July 28, 2026 • 50 mins
The woman who worked international flights while everyone slept thought she was better than everyone else, until she realized her brain was rewarding her for being miserable. After three burnouts climbing the corporate ladder at global giants like Lindt and Kraft Heinz, Nadja Fromm discovered the shocking truth: we're all comfortable with being uncomfortable when it should be the complete opposite. Her revelation about the brain's cookie monster behavior will make you question everything you think you know about success and productivity.
Nadja exposes why 90% of business struggles aren't what you think, the five-level technique that reveals your never-ending motivation source, and the Japanese secret that becomes your burnout antidote. She'll challenge the most dangerous belief every entrepreneur holds about time and money, reveal the mind-body connection you're probably missing, and explain why your nervous system treats your email inbox like a bear attack. This conversation will shift how you think about building a business that feels light instead of heavy.
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Website: Achieving-Success.com
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Facebook: Olivia Atkin | Achieving Success
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Connect with Nadja Fromm:
Website: fromm-consulting.com
Email: nadja@fromm-consulting.com
LinkedIn: nadja-fromm
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/achieving-success-with-olivia-atkin--5743662/support.
Nadja exposes why 90% of business struggles aren't what you think, the five-level technique that reveals your never-ending motivation source, and the Japanese secret that becomes your burnout antidote. She'll challenge the most dangerous belief every entrepreneur holds about time and money, reveal the mind-body connection you're probably missing, and explain why your nervous system treats your email inbox like a bear attack. This conversation will shift how you think about building a business that feels light instead of heavy.
Want to grow your podcast, land more guest appearances, and save hours every week? The Podcast Growth Partner helps podcasters, guests, and podcast teams create stronger content, prepare smarter, and grow strategically.
Start your free 3-day trial: PodcastGrowthPartner.com
Want personalized podcast strategy support? Book a free clarity call: MeetwithOlivia.me
Connect with Olivia Atkin & Achieving Success:
Website: Achieving-Success.com
Facebook Community: The Podcaster’s Powerhouse Community For Business Owners
Facebook: Olivia Atkin | Achieving Success
LinkedIn: Olivia Atkin | Achieving Success
Instagram: @_achievingsuccess
Connect with Nadja Fromm:
Website: fromm-consulting.com
Email: nadja@fromm-consulting.com
LinkedIn: nadja-fromm
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/achieving-success-with-olivia-atkin--5743662/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to Achieving Success with Olivia Akin. I'm
your host, Olivia Akin. Each week we will discuss the
role map of achieving your personal and professional success. We
give you real life stories on growing personally and professionally
to achieve your life and career goals with the help
of some top notch guests. Today where you're speaking with
(00:28):
Nadia From. Nadia From is a business coach. She spent
over two decades climbing the corporate ladder with global powerhouses
like Glint and craft Higns, building what looked like the
perfect career from the outside, but along the way, she
noticed something that didn't sit right. The smartest people in
the room were often the most overwhelmed, and teams were
(00:49):
incredibly busy but rarely headspace I think clearly. After experience
severe burnout and that forced her to completely rebuild her
to work and success, Nadia discovered that most businesses struggles
don't come from lack of effort, but lack of clarity.
Now she works with entrepreneurs and business owners who are
(01:12):
caught in the cycle of constant busyness but little real progress,
helping them create businesses that feel lighter rather than heavier.
Her insights on three types of clarity every business needs
could completely shift how you think about achieving success in
your own career or venture. You can find Nadia by
(01:33):
going to her LinkedIn Nadia from or on her website
from Consulting dot Com, or by emailing her at Nadia
at from Dashconsulting dot Com. Hello, Nadia, it's fantastic having
you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Glad to be here, Olivia.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm excited because even from the first time we spoke,
we were alive. We were having such impactful conversation and
I am so excited to contine. I knew that here
and let's start right into it. To start off the show,
can you tell me what success means and looks like
to Nadia from.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, yeah, I know that's your signature question, and I
know not a lot of people ask you that, so
get ready. I want to hear your version too, because Yeah,
my brain was sparkling ever since we talked. Success to
me now looks so different from when I first started
my career because I thought I was chasing this version
that you know, everybody dreams of. But today speaking about that,
(02:30):
success for me looks like freedom to be able to
work with who I want to work with making an
impact and seeing where I can work with people where
my impact really matters. And oftentimes really it's about freedom
of my time. And that is really something that was
(02:52):
truly the exact opposite of what as you said. Like
my corporate my corporate life often dictated. And I just
recently said to a friend, it is so crazy to
have your own business because nobody ever tells you what
to do ever. And I'm i'mmarried too, so it's nobody
(03:13):
ever tells me what to do period. I mean that
is for me success. What about you?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, you were right, no one ever asked me this question,
and you and I I've talked and I told you
a story. How like one day in conversation, my boyfriend
brought it up to me and I was like, so thrown,
I'm like, wait, you're using my signature question. I'm me
You're gonna make me think about this right now. But
for where I am right now and in business, and
(03:44):
we have shared our journey and like our you know,
parallels in our experiences before. But for me, it's helping
people use their voice to make an impact and helping
them do that through podcasting and really making sure people
enjoy the ride the experiences of everything they're doing, and
(04:06):
that also lies into being able to touch and impact
the most people through all my services. That is why
I also built the podcast growth Partner platform to make
it affordable and accessible to everyone. It's also, like you said,
being able to be in control of your time, and
that is one thing even in recent like recent time,
(04:32):
I really had to get comfortable with. And so now
one of the things I do is like I will
you know, there's always those outliers, but I have the
goal of working four to eight hours a day max,
four days a week, and there are times and I
have become conscious of it where success looks like to
(04:53):
me where I say to my boyfriend like, oh, you've
off today because you were just you know, the employed
for four days. You're gonna be oh, okay, you know what,
I got it. I'm gonna take off so we can
spend time together, or you know, something pops up with
a family or friend and I'm like, okay, got it.
(05:14):
Be there and not have to stress about, oh my god,
what does this now mean for the business. Being able
to show up, be present in all aspects and know
you're still making that impact, but know that you have
I have control over the time, I control over yeah,
like that money's coming. I'm not stressing about money. I'm
not stressing about those things. And that's really what success
(05:38):
I think boils down to is understanding that one it changes,
and it's definitely changed for me. But where I am now,
I have those buckets of success that are personal and
how I show up personally and then for the business,
and in ways they intertwine.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, so we both after making an impact, freedom of
our own time and self determination, Now what now we
get along?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
No? Right, Like I'm listening to you and you like mention,
You're like, I'm gonna bring it up to you and
you're saying it and I'm like okay, but you're basically
saying what I'm gonna say, like like how is this
gonna go?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And that being said too, and to what we're both
saying here is like how did you get comfortable with
saying I have this freedom? Because I know for me
and I didn't work in corporate for as long as
you did, But that in itself was such an adjustment
(06:41):
because I went to like, Okay, I'm gonna start my business. Oh,
I'm used to working these hours, so putting in that
sweat equity and putting in that time building totally makes sense.
I got it that that won't be a challenge, and
then you get in. I gotten such a constant momentum
of it of it, let's just became the norm of Okay,
(07:01):
until I hit this hole, until this happens, just keep grinding,
just keep doing it like that's what you're supposed to do.
And then it finally took like a few moments in
time and a few things kind of happening at once
to be like, oh no, now I'm going to start
limiting myself and holding myself accountable to have the freedom
(07:22):
I talk about when it comes to time and be
doing that for myself. So what was that like for you?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So much to unpack that I had to take a note.
I think the very first thing is what we need
to understand that it all starts in your brain. I
like to say that ninety percent of everything that we
do is mindset. And I truly mean that not in
like wooh wooh, but I mean a little bit, but
about truly what's going on in your brain. So if
(07:52):
you think about it on the newer science level when
you I used to be busy and you just and
like the grind, the hustle and all of that that
is always associated with entrepreneurship get I get the creeps
from it because it is something that is so normalized
(08:12):
and coming from corporate and every nine to five, in
every career, we are always taught that you got to
grind and that success is painful, and you got a hustle,
and so we do it and we get rewarded for that.
And so we build this system and our brain gets
rewarded for the discomfort. Our brain is a little cookie monster.
(08:35):
This is going after dopamine. So every time we grind
and we hustle and we stretch and it's awful and
we crind the bathroom before the board meeting. Then done that,
but we get the reward, we get the freaking dopamine.
We're like, ooh, this is great. So you get used,
you get comfortable in the discomfort. The shift that we
(08:55):
have to make fundamentally is first off, understanding that it's
not about pushing harder, it's not about doing more. It
is first off to disconnect this this idea, this concept
of more time meets means more money. That more hustle,
more grind needs more success fundamentally wrong in my opinion.
The first thing for you to start is detaching that
(09:17):
in your brain and allowing yourself to become comfortable with
being comfortable, being comfortable in sitting in silence and being
comfortable and not working at the weekend. Let's start there.
So many of my clients come to me and asking me, Ladya,
can you define downtime for me? What do you mean
by that? The idea of unearned rest is truly something
(09:43):
that I imagine some listeners are out there and say like, oh,
get Like, what do you mean by that? We feel
like we have to earn it. We feel like, well
I have to do you know, the laundry has to
be done, all homework, but the kids needs to have
to homework done, The dishwasher has to be emptied, the
kids are everything is done, lunches pat like, Oh now
I deserve rest. That is the biggest BS who says
(10:08):
that it is this action reward system that our brain
is just built on. So learning to detach yourself from that,
learning these old patterns that have been you know, ground
into you, that have been beaten into you, and also
we taught ourselves for decades. That is the hardest part
(10:30):
to unlearn that and to become comfortable being uncomfortable at first,
and it's so backwards, it's so counterintuitive at first. But
if you think about the hormonal and chemical cocktail that's
going on in your brain, that is where it makes sense.
So it's all starts with a nervous system of starting
(10:52):
to understand what is really going on. And I'll tell you.
I was sitting on you know, international flights, and I
was it was these night flights, and I remember one
day I was one night, I was I was the
only one working and everybody was sleeping, you know, the
dim cabin and you're sitting there and I was with
my laptop and I was, you know, sitting there, my
(11:14):
headphones on and I was nodding to the beat, and
I was flying. PowerPoint presentation was going strong, and I
felt like I was on top of the world. I
was thinking I was better than everybody else. I was like,
I got this. I figured out something that you haven't
because I made it to the top of the food chain,
and as you said, I really climbed to the to
(11:35):
the my career. Let are really high, very fast. But
what I didn't realize is that this was just my
brain rewarding me to be so uncomfortable. I thought this
is great. And just now, very few years later, when
I fly home to my family in Europe and I
see someone working, I feel so sad because as I
(12:00):
see myself in them, and I wish I could just
walk over, like close the laptop and be like, hey,
you'll be okay, You'll be okay. Let's have a conversation
because I can help you. That is the biggest realization,
that is the biggest shift. And we just don't have
enough conversation about this.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And there were a few things I want to like
unpack in what you said as well. But before I
ask you the next question, your answer reminded me and
like what that story you just told, which is so
impactful and I think so many of us can relate,
whether you're an an entrepreneur or someone in corporate or
(12:40):
in any part of business, or doctors lawyers, right Like
I've watched my parents who were doctors, and my dad's
like we land and obviously he doesn't have cell service
in the air. Right up until recent years, there wasn't
necessarily that, and he'd be like, oh my god, I
got these calls, you know, like this is going on whatever,
(13:03):
and he'd immediately have to go into this mode of
like we're sitting on the tarmac and he has to
answer this. Or my mom's like, oh my god, this
patient they text me about this. And sometimes it's as
simple as like scheduling, Like my mom's gotten text and
her clients know she's on vacation and she's a therapist,
and they're like, this is going on, Like when can
(13:25):
I see you next, And she's like, that could have waited.
I told you when I was coming back. But then
it's the urge to respond. But so I think we've
all been there where it's like, oh, this is going on.
And there's been times I've carried my laptop through the airport.
There was one time I was working and my boyfriend
(13:46):
and I were flying to a wedding I was in
for my best friend at the time, and something literally
started happening on the way to the airport. So we
get through security and now we're in the podcasting space.
I've scheduled, like everyone out. None of this was emerging
in my head though. It was like this person's contacting
(14:08):
me about this, I have to respond, and I pull
my lap I'm texting them, and because I like was like,
I gotta respond, I have their number. Let me start texting.
We get through security, I pull my laptop out because
I have TSA pre checks you don't actually have to
pull it out for security, and I am literally like
backpack on my boyfriend's wheeling my carry on and I'm
(14:31):
on the computer like trying to type one handed so
that by the time we get on the plane problems
solve nothing to worry about. Or you know, I've been
on my way to do a conference and I know
that I'm not realistically gonna be able to get x
Y done, so like I'm sitting at the terminal like
(14:51):
waiting to board and typing like, oh my god, where's
the outlet because my laptop's actually gonna die. But the
biggest thing that we're mi me of what you were
saying was I read what was it like a year ago?
I about that I was on a flight with my
family going international for my cousin's wedding. Okay, and apparently
(15:16):
for some reason they had to change out the actual
aircraft last minute. They didn't tell us before we boarded.
It didn't really change anything. The only thing it changed
was that there was actually no Wi Fi on the plane. Okay,
and in my row because it's an international flight, right
and there's more seats. It's me and my parents and
(15:38):
then this one woman. My dad's on the aisle. Then
it's me, my mom and this one woman. The woman
starts freaking out. I mean, we get in the air
and she goes to log on to her computer and
she can't and she's buzzing the flight attendant going like
I need Wi Fi? What do you mean I have
(16:00):
to work on this? And they're like this fight, this
helicopters or not health. This aircraft is just older. It
doesn't have Wi Fi. And she went on a rampage.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
A few years ago, I feel that.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and I I was sitting there and I was like, well,
and to your point, it was like we were taking
a knife light, so it was about to be like
everyone's sleeping and she is just like freaking out. And
I sat there and launched it, and hearing you tell
the story, I went back to that moment where I
was like, why was she freaking out? And she was
(16:39):
freaking out because she felt this need and this pressure
of just like Okay, well everything's now crumbling because I
planned for this and that's not going to happen. But
going to my next question, one thing you said is
people are comfortable with being uncomfortable. So often we hear
the mindset of like, you need to get comfortable with
(17:01):
being uncomfortable, right and doing the things that make you
feel pushed. Why do you think and what is your
thoughts on we're actually comfortable with things that are uncomfortable
and not comfortable with the things that can be comfortable
to us.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I see where you're getting with this, and I agree
that there are certainly points where you need to certainly
push yourself in certain areas because otherwise you don't get anywhere.
Comfort zone is where you're at. So in order to
change something and to reprogram and rewire your brain, we
(17:43):
have to first detach yourself from this old programming where
it is the busy equals comfort. That is what we
need to break first. Now, there are different levels of
com there will always be a place where your brain
(18:04):
will want to keep you safe. So that's the fundamental
base function and setting of our brain is to keep
us safe. It's it's that that setting that you know
brought us to the foot of the top of the
food chain, made us survive as a species. That is
that that fear driven instinct that mistakes stick for a
(18:25):
snake rather than the other way around. And and so
the idea of getting out of your comfort zone is
essentially trying to understand am I avoiding going to this
networking meeting because I am afraid to be visible? Or
is there truly something harmful that can happen to me?
(18:47):
That is the difference. That is that is work that
needs to happen after we detach yourself from the old pattern.
Does it make sense? So always, of course I want
you to push yourself, but there's always going to be
the difference between the busy, the grind, the association from
(19:08):
time to money. That is the biggest misconception. And there
is where I'm very strongly of the opinion that that
we need to stop being so comfortable with being uncomfortable
in that regard. But everything else, I do really think, Olivia,
that we should think about it this way. If you
build your business, if you especially when you're a business owner,
(19:30):
why would you build your business that feels like Why
would you build a business that feels like that? Why
would you build a business that is uncomfortable all the time,
that is not enjoyable, that is not that is that
is not something that you like, that you don't look
forward to in the morning. Well, then go and get back,
get a job, build your business in a way that
(19:52):
feels easy, easy, joyful, you look forward to genuinely. I
mean I don't look forward to doing my taxes and
my keeping and like I don't look forward to that.
I'm not gonna lie. But the core of my work,
the coaching. Having conversations like this, I generally think I
found a cheat code because it doesn't feel like work.
(20:13):
I don't think I'm really working. I'm not gonna lie.
So find find a way to operate your business in
that zone and that should be incredibly comfortable. And then
there always ways for you how can I grow my business? Well,
that is gonna be a little comfort uncomfortable for a minute,
(20:34):
Like you know, what is the next level of iteration
for me to you know, for outbound marketing, what is
going to be the next the next level to create
inbound marketing? Right, so those are always level that that
means growth that is where your brain is gonna say,
wait a minute, that is unfamiliar, that is unpredictable, that
(20:58):
might be unsafe. That that's where we want to push.
So it's always it's situationally, are you really unsafe or
is it just unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So one thing I'm gonna say too, is I completely
agree with you should be enjoying what you do. My
parents actually had a saying growing up, and it's something
might like my dad said that came from his family,
his father. He always passed it up. He says it
all the time. He would say, if you love what
(21:32):
you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
And so when we got older, it was like this passion.
I mean my parent my dad's now he's in he's
seventy one, my mom's sixty nine. They might yell at
me for saying our age that blavel podcast, but I
joke with them they so don't look there. They don't
want to retire. Like my dad jokes that he is
(21:54):
retired because he works forty hours a week now because
he doesn't want to stop. And we're being in the
medical field back in the day, working one hundred and
twenty hours a week was the norm, right, And so
he's like yeah, he's like I basically don't work. My
Mom's like guess you too. You work what a normal
person's full week is, and sometimes that's shorter days, right,
(22:19):
Like it it's flexible, but that concept always and like
watching them now, even being in an older age frame, right,
is now want to stop. It's not because they need
the money at all. It's not because of it. It
brings them so much joy that they're like okay, yeah,
(22:41):
like I could scale back, but why would I not
do something I love? So even like as we got older,
we got into college and like I kind of change
what I did, And like as I've grown, my dad
would always turn to me as I bring up this idea,
I'm you know this or that maybe we're struggling, and well,
you know, if you love what you do, you will
(23:02):
never work a day in your life. And so he
would always enforce that of like sometimes we're like okay, Dad,
sure whatever, yes, like okay, whatever, But then there's also
the times where it's like need to hear that because
he's saying that to enforce to you, are you enjoying this?
Like when I was getting right before I started my part, well,
(23:26):
once I started my podcast, and then I was like,
oh my god, I've really loved this. I want to
keep doing it like this and that. And I was
kind of going in that transition of leaving corporate and
just doing this full time. My dad was like, and
I was really struggling. I would look I would count
down every minute of my day, and my dad would
(23:47):
look at me and goes, you know, love what you're doing.
Never work a day in your life of like, you
hate this right now. This is why it's like miserable.
This is why you're burning out so much. You're not
enjoying it. And so like when you said that, I
was like, yep, heard that mom all life. But also
going off the what you were saying about disconnecting, because
(24:10):
I love that idea and that philosophy of like Nook,
you have to first disconnect what is it and then
understand that thing that is making you uncomfortable. Is it
really making your uncomfortable because your brain's trained a different way.
What is the first thing you did and or do
(24:32):
help people do to get more comfortable with disassociating what
the I'll say societal norms are around being busy to
be successful or doing X Y Z, you know, working
longer hours to make that money. All the things.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, it is highly individual. We all have our own
stories and we all have our own reasoning to be
motivated in that certain way. For me, whenever I think
back to being at home family vacation, I could never
envision my dad not working. Not double negative here, but
(25:10):
I could never envision it as I got older and
my dad now retiring. Still to this day, when I
come home, fly home to Europe and I don't see
him in his office, I'm confused because this picture of
him not with a laptop on his on his lab
(25:31):
is so confusing. My brain still doesn't get it. So
it's so entrenched into me that you work, you grind,
you hustle, you're gonna do something. You have a job,
so you have something like that is was always a
quick equal to safety. So it's highly individual because where
do you get that idea from? Did someone tell you that?
Did you tell that yourself? Did you learn that? So
(25:53):
we have to first understand what's the motivation. Maybe there's
there's some underlying trauma that you that the some self worth,
some self worthiness challenges. Maybe there is physical challenges that
there is self regulation challenges that we need to talk about.
So the work that I do is very much informed
(26:14):
by you know, helping you, you know neuro linguistically understanding
that words really matter, how you talk to yourself about yourself,
about your business, but also the attitude towards your business,
your life, and your own well being. So it's very
much it's a very holistic approach. And I kind of
(26:40):
hate saying holistic approach because it's like, well flat and
everybody says it, but I truly mean it in a
sense that it's not about just looking at the business
and okay, let's see how you double your revenue next year,
but it's about where you at, how do you get here,
Where do you want to be? Why, how do we
get there? What's standing in the way? Why? And so
(27:05):
I think about the disconnect and the downtime. One of
the first things to try to kind of like give
some broad advice that one of the first things I
would say is reserve very intentionally time that is just
for yourself, that is some shape or form where you
(27:30):
can get back into your body. The mind body connection
is something that we The first thing that gets lost
that gets lost when we are in a panic fight
flight mode. That is where really that like emotional and
like the oldest part of our brain is taking over.
The migdala. Our smoke detector goes off, is like beep beep,
(27:51):
like something happening. So instincts take over, breath gets flat,
and so we really just reactive the frontal part of
the brain, the frontal lobe here, that is what really
makes us human, if that makes sense. It's the newest part.
That's where logic, reason, innovation, strategy sits. Which is why
(28:13):
with that woman on the plane that you mentioned, she
was in panic mode. You cannot restion, you can't argue
with her, you can't explain on a logical basis that
you'll be fine, You're you're not a you're not a
heart surgeon, you'll be okay, it's just an email, right
But in that moment, for her, it's life or death.
Her body is as threatened as if she would be
(28:35):
chased by a bear. Right now, that is what is
happening in your body. So the first thing for us
to do is fine pockets where you can reconnect your
mind with your body. That is breathwork, that is physical movement.
Those are it's it's it's journaling, it's those moments I
(28:58):
do a lot of. I teach EFT emotional freedom technique.
So it's tapping, which sends signals to your brain and
stimulates relaxation signals. Beautiful technique. It's one of the first
things I teach my clients, and it helps us to
(29:18):
find a first anchor for your nervous system, a first
glimpse saw your brain that brings you to a place
of I'm safe. Because as long as your your brain
treats your email inbox as the same as like a
bear waiting behind a bush, we're not able to talk strategy.
(29:43):
We're not able to talk marketing, messaging strategy or financial projections.
It is that is the starting point. That is the
very first thing mind body connection, And I.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Think that's so important as well. And I love how
you three that, because if we're not connected mind and body,
as you said and your great examples, then we're always
in this fight or flight, whether we think of it
that way or we don't. And I've even realized changed
in myself when I take the time on a regular
(30:16):
basis to get outside to do things to you know,
like I jogged this past winter. My boyfriend and I
my parents were like, OLIVI are sure you want to
do this? Like are you guys like? You guys go
This month, we were living twenty minutes from a ski
resort and we had unbelievable snow and we both as
(30:39):
long as he's not under way. We both don't work Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
so we'd go up first thing in the morning and
we ski, and sometimes it's a half a day, sometimes
it was whole days. There were points where, because of
our busy schedules, he'd have a day off. I'd be like,
you know what, I'm taking day off and we go
and we ride with some friends or you know, I
(31:02):
just he does way harder stuff than me, So I'd
be like, I'm gonna hang out over here, I'm gonna ride,
you know, come ride with me when you're done. And
I just have that those moments, and we were going
so much. People were joking like, oh, you need Olivia
and John you can find him on the mountain. But
it was like, it's some of the great moments in
(31:24):
as I was building the podcast growth Partner, where I'd
be sitting on the chair lift and I'd be like,
oh my god, yes have I thought about that? Oh,
like even in and I've talked about this before. It
took me being on the mountain to realize that my
goal of bringing the business a million dollars a year
(31:47):
as a solo entrepreneur was not actually the goal that
I had in mind, because and then like I did
some more research on it, Like it was this epiphany
moment of like, wait, I need to research this a
little bit more because I made this goal like x
amount months ago, and I passively heard someone talking about
(32:07):
the stats and what that like, how what it actually
takes to reach that. I'm like wait, And I literally
at that point I was scheming by myself, and so
I ran into the building in the one spot it
has Wi Fi and I got on it's not gonna
lie guys, like chat GPT can be useful, and I
sat down. I was cold anyway, so I didn't need
(32:29):
a break, and I start chat gpting and I got
really specific and really now and I collected all the
data and it was this clarity moment and then I
was like it took me like thirty minutes and I
was like, oh wait, now I get it. This is
the like I kept asking it a question and people
were like, what are you doing. I'm like, you know
(32:50):
people I know who work there, and I'm like, oh,
I'm working through something right now, right, and I need
that thirty minutes And now I went back out on
the mountain and I felt so relaxed, I felt so
in tune, and I needed that break. And now it's
like riding bikes, walking right, all the things. But I
think that's so important, and when you get that time,
(33:14):
the clarity opens up so much more. The thing I
also want to ask you is, in the beginning of
you talking, you said, and I love that you did this.
You whether it was purposely or subconsciously, you emphasized the
word why two times and you said it within like
(33:37):
a minute time span. Why is understanding the why so important?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Very intentionally? I'm glad you caught that. Why is one
of the first questions I asked anybody. And there's a
technique that I that I kind of borrowed from organizational management,
and I think it's something about It's it called it's
(34:06):
called the five Whys, and I do think it comes
from a root course analysis understanding why did this happen,
Why do people not why don't people follow the safety protocol?
And you under you do you dig five levels into
the why why don't they do this? Or because they
don't care? Why don't they care? Because they don't understand,
and then you understand the true root course. So I
(34:28):
learned that through my my throughout my my executive time.
So I borrowed that principle and I said, if we
would be able to truly dig so deeply into your
motivational why the intrinsic why why did you build this business?
Why do you do this work? Why did you chose
this line of you know, this industry, this, this, this,
(34:50):
this service. We're going to be going to dig into
or into something that is almost like a well off,
never ending motivation and inspiration. And when we find that
it is going to be your north star. It is
(35:13):
going to be something that we can always always go
back to and say, this is why I do this.
It's very similar to or got so inspired by, the
the ekey guy model. Have you heard of that? Oh
my goodness, so for for for the listeners, so ekey guys.
It's this Japanese concept that essentially translates to the reason
(35:36):
of the reason of being, reason for being, and it
overlays think about it as four circles, and it overlays
what you love, what you're really good at, what people need,
and what you could get paid for. And in the
very middle where all those four overlap, that's your ekey guy.
(35:58):
So so both ideas from the organizational management and root
course analysis and the ekey guy. That is where I
took my five y technique from, and that is to
really find that almost the antidote to burnout because now
(36:19):
that I understand, now that I have my clarity on
what my reason for being is and paying forward these
the bruises and scratches and the learnings and all that
wisdom that I collected over the years of how to
not do it, how you can do it better, how
success is not connected to grind and pain and blood,
(36:40):
sweat tears, but there is that there's ways to do
this with your brain and not against it, and be
friendly to your body and don't work against it and
don't break it because you only have one. And ever
since I found that I never get tired of the work.
(37:00):
I always find inspiration. And I'm truly convinced that when
you find your true why and dig deep at least
five levels that you will find your north star and
that will be a never, never ending resource of inspiration.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Well, I will say I was hoping you were going
to go down the path in this answer of like why.
You said the word why twice and I had a
feeling it was intentional something down this path, and so
I am so static that you brought up a that
I was right. It was intentional.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Of course, you do this for a living, so you're
listening now.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It goes back to that fundamental idea of asking the
whys and continue to dig. And I'm a big component
of one knowing the why down to that root, cause
I've been doing that before I even knew what the
five whis was. I remembered at time my freshman year,
we did this national entrepreneurial like competition and it had
(38:15):
to be in team, So I was part of the
team of the person who had the original idea. So
you're helping him get money right and win that money,
and then we actually ended up winning and beating out
all these people and it was seventy two hour competition.
This before I knew what the five whys was, and
(38:35):
I sat in that room and I was the only female,
and the other four guys were so annoyed by me
in the first twenty four hours because they were building
this out and I go, but why are we doing
it that way? And what happens if that goes wrong?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
How?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
What's the why? How are we fixing that? And I
just kept digging and they were like, why are you
asking so many questions? We only have so much time,
and I'm like, because we have to understand this. We
have to understand the core of it. And I've always
taken it. And then once I learned about the five whys,
I was like, yes, we always need to go down
and be able to understand the wy at H level
(39:13):
and then that fundamental why what it drives us or
why that solution actually works. So so have you brought
that up, yes, because it is so important. I was
even on a call earlier today before you know we're here,
and a guy asked me about ROI and podcasting and
(39:34):
I said, this specific dollar amount you can make, Like
he gave me a scenario and he's like, Okay, what's
the specific dollar amount you can make from.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
X y Z.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
What would that timeline be? And I looked at him
and I said, anyone who tells you there is a
specific dollar amount you will get from being a guest
on a podcast or hosting your own podcast in a
certain amount of time, I said, it's unethical because they're
lying to you. Yeah, and they are yeah. And he
(40:08):
looks at me like he was expecting a very different answer,
and he kind of pushed it, and I said, no, like,
I'm not telling you. I'm not going to give you
that answer that you're looking for because I can tell
you the why. One, why that's unethical? Why you know
all these things? And I said two, why that's not
(40:29):
the way you should be looking at it. And I'm like,
and here's all the that end I went. And he
looked at me and he goes, well, why does that matter?
And I'm like, here's the point. I can now explain
that to you, and anyone who sits in a call
and can't explain that, and especially in something where there
isn't you do this, this is the exact outcome you
will receive it, I said, doesn't actually understand their wise.
(40:51):
So like that's what we think of it too. For you.
You know, one thing we've talked about I want say purposefully,
and so also at a level of like subconsciously is
burnout for you, how even in running your own business,
(41:12):
do you work to not getting a point in your day,
in your week where you're feeling that burnout kind of
peek through?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Well, burnout to me is luckily something that is something
from the past and and though it was a very
familiar companion for many, many years, and I think over
my career, I collected three because my learning curve is
flat and I had to really look very closely. The
last last burnout really was was no warning shot no more.
(41:44):
That was the the the one that really forced me
to do something that my that I would have never
allowed myself, and that was to force me to that
complete stop where where my body and mind and soul
just could do anything anymore. I physically couldn't get myself
to open the laptop today because I so fundamentally unsubscribe
(42:10):
even to the idea of being busy. So when friends
ask me, so, you know, Sunday brunch, you know, you
hang out and your friends group, and they were like, oh,
how's your week? You have a busy week ahead of you,
I genuinely can't really relate to that because I don't
feel busy. So burnout to me is the result of
(42:38):
feeling unaligned. Misaligned is probably the better English word, feeling
misaligned with the work that you do, not listening to
your body, because your body probably told you months before
you burnout, and it's a lot about that. We in
today's world, we learn to not listen to the body.
(43:03):
We learn to push down intuition and gut feeling. And
so when you lose that mind body connection, that is
the first that's like losing the seat belt. And when
you do work that you don't care about, that even
maybe goes about against your values, goes against what do
(43:25):
you care about? All of that? Now, nothing is filling
your cup. You hate what you're doing, so your brain
only sees everything is negative. Everything is in danger. Your
nervous system and your entire body is constantly flooded with
stress hormones. Everything is clashing together. That is the perfect storm.
So there's so many signals for you to watch out
(43:48):
for to avoid worn burnout. And yeah, in summary, for me,
that is what brought me there, unfortunately multiple times. And
now that I understand the architecture of burnout, I'm I'm
able to to help people avoid it at least spots
(44:13):
signals early and and support support people that suffer from it,
and just overall, I think we all just need to
talk about it more. I think there has been this
stigma for a long time that you know, just just
you know, suck it up and just work harder. But
(44:34):
I do think it is it's it's a clinical diagnosis.
It is a problem of today's world where everything is
now and faster, and communication is instant, and everything is
expected to happen yesterday, and and with with AI small
(44:56):
tasks just happen truly within second, and so everything just
becomes fast and faster, and our brains are just just
dumped by by by stimuli all day sounds, images, messages,
TV at social media, all those all those those impulses
(45:20):
from all our senses. It's a sensory overload. And those
are a lot of contributing factors. And so if you
don't find time and space to prioritize yourself to get
back to what we just talked about, the body mind connection,
then quite frankly, you will at some point or the
(45:43):
other get burned out. And burnout doesn't have to be
the nine to five job. Burnout doesn't have to be
the Wall Street career person. Burnot happens to the homemaker.
Burnout happened to people who who are in between jobs.
Burnout has nothing to do with how much work you have.
(46:06):
It is so incredibly subjective and it is the result
of so many different things. So listen to your body.
Your body tells you, and the body will send you
the signals. And if we don't listen to it, you
keep pushing it down and you say, oh, it's fine,
(46:28):
I'm just gonna get through this, and then so many
people just listen to your friends talk about this. Oh
I'm so stressed, so I'm gonna be fine, Like I
just have to get through this busy face. And then
you know, in June is everything is fine. No, it
won't be fine because guess what. In June there will
be more, and then there's something else, and then there's
you know, it never stops. Nothing will change if you
(46:51):
don't change something. It will take deliberate and intentional action,
and it starts with yourself. You have to choose yourself first.
That's where it starts.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
What an impactful way to and start to wrap up
this show because It's also about understanding the symptoms that
you start to feel before the catastrophic event happens. Right
and you're hitting that point and being like, okay, this
warning sign, you know, the first alarm is starting to
(47:27):
go off. I need to treat that, Nadia. How can
people get in touch with you? If they want to
connect with you?
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Oh, please find me on LinkedIn. My name has a
super unique spelling soul. You'll find me right on top.
That's the channel where I'm most active. So hit me up,
connect with me, send me a DM. I love talking
case you haven't noticed, would love to hear your story.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Thank you Nadia for all of your insights today.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thank you for having me and a.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Few of our key takeaways from today's conversation include ninety
percent of what we do starts in the brain, and
those ideas are feelings everything. And I love how Nady
brought that up early on in the conversation because I
think it's important to go back to that anchor and
(48:17):
that understanding of where does it actually start and can
we act? You know a lot of people say, well
can we change it? Answer yes, because it starts in
how we're thinking, as well as why would you build
a business that feels like crap, build one that brings
you joy. And I think that's ultimately one of the
(48:38):
themes of today's conversation as well, is understanding are you
building something that's going to make you resent what you're
building and the time you're spending, or are you building
something that get it where you're constantly at that place
of joy and excitement and as Nady said, not feeling
(48:59):
like you're working, not feeling stressed, like you have a
lot on your plate, as well as reserve intentional time
for yourself. I love how Nadia brought this up because
I think it's something especially as entrepreneurs, as busy individuals.
As she's perfectly said in her example, we go, okay,
well I have to get all these other things done first.
(49:23):
Then it's the reward of being able to relax and
watch TV or go for that walk. I have to
do this first. And sometimes, as she brought up in
that example, it can be uncomfortable, right, she brought up
getting comfortable with what is actually the uncomfortable part, which
(49:44):
is being with yourself and having that time is saying nope,
I can take the break, I can take this time
to go do this and nothing's gonna change. I will
actually show up better than I would have if I
just kept pushing through this. And this is a challenge
I want to give everyone today as well as understanding
(50:04):
the five wise and taking time this week to ask
yourself and go through your five whys and get to
that root. This was a great episode with our Top
Nast guest Nadia from Thank you for listening and have
a successful day.
Hello, everyone, Welcome to Achieving Success with Olivia Akin. I'm
your host, Olivia Akin. Each week we will discuss the
role map of achieving your personal and professional success. We
give you real life stories on growing personally and professionally
to achieve your life and career goals with the help
of some top notch guests. Today where you're speaking with
(00:28):
Nadia From. Nadia From is a business coach. She spent
over two decades climbing the corporate ladder with global powerhouses
like Glint and craft Higns, building what looked like the
perfect career from the outside, but along the way, she
noticed something that didn't sit right. The smartest people in
the room were often the most overwhelmed, and teams were
(00:49):
incredibly busy but rarely headspace I think clearly. After experience
severe burnout and that forced her to completely rebuild her
to work and success, Nadia discovered that most businesses struggles
don't come from lack of effort, but lack of clarity.
Now she works with entrepreneurs and business owners who are
(01:12):
caught in the cycle of constant busyness but little real progress,
helping them create businesses that feel lighter rather than heavier.
Her insights on three types of clarity every business needs
could completely shift how you think about achieving success in
your own career or venture. You can find Nadia by
(01:33):
going to her LinkedIn Nadia from or on her website
from Consulting dot Com, or by emailing her at Nadia
at from Dashconsulting dot Com. Hello, Nadia, it's fantastic having
you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Glad to be here, Olivia.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm excited because even from the first time we spoke,
we were alive. We were having such impactful conversation and
I am so excited to contine. I knew that here
and let's start right into it. To start off the show,
can you tell me what success means and looks like
to Nadia from.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, yeah, I know that's your signature question, and I
know not a lot of people ask you that, so
get ready. I want to hear your version too, because Yeah,
my brain was sparkling ever since we talked. Success to
me now looks so different from when I first started
my career because I thought I was chasing this version
that you know, everybody dreams of. But today speaking about that,
(02:30):
success for me looks like freedom to be able to
work with who I want to work with making an
impact and seeing where I can work with people where
my impact really matters. And oftentimes really it's about freedom
of my time. And that is really something that was
(02:52):
truly the exact opposite of what as you said. Like
my corporate my corporate life often dictated. And I just
recently said to a friend, it is so crazy to
have your own business because nobody ever tells you what
to do ever. And I'm i'mmarried too, so it's nobody
(03:13):
ever tells me what to do period. I mean that
is for me success. What about you?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, you were right, no one ever asked me this question,
and you and I I've talked and I told you
a story. How like one day in conversation, my boyfriend
brought it up to me and I was like, so thrown,
I'm like, wait, you're using my signature question. I'm me
You're gonna make me think about this right now. But
for where I am right now and in business, and
(03:44):
we have shared our journey and like our you know,
parallels in our experiences before. But for me, it's helping
people use their voice to make an impact and helping
them do that through podcasting and really making sure people
enjoy the ride the experiences of everything they're doing, and
(04:06):
that also lies into being able to touch and impact
the most people through all my services. That is why
I also built the podcast growth Partner platform to make
it affordable and accessible to everyone. It's also, like you said,
being able to be in control of your time, and
that is one thing even in recent like recent time,
(04:32):
I really had to get comfortable with. And so now
one of the things I do is like I will
you know, there's always those outliers, but I have the
goal of working four to eight hours a day max,
four days a week, and there are times and I
have become conscious of it where success looks like to
(04:53):
me where I say to my boyfriend like, oh, you've
off today because you were just you know, the employed
for four days. You're gonna be oh, okay, you know what,
I got it. I'm gonna take off so we can
spend time together, or you know, something pops up with
a family or friend and I'm like, okay, got it.
(05:14):
Be there and not have to stress about, oh my god,
what does this now mean for the business. Being able
to show up, be present in all aspects and know
you're still making that impact, but know that you have
I have control over the time, I control over yeah,
like that money's coming. I'm not stressing about money. I'm
not stressing about those things. And that's really what success
(05:38):
I think boils down to is understanding that one it changes,
and it's definitely changed for me. But where I am now,
I have those buckets of success that are personal and
how I show up personally and then for the business,
and in ways they intertwine.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, so we both after making an impact, freedom of
our own time and self determination, Now what now we
get along?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
No? Right, Like I'm listening to you and you like mention,
You're like, I'm gonna bring it up to you and
you're saying it and I'm like okay, but you're basically
saying what I'm gonna say, like like how is this
gonna go?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And that being said too, and to what we're both
saying here is like how did you get comfortable with
saying I have this freedom? Because I know for me
and I didn't work in corporate for as long as
you did, But that in itself was such an adjustment
(06:41):
because I went to like, Okay, I'm gonna start my business. Oh,
I'm used to working these hours, so putting in that
sweat equity and putting in that time building totally makes sense.
I got it that that won't be a challenge, and
then you get in. I gotten such a constant momentum
of it of it, let's just became the norm of Okay,
(07:01):
until I hit this hole, until this happens, just keep grinding,
just keep doing it like that's what you're supposed to do.
And then it finally took like a few moments in
time and a few things kind of happening at once
to be like, oh no, now I'm going to start
limiting myself and holding myself accountable to have the freedom
(07:22):
I talk about when it comes to time and be
doing that for myself. So what was that like for you?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So much to unpack that I had to take a note.
I think the very first thing is what we need
to understand that it all starts in your brain. I
like to say that ninety percent of everything that we
do is mindset. And I truly mean that not in
like wooh wooh, but I mean a little bit, but
about truly what's going on in your brain. So if
(07:52):
you think about it on the newer science level when
you I used to be busy and you just and
like the grind, the hustle and all of that that
is always associated with entrepreneurship get I get the creeps
from it because it is something that is so normalized
(08:12):
and coming from corporate and every nine to five, in
every career, we are always taught that you got to
grind and that success is painful, and you got a hustle,
and so we do it and we get rewarded for that.
And so we build this system and our brain gets
rewarded for the discomfort. Our brain is a little cookie monster.
(08:35):
This is going after dopamine. So every time we grind
and we hustle and we stretch and it's awful and
we crind the bathroom before the board meeting. Then done that,
but we get the reward, we get the freaking dopamine.
We're like, ooh, this is great. So you get used,
you get comfortable in the discomfort. The shift that we
(08:55):
have to make fundamentally is first off, understanding that it's
not about pushing harder, it's not about doing more. It
is first off to disconnect this this idea, this concept
of more time meets means more money. That more hustle,
more grind needs more success fundamentally wrong in my opinion.
The first thing for you to start is detaching that
(09:17):
in your brain and allowing yourself to become comfortable with
being comfortable, being comfortable in sitting in silence and being
comfortable and not working at the weekend. Let's start there.
So many of my clients come to me and asking me, Ladya,
can you define downtime for me? What do you mean
by that? The idea of unearned rest is truly something
(09:43):
that I imagine some listeners are out there and say like, oh,
get Like, what do you mean by that? We feel
like we have to earn it. We feel like, well
I have to do you know, the laundry has to
be done, all homework, but the kids needs to have
to homework done, The dishwasher has to be emptied, the
kids are everything is done, lunches pat like, Oh now
I deserve rest. That is the biggest BS who says
(10:08):
that it is this action reward system that our brain
is just built on. So learning to detach yourself from that,
learning these old patterns that have been you know, ground
into you, that have been beaten into you, and also
we taught ourselves for decades. That is the hardest part
(10:30):
to unlearn that and to become comfortable being uncomfortable at first,
and it's so backwards, it's so counterintuitive at first. But
if you think about the hormonal and chemical cocktail that's
going on in your brain, that is where it makes sense.
So it's all starts with a nervous system of starting
(10:52):
to understand what is really going on. And I'll tell you.
I was sitting on you know, international flights, and I
was it was these night flights, and I remember one
day I was one night, I was I was the
only one working and everybody was sleeping, you know, the
dim cabin and you're sitting there and I was with
my laptop and I was, you know, sitting there, my
(11:14):
headphones on and I was nodding to the beat, and
I was flying. PowerPoint presentation was going strong, and I
felt like I was on top of the world. I
was thinking I was better than everybody else. I was like,
I got this. I figured out something that you haven't
because I made it to the top of the food chain,
and as you said, I really climbed to the to
(11:35):
the my career. Let are really high, very fast. But
what I didn't realize is that this was just my
brain rewarding me to be so uncomfortable. I thought this
is great. And just now, very few years later, when
I fly home to my family in Europe and I
see someone working, I feel so sad because as I
(12:00):
see myself in them, and I wish I could just
walk over, like close the laptop and be like, hey,
you'll be okay, You'll be okay. Let's have a conversation
because I can help you. That is the biggest realization,
that is the biggest shift. And we just don't have
enough conversation about this.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And there were a few things I want to like
unpack in what you said as well. But before I
ask you the next question, your answer reminded me and
like what that story you just told, which is so
impactful and I think so many of us can relate,
whether you're an an entrepreneur or someone in corporate or
(12:40):
in any part of business, or doctors lawyers, right Like
I've watched my parents who were doctors, and my dad's
like we land and obviously he doesn't have cell service
in the air. Right up until recent years, there wasn't
necessarily that, and he'd be like, oh my god, I
got these calls, you know, like this is going on whatever,
(13:03):
and he'd immediately have to go into this mode of
like we're sitting on the tarmac and he has to
answer this. Or my mom's like, oh my god, this
patient they text me about this. And sometimes it's as
simple as like scheduling, Like my mom's gotten text and
her clients know she's on vacation and she's a therapist,
and they're like, this is going on, Like when can
(13:25):
I see you next, And she's like, that could have waited.
I told you when I was coming back. But then
it's the urge to respond. But so I think we've
all been there where it's like, oh, this is going on.
And there's been times I've carried my laptop through the airport.
There was one time I was working and my boyfriend
(13:46):
and I were flying to a wedding I was in
for my best friend at the time, and something literally
started happening on the way to the airport. So we
get through security and now we're in the podcasting space.
I've scheduled, like everyone out. None of this was emerging
in my head though. It was like this person's contacting
(14:08):
me about this, I have to respond, and I pull
my lap I'm texting them, and because I like was like,
I gotta respond, I have their number. Let me start texting.
We get through security, I pull my laptop out because
I have TSA pre checks you don't actually have to
pull it out for security, and I am literally like
backpack on my boyfriend's wheeling my carry on and I'm
(14:31):
on the computer like trying to type one handed so
that by the time we get on the plane problems
solve nothing to worry about. Or you know, I've been
on my way to do a conference and I know
that I'm not realistically gonna be able to get x
Y done, so like I'm sitting at the terminal like
(14:51):
waiting to board and typing like, oh my god, where's
the outlet because my laptop's actually gonna die. But the
biggest thing that we're mi me of what you were
saying was I read what was it like a year ago?
I about that I was on a flight with my
family going international for my cousin's wedding. Okay, and apparently
(15:16):
for some reason they had to change out the actual
aircraft last minute. They didn't tell us before we boarded.
It didn't really change anything. The only thing it changed
was that there was actually no Wi Fi on the plane. Okay,
and in my row because it's an international flight, right
and there's more seats. It's me and my parents and
(15:38):
then this one woman. My dad's on the aisle. Then
it's me, my mom and this one woman. The woman
starts freaking out. I mean, we get in the air
and she goes to log on to her computer and
she can't and she's buzzing the flight attendant going like
I need Wi Fi? What do you mean I have
(16:00):
to work on this? And they're like this fight, this
helicopters or not health. This aircraft is just older. It
doesn't have Wi Fi. And she went on a rampage.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
A few years ago, I feel that.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and I I was sitting there and I was like, well,
and to your point, it was like we were taking
a knife light, so it was about to be like
everyone's sleeping and she is just like freaking out. And
I sat there and launched it, and hearing you tell
the story, I went back to that moment where I
was like, why was she freaking out? And she was
(16:39):
freaking out because she felt this need and this pressure
of just like Okay, well everything's now crumbling because I
planned for this and that's not going to happen. But
going to my next question, one thing you said is
people are comfortable with being uncomfortable. So often we hear
the mindset of like, you need to get comfortable with
(17:01):
being uncomfortable, right and doing the things that make you
feel pushed. Why do you think and what is your
thoughts on we're actually comfortable with things that are uncomfortable
and not comfortable with the things that can be comfortable
to us.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I see where you're getting with this, and I agree
that there are certainly points where you need to certainly
push yourself in certain areas because otherwise you don't get anywhere.
Comfort zone is where you're at. So in order to
change something and to reprogram and rewire your brain, we
(17:43):
have to first detach yourself from this old programming where
it is the busy equals comfort. That is what we
need to break first. Now, there are different levels of
com there will always be a place where your brain
(18:04):
will want to keep you safe. So that's the fundamental
base function and setting of our brain is to keep
us safe. It's it's that that setting that you know
brought us to the foot of the top of the
food chain, made us survive as a species. That is
that that fear driven instinct that mistakes stick for a
(18:25):
snake rather than the other way around. And and so
the idea of getting out of your comfort zone is
essentially trying to understand am I avoiding going to this
networking meeting because I am afraid to be visible? Or
is there truly something harmful that can happen to me?
(18:47):
That is the difference. That is that is work that
needs to happen after we detach yourself from the old pattern.
Does it make sense? So always, of course I want
you to push yourself, but there's always going to be
the difference between the busy, the grind, the association from
(19:08):
time to money. That is the biggest misconception. And there
is where I'm very strongly of the opinion that that
we need to stop being so comfortable with being uncomfortable
in that regard. But everything else, I do really think, Olivia,
that we should think about it this way. If you
build your business, if you especially when you're a business owner,
(19:30):
why would you build your business that feels like Why
would you build a business that feels like that? Why
would you build a business that is uncomfortable all the time,
that is not enjoyable, that is not that is that
is not something that you like, that you don't look
forward to in the morning. Well, then go and get back,
get a job, build your business in a way that
(19:52):
feels easy, easy, joyful, you look forward to genuinely. I
mean I don't look forward to doing my taxes and
my keeping and like I don't look forward to that.
I'm not gonna lie. But the core of my work,
the coaching. Having conversations like this, I generally think I
found a cheat code because it doesn't feel like work.
(20:13):
I don't think I'm really working. I'm not gonna lie.
So find find a way to operate your business in
that zone and that should be incredibly comfortable. And then
there always ways for you how can I grow my business? Well,
that is gonna be a little comfort uncomfortable for a minute,
(20:34):
Like you know, what is the next level of iteration
for me to you know, for outbound marketing, what is
going to be the next the next level to create
inbound marketing? Right, so those are always level that that
means growth that is where your brain is gonna say,
wait a minute, that is unfamiliar, that is unpredictable, that
(20:58):
might be unsafe. That that's where we want to push.
So it's always it's situationally, are you really unsafe or
is it just unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So one thing I'm gonna say too, is I completely
agree with you should be enjoying what you do. My
parents actually had a saying growing up, and it's something
might like my dad said that came from his family,
his father. He always passed it up. He says it
all the time. He would say, if you love what
(21:32):
you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
And so when we got older, it was like this passion.
I mean my parent my dad's now he's in he's
seventy one, my mom's sixty nine. They might yell at
me for saying our age that blavel podcast, but I
joke with them they so don't look there. They don't
want to retire. Like my dad jokes that he is
(21:54):
retired because he works forty hours a week now because
he doesn't want to stop. And we're being in the
medical field back in the day, working one hundred and
twenty hours a week was the norm, right, And so
he's like yeah, he's like I basically don't work. My
Mom's like guess you too. You work what a normal
person's full week is, and sometimes that's shorter days, right,
(22:19):
Like it it's flexible, but that concept always and like
watching them now, even being in an older age frame, right,
is now want to stop. It's not because they need
the money at all. It's not because of it. It
brings them so much joy that they're like okay, yeah,
(22:41):
like I could scale back, but why would I not
do something I love? So even like as we got older,
we got into college and like I kind of change
what I did, And like as I've grown, my dad
would always turn to me as I bring up this idea,
I'm you know this or that maybe we're struggling, and well,
you know, if you love what you do, you will
(23:02):
never work a day in your life. And so he
would always enforce that of like sometimes we're like okay, Dad,
sure whatever, yes, like okay, whatever, But then there's also
the times where it's like need to hear that because
he's saying that to enforce to you, are you enjoying this?
Like when I was getting right before I started my part, well,
(23:26):
once I started my podcast, and then I was like,
oh my god, I've really loved this. I want to
keep doing it like this and that. And I was
kind of going in that transition of leaving corporate and
just doing this full time. My dad was like, and
I was really struggling. I would look I would count
down every minute of my day, and my dad would
(23:47):
look at me and goes, you know, love what you're doing.
Never work a day in your life of like, you
hate this right now. This is why it's like miserable.
This is why you're burning out so much. You're not
enjoying it. And so like when you said that, I
was like, yep, heard that mom all life. But also
going off the what you were saying about disconnecting, because
(24:10):
I love that idea and that philosophy of like Nook,
you have to first disconnect what is it and then
understand that thing that is making you uncomfortable. Is it
really making your uncomfortable because your brain's trained a different way.
What is the first thing you did and or do
(24:32):
help people do to get more comfortable with disassociating what
the I'll say societal norms are around being busy to
be successful or doing X Y Z, you know, working
longer hours to make that money. All the things.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, it is highly individual. We all have our own
stories and we all have our own reasoning to be
motivated in that certain way. For me, whenever I think
back to being at home family vacation, I could never
envision my dad not working. Not double negative here, but
(25:10):
I could never envision it as I got older and
my dad now retiring. Still to this day, when I
come home, fly home to Europe and I don't see
him in his office, I'm confused because this picture of
him not with a laptop on his on his lab
(25:31):
is so confusing. My brain still doesn't get it. So
it's so entrenched into me that you work, you grind,
you hustle, you're gonna do something. You have a job,
so you have something like that is was always a
quick equal to safety. So it's highly individual because where
do you get that idea from? Did someone tell you that?
Did you tell that yourself? Did you learn that? So
(25:53):
we have to first understand what's the motivation. Maybe there's
there's some underlying trauma that you that the some self worth,
some self worthiness challenges. Maybe there is physical challenges that
there is self regulation challenges that we need to talk about.
So the work that I do is very much informed
(26:14):
by you know, helping you, you know neuro linguistically understanding
that words really matter, how you talk to yourself about yourself,
about your business, but also the attitude towards your business,
your life, and your own well being. So it's very
much it's a very holistic approach. And I kind of
(26:40):
hate saying holistic approach because it's like, well flat and
everybody says it, but I truly mean it in a
sense that it's not about just looking at the business
and okay, let's see how you double your revenue next year,
but it's about where you at, how do you get here,
Where do you want to be? Why, how do we
get there? What's standing in the way? Why? And so
(27:05):
I think about the disconnect and the downtime. One of
the first things to try to kind of like give
some broad advice that one of the first things I
would say is reserve very intentionally time that is just
for yourself, that is some shape or form where you
(27:30):
can get back into your body. The mind body connection
is something that we The first thing that gets lost
that gets lost when we are in a panic fight
flight mode. That is where really that like emotional and
like the oldest part of our brain is taking over.
The migdala. Our smoke detector goes off, is like beep beep,
(27:51):
like something happening. So instincts take over, breath gets flat,
and so we really just reactive the frontal part of
the brain, the frontal lobe here, that is what really
makes us human, if that makes sense. It's the newest part.
That's where logic, reason, innovation, strategy sits. Which is why
(28:13):
with that woman on the plane that you mentioned, she
was in panic mode. You cannot restion, you can't argue
with her, you can't explain on a logical basis that
you'll be fine, You're you're not a you're not a
heart surgeon, you'll be okay, it's just an email, right
But in that moment, for her, it's life or death.
Her body is as threatened as if she would be
(28:35):
chased by a bear. Right now, that is what is
happening in your body. So the first thing for us
to do is fine pockets where you can reconnect your
mind with your body. That is breathwork, that is physical movement.
Those are it's it's it's journaling, it's those moments I
(28:58):
do a lot of. I teach EFT emotional freedom technique.
So it's tapping, which sends signals to your brain and
stimulates relaxation signals. Beautiful technique. It's one of the first
things I teach my clients, and it helps us to
(29:18):
find a first anchor for your nervous system, a first
glimpse saw your brain that brings you to a place
of I'm safe. Because as long as your your brain
treats your email inbox as the same as like a
bear waiting behind a bush, we're not able to talk strategy.
(29:43):
We're not able to talk marketing, messaging strategy or financial projections.
It is that is the starting point. That is the
very first thing mind body connection, And I.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Think that's so important as well. And I love how
you three that, because if we're not connected mind and body,
as you said and your great examples, then we're always
in this fight or flight, whether we think of it
that way or we don't. And I've even realized changed
in myself when I take the time on a regular
(30:16):
basis to get outside to do things to you know,
like I jogged this past winter. My boyfriend and I
my parents were like, OLIVI are sure you want to
do this? Like are you guys like? You guys go
This month, we were living twenty minutes from a ski
resort and we had unbelievable snow and we both as
(30:39):
long as he's not under way. We both don't work Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
so we'd go up first thing in the morning and
we ski, and sometimes it's a half a day, sometimes
it was whole days. There were points where, because of
our busy schedules, he'd have a day off. I'd be like,
you know what, I'm taking day off and we go
and we ride with some friends or you know, I
(31:02):
just he does way harder stuff than me, So I'd
be like, I'm gonna hang out over here, I'm gonna ride,
you know, come ride with me when you're done. And
I just have that those moments, and we were going
so much. People were joking like, oh, you need Olivia
and John you can find him on the mountain. But
it was like, it's some of the great moments in
(31:24):
as I was building the podcast growth Partner, where I'd
be sitting on the chair lift and I'd be like,
oh my god, yes have I thought about that? Oh,
like even in and I've talked about this before. It
took me being on the mountain to realize that my
goal of bringing the business a million dollars a year
(31:47):
as a solo entrepreneur was not actually the goal that
I had in mind, because and then like I did
some more research on it, Like it was this epiphany
moment of like, wait, I need to research this a
little bit more because I made this goal like x
amount months ago, and I passively heard someone talking about
(32:07):
the stats and what that like, how what it actually
takes to reach that. I'm like wait, And I literally
at that point I was scheming by myself, and so
I ran into the building in the one spot it
has Wi Fi and I got on it's not gonna
lie guys, like chat GPT can be useful, and I
sat down. I was cold anyway, so I didn't need
(32:29):
a break, and I start chat gpting and I got
really specific and really now and I collected all the
data and it was this clarity moment and then I
was like it took me like thirty minutes and I
was like, oh wait, now I get it. This is
the like I kept asking it a question and people
were like, what are you doing. I'm like, you know
(32:50):
people I know who work there, and I'm like, oh,
I'm working through something right now, right, and I need
that thirty minutes And now I went back out on
the mountain and I felt so relaxed, I felt so
in tune, and I needed that break. And now it's
like riding bikes, walking right, all the things. But I
think that's so important, and when you get that time,
(33:14):
the clarity opens up so much more. The thing I
also want to ask you is, in the beginning of
you talking, you said, and I love that you did this.
You whether it was purposely or subconsciously, you emphasized the
word why two times and you said it within like
(33:37):
a minute time span. Why is understanding the why so important?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Very intentionally? I'm glad you caught that. Why is one
of the first questions I asked anybody. And there's a
technique that I that I kind of borrowed from organizational management,
and I think it's something about It's it called it's
(34:06):
called the five Whys, and I do think it comes
from a root course analysis understanding why did this happen,
Why do people not why don't people follow the safety protocol?
And you under you do you dig five levels into
the why why don't they do this? Or because they
don't care? Why don't they care? Because they don't understand,
and then you understand the true root course. So I
(34:28):
learned that through my my throughout my my executive time.
So I borrowed that principle and I said, if we
would be able to truly dig so deeply into your
motivational why the intrinsic why why did you build this business?
Why do you do this work? Why did you chose
this line of you know, this industry, this, this, this,
(34:50):
this service. We're going to be going to dig into
or into something that is almost like a well off,
never ending motivation and inspiration. And when we find that
it is going to be your north star. It is
(35:13):
going to be something that we can always always go
back to and say, this is why I do this.
It's very similar to or got so inspired by, the
the ekey guy model. Have you heard of that? Oh
my goodness, so for for for the listeners, so ekey guys.
It's this Japanese concept that essentially translates to the reason
(35:36):
of the reason of being, reason for being, and it
overlays think about it as four circles, and it overlays
what you love, what you're really good at, what people need,
and what you could get paid for. And in the
very middle where all those four overlap, that's your ekey guy.
(35:58):
So so both ideas from the organizational management and root
course analysis and the ekey guy. That is where I
took my five y technique from, and that is to
really find that almost the antidote to burnout because now
(36:19):
that I understand, now that I have my clarity on
what my reason for being is and paying forward these
the bruises and scratches and the learnings and all that
wisdom that I collected over the years of how to
not do it, how you can do it better, how
success is not connected to grind and pain and blood,
(36:40):
sweat tears, but there is that there's ways to do
this with your brain and not against it, and be
friendly to your body and don't work against it and
don't break it because you only have one. And ever
since I found that I never get tired of the work.
(37:00):
I always find inspiration. And I'm truly convinced that when
you find your true why and dig deep at least
five levels that you will find your north star and
that will be a never, never ending resource of inspiration.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Well, I will say I was hoping you were going
to go down the path in this answer of like why.
You said the word why twice and I had a
feeling it was intentional something down this path, and so
I am so static that you brought up a that
I was right. It was intentional.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Of course, you do this for a living, so you're
listening now.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It goes back to that fundamental idea of asking the
whys and continue to dig. And I'm a big component
of one knowing the why down to that root, cause
I've been doing that before I even knew what the
five whis was. I remembered at time my freshman year,
we did this national entrepreneurial like competition and it had
(38:15):
to be in team, So I was part of the
team of the person who had the original idea. So
you're helping him get money right and win that money,
and then we actually ended up winning and beating out
all these people and it was seventy two hour competition.
This before I knew what the five whys was, and
(38:35):
I sat in that room and I was the only female,
and the other four guys were so annoyed by me
in the first twenty four hours because they were building
this out and I go, but why are we doing
it that way? And what happens if that goes wrong?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
How?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
What's the why? How are we fixing that? And I
just kept digging and they were like, why are you
asking so many questions? We only have so much time,
and I'm like, because we have to understand this. We
have to understand the core of it. And I've always
taken it. And then once I learned about the five whys,
I was like, yes, we always need to go down
and be able to understand the wy at H level
(39:13):
and then that fundamental why what it drives us or
why that solution actually works. So so have you brought
that up, yes, because it is so important. I was
even on a call earlier today before you know we're here,
and a guy asked me about ROI and podcasting and
(39:34):
I said, this specific dollar amount you can make, Like
he gave me a scenario and he's like, Okay, what's
the specific dollar amount you can make from.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
X y Z.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
What would that timeline be? And I looked at him
and I said, anyone who tells you there is a
specific dollar amount you will get from being a guest
on a podcast or hosting your own podcast in a
certain amount of time, I said, it's unethical because they're
lying to you. Yeah, and they are yeah. And he
(40:08):
looks at me like he was expecting a very different answer,
and he kind of pushed it, and I said, no, like,
I'm not telling you. I'm not going to give you
that answer that you're looking for because I can tell
you the why. One, why that's unethical? Why you know
all these things? And I said two, why that's not
(40:29):
the way you should be looking at it. And I'm like,
and here's all the that end I went. And he
looked at me and he goes, well, why does that matter?
And I'm like, here's the point. I can now explain
that to you, and anyone who sits in a call
and can't explain that, and especially in something where there
isn't you do this, this is the exact outcome you
will receive it, I said, doesn't actually understand their wise.
(40:51):
So like that's what we think of it too. For you.
You know, one thing we've talked about I want say purposefully,
and so also at a level of like subconsciously is
burnout for you, how even in running your own business,
(41:12):
do you work to not getting a point in your day,
in your week where you're feeling that burnout kind of
peek through?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Well, burnout to me is luckily something that is something
from the past and and though it was a very
familiar companion for many, many years, and I think over
my career, I collected three because my learning curve is
flat and I had to really look very closely. The
last last burnout really was was no warning shot no more.
(41:44):
That was the the the one that really forced me
to do something that my that I would have never
allowed myself, and that was to force me to that
complete stop where where my body and mind and soul
just could do anything anymore. I physically couldn't get myself
to open the laptop today because I so fundamentally unsubscribe
(42:10):
even to the idea of being busy. So when friends
ask me, so, you know, Sunday brunch, you know, you
hang out and your friends group, and they were like, oh,
how's your week? You have a busy week ahead of you,
I genuinely can't really relate to that because I don't
feel busy. So burnout to me is the result of
(42:38):
feeling unaligned. Misaligned is probably the better English word, feeling
misaligned with the work that you do, not listening to
your body, because your body probably told you months before
you burnout, and it's a lot about that. We in
today's world, we learn to not listen to the body.
(43:03):
We learn to push down intuition and gut feeling. And
so when you lose that mind body connection, that is
the first that's like losing the seat belt. And when
you do work that you don't care about, that even
maybe goes about against your values, goes against what do
(43:25):
you care about? All of that? Now, nothing is filling
your cup. You hate what you're doing, so your brain
only sees everything is negative. Everything is in danger. Your
nervous system and your entire body is constantly flooded with
stress hormones. Everything is clashing together. That is the perfect storm.
So there's so many signals for you to watch out
(43:48):
for to avoid worn burnout. And yeah, in summary, for me,
that is what brought me there, unfortunately multiple times. And
now that I understand the architecture of burnout, I'm I'm
able to to help people avoid it at least spots
(44:13):
signals early and and support support people that suffer from it,
and just overall, I think we all just need to
talk about it more. I think there has been this
stigma for a long time that you know, just just
you know, suck it up and just work harder. But
(44:34):
I do think it is it's it's a clinical diagnosis.
It is a problem of today's world where everything is
now and faster, and communication is instant, and everything is
expected to happen yesterday, and and with with AI small
(44:56):
tasks just happen truly within second, and so everything just
becomes fast and faster, and our brains are just just
dumped by by by stimuli all day sounds, images, messages,
TV at social media, all those all those those impulses
(45:20):
from all our senses. It's a sensory overload. And those
are a lot of contributing factors. And so if you
don't find time and space to prioritize yourself to get
back to what we just talked about, the body mind connection,
then quite frankly, you will at some point or the
(45:43):
other get burned out. And burnout doesn't have to be
the nine to five job. Burnout doesn't have to be
the Wall Street career person. Burnot happens to the homemaker.
Burnout happened to people who who are in between jobs.
Burnout has nothing to do with how much work you have.
(46:06):
It is so incredibly subjective and it is the result
of so many different things. So listen to your body.
Your body tells you, and the body will send you
the signals. And if we don't listen to it, you
keep pushing it down and you say, oh, it's fine,
(46:28):
I'm just gonna get through this, and then so many
people just listen to your friends talk about this. Oh
I'm so stressed, so I'm gonna be fine, Like I
just have to get through this busy face. And then
you know, in June is everything is fine. No, it
won't be fine because guess what. In June there will
be more, and then there's something else, and then there's
you know, it never stops. Nothing will change if you
(46:51):
don't change something. It will take deliberate and intentional action,
and it starts with yourself. You have to choose yourself first.
That's where it starts.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
What an impactful way to and start to wrap up
this show because It's also about understanding the symptoms that
you start to feel before the catastrophic event happens. Right
and you're hitting that point and being like, okay, this
warning sign, you know, the first alarm is starting to
(47:27):
go off. I need to treat that, Nadia. How can
people get in touch with you? If they want to
connect with you?
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Oh, please find me on LinkedIn. My name has a
super unique spelling soul. You'll find me right on top.
That's the channel where I'm most active. So hit me up,
connect with me, send me a DM. I love talking
case you haven't noticed, would love to hear your story.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Thank you Nadia for all of your insights today.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thank you for having me and a.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Few of our key takeaways from today's conversation include ninety
percent of what we do starts in the brain, and
those ideas are feelings everything. And I love how Nady
brought that up early on in the conversation because I
think it's important to go back to that anchor and
(48:17):
that understanding of where does it actually start and can
we act? You know a lot of people say, well
can we change it? Answer yes, because it starts in
how we're thinking, as well as why would you build
a business that feels like crap, build one that brings
you joy. And I think that's ultimately one of the
(48:38):
themes of today's conversation as well, is understanding are you
building something that's going to make you resent what you're
building and the time you're spending, or are you building
something that get it where you're constantly at that place
of joy and excitement and as Nady said, not feeling
(48:59):
like you're working, not feeling stressed, like you have a
lot on your plate, as well as reserve intentional time
for yourself. I love how Nadia brought this up because
I think it's something especially as entrepreneurs, as busy individuals.
As she's perfectly said in her example, we go, okay,
well I have to get all these other things done first.
(49:23):
Then it's the reward of being able to relax and
watch TV or go for that walk. I have to
do this first. And sometimes, as she brought up in
that example, it can be uncomfortable, right, she brought up
getting comfortable with what is actually the uncomfortable part, which
(49:44):
is being with yourself and having that time is saying nope,
I can take the break, I can take this time
to go do this and nothing's gonna change. I will
actually show up better than I would have if I
just kept pushing through this. And this is a challenge
I want to give everyone today as well as understanding
(50:04):
the five wise and taking time this week to ask
yourself and go through your five whys and get to
that root. This was a great episode with our Top
Nast guest Nadia from Thank you for listening and have
a successful day.
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