Alanna Levenson, Business Coach and Workshop Facilitator, is on a mission to help driven business owners reach their highest potential through self-awareness and no-excuses action.

We explore Alanna’s coaching journey and her Executive Improvement MAP, a framework that guides entrepreneurs to elevate their mindset and mission, align strategy with values, and build legacy-driven, profit-focused teams. She outlines how leaders can reclaim their focus, lead with intention, and foster quiet influence by becoming profoundly self-aware. Alanna also shares the three critical questions business owners should ask daily to stay on a growth path.

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Build Your Team’s Self-Awareness with Alanna Levenson

Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Alanna Levenson, business coach and workshop facilitator who helps driven business owners reach their highest potential and take no excuses action. Alanna, welcome to the show.

It’s good to be here.

Well, I’m super curious about how you do that with these business owners, even though they are driven, which is a good given. But let’s start with my favorite question. What is your personal “Why” and what are you doing to manifest it in your practice?

Yeah. So, the question of our “Why.” I mean, I asked that of my clients too. It’s an important one, because if we don’t know what it is, then in essence, we’re directionless and we’re disconnected. So when I think about that, I reflect back at when I was very young and I was introverted and very shy and didn’t really feel like I had much of a voice. I was also very insecure. And there were things that I did throughout my life, like I studied dancing, which was more of a physical expression than a verbal one. But I did it in a very committed way for, I mean, I could say from when I was four until I was 18, but I even did it in college.

So really my “Why” is about connecting with yourself, finding confidence, knowing your voice, and what does your voice wanna say?
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And that will evolve throughout your lifetime because what my voice has wanted to express or is currently expressing is very different than even who I was just a few years ago.  So, my “Why” is really reflecting and connecting with who you are, understanding that we are evolving living beings. And we’re having this incredible experience and that we’re not the only ones on the planet. So, since we’re constantly bumping up against other people in life and in work, how can we be the best that we can be while also supporting others and being the best that they can be too?

Yeah, okay. That’s, that’s pretty powerful. Be the best we can be and make other people the best that they can be as well. I love it. So how do you do this? How do you help your clients kind of map out a roadmap to get there? So what does it take to be the best you can be as a business owner as you are traversing this terrain and trying to be in the business and be a better human?

Well, I’ve been coaching for 20 years, and even my journey with coaching has evolved over time. My clientele has evolved. The “Why’s” have evolved within the clientele as well. And where I am now, it’s about giving people, it’s not so much a framework as it is guardrails. And then there’s a very intuitive, organic, custom process within that, that I work with people on. But if we’re talking about a roadmap or the word MAP, as an acronym, I am using that as a framework. So what do I mean by that? So the M, if you think of that in terms of your mindset and your mission, if I was to sum that up, it’s about reconnecting to your purpose, your “Why.” It’s reclaiming your focus.

So what I’ve noticed about people is they tend to get very distracted and it’s easy and it’s becoming quote unquote easier to get distracted these days, especially because of so many things happening in the world and the world changing so fast. And we’re just all trying to navigate through it and keep up with it.

Reclaiming your focus for yourself can be really powerful and important.
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And that also what’s underneath all that is your inner excellence. What makes you excellent? And I’m not talking about perfectionism because I know that’s a big problem for people too and how that shows up. But really what is your inner excellence of who you are, what you’re doing and why you’re doing it? So getting a clear understanding of what your mindset is, where it is and how you can transform it to serve yourself and others and the mission that goes with that. That’s what I mean by the M piece. So I don’t know if you have any questions or comments about that before I go on to the A.

Yeah, it is a little bit complex, but I like the idea of reclaiming your focus. That’s a really powerful way to express that. We have to resist the distraction and we have to just not allow us to be diverted to maybe other people’s goals, and we have to own our own, and we have to keep our attention on it. I think it’s super important. And it’s very easy to get distracted with the news and with disturbing stuff.  But guess what? We are run out of 300 million. How much can we influence the news? And we have a profession where we are making a difference. Isn’t that a better way to apply ourselves? But that goes into a philosophical discussion that we probably don’t even have time. So love it. Mission is number one. So what’s the A in the MAP acronym?

Well, really quick, I want to touch on something you said, because I think it’s really important. Throughout my life, I realized that there were times when I was distracted from my own “Why,” and I was more about, I was avoiding it by supporting somebody else’s. I did get fulfillment in that, but I realized looking back that there was also an element of avoidance and it wasn’t until I gave myself permission to redirect my focus back to me and realize how much more impact I can have. So I think that’s a really important piece that you, I don’t even know if you realize you brought up, but I wanted to just highlight that too. The A has to do with approach and alignment. So what do I mean by that? 

Okay. Back to focus. This is now is about focused execution. What are the actions that you’re taking? It has to do with leadership structure, also seeing yourself as a leader and where do you fit within that structure? Let alone, are you a leader really within a hierarchical organization where you’ve got people reporting to you or multiple layers reporting to you? And then a values driven strategy. So each of those words are really important. I’m a very intentional purpose. Verbiage and words to me hold power. And when I say values driven, I mean, what are your personal values? What are your professional values? How does that fit within the collective of the values that you’re working besides with, or that you’re serving within the organization? It there’s so many layers to it. And I don’t think people really take the time out to think about this too much.

And then what’s the strategy that you’re using to making sure that those values are being lived out and that you’re what I call honoring them. Because if you’re not honoring them with purpose and intention, then you’ve lost focus. All of it works together. That’s what I mean by approach and alignment.

It's aligning with yourself, it's aligning with others, it's aligning to the objectives and the values of the larger organization at hand, or maybe it's just even the team that you're on and how you're approaching that.
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So I guess it starts with picking an organization where you can align with the values of. So knowing your personal values, work for an organization or support an organization that you can be aligned with, and then the next step is staying true to that, I guess.

Yeah. And that’s within that journey, all the things that you just mentioned is a journey really. And what I love about the way that I get to work with people is using my intuition and all the amazing tools that I’ve learned over the years and personal experience too. I’m pretty good about when I talk to a leader or get to work with say a small business or an organization, I can start to quickly see where the gaps are, what’s missing, where’s there a disconnect. For example, I was recently coaching a sales leader and something that he was trying to work through where it was the sales weren’t where they needed to be, but they were blaming it on his team in that they were doing product demos because it’s a tech company, which I also work a lot in that space.

And the more I dug deeper with him, I realized this has less to do with the fact that there’s a gap in their own sales process in when they start to lose sales and more about where are the leads coming from and how is your marketing feeding into the way that the sales process works. And within 15 minutes, I helped him see, which he unfortunately didn’t have control over, I asked him questions about marketing and leads coming in. And I said, how’s that working? And he’s like, it’s not. So we looked at all the different ways that they’re getting leads. And I said, is it staying the same? Is it getting higher? Is it going down? And it was a much larger strategy than just this one nuanced problem that yes, it’s an issue to address in their own process, but it’s a bigger conversation. And so that’s where I’m talking about in terms of approach and alignment.

Yeah, that’s alignment. This is very important. Okay, so what’s the P in the MAP acronym?

Yeah, so the P is people and profit, which you might think, well, that’s a no-brainer. So you got to focus on the people in one respect. And then what’s the profitability or profit margin and are you even focusing on that? What I mean by that is, okay, legacy teams. What do I mean by legacy? What’s the impact that we’re having? What do you wanna leave people with? What’s the tenure and the longevity of a team and what they’re doing? Also, pointing back to the “Why,” because all of these things are intertwined, although they can be looked at individually as well, or in an isolated way.

But if you really want to have a legacy team, you’re clear on the journey that you’re in, your “Why” of why you’re doing it, why are you still doing it? Sometimes that’s a question I like to ask people of like, why are you even still here in the role that you’re in or the team that you’re on or doing the work that you’re doing?  Because people do get to a point where they’re ready for something different or the team or the work is at a transitional point and are people holding it back unnecessarily? And this is where innovation and being open to new directions is important to engage in. And then there’s that scalable impact. So if you truly want to grow, how are you supporting yourself in that way so that you can scale? And what’s the impact of that on the work, the individuals, the team, the organization, your suppliers, your stakeholders, your customers, you got to look at all the players involved and then quiet influence. It’s not about being loud.

There's a lot that can happen when you take a pause and you reflect and really look at where you are and where you want to go and why aren't you there yet.
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So if you don’t take the time to do that, then, and you’re just in constant putting out fires, problem solving mode, which is a good place to be, but are you approaching putting out those fires in the right way? Are you solving the real problem or is there something much deeper? And so when you take the time to reflect individually and even collectively and having dialogues that might be important to have that you aren’t currently having, that’s what I mean by quiet influence. And that can very much have an impact on the greater whole.

Yeah. So, I mean, I agree that basically what is a business? It’s a bunch of people with a purpose working together and you have to have the right people. They say the A-players are free and there’s money left over because they create value for you. So they are profitable to be employed even if they’re more expensive. And you have to have the right people in the right seat because in the wrong seat, they’re not going to be profitable. Yeah. And there’s the short term and the long term. So this is a complex equation here. But I love it. So mindset and mission, approach and alignment, people and profit. Very good. So one of the things that you raised during our pre-conversation was the importance of self-awareness. Do you believe that people can improve their own self-awareness? And if so, how?

Absolutely. As a living soul, we all have the capacity to improve our self-awareness. Are you just making it a priority? So in terms of the how, first you got to make it a priority. First, you have to realize, okay, so I sometimes teach clients is there’s a distinction between somebody who is self-aware and somebody who’s profoundly self-aware. So what do I mean by that? If I was to go up to a hundred people and ask them, do you think that you’re a self-aware person? I have a feeling that a hundred percent of those people would say, oh yeah, I am definitely self-aware. And yet, if you look at what’s happening in the workplace and in society, things haven’t in some ways gotten better.

Some ways it’s gotten worse and harder and more challenging. Okay, so what do I mean by profoundly self-aware? Let me paint a little bit of a distinction. So the self-aware person will say, if you call them out on something that they do as a behavior, they’ll say, yeah, I know, I do that. Yeah, I know. It’s just who I am and I’ve just accepted that about myself. That’s the self-aware person. And some might say, yeah, well, that’s progress. Okay. And here’s the profoundly self-aware person. The profoundly self-aware person says, I appreciate you bringing that to my attention and you’re right, I do that. And although I’ve accepted that as part of who I am, I’m realizing the impact that it has on me and the impact that it has on other people and I wanna do it differently.

And so I’m gonna start as uncomfortable as it is, start to do that differently and really reflect on why am I doing that? What’s the impact and what are some ways I can? And so I’m going to start practicing that. And in the beginning, it’s more of a reflection back on, oh gosh, I did it again. But you catch it and then you start catching yourself in the middle of it and you might even say, okay, timeout. This is not what I wanted to be doing. Give me a moment. I want to pivot here. And then you get so good at practicing it that you get to a point where you actually catch it ahead of time. And then over time, you start to realize, oh, wow, I’m not even doing that thing anymore. Now, does it mean that you’ll never do it again? Sometimes it depends on what it is.  That said,

you might default back to your old way of doing things, but yet you have that profound self-awareness so you'll once again be able to catch yourself. That's what I mean by self-awareness.
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And I think people, everybody has the capacity to do that. They just have to take the time to do it and stop focusing on the how and just do it.

Yeah, that’s a very big conversation. I’m probably not a profoundly self-aware person. That’s the face of madness that I’m recognizing here.

What makes you say that?

Because I have certain reactions which are not pleasant for people around me. Okay. I don’t want to turn this into a therapy session, but on the other hand, sometimes I don’t know to turn this into a therapy session, but on the other hand, sometimes I don’t know how to negotiate a situation where you have maybe an unattractive response, but it is being triggered by another thing which is still there. So how do you not react? Is it suppressing emotion? Can you always have an objective, cool-headed conversation in the middle of when this is happening? I don’t know how it’s possible to remove those emotional reactions when the emotion itself has a function. It has a function of calling the attention to something that is an irritant. So it’s a big conversation. I don’t know if you can fit it in to this, but I’m definitely not profoundly self-aware and I’m going to work on it.

I appreciate you saying that. So well, really quickly too. So sometimes you can catch it and pivot in the moment by just kind of saying, hey, time out, give me a minute. This is not going in the direction that I want it to go. And it’s a matter of sinking well, from your head down into your heart. And I’m certified in heart math tools. And if you’re not familiar with that, you can go to heartmath.org and they have a lot of free information too. That said, I am certified as a facilitator or heart math coach and using some of their techniques, but it’s about sinking, moving from your head to your heart. And the science of the heart is really powerful and stop doing it again.

And believe it or not, more information travels from our heart to our brain than from the other direction. And this is about 5,000 times more powerful electrically than our brain. And so being able to sink in your heart and say, hey, wait a second, this is not how I wanted this to go. Can I just share a few thoughts with you. Now, if you can’t do that because you’re in your amygdala going to brain science, which I’m a geek about too. If you go into your amygdala and the other person’s in their amygdala, both of you are in your survival brain, you’re not gonna have a productive conversation. So the most productive thing in that moment is to say, you know what? We could probably have a more productive conversation than this. Maybe this isn’t the right time. 

Let’s both go away from this and think about really what we’re talking about, what we’re trying to achieve together here, whether it has to do with the topic at hand, the relationship that we have or how we’re communicating about it. And let’s come back and figure out how we can do this differently. Talk about doing something with purpose and intention and really getting a handle on how you’re maybe getting derailed emotionally. Because yes, we are emotional beings and I’m not saying avoid your emotions, I’m not saying suppress them because that’s not productive either.

It's merely a matter of acknowledging them and recognizing that we do have this amazing heart brain connection and we can with intention do things differently when you catch it.
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Yeah, that’s a really good point. So final question, maybe it feels a little bit disconnected. What is the most important thing that you believe an entrepreneur or a business owner should be asking themselves on a daily basis?

Well, it’s not necessarily just one thing, if I may. I once learned from a mentor of mine, three very simple questions that I also love sharing with. As a leader in a corporate environment, you can use them too. And they’re very much helpful for entrepreneurs and small business owners. The three simple questions that you can ask at different stages, and you will probably get different answers every time is, number one, what needs to change? The second is what do you need to let go of? And the third is who do you need to hire? Because if you are scaling and growing, you can’t do it alone, whether that means you hire a contractor or you hire a part-time employee, or you bring somebody on full-time of which you get to define and what makes the most sense for your business, depending on what your needs are, what your budgets are and where you are in your growth.

So those are three simple questions that you could ask yourself. Again, what needs to change? What do I need to let go of? And who do I need to hire? And sometimes the answers to those questions are a person, a thing, it could be a belief system, a mindset, a process. So that’s where having a coach can be really helpful to help you figure out what that looks like for you and how that’s applicable to your business, your team, your organization, and what you’re trying to achieve in the work that you’re doing. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, it’s a really good one. What I’m hearing, it’s kind of the idea of the creative destruction. So sometimes we have to stop doing things. We have to do more of a good thing, less good thing. And then maybe we need to hire someone or maybe we had to let someone go. And these are often uncomfortable realizations because you may like that person or you may not want the headache of bringing in someone else who might not work out either. And you take energy. But these are important questions because you’re building a business and the business is made up of people. And if you’re trying to wear all the hats, then you’re not gonna go anywhere with your business. So that’s a very pertinent question. Thank you. Well, so if people would like to learn more, maybe want to have a conversation with you on how you could help them with more self-awareness or asking the right questions, where can they find you and where should they learn more about you?

So my website is i-love-my-life.com. It has dashes in between. So it’s i-love-my-life.com. And then I’m also on LinkedIn a lot. So you can find me on LinkedIn, Alanna Levenson. I’m also on Facebook and Instagram, and I do have a YouTube channel where I’ll post tips and videos about some of the aha moments that come out of coaching sessions that might be helpful to other people. I’m not going to spill the beans on it yet, but I am creating my own podcast, even though I’ve been, I appreciate being on other people’s podcasts and I have a couple of other collaborations, but I am in the midst of creating my own and I’m really excited about it. So keep an eye out, cause I’ll be announcing that in the next probably month or two to get that launched.

Okay. Well, definitely we’ll be on the lookout for that. I’m sure it’s going to be very exciting. And when you’re the host, you can ask a lot of good questions, probably better ones than I did. So, Alanna Levenson, business coach and virtual facilitator, helping driven business owners take no excuses action. Thank you for coming on the show, sharing your experiences and insights. And for those who are listening, if you enjoyed the show, make sure you follow us on YouTube and stay tuned because every week, we have one or two exciting coaches and business owners come and share their experiences with us. So thank you for coming. Thank you for listening.

Important Links:

• Alanna’s LinkedIn
• Alanna’s website