About Saana
“I realized I could find happiness in moments even without sports which I earlier thought was an absolutely ridiculous idea“
My Story
2020…Umm.
The year when plans are canceled and eyes are opened.
I basically lost both of my jobs.
Not exactly a new thing for me that things don’t go as I plan.
Now I at least have two feet to stand on.
Time to move my dreams to existence and establish my own business.
And here you are reading this! Reading the by-product of that 2020 storm!!
Read the longer story below by clicking “read more” or scroll down to see the shortened version of my resume.
Read more...
In my big dreamy vision and why this business was also established is the vision that people would know better who they are and how to thrive while being authentically themselves. The authentic self of you is gonna help you to succeed wherever you are in life, it helps in sports but also carries you after sports is over. That’s something I wish I knew much earlier…
See, my road to professional athlete was not a dreamy path at all. Let’s jump back in time, somewhere in 2008. I drove 2.5h multiple times a week to practices after school. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration this way while playing in the highest league in Finland.
Yeah that was a hustle.
2011: Exchange period in George Mason University. The unhappiest period of my life. Returned home.
2012: I got a chance to work as an Executive Director at Hurrikaani-Loimaa which is a men’s club in the top league in Finland. At the age of 23. Still played competitively at the same time. And was finishing my bachelor’s thesis.
Started getting symptoms of burn-out. Over-hustle.
Decided that this is too much,
I wanted to study again rather than work and play.
2013: Applied to International Master’s Degree program, surprised myself and got in among 11 others from all around the world. I couldn’t believe how lucky I got!
The craziness continued, traveling to practices and studying all the time when I was not practicing..
2014: I got an offer to go play professionally in Germany. There is no way I would say no to my wildest dream that I had never said out loud or thought could happen!
So, I left and finished my studies abroad. Tough times! Also, 2014 is the year I marked in my books when I started doing yoga and learning more about mindset training.
2008-2016 Summarized: 8 Years of Hustle and Doubt.
2016-2019: Professional volleyball life in Germany, Finland and France, national team life, trying to prove myself, injuries, doubting myself, surgeries, bouncing back, mental struggles, mental healing, testing myself, mindset training.
Learned so much about myself, collected awesome memories, experienced that we can do amazing things if we find the right headspace and now, I cannot keep my mouth shut about that.
Side note: So freaking happy and grateful for the inner work I had done during those years before the career-ending injury hit me. The work that I knew who I was also without sports saved me.
2019 – now ponders:
All this crazy speed for so many years. Grind.
Yep, I am an action-taker (are you too?), I move forward, I say YES, when I see an opportunity. But it didn’t mean that I dared to dream big. Weird, huh?
Stupid, is what it was. I was limited by my own mind.
We spend so much time working on our bodies and worrying about what the future is like, doubting ourselves.
Worrying how we look, how we perform, how we are perceived, what if we fail…
We seriously need to balance that scale.
How much time are you using to do some inner work? Train your mind? Dreaming? Visualizing your dream life? Digging deeper to know yourself better? Setting goals based on your strengths and dreams? Compare the time you use to develop your inner world to the work you do outside of yourself – I claim that majority of us could balance that scale.
That’s why I exist 🙂
You can balance that scale.
Where are you now? Want to take action and start balancing your scale?
Not just read about it or thinking about it but taking that first little step for yourself today.
Here’s your chance! 🙂
Do you want to see what that limiting belief is that is holding you back, delaying the success, joy, and leadership you can have in your life?
Or want to know what are your competencies in sport that can take you to excellent levels of performance?
Or are you looking for something amazing for your team? Maybe a workshop about confidence or overcoming mistakes? Or maybe even a breathwork session to dive deeper into the mind and the limitations and possibilities of it?
Then here is the more boring summary of my doings as a being:
Work History:
· Played volleyball professionally in four different countries and with tens of different cultures.
· Coached Voluntarily at Colorado University of Boulder in Competitive PAC-12 conference.
· Worked as an Executive Director of Men’s Volleyball Club in Finland at the age of 23.
Values and attributes of volleyball by the fans in the FIVB Men’s World Championships (2015) &
Values and marketing communication with fragmented markets (2013)
Other Info:
· Did a come back to professional level after patella surgery in 2015
When you want to become the success story of your own life without compromising yourself, but by utilizing your authentic skills and strengths, you need the true experts in personal development, authentic leadership and high performance behavior and mindset.
I have the tools and expertise to help you to get better, be more confident, and bring your dreams closer to reality.
“You are the most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were”
-RORY VADEN
Psst… You can also read more about the vision I have about authentic leadership in sports and how to get more out of the athletes and teams from my blog. I picked a couple good ones for you! Enjoy 🙂
The Most Important Thing About Communication
Oh yay peeps! Human behavior, personality, and communication. These some other topics that I am interested about in addition to sports and volleyball. I could learn about those and utilize them when I still was playing. And now I took Extended DISC Training this...
The results of master’s thesis battle : image of volleyball and values of the fans
No niin gradun tulokset tulossa. Meni tässäkin sitten iäisyys. Toivon, että joku tämän nyt lukee, kun tämä niin paljon tuotti minullekin jopa huolta, kun en meinannut saada tekstiä valmiiksi. Jännä juttu, että on vaikea tiivistää sataa sivua pariin blogipostiin :P...
Master’s thesis battle (part 1)
Varoitus. Kohta paukkuu. Aion kertoa gradustani. Tän postauksen kirjoittaminen on vieny ikuisuuden (kuten huomaatte), koska jotenkin on ollut vaan vaikea kirjottaa gradusta, kun vasta sai sen tehtyä. Halusin kovasti, että mun gradu ei oo vaan sellanen vasemmalla...