9th anniversary, reflection & next leap

LinkedIn reminded me of my 9th business anniversary with an inbox full of congratulatory emails and well-wishes.
 

I feel humbled and exited. Elated and totally sobered. With my head high in the clouds and feet firmly on the ground. And gearing up for my next leap...

As I am feeling into the next chapter, next iteration that is coming in & is calling me forth, I want to reflect a bit on this journey that has brought me some of the most incredible lessons, experiences and liberation, as well as some of the darkest moments filled with doubt, fear, and judgement that I had to learn to alchemize.

I got to meet some of my dearest friends, and work with mentors whom, at one point, I could only admire from afar.

Most of all - I totally transformed, and so has my marriage.

See, I never really aspired to be a business owner even though entrepreneurship it in my DNA.

But despite my great ambitions and a budding career in Manhattan, life had other plans, and would put my resilience, commitment, grit, trust and courage to the test, again.

When my husband and I found out I was pregnant with our first child, I lost my job. Relieved that the 2.5-hour door-to-door commuting was finally over, I was on someone else’s timeline now.

Yearning for more freedom and flexibility, and deeply disappointed by the hostile (non-existing) support system for new moms and families (remember, I am European, we do these things very differently there), I started my business.

I still remember the excitement of the possibilities, the terror of the unknown, and the lesson in every single mistake I could possibly make.

And yet, it was surprisingly easy to juggle caring for a newborn, building up what would soon become a premium online business management and consulting agency, putting on high heels multiple times per week to masterfully network around the Tri-state area, and traveling the world for weeks on end.

When our second daughter completed our family 2.5 years later, I felt like the sky was the limit!


Not to mention, the fact that I gave myself a 3-month fully-paid maternity leave only elevated the sense of pride and accomplishment.

While powering through the days of snuggling a newborn, caring for a toddler, managing my team, and planning to retire my husband… something unexpected happened.

Post-partum depression and two trips to the ER due to burnout, paired with incredible homesickness & guilt after losing two grandparents, were clear signs that the same work ethic, strategies, and mindset that had given me everything, could now kill me.

I would love to say that what happened next was a movie-like epiphany and an instant transformation that has catapulted me right back to the top.

But. It. Wasn't.

Through the journey that followed, I looked critically at everything: my beliefs, stories, attitude, habits, conversations, expectations. Including my business, marriage, family, myself.

I unlearned, undid, and unmasked it all to reevaluate, release, rethink, redefine, reframe, rebuild.

To heal, transform and transmute this feeling of deep disconnect, overwhelm, isolation, frustration. Because I knew I was meant for more...

Because I was more... Beneath the MBA credentials, business acumen, and strategic and tactical nature that has produces the most unbelievable, rapid and measurable (business-related) results for my clients...

...I began to embrace - and bring forth in my work - the more holistic and spiritual side of me. The softer, feminine, intuitive side. And with that, the past 4 years-or-so have truly opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me and my clients.

And that's where I am being called next, to dive even deeper, to elevate even higher, to go even further as a transformational mentor, intuitive success strategist, modern witch.

I am also feeling called to return to the athletic arenas, to return to the arenas of fierce leaders, high-achieving visionaries who are driven by their mission, soul's calling, and indescribable desire to not only excel...but to do the unthinkable. To To break the rules. To shatter the limits. To rewrite the history. To change the world.

Like Billie Jean taking what she was told she couldn't have.

Like Serena coming back for more after having a baby.

Like Kamala rising to where no woman has been before.

Like thousands of elite athletes who, for their entire careers, have been getting ready for their moment at the 2020 Olympics... who have devoted the past 4 years of every second of every day to be ready in a very particular moment... Only to have the event taken away and postponed for a year.

How do you freeze time? How do you extend your peak?

Yup...this time, we're doing it in the most MAGICAL, congruent, and masterful way that seems almost effortless - because we make it so... Working with the current and natural rhythm and genius, quantum strategies and tactical and pragmatic action ... no longer against it... just to fit into some norms, expectations, paradigms.

As a woman, as a leader, as an athlete, as a wife, as a mom, as an immigrant...I know how haunting the "Have I done enough?" can be.

I also understand what it takes to overcome adversities, to make unconventional decisions and take leaps of faith that turn the wildest dreams into a reality - I have personally done & built everything that
I teach, piece by piece.

It takes a lot to do all that we do, and to be all that we are - while eyes and pressure are on us. And - this is our time.