479 Diane Halfman:

Diane Halfman supports women leaders move from a life of emergency … to emergence. We’re all in emergency mode right now sheltering in place to stop the spread of Covid-19, so who better to have on Wings in this moment than Diane, who also hosts the Live You SPAlife Podcast.

Diane draws on her survival instincts from her work as an undercover prostitute for the San Diego police department to empower women in business make quick and smart decisions and feel safer in the world.

Diane Halfman will be here with her advice on how to cope best as you’re locked down or sheltering in place wondering how to juggle the demands of business with your kids at home … or how to bring in money when your clients have no money.  One thing you can do in these challenging times is focus on how you can adapt your business to fast changing circumstances and use your time to seize new opportunities.

Today on our Mentoring Minisode of Wings of Inspired Business … we talk about how entrepreneurs can best cope with the challenges of coronavirus …and better yet find inspiration in all the chaos as our world is turned upside down. Rather than getting mired in the bad news, we can instead focus on people who are doing good right now, looking for possibility, finding ways to use your business to be of help right now when people need you. We talk about how to life the SPA Life – Spa meaning more than self-care – SPA meaning seeking power always.

Here with us today to provide her insights and inspiration is …

It was never Diane’s plan to walk the streets and become a prostitute, yet alone get involved with vicious gangs and narcotics, but her life choices as an undercover cop put her in grave circumstances. Danger became a way of life for Diane … and forced her to carry a gun in her hand every day for 10 years.  You see, Diane’s job with the San Diego Police department was to infiltrate the gangs and prostitutes, bust the John’s, bring’em down and clean up the streets.

Diane understands fear and survival instincts—she lived them, and knows what it takes to find your grit, perseverance and power to push through any challenge. After being medically retired from the police department as a result of a training accident, Diane took her years of experience along with her Masters in Human Resources Management and Certification as a Life Coach to pioneer the creation of her own company called SPAlife.  SPA is an acronym for Seek Power Always. Her podcast, “Live Your SPAlife” is a call to action for all women to define and create the life they truly want.

As the Empowerment Expert Diane Halfman helps overwhelmed women entrepreneurs move from a life of emergency to emergence. Diane possesses a unique set of skills and life experiences that allow her to coach, guide and demonstrate the very techniques she used to RESET her own life and those of countless others.

Melinda Wittstock:         Diane, welcome to Wings.

Diane Halfman:                It’s so great to be here with Melinda. Let’s do this.

Melinda Wittstock:         I know right. In the time of coronavirus, there’s a lot of panic, there’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of big changes for a lot of business owners. Many of whom have to pivot or they’re trying to figure out how to make payroll. There’s all kinds of stuff going on. Where are you finding inspiration at this time?

Diane Halfman:                Melinda, I love this question because that is exactly it. Where are we looking for inspiration? For me, I hear a lot of different people just scrolling and zooming in on the bad news. What happens when people do that? They are then locked into Chicken Little, The Sky is Falling, everything’s going to go to hell in a hand basket when we can actually choose who are stepping up to be a leader right now. Really, that shows your weight in being a leader of the world is when you can step up and be a leader in crisis.

Diane Halfman:                The inspiration can come from finding where’s the good news, who’s putting their head above the storm, and talking about possibility, talking about pivoting, looking at how you can support your people, what do they need. It’s a great opportunity to be inspiring and be inspired.

Melinda Wittstock:         What a beautiful answer. On the Minisode, we spend a good deal of time talking about challenges because even in the best of times, business owners have challenges because there’s a lot of stuff beyond our control. I like to destigmatize that for people. What are some of the challenges that are going on in your business or your life right now, whether it’s corona-specific or not?

Diane Halfman:                Well, I think the challenge comes from people feeling like they have to halt, to stop the world and they’re like waiting, the sense of waiting for something to shift and change and whether it’s chronic virus. If somebody’s listening to this like a year or two years down the road, they may be like, “What’s corona virus?” I mean, there’s so many different things that pop up that just go away because they solve themselves. There is ways that you can actually expand from that.

Diane Halfman:                The challenge, I think, is that people are feeling a sense of being stuck because it’s not business as usual. The challenge is finding out how are you going to pivot and to survive and shift and look in how you’re going to serve people in the new world order.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. I mean, your whole thing is SpaLife. I’m actually missing my time in the spa. That’s actually a really big challenge for me right now. How do you come and create your own SpaLife when there’s no spa to go to?

Diane Halfman:                Well, first of all, you can create that anywhere you go. That is I think for women and particularly women entrepreneurs is part of why I talk about SpaLife is you want to be able to create that femininity, that serenity, that calm in the storm, but you also want to be fearless and that whole spa and SpaLife is for seek power always, that power within you. When things are spinning out of control around you, how can you do the things that center yourself?

Diane Halfman:                I mean, one of the things that I bought when we were like, “Okay, I’m going to be home for a couple weeks. I got some Epsom salts for some bass. I’m going to be doing some extra max. I’m going to be listening to positive podcasts like yours and mine and reading some books and seeing how can I inspire myself even getting some extra sleep. I mean, how many times people talk about I wish I had more time. I wish I could be with my family.

Diane Halfman:                Well, now you have it. This is a perfect opportunity to ground yourself and actually reset yourself now so that when things do open up, you are rested and ready to go.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that is so, so smart. I mean, I think having time right now to really reflect and to get into alignment. I mean, I feel like I’m very much aligned in my business and my life right now. I wasn’t always that way. What I would have given for just some quiet time and in the end, I created it for myself, but this is an opportunity.

Diane Halfman:                Right, absolutely. It’s like my chat to everyone out there is to start looking at how can you do some things differently. Instead of trying to force into doing business as usual, give yourself more space. Give yourself that breathing time. Meditate for an hour today and see what comes out of that. Give yourself that space to go, how can things happen differently if I just completely shape things up on my own and create my own reality?

Melinda Wittstock:         Very, very good advice and a great segue into the advice section of the Minisode. Looking back all the things you’ve learned and experienced in your business career, Diane, if you had to distill it down to three pieces of advice, what would those pieces of advice be?

Diane Halfman:                Oh, I love this. I would say the first thing is, is that I always draw upon my experience, particularly when I worked undercover prostitution with the police department. Part of me surviving on the streets coming home to my daughter’s, moving forward and even transitioning into my business is trusting my instincts. That’s probably the number one thing that my clients come to is that they’ll move forward on their plan and then something will cause a glitch and they’ll start second guessing themselves.

Diane Halfman:                The number one thing to keep yourself moving forward is to trust yourself to either pivot, to maybe hold back a little bit, maybe to move forward, but to listen to that because how many times have we gone against what we knew was the right path for us. Then, we just later said, “Oh, man, I knew that,” but we override it. That first thing is definitely trusting your instincts.

Diane Halfman:                Then, the second thing would be to choose a mentor that has actually achieved what you want. Not enough to just have any old mentor that might be working for somebody else. What is it that you really want? What do you admire in them? What is the path that they’ve done? How have they done it and not just the end result of what they’ve done, but how they’ve actually gone there and done that is, are you willing to walk those same steps and is that someone who’s going to lead you in the direction that you want to go. Just because they have a serve somebody else, it doesn’t mean that it’s the same path that you want or it will work for you. You got to be really clear on who you’re choosing as your mentors.

Diane Halfman:                Then, the third thing is to honor your boundaries. It is so important. We don’t necessarily need to manage our time or really look outside of what everyone else is doing. We got to get clear on what’s our values, what do we want to accomplish and really have some clear guidelines on what your boundaries are, what is an absolute yes for you and you’re stepping into and you’re making it a priority and honoring your knows. Your knows really are a lot of times a lot more important because there’s so many different opportunities out there but when you’re clear about what you’re doing and honoring those boundaries, you’re going to exceed much faster.

Melinda Wittstock:         Such great advice and this last one too is so interesting to me because a lot of women really struggle with how to say no. Many of us are people pleasers. Getting clear on what it is we really want and living to that, I think, is a great way to be. Diane, how can people find you and work with you and of course, listen to your amazing podcast?

Diane Halfman:                Oh, thank you. Well, you can always go to my website dianehalfman.com that’s, D-I-A-N-E-H-A-L-F-M-A-N.com. You can also, if you’re not sure, like how to step into your power. I also have a free gift for people. It’s a super five easy ways to step into your power and you can just go to resetyourpowergift.com and that’ll give you some tools to get started in that and definitely connect with me on social media. I’d love to connect and see how I can support you.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. Diane, thank you so much for putting on your Wings.

Diane Halfman:                Thank you. Great to be here.