Alex Tomaszewska is a confidence coach for female entrepreneurs working from home, helping them go from procrastination to success on their own terms. She quit an impressive career in IT to pursue this passion. Alex runs a blog and vlog called “Unchained” for women who are fed up with playing small, but feel there is something holding them back from reaching their full potential. https://AlexTomaszewska.com 

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I am an IT engineer with 12 years of career behind. A few years ago, while I was working in my corporate job, I got sick with depression, very suddenly, which stopped me from working for a year and a half and forced me to introduce changes. After transforming my life completely, using mindset training and neuroplasticity, I fell in love with the simplicity with which one can introduce significant changes in their life, and I knew this was what I wanted to do for others. I learned additional techniques and became a coach, immediately getting results for my first clients.

What inspired you to start your business?

My confidence was low all my life, although I masked very well under a sense of humor and professional success. I thought I was unstoppable. But only when I started my coaching business my lack of confidence did start to surface very quickly and it stopped me, for the first time in my life, from succeeding. So I devoted a great amount of time to build unshakeable confidence that flows from within and realized many other women in business have the exact same issue. I knew exactly how to help them, and enjoyed it greatly, so it was an obvious career choice for me.

Where is your business based?

Everything I do is online. I’ve been working remotely for many years now and appreciate being able to serve from any place in the world – as long as it has internet. I have already worked from various places in the world and my goal is to live on a sailboat for a few years. An online business allows me that freedom.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I posted on Facebook and LinkedIn about what I do and people came to me asking if I could help them. I didn’t have a website until very recently – I was only using social media to get traction and connect with potential clients.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Doing live videos on Facebook. This allows people to get to know me and feel like I am someone close to them. They feel I am accessible and they trust me because they know my face and they have seen how I react to people and events live. I think this is much more powerful than pre-recorded videos.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge was my low self-confidence. I realized all my life I had been building my confidence based on external validation – success at work, praises from bosses, parents, and money. Once that was gone and I was left on my own, it very quickly showed up how fragile that construction was. It stopped me from being authentic, from reaching out to prospects and journalists, from spreading the word about my business, from making sales during strategy sessions. It made me doubt my skills both around marketing and coaching. 

How do you stay focused?

Great question! I think the focus is what gets us to success, and my low self-confidence was driving me away from that. So what I did to get myself to focus, was work on my inner peace. Calm down the chaos – by various exercises, coaching, meditation, visualizations, routines. I also listen to music consisting of wavelengths generated at the frequency of focus, which brings my brain to the appropriate state. I use to-do lists and prioritize them, and I have a vision of what I want to achieve and why. I check periodically if that is still valid, and adjust as necessary. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

I think my personality is my brand – I am fun and I’m a geek. I have my own energy which has always been magnetizing for people, so I just make sure I’m displaying the same energy online – and the right people come. Also, as an engineer, I tend to analyze and explain everything in detail – which allows my clients to get results faster and reuse the tools that I teach them in various situations. I equip my clients with a toolbox and teach them when to use what so that they do well even after we are done with coaching.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Being close to people, connecting with them, showing them that I care. That builds tremendous trust and gets you a special place in their hearts. It’s about them, not about you. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Work on your mindset, it is crucial to be resilient as an entrepreneur. There are no safety cushions and not bosses to hide behind – you need to show up and be seen, and that can sometimes be painful. Especially when you have a strong message. So make sure you know exactly:

-        Who you are

-        What you want

-        What you don’t want

-        How you are going to handle difficult situations

-        What success means to you

-        Who your supporters are

-        Who are the naysayers in your environment

Answer these questions for a good start.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I love brain.fm, this is the app that gets my brain waves to the focus frequency.

Blog – I rather go for vlogs, and greatly enjoy Dr. Aziz Gazipura – a confidence coach.

Book – there are many great books, but I think the one that changed a lot for me was Dr. Joe Dispenza’s “You are the placebo”

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I use LightWorks for video editing and I love it, because it’s free, yet it has all the options I need in order to create professional videos.

Who is your business role model? Why?

I have two: Elon Musk, because he does what he wants, is innovative, and achieves spectacular results.

Ellen DeGeneres: because of her outstanding courage, because she is authentic and modest and her appreciation for “regular” people.

How do you balance work and life?

I work from home and with different time zones, so I sometimes work in the evenings. That means I do things that most people (who are employees) do in the evenings – during the day. I love my freedoms, if I feel like it I can go to the cinema in the middle of the day, I go horse riding at 10:30 in the morning. I cook every day and put my attention on it. I also travel for weeks at a time and have a relaxed approach to where I’m staying and for how long – as long as it’s a peaceful place. I make sure to maintain a positive mindset and to keep my mind at peace, and I listen to my body. It if tells me to rest, I rest for however long I have to – there are no compromises here.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Doing mindfulness in nature, horse riding, playing with dogs, watching birds, sailing.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I’m planning on gaining visibility in media and making business connections in the UK, where I recently moved to be with my partner. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Email me at alex@alextomaszewska.com

Website: https://www.alextomaszewska.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/AlexUnchainedYou

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/unchainedU/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unchainedyou/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alextomaszewska/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnchainedYou