Design Your Life, Your Way - Strategic Growth for the Conscious Midlife Entrepreneur

Transform what you love and do into a scalable business with Nathalie Doremieux's heart-centered online business strategy.

When Nathalie Doremieux, an introverted online business strategist and smart, heart-centered mother of three, takes her clients by the hand to guide them through the ins and outs of creating a scalable business, she discovers an unstoppable drive to support women in creating financial stability.

"If you don't believe in yourself, you can't expect people to believe in you. You just can't. You can't fake it. People say fake it till you make it. You can't. I don't think you can. People can see through that." - Nathalie Doremieux

Through her work with coaches and mindset work, Nathalie developed an understanding of her own strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur. Nathalie believes that in order to scale a business, one has to start by building an audience and experimenting with different techniques to reach the right people. She encourages entrepreneurs to focus on building a good rapport with their audience rather than feeling the need to sell them something.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

How to Transform What You Love and Do Into a Scalable Business

The Benefits of Doing Personal Development Work to Support Your Entrepreneurial Journey

The Power of Building an Audience and Enrolling People Into Their Own Ideas

The Value of Consistency in Growing Your Business

Busting the Myth about Memberships

Why it Pays to Lean into Your Zone of Genius

Connect with Nathalie

Website: themembershiplab.com

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Intuitive Business Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

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Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

Namaste. I am so glad that you have decided to join us for another edition of Live Love Engage. And I get to speak with some amazing people on this show, and the lovely woman whom I'm going to welcome here is no exception to that. So I'm going to tell you all about her in a second. But first off, I want to welcome Nathalie Doremieux to live, love, engage. Thank you so much for having me, Gloria. I am so glad to have you. We actually connected through email, of all things, because I'm on your list, but I'm going to tell people a little bit about what you do and why that kind of got my attention. So Nathalie is an online business strategist as well as a smart, heart centered mother of three wonderful kids and married to her business partner and best friend.

And she's deeply passionate about memberships, online programs, and her clients' success. And even though she says she's an introvert, she is also unstoppable when she takes her clients by the hand, and patiently guides them through the ins and outs of online space and tech. And isn't it amazing how I've always had considered myself an introvert as well? And yet here I am doing a podcast, but it's from the comfort of my own home, which is good.

One of the things that we wanted to talk about today was how to transform what, you know, love and do into a scalable business. I mentioned at the start that we connected through email, and it's because you were promoting your memberships and you were offering sort of a discovery call to see if memberships would be right for you. And you were so wonderful and thoughtful and just offered me some wonderful advice. And essentially, I'm not quite ready for a membership program yet, but I'm getting there, so someday you'll hear about that. So let's start off, I like to.

Find out from our guests a little bit about their journey. And so can you share with us a little bit what got you perhaps interested in doing online marketing and why you are so passionate about helping your clients. Sure. So I have a pretty unusual journey, and I should say we have. So, you know, I am in the south of France right now, so living in the place where we want to live, living the lifestyle that we want.

But basically, I met my husband during school. He's today my business partner. And after school in France, we decided to move to the US. To live the American dream. We couldn't really find a job in France.

We didn't even look, but it seemed quite hard. And since we were in computer science, we decided to take our chance and go to the US. We go there for the summer, we find a job, great. We don't, we come back. Well, within a month, I found a job.

So we stayed there. We got married in Reno, which is a little Las Vegas, just the two of us and our two witnesses. And we stayed there for ten years. We had three kids, and in 2005, we decided to sell everything and move back to France. And there were several reasons for that.

One was the lifestyle. I mean, living in California, in San Francisco was amazing, but things were going really, really fast. I was tired. I fell asleep at the wheel twice. One was on a bridge.

Bridge, yes. And we just could not keep up with that space. And one day my husband said, do you want to go back and say, we can go back for just two years? Well, it was in 2005 and we still here. We sold everything, moved back, and we were going to keep our jobs because we were in the Silicon Valley.

Computer science and the circumstances made it so that we didn't get a chance to keep our job because the company got sold out. And that was then the opportunity to start a business. Now, the thing is, my husband is the entrepreneur, is the one that has ten ideas a minute. I am not. I like the todo list. Like I said, I am an introvert.

I like things that are safe, I like things that are planned. But I like to tell people that actually became an entrepreneur for love because I wanted to support him in his dream of being his own boss. So it's been very challenging. I got fired twice by my husband because I was acting like an employee and not a business owner, like a co founder. But we're here today and we've created this amazing business.

We've been in business for 16 years now, and it has evolved a lot. And we are getting closer and closer to really what we want to do, what we excel at, and where our zone of genius is. And that's where you see the exponential growth. When you know that you're doing what you're supposed to do and you see the people's transformation and results, it just motivates you to keep going further. So we started building software, trying to work with the French market.

Didn't work, went back to the Americans, which was really the culture that we knew. We've never worked in France, so we're here for the lifestyle, for the sun in the south of France and the beautiful house and the big land. But the business is really still pretty much in the US. And it's through that story that realized that I love to support women and I like that safe space, that financial stability. I found that with memberships, it's such a great way to create that recurring income that predictability.

I love to know at the start of the month exactly I'm looking because I have my money board. It's a thing that I keep where I know when I start my month, how much I'm making already without doing anything. And that's the safety that I need. Even though I'm an entrepreneur and I can take risks, that's the safety that I need. And that's what I'm helping people, especially women.

But we also work with men. I do attract a few men, but that's kind of what I love doing. And that's so important having that predictability, because so many, especially sole entrepreneurs when they're getting started and they sort of get into this feast and famine sometimes and it can be very frustrating just to be able to manage your bills if you don't know how much money you've got coming in each month. Can you share a little bit about what's been your biggest challenge in that? Especially because you said that your husband essentially fired you a couple of times there.

So talk about that maybe. Yeah. My challenge again is really related to this idea of taking risks and decision making and trust, belief. I did a lot of work on myself, on my mindset, and I've worked with quite a few coaches and I was able to basically get to know myself, how I am wired.

For the longest time I thought I will never be a good entrepreneur because I'm not wired that way. Well, guess what? There are other things where that I can use that are really powerful. So I'm not going to communicate the same way. I'm not going to do things necessarily the same way as an extrovert that can get on camera and just shoot a live.

But there are other ways. So that's what I learned. I learned what is my magic, what are the things that when I do that, I get the biggest impact. And when I found that, everything changed because now I get to delegate and surround myself with the people that can do the things that need to be done, but where I'm going to get a lot of resistance. So when you get to that point in your business that you can invest in that team, that's amazing.

But I would say that the biggest thing is like the belief that you can actually do it. If you don't believe in yourself, you can't expect people to believe in you. You just can't. You can't fake it. People say fake it till you make it.

You can't. I don't think you can. People can see through that. Yeah, I agree with that because I used to fall under that line of thinking as well. But it really does make a difference in how you perceive yourself.

And so I love that you talked about the fact that you did work with coaches and you did do some work on yourself because that is I feel one of the main reasons why so many business owners either struggle or fail is because they haven't done the work on themselves....

It's almost natural to take things personally when you are criticized. But author Don Miguel Ruiz offers a different perspective in his book, The Four Agreements.On today's show, I explain why you can benefit by becoming immune to other people's opinions about you.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. Podcast:

A reminder about the importance of being impeccable with your word

Why people take others' opinions so seriously

How to avoid being the victim of needless suffering

What the Daily Word has to say about letting go

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Spiritual Alignment Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review on Podchaser or Apple. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

When Jennifer Regular was confronted with her own life's struggles, she discovered her spiritual sovereignty.

"One thing is simply claiming your spiritual sovereignty, really recognizing that you are a spiritual being. To be able to tune into that is really about turning inward, turning back in. When we turn in and tune in, it restores our faith." - Jennifer Regular

Jennifer Regular is an international speaker and author of Embrace Your Power: a Healing Journey of Self Discovery. She specializes in helping thought leaders and visionaries direct the life they live to create global impact, make the impossible possible, and fulfill their life's mission.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

The benefit of embracing one's power to make an impact and fulfill their life's mission.

Why it's important to move away from a place of obligation and towards a place of passion.

How making conscious connections can help you cope with life's challenges

What the acronym "faith" stands for

What happens to our spirit when we move from society's expectations or authority guiding us

Connect with Jennifer

Website: lightingthepath.ca

Free Gift: https://lightingthepath.ca/pathfinder/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@awakenandascend

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/lighting.the.path

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Intuitive Business Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Namaste. I am so glad to be with you for another edition of Live Love Engage. And I have a lovely person who we are going to be chatting with today, who is someone I just met recently, and I had the pleasure to be interviewed by her. And now I'm turning the tables and getting to interview her. So I want to welcome Jennifer Regular to our show. Welcome, Jennifer.

[Jennifer Regular]

Oh, thank you so much, Gloria. I'm... so great to be here.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

I'm delighted because we are, I think, kindred spirits a little bit, and I'm going to share with our audience just who you are and what you do so they will learn about that and we'll get into our discussion. So Jennifer is known as the Soul Illuminator, and she specializes in helping thought leaders and visionaries direct the life they live so they can create global impact, make the impossible possible, and fulfill their life's mission. She's also an international speaker and author of Embrace Your Power - a Healing Journey of Self Discovery. And I like the title of that. I might have to ask you a little bit about that.

[Jennifer Regular]

Absolutely, yes.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

I'd love to know more about that, but I do always like to start. And I'm sorry for those of you watching me on YouTube today, I don't know, I've got this itchy nose. For some reason, I think that means something, but I'm not quite sure what it is. I know itchy palms are money. That usually works for me, but I'm not sure about the itchy nose, but I'll try not to do that anymore. Anyway, tell us a little bit about how you got started or just what is the path that has led you to where you are today and doing the type of work you're doing.

[Jennifer Regular]

Yes, sure. Absolutely. Well, one thing I can tell you for sure is that the path is not linear. There are so many pivots and turns we take along the way, and that was so true for me. Growing up, I thought this would be forever, and I'm going to study this, and this is the job I'm going to have forever. I'm going to live in this house, and it'll be forever. And I'll have this love relationship. Oh, we're going to love each other forever. But forever isn't so real. Well, it's real as long as it lasts, right? Forever is just for as long as it lasts. And studying into other spiritualities and religions and learning a lot about impermanence really made a lot more sense than forever; that we continue to evolve and we continue to learn and experience so many different things in this lifetime. And for myself, I ended up on so many different paths. I had 16 different jobs, I had five different business ventures. But where it all started was when I was younger and came in late in life. Actually, my mother didn't know she was having me until six months later. She actually thought she was going through menopause. And then she had hoped after three grown girls, basically they were 14, 18 and 20 when I was being born, that I'd be a boy. And I wasn't. So learning that later just felt like it was always a disappointment or a burden or something that wasn't really wanted necessarily. And thinking that, I really tried to prove my worth and find out, well, why am I here and what can I do to make up for being here? Because I didn't want to be a burden, you know? And I was just always trying to prove something or make my mother proud in some way, trying to meet society's expectations, being the teacher's pet, always trying to have the right answer and participate and engage as fully as I can, even as shy and introverted as I was. I just wanted to prove that I was capable of something or that there was a reason to be here. But that really tripped me up, Gloria, trying to please others and want that need for approval and just trying to prove my worth or some purpose for being here. But there's a flip side of that too, in that there is a purpose for me being here and that there is a path I meant to take. And I was born for a reason. And learning that who I am made a difference. It impacted the family in ways that were unexpected. And when I stopped trying to satisfy these expectations, I later realized didn't even exist, there was no pressure from my family to do any of these things. In fact, I was the only one in my family that even went to university. There was no high standards that I had to live up to. They were all self imposed, all through beliefs that I had and these emotional attitudes that I had something to prove or I had to make my way in the world, so to speak. And all of that really coming from ego, a lot of ego grasping. And it's really ignorance. Ignorance to who we truly are and the profession that we already are. So I hear a lot of people talking about what sounds like imposter syndrome, that maybe they're not good enough, or they don't have what it takes, or they don't have it all right yet and perfect yet. And what I learned is perfection actually repels people, and it doesn't speak to who you truly are. So being able to claim our spiritual sovereignty is actually an antidote to that imposter syndrome. And then being able to leverage our skills and abilities along the way helps us to build that capacity, which it did for me to be able to explore other possibilities. So it wasn't that I didn't know what I was doing. I was just passionate about so many different things that it took me in many different directions. And when I was able to let go of those expectations of what society would impose as rules, and expectations for how to live and how to control what we're meant to do or live up to expectations that maybe our parents had for us about. My mom thought I'd be a great nurse and my dad thought I was most inclined to be a teacher. And then growing up, I thought, well, how can they merge that and yet make it my own so that it makes everybody happy? And that's how I lived my life. How do I make everybody happy? I had this kind of worldview of, community and belonging, and always noticing the parts, the people in society that were alienated, isolated, ostracized, scapegoated, and I would always be drawn to them. Actually, you asked me a little bit about the book, how it intrigued you. That book was actually conceived when I was ten years old and under a very different title. And it was because of the way I was seeing the world and seeing society was quite different from many of my peers, actually, and made me question a lot because of that. But I started writing it down. It became bones of a book called When Society Determines Your Destiny. And pretty grandiose for a ten year old, when you think back to it now. But at the time I was all growing up and I was seeing the world that way. So I was always drawn to the people where I felt were pulled down, broken down, beat up, and told that they weren't worthy, or when they tried to express their idea, their opinion, being shut down for that. And I was always the one to listen and hear them and befriend them. And that translated later too, when I was working in social services for 25 years, again in 16 different types of positions and different populations. So I had an exposure to a lot what creates barriers in people's lives and obstacles, but it always remained the same, just wanting to make a difference in our life and wanting to be someone that is seen and heard and that had opinions. And so 30 years later, that book really became the true message, which was about embracing your power. And it's a healing journal, actually, of self discovery. And it's a journaling style book to really tune into who we are, what we value, what we stand for, and to reclaim that spiritual sovereignty, which again, is that antidote to the imposter syndrome. And what that means is remembering that we are spiritual beings having this human experience. And it's not just a cliche. I know many of you have probably heard this before, but it's really diving deep to understanding what that means and being able to leverage that. Realigning with what you value, understanding what that is, and being able to move from a place of passion rather than obligation. See, on that path, it became quite dense and created this fog and fog you can see as fear, obligation and guilt. The f-o-g, right?...

Have you ever read the book, "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz? It's an excellent book because it offers practical advice on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically - which is the mission for my podcast.

In this episode, I share the first agreement in the book, and why upholding this agreement is a foundation for living a rich life.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. Podcast:

Why it's important to be impeccable with your word

How using the power of your Word can lead you to love

What Unity's Daily Word has to say about the importance of integrity

I share a light language message to help you be impeccable with your word

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Spiritual Alignment Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review on Podchaser or Apple.

Krishna Avalon, a Subconscious Transformation Guide and Transformational Business Coach, guides her clients through a unique process of transforming their subconscious minds to achieve their goals, while confronting their underlying doubt in their own worthiness and deservingness.

"We are limitless as beings, and you can imagine how much more beauty you can experience, how much more love you can give and receive, how much more money you can make doing what you love, and how much more inspiring you can feel or be." -Krishna Avalon

Krishna has helped 22,000 clients become their most empowered selves by expanding the subconscious mind, allowing clients to peacefully unattach from trauma or stress and create new pathways in the mind.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

What attracted Krishna to subconscious transformation coaching

How Neuroplasticity can help us make changes

Synchronicity: The story of how Krishna bought her house

How subconscious transformation coaching helps people feel more worthy and deserving.

The easiest way to access the subconscious most impactfully

Connect with Krishna

Krishna's website: https://www.krishnaavalon.com/

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Intuitive Business Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Namaste. I am Gloria Grace Rand and I'm so delighted to have a guest with us on the show today who is going to be chatting about the subconscious mind because that is what she specializes in, some of her work that she does. So first, I want to welcome Krishna Avalon to live, love, engage. Welcome.

[Krishna Avalon]

Thank you so much. Good morning.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

I'm glad to have you here. And for those of you listening and or watching on YouTube, let me tell you a little bit about her. She is a subconscious Transformation guide, transformational business coach, a trained psych-K facilitator, life and relationship coach, licensed and credentialed acupuncturist as well. And she has coached over 22,000 clients to become their best and most empowered versions of themselves through a unique process of transforming the subconscious mind. So I thought maybe we'd start off with that a little bit and just wondering, as you've gotten on this journey and doing the work you're doing, what actually attracted you to do, like subconscious transformation coaching, I guess is what you're doing now.

[Krishna Avalon]

It is. And I know that's a little bit of a mouthful, but the process I was trained in is called Psych-K, and I'm not psyched about that name. It does stand for Psychology plus Kinesiology. But what we're essentially doing in the process is expanding, creating an expansion of the subconscious mind and that allows people to peacefully unattach from trauma or stress, essentially create a new pathway in the mind to have a different experience. And then you can also use that same process to expand your beliefs. Because all of us are creating life from limited self sabotaging beliefs and usually we're unaware of them. And you don't have to know what your limiting beliefs are. You just need to look at your life and be like, am I feeling stuck? Am I still triggered? Do I wish I were creating more in these areas of my life?

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Yeah, I know. I've learned that if you don't like something about yourself or the way you can tell that maybe something needs to change is just take a look at what your life is like right now, and if things aren't quite the way you want them to be, that's when you need to maybe look deeper and figure out what's going on. And that's where you know someone like you can come in handy for helping them. So what what actually got you interested in doing that type of work?

[Krishna Avalon]

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I have been in Acupuncture for 20 years before people even really knew what acupuncture was. And that for me, was the first thing in my life that was an all the way yes. That I didn't doubt myself on at all. I just trusted it and followed it 1000%, all based on intuition at a really young age. And then becoming a mother was the second thing I never doubted and was very natural. And then the third thing was this process. And when I started hearing about the subconscious mind and learning about it through podcasts and my own reading, I became obsessed because the subconscious mind, as I understand and keep hearing it, creates 90% to 95% of our lives. And so for me and someone who spent most of my life lost not understanding why I couldn't do this, that and the other, have healthy relationships that weren't stressful, be unblocked entirely with. My career has always felt very clear and natural and aligned. But it's like the personal relationships for me were my challenge and what I've come here to try to learn. And so for all people, it comes down to a limited self worth and a limited feeling of deservingness. And that just comes from the fact that we haven't experienced something and then we were never shown it. And then these small contracted beliefs got reinforced to us all through our lives from people, from the movies we watch, from the music we listen to. And so when I found this tool, it helped me so much so quickly in ways that I've never been able to get to before. So naturally I wanted to train in it. But it was really when the pandemic hit and everything shut down that I was like ding. And that intuition came online and I looked into who was maybe teaching. There's one woman here in Portland, she was my teacher, all through the pandemic, I did all four intensives and I ended up buying her house. This is the house that she taught in for twelve years and lived in for 25. And even the story of how I came into the house and the timing and everything was just magic. So it was just like yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Wow.

[Krishna Avalon]

And now I get to these other people that have been acupuncture patients for a while, but this is like the stuff that I know at the core and the foundation is going to help them heal and grow the quickest.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Wow. I would love to hear the story about how you got into the house because that just sounds very intriguing to me and I love to hear stories about synchronicities because I've experienced a lot of that in my own life and I think it'll be helpful for those listening. So if you wouldn't mind, I would love to hear a little bit about that.

[Krishna Avalon]

Yeah. I'm so glad we went in this direction. So when I was taking, I think it was my fourth training here in the house, my daughter had to come with me for the first two of the four days because her dad was off grid, adventure biking. And so I had just found out maybe two days prior that the school that I wanted her to go to coming out of just virtual school, which she never wanted to do, was this school that was less than a mile away. And this is a part of town I've never hung out in. I've always lived in Northeast Portland ever since I lived here, so for eleven years. And so this was just like a whole new area for me. And so when my teacher had said, oh, yeah, I'm going to be retiring and moving to Mexico and I sell my house, just in my mind I was like, oh, well, that would be so cool, I could just buy this place. So she kind of showed me all around while we were here, but then we both were just like leaving it up to the universe. I was going to leave the August following, and so was she. I listed my house at a time when everyone told me it was going to sell in 1 second. It did not sell. After two months of being on the market, a lowball offer that fell through and my business had four offers I was going to I just thought I was done. Nope. So it turned out is that to make a long story short, all these other things need to happen in that house, in that neighborhood. My daughter's father reunited with his son that he hadn't seen in forever. He came through and stayed with us for seven weeks there before we split up as a family. So that was very important. My daughter got to meet her brother. He got a job in that neighborhood so he could walk to work. He hadn't had a regular job in a long time. So when you're praying not just for yourself, but for the greaterness of your family, these things had to play out so that everybody was supported. Then my realtor said, you should list your house again before the beginning of the year. We weren't going to list until February, so we scrambled to get it together. We got four offers on the first day, all cash, all way over.

[Gloria Grace Rand]

Oh my goodness.

[Krishna Avalon]

I know. And then I was just going to rent because I actually thought that it would just be less stressful. And then I'm looking into houses and I'm like, oh my God, I should just buy. And so I really thought my teacher had already sold. And then I just happened to look through my junk folder and she had written an email three weeks earlier that said, oh, I'm about to move to Mexico and sell my house. And I was like, wait, what? So I went on Redfin, so it wasn't live. So I wrote to her and I was like, hey, I thought you left already. Did you sell your house? I don't see it on Redfin. And she's like, no, I had it on there for a month and I didn't have any offers. And so I was like, I hope you get exactly what you want. I just got so much more money than I even needed for my house and here's what I can offer you at max. And she was like, I want you to have it, and so, da da da da! It's a row house. And I turned the lower level into my clinic and coaching space so that I can be with my daughte

As we greet this new year of 2023, it's a chance to evaluate who you are and how you're showing up in your relationships, business or career. If you're not satisfied with the results you're seeing in life from the choices you've made, this is your chance to make a new choice about who you want to be going forward.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. Podcast:

My reflections on what transpired for me in 2022

How I've been showing up this past year

Who I want to be in 2023

What to do if you want to change, but aren't sure how

What we can learn from the Daily Word, and much more!

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Spiritual Alignment Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review on Podchaser or Apple. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

A commonly held belief is that wisdom comes with age. In this episode, Sunil Raheja explains why wisdom is essential for living a rich, full life - no matter how old you are.

Sunil is the author of the book, Dancing With Wisdom: A Sacred Quest to Restore Meaning, Purpose and Fun to Your Life and Work.

Raheja says it is his privilege to work with senior leaders who feel stuck - empowering them to re-engage with deeper purpose and live life in crescendo, so their best days are still to come.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

Sunil explains what are the four vital questions of life

The importance of leaving a legacy

Sunil's definition of wisdom

Why Sunil believes wisdom is like a diamond

The difference between internal and external locus of control

How someone can acquire wisdom

Connect with Sunil

Sunil's workbook: drsunil.com/workbook

Sunil's website: drsunil.com

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Intuitive Business Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

Gloria Grace Rand:

I am Gloria Grace Rand, and I am delighted to be with you again and to have a guest with us on the show. Always. One of my favorite things is when I get to interview interesting people, and today's guest is one of those fascinating people who has a lot to offer our world right now, and I'm gonna tell you a bit more about him in a moment. But I want to first welcome Dr. Sunil Raheja.

Sunil Raheja:

That's right. You did right there Gloria. Thank you. That's wonderful.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Yes. I wanted to make sure that I pronounce his name right. Right. And then I was like, stumbling. Anyway, but but we got it. So I'm so glad you're here today. So let me share with our listeners just what you do in the world. So he is the author of the book, dancing With Wisdom, A Sacred Quest to restore Meaning, purpose, and Fun to your Life and Work, which definitely sounds like, sounds like something we all need to be able to make sure that we do, because otherwise what is the point? Right. , I think he's also a psychiatrist, a blogger, a podcaster of his own and a coach. And he says it's a privilege to work with senior leaders who feel stuck empowering them to reengage with deeper purpose and live life in Crescendo. So their best days are still to come. So are you a little musician there with that crescendo reference there? Actually, I'm

Sunil Raheja:

A musician. No, I'm not a musician at all. But I think, but it, it certainly this understanding that yeah, living with our best years ahead of us, I think particularly as we get older, there's a tendency to talk about good old days, which I don't really believe ever existed. And I think that, you know, as we get older that it is just gonna be downhill. But I believe that if we have the right understanding, the right perspective actually the best is yet to come.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Hmm. Yes. Well, I'm certainly counting on that because, and, and actually I believe that's true because I, I really do feel like every decade that I've gone through has been better even than the one before. So, so far so good. So I'm getting ready to enter my sixth decade, I guess if you're in your sixties or is it your seventh? I, I forget, but whatever , how that works math wise. But anyway, I'm gonna be 60 soon, so I'm looking forward to my sixties being even better than my fifties were.

Sunil Raheja:

Wonderful.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Yeah. So I, I usually do like to start off the podcast by asking our guests to tell us a little bit about your journey, you know, what, what got you maybe even interested in psychiatry and, and, and how you even then have become an author. So,

Sunil Raheja:

Wonderful. Well, it's a long journey, I think for me. I mean, I, I came as a best place to start, probably start at the beginning really in sense of, I came as an immigrant child from from India to the uk. Uh and very much, you know, I think one of the, one of the sort of, you know, when you look back into your life, you think about the themes and patterns that have repeated themselves, and one of those themes and patterns. I've always been like an outsider. So coming as an immigrant child from India, I actually came speaking Hindi and the sort of perceived wisdom at that time was only speak to your child in one language or they'll become confused. So although I came speaking Hindi I quickly forgot that and I only spoke English. And growing up going to school and meeting, you know, mixing with my peers I was often told, you know, this isn't your country.

Sunil Raheja:

Your true home is in India. And so I had this sort of sense that actually now I belong over there, and this is at a time, which is hard to imagine now, but it was a time before the internet and for the, you know, before the connections that we had the technology gives us.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Right.

Sunil Raheja:

And so I grew, so I had no real connection with India in, you couldn't make phone calls. If you wanted to write a letter, it would take two weeks for you to, you know, take a week for a letter to get there, take a week to come back. So there was no real communication. But when I eventually got to India, you know, I was only about eight years old, I realized actually, well, all my relatives told me that actually you are, you are English, you're not Indian either. And I couldn't speak the language.

Sunil Raheja:

And so a theme that's followed me all my life is this sense of, of being an outsider. I, I got, you know, you mentioned about being a psychiatrist, so I, I trained to become a doctor again. I, it's funny, I, I I entered into medical school not sure what I wanted to do with my life. And I was very good at mathematics and physics and subjects like that. But you know, again, in a naive 18, 19 year old, I thought, well, what's the point of any of those subjects? You know, because, you know, you, you, you end up working for the defense industry and you create nuclear bombs and things like that. And the only career I could think of that was actually genuinely helping people was medicine. So that's why I did medicine. But to be quite frank with you Gloria, I was totally unsuited for it because I was very left brained, as I understand now, very good at problem.

Sunil Raheja:

So solving in terms of, you know, would've done better in math or engineering, something like that. But medicine's completely different. You know, it's understanding the systems of the body it's understanding, you know, the anatomy, the physiology, the biochemistry, the pathology, very descriptive subjects and I really struggled. I struggled a really big time. I think it's, it's, it's a miracle of God that I even got through . I had a switch awakening. I was at medical school. That's, that's, that stayed with me to, to this very day. But again, it's a sense of feeling an outsider. And I think I found my niche in psychiatry because psychiatry is very much about not treating people as machines, but treating them as people who, you know who have worries and fears and interact with within their families with wider society. So that's always fascinated me.

Sunil Raheja:

You know, we need people who are, you know, who are you know who, who, who do internal medicine, who are who, who are surgeons. We need those people. But that just wasn't me. And so I found my niche in psychiatry, but then as time has gone on, I've also become very fascinated by the whole area of positive psychology. And that's really about why is it that some people, well, two, well, you take, take two groups of people who go through similar circumstances. Why is it some thrive and others, as it were, flounder? What's the difference between them and the skills that you need to do well in life are very different to, as it were, to just dealing with illness. You know, health is not the opposite of illness. It's qualitatively very different. And,that interest is growing. And that's particularly one of the reasons why I've gone into coaching as well. So I work as a psychiatrist, but, but primarily as a coach using my psychiatry background to inform that as well.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Yeah. And I can see how they can be very complimentary to one another. So that's, that makes sense. And, and yeah, I, I sympathize with, with your struggle. And, and yeah, I was like, that must have been so frustrating as a child. And, and here you're struggling to, to get along in the uk then you go to India and then they're like, well, no, you are still not, we're still, you know, you're, you're English now. So it's like, oh my goodness.

Sunil Raheja:

I think One of the things you begin to realize as well is that you have these struggles, and then as you get older, you realize everybody has their own struggles. And,you know, it's it, and, and it, it's, it's, it's very difficult to comment on somebody else's struggles. You know, it might not look too big deal to you, but to them it's big. It's a bit like, you know, major surgery and minor surgery. You know, there is major surgery, you know, having have a corony artery bypass or you know, have, have, have,have a liver transplant that's major surgery, and there's minor surgery in terms of have a blood test or have a,you know, have a, a hernia removed, relatively minor. But if it's your body, it's all major surgery

Gloria Grace Rand:

That's true.

Sunil Raheja:

Happening to you. So I think it's, it's, we all have our own sets of challenges and struggles, and because we all have different backgrounds and experiences, it's very, it, it, it, yeah. We need to just as it were, treat each other with,...

Many people spend a lot of time pushing and striving to get things done, instead of relaxing and going with the flow of life. In this episode, I talk about an experience I had recently where I let go and trusted that all would work out for the best.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. Podcast:

How I made the decision to attend a weekend retreat

What happened to demonstrate I made the right decision

The surprising synchronicity that awaited me at the retreat

The benefits of going with the flow

What Unity's Daily Word has to say about flow

I share a light language message to encourage going with the flow

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Spiritual Alignment Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review on Podchaser or Apple. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

Do you have any happiness habits? On today's episode, Barbara Ellison shares why it's important to take action so you can make happiness a normal part of life.

Barbara is a Transformational Life Trainer specializing in teaching how to have the physical, mental & financial fitness to age gracefully.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

Barbara shares the challenge she faced after becoming a widow

How Barbara determined what to do with her life

What to do when you don't know what to do

Why Barbara believes happiness should be the norm in life

The shocking number of days per year that people wake up grumpy

How to start creating more happiness in your life

The problem with "positive thinking"

The value in forgiving yourself

Why complimenting someone is a simple yet powerful practice

Barbara explains why it's not selfish to be happy

What to do when you wake up feeling "out of whack"

Connect with Barbara

email: Barbara (at) trendsinmarketingenterprises.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-ellison-midlifementor/

Resources:

Cartoon Search Engine: PerfectCartoon.com

Quick Links:

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Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

Gloria Grace Rand:

Namaste. And welcome back to another edition of Live Love Engage. I don't know why I always say that, cuz I know the intro just plays and tells you that this is the name of the show. But, ah, you know, I like to do it anyway. So I wanna, I wanna welcome you all here and I wanna welcome our guest, who is a delightful woman. I know we're gonna have a lot of fun chatting today. No pressure. But anyway, her name is . Her name is Barbara Ellison. So, welcome to Live Love, engage Barbara.

Barbara Ellison:

Well, hi there, Gloria Grace. How are you doing today?

Gloria Grace Rand:

I'm doing fabulous. Yes. And yeah, just, just fabulous. Cause I get to do this. I mean, this is like the highlight of my day when I get to talk with people. So

Barbara Ellison:

Isn't it the truth? That's a for me too. And first of all, thank you so much for having me. I mean the, I remember the first day we, the first day we actually chatted, it was like, ooh, kindred spirit.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Hmm and absolutely.

Barbara Ellison:

And always when you find the people that are in alignment with what, with what you're doing, it's like, that's where the magic happens. So thank you so much for having me.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Absolutely. All right. So I know you're all wondering. Okay, so who is this lady? And you know, what, what has she got to say that that's gonna be useful? So Barbara is a transformational life trainer, specializing in teaching you how to have the physical, mental, and financial fitness to age gracefully, basically to make the rest of your life the best of your life. And she is on a mission to actually make happiness the norm rather than the exception. So yeah, that's definitely what we're all about here. You know, it's live fully, love deeply, engage authentically, and, and, and if you're not, if you're not happy, you're certainly not gonna be able to live fully Exactly. Or, or do any of the other stuff for that matters. So I'd like to usually start off with just asking our guests a little bit about themselves in, in particular, how you wound up becoming this transformational life trainer.

Barbara Ellison:

You know, I, one of the things for me, and this I, I think, applies to everybody that is in this space, whether they're a speaker or a coach or a consultant or whatever it is, it starts with their own, with their own journey. And my journey started when I lost my husband 10 years ago. And when I woke up from my widow's fog, which is a tangible thing, and I can tell you exactly where I was sitting and what I was doing, it was like, okay, I, and in that minute, I now know that that's when my mourning stopped. And I realized that David had died. I had not, which was a revelation. However, at that moment, I also realized that I had no idea who I was outside of all the labels that I, myself, and society had put on me. You know, I was a daughter and then I was a wife, and then I was a mother, but then I was divorced, so I was a failure, but then I was a success again because I got remarried and then became, uu know, I was a wife again and I became a grandmother and I had a business, but now I'm a widow.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Hmm.

Barbara Ellison:

Who was I in all of that? And Gloria Grace, it was absolutely the most scary moment of my life.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Hmm.

Barbara Ellison:

Because it was like, now what? I had no idea. I knew what I didn't want, but I had no idea what I did want. And that was the scary part. But I said, you know what, for heaven's sakes, Barbara, you've been brought up that you pick yourself up, you go on and you're gonna figure this out. Well, I did a smart thing. I joined a coaching pro program called The Ultimate Game of Life. Give them a plug. I loved it. It got me going on my journey. But then one day my coach, his name was Phil Black, "Hi Phil," and he shared with me that he also was a coach for another company, and they were going to be having an event in Montreal. Well, I'm from Montreal, and I was going to Montreal to visit my family. He said, well go to the event.

Barbara Ellison:

And I said, okay. Well, I went thinking I'll just go to the first session, I'll leave, fulfill my duty as my friend has my friend and coach, and then I'm done. Well, I was glued to my seat and by the second day it was like, this is what I wanna do. I wanna become a personal development trainer and learn how to, because I am not the only one that is in this situation. Whether it's through the loss of a loved one, or loss of a job or whatever you're facing retirement. That's a big thing for a lot of men. They're facing retirement and they have no idea who they are outside of the title that they've had for 40 years.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Yeah.

Barbara Ellison:

And that was the start of it. And then several years ago I had the privilege of being part of a and it was called the Next Impactor. And after, after it, one of my friends said, well, Barb, what do you wanna do next? What do you, you know, what what do you want? And I said, you know what, I just want people to be happy. And that was like, it came from the bottom of my soul. So everything since then is about, Hey, I want, I'm on a mission to make happiness the norm rather than the exception, you know, because I truly believe that God, that we deserve to live happy, healthy, financially free, abundant lives. So now everything that I do is in that, in that space. And so now I love it. But now I'm 72, so , now I'm working with the people that are got, have gotten older. The baby boomers. Right. The baby boomers make up 30% of the population, and a lot of them are retiring. Mm. A lot of them are hitting middle-aged. They're becoming, women are becoming empty nesters. Yeah. Ooh, Yikes, who am I outside of being a wife and a mother?

Gloria Grace Rand:

I know. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's scary. And, and, and I know a lot of, I'm, I'm in some empty nester groups ostensibly to do some research really for, for, because I wanna be able to work with those types of, you know, women going through that as well. But it, it's, it's interesting. I mean, I'm an empty nester, and yet Yeah, I went through a little bit of, you know, missing of, of my kids. But some of these women, God bless 'em, they are just so bereft and, and they just, yeah, absolutely. And I, I love that. That's, you know, that again,

Barbara Ellison:

Here's my .

Gloria Grace Rand:

You've got a little kitty there wanting to be on camera. I see. Yes.

Barbara Ellison:

Yep. Anyways, so Sorry,

Gloria Grace Rand:

, you know, our cats are our babies. It's all good. Exactly.

Barbara Ellison:

They want attention. They want attention.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Yeah. For sure. You, you mentioned something, I wanna actually kind of go back to this because I thought this was, this was an interesting point that you made. You said that you, you knew what you didn't want to do, but you didn't know what you did want to do. And how was that for you? Because I, I can, you know, I it is, it seems like it is, it's really easy to start coming up with the things of what? Of, you know, okay, yeah, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that but I know I experienced this after my sister passed because. I was at an, an event and someone wanted us to, you know, imagine this life, you know, this new life. And it was like, I was coming up blank. It was horrible.

Barbara Ellison:

Exactly. I was blank. Yeah. What do I want? Well, let's start. And that's what I tell my clients, if you have no idea how to move forward because you're just stuck in where you are, okay, let's eliminate, let's go back, let's take a step backwards. Let's sit and breathe with, okay. What do you not like about your life right now?

Gloria Grace Rand:

Hmm.

Barbara Ellison:

Oh, hmm. Well, I didn't know, I didn't wanna go back to what I was doing as a, as a business that was, you know, my husband and I had done it together, and I just couldn't, even though, even though we were making income from it and a regular income with it when he passed away, when he got sick, It was kind of fell by the wayside a little bit because I was focusing on taking care of him for two years.

Gloria Grace Rand:

Sure. Of course.

Barbara Ellison:

I wasn't focusing on doing a business. So it kind of fell by the wayside a little bit. And then it was like I couldn't pick it back up aga

My guest today is Dr. Shauli Mukherjee, a passionate educationist and thought leader with a background of setting up and leading new age K- 12 schools, who wants us to start re-imagining education for an empowered future.

Dr. Mukherjee ardently believes the purpose of meaningful education is to develop lifelong learners, creative thinkers and responsible global citizens who are confidently equipped to face the challenges of an uncertain and constantly unfolding future.

On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast:

Why we need to re-imagine education

What we can do to encourage lifelong learning

What gets Dr. Shauli excited about the work she's doing

Why schools should be helping children develop emotional intelligence

Connect with Dr. Shauli

Facebook:

Instagram:

Quick Links:

Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community

Intuitive Business Coaching

The Live. Love. Engage. Book

Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com

Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube.