger in a way that takes your ego and puts it to the side. Becasue it’s not about me, I’m gonna do this for you. You’re really in relationships with people in a way, because you want the best for them. You don’t succeed, you’re not happy, unless your people are happy.
Lauren Cohen 12:34
That’s 100% true. It’s never for me. And I think for those of us that have been successful through COVID, it’s never about how much money we make. It’s about how much did I accomplish, my goals for my clients and with my clients. Because as you said, I’m in a relationship with them. And relationship capital, to me, is the most important capital that I have. And I pride myself on having strong relationships, you know, we’re not always perfect, we’re not always going to be able to deliver or meet the expectations of the other party. But at the end of the day, we have to know that we’ve done our very best. And that’s the best we can do.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 13:16
And not only that, it’s really interesting. This week, I was reminded of a very famous piece of wisdom. It’s a piece of wisdom that goes like this: buy yourself a note, make yourself a holy connection in your life. Make yourself a spiritual practice. And buy yourself a friend
Lauren Cohen 13:45
Hmm.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 13:47
So how does this relate to business? He said, If you want to succeed in life, you need to go with the people who not only can get you there, and who can get you there in a good way. In a relationship, like a friend, someone who has what you have. This is, I think, where a soul entrepreneur comes in, is truly I don’t want to just go to a doctor or lawyer or an accountant that sees me like a piece of meat like a check off the box, I can make so much money off of her. When I smell that in a professional I run for the hills guys. To me, that’s how bad it is. So when you really want to make this shift, whatever shift you want, across the border, you want to grow. Take yourself from here to there, you have to know you’re not just taking your business from here to there. You’re taking you with you from here.
Lauren Cohen 14:47
And you are the one who’s going to dictate the success or failure of that. And at the end of the day, if your mindset isn’t there. That’s why one of the questions I ask, before I ever take anybody on an exploratory search session or a consult is, are you ready? 100% ready to do this? And people will say yes. But you need the mindset. That’s a mindset question in my questionnaire, and they don’t even sometimes know what that means. Well, I have the right mindset. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean for you? What is mindset?
Anne Shoshana Deakter 15:26
So here’s the funny thing Lauren, I remember when I met you, I was just finishing raising my youngest. I mean, I’m still raising him, he’s 16.
Lauren Cohen 15:37
And you think you’re done? Forget about that. Never done!
Anne Shoshana Deakter 15:42
Right. For me, I don’t even want to tell you, what with the driving now and everything.
Lauren Cohen 15:46
Yeah, yeah.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 15:47
Oh, my gosh. But anyway, I remember you saying something to me about being an entrepreneur. Like I decided, I have been learning and studying and applying and teaching, but only part time for 20 days. And, I remember, when my son turned 13, something shifted inside of me. And I said, that’s it. It’s time for me to go big, or go broke, right? And I remember you saying to me, an entrepreneur is the hardest job in the world.
Lauren Cohen 16:21
Well, other than being a mom, yes. But no, mom is definitely by far the hardest job ever, in the history of the world. And it’s that being a mom is thankless. At least being an entrepreneur, sometimes it’s not thankless.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 16:38
I feel like being an entrepreneur is thankless. Because all I do, just like you told me, is just going to work and going to work and work and people are gonna think you’re crazy.
Lauren Cohen 16:45
Crazy. If they don’t think you’re crazy, you’re not doing it right.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 16:49
So you got to be a little woowoo, you got to be a little crazy. And you got to be in relationships with people. And you have to be ready to just do it.
Lauren Cohen 17:01
Just do it. It’s so true.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 17:03
Done is better than some. And don’t look for perfection. One of the greatest tools I share with mindset, is you’ve got to always internally monitor your thoughts. And this is the guide, no matter what you’re doing, is what I’m thinking, feeling, and about to do going to bring good or going to be bad? If it’s going to bring good for my client, if it’s going to bring good for the world. And that’s what a entrepreneur is right now, we’re not only concerned about increasing our own coffers, we really get that we have a responsibility to heal the world, we get that. That’s what a soul entrepreneur is. And that’s what makes us so tasty. People feel that, they know that, and they want that. I just made a post on social media, which I think exemplifies that 100%. You have this caterpillar and a butterfly having coffee together, and the butterfly turns to the caterpillar and says there something different about you. And I just thought that was so amazing. Because that’s what it’s gonna look like when you go into business with someone. When you come from that place of, I just want to shed the old, emerges a beautiful butterfly. I care about the world, I care about being the best person I can be. And the people around you are going to look at you and go. What about you? Did you lose weight? Did you cut your hair? Did you did you lose your mind? So it’s that passion, and that excitement for what’s next, and truly caring for your clients. Because you know, Lauren, that when you help someone, cross the border and start over, that you’re not just taking on a buddy, you’re taking on people who have viable business that are going to do good for the world and that are going to make an impact. This is not just a way to make money. This is how you channel your soul’s true purpose. I even remember recently, you saying to me that you had dabbled in a few other things. And you were thinking about doing this and you were thinking about doing that. But you always find yourself coming back to where you are right now. Because this is your calling.
Lauren Cohen 19:30
Yep, you can’t push it away. At the end of the day, if it’s where you’re meant to be, you’re going to end up coming back. And that’s where that higher power comes in. Because it’s going to draw you back. It’s going to draw you back. And it’s not only about the money, it’s about living your true purpose and knowing what your true purpose is. And maybe the path is going to be rocky. But it doesn’t mean that the path is not going to get you ultimately to your goal. And for me that goal is impact, and for you as well. So, I thank you for joining me on Valentine’s Day, even though many of us in the world don’t necessarily celebrate it. It’s still a beautiful holiday, because it’s the holiday of love. And we’re always celebrating love. And a lot of people say, I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day because you’re my valentine every day or something like that. But for some people, they’re not so fortunate. And for others that are not in a relationship, it makes it very real, that Valentine’s Day is, oh, I’m all alone, but you’re never alone. And this is what Anne said to me the many times that I felt very alone as a single mom, who was, not in a relationship, not a “typical, traditional” male/female relationship. She would always say, You’re never alone, you always have that relationship with that higher power. And that’s important as a business owner, as a person, as a human being, that we have that relationship with whatever our higher power is, and that relationship is going to help us no matter where in the world we are. Whether we’re overseas, whether we’re North America, whether we’re in Tahiti, or in Fiji Islands, or whatever, which is where I would like to be right now on a little hike with nobody bothering me. But I probably would get really bored and end up working anyway. Anne, where do people find you to find out more about what you do? And by the way, I forgot to mention that Anne’s book she wrote, called, You’re Not Here to be Good, You’re Here to be Better. And it’s a wonderful book that everybody should read. And I’d love you to share where people can find that and where people can find you.
Anne Shoshana Deakter 21:37
It’s so funny, because like the tagline was how to create hope, purpose and fulfillment in a world gone crazy.
Lauren Cohen 21:45
Do Part Two: A World Going Crazier?
Anne Shoshana Deakter 21:48
So the book is: You’re Aren’t Here to be Good, You’re Here to be Better; How to Create Hope, Purpose and Fulfillment in a World Gone Crazy. And that is on Amazon. And best way to connect with me is my email address is anneshoshanad@gmail.com. And on Facebook under Anne Shoshana Deakter.
Lauren Cohen 22:35
Anne, thank you for your time today. It’s a pleasure as always, and I will let you know when the show posts and again, I’m Lauren Cohen with investing and learning and training and becoming an impact entrepreneur across borders. I am an international lawyer and real estate expert and I am here to help you learn how to invest live, work and play anywhere in the world. Thank you, have a wonderful day. Bye for now!
