How to Have Confidence in the Workplace - Nada Lena Nasserdeen

In today’s episode, I chat with Nada Lena, the Las Vegas-based Founder & CEO of Rise Up For You. Nada is also a #1 Best Selling Author, Leadership and Career Confidence Coach, and 2x TEDx Motivational Speaker.

With over 10 years’ experience as a college professor and former top executive for an education corporation, Nada understands the importance of fusing education, empowerment, and leadership together as she works with her clients and speaks to audiences worldwide. She has toured the world as a singer, has a Master’s degree in Executive Leadership, and has coached and mentored over 50,000 individuals around the world on self-empowerment, career strategy, and soft skills. 

She’s been featured in hundreds of podcasts and radio shows, and is a featured motivational and educational speaker who’s spoken alongside greats such as Tony Robbins, Les Brown and Marie Forleo. Most recently, she can be seen and heard on Radio Canada, Amazon Prime TV, and Bloomberg as a co-host of The Office Hours, a talk show that interviews celebrities, athletes, and world-renowned entrepreneurs. 

We covered a lot in a very short period of time, including Nada’s origin story, the inspiration behind her organization, Rise Up for You, and the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace.

It was such a pleasure connecting with Nada. And I hope you enjoy it.

Nada Lena

Nada Lena is the Founder & CEO of Rise Up For You, #1 Best Selling Author, Leadership and a career confidence coach, and 2x TEDx Motivational Speaker.

With over 10 years’ experience as a college professor and former top executive for an education corporation, Nada understands the importance of fusing education, empowerment, and leadership together as she works with her clients and speaks to audiences worldwide.

Rise Up For You is proudly Certified as a Women ' s Owned Small Business and Certified by the Society of Human Resources Management. Nada has been awarded 40 under 40 professionals in Orange County, California Women of Influence for Entrepreneurship in 2021, the Keynote Speaker Award from the Lebanese Collegiate Network, and the OC Sheriffs Award for her philanthropic work with at-risk youth.

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Matt Burns

Matt Burns is an award-winning executive, social entrepreneur and speaker. He believes in the power of community, simplicity & technology.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt: Both record at the same. I think we can, let me just double 

[00:00:05] Guest 1: check. I believe I've done it before. Let's see what happens. [00:00:10] Got it. I can, but it's recording on my end. The only 

[00:00:14] Matt: perspective. So that's great. So, Danny, this is for my editor, Danny, we're just gonna record audio and video and I'm gonna provide NATA [00:00:20] with a copy of both.

So she has it. Um, but for the purpose of our podcast, we'll do audio only as we always do. Cool. Thank you. So, uh, any last minute questions? Nope. I think we're good. [00:00:30] Well, let's jump into it. Um, nada, super excited for the conversation today. Thanks for joining me. 

[00:00:35] Guest 1: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and share.

[00:00:39] Matt: Yeah, it's gonna be [00:00:40] a great conversation. I had a chance to go through your background and experiences prior to our meeting today, and I'm super, just excited to talk about things like confidence in the workplace and emotional intelligence. Before we get there, [00:00:50] I'd love to learn a bit more about you, your background and your 

[00:00:52] Guest 1: experiences.

Yeah, thank you. So, as you mentioned, my name's Netta, I'm the CEO and founder of RiseUP for you. So what we do basically [00:01:00] is we work with organizations around the world, everything from a fortune 500 company, down to a small business to enhance their culture through all things, soft skills, I like to [00:01:10] call them power skills.

So those are all the skills that we don't typically learn such as emotional intelligence, a leadership, confidence, effective communication, the skills that really [00:01:20] make up about 80% of our success. So we get the great honor of going into these companies and facilitating that experience with their team, enhancing their culture.

And then of [00:01:30] course, we also work with individuals on a one to one level to enhance their potential. So that's a little bit about the company we're in over 50 countries and yeah, I didn't start that way. [00:01:40] I actually started as a performer. I did musical theater for years. and then transit. 

[00:01:46] Matt: That seems to be a trend lately on the podcast.

I'd love to learn a bit more about that transition. [00:01:50] Yeah. So what prompted the move going from the creative pursuits, the artistic pursuits now into more of a business entrepreneurial 

[00:01:56] Guest 1: setting? Yeah. I, you know, it's interesting because I would say a [00:02:00] good chunk of my emotional intelligence probably came from performing understanding how to read a room.

And most of my tours were overseas. So I did about 12 [00:02:10] tours that were about four months, only one of them was in America and the rest of them were in Japan. Alt or Russia, Spain all over the world. And so I quickly [00:02:20] became more obsessed with the people aspect of it. So when I would walk on stage, it wasn't really about me performing and singing.

It was more about how can I. Communicate [00:02:30] effectively to this audience that I know can't understand English, you know what I mean? Like being in Russia and Japan and whatnot. So I became more obsessed with like the interaction and the people [00:02:40] intelligence. Um, and that kind of just spawned my next step, which was becoming an executive for an education corporation, which was that empowering and that educational aspect.[00:02:50] 

And then from there, you know, jumping into building the. 

[00:02:54] Matt: You reference, you do a lot of work with both organizations and individuals. Yeah. And you with a [00:03:00] presence in 1550 countries, sorry. I'm assuming you've started to now collect enough experiences where patterns are starting to emerge. Yeah. And I'm curious, what are some of the common things that you see working with [00:03:10] clients or with individuals?

[00:03:11] Guest 1: Yeah. I think one of the things that we see is there's not enough ownership that's taken on either end. I'm actually reading a great book right now, which I'm sure many people have [00:03:20] read, uh, by Joco, which is extreme ownership. And that's something that we see a lot is that it's always, well, the company did this or my leaders did this.

For vice versa. My team [00:03:30] does this. And I think that in order to really enhance like companies and individuals like collectively, they need to always be taking an ownership perspective. [00:03:40] Like what can I do better to help myself? What can I do better to help my team? What are things that I can do to help elevate myself?

And I think that's something that we see there's not enough of that [00:03:50] happening. Um, and then another thing that we see around the world is a really big challenge with self confide. My team. And I asked over 2000 [00:04:00] professionals in 2021, what their number one challenge was. These are professionals that are actively working, not furloughed.

And 83% said self confidence was their number [00:04:10] one challenge in the workplace, which is a huge number. 

[00:04:13] Matt: And any insights as to why that seems like a really staggering number is a consequence of the pandemic and people being outta their [00:04:20] comfort zones. Is it increased pressure to perform and, you know, have success in this world that seemingly is getting faster by the day?

Like what, what are some of the trends 

around 

[00:04:29] Guest 1: self confidence? [00:04:30] Yeah, all of the above. And, um, I wrote a whole book on this because I'm super passionate about this, but unfortunately, We have really done a great injustice in particular north America and [00:04:40] putting so much emphasis on building what I call micro confidence.

So micro confidence is that you build confidence in a category or a competency. I mean, think about our whole [00:04:50] education system, right? And this is the same in Europe and overseas, we are taught to build skills in like math history, right? We're, we're building confidence in these [00:05:00] areas, but no one ever teaches us to like, feel.

Or to have belief in ourself or to understand when we have negative thoughts on how to work through them. And that's what I call the [00:05:10] macro confidence that we don't ever get taught. And so as we get older, we're now professionals and all of our self-worth and our identity is based on these little tiny [00:05:20] micro, you know, competencies that we've built along the way, getting degrees, PhDs, master certificates, all this stuff, the job that we have, the title that we have.

But the challenge is, is [00:05:30] that those things aren't sustainable. So when they do fall apart, or when you do, you know, get furloughed or you get a new job or you don't get that promotion, or you have a leader that [00:05:40] maybe doesn't like what you're doing, your whole identity and your being comes crashing down.

You don't feel enough, you get in your head, perfectionist mindset and posture syndrome. All these things come up [00:05:50] because no one's ever really taught us to understand who we are and to build what I call macro confidence, which is an understanding that you are enough simply because you [00:06:00] exist. Not because of any job degrees, certificate or money that you have.

[00:06:05] Matt: It's a big topic. 

[00:06:07] Guest 1: yeah. Like we can go on for like a long time [00:06:10] ago. 

[00:06:11] Matt: but I think it's, it's, it's emblematic of a broader shift that's occurring that you alluded to and you had a front row seat for, in an educational capacity. Yeah, I think [00:06:20] about my experience. I mean, I think I'm one of the oldest millennials on the planet.

I grew up in a world where I was surrounded by baby boomers that their worldview and their life experience was such that they went [00:06:30] to school. Yeah. They got a career. And they spent 25 to 35 years in that career within that zone of expertise, that micro credential piece, that micro [00:06:40] expertise that you talk about and they could expect that time spent up front to gather those education, those credentials, those experiences would sustain them through a 30 year [00:06:50] career until they would retire.

And then move on and then enjoy retirement. Yeah. We've since seen in the last 15 years in particular and we accelerate 10, 5, 3 years that [00:07:00] that's no longer a reality for most people that are credential, even if it's in the healthcare field or in the law field, those credentials are not having. The longevity they once did.[00:07:10] 

And as a consequence, people are having to become more lifelong learners. They're having to become more agile in their careers. They're having to, in some cases, start, stop, reset, pivot, multiple different [00:07:20] occasions. And while the world is becoming to a degree, more flexible, there's still some real overarching constraints most people deal with when you talk about things.

[00:07:30] Family and the cities that you live in and the income levels that you need to sustain yourself and your families in a rising inflationary environment. Yeah. So I, I can totally [00:07:40] appreciate how individuals can look around at predecessors and go like, this is what their experience was. Why don't I get that same experience?

And to your point [00:07:50] with it's incumbent upon individuals and institutions going forward to. Individuals and therefore their teams understand that this agile way of [00:08:00] working this agile way of learning is here to stay. Yes. And that we can detach some of our self worth from these micro credentials and rather sustain ourselves through a more holistic way.[00:08:10] 

And I'm curious for you, um, you know, how have you tried to move the needle on that? How have you tried to work with leaders from a confidence perspective that may be facing [00:08:20] this, this very real realization? Uh, I, I'm not gonna be able to make it in my current career for 10 more years, I'm gonna have to change and evolve my thinking and [00:08:30] pivot.

How do you work with people like that and help them see the, the hope and the optimism for what that. 

[00:08:35] Guest 1: Yeah, that's a really great question. And actually it's a part of our core curriculum, no matter [00:08:40] what we're doing with the company or an individual. So actually most people don't know that confidence is a part of emotional intelligence.

It's it's under the umbrella of EQ and it's [00:08:50] in the very, very first pillar. So there's four pillars of EQ confidence is under that first pillar. And that's how important it is. Is that. If you can't get that right. It's really hard to [00:09:00] build anything else. It's hard to be a great leader. It's hard to build a company it's hard to, you know, drive sales.

And so we actually infuse it in our core curriculum. No matter what, if [00:09:10] a company comes to us and says, we want diversity equity and inclusion and access, we're like, great. You're getting confidence too, because. We understand that a big component of this work that we're doing [00:09:20] stems from the individual and what people don't realize, or they, they don't put two and two together is that if you don't feel enough, then you're never, ever gonna be able to guide your [00:09:30] team or coach your team or lead your team to your full potential, because you're not feeling enough is always gonna get in the way of your behavior and responses with them.

And so it is [00:09:40] a really, really important component that we bring. All of our curriculum, no matter what, because the reality is, and this is what we. Really press upon [00:09:50] with leaders in the workspace and professionals. You can have as many degrees as you want. You can be a genius in your industry, but if you don't have the confidence to take [00:10:00] action to assert to move the needle forward, all of your education and your background means nothing.

And that's really important for us to press upon, especially with [00:10:10] leaders as well. Even when we work with leaders that maybe are reacting in a way that's not the best. It usually comes down to confidence. Like there's a thought that they have in their mind that [00:10:20] drives their reaction to be not so kind or not so friendly.

Right. And we've all heard that feeling or that phrase hurt people hurt. Right? So when someone doesn't feel enough or they have these beliefs in their [00:10:30] head, they're gonna respond according to the narrative that's in their mind, not necessarily like what's the best approach according to this environment and situ.[00:10:40] 

[00:10:40] Matt: It's a really good point. And it's something that's not talked about very often. It. It makes all the sense in the world that if, as a leader, I'm struggling with self confidence, that's going to [00:10:50] affect the people around me, both personally and professionally hundred percent. And it can show up in a lot of different ways.

We talk a lot about symptoms. We talk a lot about things like micromanagement. We talk about [00:11:00] things like, um, poor engagement in the workplace. Yeah. We talk about, um, leader leaders who have a hard time, um, you know, seeing the, the. The [00:11:10] breadth of skills people have. And instead of trying to put them in boxes, we've talked about a lot of these kind of, I don't wanna call them surface issues.

That's probably underselling them, but we don't talk about the root cause, which is what [00:11:20] we're discussing now. Correct confidence. Yeah. And I, I'm curious as you unravel the layers of the individual and kind of work towards that kind of core of confidence, [00:11:30] um, what are some of the things that. You butt up against when you're working with particularly talented leaders in their space or [00:11:40] experts in this particular field, what are some of the resistance points that you butt up against when you're trying to address a confidence issue for somebody who traditionally has proje projected at the very [00:11:50] least, whether it's disingenuous or not that they have confidence.

[00:11:53] Guest 1: Yeah. It's two things that the one is the ownership piece again. Right? So sometimes it takes an individual a little bit longer to [00:12:00] understand that the ownership. It's gonna come back to you as a leader, right? It, it, it's how you deal with things, how you approach different situations. But the second, which is probably [00:12:10] the, the biggest one that we see is ready, ready.

They are. If they're willing to. Do that work, right? So are they ready to [00:12:20] accept and do that work? That's the language that I'm trying to use. So sometimes people they're not ready to go back into that deep space. They're not ready to understand, like where do my thoughts and beliefs come from? [00:12:30] Cuz for some people it can be very painful, right?

Because we're talking like programming. When you're a child we're talking programming. When you're in high school, we're talking things that happen when you're in college, your [00:12:40] first job, your second job. It's like all of our experiences that we have had up until this point. They are what create the thoughts and the beliefs in our head about [00:12:50] ourselves.

And some people just are not ready to go there. They're not willing or ready to go there. And they're scared of change. Right. You know, I, I recently, um, [00:13:00] and this is a beautiful story, but just finished working with an executive that Ooh, in the beginning, there was just pushback, pushback, pushback. They don't wanna [00:13:10] change.

They didn't think they need. And my response to them was like, I'm not trying to change you. I just wanna give you more tools that you can use in different environments. So it's not about changing you, it's giving you more [00:13:20] tools and now you deciphering where you get to use what tool, but it's really just understanding that in order to build that confidence, we have to break some of the beliefs [00:13:30] that we built that hinder us.

And in order to do that, we have to go back to where they come from. Where do they come from? Why do they. How come I tell Dawn to it for so [00:13:40] long and is it serving me or sabotaging me? And that is the biggest challenge we see is, are people ready and willing to do that? 

[00:13:48] Matt: And that's a big question. [00:13:50] And, uh, I appreciate the intention with which you pursue that because it really undermines the broader effort if they aren't willing to take action against some of the things you're talking about.

And as [00:14:00] you were speaking, it struck me. A prerequisite of all this is trust. Yeah. The people that you work with have to deeply trust you, your intentions, your [00:14:10] expertise, and ultimately that they're gonna end up in a place that is better. Although the first few steps might be a bit scary and a bit daunting.

And I'm curious in your role with [00:14:20] your team, how do you work to accelerate the, the relationship building that trust building process so that you create the conditions for this growth to. 

[00:14:28] Guest 1: Yeah, I think for, uh, [00:14:30] I can only speak from my perspective that I also try to teach with my team is just authenticity.

You know, when somebody we've heard this phrase a million times, I'm sure. But when [00:14:40] somebody knows that you care about them, then they're gonna, they're gonna work harder for you. Right. They wanna know that you care. So, I mean, I make it really, really clear in the beginning when I'm coaching [00:14:50] anyone, when we're training, when anything, we come across, very authentic.

And for me, it's like I could give, you know, two craps about the money. I wanna know that your [00:15:00] successes are a success. And at the end of the day, if this isn't working for you, then let's adjust. And I think it goes back to again, that confidence piece is that [00:15:10] when you're confident, I'm a confident individual.

I can tell you that's one competency that I'm strong at. There's other competencies that I have to work on, but that one I'm strong in. When you're confident in [00:15:20] yourself, you don't come from a perception of it's about. And I think that our clients feel that way because I hire confident individuals. And when you're confident, it no longer [00:15:30] becomes about you becomes about them.

And clients can feel that they can feel that it's not about me. It's about you. So if I'm doing something that's not working for you, tell me, [00:15:40] because this is not about me. This is about you like, forget the ego, forget all that stuff. And so I think that that's one thing that's really served myself and my team [00:15:50] is that we have that understanding.

This is not for me. This is for you and whatever we gotta do to make you feel good. And for your journey to be successful, [00:16:00] that's what we're gonna do.

[00:16:03] Matt: So you're lucky to have come by confidence naturally, what a blessing, uh, 

[00:16:09] Guest 1: My [00:16:10] environment is my, your 

[00:16:11] Matt: environment. Yeah. Your environment. And, and you, you, you soaked it up and learned from it and were able to ingest it and ultimately apply it and then have an [00:16:20] abundance of it and share with other individuals.

Yeah. There are many individuals that you reference that don't come by this naturally confidence has always been a challenge and they, in some [00:16:30] cases may have built a life designed a career developed relationships. From a position of a lack of confidence. Okay. And they may be hitting an [00:16:40] inflection point in their lives.

Maybe they're waking up listening to this podcast. They're in a job. They don't enjoy they're in a relationship they're not happy with. And they're waking to the reality. A growing sense of [00:16:50] confidence or at least an awareness around a misalignment of what they really want and where they find themselves.

What do those first few days look like? So if you're counseling [00:17:00] someone around embracing their confidence and moving down this path towards self confidence, what are some things that you would recommend that people do particularly in light? [00:17:10] Extending some self kindness, because often confidence comes with a degree of self care.

What are some things that you really zero in on in helping people to build that roadmap, that [00:17:20] framework, that skillset, to be able to find confidence in themselves? 

[00:17:23] Guest 1: Yeah. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna reframe something quickly. Is that. Everybody is born with [00:17:30] confidence. So every single person, when they're a baby and they're born, we are all born conf with confidence.[00:17:40] 

What makes and shifts the factors is the environment. That we are born into. So that's where I can say I'm very, very lucky and [00:17:50] that I was born into an environment that reinforced my nature to be confident as a baby. Right. So when I was a baby and I grew up, my parents [00:18:00] continued to be like, keep going, try it fall down to get back up, try it again.

Like there was always positive reinforcement and there was always a pushing of my [00:18:10] potential. If I got an a minus, my dad would say, why did you get an a minus. Do you have what it takes to get the a plus. Yeah, dad. Well then why didn't you get the, a plus you can do it right. There was [00:18:20] always that reinforcement.

So that by the time I was 18 and I went to college and somebody said like, you suck, you're not good enough. I, my [00:18:30] programming was already so strong that I was like, eh, that's not true. because my environment for 18 years taught me the opposite. Right. So. When, you know, I [00:18:40] went through my first relationship and I lost everything and I was like, eh, this isn't really about me.

That's okay. I'm gonna keep going. You know, I lost both of my parents when I was, by the [00:18:50] time I was 30. And that confidence was like, No, like I've already had that programming that you just keep getting back up and you keep getting back up and you keep getting back up. And so [00:19:00] I just wanna make that clear because sometimes people think like, oh, I wasn't born with confidence.

And it's like, no, you were, everyone had even playing filled when they were born, but they [00:19:10] didn't have even playing filled into the environment that they were born in. And that's what really. The difference today. And so the first thing that I would say is that if you're in this journey to building that [00:19:20] confidence is you have to do that reverse engineering, which is the hardest part.

It's the hardest part, which is going back all the way to when you're a child and understanding what are [00:19:30] some of the beliefs that you have. So I talk about the four BS that I created, right? What's the belief that you have, that's currently sabotaging you. Now we have lots. But like, [00:19:40] let's just pick one. So Matt, maybe we could do this together and you don't have to say it out loud, but what's one belief that you have right now.

That's currently getting in the way of your success belief about [00:19:50] yourself, right? What is that belief now? The second be is what's the backstory. So where does that belief come from? Did it come from a past leader? Did it come from. Uh, you know, when you were in a high [00:20:00] school, did it come from, you know, your parents that constantly said these things to you.

So understanding where it came from is super, super important. Then step number three is what's the [00:20:10] behavior that it's causing you. And this is really important because sometimes people don't correspond the belief to how their behavior, but what's the behavior that it's causing. Is it [00:20:20] causing. To be more snappy with people.

Is it causing you to, you know, stay quiet. And I meeting, even though, you know, you know the answer and you wanna raise your hand, but you don't, is it causing you [00:20:30] if you're a student, not to an ask questions because you're scared, people are gonna think you're stupid. If you ask a que, so like what's the behavior that it's causing you.

And then the fourth B [00:20:40] is breaking it. So how do we break it now? Is it serving us or is it sabotaging us? And I always say. There's no magic pill to breaking it. [00:20:50] Other than understanding that most of the beliefs that you have are not yours, they will put on you by other people. And it's very empowering to [00:21:00] recognize that.

That belief is like, it's like a backpack with all these rocks that we have from people, right? When you're a child, someone puts a rock in our bag and says, eh, this is what [00:21:10] I think of you. This is what I think. And before, you know what, you're an adult with like this huge backpack on your back full of rocks.

That's like weighing you down. So now we have to take like one rock [00:21:20] out at a time and get rid of it so that we can build that confidence and realize that these beliefs are not who we are at our core. These are things that were put onto. [00:21:30] We just started wearing it. We believed it and we started wearing it and then things in life reinforced it.

And then we believed it and we kept wearing it and wearing it. And now we're professional and it's getting in the way [00:21:40] of our work. It's getting in the way of our relationships romantically. And with friends, it's getting in the way of, you know, how we show up, how we treat ourselves. And that's really the first step [00:21:50] is those four BS.

And it's a continuous thing. I still do it every time. I have a belief about myself. That's not positive. I go through the four BS. Why do I have that? Where does it come [00:22:00] from and look how it's causing me to behave. I don't like that behavior. I wanna break that. And then I have to shift it. 

[00:22:08] Matt: I love that process.

And I love the [00:22:10] intention with which you approach it, because I think a lot of us deal with symptoms. So you talked about things like irritability, lack of confidence. We spend a lot of time talking about symptoms, but we don't go do the [00:22:20] work to go back and deconstruct what it might be origin of that, which ultimately informs it to begin with.

I, I I'd love your take on. The same topic, but maybe [00:22:30] on the opposite end of the spectrum. So you've been in the corporate world for many years as have I we've interacted with people that have an abundance of confidence. In some cases, confidence [00:22:40] overflowing to the point that it actually clouds self-awareness and can be an inhibitor of relationship building or of their success.

Have you had experience working with [00:22:50] individuals who fit into that profile and is it a similar process to deconstruct maybe an abundance of confidence if it's becoming a, a barrier to [00:23:00] success? 

[00:23:00] Guest 1: Yeah, so I, I have a different belief on this. I don't think it's confidence. And I actually encourage the companies that we work with not to use the term overconfident.[00:23:10] 

What it is is overcompensation, because they're not C. Okay, because when somebody is truly confident, then they have the awareness to [00:23:20] understand that it's okay if they make mistakes. So they don't overcompensate because they're confident enough to say like, uh, I don't really know that too well yet, but I can work on it.

They have a [00:23:30] growth mindset. They have compassion for themselves and they understand that at the core they're human and by nature, humans make mistakes. So there's no overcompensation that's happening. [00:23:40] They're very authentic in saying like, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'll figure it out. If you gimme the opportunity.

When somebody is overcompensating and like going overboard, it's usually [00:23:50] because there's a lack of confidence there that exists. And so they're trying to prove or so show something and that's where overcompensation occurs. And, you know, [00:24:00] confidence is kind, confidence is humble. Confidence is aware of the situation and confidence also embodies followership and knowing like when do I step forward?

And [00:24:10] when do I take a step back? Because the environment is allowing for. 

[00:24:14] Matt: That's a great reframe. And I think we all can identify with a story of somebody who may lack confidence, but [00:24:20] projects an abundance of it because of insecurity or because of a belief that, and let's be honest in most corporate settings, we disproportionately reward [00:24:30] confidence, whether it's real or not.

Sometimes at the expense of actual tangible benefits. And as long as that situation exists, as long as companies [00:24:40] continue to put their trust in behind people, that project confidence, but may not realize it we're gonna have this dynamic where people are going to always wanna put their best foot forward.

Um, even [00:24:50] though in some cases, the best thing for them to do might be say, I don't know, or I'm confused, or I need some help with this. And I, I love the way that you've reframed that [00:25:00] because it really does put, uh, the true definition of confidence into a light. Um, and does speak to, you mentioned earlier, um, the, the, the concept of [00:25:10] soft skills.

I also love the way you've reframed that they're not. Soft in the traditional sense, but they are powerful skills that people can use really, to build relationships and ultimately to [00:25:20] influence other people and hopefully to lead to a whole bunch more abundance for everyone around them. Yeah. 

[00:25:25] Guest 1: A hundred percent.

And, and you're right. And it, they, it does influence. And these are the [00:25:30] bulk of the skills that we need. I mean, you have to think at the end of the day, You know, when I was a performer, for example, there's 400 singers and dancers in the room. At the end of the day, we all [00:25:40] sound the same. We all do the same pirouettes.

We all have the same Octa range, right? Like at the end of the day, technically we look the same on paper when it comes to our technique. [00:25:50] But my director always used to say, I'm looking for people that I can go camping with because after a while all your voices sound the. You all [00:26:00] dance the same. So past the technique, now past the degree, pass your certifications, pass your resume.

I wanna know if you're a good human and if you have [00:26:10] emotional intelligence and if you're kind and you collaborate and you can communicate well and you have a positive attitude. That's what people are looking for. [00:26:20] And most of the time, when a company lets go of a team member because they talk with us right.

When they're like, Hey, we gotta let this person go. It's never because they're not good at their job. [00:26:30] It's never because they're not, I've never once heard, eh, they're not producing results. It's, they're creating drama or they're not motivated or they're [00:26:40] constantly late, or they have a hard time collaborating with people or they're not leading very well.

It's always because of those power skills. Never because technically they don't know what they're doing. [00:26:50] 

[00:26:52] Matt: I wanna pivot so slightly. And in the research before this interview, I looked at your background and your experiences. And as you mentioned, I [00:27:00] was curious about the transition from being a performer to moving to the executive world.

And then also the, the transition from that role into now your own practice. Yeah. Along the way, during the pandemic, you [00:27:10] picked up a new skill though. You actually got a yoga certification, and I'm just curious where that all fits into this broader, you know, mosaic. That is your background, your experiences.

I think I 

[00:27:19] Guest 1: just like [00:27:20] to learn. I, I like to learn and I like to push myself and I think that yoga yoga's actually very like connected to what we do. Emotional intelligence. Right. It's just [00:27:30] through the body. Right. Understanding the mind, the spirit. So for me, I just love to learn. I love to grow and I love to, like, my thing is, is that if I'm gonna ask my [00:27:40] clients to push themselves, I also have to do the same for myself.

And that's a philosophy that I live by. So I'm always trying to constantly push my own way of thinking and my behaviors and how [00:27:50] I show up and, you know, getting my yoga certification. Was an opportunity for me to push not only my body physically, cuz I'm not like flexible in any way and [00:28:00] understanding like how to be more moldable, you know, with what I do, but my mind, my spirit, my soul.

And so that's one of the reasons why I wanted to go through this two hour or [00:28:10] 200 hour certification process was to push myself beyond. Um, in a group of people, practicing vulnerability and, you know, putting myself onto [00:28:20] that next step right now, I'm currently going into ballroom lessons. So it's just something to push myself that I've never done before.

And so now I'm gonna start taking ballroom [00:28:30] lessons and I wanna compete, I wanna do a ballroom competition. So I'm constantly like trying to push myself in different areas as well. I also have a coach, even though our company coaches and we do [00:28:40] training. I have a coach outside of this company. Of course, that pushes me past my potential and helps me, you know, just continue to grow.

[00:28:49] Matt: So [00:28:50] what's next for you? I mean, you have obviously a very successful practice. You're in 50 countries around the world. You just got your yoga certification. Now, your ballroom dancing, true Renaissance woman. [00:29:00] What's next for you? As far as your. 

[00:29:02] Guest 1: Yeah. I mean, for me, it's always more maximum exposure. Like just getting the message out there more.

I always say that I wanna be the Google of the [00:29:10] personal professional development space when it comes to companies and individuals. So it's really just continuing to grow the business to maximize impact. It's all about income, you [00:29:20] know, maximizing that impact for me. And, you know, the more income we bring in the more impact we can have.

So that's kind of where my mind is on a business level. You know, and then on an individual level, [00:29:30] you know, the ballroom dancing, I wanna climb mashy peace shoe. That's on my bucket list as well. So just continuing to grow and push myself and, and have a positive circle. Actually, my team is [00:29:40] coming in the next hour there, we're doing a team retreat here at the house and.

That's exactly what we're gonna do is figure out, like, where are we going as a company? What are the next steps and [00:29:50] our, our foresight or what we're always looking at people. Our questions are always what's working for the people and what's not working for the people. And that's what kind of drives our decision [00:30:00] making.

And it's served us pretty well so far. 

[00:30:04] Matt: I really enjoyed our conversation. We covered a lot in a short period of time. And at the same time, I took [00:30:10] away a lot from the conversation. This is a, a topic that I think is not discussed enough, and I think it's a perfect inflection point in a world post pandemic for people [00:30:20] to, you know, re rediscover themselves.

We've all done, gone through a tough. and to varying degrees, of course. And that has in a lot of cases led to a lot of, [00:30:30] self-reflection a lot of personal growth, a lot of challenging days. And at the same time, it's individuals like yourself, which provide a great template and example for how we can move forward.

[00:30:40] So what I'll do is I'll link all your details and the podcast show notes for the folks that are interested in connecting with you offline. Um, I wanna just wish you so well in the future and look forward to staying in touch. 

[00:30:49] Guest 1: Thank you, Matt. I [00:30:50] appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone.