Angela Santi — The Dolce Vita Methodology: Building a Balanced and Joyful Life

what's your dream what's your goal what's your motivation what's important to you what's your passion what can you do to change the world this is what's involved conversations with thought leaders and change makers from around the world hear stories of hope and inspiration to help motivate people like you to live your life find your passion passion and live your dream together we could all bring positive change to our world now here's your host David Watts and once again it is what's involved in other special guests I love getting to check to the people that I take to my special case today is baby her name is Angela Santi and she is all about being living in Dolce Vita and Dolce Vita leadership and lifestyle design welcome Angela hi David thank you very much for inviting me I'm so excited to be at your house at your show it's absolutely wonderful look it caught my attention straight away when when I saw this Dolce Vita lifestyle because if if my Italians okay Dolce Vita is basically the good life is that right yeah the the the translation is the sweet life the literal translation but in fact and we will discover it later Dolce Vita is a way more expensive concept than just that fantastic so before we get into all of that though Angela tell me a little bit about yourself I know that you're your Italian I think you live in northern Italy don't you exactly I'm living in a wonderful city called Bologna where really creativity productivity and the good life the highest quality of life collide so it's exactly the sweet spot wonderful now tell us about your journey I cuz cuz you weren't always all about La Dolce Vita and lifestyle design so tell me a bit about Angela as a youngster and growing up all right so Angela is a disciplined rebel and this is a nice what I find a very nice way of defining me that was created by a person that was working with me so what what do I mean for that so I yeah it's true I wasn't always about la dulce Vita from the business side but I was about la dulce Vita for my what I wanted to leave and I actually leave la dulce Vita for almost all my life because I come from a family of entrepreneurs since many generations so I really had the opportunity to have a wonderful lifestyle to do whatever I wanted I I could travel all over the world and I'm talking about the 70s and the 80s you know of the last century so it wasn't that common so I really had a lot of fun and and many many many adventures and beautiful experiences so then I went working in my family business that at that time was one of the ten largest groups in the distribution of luxury cars so the Ferrari the Maserati you know all the beautiful and it was a dulce Vita in a way so and then when I was working there I was in charge of I would call it now change management and at that time it was like organizational development and HR development so I was the one who created you know the dulce Vita environment for our employees and I was also sitting in the board of directors so everything was great but in a way as I'm a high performer I was also pushing pushing pushing it to the max and then when the crisis 2008 crisis came the business collapsed so because all the automotive well at least in Italy the automotive industry collapse and you know we were big and you know all the stuff so I really started from scratch and at that time I decided to really reassess my skills and my value and create something for myself that was really aligned with who I am and what I take I care for so this is how my dulce Vita consulting was born and what I want to tell you is that it wasn't always this way even the consulting because I started as an independent contractor for organizational and HR development and but I wasn't that happy so I decided to change a few times and finally I really created this business that is aligned with who I am 100% and the way I function and it's an online business and now it's open you know for all over the world I started working with Italians and now I'm working with people from all over which I think is absolutely wonderful but let's let's talk a little bit about it I mean that must have been a huge blow to you when the family business collapsed I mean talk about Dolce Vita with the Ferraris and all of those luxury car brands and I mean it must have been very very difficult and then to be able to reinvent yourself what made you think okay things have changed I've now got to make a plan for myself yes this is a very good question so it was it had been very very difficult and actually it was a sort of a surprise because as we were so big we really underestimated that for you know like the big companies our company was in fact small even though it was big for Italy and so everything collapsed in nine months so we didn't expect that and we didn't even think it was possible so at the beginning you know I was like oh it's it's unbelievable and what am I gonna do so and though I think that I would like to throw your attention into is that I was so committed to what I was doing that I was identifying myself with my role in business so when I lost my family business I also lost my identity in a way so it was really really tough then what made me shift was first of all I had no choice of reinventing myself and then it was also my being how can I say I've always loved the unknown yet venter and I've always put myself in challenges so now I was like okay you want the challenges now you have a real one so I decided to really say who am I do I want to be do I want to be the victim who is complaining do I want to be you know or do I want to roll up my sleeve and create something that is really aligned with who I am and what I want because I tell you as I was saying before and I mentioned it a little bit the life with the company business was amazing and it was a Dolce Vita in a way from the outside because you know the luxury and the events and you know the beautiful people etc and all the you know the means that I have and I could do whatever I wanted but it wasn't really aligned with 100% with my values so I said okay let's do it and and let's try it so and I always you know I'm curious and I want to and I like to challenge myself and try wonderful stuff well I want to get into a little bit about what the actual process is and how you develop that so let's do that in a little bit this is what's involved my special guest is Angela Santi she's about all about the Dolce Vita leadership and she's also a lifestyle designer and she caters to the top tier of people so we're very lucky that she's chatting to you and I today we'll be back with more what's involved in just a bit we'll be right back with more what's involved David would love to hear from you to leave a voice message visit what's involved calm and click drop me a voice note and we're back my special guest is Angela Santi we're talking about Dolce Vita leadership now I love Angela where you describe yourself as a disciplined rebel because it seems like such a contradiction in terms and you know that and then you said to me just before the break you said to me that you know it's all about your values your purpose and you know that to me is fascinating so it's a talk to me about that because people listening now Mark yeah it's okay for you Angela you came from a family that was already successful you born in Italy and we all know that Italians have wonderful lives you know so it's not it's what wouldn't be that hard for you to live la Dolce Vita so tell me about that yes well it's not leaving coming from a wealthy family is tricky actually because you are already living la Dolce Vita so you are not as you said so you are really in your comfort zone okay so you are not really moved by you know like making your life better because your life is already at your best what is difficult is to maintain la Dolce Vita and it's also to develop a business that is founded on la Dolce Vita because nowadays things are changing fortunately because of the great whatever we want to call it resignation reset reassessment whatever but we know that the values that are told in business are only that of go go go you know work work work your you know like business and duty comes first and then comes your Dolce Vita and yourself so what I want to say is what is la Dolce Vita let's go back again to what is la Dolce Vita and in life and in business so la Dolce Vita I said you know it's the sweet life the good life in fact it comes from the Italian lifestyle which is a lifestyle you know that speaks of slowing down and join life you know like good food wines and relationship you know like fun freedom romance we have seen the beautiful movie a Roman holiday you know that you know that reminds of all this but in fact leaving la Dolce Vita and bringing la Dolce Vita in your business or at work means being in a state of grace being in the flow being committed and yet light-hearted so how can you do that so first of all I developed this methodology and first of all you have to define what la Dolce Vita is for you there is no cookie cutter definition okay so it can be something you know like living in the most luxurious experiences but also something very simple those small pleasures of life there is no difference I mean no judgment okay so first of all I want you to define that and to assess you know how much Dolce Vita you are bringing or you are living in your life now and also if your goals in business or at work are aligned with your lifestyle work and yeah and tutorial well-being goals which normally are not so in the methodology that I have developed and it's called the Dolce Vita methodology I have created this for what I call the four pillars so they are vitality illumination techniques and assets and those four pillars are the foundations those four pillars have to be in service of your mission for life and in business and they have to be in balance with them sap like the wheels of a car that is bringing you to your destination so do you want me to go a little bit deeper and discover with you what are uncovered with you what are the four pillars oh I'd love that and just just to quickly go back a little bit if I can Angela when you talk about the Dolce Vita and initially I said yeah but if you if you've got all of the the toys and the nice cars and the houses that's Dolce Vita yet I've interviewed some very very successful people and they are very very unhappy and all the things that they have still haven't led them to finding their true inner peace and happiness and it sounds to me like that's part of the concept of this four pillars of the Dolce Vita so so let's go into that because I want to know first let's take let's just stop here and ask this question you've worked with people already how many people have you worked with and that are you know living and have been able to create this let Dolce Vita oh with many even though I am very choosy with my clients so I really work with a handful of client per year so I would say many but it's not hundred it's like less than a hundred people and I really want to work with those who are really committed in creating something for themselves okay so you made a great point and the point is la Dolce Vita is not an outside work is an inside out and it's not having things but it's being it's the way you lead yourself okay okay got it great so should we start having a look at what your concepts are your four pillars are let's let's dive in I'm fascinated to see how we can implement these four pillars in our lives sure so the four pillars I said Vita which is life is an acronym for vitality illumination techniques and assets so what is vitality vitality is your well-being is your brain power is your health so it's how you keep yourself vital and energized for creating what you want to create in the world okay so it's it has to do with you know your habits your sleep what you eat your exercise but also what you do for fun and freedom and all the things that create vitality for you and this is the first and most important pillar so you have to have in your schedule something every day that keeps you vital then we have illumination and whereas the vitality is more something that you get with your body the illumination is more spiritual it has to do with your mindset with your attitude and it's your ability to be committed and yet light-hearted it finding things that keep you inspired you know that lights you up what to do must light you up okay so I'm asking for instance my clients to assess if what you're doing is really lighting them up and what can they do to you know like bring this light into their into their what they're doing into their activity their daily activities but also to bring more things that light them up for instance for me is like reading something that I love being with friends and family and you know all this has to be part of your schedule because this is in the long run and it not even that long run it is in service of your results and of your productivity in business then we have the techniques so the techniques is all the systems and strategies that enables you to implement what you want to implement and of course it has to do with time management you know the hard stuff and with setting boundaries with leadership you know and all those things and the habits that you create for yourself and one of the concepts that I really have embraced is the concept of the compound effect by Darren Hardy and it's a you know it's a this concept that it's very much utilized in finance so you invest a dollar a euro or whatever your currency is and then you know in the long run and if you invest a dollar every day it piles up and you create a curtain on it so it's the same with the habits so if you create baby steps you small habits harmless habits and stick to the habit every day you go very far and it can be positive habits or negative habits so sometimes you are you know not attaining what you want to attain and you don't know why so take a look at your habit then the last pillar is your assets so what are your assets so it's your superpowers meaning your skills your ability your mindset you know so your beliefs what to believe can be an asset but it can also be you know like your enemy so it's very important to look at this and if everything else is working but you are not getting to your goals so probably there is something in your belief system that is not working but the most important asset is yourself so in my methodology I'm asking you to prioritize yourself to prioritize your pleasure and this is really the leaving the Dolce Vita way and enable you to create great result by this and then you can bring it to the company environment but first you have to embody this la Dolce Vita way is it is it possible for anybody to embrace the Dolce Vita way or do we have to be successful first no it's you can embrace la Dolce Vita and it's possible for everybody provided that you want to do that so la Dolce Vita is to me is not an outcome of success not a byproduct is the way you achieve success because you are acting in a state of flow and when you are acting in a state of flow and doing what you love you bring value to what you do and then you are successful and what I want to say is also you don't have to wait until you're successful or until the weekend to be happy to bring joy and light-heartedness and bliss in your life you can have it every day wonderful stuff we are chatting to my special guest Angelus Ante we're talking about the Dolce Vita lifestyle and we're gonna get on to a little bit about the Dolce Vita leader is there such a thing more from Angela when we come back hey like what you're hearing share the podcast with your family and friends and spread the word this is what's involved but we're back what's involved it is my special guest is Angela Santi and we're talking about the Dolce Vita lifestyle and it's just Angela to me it sounds like this wonderful dream I mean you know can you be successful by being able to work smarter maybe work less hours enjoy what you're doing and be successful then because I've always heard if you're an entrepreneur it's full-time 16 18 hours a day you've got to work hard and you've got to spend your time working this is not easy so how do we how do we get there I mean have we been taught wrong hmm very good question so let me tell you that mmm la Dolce Vita is not about not working it's not about the four hours a week you know four hours week so la Dolce Vita is really doing what you want and it's yes to work smarter being super focused when it comes to be focused and being able to bring joy and to stop and not do so there is an interesting concept so you said you have we been taught wrong no I mean it's a cultural thing so here it's la Dolce but it's important to remember and to know that la Dolce Vita comes from the time when Italy was being reconstructed after the Second World War so people were really working very hard and Italians are hard workers so if you think about all the immigrants you know that from Italy went to United States and all over the world to Switzerland and whatever very very hard workers but Italians are able to enjoy themselves so during la Dolce Vita they were working and also they were looking for pleasure and never postponing pleasure so where it comes from it comes from our origins so from the Latins from the Roman Empire and also from the the Greek and Roman philosophers so what those philosophers were teaching was the alternation of what in Latin is called Arceum which means leisure or even more challenging for idleness and negotium negotium was the active life so what the Romans did were really to alternate this work and or activity and inactivity and we have to say that of course during the Roman Empire the the freemen weren't really working they were very much engaged in the public life they wanted to do good for the people or they were working as like military because they were conquering the the Empire and they created the few biggest empire in the world by this alternation so when they weren't working they were also letting things go letting thing percolate doing something pleasant that were going at the spa discussing with you know like philosopher with people etc and this enabled them to really process things okay if you are on the go-go-go mode on the workbook work on you know you are spinning your wheels and never stopping you are not allowing yourself the time to process things and so the not giving yourself permission to stop is very much coming from the Protestant culture whereas you know a smoother is from the Catholic pro it is not a good or a bad one it's just history is what culture is okay now what is then a Dolce Vita leader and and how I mean I'm just thinking here in South Africa where I'm based if somebody was living let Dolce Vita as a leader a CEO a CFO whatever the case may be they would not be popular because all of the workers would sit there and go hang on a second we are working ourselves to death yeah and look at you you're taking afternoons off and so so how does one become a Dolce Vita leader okay so don't you be tell leader in South Africa which is a wonderful country by the way that I really love so for me it would be a Dolce Vita being living in South Africa as well so he's a leader there is super committed when it comes to be super committed and don't get me wrong we know as entrepreneurs as CEO that there are moments where you have to go like hands-on and work work work so but even when you are super busy and super committed with what you want to create you can do something with the way you behave with the way you think so you are light-hearted and you give yourself permission to create some small Dolce Vita moment if you cannot take or if you could be you know like seen as very unpopular if you take like a half day off sometimes you take it sometimes you don't and it's not about what you do from the outside but from the approach that you have for things and let me tell you that when you embody this Dolce Vita way and you give yourself permission to really alternate you know this doing and not doing and the not doing can be very short moments of time because maybe time is short for you at this moment in life okay things are way better and you can become you can embody this so as a leader you know that the way you behave at work in your company determines the company culture the organizational culture the mora of your people so when you understand that you are a person you are a human being we need you can also understand that you are dealing with human beings and not with machines okay so a Dolce Vita leader is that really a renaissance leader is a human centric leader it doesn't it hasn't to do with not to not you know not working but working in a way that's respectful of yourself how you function and also respectful for other people okay that makes a lot of sense because we are definitely you mentioned the the great resignation and I think that was coined first in in America but worldwide we experiencing this where people who've due to COVID been locked down been unable to go into the office had to work from home a lot of them have gone I don't really want to go back to the office I want to be able to work from here or have a blended mode or something and I know in South Africa here a lot of the a lot of the leaders are going oh no you don't because you're just gonna sit on your bum and do nothing if you're if you're at home and I want to see you in the office and you have to be there from nine to five you're saying the Dolce Vita leadership and the leadership style and if you can bring that into your company is gonna make that kind of friction a little easier to deal with I believe so so another thing you brought up a very very interesting point so not all roles can be done or performed remotely so I can understand leaders that want to see their people at work okay but having and this is very Italian as well the typical Italian leader wants to see people but I say let me tell you seeing a person sitting at the desk doesn't mean that they are working doesn't mean that they are producing yeah no I agree with you it doesn't mean that they are happy and motivated and they can be much more performative so so I would as a Dolce Vita leader I would assess you know what is possible to do to meet my people's need and the company objectives okay so and I would bring the well first of all I would bring the vision again and reiterate it all the time in front of my people because at the end of the day they have to be aligned with the vision and I would choose people that are aligned with my value and la Dolce Vita is very much about value alignment of course you already have some employees that are not aligned and you know you can it cannot change the company or turn it upside down so we know that we have to do with what we have but you also want to assess what are your people value and you want to know your people from a personal standpoint from a human being from human being and discover them one-on-one and connect from the heart and the soul and who understand who is working with you so if we want to bring the four pillars inside the company we can see that the vitality is the organizational well-being illumination is how people are performing so it's also their motivation and having the right person performing the right task okay techniques are all the hard stuffs again strategies and systems and whatever that you can put in place and assets are your people and are their skills and at the end of the day of course your assets is also what you your product and what you create but if people go away you are losing know-how and you're losing a house so think about how is it costing you to lose a person and how is it costing you to create a Dolce Vita environment day by day wonderful my special guest is Angela Santi talking about the Dolce Vita lifestyle the Dolce Vita leadership and well we've almost run out of time so when I come back I'm gonna be wrapping it up with Angela and just finding out how we can get some more Dolce Vita into our lives this is what's involved back in a bit you're listening to what's involved with David Watts have you been to our website check it out www.what's involved calm and while you're there click on the coffee mug icon and buy David a cup of coffee they'll love it and we're back with what's involved in my special guest Angela Santi we've been talking about the Dolce Vita lifestyle and how to be a Dolce Vita leader Angela before I before I let you go if somebody's listening now and they're going okay I've got this fatality you've you've spoken to me about that and these small these small habits I think James clear wrote a book very called atomic habits which is also all about these little little improvements that you can make if we do all of that do you have some other advice aside from the habits if I do the habits but how should I feel I mean in and I'm sure it's the way most of the world around we never stopped to have a tea time or our lunchtime in fact in my and our business we generally eat lunch at that our desks while we working is it important to do things like that and just go okay hang on let me take 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes and just go and sit outside maybe and have my lunch yes this is exactly what I would suggest you to do and it's very important because now what is important is to innovate is to be psychologically detached from what you're doing because we are dealing with very difficult times so if you're always sitting at the same desk if you're always closed in a box you will continue to think like your brain is trapped inside a box and you will never think out of box so think that la dulce vita habits or way of living is also helping you to create more innovation and to be a more effective leader a more effective decision-maker so definitely yes go and have your lunch outside you don't have time to get your lunch outside okay go and have a coffee outside it's just five minutes ten minutes whatever and a very important thing that I would like to say is the dulce vita I said before is an approach to all aspects of life so you are not your business you are not your job as I you know like was thinking it was believing in my my past so you are not you're something different and it's very important that you are gentle with yourself so whenever you are taking some time for yourself think that it's something that is in service to your vision it's certain service of your to your to your business and to your productivity so be gentle and also be gentle with your failure so this is a very important dulce vita tip that I want to tell you to say okay let's hear it no I mean it's be gentle whatever you do whatever you do be gentle with yourself and prioritize yourself you see I was so busy thinking about what I want to do with the dulce vita I missed that so thank you be gentle be kind be gentle be kind yes and find things that give bring you bliss and for instance think about what is something that you are missing that you were you like to do and then that you are not doing anymore and bring it into your life now without waiting for the weekend for tomorrow or for whenever you will be ready do it now and see what happens wonderful stuff Angela just before we wrap it up with you have you got any gifts that you're going to be making available to our listeners yes sure my listeners can assess how much dulce vita they are bringing into their life and so I have created this wheel of la dulce vita which is a tool that is similar to the wheel of life it's a very common tool in coaching so you just have to go to my to my to the link that you will be providing download it and complete this small test and that will see how much dulce vita in every area of their life they are living and how this areas are impacting within the each other so and then I'm giving you also some tips to create more dulce vita into their lives wonderful stuff do they just go and find that on the on the website Angela is it on the link that I'm giving you so it's not on my website it's on a special link okay that I've got in front of me okay great yes I'll put that in the in the show notes okay and if they want to go to my website it's www.angelasanti.it like italia italia viva italia Angela before I let you go you've done a lot in your life and you've achieved a lot what's next for Angela Santi next for Angela Santi is really and I'm it's not a next it's I'm in the process of really spreading my word of la dulce vita into the world because this is the moment where la dulce vita is not a nice to have anymore it's a must because now we have the opportunity to recreate the word and recreate a better word where we can live and thrive and be happy wonderful stuff well Angela I wish you all the very very best thank you for taking the time out and having a chat with us we'll put the the address in the show notes so you can figure out where to go there otherwise just go visit her website it's Angela Santi which is A-N-G-E-L-A-S-A-N-T-I.IT for Italy and there we go Angela thank you so much thank you very much David hi everyone viva la dulce vita and may you let's slow down live blissfully and to the fullest there we go it wraps it up some great advice there from my special guest Angela Santi to each and every one of you look after yourselves take care and thank you for listening thanks for listening to what's involved we hope this episode inspires you to find your passion and live your dream don't forget to rate review and share the podcast and to see what's happening what's going on and what's coming follow what's involved on Facebook and Twitter and what's involved thanks again for listening