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Name: Cindy Carbone
Business: Commit to H.E.A.L.
Location: Southlake, Texas, U.S.
Industry: Healthcare, Wellness & Fitness
Reason for Starting: I struggled with weight and body image issues for most of my life despite thinking that I had a relatively “healthy diet.” At the age of 39, I took 2 nutrition courses at the Cooper Institute.Those courses taught me nothing, and made me realize that something did not add up. The diet mentality did nothing but perpetuate the dieting cycle. At that point in time, a shift happened in my mind, and I started down a different path. I started reading and researching food and health. I became educated about our food system, and our rising obesity and disease rates. I came to learn that our nutrition advice was misleading and heavily influenced by powerful forces that kept us in the dark. When I learned the truth, my mind changed. From there my body, health, and life changed. Better yet, it changed the way I fed my children. I created my online program to educate and empower woman to change their mind, body, and lives, for good.
The reason I started my business was because of a life time of weight and health issues. I wasted so much of my life not at my best, but I was fooled like everyone else. I know why people cannot lose weight, and I know why we are so unhealthy. I have been approached many times by companies that want me to push their product or supplement, and I will not do it. And I realize that many people make lots of money pushing products, because people want a quick easy fix. But I refuse to be part of the quick fix culture. I refuse to offer the same old advice and strategies because they do not work. Obviously! I know what I ask of my clients is not easy, but what people do not realize is that a healthy lifestyle creates purpose, growth, and meaning in our lives. And it is so freaking delicious! I will never settle for anything less than my client’s best self, which means they have to climb the mountain. All the growth, confidence and pride comes from the journey.
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How do you define success? For me, success is about raising awareness, educating, and empowering people to change their lives. I enjoy working with women most because women have so much power to change our world. Women are consumers, they are typically the ones who bring food into the homes and cook (or not) for their families. Their choices dictate the lifestyle for the family. Food and health are serious cultural problems in America. We have become disconnected from our food, our bodies, our families and our environment. What and how we eat is part of our identity. What and how we eat is so important to our health, and our environment. Most do not connect food and health, let alone food choices and environmental issues/damage. Food is an intimate, spiritual connection to ourselves. With each woman that I inspire, educate and empower to change their food choices, and their lifestyle, I see generations of healthier children, and a healthier planet. Healthier happier people is my definition of success.
Biggest success: I was doing presentations locally, and doing health coaching one on one. But in the back of my mind, I wanted to reach more people, and I wanted to be able to offer something more affordable than hourly coaching rates. I wanted to create an online program so that I could expand my reach and touch more people. But I had NO idea how to create and package it. I knew nothing about the technology I needed and nothing about online marketing. I did not even know what I didn’t know. I thought I was technically deficient, and I was overwhelmed with the thought of even trying to figure it all out. Then one day, someone said “Cindy, do not worry about the technology, or how you are going to get it out to the world. Just create the course, and you can go from there.” Such simple advice. Isn’t that always how it is? I sat down at my computer and within a week I had all 15 lessons for my course. It was inside of me just dying to flow out. The Mind/Body Reset Academy is changing lives!
What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? Funny enough, I thought my top challenge would be actually creating my online course. I was wrong. My greatest challenge is online sales and marketing because it is a whole new world of marketing, and very few people know how to do it. I am a 46 year old woman trying to learn about social media marketing, creating Facebook ads, writing copy, creating landing pages, using automated email systems, and doing live webinars. Things I did not even know existed 18 months ago! I have learned SO much and I have battled so many of my own limiting beliefs. Every step I take helps me be a better coach. There are no excuses in my program, it is all about action and empowerment. We truly can do anything we set our minds to.
Related: Three Reasons Your Business Needs Good Design
Who is your most important role model? So many people have influenced my own life change and mission. I have to credit the first three books I read that shifted my mind completely about food and health. The authors were Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, and Marion Nestle PhD. Those books were the first of many that liberated me from a life of dieting and confusion. But I would say Pilar Gerasimo, the Editor of the magazine Experience Life, had the biggest influence on me at a time I needed it most. When I changed my mind, body, and life, I felt very alone. I knew things no one else knew. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops and change people’s lives on the spot. But not everyone wanted to hear it, most people were not listening. And I felt defeated and so alone. And at a moment when I was about to give up, she wrote an article entitled “Being Healthy in America is a Revolutionary Act.” I was meant to read that article. I realized that I was an important part of the revolution. That day, I gladly became a rebel.
[box_light]Website www.cindycarbone.
Twitter https://twitter.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/committoheal/[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange