Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laura Kyttanen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Laura, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Zielo Studio is a one-of-a-kind immersive coaching consultancy with a bold vision – we believe our world elevates when the Mindset Energy of people and organizations expand.

And our first step to expand Mindset Energy is to cultivate more courageous leaders with our signature immersive, interactive, hands-on team coaching program.

By combining our proprietary coaching method with immersive technologies, we elevate coaching effectiveness – improving reach, accessibility and cost, while also supporting positive transformation in people and workplace cultures.

To understand this better, I would invite you to imagine being an explorer in the 1900s with a 27 person crew when all of the sudden your ship encounters a crisis as it becomes trapped in a thick pack of ice. As you look around, you become overwhelmed with an intuitive sense that you would be spending the next 6 months, or longer, aboard the boat waiting for the icy mass surrounding it to thaw. What would you do as the captain of this ship? How would you manage to keep the crew together through this uncertain and vulnerable time?

You may have guessed already that I am referring to the story of Ernest Shackleton, whose ability to survive and keep the rest of his crew safe whilst stranded for two years still remains a remarkable story celebrating his heroism and above all, his courageous leadership.

Shackleton’s secret was to focus on fostering camaraderie by keeping the team engaged and boosting morale amid hardship. In other words, he learned to expand his team’s Mindset Energy – their thoughts, emotions, intentions, and cohesion – as he knew this was far more valuable than any other resource he had, including food supply.

Coming back to the current uncertain and volatile business landscape, many leaders have expressed feeling similar to what Shackleton experienced so long ago.

What if you and your team were able to experience something like Shackleton’s dilemma in a virtual environment, where it was safe to make mistakes, you were empowered to try different strategies and tools without any severe consequences and most importantly you were able to develop greater awareness around the team’s strengths and blind spots? Would this not give incredible space to learn, grow, connect deeper and ultimately elevate you and your team’s potential?

This is the intention of our immersive transformational group coaching programs – ignite awareness, expand MIndset Energy and elevate potential.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Laura Kyttanen, founder of Zielo Studio. I am an American boss-mama living in Amsterdam married to a Finnish man and parenting two young children together. I appreciate a strong cup of coffee, enjoy biking the canals, yoga, running, spending time in nature, swimming, journaling, meditating, painting, dancing and listening to music.

In terms of professional experience, I spent the majority of my Corporate career in Human Resources, specializing in change management, executive coaching, and leadership development. I also have business experience and particularly enjoy business and brand strategy, sales, and marketing. I have lived in multiple countries and have worked with more than 33 nationalities. I decided to transition from Corporate to Entrepreneur over 7 years ago to pursue my passion for coaching to maximize the potential of the whole person, a niche I saw as being underserved in the sector.

Although I experienced much success in my career and life, it was until a devastating miscarriage, that I found myself in a bit of an identity crisis. This led to an extensive inner healing journey where I eventually was inspired to develop my own proprietary transformational coaching methodology centered around ‘Mindset Energy.’

My approach is focused on removing the internal constraints that so many of us impose on ourselves. Too often, we grow up believing that when we master external goals, we will be happy. Yet, this overlooks the root cause of our actions, behaviors, performance, and ultimately our wellness and well-being. True leadership comes from the inside out; it is our core beliefs and values and the authentic expression of our self that create a massive impact in our relationships, work, well-being, and beyond – a legacy paved for future generations.

If you can imagine that just like when you blow the fluffy white seeds of a dried dandelion, and they are carried for miles before finally setting down to grow again – you have the same impact around you as you expand and elevate.

With the introduction of COVID, a pandemic of global mental health emerged, giving me the chance to expand my company and fundamentally reimagine the way coaching is carried out. I started to see the power of immersive technology. I decided it was time to shake up the industry and how people experience their transformation journey.

I am excited to be part of the pioneers in this space, especially as more research shows the positive impact immersive tech can have on psychological outcomes. For example, a Stanford study shows choices of virtual environments and avatars can promote positive psychological outcomes in the metaverse.” I have also discovered this when I reflect on the feedback from the surveys I collect from my clients, such as “The environment allows for more vulnerability.” I also find group coaching in the metaverse is very powerful as it creates a sense of connectedness. As one client reflected on her experience, she said, “What I liked best is to be able to listen to each other’s experiences and feel not alone with what you are going through or your thoughts through the comfort of my own home feeling as if I am actually in the space.”

What I am most proud about as a founder is birthing an idea and seeing it take shape in the form of an MVP that actually changes people’s lives.

One thing I would like for people to know about Zielo Studio is that everything about the brand is intentional. For example, the brand name – “Ziel” is ‘soul’ in Dutch and “O” is the symbol for ‘Unlimited Potential’. So, when put together, it translates to “Our Soul has Unlimited Potential.’ This is a strong value of mine, which is why it is also one of the guiding principles for Zielo Studio. Imagine being guided by a coach who believed this about you. Who would you be able to become and what might you be able to achieve as a result?

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Before I share how I’ve been able to fund my business so far, I think it might be interesting to know that I actually conceived the idea for Zielo Studio during a silent meditation. I visualized a different type of coaching experience in an app, where people were transforming through personalized journeys and connecting in unique groups to enable more human centric workplace cultures. It was an extremely profound experience.

However, not long after I came out of my meditation I became filled with self-doubt. How was I to birth such an idea without any tech background?

It took courage to get started, yet given the inner work I have done I immediately thought to myself “why not me?” The first step I took was to create a sort of pitch deck to share with business professionals and people I respected in my network. My thought was that if people didn’t like the idea then there was no real risk involved and I could continue my coaching business as is.

The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and this encouraged me to keep going. In fact, I found my first two investors within my network – people willing to fund the idea as it really resonated with them.

And then I hit my first obstacle – the initial tech team I hired to develop the app went bankrupt. Which meant I lost the initial investment in the app without any tangible product and I also lost the first two investors’ money.

Although a hard pill and lesson to swallow, I knew in my heart there was a reason for this and that it was important to keep going.

This is when I decided it might be time to look for a tech co-founder and met a guy on y-combinator matching platform. We had great conversations which helped me pivot and evolve the initial app idea into a more immersive coaching experience using the metaverse as a catalyst for transformation. Together we created an MVP which I used to test with several small pilot groups. From the success of these pilots I found the next investor which enabled me to fund some of the next phase of the MVP.

In addition to these few investors, Zielo Studio has been self funded by the business revenue made from coaching clients. Ultimately, my aim is not to fundraise the traditional way as I believe that being part of alternative business models and challenging the startup status quo is an important to innovate and elevate. Alternative models I am looking at help me be able to balance profit and purpose, champion democracy, and put a premium on sharing power and resources. I want Zielo Studio to be a company that leads by example and I believe we are be better equipped to do that when we are not faced with the typical short term investor and shareholder expectations. For inspiration, I look to other companies, leaders and models I admire – like Patagonia, Richard Branson or Ricardo Semler – all of which demonstrate that you can be both profitable and purposeful.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for Zielo Studio is first and foremost through referrals of current clients, followed by networking, mostly in person or via linkedin. When you take care of your clients, it makes all the difference. In the last year I have retained 99% of my existing clients and 80% of new clients were from referrals. There is so much strength in word of mouth because it comes with a sense of trust and confidence that might take more time to build with cold leads.

If you are an entrepreneur reading this, ultimately there is never a one size fits all for sourcing clients. It takes experimentation and learning what works best for you. However, from my experience the best way to attract clients is to take care of yourself first. This is why I prioritize my own Mindset Energy through daily practices which not only help me stay sharp, these rituals or habits re-energize me so I can show up as my highest and best self. Consider your own buying habits – you are more likely to purchase a product or service when the seller is demonstrating what is possible through their solution, right? That is why it is important to be intentional about how you are showing up as the owner and representative of your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zielostudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zielostudio/
• Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zielo-studio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zielo-studio