Welcome to our blog series profiling the winners of the 2021-2022 Beautiful You Coaching Academy Awards. The awards aim to uplift and honour our worldwide community of coaches and the incredible work they are doing through their coaching, events, programs, books, products, podcasts and more. Get ready to have your mind and heart blown wide open and be inspired by an incredible round-up of coaches.
Today we’d love to introduce you to one of our 2021-2022 Book/Product of the Year Award winners, Dr Monica D Rajasagaram.
Monica is certified Maxwell Leadership Coach, Author and Speaker and a Tiny Habits certified Instructor. She is also a wife, mum of two girls and a community builder. Monica is passionate about helping ambitious women LEAD and GROW through in life, business and faith.
She is the creator of the Grow Through Planner – an award-winning Planner for Christian Women who want to partner with God daily in their personal life, business and faith.
She also works with women in a 1:1 capacity, supporting them in building a life, business and mindset that is in alignment with their values.
Monica has spoken at women’s events, conferences as well as continues to facilitate and host Masterminds and Group Coaching Programs. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing and sipping coffee.
‘The Grow Through Planner’? is amazing and so inspiring. What made you decide to create it?
The Grow Through Planner was for me a vision that I felt God had placed in my heart. I have always been a pen to paper planner girl, and have always enjoyed the process of looking for a planner that would suit all my needs. Few years ago, I set out to look for a Planner that I could use not just to plan my days but also one that would allow me to use it as a personal growth tool. In my pursuit of looking for a planner that would suit, I would often find it a little challenging as there was always a missing element to the planners already in the market.
As a Growth and Transformation Coach, I also value the different elements in a planner that would give the user the ability to develop and grow in different areas of life.
Fast forward to 2020 while I was browsing at a Christian Bookstore, I felt a little disheartened that I was still unable to find the ‘one’ planner that I would be happy using. As I was sitting down for a coffee in the adjoining café, I felt a nudge in my heart to get a pen and paper out. Because I didn’t have a notebook at hand, I asked the lovely lady serving me my coffee for a serviette. And about an hour later, the Grow Through Planner was designed on a serviette. It was such a liberating process as I felt God present in such a profound and big way in the whole design process. As I folded that serviette and kept it in my handbag, I again felt in my heart to ‘do something with it’. Not knowing what that would look like, I transferred that design into a simple word document, printed the pages and started using it for my personal day to day planning. After using these pages for a month, I felt it was time to bring this Planner to life, and so the creation and design process began.
One of the things I also did as I embarked on the next steps was to do my market research. As I did this, I could see a gap in the market and recognised the need for a Planner such as this. Designing the Planner and seeing it come to completion gave me a deep relief that this was indeed a God given vision coming to life. It was beautiful to be able to partner with God to bring to life this precious Planner. Every element that is included in the Planner is designed for a specific reason and more importantly for the woman who uses it to not just use it as a planner but also as a growth tool in her personal life, business and faith journey.
What is even more fulfilling is the fact that it serves the purpose for which it was designed, honouring God in the process as well as the fact that it is now being received, used and loved by so many women across the world.
What surprised you most about the creation and process of creating and publishing a planner/ writing and publishing a book?
What surprised me most about the creation and process of creating and publishing a planner was the complexity of the process, the interdependence of one process onto another and the tedious process of making sure each process went to plan as I had envisioned in my head. It was also an interesting growth process for me personally as I had to very quickly learn the language required to get my thoughts and ideas across, making sure all the parties involved, from the graphic designer to the printers understood what my vision for the Planner was. As challenging as it was, understanding the details of each process has given me so much more confidence in planning and getting the next edition of planners done.
What has been some of the feedback you have received from the ‘The Grow Through Planner’?
The feedback I have received from the planner has been absolutely amazing and has truly cemented for me the need for a planner such as the Grow Through Planner. The Grow Through Planner as it is designed for Christian Women to plan their days as well as partner with God daily in their faith journey has also surprised many women in the ease and simplicity of seeing their very own growth by using a tool such as this Planner. Many women also love the fact that it is an ALL-in-ONE Planner that allows for day-to-day planning, gratitude journaling, prayer journaling, habit tracking and a scripture of the week section which has meant carrying one planner as oppose to many different journals.
It has been heart-warming to receive great feedback based on the quality of the product in itself and the design of the elements and layout of the planner. Overall, I have been pleased by the reception of the Grow Through Planner and as I am now onto the next edition, I am excited to share many more elements, colour options as well as a fresh touch on the design.
Do you have any tips for other coaches who are looking to create, write and publish a product/book?
What I would say to other coaches looking to create, write and publish a book or product is to start the journey even if you don’t quite know the next step yet. There is a lot of help available and you can figure out the ways and steps as you take the next and the next. Don’t be afraid to do things differently, and to ask the questions you might have even if it feels awkward and silly. What I have come to realise through creating, designing and launching this Planner is that you need to know who your product will serve and then ask your potential customer what their needs are. So, don’t be afraid to take your potential customers/clients/audience on the journey with you, for the most part, many will be willing and happy to help you in more ways than you could imagine. Plus, it makes it a fun journey for you and them when the final product is ready for launch
What does it mean to win this award from the Beautiful You Coaching Academy?
Winning this award from the Beautiful You Coaching Academy has been an absolute honour and words can’t express my gratitude to all involved and the judging panel to have given me and the Planner this opportunity. What it has done for me is two things. Firstly, it has validated for me the idea and the need for a niched planner such as this and secondly, it has given me the opportunity to share with others what is possible when you put your vision to work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart BYCA for this safe and welcoming environment for all the coaches to share their work with the world – it is truly an honour to have been selected as the winner in the Best Product/Book Category for this year’s BYCA Awards.
What’s on the horizon for Monica D Rajasagaram?
I am a visionary and this question has truly made me think of the endless possibilities for my brand and my business. I am seeing big potentials, new products to serve different needs for my audience. I am also in the process of writing my first solo book and working on a book project with a group of authors. As a growth and transformation coach, I am working on bringing all the elements of coaching to a bigger audience through different avenues online and in a face-to-face way through Masterminds and Workshops. In the near future, I would love to see a community of women working to grow in their personal life, business and faith journey with the tools I provide; be it through the Grow Through Planner or in my coaching capacity.
Big dreams require big and bold steps, and I believe with faith and work, it will come to fruition.
Find out more about Monica’s work at: Dr. Monica D Rajasagaram
Photographer: Fi Mims