Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

A client hired me in early 2018 to help with problems inside her company. The main issue was staff performance, especially the sales team. After a few days analyzing each employee’s numbers, reviewing the company’s progress over the previous five years, and looking at the programs and courses she had sent people to, it was still hard to see where the trouble closing new accounts was coming from.

The second part of my analysis focused on leadership: every boss, director, manager, and the owner herself. Like any company, there were differences of opinion among certain people, but nothing that could really justify such slow results. There were no process bottlenecks caused by bad faith or anything of that kind.

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The client

An important step when someone hires me is that I observe them the same way I observe their employees and every other link in the company chain. Following her in her professional life, I found her harsh with her team, and the office atmosphere seemed calmer and more productive when she was not in the building.

The boss clearly had a negative impact on her team, but she was not seeing it. When we sat down after a few days, I shared my observations. She took offense, left me a check, and told me to leave her office and that she never wanted to see me again. It felt like a very explosive reaction, but I said nothing. I left her my notes, which included a draft of ideas to redesign her routine: time for exercise, changes in her diet, and time to take care of herself. In my routine I make time to meditate; for her I was going to recommend going to a spa three times a week.

One detail I had not mentioned earlier: she was a woman about 1.60 to 1.65 meters tall and close to 110 to 120 kg.

February 2019

In February 2019, for some business matters with Vino Market, I returned to Mexico City on Reforma to see a client. Their offices were in the same building as the woman who had hired me a year earlier. In the lobby, waiting my turn to hand over my ID and get a pass for the elevators, a woman tapped my shoulder and called me by name. It took me about five seconds to recognize who was standing in front of me: the boss, my former client.

She was still that petite woman, but now it was clear she had lost weight. She was wearing makeup, her skin looked smooth and clear, and even her suit looked new.

She told me that after a few weeks of being angry with me over my comments, she found my notes outlining a change of routine and habits. That made her think, and she decided to make some changes in her life. She started applying some of my ideas: exercise, the spa, more professional and elegant clothes, changing her diet…

“I didn’t understand all of your notes, but what I started applying flipped a switch in my head,” she said. “After a couple of weeks I was already accepting the diet and the workouts, and I became addicted to the spa. I followed up with nutritionists and diet ideas to lose weight. Now I’m at about 75 to 78 kg, another 10 kg and I’ll be at my ideal weight.”

I then asked how the business was going and how everything had been since those changes.

“I’ll be honest with you. At first, when the changes started to show, I felt a little bad,” she explained. I asked why, and she added, “People looked at me differently. They were very kind to me. They behaved in a completely different way. Even my family treated me better. I met someone. We’re still together. We’ll hit six months in two weeks. But at the beginning I thought it was only because I looked prettier, so it made me angry, though I didn’t tell anyone. Instead of exploding like before, for some reason I went to my office and reread your notes, well, whatever is readable for human eyes, and I realized how you analyze things. You don’t do it like everyone else. You look first for something internal that can impact the external. For a few days I sat with that. It was hard, but thanks to my family I realized that once I felt better in my body, people started feeling better about my attitude and my mindset. Really, people were never the problem, and they were never judging me for being overweight. It was me. I didn’t feel good in my body, and without knowing it that shaped my personality for years. The fact that people treat me better has nothing to do with how I look. It has to do with how I feel and how I treat them once I feel better about myself.”

Honestly, it made me very happy for her. That kind of realization is hard to reach, and even harder to accept. A healthy body matters if you want a healthy mind.

Conclusion

Before I went up, I asked how the business was doing. She answered, “We’re improving our prospect close rate. The last two quarters we closed with more than a 20% increase compared with the same period last year, and we’re considering opening in Guadalajara.”

And there you can see how everything connects in this world. She not only improved her quality of life, but also her relationships with colleagues, employees, and family. Her company started seeing an increase in sales once the leader started feeling better. There is no such thing as pure chance in this world. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you will be ready to change your world.