Love Powered Affirmations to Ignite Your Greatness with Anna Lozano & Lindy Sood

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert, and best selling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace. Hi.

Thank you for being here today. I have a couple of amazing guests that are out to change the world. We are talking to Anna Lozano and Lindy Sud, who are soul sisters. They're amazing mamas and entrepreneurs on a mission to spread love and teach mindfulness through the power of I am. They are the founders of Love Powered company and they have been featured on today's Parent Breakfast Television, Thrive Global, and the Huffington Post, just to name a few. And they recently were awarded the mompreneur Top finalist award. And that's amazing to me because it's so hard to be an entrepreneur and a mom. So I can't wait to talk to you. Welcome to the show. Lindy and Anna, thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having us.

Oh, yeah. Well, I stumbled across you guys on Instagram and I was so moved by just your stories with your kids. And then I saw what you did, and it's powerful because you are impacting not just moms, not just business owners, but you're really making a difference in the generation to come. And I just saw the story of I think your daughter's 19 months old.

Yeah, that was my Sophie.

Yes.

And she's saying all those powerful affirmations. It is so sweet. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started with your company, exactly what your company is? So our listeners know.

Yeah, definitely. So Anna and I came together in 2016 and we met each other after years of not meeting each other, if that makes sense. We knew the same people. We were at the same parties, we were at the same school. We knew who each other was, but we never actually officially met until 2016. And when we did, we were fast friends and we almost instantly knew we wanted to be in business together, which is quite magical. I think. We started to get to know each other and we realized that a lot of our strengths were very similar, but also we had a lot of complementary strengths as well. So some of the things that I don't particularly love doing. Anna is incredible at and vice versa. But we had the same passions and underlying all of it. When we were becoming friends and really getting to know each other, we realized that we were both on these really intense personal development and spiritual psychology journeys and affirmations were so impactful in both of our lives in various ways. And we started talking about, you know, we're parents now, and we really wanted our children, our beautiful, clean slate children to have these tools from such a young age because we were learning them in, you know, our late 20s, early 30s. And we thought, imagine, these kids began to learn the beautiful benefits of affirmations and all of the things that we are learning from scratch from the very onset. How would their lives be, you know, in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? So we started to look for affirmations for kids what was available online. And honestly, there was nothing that spoke to us. There was nothing that called out to us. And we thought, if we are craving this so much, there has to be other moms out there that are craving the same thing. So we just looked at each other and we said, want to start?

Let's do it.

Let's make affirmations for kids, for families, for moms. Let's do this.

I think that's so important to teach your children those things. I mean, I learn a lot from my children, but I think it's so important. I know I have a gratitude practice with my youngest daughter. We get in bed every night and we cuddle and we talk about what was the best thing that happened to us that day. And I asked her what she's grateful for. And it's usually something silly like I was twerking or I'm like, twerking. How do you even know what that is? But I think it's so important that we do set our kids up for success and to have those positive affirmations. They've made a huge difference in my life, just in my mindset. I mean, it's something I do before I go on to an event or it's something I did when I was really. That self doubt was creeping in when I was writing my book. And I was like, oh, who's going to want to read this? Who am I to write this book? And I noticed the first time I realized there was such power in I am was by Dr. Wayne Dyer. He has a children's book called I Am. And I actually bought that for my youngest daughter. And I love it. I'm like, everybody needs to read this book, but tell me what exactly, because you have some affirmation cards, and they're beautiful. And one of the things that I loved and caught my attention about you guys is just how beautiful it is to see. Because I know for kids, they're not going to want to look at something unless it looks pretty. That's the first thing. Or anybody, for that matter. And also, I think it's beautiful that you guys could come together and start a business, because it's not always easy to have a business. I remember I was going to start a business with somebody, and every time I would come to the table with, well, this is what I brought. And they would not have brought anything to the table. Do you guys meet weekly or daily? Or how do you make your business work? Because there's a lot of moms out there that are like, well, I would love to do a business, and there's certain things I can't do, and I know that my friend could do it. Maybe we could have a business together. But it's not so easy to run a business sometimes, especially when you're moms and you're busy with all the extracurricular activities. How did you guys come up with a plan where you can work together?

Right. I just want to say so many things based on what you responded, but let me just start off by saying, you know, when we came together, we were very clear on our core values. Because we both have previous entrepreneurial experience, and because we come from the corporate world, we were just very clear on what matters most to us. We were very clear on what we want to develop in this next chapter of our life as moms, because we previously have experienced, you know, not being moms. And so with that, we said we have to create something that is so beautiful that the mainstream mom, or the blogger mom or the mom that's hanging out on Instagram who loves beautiful things, is going to want to pick it up. But at the same time, it is so meaningful that when she opens it and actually starts doing the work with her children and with herself, and she's going to get those incredible benefits of affirmations and those incredible benefits of reprogramming our subconscious mind, because there's so much science behind the power of I am. And so that was kind of our initial thought process, is we need to create something that is very approachable and beautiful, but also meaningful, so the benefits happen. And so when we tie that in with our core values, meaning that we're moms first. Our children were very young when we started this business. My daughter was 6 months old. My first Daughter, my second one's been born. Lyndy's daughter was four. She was three and five. Right, three and five. So very young kids starting this business. So we had to be present with our families. And we're still, I mean, we're always present with our families. It's so important to us. But we decided that, you know, we're going to work from 9 to 3:30 after we pick up the kids now who are in school, then it's family time. And then we pick it up back at 8:30. And you know what? It's been working. And we feel this guiding force. Maybe there's the spirit of Wayne Dyer or Louise Hay or whoever it may be that the business continues to grow, whether we are fully working and hustling or we're on mommy duty. You know, it's just kind of like a cosmic power.

Yeah. Well, I love that. I think that you said something very important about, well, first of all, you had kind of a work ethic, I'm sure, coming from the corporate world. But what stood out to me and what's so important are your core values. Because I think if you know your core values and it's really about getting to know your core values, it helps you make any decision, whether it's professional or personal, it helps you make those decisions. But if you don't know your core values, then it won't. Like I remember I was just offered an opportunity to go speak at a retreat on a private island. And I was like, oh my God, I've always wanted to go to that island. Are you kidding me? And they're going to pay me to go to a private island. But I had already committed to another event. And so it made it easier to say no to the private island because of my values of integrity, honesty, trust. And I knew that I'd already given my word to go to this other event, and so it made that decision easier. So I love that you mentioned core values. And I also love that you said you had to get clear on your goals. And that is something I think that anybody in business needs to do right away is what are your intentions, what are your goals? And you guys, I think, have been so successful because you are so clear on what you want and you made something beautiful for all those moms, or really anybody that is out there that will pick it up and then it has a lot of meaning behind it. But there's also something that I'm working on that's hard, that you said that you work from these hours and then the rest of the time is your family time. And how brilliant is that to set boundaries of this is when I work and this is when I'm a mom, because this is my home office. A lot of times I'm even in my little closet over there to record because it's quieter. But sometimes that line gets a little blurred. How do you set that boundary for this is my work time, this is my family time. Is that something that's hard for y'?

All? You know what? It is hard, especially when you're growing quickly, like the company is growing fast and we're in momentum. And so, of course, you know, there's that addictive mindset of like, I gotta check my phone, I gotta respond to this email. But I think what we both know is that if it's urgent, it can wait a few hours. Even if it's so important, if we get back to it at 8:30 or 9:00', clock, it's gonna be fine. And I guess there haven't really been so many emergencies where we need to put out fires right then and there. So I think knowing that, that everything will be okay later is a good mindset to have. And I think we both really realized early on in our careers that if we're half assing motherhood or we're half assing business, it just does not feel good. And so we always come back to doing things that feel good. And so it makes those opportunities that come our way, because there are so many opportunities coming our way right now. If it doesn't feel good, if it doesn't align with those values, if it doesn't align with our, you know, as you mentioned, integrity, honesty, and those principles, then it's a no. And it makes saying no so much easier. Because as women, we just want to please and we want to be there and we want to say yes. But I think going back to that clarity, if we know exactly what feels good to us, what those core values are, what our goals and intentions are, and we're very clear on 2020, what our core intentions and goals are, then everything else is a no, and we're okay with that. And it feels good and it makes us feel powerful as business women and moms.

I love that. And I think maybe it's important for anybody listening who is struggling with that right now to write down on a piece of paper, what are your values? Because it is hard to say no. I know that when my book was published, it was like my publicist said, you need to say yes to everything. So I was Just saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. For like a year and a half. And I didn't really have a list of these are my values. So put down on a list, what are your values, what are your intentions? What are your goals? And then if things aren't in alignment with those things, it makes that decision to say no a little easier. And I think a lot of times it's listening to your gut. Like when you said, does this feel good? Most of the time if someone asks you to do something for me, I know right away, does that feel good? Does this feel off? And it's learning to listen to our guts instead of being people pleasers because I am a people pleaser overcomer. I still like to people please. So it's hard sometimes to say no. But I love that you said what's important. And really most of the time for me the only true emergency is like something with my family. There's something in the family, something's an emergency and oh well, if I miss some opportunities then if I'm trying too hard to make something work, it's probably just not the right timing.

Yeah, sure.

Exactly just how you guys met, like you were in the same circle, kids went to the same school, all these things. But the timing was just right when you guys came together to build this business for sure.

And I mean when we're ramping up, when we're going to launch a new product or if we have a campaign coming out, obviously there's things we need to do and it's not like we're just shutting it off at 3:30 and see you the next day at 9:00am I mean, I woke up yesterday morning bright and early before my family woke up when it's dark out, you know, to get some stuff done before the kids wake up. So there's also a lot of sacrifice that goes into it. But when you have a mission that is so powerful and so much bigger than yourself, you're driven by that and there's nothing that can stop you. And I think it's also very beautiful that Anna and I, you know, we've really grown together. We've become sisters. I'd say often we call each other husbands, wife and husbands.

We're wives.

We're wives. Sister wives. That sounds weird, but yeah, I mean, we're family now. And so, you know, it's easy to work with somebody who you can count on, who you can trust and who you can also be honest with. So if there's a moment where one of us is off kilter or out of alignment, the other one can really help to guide the other one back to the light. And that makes it easier as well, is that we found each other and that we set our intention for the goal of this company.

And.

And we're both such driven people that nothing is going to stop us. So if we have a bump in the road, we really help each other get back on track.

And don't we have bumps in the road, like, every day? Oh, that's entrepreneurship.

It's a roller coaster.

Oh, it is. It's really, really hard being an entrepreneur. I mean, I'm keeping it real. It's hard because you wear so many hats, but I think when you're so passionate about what you do, it does make it easier to get up. I get up at 4:45 or 5 every morning and start when it's dark outside so I can get things done before my family wakes up. And this morning I woke up and that's my quiet time. That's like my treasured time when I can do my writing or go over different topics that I'm going to be speaking on at a conference. And this morning my husband woke up and he started making food and stuff. And I was like, but this is my time. Go back to bed. This is my special time. You know, I have noticed when I'm very passionate about something, it doesn't feel like work. And you can always find time to make those goals happen instead of excuses. If it's important enough to you, you will find the time to do it. But I love that you have each other. And I think that what I've learned on my journey is how important it is to have a good community, to have somebody that you can kind of lean in on or they can spur you along the way. And I love that you have a relationship to where you can be honest with each other, because I think that is, for me, that's the most important thing is just being able to be honest with one another. Now, you guys wear a lot of different hats, and it's a lot. When you're growing, your business is booming. You've been featured in all these different. I mean, today's Parent and Thrive Global, the Huffington Post, that's huge. And I know you're on different social media platforms. How do you handle it as a mom and being an entrepreneur, do you delegate different jobs for each other? Are you both on Instagram? Do you both run the account? Or how do you work that out for somebody who's thinking of starting a partnership with someone? Can you give them some advice on how they would kind of divide the workload up to make it work for us.

It was a really natural progression. To be honest, what Anna is amazing at is she is. I call her the queen connector. She just connects with everyone all the time. So, you know, and for myself, I'm very creative. Anna's really good at sales. She has no fear in asking anybody for anything. And for me, I just love to write, and I love to make things beautiful. I love to create just beautiful posts, and I like to pour my heart out in that way. So for us, it just was a really natural delegation of roles without. I don't even like the word delegation, because it just felt so seamless, like we knew exactly what our role was and it was almost outside of ourselves. I feel like we were just like, this business is happening, and we just

started, like, falling into our roles, falling

into our rules without even speaking about it. And, yes, we both are very much on Instagram, but in very different roles. So if you look in our inbox, Anna is all over it. She's talking to everybody, and I am creating the posts, and then she's connecting with the people. And, yeah, we do everything from creation and design to dealing with our manufacturers and sales and marketing and customer service and everything in between. And just to speak on that as well, customer service for us is absolutely everything. It's interesting because if anybody's ever had a problem or I think when somebody gets something, maybe they see something and they're not quite sure about it or whatever it is, if they write to us and they're just a little bit upset, this is what I wanted to say. If they're a little bit upset, I write back. And once they know, I just always say, hi, I'm co founder Lindy and my business partner. Anna and I are doing everything from A to Z and everything in between. And I'd really like you to understand our position. 100% of the time, they come back and they basically are our biggest fan. And the reason being is I think that people, you know, they don't know. They think that they're talking to some big company, but when on the other side of it is always a person on the other side of it, always, you know, whoever. But even with the big companies, on the other side of it is always a person. That was one of the roles that I fit into. And it's interesting how it all kind of falls into place.

Yeah.

Okay. And now, how did you handle that when you had your first upset customer? Because I remember when I had done an interview and I had a company that posted my interview on their wall. I was representing crps, which is the nerve disease that I have. And a lot of people came out of the woodwork and were like, she's the best you can do for our company. Like, they were hating on me. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I was trying not to take it personally. And then the company that posted the article was like, I think you need to go and address some comments. And I was like, bad comments. But I'm just trying to spread hope and kindness and love, and how could anybody be hating on that? And I realized, like, there are a lot of hurt people out there that hurt people. And once I think of it that way, it made it easier for me to address the situation. And like you said, like, a lot of times people don't realize that. It cracks me up when I have people that will reach out to me. And they were like, we would like to reach out to Amberly Lago's team to see. And I'm like, that team would be me.

People from your office are coming. We're like, you know, yeah, yeah. We don't know who they're talking to. Once they understand that you are a human being and you are a mom that has taken on all of these different things, and you're wearing all of these different hats, and you're doing your very best and you're going to do what you can to make sure that they have a good experience. How can they come back to that with anything but positivity as well?

I also think it's a great lesson, like, for us as humans, because what I'm realizing through all this customer service, which I do not deal with at

the moment, you're like, that's not my

job and it's a bin. But it's been so, so great for my growth because, you know, the natural reaction is to react because we are human. But what I'm noticing just witnessing these emails and messages that do come through

sometimes is people are very reactive.

And so what Lindy does is she just sweetens them with honey, and the result is always positive. And so I'm applying that then to my day to day, and I'm, you know, applying it within, you know, those customer service calls to Bella Rogers or, you know, our phone networks or whatever we need to do. Because at the end of the day, you're speaking to a human, and so the more kindness we can spread and get away from this reactivity, you Know, it's just going to make the world such a more beautiful place.

It sure does. Kindness goes a long way. There's been situations when I've gotten on the phone and just said to customer service and said, oh, you know, how are you? Whatever. I just need your help. Can you please help me? This is what's going on. If you approach it that way, rather than saying, I am so pissed at your company and this is what you did, or blah, you know, it really helps. Just when you're realizing you're dealing with a person and they have struggles of their own and we're all just trying to do a good job at the end of the day, we're doing our best. And so I think it makes a huge difference. And I know for me, somebody who just reaches out and says something kind, it can make all the difference in the world.

Yeah, it can turn a day around. So I think that's a great lesson for all of us is just to remember to be kind and to, you know, even if we're having a bad day, it's not anyone else's fault. So let's bring that awareness back to ourselves and do what we need to do to shift out of that energy space.

And then a lesson I have learned is what you said earlier is to pause instead of react, is to pause before I say anything, whether it's to a customer or a planner or my husband or my kids. The biggest one is my husband and my girlfriend actually has a pause symbol on her wrist, tattooed on her wrist to remind her to pause. And I'm like, maybe I need one of those to remind me. Because it is just we want to react. Well, now, I wanted to ask, because you spend so much time together, you pick your kids up from school, you've got kids and their time and their extracurricular activities. What about your husbands? Are they supportive of your business? Y', all, if you can see them right now, they both smiled and leaned

their head on each other.

Each other. Because that kind of said it all right there. But go ahead and tell me, how is it with your husbands? Are they supportive?

Oh, yeah, they're partners. Yeah, they're partners in this company. And, I mean, we've handed off stuff that we don't love doing to them.

You have?

Yeah, they definitely have their own careers, but they're extremely supportive emotionally, but also have, you know, a role and responsibility because they do own a percentage of this company, if we talk about. In business terms. So it's been. Yeah, it's been an awesome Journey. And I remember our first meetings when we were launching the company and just brainstorming the company name, the four of us. So we've really grown as a family together.

Sushi and wine and whiteboards.

Sushi, wine and whiteboard. Yeah, and whiteboards. That's kind of our thing.

I love that. I love that you have a whiteboard. I have a whiteboard, too. And it just. Last night I was on my whiteboard. Like, I have a book that I write in, but the whiteboard really keeps me clear on what I have coming up and what I need to do.

Totally. And you know what? And then again, being mindful and just giving space to our husbands, whether that's date night or, you know, turning it off once in a while and just being present with them as well, because it's so important. I mean, this is the most important relationship, right?

Yeah. Turning off the business mindset because I know I am so passionate about what I do. I'm always thinking of, oh, I could do this and, oh, I could do that, and turning that off and just being in the now is, like, so

important that our business is focused around all of these things. That's a reminder, always a reminder, always that, you know, if we're going to be preaching it, we really need to be living it. So we can't sit there and talk about being in the present moment and enjoying the benefit of really being mindful with the people that you're with if we are not living it. How can we speak those words if we're not living that truth? So we remind each other all of the time, and our husbands remind us, too.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. Isn't that true, my husband? Because I have something called the PACER method that gets me through any kind of challenge. It helps me strengthen my resilience. And so I started sharing that with other people. And now my husband says it to me all the time. He's like, amberly, where's the R in pacer? Which stands for rest? And, like, he calls me out, but I really need it. Or if I have a friend that's not, like, being nice to me, or they're kind of being a doggy downer. He's like, amberly, you better practice what you preach. No more doggy downers. What about the C and pacer? It's community. What is your community looking like? And I'm just like, oh, my gosh. I know. So he calls me out, and sometimes

you get mad in that moment, and the only person we can really react to is Our husband. But in the moment, you're like, ugh. Then you're like, you're right.

I know, I know. You're like, oh, I hate it that you're right.

I'm so mad.

But thank you.

Yeah, I know. Right? Well, how did you come up with all the different affirmations and how long did that take?

I feel like it was instead process. In the very beginning, we started researching what are the qualities of the most emotionally intelligent leaders in the world? Things like this. When we were reading these qualities, these characteristics, we started to realize that, yes, these are their qualities, but these are the qualities that exist in all of us. They might just be a little bit suppressed at the moment. And these are the powers that we all have within us. At times, we just need a little reminder because we are all determined and we are all courageous and we are all brilliant in different ways. We are all unique and authentic and all of these beautiful things. But sometimes we just need a reminder to see that within ourselves. So it was a really cool process, to be honest, because it was that realization that these incredible leaders that we all look up to and we all think are just bigger than human. We all have the same traits and qualities that they have. They exist within us.

What has been your affirmation that has had the most reaction, the most people have gravitated towards?

I don't know. I feel like it's such an individualized.

I know, but I feel like the intuition one, the trust one, the abundance one. And I am enough like those always for women. Those draw on the tear string, pull on the heartstrings. You know, my Polish comes out once in a while and I forget English.

That's my world. I say things and people are like, what does that mean? I'm like, oh, yeah, you're not from Texas and you don't know what get her done or cowgirl up means.

You know, this one, you're right.

This one, I think so. This card, every one of our cards, on the one side, it says, what's your power? And just to reiterate, these are the powers we all have within us. At times, we just need a little reminder, and you flip it over, and usually we choose them at random. Sometimes we'll choose one that means something to us in that moment. But this one says, abundance is my power. I am abundant. I am worthy. I am enough. I focus on the abundance in my life now and trust that every day, in every way, I am taken care of. I am abundant. And then it says, think of all the abundance in your life now, how does it make you feel? And so I agree, this probably brings out the most emotion in people because it brings you into the present, and it gets you realizing that, wow, like, I do have everything I need and more. And gets you thinking about the abundance that you have right now in this very moment.

I love that that's beautif. And that is something that's changed my life is by focusing on what I do have and what I can do. And I think that's a huge part of being resilient, is being really careful what you put your attention on and focusing on what you can do instead of what you can't do and what you do have instead of what you don't have. And I love that your cards really get people focused on the abundance in their lives and what they have. So that is beautiful. Where can people find you and where can people get these cards? Because I want some, y'.

All.

She just held them up, and they're beautiful. And I think it would be so cool to start that into my day. I always read a couple of spiritual books when I wake up in the morning, and I would love to just read one of those cards to set my intention for the day. So where can we find these?

Of course. So our website is lovepoweredco.com and then we're also on Instagramovepoweredco, and we really share the behind the scenes of mommyhood and building this business on the stories. So it's a fun ride. Yeah, we'd love to connect with everyone.

Oh, well. Yeah. And I love watching your stories. Oh, it was so sweet with your daughter doing those powerful affirmations at such a young age. That just touched my heart. And

so she's 19 months, and she goes to a Montessori school, and her teachers say, you know, she's just an observer. She doesn't speak much, but as soon as she walks through the house, she just starts practicing her words. And some of her first words are these powerful affirmations. So we now say them before bed, and we say them driving to school. And I mean, again, she's 19 months. Like, she's not super verbal, and she'll be, like, healthy, kind, brilliant, smart. It's like the cutest thing. And I'm like, these are her first words. Like, how powerful of a foundation. Wow. All of our children.

Yes, that is powerful. I just got goosebumps when you were telling me. Just, her first words are powerful. Future president right there. We need her. We need her.

When we first launched, I remember that Wasn't even something in my thought process. But my mom sat with us and said, think about this. This is the beautiful vocabulary that they are going to be starting with. And we've been able to watch her brand new baby go through. She used to say affirmations to her belly, Anna, while she was pregnant.

And now look at Sophie's behavior.

Oh, and then I saw in your story, I don't know if it was it your mom, Lindy, one of your moms, saw your cards.

My mom, she's such an angel. She's such an angel. So she was just like, well, she sent us more videos that I didn't share, but she was just like bawling at the store, which is kind of the equivalent to Barnes and Noble in the States. And she was just, she walked in, she found the cards. She was searching for them. She was telling the lady who was helping her how proud she was that this was her daughter and her friend. And like all this stuff just, it's so fulfilling and so rewarding.

Well, that's huge. That is huge. And I'm, I loved seeing your mom, like holding up the cards and I could tell she was so proud of you. And congratulations on such a successful business. I love what you're doing just to set good examples for moms who want to be entrepreneurs or are striving that you show how to do it. And you're making such a positive change in the world, starting from little infants all the way up. So thank you so much for being here and being on the show and I can't wait to get my cards because they're beautiful.

Thank you. And thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for joining us this week on the True Grit and Grace podcast. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button. And it would be so awesome if you rated and maybe left a review. That would help too. And also, I have some exciting news for you. If you are ready to learn a mindset that will get you through any challenge, ready to really transform any limiting beliefs, and finally find the wellness routines that work with your lifestyle and keep your body healthy and thriving, you're in the right place.

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