Rise of the Woman Entrepreneur

Debra Maldonado

I know I tried.

Robert Maldonado

I’m not gonna let you get away with it. We want to hear your story. We want to hear what made you successful? How you stay focused on all that good stuff.

Debra Maldonado 

Oh, my dark secrets.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah. And if you, yeah, if you have questions about this stuff, let us know. Because, you know, some of the feedback that we’ve been getting is really interesting. So let’s go back to

Debra Maldonado 

So the title is The Rise of The Women Entrepreneur, for this episode.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah, it sounds like a movie. Right? 

Debra Maldonado  

It’s like a Wonder Woman coming out?

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah. And there’s certainly a big shift happening all over the world. And then of course, with the current situation, there’s been a lot of reshuffling of businesses 

Debra Maldonado  

Of the economy. Yeah

Robert Maldonado  

And strategies, but there’s still a lot of opportunities.

Debra Maldonado 

Absolutely. When I first started my first business, it was during the time when it was like, they called it the Great Recession, back then in the 2000s, mid 2000s. So it definitely was a change. And I still made it. So I think that if you have the right mindset, and you have the right tools, and mission, anything is possible in any economy.

Robert Maldonado 

Right. So we were looking at some statistics before we came on, this is a good one. Almost half the businesses, the startup businesses are now owned by women. There’s still a little bit of work to be done to catch up. But that’s a great sign that a lot of women are entering the entrepreneurship strategies,

Debra Maldonado  

You know, what I think is the most inspiring too is that women of color, 88% of new businesses that were started in 2019,  88% were women of color. I think that’s fantastic. That, you know, where women are rising, know, there’s no limitation, social limitation for where we can go.

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah. And this one is an interesting one that over 40% now 67%, were over 40

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah. So a lot of people think, well, I should have started a business in my 20s. You see these Instagram stars and think, Well, you know, I’m not 12 anymore and doing like, Hi videos from, you know, bubble come places and doing yoga poses, and you think, Well, those are the entrepreneurs. There are definitely lots of more younger entrepreneurs. But I love that 67% of women that start their businesses are over 40. So that should if you’re near that are over 40 and think, well, maybe it’s too late. I’m not as cool as the young, young girls, I think you have a lot of wisdom and knowledge that you can relate to.

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah 

Debra Maldonado  

And I think, because I think over 40, I think really represents women that haven’t done their work in the corporate world, they’ve established themselves, and now they’re starting out on their own. They’re starting their own businesses, and they have all that experience to really be really successful. So very refreshing.

Robert Maldonado  

So I think it was on the last call. We talked about how personal growth precedes business growth.

How did that play out for you? What, you know, what did you have to learn? or How did you have to grow to create that success in your business?

Debra Maldonado 

And I hate to keep beating the drum because, you know, I say this a lot. And people still don’t believe me. But I would always look for that perfect thing. The magic pill that was going to, you know, take our business from, you know, this extraordinary, you know, leap and I always was looking for the right plan, like the right marketing, the right brand. What I needed when I first started actually before you and I work together, I changed my name about 40 times. I’m sure everyone can relate to that. If you’re a coach. I’m on my mindset coach, and this coach, how about that, because I tried everything. And I kept thinking, if I just had the right brand, and it had the right things on my website and the right messaging that that person, then I’ll get the right people. But you can’t have the brand or the messaging, if you don’t know who you are. And you don’t know that you get to create what you want. And, and I’ve seen a lot of people try to go out there and copy what other people are doing thinking, Oh, that’s working, I see that out there. And I’m going to copy that because it looks they’re they’re, they’re getting a lot of likes. And I ended up doing that for a while. In the beginning, I kept thinking, well, I need to be more fun.

Robert Maldonado  

The bright shiny out there. 

Debra Maldonado  

Oh, yeah. And so the personal growth, a part of it, is understanding who I am. And what I wanted. And part of what I put in my shadow is my depth, and my spiritual knowledge and my wisdom about psychology. And I felt like people didn’t want to know that they wanted to know when I could get my next state. And so at first, I really was trying to become someone that I thought people would like versus actually own who I am. And I think that’s personal growth. And so when you think about strategy, I had the perfect strategy. I knew marketing, I knew understanding advertising. But if I didn’t know who I was, it wasn’t gonna work. Because it doesn’t come from the real me. And so I think people need to understand who they are at a deep level, they need to do their Shadow Work. I say this, again, beating the drum of Shadow Work. And just a really quick thing about Shadow Work is it’s a Jungian term. And it really is that in the beginning of life, we’re conditioned to create a persona that is pleasing and adaptable to everyone around us. And so if you think about a business, that’s what we tend to do, we want to build our business persona, especially if you’re a solopreneur, you are the business you are the face of the business. So

Robert Maldonado  

You’re the brand, 

Debra Maldonado  

You have to put this persona out there. And it’s not authentic. It’s really what we believe other people will like, and it’s very externalized. It’s very looking at what the trends are, looking at what’s going to attract the right people. And what Jung talked about is that when you have that persona, there’s a shadow that is on underneath it. And what I see is that people build up this persona, and then they even identify themselves, as if I’m successful. I’m a seven figure coach, or an eight figure business, that’s my persona, I’m successful. Well, guess what, if you haven’t done the work, what goes in your shadow is the failure is the person who doesn’t have the authority to do what they do. And it kind of sits there and it can lead to that dark night of the soul where you have to come to terms with those things, because you’re so externally focused. And so I see that personal growth is not just about feeling good and confident about yourself, positive

Robert Maldonado  

Thinking positive, 

Debra Maldonado  

Thinking positively, doing your mindset work, you know, healing your childhood, it really is about individuation, understanding who you are, and not and internally focused, that you are the power. And then the external is just reflective of that. And I think it’s making that pivot, versus, I need to build up this ego and it needs to look a certain way and needs to sound a certain way for me to be successful. And, and so that’s why I say this is why I say the marketing comes second, the marketing and the branding, and all those things will come out of your authentic expression.

Robert Maldonado

So you do need those things.

Debra Maldonado

Those things are tools, but they’re not they aren’t this, they’re they’re they’re x effect of a centered person, versus the cause of the business being successful, you are the cause of the big business being successful. And if you’re the cause of being successful, the effect will show up in having the right team, having a great marketing plan, having the right message because it’ll it’s coming from inside of you. You’re not looking at how I can impress others? And how do I make it in this crazy world. And I’m just this like little insignificant ego and you know, trying to make it, you’re the force. And I think for women, we do have such creative power. And we need to own that. And that’s really what I see for me has made a profound difference in how we create.

Robert Maldonado  

 And then this idea that some people try to use success to kind of bolster their persona or to compensate somehow for their inadequacies or feelings of inadequacy.

Debra Maldonado 

And I’ve done that. I mean, I remember when I first started even when we worked together I was so fixed on Getting to that seven figure mark. It was like such a badge of honor. And it was almost like how I was about finding a partner. And once I got the man, and then when I reached it, it was this kind of, and a lot of people say that when they reach the seven figure mark, they feel this, they called the seven figure blues. Have you ever heard of that term?

Robert Maldonado  

 Yeah. 

Debra Maldonado  

And it’s that kind of like, Oh, wait, I’m still the same person. It hasn’t magically changed anything. And so we chained up to chase this mirage. And I think that was transformative in itself to realize, and we I think I really started to get into my true success. And the true path after that, because I realized, oh, how much I had bolstering up my persona, and we do it. And no matter how much work you do in yourself, the tendency is the egos are going to want to ride the wave with you and be attached to this thing. So it’s about constantly having people help you work with what’s going on inside.

Robert Maldonado  

One of the questions that comes up over and over again, is how do I get to feel qualified? How do I know when I’m qualified to help another person or to put myself out there and start my business?

Debra Maldonado  

This is so so common, many people, and I remember that, you know, being in a group in Denver, I had this like, spiritual women’s group we used to meet every month, it was so much fun, we did a lot of crazy stuff. We would when we all went around and talked about what’s stopping us in our success, and almost everyone said, I just don’t feel qualified. And, and that qualification, that’s kind of how we all look at the world, like, what did you graduate with, with GPA? What college did you go to? How much do you know, what’s your title? And so we’re very bad external titles and labels. And you see some people that have lots of degrees, and they put all their names like,

Robert Maldonado  

All the letters.

Debra Maldonado  

This is like an alphabet after their name to say I’m qualified, I’m qualified. And you can get as many degrees as you want, you can get as many

Robert Maldonado  

Certificates.

Debra Maldonado  

Certificates, and it’s that those aren’t going to give you the qualification. It’s the work inside. And I remember when I first started out, in business as well, I had this idea that I wasn’t qualified. People told me when I was getting my book published, that no one you don’t have a degree in psychology, why would anyone buy that book? You know, the publishers aren’t going to publish your book. But I believed it.

Robert Maldonado  

The naysayers 

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, the naysayers and so, you know, with this false idea that you have to, I mean, definitely you want to get training, and you don’t want to just haphazardly, you know, throw people’s minds into what you you know, without doing training, and we definitely believe in that, obviously, because we change coaches, but even with the training, you have to get to a point where you feel that you can help others. And so how do we get that? How do we feel qualified? And I think, everyone, no matter how much success you have, the ego will never feel satisfied. So it says unqualified, is really more of the ego, saying you’re not enough, the egos always going to say that, no matter how many billions of dollars you make. Mike Myers famously said, I’m looking for the no talent, police to finally catch up with me most, if you talk to any celebrity, any person who’s made amazing success, I mean, they’re they’re confident themselves, but there’s always that kind of that little doubt that they always have to deal with. And so first of all, you have to know that that’s normal. It’s just because your mind is telling you you’re not qualified doesn’t mean you are right, they do believe that. And then you have to if you don’t feel qualified, if you don’t feel that you’re doing the work, you look for knowledge and get the knowledge you need.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah. Which takes us to the next kind of step because a lot of that feeling or overcoming the feeling of not being qualified is in the beginning in the startup phase. And then you get to the growth phase where you’ve started your business and some of some of you out there might have a business already, or stepped out into your entrepreneurship already. What is the specialized knowledge that really gives you that growth and that ability to expand on your idea?

Intermission  

Are you looking for a satisfying career that has meaning and purpose? Are you seeking a path of growth and wish you can have it all in one program? Well, our Jungian life coach program does just that. It gives you a new career as a certified life coach, as well as takes you through our Jungian methodology to help you become your true self, and make amazing transformation in your life and the lives of others. So visit Jungianlifecoach.com Click on Apply and speak with me, Deborah directly, so we can discuss your future and possibilities and become a certified life coach. That’s jungianlifecoach.com. 

Debra Maldonado  

Well, I think as we segue into that, really, in the beginning, that unqualified feels like gigantic and when they do get successful, it’s just a little pebble in the shoe. But in the beginning, it’s like a monster blocking the door. I say the first thing is to fail and do things that fail. I mean, that’s the best way to then work with the failure because that’s really what the fear is, right? And the second step is as you keep putting your foot in front, don’t let that monster stop, you have the unqualified monster, you have to learn about yourself. Shadow Work is really important for an entrepreneur. And then beyond that doing individuation. The other specialized knowledge for me is I read Eastern philosophy or the Gita, I read the way the Bodhisattva I went meditated, I absorbed a lot of lectures and knowledge. I read Pema children,

Robert Maldonado

Which is all about internal work. 

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, 

Robert Maldonado  

Not about strategies or marketing. 

Debra Maldonado  

It was all about how do I manage this mind, because it’s the most important asset in your company is the mind. And we put it like I always tell people, you invest so much in marketing and advertising and team, but how much have you invested in your mind, which is the most important asset in your business. And so investing in your mind is not only money, but time, having a good coach that can help you work with your mind. Because, again, if your mind isn’t on board, it’s going to be a rough road. Also, I loved reading Wallace Wattles, the science of getting rich was very transformative for me thinking Grow Rich, hearing those stories. reading and listening to people who talk like I am about just starting out and their experience, you don’t feel so alone and feel so you know, I’m the only one who feels this way. You hear stories from people like me who have succeeded, but I’ve been in your shoes, and you feel inspired. So those are things that I would recommend. And then also this is the way we study. It’s like, I hear so many people say oh, I read the Gita or I read it. You know, I listen to these Deepak Chopra all the time, and Eckhart tolle. And all these things that I love Eckhart tolle is his real name. I love you know, all that stuff. But they don’t really study it. They’re just absorbed there. So like taking 

Robert Maldonado  

Passively 

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, you’re passively learning, you’re passively listening, what you want to do is you want to take a book out, I wish I had my Gita here, oh, it’s over there. It has all the tick marks and tags and highlights and you’re studying it and you find something. And for me, it’s one page like I also I could spend a week on one page that’s studying, that’s taking it apart, looking at it, how does that apply? And it’s what they call critical thinking. It’s really asking yourself those questions as you absorb the information. So it’s just some people just never learned how to learn. And that’s the specialized knowledge you have to learn how to learn. 

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah, in psychology, they call that metacognition, where you, your brain understands that, that you have to learn this information in a certain way. And then you kind of systematize a way to absorb that.

Debra Maldonado 

And I can tell you that years ago when I read I read it like you saw my library when you first met me first thinking I’ve never read any of these books. I really haven’t read Marianne Williamson. No, I don’t even know who she is. I read them. And I remember actually reading some books about Buddhism and awaking the Buddha within and mondas and all those books. And I remember I just read them. Back in the early days, I didn’t really learn and then yeah, I think through meeting you, I think of just learning how to learn in a different way like applying it in my life. It always felt like more entertainment when I read before self help entertainment. And Ooh, that’s a nice little tip but we don’t really question ourselves and go deeper with it. So definitely something I had to develop over time.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah, and a lot of my a lot of people might not see the connection of how does that translate into a business strategy growth or bad growth, though, you know this, how does that help you individually be successful in a particular business?

Debra Maldonado 

Well, because you are the business, your business is going to be a reflection of you and your own mind. So if your mind is chaotic, and fearful and anxious, your business will have ups and downs, it’ll be your clients or if you’re a coach, your clients will be unsatisfied all the time, they’ll reflect that Yeah, or you think they’re unhappy. You and they can, it’ll be chaotic. And, and everything that you, you believe about yourself, will be reflected in the business. So you have to understand yourself, and the energy you’re putting into your, you’re bringing your energy into the business. And we’ve noticed too, when we’ve had different teams over the years, and we have such an awesome team, now it’s like, we like it, it’s a nice team. But over the years, if there was one person who is dissatisfied, or one person who was not abundant thinking, it would kind of change the kind of dynamic of the business, even in our groups, they’d be we’d have a great group of people. And then there would be one person that kind of threw off the, the dynamic, but they were a reflection of us, like, what does that say about us? So you look at that, like, why did that person show up? What does that say about my mind, what is in my shadow that attracts me to see a lot of people, they try to create a business. And it’s almost like a defense of, I got to make sure the right people get in, and I got to make sure everything’s under control. And they don’t realize that it’s just going to reflect themselves, like the work isn’t out there. The work is here. It’s really understanding and the more clear and centered you are, the more your business will show that and will give back to you. And the world will get back to you. Because you see it as a friendly place. You see it as an abundant place, you see it as a creative place versus survival. And I think a lot of new entrepreneurs are in that survival mind. And that survival mind is the ego mind. And the ego mind will create fear, frustration, anxiety, worry. And the divine mind, it’s always there. But the ego has eclipsed it. When you allow it to do the Shadow Work and you step into that higher mind, the divine woman comes out that archetype that’s unconscious, that that’s universal, not personal. You are able to tap into the deeper forces of the soul and, and really bring something amazing. And I see people maybe not necessarily do Shadow Work, but in a way they do work. Like for example, Sara Blakely. She worked with a lot of coaches, she had life coaches, two actually while she was building her billion dollar billion dollar Empire, but she started out in the beginning, and I love hearing her story. So if you ever find her sheets, Sony discovered Spanx. And although they, you know, things she had to do at the beginning, she knew that the most important thing she said, was working with my mind, most important. And so if she can, if she that’s what she says, I’m saying, and I agree, because anytime we were, I would get caught up in the marketing, I’d say, oh, let’s you know, I’d see someone have this cool tactic. I’d, let’s try that. Or let’s try this. And I’d forget that it’s not the tactic, I would get lost in it and externalize my results. And then as soon as I realized, Oh, it’s something in me, however I need to shift, and I would make a shift in myself. And then everything started to flow again, I was, Oh, it’s kind of easier this way. When you’re when you are the source when you are, 

Robert Maldonado 

Right.

Debra Maldonado  

You know that you have the power to shift the direction of your company, shift the direction of the company and shift the people in your life. It’s so powerful

Robert Maldonado 

and that is specialized knowledge because a working person does not think that way. Right, This is a different perspective on what is money? What is success? What is work?. So you have to kind of go through a shift in the way you see yourself how you’re spending your work energy.

Debra Maldonado  

I know the ego really plays a trick on you because you’re not your ego but that’s what fills your mind all day. It’s as if you were dark glasses and you didn’t know that you could just take them off. But you’re seeing your world through those that dark glass and not always negative but just limited. It’s I always say the ego’s like guardrails that keep you in the same lane and You just feel I get the same results. So it must not be for me versus saying, oh, the results are reflecting my mind, I can actually change that. It’s not confirmation out there. Like we think of it as an affirmation that the world has limitations or there’s not, there’s too many people doing what I do, there’s too much competition, or I’m not qualified, all those things are really, we get to decide. And I always ask my clients, so those who are in our coach training, I always say, well, what’s gonna make you feel qualified? Do you need other people to tell you? Like, what do you need? And then they kind of think about it. It’s like, if people agree with what I do, and they like what I do, and they want to be a part of my work, then I’ll feel like I’m contributing. And I’ll say, well, that’s not what you have to believe at first, then they’ll reflect that. But if you sit, you’re waiting for someone else to give it to you. You’re actually coming from a deficit, you’re coming from that empty, like I don’t know who I am, you tell me who I am. Again, Jung. If you don’t know, the world will ask you who you are. And if you don’t know, the world will tell you. So is the world going to tell you you’re qualified? Or are you going to tell you you’re qualified, and whoever is in that decision making position the leader is she’s it starts from that is that you? It starts from within, I’m qualified. And I’m the one who’s choosing this, and I have the power to change anything. And that alone takes that specialized knowledge you need to study you need to understand, well, what does that mean, and to really get it, I can tell you, you’re great, you’re awesome, you can do anything, you want those high five and clap, and jump up and down on stage. That’s great. But that’s not going to change you on the inside, that’s going to pop you up temporarily. But it’s what changes on the inside as you discover. It’s like finding that wisdom within yourself. You hear it externally. And then you have to go inside and pull it out of yourself like that, that you already know that remembrance of who you really are.

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah, I’m definitely a strong believer in stage theory. So the entrepreneur goes through this initial stage of entering a new way of doing their life basically, of becoming their own boss, then they have to go through the stage of growth, being able to really implement their dream in a practical way, and grow it and make it a reality. But then, as they say, in the music business, it’s not that hard to get to the top, the hard part is staying there. How do you sustain 

Debra Maldonado 

How do I stay here? 

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah, how do you sustain it for the long term?

Debra Maldonado  

Well, I think whether you’re starting out, or whether you’re at the end, whatever stage you’re at, the thread that ties it all together, is the why. Because there’s every stage of your business, like I said, that baby, you start off with a baby that has to feed it all the time. And then the growth phase, and then the maintenance phase. There’s different challenges, and each one, and the why will help you move through those. It’s the deeper meaning of why you did this. We all want a meaningful life, we don’t want to just accumulate, have a business just to accumulate money. It’s nice. But that’s not really what we want to do is we, especially women entrepreneurs, want to, they did study, and they said women are more likely to their number one goal is to make a difference. And do something that contributes to society versus men, they’re like women are more apt to have a meaningful driven business than a mission driven. And so if you have a mission, it’s like the hero’s journey, you’re going to, you’re not going to turn back. So whether you’re in the beginning or the middle, or the end, at the end, it’s that mission that gets to you because there’s am I qualified to start? Can I sustain this? And then how do I get to the next level? It’s all tied to that. Why? Why would I want to like us, we have a great life, right? We’re good, you know, we don’t have to grow anymore. But the Why is pushing us. It’s the reason why we started is that we don’t want just enough we want more we want to just, you know, be complacent with what we have. And there’s two reasons for the why. Why is there a special message or mission, we want to get into the world and enjoy that. But the second Why is our natural desire is to grow. And so we have to always grow. We have this soul in us once it’s full expression, so it doesn’t want to let me get halfway there. Or it gets to a point and yeah, let me just relax like running a marathon and you stop halfway and go you know, I did a good job halfway. I’m not gonna finish it. There’s no finish line in Entrepreneurship. it’s it’s always this bigger goal, there’s something bigger, there’s something more meaningful. It doesn’t mean more money normally, sometimes it could just mean that you’re doing more you’re giving more away or you’re you’re you’re helping more people, you’re you’re expanding your your impact on the world is, it can of course lead to more money. Obviously, it’s not, that’s not the reason it’s like, I want to be a billionaire. I don’t think Sara Blakely said, I want to be a billionaire, I think she said, I see I have this idea. And I see that this could change women’s lives. And her mission really is about a woman feeling comfortable in her body. And it came in the form of a girdle, a girdle, you know, that idea of a girdle which is so like from the 50s she’s thinking of the old girdles that women used to wear.

Robert Maldonado

To reinvent 

Debra Maldonado  

To reinvent women’s undergarments, so she can feel more attractive and more beautiful. And, and, and not feel self conscious about her body. And I think it’s you know, that was her mission. And so she had this idea, it came from that passion. And then now, how do I carry this more? How do I take that mission more?

Robert Maldonado 

So I mean, you’re describing purpose in the individual. But, here, you’re applying that purpose in a business way that you’re saying? 

Debra Maldonado  

The business 

Robert Maldonado 

The business exists for this purpose, this higher reason this, this higher purpose? Yeah, yeah, that is very powerful. And of course, I can see that a would sustain a business on in the long term, despite the ups and downs of the economy, or

Debra Maldonado  

Or how hard you sometimes have to work weekends, and you have to, you know, put extra hours in or there’s, you know, conflicts that come up in your business that you have to deal with, and it’s uncomfortable to keep growing. It’s not always just smooth. It’s challenging sometimes. And it’s that why that keeps you going and our Why is we really want to transform the way people grow themselves and bring Jung’s work and Eastern spirituality into more of the mainstream and a practical way, and empower and like really up level, the coaching industry, the coaching industry is going through such a transition, it’s growing really fast. But there’s, you know, there’s good coaching training, and there’s not, you know, kind of, you know, people not having proper training, just going out and on the whim just reading a book and then deciding they want to coach people. And so it’s unregulated. So our challenge is how do we up level that industry. So people get quality training. And when someone does hire a coach, they feel like coaching is great is a great tool. Versus coaches aren’t qualified. They don’t know what they’re doing. I better go to someone who has a master’s degree or so. I think it’s really important for us to bring that to people. That’s one of our why’s.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah. And, and so once you get to a certain stage, are you done? Yeah. I mean, do you take a break? 

Debra Maldonado  

 I told you there is no finish line.

Robert Maldonado 

Do you go to the beach, and drink pina coladas? And

Debra Maldonado  

Well, I feel like I’ve never worked. I mean, I’ve my family famously said, Debbie, you haven’t worked since 2003. When I got laid off from my job, you haven’t worked since 2003. You haven’t really worked. You know, they look at me. And they say, she’s just having fun. And she gets to stay at home all day, she gets to travel around the world. And so I don’t. First of all, I don’t think, to me, this isn’t work. To me. This is fun and creative. And yeah, there’s time for it. But I just can’t imagine you and I always talk of it, we will never retire. Because we love what we do, I mean, that’s the best.

Robert Maldonado 

No, I don’t know, speak for yourself.

Debra Maldonado  

But we do have our time down. And it’s nice to have a team and as you grow and you dedicate yourself. I’ve heard a famous saying in my early years, the coaches say you work three years for the first three years, like no one else can, no one else will. And then you can live the rest of your life like no one else can. So you have to put the hard work in in the beginning, just like the baby, you gotta feed it. I didn’t think of it as hard work. Your perspective can be you’re building something amazing. And you’re just so passionate about it, you get obsessed with it, you know, you really just are driven. Naturally, you’re not. It’s not like you have to drag yourself and put Oh, I gotta put my hours yesterday. It’s like, Oh, I have this idea. I want to do this. That’s the energy you have to have in the beginning. And then at the end and then after the first you know, the foundation is formed and you’re getting that steady income and you’re able to quit your job and start Building a team, you start to take time off. Usually we take weekends, we definitely take weekends off. And I only take clients two or three days a week, I don’t see clients five days a week. Even when I was in Denver, I worked. I work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays and I take Fridays and Mondays off every week, I mean, how many people can have a part time job that makes more than I did in the corporate world. And then you get to play, you get to have the resources and time and you get to say, Oh, I’m the boss, I don’t have to ask for time off, I can create time off. We go to events, our travel is dictated by us. So what do we do? We look at the map and say, where do we want to go this year? What countries do we want to visit? And then we create an event in that country like Prague and Greece and Italy, and we build our vacation around that it’s a business expense. You remember doing an event there, and we get to travel and have time off? And we get to I mean, think of all the experiences we’ve had, over the years, all the places we’ve traveled,

Robert Maldonado 

though, so some people might be asking, Are these times are these skills learnable? I mean, are entrepreneurs born? Or are they made?

Debra Maldonado  

I think it’s a combination, because I was a worker, bee worker, bee worker bee, I never thought of myself as even a businesswoman. I was just working until I met a man and I was gonna have babies. And you know, that was my plan. My plan didn’t work out. Because I didn’t mean to tell us 41. But it is, in my 30s, I started looking for my purpose. And I think that I always doubted that I could do it. That’s why it took me so long to really do it. And I feel like I learned I had this natural desire to do something else in me. Some people act upon it, some people don’t. And even with that natural desire, you have to learn the skills too. I had to learn how to be a business owner, I had to learn how to make decisions, and there’s so much learning that that is involved in it. So there’s like a, you have a desire, I think everyone can have that. But you have to be dedicated. And I think it’s up to you. Can you make someone dedicated? I don’t know.

Robert Maldonado 

Right? So the the person has to bring in the, say, the willingness to, to learn and to change and,

Debra Maldonado  

Commitments

Robert Maldonado  

And go through a process,

Debra Maldonado  

not give up so easily not be like expect it to be easy, and then give up for the first five minutes. Yeah, that it’s that perseverance. And there. I mean, it took me a while to get to where I finally started leaving the corporate world fully. But I dabbled in different things until I found what I needed. So over time I cultivated that commitment to make it work.

Robert Maldonado  

Oh, that’s a good way to think about it cultivation, now you’re cultivating these conditions for your own growth.

Debra Maldonado 

And I was always good at studying. I mean, I was always conscientious, I had high conscientiousness, I would always be responsible. So those are things that I think a personality would be good for an entrepreneur. But then there’s other entrepreneurs that are really creative. And they kind of have this wildness about them. Wild creativity artists, and they just need someone else on their team to keep the structure. So if you are that wild, creative type, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be but you need someone to make sure the bills are paid and organized and, right?

Robert Maldonado  

Absolutely.

Debra Maldonado 

So I think if you don’t have all those skills that a CEO needs, you find someone to support you with that, like what are your weaknesses? You don’t feel bad about them. You say, Well, I’m naturally more creative and more. I don’t know, emotional. And then I need someone who’s more left brain, they can do all these other things. And if you’re more left brain, maybe you need to bring a creative person and to bring out something

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah, no, I know a lot of creative people. They let the marketing piece stop them. Yes. Because they get to that point where they say, Well, if you want to grow and be successful, you have to do some marketing, you have to be able to put yourself out there and they dropped the ball basically. What would you say to those people?

Debra Maldonado 

I think they don’t have their why. I think a lot of creative people are very sensitive. There’s a term called highly sensitive people. I think a lot of creative people are like that. I don’t know if I believe that, that I think everyone’s highly sensitive. We’re all just human beings. But I think it’s more common than not, and I think creative people, especially there, take things more deeply and personally, they’re, they’re more personal. Their work is very, they’re afraid of rejection more. So I think those people are probably more easily wanting to give up, then someone who’s the numbers person that can be okay, I’m gonna make, they can kind of compartmentalize their emotions and just go for it. We’re the creative, and especially intuitive women that do our work. They’re creative, they’re intuitive, they’re emotional, they’re not dramatical. But they’re, they kind of feel they’re empathetic.

Robert Maldonado

But they can come up with big, bold ideas, right? Because they are creative, but

Debra Maldonado  

what stops them? Is that sensitivity to Am I gonna look stupid? Am I gonna, what if people don’t like it?, you know, that kind of personalization, and even an artist putting their artwork out Raiders, it took me the first time I, I, I never share my writing with anyone all my life until Let Love In was the first book I published. But I have been writing since I was nine. And I always kept my little stories secret. And I was so afraid of rejection and so I think that’s kind of being creative or artistic, being intuitive being we are sensitive to the world and we want to take things harder, I think than most people than the logical, you know, get it done person who can compartmentalize that?

Robert Maldonado  

Yeah, but a logical compartmentalizing person would lack 

Debra Maldonado 

Passion

Robert Maldonado  

Lack creativity and passion and ideas.

Debra Maldonado 

So it’s the balancing of Schottky and Shiva, you know, the, to the creative, the masculine and feminine. And, and I do think that I feel like I’m more creative and intuitive. But I also have that logical German brain, too. So I have both. And you know, that we have a team that helps fill in the gaps of that excellence, taking it to another level, because you can’t be excellent at everything. But at first you have to take on all those roles. And then you trust that you as you grow it, you have a team that even makes me lift you up and makes you better, you know, makes the whole system and the enterprise is an entity in itself. It’s an alive mission that your company is alive, and it has its own personality and to bring that out and have the right people in there.

Robert Maldonado 

Yeah, go in there. What I tell the creative types is you have to know enough about marketing and business to know what kind of people to hire or get to help you. You don’t have to do it all yourself.

Debra Maldonado  

And even now, when I was first starting, there were virtual assistants, there weren’t all these, they call it wiziwig. What you see is what you get, website developer, when I had to write HTML code for my first website, I had to there was an art form that you could put on your site, I had to create it by coding. Right now, there’s so many tools that people can use, even membership sites that you can just plug in a button and do it. And, and so anyway, starting now, it’s so easy. You can hire someone like a VA to do it all for you. There’s pre made templates and websites. There wasn’t any of that back in back in the day.

Robert Maldonado 

Business in a box

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, business in a box. It’s so easy right now to, you know, get, you know, work with the technological challenges. If you’re, if you don’t know the technology very well, there’s so much support. And you know, I think this brings up the last point. I think that many of us are afraid to ask for help. And I think that’s a really important quality in an entrepreneur is to know when to ask for support. For me, it was always having a coach and then having a staff. I didn’t have an assistant until 2011. And so I started my first business in 2003. So for almost seven years, I was doing everything myself. I didn’t have an assistant. I did all the technology at all. I just can’t believe it because I felt like I needed to do it on my own and I was afraid to ask for help. I think there’s a little control freaky be too. But if there’s something about allowing someone to help and support you, having the you know, I had a coach obviously, coaches all the time, But yeah, that kind of willingness to be supported. And especially coaches, a lot of them are what we call the mother type mother archetype. And they like to take care of everyone else. They’re nurturers and they have a hard time receiving that support. So I think it’s really important long term you so you don’t burn out is to have people that support you, on your team. Let your clients support you by giving you testimonials that your clients can help you be better by giving you feedback. Yeah, getting that support. And, and it’s just I think that’s so important.

Robert Maldonado  

Awesome. What? I think we we finally got some genuine stuff out of you 

Debra Maldonado  

Finally 

Robert Maldonado  

You resisted and resisted 

Debra Maldonado  

Oh, come on,  it was very open.

Robert Maldonado  

We got to really what’s what’s going on in that brain? Are we going to continue or is this the end of this series.

Debra Maldonado  

This is the end of the series. But we do have the meditation challenge coming up next week, starting next Friday here in the Facebook group, community, creative mind coaching Facebook group. And so be sure to register, there is a form that you fill out, you get a meditation, and then a workbook that goes with the meditation retreat five, for five days, we’re going to do live meditations in the group. And we’re going to really shift gears to help you work with that mind. And the mind is really, like I said, the most important asset. And if you’re not working with the mind and cultivating your instrument, you’re going to not have the success you really want as fast as you want.

Robert Maldonado  

Well, it was worth the wait. Somebody had a comment, do you want to read that?

Debra Maldonado 

The soul is always going to give you permission, but that ego. And we also don’t want to make the ego with the bad guy. Because the bad guy is not the ego, the bad guy is ignorant of the ego and we don’t realize that that ego is not real. We think that the ego has so much power over us because we listen to it, we listen to that voice that says you’re not qualified. You can’t make it. It’s too hard. And we ended up just surrendering to this voice in our head, that’s just always going to tell us we’re not enough. And, and so it’s about that’s what made it the meditation challenge is going to help people do is help them get you know, look at that ego, like watch it, see it work with the energies of the body, how do we get into that focus, so that we can leap? Yes. And do we have any questions before we go?

Robert Maldonado 

We appreciate you joining us for the series.

Debra Maldonado  

Yes.

Robert Maldonado  

Any feedback? Feel free to post on the site. Any questions regarding some of the topics we covered? 

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, we’re really excited about the meditation challenge. And we have some other exciting things coming up, too. We’re doing a spiritual retreat in December here, not here. But online if you want to. It’s a paid retreat. And, and our life coach training is starting in January. So we’re excited for the next cohort. Oh, women cohorts for the next round, and it’s going to be fantastic. This was really amazing and insightful for my business. Thank you. You’re welcome. Glad you’re here.

Robert Maldonado  

Absolutely.

Debra Maldonado  

Yeah, I wish, I mean, I did that too. I listened to a lot of people talk about their first days and it gave me such a, I felt like oh, okay, I’m not the only one. I’m not doing it wrong. And I have the same thoughts you do. You’re welcome. It’s it’s, I really, I think one of the main things that I got out of being an entrepreneur is the money’s great. Being able to express myself every day is great. But I think the one thing I got is a sense of self accomplishment, this thing that I did this, like, I it’s something that no one gave me it when you when you create something, just like in coaching the coach doesn’t give you the transformation, you you give it to yourself, you the coach is just facilitating it. And to own that, that I did this, I created something new. It’s just so amazing. It gives you so much power. And those of you who already started your business, grow for it, keep going, you’re in the game. And those on the sidelines, the water is warm, jump in, flail around with the rest of us, you’ll find your way and and it’s the time now it’s never a better time to step into your purpose. It’s never the wrong time. It’s always right. And just Just do it.

Robert Maldonado  

Words of wisdom. Yes. So we’ll see you on our next podcast. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you soon. Stay well.

Debra Maldonado  

Take care everyone, Have a great day. Have a great weekend. 

Outro 

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