Ladies, Dream Bigger & Unlock Your Potential! with Nadia Bernardy

Jennifer Norman: Hello, beautiful humans. Welcome to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast. My name is Jennifer Norman, founder of the Human Beauty Movement and your host. The Human Beauty Movement is a social lifestyle platform dedicated to inspiring radical inclusion, true holistic wellness, and environmental sustainability in our world. We're a global human collective that connects to inspire diverse modalities of self-expression, personal growth, and individual journeys of self-love.

I created this podcast to have open conversations about all the aspects of the human experience. When we're curious, kind, and courageous, we evolve powerfully as individuals and thrive as a human race. So take a moment now to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss an episode. I'm so glad you're here to join me for today's show. Nadia Bernardy is a spiritual life coach and author based in Maui, Hawaii.

After graduating with a degree in branding, design, and marketing, she helped grow a little-known tech unicorn called Airbnb into a $75 billion international brand, all while working from her laptop in Hawaii. Like so many of us who work our butts off right out of school, Nadia reached a breaking point and suffered major burnout. That was when she found respite in discovering her own spirituality and a greater sense of purpose. Now as a spiritual life coach, Nadia guides women from being uninspired entrepreneurs to soulfulpreneurs. She just launched her first book titled, But First, Dream Bigger, How to Unlock Your Potential and Find Your True Calling in 21 Days.

I'm so delighted to have Nadia as my guest on today's show. Aloha, Nadia.

Nadia Bernardy: Aloha, Jennifer. Thank you so much for having me. It really means a lot to me to be able to share my work and have this conversation with you today.

Jennifer Norman: Yes, I'm so glad that you're here. And first, to let all my listeners know, we're recording this episode shortly after the devastating wildfires that have swept across the beautiful Hawaiian island of Maui. So Nadia, my thoughts are with you and with all the residents of Maui. How are you and how is everything right now?

Nadia Bernardy: So I just want to share, because I think it's really beautiful that it's actually 11:11 right now here on Maui. It feels like the perfect time to really open this up and to share with those of you who have sent so many beautiful messages and prayers and just your support to the community. Maui is definitely a place where we consider each other family. There's a term here in Hawaii called hanae and it means that you treat someone who's not blood related to you like they are related to you. And so it's been over a month now since everything has happened and we have just really come together to support each other in whichever way that we can by helping with all different types of donations, both financially and different things that people might need, tangible goods.

And it's been amazing to see. And even though this whole experience honestly has been so surreal for the community and so unexpected, It's almost like it's the sign of how much we care about each other and how much we love each other and how much we can really come together to do what we can to lift each other up. And so right now, there is still a lot of need. There are still a lot of families are displaced. There are a lot of families that are still trying to connect with their loved ones.

And so there is a lot of need that is still really being called for from the people that love Maui who don't live here. And so I know there's a lot of discussion about if you should visit Maui, if you should cancel or reschedule. And there's a lot of mixed feelings about it. I would say that definitely the west side of the island in Lahaina where everything took place, they are talking about reopening it. And I feel like that way too soon at this time.

If you do feel called to come to Maui, if you can stay on other sides of the island, the south side, the North shore, there's so many other beautiful sides, and then volunteer your time while you're here would mean so much really help us to feel that sense of Aloha from those of you who have come here for several years on your vacations, on your happy moments, or even if it's your first trip, you know, it's a way for you to really be a part of the community. And so yes, we're still in a really strong sense of healing and really starting that process of rebuilding. But even rebuilding is feeling very, I feel like it's going to take a long time to rebuild. And so just have some kind of grace and understanding with that the people here are still very much in that healing state. We are in a sense mourning still as well.

And just to show as much empathy and compassion as you can if you do feel called to visit.

Jennifer Norman: Yes, I have not been to Maui myself, but I have been to other Hawaiian islands. And the spirit is so strong and it is so beautiful. And I almost look at things like this, that there is devastation that has been happening. A lot of us just question like, what is going on in the world with climate change and all of these devastations that are occurring? And it seems like they're happening at a greater and greater pace than they had before.

And it may be true. And a lot of times I look at it as a macrocosm of the microcosm of those fires that burn within us, of the crises that have been happening within us, and how we rebuild our lives, how we try to make sense of everything that has happened, the devastation, all the calamity, all the woe that can happen with a lot of these things that happen in our lives. And what do we do next? A lot of people feel hopeless, they feel in limbo and they don't know what to do. And it takes time and it takes resilience.

And there is such a resilience in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. And I think that it's a reflection of what we're going to be talking about today, which is the situation about career burnout. A lot of us get to that place. There's like this moment of breaking in our lives and it could be personal. And in some cases, it's just professional.

Sometimes it's both and all of the above at once. And sometimes it just seems like it, when it rains, it pours or when the fires burn, they burn everything down to the ash. Nadia, you had worked for Airbnb. You were one of the first employees there. A lot of people would be like, oh my gosh, that must have been such an amazing experience.

And I would love to have you share what it was like to work there in the first place.

Nadia Bernardy: Yes, the early days, it was really truly incredible. And one of my coworkers once described it as trying to build a rocket ship while it was taking off. And that's really what it felt like.

Nadia Bernardy: At the time of getting hired with Airbnb, I was living in New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That's where I went to college. And they blew me out to San Francisco. And I remember flying in first thing in the morning and just exploring San Francisco and just being in awe that I was there and that I was having this beautiful experience. And at the time, the company was really small.

I think there was about 50 people that worked in the office. And then the round that I got hired with, I think there was about 30 of us that got hired at that time. And so I was able to stay in this really cute Airbnb listing with some of my new, I like to say Air Ohana, because Ohana is Hawaiian Air Family. And we just instantly bonded. I'm still connected with them to this day. We still have our WhatsApp chats. We really went through this experience together and it was really, really beautiful.

And so, yeah, so I got hired. I went there for an entire week to get trained and it was just incredible. I felt like when I first heard about Airbnb, I wasn't exactly sure what it was all about. But when I got there, I realized how much I was supposed to be a part of it because the foundation of Airbnb is all about belonging anywhere. So you can grow up in Hawaii or grow up in San Francisco or grow up wherever and then travel to the other side of the world and feel like you are part of that community, which again, you're going back to living on Maui.

That's a really strong part of just my background growing up. And so I instantly felt like this is where I was supposed to be and that I was supposed to be connected to this mission and to really bringing it to life. And so it was really beautiful. The first couple months I lived in New Mexico, but I was a remote employee. And back when I started, we didn't really have departments or titles.

We kind of, it was a really scrappy startup. So we were all just kind of doing what we were feeling called to do within being new to this whole new idea of opening up your space to strangers, essentially that are gonna be people that potentially could be your lifelong friends. And so a couple months after starting, I realized I can live anywhere. I'm gonna move back to Maui. And so a couple months and I moved back to Maui and really focused on building my life here, but then also helping to build this beautiful company.

So I would fly to San Francisco to work there. Sometimes I'd work from a couple of the other offices and it just went from no one knowing what Airbnb was and I felt like I would tell people about it and they didn't really get in. They didn't really understand like why would I open my house up to someone I don't know and the concept was really new to it just kind of feel like it exploded overnight where everyone then started telling me their stories of, well, if my back's the right party here, I went and stayed with a girlfriend over here and just telling about the really cool listings that they were staying at. And it just felt like such this, in a sense, like what you're talking about with your movement, it felt like this beautiful movement that I was a part of. These people were really opening up to this idea of connecting with people that they don't know and really treating them as if they're friends.

And so I really embraced working at Airbnb and traveled through Airbnb as much as I possibly could, staying with hosts all over the country. And even I took my family to New Zealand, which was incredible. And it was just every single host that I came across, they just treated me like we had known each other forever. You know? And it was like nothing I'd ever experienced before, you know, staying in a hotel and anything like that.

And so I just really felt like Airbnb honestly was this big part of my identity. I worked for Airbnb for almost 10 years and just really felt very immersed in it. And so the transition kind of happened when this was about 20, I would say 18, where I had worn a lot of different hats. As I said, when we first started with the company, we didn't really have departments, we didn't really have tiles, We're kind of just doing whatever we were kind of put in to do. And so by the time 2018 ran around, this has been about seven years, I had done a lot of different things.

I had worked in social media. I had helped build up the business travel department, the luxury travel department. I worked in press for a little bit. And so I had kind of in all these different roles. And while it was incredible, and I think it gave me a lot of beautiful skill set, it also kind of got a little overwhelming.

I was getting up in the morning, first thing in the morning, barely having anything to eat or drink water. I was just getting right on my laptop because it was just such, it's go, go, go. We were building and growing and there was offices being opened all over the world, which was really exciting. But as an employee, it was like we always had to be on. And even with my travel, while again, it was really beautiful, I would sort of curate these trips around my work trips.

So I would work from the office and then maybe have like a couple days where I would go and explore wherever the town was staying at. And while again, it felt like I was having this work-life balance, it wasn't really time off because it really was more of a work trip than being off. And so I started to realize that the whole time I worked for Airbnb, I'd never really taken a break. I'd never taken time off. I'd never really taken time to get back to myself.

And I started to feel, I remember it was the summertime, which is the busiest time with everything, as you can imagine. And I was doing press and I was doing a couple other things. And I just felt like, it was just like this internal feeling of, this is not what I'm supposed to be doing anymore. But at the same time, like I said, my identity was so wrapped up into it that I didn't really know how to separate from it. And from the outside looking in, everything looked amazing because I'm living in Hawaii, I'm traveling, I'm married, I have a daughter, I'm raising my family and able to have this beautiful life with my family while and working this beautiful job that everyone of course at this time knows about.

But internally there was just this, the best way I can describe it is just this unsettling feeling. Like it was time for me to transition to something else, something new, but I lacked so much clarity about what this something was. And that was really scary for me because I was in my 30s at this time and I feel like a lot of us as women can maybe identify with this where in your 30s and your 40s you feel like you're supposed to have life completely figured out, and you're not supposed to be having these questions about what to do with your career and your work. I don't feel like it's normalized in society. And so I really felt like I couldn't really talk to anyone about it.

Like no one really understood. And I've always been someone that when it came to my work and my career, I've always been very clear. I knew in high school that I wanted to go into branding and marketing. I moved to New Mexico to go to school, got my degree, got a job right away. I was not one of those people in college trying to figure out my major.

And so now here I'm in my 30s and I feel like I'm trying to figure out my major again. And it was really kind of, yeah, it was just really unsettling is the best way I can describe it. And so I ended up in therapy for the first time ever, which again, I feel like it's kind of stigmatized and stereotypes in society, but it really did kind of help me to see that I've been going, going, going, going, going since college without having any type of break or rest or any kind of giving back to myself at all. I remember my therapist asking me that, when's the last time you took time off? And I said, well, you took time off to get married. I took time off to have a baby. I took time off to take this family trip, but I didn't really rest.

I didn't really give back to myself. And she said, you are getting ready to have a nervous breakdown. You need to go to work on Monday and tell them you need to take a leap of absence. Like this needs to happen immediately. And it's so interesting, because as adults, we're kind of just navigating our own life.

And we don't think that we need to sort of do these things to rest, because again, I think that we are very, hustle culture is very celebrated. And I didn't realize that I was in that hustle culture, because again, I was working online from home. And so that Monday, I just told my lead, my supervisor, I said, I would like to take some time off. I felt very much uncertain about the financial aspect of it because it was gonna be unpaid, But at the same time, it felt like this is, I have to do this. This is my next step.

And so I just kind of release what that was going to mean financially and just focus for the first time, I think in a really long time of like, what do I need? And I think as women, a lot of us can relate to this. I know a lot of clients I've talked to feel very similar where it's like, we're not asking ourselves these questions of what do I need from what's going on in my life right now. We're putting everyone else first. And so Monday I told my lead, she was more than happy to give it to me.

I'd never taken time off in seven years ever. And then two days later, this is where I think Divine Timing really came in and really came in to support me. And it was just, I look back and I just think, wow, this is so incredible that it manifested this way. But Airbnb announced that they were offering this new program called Refresh and Recharge, where they were going to give you three months paid off, which is how much time I had just requested, but it was fully paid.

Jennifer Norman: Wow.

Nadia Bernardy: And so at this time, there was about 3,500 people working for Airbnb across the entire company, across the globe. And I was the first person to take this leave of absence, recharge, refresh. And so I was able to really take this time off to give back to myself. And it was during this time that I really feel like my spiritual awakening process started because I was able to unwind, which I have to note was challenging in the beginning. It took me some time to really shut off.

I didn't realize how on I was until I was given this time to just focus on me and just to have days where I could do whatever I wanted during the day and really make my own schedule and rest and really recharge.

Jennifer Norman: What a great recap, Nadia. And I do want to just go back because Airbnb, which started as AirBnB breakfast, because these three dudes, college friends, you know, decided to put an air mattress in their apartment and rent it during convention. And then came up with an idea, the scrappiness of the idea and the trajectory from that point to This is economy changing. This is like a global economy changing, just like Uber was global economy changing. And the fact that they were able to do so many things right, put so many wonderful people like yourself in place in order to build that rocket ship while it's going up in the air, figuring things out as you're going along to me, it's just astonishing.

And it's really like, it brings me back to pause and say what an amazing company Airbnb is. It has been recognized for being one of those companies that really does honor its people. And it's considered one of the best in the world to work for because of the way that it does treat its people. I will mention that I found out about Airbnb. My first experience was taking my team, my department on a trip.

We were sponsoring, I was the VP of marketing at Derma E at the time, and we were sponsoring the Wanderlust Yoga Festival, which was in Aspen at the time. And so we rented a ski lodge and it was the best time. It was such a great experience, and from then on, I was hooked. I actually started Airbnb-ing my own home. I had become a super host.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of guests. And to be able to bring the world to you in the form of wonderful guests and to be able to provide service like hospitality out of your own home. There are so many things that can go wrong. There are so many risks that come with that. And to me, it's absolutely mind blowing.

And I just give so many props to the people that have been able to allay those risks, allay the fears, work things out. The COVID response was phenomenal, phenomenal from Airbnb. And I just want to say that having been at the ground level of a company such as that and knowing how indoctrinated you can get in terms of your own identity and giving so much of yourself in such, it's almost like dog years, right? Because you're just going, going, going. And it's like one year seemed like 10 years of real time compressed into one because of the amount of hours and the dedication and the adrenaline that you're working on, despite however many cups of coffee that you might've consumed or any collectively as a company, as an organization.

But it's like to be able to recognize, okay, I need to take a step back from that before something happens, before something very, very permanent happens is so noble and it's so relatable. So many people go through this and it is okay. And so because Nadia has gone through this in her life and has now found a way to harness what she has learned and what her spirit has been guiding her to really convey in terms of her next phase, her next chapter, her next purpose. I do often think that, I'm sure every human being feels this way, but particularly as women, because we go through these phases as, you know, children, then adulthood, then you're married, then you're a mom, and then you career, and then it's like so many different phases of our lives that we feel a bit of a sense of loss, having gone through what we had gone through and we pine for those days, but then we get become a little bit fearful and excited about what's coming ahead, but there's so much that is unknown. That is what we're here to just be able to take those quiet moments for ourselves, take this time for ourselves to be able to figure ourselves out, to be able to find our own identity and our own selves because we have given so much of ourselves to our families, to our spouses, to our children, to our work, to whomever, because we do love to be able to give.

That tends to be a female trait. We're just providers. We're givers. We are the homekeepers. We tend to do that.

And so, Nadia, I would love for you to share now that you are a spiritual coach, you've written this great book. What are some of the key things that have really helped you in transitioning from career burnout to this new spiritual sense of entrepreneurship.

Nadia Bernardy: Yes. So I'm glad you really asked that because I think like you said, as women, we definitely get wrapped up into giving and giving, but we block the receiving. One of my favorite universal laws is the universal law of giving and receiving. I think as women, we're so good at that giving, but then the receiving, we just lock ourselves. And it's, I think it's a really subconscious thing that we do, but we need to start focusing on receiving.

So if people offer to help us, we say, yes, Don't turn people down. We don't think that we have to do everything by ourselves. And one of the things for me kind of getting back to identity and something that I kind of noticed working with women is that we need to focus back to what does our identity look like with just ourselves, where it's disconnected from the career that we've had, being a mother, being a wife. And so in my book, one of these concepts I talk about is your soulfulpreneur archetype. And I've noticed with women, most women, honestly, I see have the divine feminine leader archetype, but there's also the teacher archetype that's very common, the creative, the artists.

And so really my work starts with, we have to get back to what does that look like for you? Are you more of the teacher? Are you supposed to be using your voice to help others? Are you supposed to be leading other women, empowering them? Are you supposed to be more of a creative spirit and create maybe more of a content creator and creating work on social media in that way?

And so it really starts with that. You have to come back to yourself and figure out who you are before you can even lay that foundation. And a lot of this comes to, I call it your soul led story. So it's taking all these experiences and the knowledge and the wisdom that you had, and then how can you use that to be of service to others? And I think a lot of times we think that our story is not interesting enough or we didn't go through enough or it's just to us, it maybe seems so kind of standard that there's nothing in there.

But I can tell you from my experience working with other women, there's so many women who felt like they had a career like mine that they love for a really long time and then felt disconnected from it, felt like they couldn't talk to anyone else about it. Like, I really feel like my clients are a couple steps behind me. And so I really want women to understand that whoever you're meant to serve and to help as a soulfulpreneur, they're just a couple steps behind you and that your story really does matter. And it is really worth sharing your experiences, no matter how kind of trivial or normal they might seem to you. It's something that other people do mean.

And so again, using your story and then coming up with your methodology to help people. So it's really the transformation that you can give people. And again, it can be from A to B. It doesn't have to be, I think as women, again, we feel like we have to perfect this transformation that we're giving people. It has to be from A, B, all the way to Z.

And it really can be really simple. And so again, just focusing back on your story, how can you help people based on what you've been through and then really guiding them to their next steps. It's so needed right now.

Jennifer Norman: It is

Nadia Bernardy: so many people that need it. Yeah.

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. I think that a lot of us, because we had worked for these bigger companies, a lot of them are really grounded in very masculine, patriarchal, organizational behaviors. And that's not a slighter slam on masculinity or patriarchy. I called this The Human Beauty Movement for a reason. It's not the female beauty movement.

It's The Human Beauty Movement. And there are real great benefits to having male led, masculine led organizations. But is it necessarily right for a lot of women who wish to lead and how, because we have learned within the context of patriarchal and masculine led organizations, it gets confusing to figure out your own way of divine femininity, your archetype, and how you wish to lead and recognizing that you may have been called weak if you showcased vulnerability or sensitivity or asked for feedback rather than trying to come in and lead with control. And this is the way to do each step, A, B, C, D, then E. We might be more willing to be more collaborative and do storytelling and a more divine way of saying this.

And before we go on, I actually do want to mention, I promised that I would do this before, but I actually wanted to share some things. Once Nadia had mentioned that she was departing from Airbnb, she got a personal letter from the founders, Brian, Joe and Nate. And I just want to share it with everyone because I think that it's important recognition and acknowledgement is so important.

And so this message starts: Joe, Nate, and I want to thank you for not only being part of Airbnb, but for helping build Airbnb as one of our early employees. If you will understand just how different it was back then. It wasn't as obvious we would be successful. There were fewer processes and we all had to step up at a frenetic pace. Thank you for helping us build Airbnb. Thank you for carrying the culture forward. And thank you for being a great example for all those who joined after you. Brian, Joe, and Nate.

And so that just speaks volumes as far as the humbleness of the dudes that started this company and recognizing the importance that their women employees had in helping to shape the culture and making it okay for men, women, whatever your identity might be to work there. And so going forward and thinking about yourself as a spiritual entrepreneur and using your best gifts, using your talents and staying true and recognizing what those are. And rather than being beholden to an environment which may not necessarily be aligned with you, change your environment, don't change yourself. That becomes a very powerful lesson for a lot of women because a lot of times we wanna mold ourselves to fit in and be liked and change ourselves in order to fit into a company or into a relationship or whatever it might be. It's kind of like, what can we do to really figure ourselves out and gain our own power?

So Nadia, you talk about manifesting your dream life in your business after having a successful career. And one of the things that I have found with women and with a relationship with abundance is that they don't necessarily go hand in hand. So what have you done to crack the nut on discovering the way to wealth as a woman entrepreneur.

Nadia Bernardy: Yes, I think I have very non-traditional views when it comes to wealth. I really think of wealth building as more of this creative process. I think it's more in that feminine flow of how do I invest my money wisely? How do I create service and offers that really speak to me and my heart? And how do I build this collective of ways to bring wealth to me?

And I think a lot of women I've noticed shut these windows or these buckets off to themselves because they feel like bringing wealth is more I think of a masculine goal, but it really can be feminine. It's just really about the way that you approach it. And so I really looked at how can I be open to bringing wealth to me instead of closing it off, just kind of like the universal law of giving and receiving and really being vocal about the things that I have to offer when it comes to female entrepreneurship? I think we really shy away from using our voice to sell because we have all these negative connotations, I think, going back again. And not to sort of say anything negative about divine masking, because I think we can infuse both divine masking and feminine, and we should in our business.

But I think we see this such this masculine trait that we shy away from it. But really to bring in more money and wealth into your life and into your business, you need to be more open about receiving it and sharing what you have to offer and being more bold about it and being excited and not feeling bad about it. I see this a lot where we feel bad about, well, we have to charge less or we need to change it in a way to cater to the other person instead of really helping it to cater to ourselves and our businesses. We're creating businesses essentially that we're feeling trapped in because we feel like we have to do it in this certain cookie cutter way. And you really don't have to, you can create in a way that speaks to you.

And so again, going back to identity, it's really about seeing yourself as the wealthy woman, as the woman that can really step up and be bold and bring abundance into your life and be unapologetic about that. We can't offer something and say, oh, I'm sorry that it costs this much, or I'm sorry that I'm doing it this way. We have to be really confident in that. And I know that that's easier said than done. It's something that we really do have to dive into and work through because it's a lot of things that come up.

Honestly, for myself, I've noticed it's a lot of stuff that's come up from childhood. I've noticed that I've had these sort of wealthy role models in my life and they either helped me with bringing in more money or they made me feel bad about it. And so I had to look at these role models growing up and really say, how is their story not my story? And how can I rewrite the story? So it's a lot of, for me, it's been a lot of journaling work.

And I really guide my clients with this about looking at what were the stories that you were told from when you were really young and give yourself permission to rewrite them because you have the power to write them. They don't have to be the same now that you're an adult, now that you're an entrepreneur, you can rewrite the rules however you want them to be. And it's not like a one and done process. I think a lot of it's saying that like, oh, we just journal about it. And then now our wealth mindset is great and we can just move on.

It comes up for me even now that I've built up investments and I'm bringing in money through my business at different levels, different things come up. And so it's not something that's ever gonna be not to burst anyone's bubble, but it's not gonna be this one and done thing. It is a process. But once you get to the next level with the way that you think about yourself as a wealthy woman, it's not like you're gonna be going back. It's just new things are gonna kind of come up.

So you're always going to be going forward and moving forward through this process. But definitely with female entrepreneurs, I really want to stress that we can't be scared to use our voice. And you can even, you can write it, you can use video, whatever the way is that feels the best for you, but we can't be inhibited by getting our work out into the world. We have to do that in more of a bold manner. And I think with divine feminine leaders, we really have to look at within what does being a leader look like to us, which again can be really challenging with the way that society has sort of integrated, I think conditioned us to think of a leader as a certain way, but you can be a leader in a way that makes the most sense to you.

You really have to look at that. And again, you can rewrite that story for yourself, rewrite that narrative. So for me with Wealth Mindset and Bringing in Money, it really is about rewriting. Rewriting that story, paying attention to the stories that come up and telling yourself a new story around it and just continue to move forward and continue to really, like I said, use your voice and don't be afraid to share the work that you have to give. I think that we think that it has to be the certain cookie cutter way and it doesn't.

The sky's the limit, especially with what's happening with the online space and still as women, we feel like we have to do it in the way that everyone else is doing it and we don't. We really have to release that. You can bring in money however you want to bring in money. I was talking to an entrepreneur, a female entrepreneur a couple of weeks ago, and she really wanted to focus on blogging and writing because that's what she felt passionate about. But she said immediately, well, that's not going to set me up to be a leader and authority.

And it's like, according to who you can decide what that looks like for you. It's like the sky is really the limit. And so however you want to bring this money into you, into your business, it is up to you to decide that, but you have to be confident and bold in the way that you do that and not, again, block that receiving, which is so common. And so I really invite women to really look at that within their business and just look at the way that money is coming in. I notice a lot with women, they can bring in money really easily through their spouse, their significant other, because they're kind of this path of least resistance.

But they have so much resistance within their business. And you really have to think of it as this open channel to let the flood gates come in and let it come in the way that it's supposed to in creating offers and services that really are unique to you and speak to you. And I really want to stress that with women because I think, again, we're really trying to put ourselves into this box and we really have to just open up the box.

Jennifer Norman: Yeah. I think part of it too is because you've gotten to a certain place in your career perhaps before you get to that place of burnout. You've been making a lot of money. You've been considered very successful. And so I think that people get to a certain place and they've become expert.

And then becoming a student and starting from scratch again, is super, super tough. And it's hard for folks to really feel that they should be spending so much time, however much time it takes to become an expert and to retrain themselves into saying, oh yeah, I can make a living out of this. It might take five years and do they have that time? And so I think that people start questioning themselves right out of the floodgate and that creates that resistance that you're talking about. Whereas just enjoying it, loving what you're doing, just feeling fully you in what you're doing and not worrying so much about the income.

A lot of people are like, well, that's easier said than done and I can't make the rent or what have you. And so, yeah, those are the things that are always going to be stumbling blocks. In speaking to some other folks, that might be an occasion where, yeah, maybe you have to get a part-time job or do something else to make ends meet and think of that as your own investment banker. It's like, kind of like, okay, I'm going to do this. That'll be like my waiting tables until I can get that big role as an actor or an actress, but it's going to help me at least make ends meet if you need to do that because of course we all have to live and survive and there's bills to pay and kids mouths to feed and things like that.

So there is a certain level of responsibility, yes, that I think a lot of us feel which hinders our ability to really throw ourselves into soulfulpreneurship with Augusto that I think that they wish that they could have.

Nadia Bernardy: Yes. And I think in the entrepreneur space, in the online space, it really is kind of celebrated. So quit your nine to five job and all of them start making all this money. I personally believe in transitioning, I transitioned and it was really beautiful because I remember when I first started sharing my offers and things, I ended up getting this beautiful raise and a bonus when we were told that we weren't going to be getting a raise and a bonus that year. And I remember thinking like, I'm trying to move into this business.

Why am I making money, manifesting this money through my job? But it was the path of least resistance. And I really looked at my job as the bank for my business. It was helping me to put more money into the work that I was really being called to do. And so I think that if we think about it a little bit differently and take the pressure off of having to quit our nine to five job right away, you can 100% transition.

I think it's a lot easier on our nervous system, especially as women, that we have that foundation, But think about how can your work help your business? To be honest, a lot of my earlier clients were my old colleagues from Airbnb. Wow, like that. They felt that transition. They wanted to get something new.

And just be open to that. You don't know how your job is gonna serve you, especially if you feel like right now it's really not what you want to be doing. And you're like, why am I doing this work? I feel called towards this. Think of it a little bit differently.

Think about your work as how can it help you with what you're moving into? Because even if you're not happy with your work, it doesn't mean that it can't still support you in another beautiful way. It really is about the way you think about it. Have to shift that thinking. And so yeah, my work with Airbnb really kind of seamlessly helped me elevate me into the work that I'm doing now.

And I think that a lot of us feel like, like I said, that pressure to just walk away immediately, but you don't have to do it that way. There's, there's other options. There's other ways to transition to entrepreneurship for sure.

Jennifer Norman: There absolutely is. And I think that one thing that we can all tell ourselves too, is that it doesn't mean, oh, I've got to quit the corporate job. People really can thrive in a corporate job. If that is their calling it, they've got that mindset where they're finding purpose and meaning and value and they love what they're doing in an office. And that is completely okay too.

As long as you feel fully expressed and that you can be yourself and there's joy and that is amazing. And then that is beautiful too. And for others who wish to transition out and do something different and maybe call themselves the leaders of their own household, of their own lifestyle, then that is a beautiful thing too. But the trick is to really know, isn't it? It's to really know that this is what I am tapping into and I can leverage my superpower in what I'm doing.

How do you think people can really discover their superpower that can drive them forward, Nadia?

Nadia Bernardy: That's a beautiful question. I know it took me a while to connect to my superpower. It's usually very, it's so obvious to us, but also it comes so natural that it's obvious, but we don't necessarily see it that way. And so it's the thing that really lights you up, that maybe it doesn't really resonate with anyone else, it just resonates to you.

And so I really think it's about looking at the daily things that you do, that you're drawn to, like your superpower is in with that. For me, my superpower is ideation. I can come up with ideas for days of different businesses and programs and things of that nature. And I see it a lot in women where they have this superpower of being able to teach, of being able to lead, and use their voice, but they don't think that that's them. And so it's really about paying attention to the little things that you do every single day that are consistent, that seem, like I said, kind of obvious, but you're not really paying attention to it because it's just so natural to you.

So it's usually in the things that you're not really thinking that deeply about. It's not something that you feel like you have to go and learn. I think we love as entrepreneurs to learn and to grow and to always evolve. It's not that thing that you're trying to learn. It's a thing that you already know.

And so again, just really look at What are the things that you're doing every single day that just come so natural and really tap into that because that really is your superpower.

Jennifer Norman: Now, the subtitle for your book is How to Unlock Your Potential and Find Your True Calling...in 21 Days. I know that there's a lot of magic around 21 days. Can you share that with everyone?

Nadia Bernardy: Yes. And so it takes 21 days to really form a habit. When you do something every day for 21 days, I really invite the reader to really look at that dream. And it could be a dream that you haven't taken action on yet, or for a lot of us, I've started to know this, it's a dream that you have taken an action on, but you put it on the back burner. Maybe it was something that you were working on 10 years ago, five years ago, a year ago, but it's still tapping you on the shoulder.

It's about really focusing on taking action in that dream every single day for 21 days to bring it to life, to bring it from it's in your head. It's just sitting there and you're just, you know, you know, you want to take action on it, but you're not. Because the thing about it is the time is passing by anyway. It's going to be 21 days and 21 days and 21 days, but you can decide to start those 21 days whenever you want. It doesn't even have to be the first of the month. It can be on the 10th, the 11th, and just give yourself that time and that grace. And one of the concepts I talk about in my book, because I know a lot of women struggle with this, is this idea of your creative windows of time.

We have to stop telling ourselves that we don't have enough time and start focusing on these creative windows of time. And so they're going to pop up in different ways throughout your day. It's going to be you had this errand to run, but then someone else is able to do it for you. And so you have this creative window of time to focus on your dream, or you were supposed to have this meeting and the meeting got canceled. And so now you have this creative window of time.

It might not be this, you know, four hour stretch, this time that you really feel like is so apparent to you, it's going to be kind of fit into your day. And I really focus on emphasizing this in the book because the more you focus on your creative windows of time, this is something that I've done with myself and with my clients, the windows start to open up even more. The more you focus on it, the more it starts to expand. So right now, if you feel like you don't have enough time, it's because you're so fixated on that and you have to really reframe it and start focusing on the fact that you have all this time. It's going to be different for all of us how our schedules start to open up, but it is going to open up for you. And so I really emphasize this throughout the book of every day, throughout these 21 days, we're focusing on taking action on the stream. We're not missing a day. We're doing what we can.

We're doing what is that next step for us in this creative window of time. And by the end of it, your time, like for me, with my schedule, I've been creating my own schedule for the last three going on four years. You know, I've managed my days the way that I want it to do to be. But I started this when I did have a nine to five job, when I did have, you know, meetings scheduled and things of that nature. But I still focus on the fact that that time is mine.

It's for me to be able to bring this idea to life because I wouldn't have the idea if I wasn't supposed to manifest it. And so you can't say, well, I have this dream, but I don't have time. It's like, no, the dream, there is going to be time for the dream because you wouldn't have the dream if there wasn't the time to make it come to life. And so I really talk about that a lot in the book that really needs to focus on the fact that we can design our lives the way that we want to. It does, yes, take time, which is why I focus on the 21 days, because after 21 days, you can focus on the next 21 days, the next 21 days, build it up on one another.

But once you start really focusing on this concept, it will help you to eventually shift into the way that you want your schedule in your life to be so that you can bring the strength to life, whatever that is.

Jennifer Norman: I also think that, you know, surrounding ourselves with positivity, with can-do attitudes, with optimism is important. There is this awesome coach, Toni Jones, who came up with Affirmations For the Grown Ass Woman. I definitely recommend anybody like listen to that on Spotify because it's not only hilarious, but it just gives you that rap sensation of like, yeah, I can do it. It's like, let this be your motivation. Let other women help support you and bring you up.

If you've got naysayers in your life, if you've got people who are telling you otherwise, do what you can to limit your involvement with them, because that kind of attitude is not what empowerment is. It's like, let your life be a reflection of your inner being and let your inner being project out and manifest your dream life. And so we are here to say that there is this way, there is that light. And having coaches such as Nadia come is so helpful because a lot of times We can't see ourselves. It's really hard to have self-awareness if you're not getting some feedback on, did you know you're really good at that? Oh, did you know that you have this habit of like stopping yourself or putting yourself down? It's really good to have a coach come in or a therapist, somebody that is on your side who can objectively give you what's up, what they see in you, and can have this conversation and have the intuition to know and to be able to communicate back to you what you may be knowing already, but just there might be some cobwebs, some things in the way that prevent you from really crystallizing and galvanizing in the purpose of, oh my gosh, you're right.

This is it. So yeah, I definitely always encourage folks to, I do have a number of wonderful, amazing human beings on my show. And you may find specific resonance to any of them. If you specifically resonate with what Nadia is saying with you today, then I encourage you to look her up. I'm putting all of her information in your share notes.

Take a look at her book, give her a shout out and see what she's about because she could be super, super beneficial in you helping you get to that next stage of your manifestation that you wish to in order to make your dream life a reality. Nadia, I want to thank you so much for sharing all of your background, your experience, and what you're doing to help people reach that next phase of their lives today. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.

Nadia Bernardy: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you for the work that you're doing as well. I think it's absolutely amazing. And it's been my honor to be on your show today to connect with your community. And I really appreciate your time.

Jennifer Norman: Yeah, this is how I serve. And this is how I get my joy. And I feel truly, truly whole when I have these conversations. So thank you.

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