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Martine De Luna is a wife, mother, and transformational coach from the concrete jungle of Manila, the Philippines. A self-professed culture-hacker and “bliss-maker”, Martine grew up as a third culture kid amidst the international school circuit in Hong Kong and Singapore, before planting her roots in Manila, where she began working from the age of 18. After stints as a magazine writer and individualized education consultant, she began her work-from-anywhere lifestyle first as a writer, to now as a personal brand strategist for women from all walks of life.
City where you’re from:
Manila, the Philippines
Favorite quote:
“You are the only solution to every problem you will ever have.” — Stewart Hughes
Social Media Accounts:
Facebook
Instagram
Tell us about Martine De Luna Coaching. How did you come up with this idea?
Martine De Luna: Everything I’ve done I sort of stumbled into as an experiment. I got into this whole personal branding niche in 2010, when I was being interviewed via Skype for a job I had no background in, for a position I was not qualified for on paper because I never went to college. But, I aced that interview simply because I’m great at connecting with people: I got hired immediately as a Creative Content Director for an LA-based startup that was just getting into social media marketing.
Two years into that job, I stumbled into “blog coaching” as well, as an experiment, which is how I’ve pretty much lived my life. This Blog Coaching began by “accident” when a now-established lifestyle blogger in my country asked me to coach her on developing her personal brand as a blogger. She literally started with zero knowledge, and I had the experience of mentoring her from how to setup a blog, build out a brand, and so forth. I ended up doing this for a LOT of other women bloggers and solopreneurs through the years, eventually becoming known as more than “the blog coach” to a “personal brand coach.” When I started this as a side-hustle in 2012, I was actually a creative content director for a small digital marketing startup based out of LA. It wasn’t until 2016 that I really started doing this on a full-time basis, without any other type of freelancing work alongside.
As you can see, I’m a big life-hacker, culture-hacker, because I’m wired to the fact that learning is lifelong, and execution on what we learn makes us into the next person we’re meant to be for the next stage in our lives. I stepped into formal coach training in 2016, and since then I’ve come up with coaching programs that thrive on helping people rewire their mindset to one of “I can’t” to “I can.” This has let me be a coach to over a hundred people one-on-one, and I’d say around 5,000, considering conferences and speaking engagements I’ve been invited to either organize or to speak at.
How did you promote your company in the early days?
Martine De Luna: I would blog and do cross-features on other blogs mostly in the early days, and I didn’t really promote it any particular way. Clients would refer me regularly to friends and to their colleagues who needed branding guidance and consultation.
How have you been able to grow your business? Go specific.
Martine De Luna: I have invested in training, in out-of-the-box business coaches throughout the years, so I’d say mentorship and apprenticeship have been my ultimate growth tool for myself, and I employ the same towards my business. I just decide to treat everything as an experiment: I assess what works and amplify that (such as coaching); I let go of what doesn’t work and what doesn’t align with me. I work with energy, so if I don’t feel energized and connected to a project, I don’t force i. I’m the anti-hustler; I go by intention-setting, utilizing meditation and energy to create conditions for my projects. The next is connections: Most of my business comes from referrals and word of mouth marketing, and only working with people I have an energetic connection with. Anything otherwise is a waste of time, and won’t grow my business anyway.
What are some secrets to virality/sales in your most successful platform (Fb, Twitter, IG, Snap, E-commerce, etc)?
Martine De Luna: Wow, such huge big words for me, haha! To be honest, I haven’t looked in to this in the past 8 years I’ve been doing what I do. If you’re talking about good old-fashioned sales, nothing beats forming meaningful connections with people just because you want to be generous with what you know and how you can help. Once people know, like and trust you, you don’t have to force a sale on them. However in the past two years, I’d say Facebook Group networking (without being gross and pitch-y), and my email list has been the source of most of my clientele.
What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?
Martine De Luna: Sensing people’s feelings and thoughts, then guiding them to reframe their thoughts so that they can feel better, take new steps forward. I do this by listening intuitively to them, as a coach.
What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?
Martine De Luna:
Failing Forward by John Maxwell
The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer
Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani
The One Result by Gary Keller
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple of years? What’s your dream?
Martine De Luna: In two years, I see myself having reached 10,000 women worldwide with my platform for group coaching and intuitive events. I would like to contribute to the wellness megatrend as a mindfulness platform by collaborating with personal development companies like Mindvalley or the Proctor-Gallagher Institute.
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