January 7, 2025 • 15 mins
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Today I'm joined by Miriam Gunn, a seasoned mentor, licensed therapist, and certified business coach, to discuss the intersection of personal well-being and business success. Miriam shares insights on accelerating health, wealth, and weight loss through habit formation and personal agency. She emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, developing oneself through continuous learning, and redefining wealth as the freedom to bring joy and benefit to others. Tune in to learn how to overcome self-sabotage, achieve holistic health, and use your success to make a positive impact on the world.
Explore Miriam's coaching work at https://www.leavebetter.com/experience/
Connect with Magic:
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Online: https://wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Magic Barclay (00:43):
Welcome back to A Magical Life.
I'm your host, Magic Barclay,and today Miriam Gunn joins us.
Miriam has fostered growth inothers since 1985 as a mentor,
licensed therapist, and acertified doctor.
Coach.
Currently, she's passionateabout helping businesses and
high performers reach their nextlevel so that they can add their
(01:06):
influence to this amazing worldthat we share.
Miriam is unique in that sheapproaches business coaching
from the vantage point that theissue with your business growth
may be you.
She comes at this from a therapyangle, how she can help you
recognize the ways you are selfsabotaging and how she can help
(01:30):
you overcome this so that youcan reach your next level.
She is passionate aboutsustainability and wants to see
successful people adding theirenergies and resources toward
helping our planet.
And it's people.
Her company is leavebetter.
com, which is dedicated tohelping you win in business and
(01:52):
in life.
Welcome Miriam.
Oh, Magic.
Miriam Gunn (01:55):
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Magic Barclay (01:59):
It's so great to have you here.
And I've experienced a littlebit of your coaching recently on
your podcast, which was amazing.
So thank you.
Miriam Gunn (02:11):
You're welcome.
It was my pleasure.
Magic Barclay (02:14):
Now, I ask all of my guests the same three
questions.
Everyone has amazingly differentanswers.
And, you know, we're coming atthis from a business point of
view with you.
but also as a therapist.
So, here comes your first one.
What can your expertise do toaccelerate health?
(02:35):
Not just the physical, but alsoemotional and spiritual health.
Miriam Gunn (02:41):
That is a question that is extraordinarily, broad.
So much of health has to do withyour habits.
And so, part of, Acceleratingyour health is even just taking
a step outside of yourself andobserving and saying, what
habits do I have that arecontributing to my health and
(03:02):
well being?
And what habits do I have thatare eroding that space?
And, um, sometimes people areunaware.
Sometimes people are aware.
And they just don't know how tofix it.
So those are two differentproblems.
Becoming aware comes from havingconversations with people like
you and with people like me,reading things, listening to
(03:25):
things that challenge theirthinking.
But once you are aware, thenwhat do you do?
And I'm a big fan of settingyourself up for success with
your habits by doing somethingLike, maybe reducing the
friction between you and thisdesired behavior, and the
behavior could be eatingsomething different or moving in
(03:49):
a different way or thinking adifferent thought.
Any of those kinds of thingswould contribute to your health,
but I'm a big fan of what isgetting in the way of me doing
that habit and how can I letthat habit take over?
piggyback off of some otherhabit.
So like a really easy exampleis, you know, I brush my teeth
(04:10):
every single day, twice a daywithout fail.
If I don't, I can't even standit.
But it's a lot harder for me tofloss my teeth.
And if I just make a simple,It's a simple rule that I can't
brush my teeth until I floss myteeth.
Now it doesn't work the otherway around, because I could
brush my teeth and then I'd behappy and I'd forget to floss,
even though it was right there.
But if I say I can't brush myteeth until I floss, then the
(04:34):
one behavior is going to helpthe other behavior happen.
Um, and there's lots of examplesof that sort of thing, but that
would be a way that I would say.
In order to accelerate, youknow, positive health, assess
your habits, find one that needstweaking, and then set yourself
up for success by reducing thefriction on that particular
(04:58):
habit, helping it piggyback offof something else.
Magic Barclay (05:02):
Great.
Now, the next question is aroundwealth.
People think of wealth as justfinancial, but it can also be
personal and emotional wealth.
So what are your top three tips?
I know you hate that word, butwhat are your top three tips to
creating wealth?
Miriam Gunn (05:20):
Well, I think initially you have to define
what wealth is.
from my perspective, wealth isfreedom to do and act in a way
that brings joy.
and benefit to others.
So sometimes that involves moneyand sometimes that doesn't.
But increasing wealth probablystarts with real clarity on what
(05:44):
is it I'm trying to create.
And when you get that clarity,then you have to sort of reverse
engineer, how am I going to getto that space?
So if I want a space where Iwould like to have three months
off during the year.
then I have to sort of look atwhat are all the things that are
constraining that financiallyand emotionally and how do I
(06:07):
address each of those hurdles.
If I'm just looking at purelywealth, um, like as in actual
money, how do I increase thatspace?
Number one way develop yourself,take some courses, take some
classes, read some books, getsome coaching, because when you
(06:29):
develop yourself, you get betterideas and better opportunities,
better connections, and you endup getting paid more for things.
Magic Barclay (06:38):
And our final standard question is around
weight loss.
Have you ever battled yourweight?
If so, how did you win thatbattle?
What can you offer the listenerswho might be going through this?
Miriam Gunn (06:51):
Well, my goodness, with very, very few exceptions,
I think anybody who has lived onthe planet has battled their
weight.
I guess I'm going to bouncearound a little bit here.
It really depends on yourgender, your overall health, and
your age, as to how you approachsome of these things, and your
(07:16):
expectations around thesethings.
I have watched people in their20s, both men and women, go on
some sort of a, uh, weight lossprogram, whether that was one
that was unhealthy and just,they just stopped eating certain
things or whether that was onethat was very healthy and they
had very different results.
Men lose weight quite easily andwomen find it much more
(07:39):
difficult and it has to do withhormonal balance and stuff like
that.
Now, if you fast forward 20 or30 or 40 years, that gets
exponentially more difficult.
And so I guess I ask people,instead of thinking about weight
loss, I think about theattainment of health.
And if you can put your thoughtsinto becoming progressively
(08:03):
healthier mentally, healthierphysically, healthier
emotionally, spiritually,socially.
For one, you start caring lessabout weight loss and you start
caring more about pursuit ofhealth.
But the pursuit of health Healthhelps with weight loss anyway.
You just naturally lose weightwhen you are eating better, when
(08:26):
you, when your heart feels fullrelationally, and when you feel
less stressed financially.
So it's kind of this whole lifething.
The more you're pursuing healthand the less you're focusing on
the weight, the more the weightcomes off.
Magic Barclay (08:46):
Right.
Now let's open the floor to you,Miriam.
What's something that you feelthe listeners will benefit from
hearing today?
Miriam Gunn (08:56):
You know, my personal hobby horse right now
is personal agency.
And what I mean by that is thatso many of us have a tendency to
feel like we're a victim of ourcircumstances, that things
happen to us.
And what I feel like I'm on apersonal crusade To overcome
(09:17):
with people is this notion thatthat's the case.
We're just so much more, anagent in our life than we know.
We're so much more powerful thanwhen we know.
And when you move out of thatspace of this is happening to me
and instead you say this ishappening.
What would I like to do aboutthat?
(09:39):
Everything changes.
And when you start owning thatspace in your life, and you can
say this unpleasant thing ishappening, what would I like to
do about it?
Now all of a sudden you havechoices.
And it really just transforms alife once someone starts doing
that on a regular basis.
Magic Barclay (10:01):
So what got you into the space that you're in?
Maybe let the listeners In onhow you developed into doing
your podcast, you know, why youdo the therapy that you do, what
makes Miriam tick?
Miriam Gunn (10:20):
Well, it really goes back to the question you
just asked about what I'mpassionate about.
I, I just see that, humanity.
is incredible.
When you look at a human who isperforming in a way that is
their truest self, they bringincredible gifts to the world.
(10:41):
They serve one another, theyserve the planet.
and when you see people who arenot operating out of their best
selves, they destroy people andthey destroy the planet.
And, I would say that my entirelife I've been very curious
about people.
I've been very curious aboutinterpersonal growth.
(11:01):
And so, I would say, years ago Iwas a mentor of college students
for about 25 years.
Then I became a therapist, thenI became a coach.
And in each You're looking athow do I help this person remove
the roadblocks and reach theirnext level?
Well, there is a level that islike minus 100 and you can help
(11:25):
someone get to minus 80 and thenminus 50 and then minus 20.
And.
You know, those are really,really good and rewarding
places, but all of them arestill coming from a place of
lack.
And then you cross over intozero and then plus 20 and plus
80 and plus 100 and plus 1000.
And all of those places areplaces where people are in their
(11:50):
optimized form, their next levelof.
What am I on this planet for?
And how do I bring that givethat to humanity at large?
And that's really what motivatesme.
I work with a lot of verywealthy business owners.
and my, goal is always to helppeople be successful.
Not so you can buy your secondyacht, but so that you can do
(12:13):
something good in the world.
I want people helping whatever,if you, whatever your passion
is, if you want to help, youknow, build schools in Africa, I
want you to make tons of moneyso that you can build schools in
Africa.
If you're making money, making awidget or whatever.
If you have a service basedcompany, I want you making lots
of money so that then you canhelp someone else less fortunate
(12:36):
than yourself.
And, uh, Some of my pet projectsright now are the Sheldrick
Wildlife Trust.
I love them.
They adopt these orphanelephants after their moms have
been poached and they've savedgenerations of elephants.
Like your listeners,grandchildren will be able to
see elephants in Africa becausethese people, Stepped into their
(12:59):
gifting and are rescuing andsaving them.
And I could tell you of hosts ofother, you know, just
organizations doing good.
So I'm super motivated to helpyou succeed, so then you can go
on and do the thing that youwere put on this planet to do.
Magic Barclay (13:18):
Fantastic.
I love it.
Now, we love freebies here.
So what can you offer thelisteners and
Miriam Gunn (13:26):
where
Magic Barclay (13:26):
can
Miriam Gunn (13:26):
they find it?
Excellent.
I have quite a few resources onmy website, leafbetter.
com, but also I love to talkwith people.
And if you're interested in justseeing what is coaching like,
you can sign up with me and wecan do a 20 minute chat where
I'll ask you some questions.
(13:47):
guaranteed to expand yourvision, and there's no cost to
that.
And just reach out to me,Miriam, M I R I A M, at
leavebetter.
com.
Magic Barclay (13:59):
Wonderful.
I feel so blessed to have hadyou on this podcast, Miriam.
I'm really grateful for all theinformation that you've just
given myself and to thelisteners.
Miriam Gunn (14:10):
Oh, thank you so much, Magic.
I'm sure you get a ton of punsabout your name, but it has been
magical spending time with you.
Magic Barclay (14:18):
Thank you.
And listeners, thank you foryour time.
Please don't forget to like,review, subscribe, and share
this podcast and this episodewith those that you care about.
And please go forth and createyour magical life.
Welcome back to A Magical Life.
I'm your host, Magic Barclay,and today Miriam Gunn joins us.
Miriam has fostered growth inothers since 1985 as a mentor,
licensed therapist, and acertified doctor.
Coach.
Currently, she's passionateabout helping businesses and
high performers reach their nextlevel so that they can add their
(01:06):
influence to this amazing worldthat we share.
Miriam is unique in that sheapproaches business coaching
from the vantage point that theissue with your business growth
may be you.
She comes at this from a therapyangle, how she can help you
recognize the ways you are selfsabotaging and how she can help
(01:30):
you overcome this so that youcan reach your next level.
She is passionate aboutsustainability and wants to see
successful people adding theirenergies and resources toward
helping our planet.
And it's people.
Her company is leavebetter.
com, which is dedicated tohelping you win in business and
(01:52):
in life.
Welcome Miriam.
Oh, Magic.
Miriam Gunn (01:55):
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Magic Barclay (01:59):
It's so great to have you here.
And I've experienced a littlebit of your coaching recently on
your podcast, which was amazing.
So thank you.
Miriam Gunn (02:11):
You're welcome.
It was my pleasure.
Magic Barclay (02:14):
Now, I ask all of my guests the same three
questions.
Everyone has amazingly differentanswers.
And, you know, we're coming atthis from a business point of
view with you.
but also as a therapist.
So, here comes your first one.
What can your expertise do toaccelerate health?
(02:35):
Not just the physical, but alsoemotional and spiritual health.
Miriam Gunn (02:41):
That is a question that is extraordinarily, broad.
So much of health has to do withyour habits.
And so, part of, Acceleratingyour health is even just taking
a step outside of yourself andobserving and saying, what
habits do I have that arecontributing to my health and
(03:02):
well being?
And what habits do I have thatare eroding that space?
And, um, sometimes people areunaware.
Sometimes people are aware.
And they just don't know how tofix it.
So those are two differentproblems.
Becoming aware comes from havingconversations with people like
you and with people like me,reading things, listening to
(03:25):
things that challenge theirthinking.
But once you are aware, thenwhat do you do?
And I'm a big fan of settingyourself up for success with
your habits by doing somethingLike, maybe reducing the
friction between you and thisdesired behavior, and the
behavior could be eatingsomething different or moving in
(03:49):
a different way or thinking adifferent thought.
Any of those kinds of thingswould contribute to your health,
but I'm a big fan of what isgetting in the way of me doing
that habit and how can I letthat habit take over?
piggyback off of some otherhabit.
So like a really easy exampleis, you know, I brush my teeth
(04:10):
every single day, twice a daywithout fail.
If I don't, I can't even standit.
But it's a lot harder for me tofloss my teeth.
And if I just make a simple,It's a simple rule that I can't
brush my teeth until I floss myteeth.
Now it doesn't work the otherway around, because I could
brush my teeth and then I'd behappy and I'd forget to floss,
even though it was right there.
But if I say I can't brush myteeth until I floss, then the
(04:34):
one behavior is going to helpthe other behavior happen.
Um, and there's lots of examplesof that sort of thing, but that
would be a way that I would say.
In order to accelerate, youknow, positive health, assess
your habits, find one that needstweaking, and then set yourself
up for success by reducing thefriction on that particular
(04:58):
habit, helping it piggyback offof something else.
Magic Barclay (05:02):
Great.
Now, the next question is aroundwealth.
People think of wealth as justfinancial, but it can also be
personal and emotional wealth.
So what are your top three tips?
I know you hate that word, butwhat are your top three tips to
creating wealth?
Miriam Gunn (05:20):
Well, I think initially you have to define
what wealth is.
from my perspective, wealth isfreedom to do and act in a way
that brings joy.
and benefit to others.
So sometimes that involves moneyand sometimes that doesn't.
But increasing wealth probablystarts with real clarity on what
(05:44):
is it I'm trying to create.
And when you get that clarity,then you have to sort of reverse
engineer, how am I going to getto that space?
So if I want a space where Iwould like to have three months
off during the year.
then I have to sort of look atwhat are all the things that are
constraining that financiallyand emotionally and how do I
(06:07):
address each of those hurdles.
If I'm just looking at purelywealth, um, like as in actual
money, how do I increase thatspace?
Number one way develop yourself,take some courses, take some
classes, read some books, getsome coaching, because when you
(06:29):
develop yourself, you get betterideas and better opportunities,
better connections, and you endup getting paid more for things.
Magic Barclay (06:38):
And our final standard question is around
weight loss.
Have you ever battled yourweight?
If so, how did you win thatbattle?
What can you offer the listenerswho might be going through this?
Miriam Gunn (06:51):
Well, my goodness, with very, very few exceptions,
I think anybody who has lived onthe planet has battled their
weight.
I guess I'm going to bouncearound a little bit here.
It really depends on yourgender, your overall health, and
your age, as to how you approachsome of these things, and your
(07:16):
expectations around thesethings.
I have watched people in their20s, both men and women, go on
some sort of a, uh, weight lossprogram, whether that was one
that was unhealthy and just,they just stopped eating certain
things or whether that was onethat was very healthy and they
had very different results.
Men lose weight quite easily andwomen find it much more
(07:39):
difficult and it has to do withhormonal balance and stuff like
that.
Now, if you fast forward 20 or30 or 40 years, that gets
exponentially more difficult.
And so I guess I ask people,instead of thinking about weight
loss, I think about theattainment of health.
And if you can put your thoughtsinto becoming progressively
(08:03):
healthier mentally, healthierphysically, healthier
emotionally, spiritually,socially.
For one, you start caring lessabout weight loss and you start
caring more about pursuit ofhealth.
But the pursuit of health Healthhelps with weight loss anyway.
You just naturally lose weightwhen you are eating better, when
(08:26):
you, when your heart feels fullrelationally, and when you feel
less stressed financially.
So it's kind of this whole lifething.
The more you're pursuing healthand the less you're focusing on
the weight, the more the weightcomes off.
Magic Barclay (08:46):
Right.
Now let's open the floor to you,Miriam.
What's something that you feelthe listeners will benefit from
hearing today?
Miriam Gunn (08:56):
You know, my personal hobby horse right now
is personal agency.
And what I mean by that is thatso many of us have a tendency to
feel like we're a victim of ourcircumstances, that things
happen to us.
And what I feel like I'm on apersonal crusade To overcome
(09:17):
with people is this notion thatthat's the case.
We're just so much more, anagent in our life than we know.
We're so much more powerful thanwhen we know.
And when you move out of thatspace of this is happening to me
and instead you say this ishappening.
What would I like to do aboutthat?
(09:39):
Everything changes.
And when you start owning thatspace in your life, and you can
say this unpleasant thing ishappening, what would I like to
do about it?
Now all of a sudden you havechoices.
And it really just transforms alife once someone starts doing
that on a regular basis.
Magic Barclay (10:01):
So what got you into the space that you're in?
Maybe let the listeners In onhow you developed into doing
your podcast, you know, why youdo the therapy that you do, what
makes Miriam tick?
Miriam Gunn (10:20):
Well, it really goes back to the question you
just asked about what I'mpassionate about.
I, I just see that, humanity.
is incredible.
When you look at a human who isperforming in a way that is
their truest self, they bringincredible gifts to the world.
(10:41):
They serve one another, theyserve the planet.
and when you see people who arenot operating out of their best
selves, they destroy people andthey destroy the planet.
And, I would say that my entirelife I've been very curious
about people.
I've been very curious aboutinterpersonal growth.
(11:01):
And so, I would say, years ago Iwas a mentor of college students
for about 25 years.
Then I became a therapist, thenI became a coach.
And in each You're looking athow do I help this person remove
the roadblocks and reach theirnext level?
Well, there is a level that islike minus 100 and you can help
(11:25):
someone get to minus 80 and thenminus 50 and then minus 20.
And.
You know, those are really,really good and rewarding
places, but all of them arestill coming from a place of
lack.
And then you cross over intozero and then plus 20 and plus
80 and plus 100 and plus 1000.
And all of those places areplaces where people are in their
(11:50):
optimized form, their next levelof.
What am I on this planet for?
And how do I bring that givethat to humanity at large?
And that's really what motivatesme.
I work with a lot of verywealthy business owners.
and my, goal is always to helppeople be successful.
Not so you can buy your secondyacht, but so that you can do
(12:13):
something good in the world.
I want people helping whatever,if you, whatever your passion
is, if you want to help, youknow, build schools in Africa, I
want you to make tons of moneyso that you can build schools in
Africa.
If you're making money, making awidget or whatever.
If you have a service basedcompany, I want you making lots
of money so that then you canhelp someone else less fortunate
(12:36):
than yourself.
And, uh, Some of my pet projectsright now are the Sheldrick
Wildlife Trust.
I love them.
They adopt these orphanelephants after their moms have
been poached and they've savedgenerations of elephants.
Like your listeners,grandchildren will be able to
see elephants in Africa becausethese people, Stepped into their
(12:59):
gifting and are rescuing andsaving them.
And I could tell you of hosts ofother, you know, just
organizations doing good.
So I'm super motivated to helpyou succeed, so then you can go
on and do the thing that youwere put on this planet to do.
Magic Barclay (13:18):
Fantastic.
I love it.
Now, we love freebies here.
So what can you offer thelisteners and
Miriam Gunn (13:26):
where
Magic Barclay (13:26):
can
Miriam Gunn (13:26):
they find it?
Excellent.
I have quite a few resources onmy website, leafbetter.
com, but also I love to talkwith people.
And if you're interested in justseeing what is coaching like,
you can sign up with me and wecan do a 20 minute chat where
I'll ask you some questions.
(13:47):
guaranteed to expand yourvision, and there's no cost to
that.
And just reach out to me,Miriam, M I R I A M, at
leavebetter.
com.
Magic Barclay (13:59):
Wonderful.
I feel so blessed to have hadyou on this podcast, Miriam.
I'm really grateful for all theinformation that you've just
given myself and to thelisteners.
Miriam Gunn (14:10):
Oh, thank you so much, Magic.
I'm sure you get a ton of punsabout your name, but it has been
magical spending time with you.
Magic Barclay (14:18):
Thank you.
And listeners, thank you foryour time.
Please don't forget to like,review, subscribe, and share
this podcast and this episodewith those that you care about.
And please go forth and createyour magical life.
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