Many people have great ideas, but very few develop them into actual businesses or products. What is often needed is a great business coach to advise on how to create the right business habits from the start. That is where MMCoaching comes in, a niche coaching business in Mozambique created by founder Marta Mulongo who is on a mission to help her clients to succeed.
LoA found out more about this impact driven company this month from founder Marta Mulungo
What does your company do?
MMCoaching is a company created to help people transform their ideas into results. We do this through a coaching and personal development products and services. Our coaching can be delivered face to face and online, in English and Portuguese. Our coaching segments are Life Coaching, Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, and Team Coaching and the main aim is to raise awareness of our clients about who they are, what are their paradigms (multitude of habits that control behaviors) so that they are able to create new habits and ways of doing that supports their mission in life and lead to a greater happiness, satisfaction and success. Success is created through the development of good habits.
“MMCoaching is a company created to help people transform their ideas into results.”
“Passion and purpose are two ingredients for success.”
What inspired you to start your company?
After I finished my Master Degree in HR Management and Development, I started getting restless in my job. At that time I had about 15 years of experience in HR, I loved my job and I was the HR Director for Mozambique and Zimbabwe for an International NGO sector. There was this question in my mind, is that it? Is this all I can do? Is this the best version of me? and the answer was NO, not at all. One day I watched the movie the secret and it blew my mind away, I realized then that I can do anything I wanted, that I was the creator of my life. At the end of the movie, one of the characters says that we can contact any of them if we wanted more information on how to put those ideas into practice, and I did just that. I googled each of them and for some reason, Bob Proctor was the one that captivated my attention. His website at the time said, “If you tell me what you want, I can tell you how to get it.”
He had a coaching program running at the time, I joined it and I started my journey into personal development, learned how to create my life, master my mind, go for what I wanted rather than setting for what I thought I could achieve. I set goals at the time, goals that I did not believe in, and one of them was to start my own company. In 2011 I started my first company ATOS, Lda, a Human Resources Consultancy company. I did not have an entrepreneurial background. All my life I worked in international NGOs, I did not know how to sell or even write a proposal. BUT I still quit my very well paid job and made a leap of faith. Bob taught me that if you have an elephant in front of you and you have to eat it, take the first bite and chew it very quickly, that is what I did. He also said, don't wait for the right moment, create the right moment or circumstances that you need.
5 years down the line I started figuring out what I really want out of the HR company and I decided that I wanted to do Focus on Employment Agency, Recruitment and Selection, Coaching and Behavioral assessment. The company is doing well and it is well positioned in the Mozambique market.
A few years later, my passion for Coaching really grew. I wanted to share with everyone what I had learned and was still learning from Bob Proctor and other Coaches I hired along the line. in 2017 I decided to start another company totally focused on coaching and personal development, I wanted to sell the idea to people that each and every individual were masters of own destiny and that they should not wait for the employer to give them training for free. Instead, they should set on a personal journey for auto-discovery and growth, and that is what MMCoaching stands for, helping people transform their ideas into results.
“I get satisfaction when I see a human being, particularly women move out of the comfort zone, face their fears, doubts, and low self-esteem, and create a life full of purpose.”
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Passion and purpose are two ingredients for success. MMCoaching started out of passion. I did the journey of self-discovery and realization, I came from total poverty, and I rose to create the best version of me, and I know both professionally and by experience what stops most people. I get satisfaction when I see a human being, particularly women move out of the comfort zone, face their fears, doubts, and low self-esteem, and create a life full of purpose. My quest in life is to unlock their potential to succeed. It's my passion.
Tell us a little about your team
ATOS, Lda and MMCoaching are the same teams. We develop the companies together, I see them as part of the whole equations and I cannot do much without them. They are my colleagues and I share my vision (sometimes obsession) with them.
I have 7 fixed people in the team and other flexible depending on the demands of the project.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I was born in Maputo, and have always lived in Maputo, we are a family of 6 (4 girls and 2 boys), I am the 3rd and my brother passed away about 20 years ago. He was the closest person in my life at the time. My mom has always been a single mom, fighting for life and trying to make the best of each day. I have always been a bit distant from everybody at home, always in my space but observing everything and making decisions of what I wanted out of my life. We were very poor and had to rely on support from family and neighbors to meet basic needs. So life was taught. The best moments for me was when I was in school. I loved schools because it gave me the contrast of what I wanted to create. Going to secondary school was very taught because there I met people who had it all, were beautifully dressed, smelled great – you see at that time there were no private schools!
I got pregnant when I was a teenager (14 years) but that did not stop me. I continued to go to school, I had to fight the system and I did, but the rest of my education from standard 8 was in the evening. But it was worth it.
The biggest challenge for me was how do I even get the first client? I did not have an entrepreneurial background, I did not know how to run a business, I only knew HR (the services I wanted to provide). I did not have the time to do the homework while I was working because my job was intense and I was drained by the end of the day. So I went about 9 months without any revenue from my business and I joined Tupperware to make ends meet and not finish my savings.
Getting on the Bob Proctor Coaching program was what started my entrepreneurial journey. It freed my mind and expanded my life, and I believe that anyone wanting to excel themselves should have a Coach.
“My quest in life is to unlock their potential to succeed. It's my passion.”
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
What is in my mind now is expanding and creating personal development products that are easy to access but powerful.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
I love creating, I love the freedom of expressing my ideas and I love the flexibility I have of working from wherever I want. I can just take my laptop and go anywhere and work.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Don't wait until you are ready, you will never be ready. Decide to start right now with what you have and who you are. Hire a Coach to help you grow.
Contact or follow MMCoaching
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | EMAIL martamulungo@atoslda.com
Our online presence is in Portuguese and English
Why LoA loves it….
In the world of entrepreneurship, to be a success it takes huge amounts of passion, a good dose of tenacity, a vision for the end goal, and the determination to make it all happen. Marta Mulungo is one entrepreneur who has the drive to overcome any hurdle and to turn her business building dream into not only a success story, but an inspiration to so many others. She is living proof that in business and in life, it’s not how you start off that determines your path to success, but the journey you take to changing your destiny. --- Melanie Hawken, founder and ceo of Lionesses of Africa