Interview with Alison Meehan, founder of Costa Women
This is the first in the series of interviews with the people that inspire me the most in terms of their positivity, determination, confidence and vision that I´ll be sharing with you over the coming weeks and months. These interviews are part of my ongoing research for my Coaching and Training courses on a variety of subjects, such as Confidence, Motivation, Leadership, and Communication Skills. I´m very grateful to everyone who has contributed their tips, advice and secrets to help me make my workshops, materials and sessions that much more enriched, practical, fun and effective. I´m sure you´ll enjoy this insightful interview as much as I did!
Alison, since I´ve moved to Marbella, you´ve been one of my inspirations for many reasons, but I think one of the main ones being your thorough consistency in delivering positive, motivational messages to women all around Spain – be it by weekly newsletter, your brilliant webforum, Tweets, Facebook group and I´m sure many others!
Sure, many of us do our best to spread some joy and positivity whenever we get the chance (and don´t get distracted by Facebook, phonecalls, Desperate Housewives etc!). But the consistency, the perseverance, the focus – now that´s a discipline that I believe makes that great difference in succeeding as much as your initiatives do.
First of all, Alison, tell us a little about you? Where are you based? How do you “earn your living”, what is your business all about?
Well firstly, thank YOU for the kind comments Marina! As you will have gathered, I am hugely passionate about what I do so that drives the focus and the desire to show up. Providing a platform for connecting women, promoting businesses and networking is something I love; its great to share the opportunities that are out there.
Originally from the UK, I am now based in Los Boliches, and have lived here on and off since 2002. We have moved about a bit in the interim (Dubai, Spain, Thailand and then back to Spain) but this is very much home!
My working background is very diverse, but in Dubai I worked for an oil and gas business development consultancy where I learnt many different skill sets; including marketing and branding, sales and customer service, as well as working on a IT start up which was subsequently sold to an international Media House. Most importantly, I learnt how to build a global community with multinational Clients.
In 2011 when we came back to Spain, my husband and I started a social media and ecommerce business with most of our Clients internationally based. Social media fits so well with what I love; being social, media and networking, that I am one of those fortunate people that loves what they do.
And now, pray do tell, how do you manage this enviable consistency in your projects and communications? How do you stay on course, don´t get distracted, don´t get absorbed by life´s everyday chaos and mini-crisis etc?
Life does throw up the odd curve ball doesn’t it! My career started in the legal profession where the need to stay focussed was key to success for your Clients and I have managed to keep a very disciplined approach to my working life since.
Lists are the way to go… the more the merrier. My handbag is full of notebooks all for different things LOL! And I love notebooks (and books but don’t get me on that track!)
My personal motto is “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do” (Sarah Ban Breathnach); as “Imagineer” at Costa Women, I am dreaming and doing; a great combination!
What about de-motivation and frustration? There must be plenty of moments when you don´t get the results or response you were hoping for and working hard towards. How do you keep up you excellent work and don´t give into these “lows” and doubts?
It can be quite lonely at times and I try to surround myself with people who I can talk to and turn to when the “moments” kick in. Having worked in sales I am use the “new day” approach where you press the reset button and start again.
Sometimes as I post (to Facebook, Twitter and Costa Women), RT (retweet on Twitter) and blog I do have a panic attack of… is anyone out there!
The worst critic is always you. No one knows what I had, or have planned for Costa Women so if it doesn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped, well only I know that! The challenge is to pick yourself up, rethink what you had planned and restart with a different perspective.
Now, one of my favourite subjects that so many of my clients have as one of their top objectives to work towards – Confidence. You seem to have bags of it – where do you get yours? How did you learn your fantastic self-confidence? What do you do on a regular basis to keep it up? Any special rituals or “tricks” that you work well for you?
Ahh confidence! “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it” ― Maya Angelou and I so agree with her. I am very positive now, but have suffered major crisis in my life over the years; things I thought I wouldn’t recover from. Time is great healer.
I made a conscious decision some years ago to only surround myself with positive people; it’s so easy to get entrenched into negativity and drained by someone or something (there are some dreadfully negative TV programmes and news articles; its your choice to connect with people, watch and read or disconnect, turn off and turn the page) There are lots of positive initiatives ( for instance Pay it Forward, our Costa Women Gratitude Project, 365, The Happiness Project) and more accessible than ever due to the internet. Generally people are very busy nowadays and its sad people don’t get time, or space to read anymore. Blogs are a brilliant alternative, or how about spending a few minutes daily to think on a quote.
We have all got the chance to “become what we might have been”; its up to you to decide who you want to be, where you want to go, who you want to spend time with and become that person you always wanted to be. Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself. If you aren’t sure where even to start, find a coach who you are comfortable with and start to work through where you want to be in 1, 5 or 10 years from now.
What are your main objectives and challenges for this year ahead? What would you have me help you with as a Coach?
I’m very much a goal setter and do this throughout the year; as well as checking back as to how I have been doing on what I set earlier. Making goals time specific is something people forget and then wonder why they didn’t happen.
Growing Costa Women in Spain; I have a personal goal of 1000 members before 31st December 2012 and it looks like we are heading for success!
To write a monthly blog and thanks to Family Life in Spain Magazine, 3Plus International and of course Costa Women, I am achieving this goal!
“One day is not a day” is a personal favourite quote at the moment that I am getting a lot of learning out of. Planning ahead is something I have always done, but I am learning to spend more time realising that “To” day is more important than One Day and enjoy the ride!
My challenge for you Marina; would be advice on staying mindful. One of my particular key lessons since 2011 has been to learn “mindfulness” - with mindfulness comes awareness, with awareness comes choice, with choice comes the ability to learn, grow and change.
Being creative is always a challenge, especially in “quiet” times and it’s that need to keep recreating and creating again which needs time and headspace to develop. This year I have been travelling extensively, and that has given me some time to come up with some new ideas for Costa Women; including a possible new Costa Women group in another country… more to follow!
I know and love your Gratitude 365 project where every day you thank things and people for the different things – from your car to internet, to coffee and biscuits. How does it help you, what do you “get out of it”?
Glad you are enjoying the Project! What better way to commit to a project than announcing it publicly hey; no pressure there then LOL! That said, I have got so much out of being grateful that I could never have imagined. There are days when it’s a struggle; that is silly really, as there is always something, someone, somewhere, or some event to be grateful for. It’s getting the time to be still and appreciate life. Mindfulness is the key (something I am learning… honest!). What I have got out of it so far are real shifts in things in my personal life on a financial level as well as the support of the other members who have joined me in the project. They may not post everyday, but I know they are there.
Many thanks for sharing your “secrets” and tips with us, Ali!! Is there anything we can “give back”, any particular message that we can help you spread, any page we can “like” or a project we could check out and participate in?
Costa Women has loads of space for new members and membership is free to too! There are new initiatives being planned for meet ups in Granada, Costa Blanca, Barcelona and Marbella. We have a new group meeting in Malaga too, called View from the Hills which has exploded; 50+ Facebook members in a little over a month!
You can find us at http://costawomen.ning.com/group/gratitude-project-365
Twitter: @costawomen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CostaWomen
Pinterest: costawomen
http://about.me/alimeehan
Thanks for the chat Marina; it’s been fun!
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