Alina Ugas is a Licensed Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming® (NLP®), Hypnotherapist, and Co-founder of Final Step International and its trademark technique, The Needs-Based Method® with over 35 years of experience in health care, mental health, and business entrepreneurship.
Alina is a certified Success Coach and Emotional Freedom Techniques Practitioner who is passionate about helping professional women develop the skills and self-assurance they need to take control of their working and personal lives.
With over 35 years of experience in health care, mental health, and business entrepreneurship Alina will help you open the door to your dream life today with a 7-Step System to Self-Discovery, Awareness, and Empowerment.
Follow Final Step International on Facebook and LinkedIn.
What You’ll Learn In This Episode
- Empowering women for success
- Overcoming self-doubt
- Navigating career and motherhood
- Assisting women to reach their full potential
- The Needs-Based Method®
- The advantage to the 7-Step System to Self-Discovery, Awareness, and Empowerment
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a good one today on the show, we have Alina Ugas with final step international. Welcome, Alina.
Alina Ugas: [00:00:44] Thank you. Thank you, Lee, for having me on your show.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about final step international. How are you serving, folks?
Alina Ugas: [00:00:54] Well, the final step we started back in twenty thirteen as a drug and alcohol communication education program, and that’s due to personal history, not history, but struggles with my family. And then we morphed it more into communications just, you know, communication skills. And now what we’re doing, one of the branches is we are working with women entrepreneurs and also women C-level executives who are looking to excel in their personal, professional and financial life.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] So now from serving people who are struggling personally with, I guess, addiction and things like that to now helping empower women and getting them on the track to success, they may seem, you know, very diametrically opposed in some ways. But I would imagine there’s a lot of kind of similar skills, isn’t there?
Alina Ugas: [00:01:59] Absolutely. One of the things that we did realize while the process of working with those who are struggling with addiction is that everybody’s story seemed to extend from childhood. And so that’s one of the things that we started focusing on and we realized within the first two years that we could actually our methodology could actually work for any circumstances in your life. And that’s again, through personal struggles, I realized that women are really not still to this day. We are not in a position where we should be working with side by side with men.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] So now for your client, is this something that how do they know that they’re they need your help? Like what are some symptoms that are maybe clues to help a woman, you know, partner up with you so you can assist them to to reach their whole full potential?
Alina Ugas: [00:03:02] Right. So what we’ve come across is women who are complaining about not being able to excel professionally or personally or financially. So women that are struggling in the man’s world, that’s what I call it. And that they’re always wondering, why is it that he gets the better promotions, better pay? So those women who are doubting that’s really is self doubt if they would really trust and believe in themselves, you know, we see tons of women that are in powerful positions. They would not be doubting themselves and a lot of them, which we’ve come across, are dealing with imposter syndrome. That whole, I don’t belong. I’m not good enough. So if you ever tell yourself, you know, negative chatter, I’m not good enough. I don’t belong. This job is not for me. That’s already a clue that you really need to work with a coach because that’s extending from somewhere.
Lee Kantor: [00:04:07] Now, do you find the average person struggles with that type of imposter syndrome? Is it something that affects, you know, the majority of folks and that it’s something that you’ve got to really nip in the bud if you really want to succeed?
Alina Ugas: [00:04:25] Absolutely, absolutely. You know, we all have I believe that it’s normal for us to have some doubt. But if that doubt persists for I want to say, you know, by the end of the day, then that’s a very letting you know that you are not able to work through that doubt on your own and that having a professional help you would really be beneficial to you.
Lee Kantor: [00:04:49] Now is that doubt something that is not a minor, just inconvenience, but it can really sabotage like you can do behaviorally things to sabotage your success that kind of just reinforce that imposter syndrome.
Alina Ugas: [00:05:05] Oh, absolutely. That’s where addiction comes in. And it’s not only addicted to drug and alcohol, you know, as women, one of the addictions that we have and that we help women work through is shoes, believe it or not, handbags. I don’t want to say I’m addicted, but I own well over forty five handbags and I only have two shoulders. So how many can I use at a time? So but that is just such such a feel good to me to be able to buy a handbag just because it’s pretty or whatever the case is. But then I realized prior to me, myself going through coaching, that was my way of satisfying that need that I had that I did not know what it was.
Lee Kantor: [00:05:54] So is that is the need something? It’s obviously not material, but it’s something there’s like a whole inside of you that you’re trying to fill with these materialistic objects.
Alina Ugas: [00:06:06] So the same thing with, again, with the drug, you know, you have a drink or you use whatever form of drugs, and it just makes you feel good for the moment. So it’s just like somebody that loves retail shopping. You know that you just go and buy, buy, buy and you really have no need for it, but you feel good in the moment that you’re doing it.
Lee Kantor: [00:06:29] So now so but that’s part of the challenge, right, that’s they don’t see it as a problem, I guess, like in drugs or alcohol, you know, you can look at yourself in the mirror and go, Wow, this probably isn’t great, but buying shoes or a handbag, you probably aren’t thinking, Wow, this is a problem, right? It’s not a big deal, right?
Alina Ugas: [00:06:50] You just know that you can’t pass up a pair of shoes, you can’t pass up a handbag. And then if you really ever stop to think, like, do I really need this when you realize that you have a closet full of boxes of shoes that you don’t wear, but just because it felt good in the moment? And then let’s not talk about looking at the credit card and realizing, no, I could not afford this. But though you still bought it because it felt good in that moment, but that is to it’s filling a hole that you have inside. You just can’t pinpoint what it is
Lee Kantor: [00:07:22] Now in your journey and your career of helping people at various stages of their life. Have you come up with kind of your own methodology to help these folks?
Alina Ugas: [00:07:32] Absolutely. Our methodology is called the needs based method and its trademark uniquely to us, and this is something that we’ve been working on to be able to train other coaches and even therapists and counselors in it. So what it is is to be able to identify the needs that you have in the moment. That doesn’t allow you to move forward, that the shoes are a perfect example, as a matter of fact, I just wanted to let you know that we did have a client that that was her addiction or shoes. But of course, it was a little bit more destructive. Know she was doing things that she wasn’t proud of in order to be able to afford the shoes. So that’s a perfect question for you to ask yourself, Is this a need or a want? Do I need it or do I just want this? And if you want it, why is it that you really want that? Whatever it is, if it’s a drugs, you know, the alcohol, the purse, the shoes? Why do I want it? And then once you start asking yourself and looking deep inside, then you’ll realize it’s filling a hole that you don’t even know what the hole is.
Alina Ugas: [00:08:40] Most of the time, I want to say 95 percent of the time is something that happened in childhood. It doesn’t have to be a traumatic experience because a lot of people believe that traumatic that trauma is something, you know, an abuse of rape, a death, whatever. Know, it could be something as simple as having a sibling being born, and you’re not knowing the uncertainty of how this new individual is going to impact your life. That’s the trauma. You know, I could honestly say that for years, that was the trauma that I had. My sister was born and I was born and raised part of my life in Cuba, and I didn’t know back then. They don’t tell you, parents don’t tell you anything. And so I didn’t know my mom was pregnant. She just showed up with this little bundle of hair and I was like, OK, cute, take her back, you know, because I was the only girl for five years. And believe it or not, that’s something that impact my life. I want to say for 40 years until I started seeking coaching, I didn’t realize that that was a childhood trauma, right?
Lee Kantor: [00:09:50] A lot of times people are kind of looking for that big trauma that’s, you know, a movie trauma that is horrific, but it can be just a disruption or how you perceived a threat when you know it’s not. Other people might not see that whatever that incident was as a threat, like your family didn’t see it as, Oh, I’m probably traumatizing Alina here by bringing this kid in, you know, they’re like the happiest day ever. And now we have two girls. We’re like.
Alina Ugas: [00:10:20] Right? Absolutely.
Lee Kantor: [00:10:24] So now when folks work with you or when women work with you, what does that look like? Does it? Is it always kind of one on one? Coaching is a group coaching. How do you kind of work with your clients?
Alina Ugas: [00:10:36] It’s one on one coaching. We have had coaching in the past, and we’re willing to do it again if there’s a need. Recently, there hasn’t been a need for a group coaching women really like that one on one that special attention. And one of the things that I do say that sets us a little apart from others other than our methodology that needs space method is the fact that they get two. For one, they get Michael, my business partner in myself. You know, they get Michael has a male perspective and then they get me as a female perspective. And then we work tenderly. We, you know, I’m a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, so we integrate a lot of other methodologies to be able to help the women achieve the goals that they’re looking for.
Lee Kantor: [00:11:27] And then now you’re looking for other kind of folks out there to be trained in the way that you do your work so that they can be helping other people in wherever they are.
Alina Ugas: [00:11:38] Absolutely. We have an 85 percent success rate. Michael, my business partner, has interviewed over 12000 individuals that are suffering from behavior issues. You know, drug alcohol addiction, sexual addiction, addiction, whatever. So and that’s what we realize that ninety five percent of them, believe it or not, come from a single parent household. It doesn’t matter what education level or social level that you’re in, the ones that are in a higher economy. Their issue is that their parent ignores them either to death, a doctor or an attorney, whatnot. The father’s not paying one on one attention, so those kids are equally as ignored as the ones that are living in a single parent household that the mom is always working.
Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] And then you help folks kind of just deal with that and how to manage it better and how to overcome it.
Alina Ugas: [00:12:43] Right? We teach them how to, first of all, become aware we have a seven step system that we put them through. So one of the biggest things is we teach them. Awareness that they don’t have step by step and then bring some clear understanding of their behavior and how to change or shift their mindset.
Lee Kantor: [00:13:06] And then once they have that awareness, then you give them kind of the tools to empower them to move forward.
Alina Ugas: [00:13:12] Absolutely. So actually, our seven step system is part of the tools that we use. We just have that copy written. And that’s something that if they go through all seven steps, sometimes you know, it does take about six months to a year, 18 months, depending on what is the original trauma. They will have that for the rest of their life. What they do is every situation to look at it, you know, they need to understand it. They need to become aware. Then what is the solution? So we give them all those tools to work with.
Lee Kantor: [00:13:44] And if somebody wants to learn more about your system, your programs and your certifications, what is the best way to get a hold of you in your team?
Alina Ugas: [00:13:55] It could either email me. We’re all over social media. Our new branch of the business is to be 60 mindset coaching. Our business is final step international. Like I said, they could email me at olina at Final Step International. We’re all over social media, so we’re pretty easy to access.
Lee Kantor: [00:14:18] Well, congratulations on all the success you’re doing. Important work and we appreciate you.
Alina Ugas: [00:14:23] Thank you, Lee. I really appreciate you for taking the time and having me on your show.
Lee Kantor: [00:14:27] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will sail next time on Coach the Coach radio.