Franziska:
Today, I am so happy and just very grateful to have Ana Lovera, the one and only, in the room with me, or in the virtual room with me. Hey Ana, thanks so much for joining me today.

Ana:
Hello! Happy to be here, as always.

Franziska:
You’re such an amazing business owner and just an amazing human in general, and I’ve known you now for a few years, you’re a graduate of the Clever Bunch and and you’re also in the Genius Bunch and one thing that every time I see you, you always show up fully and and that is often for you at different hours to here in Sydney, because you’re based in Canada, and you just have this way of always showing up fully with your whole heart, and your whole presence and I always get a bit emotional thinking about it because it’s very rare, so I just wanted to maybe you know this wasn’t a question I was going to ask you, but how do you… what’s your secret? How do you do that? You always show up with your whole heart….

Ana:
Well, you know what Franziska, there might be all kinds of reasons for that, I think one of them is that I really love what I do, I really want to help people. I’m emphatic to think that everybody’s going through stuff and then if you can help them right there in the moment, in some way, you should do that in the in the measure that you can, but I also recall something now because you’re mentioning it and it’s something that I think I’ve learned with you guys because I don’t remember if it was 2020 or 2021, but when we when we were discussing like what is our theme for the year, I think you mentioned you wanted to make an impact, an impact was kind of your word, and it got me thinking that we don’t get to leave whatever experience we are going through like the two of us right now in this phone call, in this video call, we don’t get to have it a second time. Even if we didn’t record it and we have to do it again next week it will be a different experience so whenever you show up for something try to make a good impact. And in order to do that, I think you try to bring~ you remind yourself of bringing the best that you can and that was a great thing to realise because sometimes we think okay, you know, what if it doesn’t go well, we’ll just do it next time, and that’s true for when you show up for your clients, when you have an introductory meeting, when you go to an event, to have this awareness of I’m going to try to make a good impact.

Franziska:
That is just out of the gate very unexpected, the most profound, and most important lesson that we can talk about here today so we can pretty much finish. There you go! It’s such a great reminder and it really hits me in my heart, this message because I really resonate with it and I think it’s a really, really, good message for all of us, you know what you share is, it’s this moment we have now, and there’s so much else going on, and there’s so much going on in the world as always, there’s a lot of negative going on there’s a lot of positive going on, and it’s very distracting, and we just have right now, this conversation is right now, so coming fully with your whole heart is is how we can make the biggest impact and and we can apply this to anything, as you say. I just love this so much. Thank you for sharing this is very fun message, and I feel like we need to hear it over and over again. Now, to talk a little bit about your businesses also, because we have a lot of business owners listening to this and watching also the video, you have become a business owner a while ago, you have run a few businesses, would you like to share a little bit of your entrepreneurial journey, how how did you decide to become a business owner, and also tell us a bit about your business, or your businesses, you’ve got a supply chain consulting agency, and a few other things.

Ana:
Yes, so I started right before the pandemic right, I set and I register my company at the end of 2019, and I said, this is what I’m going to do and then the pandemic hit and that was right around the time that I have stopped working in the corporate world, and I have become an immigrant here in Canada so I’m originally from Venezuela, moved here in early 2019. And when you leave your country and you leave your extended family and all your friends and you move to another country, however friendly however lovely it is here, you are by yourself, right? So I didn’t want to dedicate so much of my time and attention to a job as I was before, because I was not going to have that extended support to balance my family. So I really wanted to be there, and to support my kids also in the transition to a new country. but at the same time, I said, you know what, I feel that I really want to keep doing what I’m doing, what I do in terms of helping companies improve their logistics, improve their supply chain and in doing so, retain their clients because there’s really this connection between operations and client satisfaction. And then I thought well how am I going to do this, and it was towards the end of 2019 that it sort of clicked to say, well you know what, I’m gonna give it a try to become an entrepreneur, to do this work on an entrepreneurial form, like a consultant, and it was the moment that I realised this is the path that I’m gonna follow was when I realised, from a lot of meditation, and a lot of writing my own thoughts, that what I had lost when I left my country and when I left my job, what I had lost was the platform, so my company, my former company when I spent 20 years there, that was a platform, people knew me, they knew what I was good at, if they needed me, they knew where to find me, and so I was busy because I had a platform, more than a job, they just knew me, and then I realised, okay that’s what I need to do now, in the entrepreneurial world, I need to become known, I need to create this platform for myself by doing work, by attending events, by doing voluntary work, by networking, and so on and that’s how it’s going to happen. You know, I’m going to become known and I’m going to build this platform and and that’s how the whole entrepreneurial journey started to take form.

Franziska:
Yeah, and I remember being on the part of this journey with you and I remember you, you know, it’s quite daunting, you moved your whole family to a new country and at the same time, you also started your own business and you didn’t know anyone, or hardly anyone; new culture, new language, new system, and you started your own business, and you started hustling and some of the things that you mentioned that helped you to get to where you are now and and you’re really creating a name for yourself in this industry, some of the things that you mentioned are you go networking, you connect with people, what are some of the other things that you have been doing to grow this company now?
Ana:
I think the part where when it when you realise, okay in order to become known, the next step is what am I going to be become known for? Whom do I want~ or who do I want to know me, and when they know me, what do I want them to see? So these are things that I learn essentially, The Clever Bunch play a big role in understanding you know brand, understanding sharing your expertise and the social proof of your expertise, so I started to develop my social media profile I started to refine my voice and I started to understand who my client, who my target client is, and researching my target client, and the very important thing was, what are three or four values I think, I defined, not I think, I’m sure I did find four for my brand, and then keep writing with that mentality, with that mindset with that voice in mind, and then that was sort of the next step after you know, deciding what I really need is to become known, and I need to create a platform, then known to whom and for what, so that that can become a brand and it can become something that really attracts clients and you can sort of really make a living out of that and capitalise on that work, on all that work, because it’s a lot of work on trying to become known and to create the platform. But it’s really worth it, it’s really worth it, because it’s a research about what you do and about yourself as well.

Franziska:
And I love the specificity of it too i like how you know it, especially in the beginning it’s quite easy to want to be known to everyone, for everything, but those two questions are so powerful that you shared is what do you want, well who do you want to be known to, who do you want to work with, who are your target audience and what you want to be known for, so who do you want to work with specifically, and you got really clear on that, and then what specifically do you want to be known for, those are such great questions and then the values are also so important to then have this alignment and you have this now in your company with everything, every touch point that you have. You have this alignment in terms of tone of voice, and the imagery that you use, how you make people feel, it’s very consistent now, of course over the last few years it’s not been always easy, also there has been a pandemic and especially with supply chain, I mean that industry has been completely ripped apart with COVID, what are some of your first, let’s talk about maybe some of your biggest challenges that you have faced and then also some of your highlights so let’s maybe first go into what were some of the biggest challenges and how did you overcome it?

Ana:
Yeah I think in terms of challenges, one of the things that I experienced at the beginning was precisely in this journey of understanding what did I want to be known for, I think the the question that happens before that is you know, what do I want to do? Or how do I want to serve clients and what really not just that it makes me happy, but I feel I am good at right which is a byproduct of making you happy because you’re really adding value. And so at the beginning that was a bit challenging because I have left a corporate job of 20 years, and in a corporate job you do so many different things and when you become an entrepreneur, and especially in the consulting world, you cannot just show up and say well you know what, my name is Ana and I can do anything in the world of supply chain. And so this refinement of you know who am I really for, and and what within the supply chain spectrum I can do and match that with the real needs out there that has been a challenge, and the way to carve that is like your it’s like your digging something out, you know, you have to do a lot of trial and error, a lot of preparing some content and see how it’s received, a lot of listening, trying to speak with people and ask the right questions and then listen and then gather all that information and then, try to put it together because that is really the essence and I think I was working… talking with someone from Basic Bananas, I think a couple of weeks ago in one of the meetings, and we said the marketing really explodes when you know who your client is and what they need and you connect that with what you do. And that was something that it really… I guess I had no doubt that I was gonna find it, at the same time I know that search will continue for as long as I am working and I am in business because that the needs continue to evolve and I have to say for me that is a challenge, I don’t know if it’s a challenge for everyone in the consulting world, but it was for me, and I think one thing that played a big role there was to be perseverant, to know that there was something of value that I wanted to offer, to know that it’s something that is needed out there, and just to you know to find the magnetism between the two so that we could connect.

Franziska:
I love that, I love how you put it so beautifully, so who the client is, and what they need, understand what they need and then connect it with what you do and that creates that magnetism, which is a forever journey. I just love how you put it so succinctly for our viewers and listeners also to question that in their own businesses as a forever question. Now, what about, what is one of your over the last few years if you look back at your journey as an entrepreneur, what is one of your proudest moments?

Ana:
Oh my goodness! You know what? We were in… I think we were in a meeting last week with all The Genius Bunch members and we went into the breakout rooms, and in one of the opportunities that I had to speak, I was talking with everyone and I realised, Franziska, that right now is the three-year mark of when I registered my company back in 2019, I think it is 19 – 20, 21, 22, yeah, it’s a three-year mark, and I realised right there that I have said to myself when I started this, I said iIm gonna give myself three years to see if i can become a consultant, to see if this works, and to see if I’m really cut out for this and otherwise I’m going to go and and go back to find the work and then in three years my family will already be adjusted to to Canada, and I said, “Oh my god it’s been three years!” and that was a proud moment, sort of because i realized that wasn’t in my mind anymore for a long time, it hasn’t been because I sort of answered that question a while ago and I shared with the team that I was talking with at that moment, you know what, right now… obviously I’ve been~I’m three years in business and COVID has been hard and everything, and the company is not just you know everything that I dream it will be, but right now, I’m living with more freedom that I would ever be if I was employed by a company in an employee level that would pay not close to what I’m making as a consultant, so I thought you know what, that’s a pretty good thing and I realised that there and then shared it with the team and we had a good moment because you know, it just feels like progress, you give yourself targets and then you meet them and then you learn in the process and you realise okay, I’m ready to go to the next step. Oh yeah and I and I’m so proud of you and also, just so happy to hear that and it’s… you know, you’re right, we often set these targets and then we forget, and then even when we hit them it’s like, oh don’t even remember, I didn’t celebrate them, so taking these moments also that you share now with the Geniuses in your case, and to look back and like wow, I, you know, it’s been three years and I’m doing this and I’m continuously doing this and adding value, is just so gratifying.

Franziska:
Now you joined the Clever Bunch a few years ago, and now you graduated after 12 months, and then joined the Genius Bunch, in the beginning, it would have been you know, for most businesses it’s quite it could be a bit of a scary decision to go I don’t know, you know, who are these guys at Basic Bananas and what’s this Clever Bunch all about, why did you choose to join The Clever Bunch and what were some of the challenges maybe you had at the time?

Ana:
Listen… you know I was trained as a buyer, so I don’t buy things so easily and there’s a whole process that goes in when I decide, okay I’m going to invest in this, and I’m going to get this service and I remember it was like, we were still in the middle of the first big lockdown so it was end of April, or beginning of May 2020, and I was invited to the Blast Off Workshop, and I I remember that I couldn’t even believe myself, I was writing my email, and my phone number on the chat because it really felt right, and you know but for me was love at first sight, I said to Liesl the other day, “Liesl, I don’t know how it works for other people,” and I was telling her if there is anybody that you are talking with here in Canada and you want to invite me into the meeting I’ll be happy to go because I can speak about my journey and the hours, the hour-difference and the fact that I am on this side of the world, and you guys are for the most part, in Australia and I said to myself, it just felt right, it’s one of those things where no argument that somebody else can tell you will convince you to say yes or no, because you’re feeling that this is right. So there was a bit of that, and the other part that I think played a very important role is, and and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this to you guys before, but there was a point in the the workshop that we were talking, somebody asked a question, is it worth to register your name or your company’s name on business directories, and then Christo answered the question, he said there are X business directories that you can use that are very reputable one and he even put them, and somebody put them in the chat and then someone said well you know is this something that you do, or you teach us how to do and then the answer from Christo was somewhere, different words I’m sure, but it was somewhere along the lines of you know, you can do it by yourself, it is doable and we can help you or we have somebody here who’s very good, very efficient and she can do it, and it cost eighty dollars an hour or sixty dollars an hour, whatever the number was, and she’s very good and she’s very efficient and she can do it for you so it’s your choice, and that exchange right there which probably lasted less than a minute or or just over a minute was so authentic in the way that you are looking at the client as a partner you are looking at a client from a place of really adding value, you are being a benchmark in what mentorship should be which is mentoring, really to what people need, and giving them options, and I and I was so captivated by that and it felt so connected with the way that I want to help clients too. You know, for my journey, you know the first thing I did was I when I was 17, I was a translator so English speaking people came into Venezuela into a factory, I was a translator, and then our engineers would receive all this message and that was the power of mentorship, and the power of collaboration across cultures and to see that moment there that was captivating for me, and I said I will work with these guys, because you showed me right there what were you what you were about and it was not about captivating, you know, capturing not captivating, but capturing clients and just for the sake of making a sale and that was really something and it has been like that ever since, like you know it has not disappointed in any way, the way that you guys create the community with your clients, you take your clients and you build a community and that’s just so powerful.

Franziska:
You’ve never shared that, that’s a very powerful thought that I’ve never heard from you, and you’re right we’re very much, and this is maybe a lesson in itself that you also very much believe in and use in your business, we very much meet people where they’re at, and some people need more hand-holding than others, it’s always for us about can we help this person and what is the best option for them, and then of course we very much believe in business owners understanding marketing strategy, and then depending on where they’re at in their journey and if they have a budget, they can either outsource the implementation of that, or they can do it themselves like you mentioned in this example, yeah, thank you for sharing that. In terms of The Clever Bunch, you’ve been such a… and also a very important member for our community, because you’re so giving, as we mentioned in the beginning, what are some of the results that you’ve already shared some of them, but what are some of the results that you have received from applying the strategies in The Clever Bunch?

Ana:
Yeah so… oh my goodness! There’s so many, I think the first one that comes to my mind, and I know that it might sound like it’s very simple, but that’s the kind of thing that you find there, you find these bits and pieces that you use to connect with your journey and then make things work, and one of the things that I do with my clients is I never send proposals by email, I always schedule a meeting and present that proposal, and then going back to what we spoke in the beginning, having an impact, and you know having the opportunity to present what I’m going to~ what I’m offering to the client to do for them, to do with them, and how that is it’s connected to the need that they have expressed, to be able to answer questions, to be able to show them the price, and discuss the price, and to have openness about all the elements that build my price. It’s just… it leaves them with an experience. I think if we can talk about the proposal and we can talk about the cost of my services so openly, you know wholeheartedly right at the beginning then what fear could be left there on their side of working with me and and it has been so effective, like whenever I have the opportunity to make a proposal in you know, in the consulting world you’re not making proposals every day because you really have to develop, you know, can I work with this client, do I have the time to do it? Do I have the resources with somebody else? Am I really available to what they want? So it’s not really that you can make so many proposals for big projects, but when I do have the opportunity, it always works because it’s the client…I think whatever fear, whatever concern or whatever they might have, am I going to really get value for this? It dissipates in that first meeting.

Franziska:
Really powerful. I remember when you when you changed your approach to proposals, and it’s so powerful and your closing rate now is pretty much 100% whenever you send out or present the proposal, it’s close to 100%, right?

Ana:
Yeah, in you know, year today, 2022 I have gotten every single business that I have pitched for, that I have proposed, and the company is really… there’s four of us now, there used to be just me. There’s four of us consultants that are helping me in different projects, and it’s growing, and it really feels in a way that I’m going in the right direction because that’s the kind of work that I want to do you know, to to be leading the process of developing the client, and developing what the service is, and then bringing the right people together to work on that project, and supervise that project, and take it to to end it right, to end it well for what the client and it’s working well, every proposal we have made this year, we have gotten the job.

Franziska:
It’s huge, that’s very unusual and obviously a big testament to you, first of all, knowing your clients so understanding who you actually want to work with, so they’re the right people, and then creating really good offers that are adding value to those people so that they see it, and they want to work with you. Now one last question on The Clever Bunch quickly, and then I’d like to finish up with some of your wisdom for fellow entrepreneurs, what is one of your favourite things about The Clever Bunch?

Ana:
There are so many different aspects… so there’s the community, and there’s the group the discussions, what’s your favourite aspect? You know how they say… and I like of course the knowledge that we get there, there’s always a new tip, there’s always something that you had not thought about before, there’s always the opportunity to ask for a question. But I think when I look back in retrospective, every meeting, The Clever Bunch, The Masterminds, everything; the key is how it makes you feel, is such a source of energy to connect with business owners, to listen to what somebody else is going through and then to have the opportunity to say something. “hey this worked! For me, how about you try this? Or you know what? Hang in there because it happened to me also,” and or maybe you get to speak about what’s bothering you or what’s weighing on you, and then hear the others, you know, sharing also their wisdom and their energy, when you by the time you finish that meeting, you feel as though if you went to therapy, or to some sort of you know massage or something that really gave you your strength back, that you can get back out there and continue doing what you’re doing, and for me, and this is why I’m never done Franziska, and I told you this before, I’m not done because you’d never get done belonging in a community. We just… we keep learning, we start a Clever Bunch again, we go to Genius meetings, we have the experiences, and all of these things, they’re just first and foremost energy, source of tips, source of wisdom, source of information, source of networking, possible help and all of that put together is just great, great energy.

Franziska:
That’s really nice to hear, thank you so much for sharing and talking about energy, and also wisdom, receiving wisdom for from fellow entrepreneurs in our community, what is some wisdom, or something that you’d like to share with our listeners here, with our viewers, is there something even that you wish you had known when you first started? So instead of two questions, what’s the word of wisdom, and also is there something that you wish you had known that you’d like to share?

Ana:
Yeah, so in this whole you know in this whole trying to understand what I wanted to do, how it adds value to the clients, there is… and the reason why I think it’s difficult is because there’s a lot of doubt, right? So there’s doubt that comes from yourself, this doubt that comes from looking at what somebody else is doing, and then I’ve always told myself, you know because because you work hard, whenever you work hard if that’s your value then you are perseverant, right? And one thing that I discovered is that there is like one step before being perseverant is, you have to be a little bit stubborn, you know, when you find something, perseverance is the the strength that’s going to help you push it, and push it, and push it, to see how far it can go, and the stubbornness of sticking to the fact that you believe that this is going to add value to someone. And I think I was talking about this because I was doing some mentorship, I am doing some mentorship here in Montreal, with an organisation that helps entrepreneurs, and I was talking to to a girl and she was in that stage where she thinks, I think my idea is not really worth it, because the sales are not happening yet, you know, and then you think this idea might not be really good, why would I work hard? Why would I persevere? And then I was saying to her something, I think it was in the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to hear a woman from the UK, who founded this company, the foot shop or the foot whatever the name of that company, it’s a company that focus on selling products especially for feet, for you know, pedicure or whatever it is, and she said something and it stuck with me and I was far away from being an entrepreneur at that time, but she said just find an idea and push it to see how far it can go. And I was saying that to her I think before that, to fuel your perseverance, and to feel your hard work, be stubborn about your idea, about the service that you want to to give if you think that this really adds value, if you have seen the power of what you do, and how it can improve somebody’s life, whether it’s a product or a service, then be stubborn, because that is stubbornness. You’re going to need it, you’re going to need it to fuel your perseverance, and your hard work.

Franziska:
This is called… I love it and I’ve taken some notes here that that will also put in the show notes but this distinction between stubbornness and perseverance and how how stubbornness comes slightly before perseverance and fuels your perseverance. So stubbornness according to Ana Lovera, which I agree with you, helps you believe in what you do, and helps you push in adding value, and then the perseverance helps you to push it further. That little bit further that you need, that’s you know, maybe that needs to be part of your quotes somewhere. I hope you’re collecting some quotes here, Ana Lovera, oh it’s because that’s really good,. that’s really good wisdom, and it’s your own thinking.

Ana:
I’m gonna write it down somewhere also.

Franziska:
Yeah, I think it’s brilliant! I haven’t heard anyone position it in that way… it’s brilliant! Stubbornness precedes perseverance just a little bit, and you need both. You need stubbornness to fuel your perseverance, it’s gold! Thank you so much! I would love to close on that note because it’s a really lovely note to end on; we’ve started very beautifully, it’s reminding ourselves and each other, and our listeners, to be present and to bring everything to this moment that we have because we just have it only once, every moment comes once, and so how do we show up, and then finishing up with stubbornness and perseverance. I love it! So Ana, thank you so much as always for bringing everything that you always bring to the community, now to the wider community, too. To everyone that is going to see this really, really appreciate it, and if anybody would love to say hi to you should they do that on LinkedIn or where do you want to connect with people?

Ana:
Yeah, I’m super active on LinkedIn now more than other social media, so you can find me there, Ana Lovera, and then it’s likely that it will show up there, supply chain consulting solutions, helping manufacturing companies, and so on, and… or my website, analovera.com and I’m there also quite often.

Franziska:
Right, thank you so much, thanks again and thank you to all the listeners for tuning in, I hope you enjoyed these behind-the-scenes interviews with our members that are doing amazing work in the world, just like what Ana Lovera is doing. So thank you so much thanks for tuning in! Thank you!