814: INTENTIONAL personal development & challenging societal “norms” w/ Maya Lila
In today’s episode, host Brian Lofrumento sits down with personal development coach, triathlete, and former software engineer Maya Lila in an expansive dialogue about transitioning from a conventional career to entrepreneurship while challenging societal norms. Maya shares her experiences, emphasizing the importance of setting achievable milestones, disciplined practice, and celebrating personal victories. Throughout the episode, she provides insights into the power of questioning personal and societal assumptions, managing energy levels, and aligning one's mind, heart, and body in decision-making.
ABOUT MAYA
Maya Lila is a personal development coach, triathlete, artist, speaker, workshop facilitator, software engineer, and so much more. She doesn’t let the labels confine her and believes you shouldn’t let them confine you, either.
She studied at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and is an active member and ACC credential holder with the International Coaching Federation.
LINKS & RESOURCES
00:00 - Questioning Societal Norms and Labels
15:00 - Harnessing Energy for Personal Growth
26:47 - The Importance of Small Milestones
33:58 - Navigating Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt
43:29 - Support From Guests, Engaging Audience
Speaker 1:
Hey, what is up? Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast. As always, I'm your host, brian LoFromanto, and I'll tell you what. I know that one feeling that so many entrepreneurs have is that we are always pushing up against what society expects of us, these BS societal rules that we all feel like we need to follow and today's guest, I think, is the epitome of not following all these things that society or makes us think that we need to do or that we should be doing. So let me tell you about her.
Speaker 1:
Her name is Maya Lila. Maya is a personal development coach, triathlete, artist, speaker, workshop facilitator, software engineer and so much more, and what I love about that is she doesn't let the labels confine her and believes that you shouldn't let them confine you either. She studied at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and is an active member and ACC credential holder with the International Coaching Federation. She questions anything and everything when it comes to how we can live the best lives, the lives that we want, not that others want for us. I think it's going to be really eye-opening in so many ways today, so I'm not going to say anything else. Let's dive straight into my interview with Maya Lila. All right, maya, I am so excited. I don't think either of us know where today's conversation is going to go yet. But first thanks, first Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:
Heck yeah. Obviously we're going to talk about a lot of big things here today, and a lot of your work focuses on questioning so much of the societal norms. But before we get into that stuff, give us your own story. I love how much of your background is about pushing the envelope in all the ways. So what's that backstory of how the heck you started doing all these great things you do?
Speaker 2:
Sure. So I guess how I got into coaching. Basically, I used to be a software engineer, as you mentioned, and at some point I just got the feeling that there wasn't enough connection in it for me. I wasn't able to meet and interact with people on a regular basis in the way that I wanted to and really develop those deeper connections. And so I started exploring and seeing what might be out there for me in terms of alternative careers and I was working with a career coach myself actually when I stumbled into the idea of becoming a coach and it just felt like it was a really good fit. It felt like I would be able to leverage my strengths of internal motivation, feeling strong in the face of maybe non-conventional moves. So, yeah, it felt like it was a natural fit.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love that overview, especially because you already raised the one word that I'm so excited to dive into with you, which is that notion of conventional, and I feel like that's something that really is something that all of us entrepreneurs have in common is that this is not the conventional road. Maya, I'll be honest with you. I hated when I started my first business, when people would ask me because I went to a prestigious business school and I always dreaded when people asked me, oh, what is it that you do? Because it felt silly admitting that back at that point. I mean, I started a soccer blog whereas all my fellow students were working at Goldman Sachs and lining up summer internships with big four companies. It definitely wasn't conventional. So let's start there. Talk to us about your notion of what the heck is conventional. Why have we been led to believe that that's the conventional route, and where in your journey, or what is it inside of you that really just picks at that very notion and questions the notion of what's conventional?
Speaker 2:
I love this question. So, in terms of what do I think is conventional, it's just like you said, everyone around us sort of not even intentionally, but puts these pressures on to us, that sort of give us information about who we think we should be or where we should be going in life. And I really resonated with what you said about your peers. When I decided to make the switch into coaching, so many people ask me hey, you had this really great thing going. You're extremely successful. Why are you sort of moving into this other career path that a lot of people see as less than?
Speaker 2:
And to answer the question, I think the reason that it's important for me to sort of follow that path, even though it is unconventional, is because we all have something inside us, that you have that little voice that is nudging you. You know when you don't feel like you're on the right path, you know when you are not following sort of the thing that is giving you that spark in life. And I just think that life is so much more full and so much more vibrant when you're able to follow that spark, to listen to that voice and to do the things that are really going to let you up, and I think this is very important. Like you know, everyone says life's so short, and it's true. Life is so short. You should be spending the majority of your time doing things that are lighting you up, and software just wasn't doing that for me. And I also feel, you know, really honored to be part of people's journeys, because now I feel like I can help them bring that to their life through my coaching with them.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I really love the fact that you think about these things so intentionally, maya, because one thing that really stood out to me about your work is that very notion of labels, and you just said it in your answer right there that for some reason, societally we pretend that some choices or routes or journeys are less than others, and you and I are throwing a little bit of shade at so many of our peers and our traditional backgrounds about like, for example, I was an economics and finance major and working for Goldman Sachs is a very highly valued, prestigious thing that a lot of people choose to do, whereas starting a soccer blog wasn't as prestigious.
Speaker 1:
And so that's where, for me, that label of gosh what am I? Am I a blogger? Am I a business owner? Am I an entrepreneur? It was all these things that people want to put us in boxes, maya, because it makes them comfortable. Talk to me about it, because I know that you've given so much thought to this and you have a lot of strong thoughts about it. What the heck is going on with labels Societally and how the heck do we make sense of those internally?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, you know it makes sense why people want to put labels on things. I think when we are able to sort of categorize people or situations, we put them in terms of things that we understand, and when we can minimize the uncertainty that we are experiencing, that can help to make us more comfortable. And when we encounter something where we aren't sure what's going on or we aren't sure what's going to happen, that level of uncertainty can cause discomfort and fear in a lot of people, and so you know I also experience this. I am not free of guilt when it comes to wanting to apply labels to situations and to people. We all do it. But I also think it's very important to be able to recognize that labels are just sort of ways that we can understand and talk about the world, and that doesn't necessarily mean that's who we are. We have to be in touch with like I was speaking about before, that inner voice or that inner knowing of who we are, what the path is, that we're on, what we're called to do.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I really like that, especially because you're right. I think that when we talk about labels, it's we can't ignore them. They're reality. And, Mai, I've actually never shared this story publicly, but Nati Longo is hanging out with my niece and nephew. They're six-year-old twins and my niece is so smart for her age you can really tell at that age the differences between boys and girls. And so Savannah is super observant. She was sitting there and she heard my sister-in-law call me Brian, and Savannah looked at me and she goes aren't you, uncle Brian? Why did mommy call you Brian? And I said, well, because I'm not your mommy's uncle, I'm your uncle. And she said, well, what else are you? And I said, well, I'm Nana and grandpa's son, I'm Daddy's brother, I'm all of these things. And those are labels, all of which are true.
Speaker 1:
And, mai, what stands out to me about you is you really leverage that power of and thinking. You are a personal development coach and you are a triathlete and you are an artist and you are a software engineer. You are all of these things at once. I guess my question to you along those lines is how do we balance those? Because we show up in different ways depending on these roles that we play in life. How do we balance it? Do we have to balance it, or is this all just fluid and we just roll with the flow?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I definitely think it's the latter. At least, that's the way that I experience it is. It's very fluid and whatever I'm doing in the moment is going to impact the labels that resonate with me in that moment. So when I'm on my bike on a race course, like, I'm really resonating with the label of triathlete, whereas when I'm in a coaching session I might not resonate with that as actively. And just because I'm not necessarily experiencing myself as a particular label in a particular moment doesn't mean that it's not a part of me, but just that I would show up differently in different scenarios. And that's okay. You know, it's totally normal to experience yourself differently in different contexts. This happens to everyone.
Speaker 2:
And yeah, I mean and I also just wanted to touch on the point that you said about the and thinking a triathlete and a personal development coach, and and and you don't need to let labels confine you. You can use as many as you want. You can use as many as feel appropriate, and those are going to shift from situation to situation and it's okay to accumulate them and feel like all these different parts of life are part of you. That's part of what makes you a well rounded human. You know so many people sort of get stuck. I saw this a lot in tech when I was working in software. They really strongly identify with their job and if they get laid off or if they are in between roles maybe they were taking some time away and trying to come back to it they really feel this sort of sense of emptiness or like this, something is missing. This because they aren't identifying themselves with any other things in life, whether those are hobbies or relational roles or things like that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I really want to call that out for listeners, maya, because I think what you just said it's something that maybe a lot of people are waiting for permission for this and maybe this episode is their permission to step into this. But really, the reality of life is that we don't need to be. We always hear that advice of like be your authentic you. But I think the important thing that you just shared that I want to call out is yeah, there's a lot of versions of us. Uncle Brian isn't the one who's showing up here in this interview today.
Speaker 1:
Otherwise it would be a very childish and silly and playful interview, and so we do get to be all different sorts of versions of ourselves and for a lot of people, especially when they start their entrepreneurial journeys, it doesn't fit in with their career path. All of a sudden, if they were a nine to five employee, all of a sudden they're the box, they have to have the answers, they need to show up in front of potential clients and be the authority, which may or may not be a role that they're used to in life, in their career, wherever it may be. So there are all of those versions of us. But I have to ask the obvious question, maya, that I'm sure you get asked all the time, which is why.
Speaker 1:
Why do we care about personal development? Obviously it's. It's an ethereal topic that so many of our listeners they really believe in and that's why they're here tuning into this podcast. But what is it about personal development that separates the people who are successful, the people who quote, unquote, make it in, whatever that version of make it may be? Why personal development? Why is the work behind it actually matter?
Speaker 2:
That's a great question, and I'll just start off by saying I don't think it's a one size fits all answer. I think everyone comes to personal development work for a different reason. We all have different parts of ourselves that we want to grow or change, and often that is in service of our goals. You know, if you have a goal that maybe you're having trouble getting started, maybe you've sort of gotten started but you're not sure what the next step is there could be other things that are stopping you from moving forward. Perhaps you have some set of limiting beliefs that cause you to feel that maybe you won't be successful or that something may go wrong throughout your personal development journey.
Speaker 2:
All of those things that are getting in the way can stop you from making progress towards your goals, and so working with a personal development coach or doing other things like attending workshops and trainings that focus on personal development can help you work through those blocks. Maybe you can reframe or change some of your beliefs that are getting in the way in order to help you to make progress towards your goals. And you know when people come to me when we do personal development coaching, I always tell them at the beginning of our working relationship, that personal development on its own. It's not necessarily like a set curriculum. It's not like I'm going to teach you how to do A and B and C and then you will have like developed yourself personally and it's like the set in stone path that you're going through for everyone. That individual path is going to be unique and tailored to the ways that you want to grow and tailored to the path to the goals that you're trying to be successful in.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I like that. You called that out and I'm going to keep piling onto that, because I think an important conversation for all entrepreneurs, and especially all of our listeners here today, is that I remember you talk about the personal development path and I remember in my early twenties I was going to all the entrepreneurial events, all the entrepreneurial conferences, because that was my first taste of personal development and guess what? It felt amazing and it always left me motivated and inspired. But what I quickly realized, maya, was that motivation, inspiration it wears off and ultimately, what really matters is doing the work of personal development. Talk to us about the differentiation between that feel good factor that we all get when we listen to a 60 second inspiring Instagram real versus hey, this is what personal development actually looks like when you do the work.
Speaker 2:
I absolutely love this question. I too fell prey to a serial conference attendance and attending many workshops to try and develop myself personally. So the way that I think about it is when you go to conferences or workshops and you, or you know, even if you watch that 60 second Instagram real that gives you that feel good feeling. I actually do think that this is valuable. It has you thinking about it and in that moment you have, like a little bit more energy than normal to get started. And so attending conferences or, you know, watching something inspirational can put you into a good mindset to get started on the journey of personal development.
Speaker 2:
At that point in time, if you don't actually take action to make changes in your life or to change your behaviors or belief patterns, you won't make progress towards your goals.
Speaker 2:
So the real trick is leveraging that moment of motivation or heightened energy, whatever you want to call it to actually do things differently in your life. And you know, part of doing the work also is being intentional and having an understanding of the ways that you want to change. It's very easy to say, oh, I'm going to go to this conference and I'm going to. You know, for example, I'm going to learn how to become an entrepreneur. It's like, well, what does that even mean? What are you actually trying to do? Break it down and be very concrete about these are the five steps that I need to take, or that I think I need to take, to get where I want to go. And then, when you have that moment of heightened energy or that feel good feeling, that is when you can then say Okay, now I'm going to do the first step, and it's through those small behavioral changes that slowly accumulate over time that you change yourself in bigger ways.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, really well said. I love that phrasing that you just came up with on the fly of that heightened energy, because, you're right, that's exactly what we feel in those moments of motivation and inspiration. It makes me think of I'm totally going to get the principle wrong, but Mel Robbins has. It's either like the 30 second rule or the 60 second rule, where she says, when you have an idea, take action on it within 30 seconds or 60 seconds, whatever that rule is that she has, and I think that's so important. I picture it as like a little boost and we all do that.
Speaker 1:
My I do it on my Tuesdays are my podcast recording days and in between, if I have 10 minutes here and there, I'll put on a song. That makes me feel all sorts of excited and that's how I maintain my energy level throughout the day. Which leads me to an aspect of your work that I am so intrigued by. I know that part of what you do for people is you offer energy profile snapshots. As a personal development junkie who I can never get enough of personality tests and energy and, yeah, all these energy charts and everything talk to us about what an energy profile snapshot looks like and, more importantly than just the snapshot. What the heck is it that we can learn about ourselves, to leverage, to actually grow and facilitate our progress?
Speaker 2:
Great question. So an energy profile snapshot essentially gives you a look, at a certain point in time, at how you respond to different kinds of things that are happening to you, and so, in the coaching style that I do, there's this sort of framework that helps you to think about where your energy level is at. And there are seven levels, and it's not saying that the higher levels are better or that you know the lower ones need rehabilitation or anything. They're just different. They're different states of being, and when you look at an energy profile, essentially what you can see is not just your overall energy level at this point in time, like where you are in that chart, but it also breaks down how you might respond to particular situations.
Speaker 2:
For example, some people are significantly more reactive at home than they are when they're at work, or vice versa, and the energy profile also can help you to understand where you might want to start when it comes to personal development.
Speaker 2:
So if you look at your snapshot and you're able to see, okay, you know, when I'm at work I tend to become very aggressive because I feel defensive about my work, because I have imposter syndrome, you might be able to identify something like that and that can be a starting point for you as a client to work with a coach, and then you would be able to go be intentional about it. As I mentioned before, here are the things that I really concretely want to work on with you. I also think that the energy profiles are valuable in a sort of more holistic sense. As you take them over time, you can track your overall energy level and use that as a way to assess personal growth, and things that you might be able to look for specifically within that would be lower reactivity to stressful events, having a more empathetic stance towards other people, things of that nature.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love those examples, especially because those are things that you keep saying. That word intentionality If we don't take that time to step back and intentionally assess ourselves, our lives, our direction, our businesses, then it's all happening to us. So I love the way you talk about that reactivity. My, I'm going to ask you this because I want to pick on the triathlete inside of you for a little bit, because I always admire you triathletes, gosh. Running not the easiest thing in the world. Long swims not the easiest things in the world. And then you pile on a bike ride at the end of it. Gosh, you guys are intense in your training.
Speaker 1:
But most importantly, what I always notice is the discipline that goes behind it. And for me, when I first started in personal development, that motivation, that inspiration, that heightened energy level that always came, but what I found was that I was lacking that discipline to actually make those changes in my life and in my business. Talk to us about the role that discipline plays, because I actually, a lot of times I argue that's probably the most difficult part of entrepreneurship is we are the only ones who need to hold ourselves accountable. So discipline is that accountability factor. How does discipline play into all of this stuff and if you want to give some personal examples cause I know you obviously have discipline and abundance then I'd love to hear those thoughts.
Speaker 2:
Sure, um, discipline is definitely required. Um, when it comes to a triathlon, personal development, anything that you want to do, that's more than an immediate term goal. And the way that I sort of just like my tip for like sort of keeping the discipline going is I do a lot of visualization. You know, when I'm on a really long bike ride maybe I'm out there four or five, six, who knows how many hours Sometimes I do just get the feeling like man, I just want to go home or just want to stop or I just want to break. But then I just visualize myself, you know, coming off the bike into a transition or coming even across the finish line and feeling fresh and feeling strong and feeling good, and knowing that what I'm doing now is going to set me up to be in a good place to actually make that vision a reality.
Speaker 2:
And so keeping that in mind every day, even if it's just for a few minutes a day actually, you know you see me closing my eyes right now, but I will actually close my eyes and just imagine what that will look like and imagine what that will feel like when that moment actually comes. And that's the thing that helps to keep the discipline strong, because, I'm not going to lie, there are going to be moments when you just don't feel like it and then when you can just close your eyes and take a breath and think how good is it going to feel when I get to the finish line and I've made it. I feel good. I don't feel like, you know, I want to keel over anything. All my family is going to be there. It's going to be like a huge celebration and I'm going to feel accomplished at the end.
Speaker 2:
And I think it's the same with personal development as it is with triathlon or anything else.
Speaker 2:
You know, you have this vision for yourself.
Speaker 2:
Perhaps that is getting a promotion in your role, perhaps it's getting your anger under control so that you aren't lashing out at your spouse or your kids. And so in every moment where you, you know, have enough awareness to say this is the moment where I have to make a choice, do I go back to that habit, to the thing I'm used to to the thing that's easy to do or do I do the thing that's disciplined, the thing that I know is going to move me in the direction that I want to go? Do I take that step to change my behavior this time? And just to be clear, doing it this time doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be easy every time, or even that you're going to do it every time. But every time that you do it you're building that neural pathway to make it easier and easier to do it in the future and eventually it becomes natural and that becomes the habit. So I think discipline does play a huge role, as you mentioned, for entrepreneurs, also for triathletes. It can apply to anyone.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, maya, I'll tell you what that is. A big question that you are challenging us to ask of ourselves is what do I want more right now? Do I want my end goal? Do I want what I'm doing all this work for? Or do I want to cave in to my immediate term desires and just do what it is that I feel like in this very moment? That's a high barometer of success to hold ourselves to, and that's part of I mean we've mentioned the word a few times now of accountability. That's part of it in any developmental journey that we're on, which leads me to, obviously, the notion of time. I mean you talked about hey, if it's not an immediate term thing, you need discipline.
Speaker 1:
You and I both have had careers before. We are doing the businesses that we're in here today and we know that in the professional environment. So much of what we're judged on is obviously those metrics of gauging hey, where are we today? Where were we six months from now? Talk to us about some of those metrics, because I know it's a much softer environment for us to focus on our personal development. I'm a big fan of celebrating all the small steps in between. I actually just heard an episode of this podcast from many years ago. It's episode 75. I was hyped that I reached 75 episodes. Now we're 800 plus episodes deep and I'm still celebrating every 25 or 50 episodes. Talk to us about some of those measuring sticks along the way in our personal development journeys.
Speaker 2:
I think it's really important to ensure that you have small milestones in between your starting point and your ending point. So I'll give you a personal example again from my triathlon life. Last year I ran an Ironman triathlon and to work up to this level of athletic ability it takes most people many years. For me, this path was, let's see, about seven years from couch to doing my first full Ironman. If I had gone for seven years just training and training and never stopping to look back on my progress and never stopping to celebrate the wins, I would not have made it for sure. Seven years is a long time, and so you know, this is sort of where it comes back to breaking it down into small steps.
Speaker 2:
And I think it happens often where people look at a big goal and they get overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:
They're like, where do I even start?
Speaker 2:
So you break it down into small goals that feel achievable.
Speaker 2:
And if you've broken it down into small goals and you still can't figure out how to start, keep breaking those small goals down into small goals and then, once you've gotten to a place where you feel that you can actually take the steps, you sort of want to make sure that at the end of each one of those steps you're reflecting, you're making some kind of quantitative or at least qualitative observation of how you've grown, how you've changed in between those steps, and not just acknowledging the work and the effort that you have put in to make those changes possible, but also to celebrate, to have that moment and so many people are hesitant to do this but to really feel and experience that moment of pride because you took the time to break it down, you took the time to actually follow through and do the steps and even though I fully believe it's true that many people are capable of following their dreams and achieving their goals, a lot of people don't actually follow through and do it.
Speaker 2:
And that is the part that you want to make sure you are celebrating. You want to celebrate the fact that you are following your dreams and doing the things that are important to you and that you are like doing that as a gift to yourself and that is going to help you stay motivated along the way, especially with longer term goals that may span many years or in some cases you know, especially in businesses sometimes could be a decade or more, depending on what your goals are. You want to make sure that you are giving yourself credit for the things that you are actually doing and for the work that you are putting in.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I really love the way you articulate those thoughts and beliefs, maya, because one thing that I'm hearing in so many of your answers here today is how kind you are to yourself and how much grace you show to yourself, and I think that that's part of a personal development journey is we all need to do that with ourselves. We all are ambitious entrepreneurs, we all have big goals and not many of us, if any of us are where we want to be. We all are constantly striving for more, but showing grace and celebrating our wins along the way. You gave that example. Seven years is a long time to train and when you cross that finish line it's easy for people to be like, oh well, maya's an Ironman, maya's a triathlete, of course she did that. Well, they don't see all that work that goes behind it.
Speaker 1:
So I really respect and admire and appreciate those real life insights from you and along those lines, one thing that I really respect about your work is how you question everything. It's something I teased at the top of today's episode and I'm a big believer that in life, in business, in relationships, in anything, we will only ever get as good of answers, as good of the questions that we ask of ourselves. And I'm super curious putting you on the spot here. Listeners know there's no pre-planned questions here, but I'm putting you on the spot. What are some of those questions that you ask yourself, because I know so much of your work focuses on awareness, taking inventory of our own lives. What are some of those guiding questions that get you down those lines of thinking along the deep and meaningful terms that you want to?
Speaker 2:
This is a great question. I think I'm very fortunate in sort of just natural skepticism. You know, when I hear this question, it makes me think back to what we were talking about earlier about labels and societal expectations, and I think from a very early age I was prone to kind of squint my eyes and be like is that true? You know, whenever One of my favorite examples is when I was a kid my dad used to tell me like you'll see when you get to the real world like this is how it is, you have to dress in this way and you have to talk in this way, or else you're not going to be successful in business. And I definitely had to like is that true? Like that seems true for you, but I don't think that's true for everyone, and so I think that I've said it a few times already, but I think that's kind of the basic question is, whenever I'm, you know, face to face with an assumption, whether that's my own personal assumption or societal expectation it's just like is this true? Is this true for me in this moment? Another question is is this relevant? I think that it, you know, when you're talking about building a business or potentially starting a sort of side hobby you can be faced.
Speaker 2:
It's really surprising, actually, sometimes, how people in our lives can come to us with doubts or they're trying to get us to change our minds or convince us that what we're doing is not the best idea and it comes from a place of concern, but they'll give us lots of information that, while true, just isn't applicable to the situation that you're in. You know, I think for me personally, an example of this was when I moved from the East Coast, which is where I grew up, to the West Coast and I started working in tech. These are two very different climates in terms of workplace culture and sort of different workplace expectations in terms of how employers and employees relate to each other. And so, you know, I'm listening to advice from kind of people I know from the East Coast and just feeling like I think that's true, I think that's true for you and for where you are, but for where I'm at, that actually doesn't apply, because the context that I'm in is just so different from where you are or from the experiences that you've had. So is it true and is it relevant?
Speaker 2:
The last thing I think that I sort of come back to time and time again is you know, what do I want? Because it's very easy to get in your mind, get into and to latch onto all the logic of well, you know, the best decision is to do this because financially it means this and that means success, and you can go down these rabbit holes of logically reasoning your way through, but at the end of the day, if you aren't emotionally bought into the thing that you're doing, it is not going to make an ounce of difference. You need to have your mind and your heart and your body all be aligned in order to feel like you're moving forward in a way that is smooth and so and that's not to say that you shouldn't make considerations in terms of does this thing make sense? Like, of course you should consider that, but that's not the only thing that you need to consider. Are there other things coming into play from my emotional body that need to be heard or factored in as well?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, gosh, listeners, real life questions that Maya just posed for you in real time here. Is this true? Is this relevant? What the heck do I even want? How often are you asking yourself that question? On a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis? You need to ramp that frequency up, because these are the questions that will refocus you. Maya.
Speaker 1:
That second one, in particular, put such a big smile on my face. I'm so grateful. My mom taught me from a very young age, when people would tell me things, whether it was in soccer, whether it was in school, whether it was in life if they express that doubt, or if they express those limiting beliefs, or when I started my business, or people like gosh, that will never take off. She always taught me to put that qualifier that you just shared with us at the end of it yeah, that's probably not possible for you, but like that has nothing to do with me, so I absolutely love that you called that out Something we need to share so much. I also knew before we hit record here today that we would run out of time very quickly.
Speaker 1:
So, listeners, I'm going to spoiler alert. You all know what this means. Maya doesn't yet, but we will be inviting her back for an action Saturday episode. So definitely stay tuned in for that. But before we get to the end of this, maya, I want to squeeze two last questions in. The first is speaking fellow entrepreneur to entrepreneur, because you are one of us, not just as a personal development coach, but your fellow business owner. With that in mind, what are some of those thoughts that, entrepreneurially speaking, you found have come into your head, of questioning, of self doubt maybe, of some of those things that you've recognized and you've said hey, wait, these are natural thoughts because I'm starting a business or I'm growing a business. And how do you address this?
Speaker 2:
Totally. I just, you know I'm a classic case of imposter syndrome. When I first was developing my website for my coaching business, I was like, should I even be spending time doing this? Is anybody even going to look at this? Maybe I shouldn't do it. Nobody's even going to want to hire me.
Speaker 2:
You know, it's just sort of all the classic things where you feel very inexperienced. You know that there are people out there who have not just more experience than you but they may have, you know, a background that is more well suited to your particular role. You know, for myself, I previously was in software for many years and so, switching over to coaching, it was a big pivot and I had this feeling of you know, how am I really qualified to be doing this? I went through the education, I'm certified, obviously, you know on some level and qualified. But look at the people who had been thinking about this sort of personal development track since they were in university, or maybe they had parents who were psychologists and you know they just have a natural knack for understanding how people's minds work and thinking about how to shift people's mindsets, and I don't have that. So I think those were the kinds of things that were frequently coming up for me and I, you know, fortunately was able to recognize.
Speaker 2:
It is true that those people may have some kind of advantage over me in those ways, and it's also true that I have certain things that they don't have. You know, I have skills from my previous roles that make me more successful in other ways, and everyone every coach has a different style. I specialize in a different thing, and that I, you know, came from a very different kind of role. Coming into coaching means that I'm uniquely suited to help people who are trying to make big career pivots in a way that those coaches might not be, because they don't have personal experience with that. And so it's really this recognition that, even though you feel like somebody might have an edge over you to really take stock of, you know what do I have to offer that makes me more uniquely suited than someone else.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, really well said listeners. This is why I'm so appreciative of all of our amazing guests, because none of us are immune to these thoughts. You probably heard your own thoughts in what Maya just shared with us there, but, most importantly, you heard how she worked through those thoughts and that's really inspiring for all of us to take on on our own journey. So, maya, I really appreciate those insights. And my last question to you this is going to be a tricky one, because we talked about so many amazing and important things here today, so much homework and questioning that our listeners need to do. But what's that one takeaway? With all of these things in mind here today that we discussed, and all the amazing and deep and meaningful work that you do with your clients, what do you hope that every listener walks away from today's session with?
Speaker 2:
So, going back to just the previous question, I think the most important thing that you can do is to understand like your foundational values in your foundational beliefs and when you start to have a thought or feeling or behavior pattern that either conflicts with the things that you value or is not in line with what you truly believe, question that. Find those beliefs and this is actually a separate thing. So question things that are not in line with what you believe and value. And the second thing which I think of as adjacent to that is when you see your beliefs, identify the ones that aren't serving you.
Speaker 2:
You know, I think it's very easy to get into this mindset of oh, the world works in this way, which means I need to behave like this. Or you know this person is holding me back, they really don't want me to succeed. Or you know, there's so many different stories that can come up in our minds that will just prevent us from taking action. At the end of the day, you have to know here's where I'm trying to go, here's what I believe that's holding me back from making progress. That's not serving me. What belief do I need to have instead in order to feel like I am able to make progress on the things that are important to me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, really important wisdom from you right there, maya, and, like I said, I've said it so many times during today's session raising that bar on the standards that we all need to hold ourselves accountable to. So I absolutely love that and I'm going to toss it over to you because I know that listeners are going to be super eager and excited to go deeper into your work and all the amazing ways that you work with people. So drop those links on us. Where should listeners go to connect with you?
Speaker 2:
You can check out my coaching website at wwwIntensePresenceCoachingcom, or you can search for me and we can connect on LinkedIn. I'm happy to chat, to help, give advice. Any way that you want to connect, that would feel great for me.
Speaker 1:
Yes, listeners, you already know the drill. We are dropping those links down below in the show notes, wherever it is that you're tuning in. Including the link to Maya's personal LinkedIn, which I'm personally going to vouch for here, is that Maya shows up in big ways on LinkedIn. It's actually how we first came across her work and she really practices what she preaches. She exemplifies all of these questions that she just shared with us here in today's session, so go connect with her. If you want to get a glimpse into the way that she works with people one-on-one, or the energy profile snapshots, find those links down below. Whether you're looking for a career pivot, or you're just looking to level up and perform better as an entrepreneur or just in life in general, Find those links down below. Maya, on behalf of myself and all the listeners around the world, thanks so much for being so generous and transparent and sharing with us here today on the show.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wontropner to Entrepreneur podcast. If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there. Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewontropnershowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests. There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.
Speaker 1:
These are not sponsored episodes. These are not infomercials. Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions. They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome Wontroperners and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible. So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there. We also have live chat. If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewontropnershowcom. Initiate a live chat. It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wontroperner to entrepreneur podcast.
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