Ep 90: How Coaching Helped Maria Reclaim Her Life

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In this inspiring conversation with entrepreneur Maria Islas, we dive deep into her incredible transformation from depression and staying in bed until 1 PM to successfully managing the multiple businesses she already owned as a mom of four. Maria openly shares how ADHD coaching helped her move from feeling "good for nothing" to confidently managing her existing trucking companies and real estate investments while handling family life and rheumatoid arthritis.

📌 Key Topics:

• Moving from depression and bed-bound days to productive morning routines
• Why breaking down "simple" tasks like brushing teeth into calendar reminders actually works
• Using color-coding systems to manage comfort zone vs. challenging activities
• The power of Post-it note reminders (and handling kids' teasing about them)
• Building accountability systems that motivate rather than shame
• Creating sustainable routines that support both mental health and business management
• The importance of faith and community in maintaining motivation

🗣️ Featured Quote: "It's those simple things that people think that everybody else is just doing it. Not everybody. There's people like me, there's people like Maria, there's people like lots of my clients... and they're struggling with just simple things."

💡 Strategy Breakdown:

• Put everything on your calendar, including basic self-care tasks
• Use the "Yay Me" celebration practice to acknowledge daily wins
• Create morning and evening routines that become automatic
• Implement twice-weekly coaching calls for consistent accountability
• Practice "review, revise, and recommit" when setbacks occur
• Color-code calendar items: red for out-of-comfort-zone activities, green for familiar tasks

🎯 Coming Up Next: Join us for more ADHD-friendly business and life management strategies to help you thrive as an entrepreneur.

🔑 Key Takeaway: With ADHD, you can successfully manage multiple businesses and family responsibilities when you have the right systems, accountability, and support. Small, consistent actions build into life-changing transformations.

Connect with Mandy: Learn more about private coaching: https://learntothrivewithadhd.com/services/ Free Resources: https://learntothrivewithadhd.com/freeresources/ Website: https://www.learntothrivewithadhd.com/ LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/learntothrivewithadhd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learntothrivewithadhd/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learntothrivewithadhd/

#adhd #adhdentrepreneur #adhdmom #depression #routine #timemanagement #adhdsuccess #accountability #businessowner #adhdstrategies #executivefunction #mompreneur #adhdsupport #mentalhealth

Click here for full show notes.

CLICK HERE for more resources. We're on this journey together!

Transcript

All right. Welcome back guys. Today I have Maria Isla. Did I say that right? Yes, you did. Okay. And Maria and I have been working together. I'm not sure exactly how long. I wanna say maybe like six months. Is that right? I think it's about right. Maria is a client of mine and she is an amazing business woman.

she has a trucking company. She has more than one trucking company actually. And then she has rentals that she does. And then you have, not only that, but Maria's just very, always interested in the next thing. Like you've dug into kind of the stock market and taught your kids about it.

you were in cryptocurrency, you've just done all kinds of interesting things as far as you know, professional life. But also Maria is a mom. And I'll have you go ahead and introduce yourself what did I miss in your business profile? And then tell us about you, just you as a person.

Okay. Well, again, my name is Maria Isla and I always introduce myself as an entrepreneur, because I do little different things here and there, and I have different streams of income coming in, which is amazing at this point in my life. I do, like Mandy said, I do trucking, I do dispatch for truckers.

I do, real estate, buy and hold properties, and rent them out and go through the whole, three Ts of property management, which is. Dealing with tenants, toilets and termite. I've never heard of that. Heard that before. There's other, there's other three Ts that are more, more favorable, 

And I am a mom of four kids and the oldest being 21 and the youngest being 10. And we do live in a place where we have chickens and goats, so we have to deal with animals and dogs. And we are always busy doing something. There's always, yeah. Not a quiet moment in our household, so always. So we are really busy, keeping ourselves busy in the industry.

the trucking business keeps me and my tippy toes. and then as, as you mentioned, we looked into cryptocurrency as well. We, we have some investments there. We are learning about. S as as we speak as well. And yeah, Maria and I together are learning about REITs. Actually, it was funny because Maria had texted me and said something about REITs and I told you, oh, I've been, I've been wanting to look into REITs, and so I actually finished my book today.

I. And I was gonna tell you what I learned from that, but, we just had a meeting yesterday where we just talked about what we knew and what we wanted to learn and all of that. So that was, that's off the book. So that's not client to coach. That's just friend to friend, Which is really cool.

Yeah. And yeah, and that's, just, I consider myself well-rounded. We do love to go to church on Sundays as well. Mm-hmm. That's, that's sums about it. What, what Maria is, and a good friend and a good family member and all the things. Right. Thank you. You like to get involved in your community and your, with business?

I also go to, once a month we meet with the Spanish community of business ladies, entrepreneurs. So we have a luncheon that we do every month, and it's through the UNR extension program. It's with the Latin Chamber of Commerce and, the UNR extension program.

So it's really good classes that they give out once a month. Different subjects, Maria has a lot of irons in the fire. there's a lot of things going on as an entrepreneur, A lot of different moving parts along with taking care of yourself.

There's, making sure you're eating right and getting exercise. And that's basically what I'm doing as a coach is helping Maria to manage all of these different moving parts and reminding Maria about the one that might've been forgotten about. And so we kind of pull that in.

And, I do know several times in our work together, we've gotten everything going. I talk about spinning plates. We've gotten all the plates spinning, and then I'm like, are you having any fun? are you making sure you're having fun? Or how are you taking care of yourself?

Or, and so I'm always like bringing in that, that other aspect that the client might be forgetting about because we're, we're always working on the to-do list, right. One thing that. You're just amazing that you did this in such a short period of time. You opened another trucking business like from A to Z.

So I think all you needed to do was get the logos on. Yes, we got the logos on and they look really nice and, I'm glad we finally got to it. So I'm looking forward to doing our, our merch with the logo on it, our t-shirts and hats.

So we're gonna work on that next. Very fun. And this is something that you helped your, your second child get together, right? Yes. My second, he's already 19, he's already in the trucking business. He's already got certified as a mechanic. Now he's getting his CDL in progress to actually drive the jump trucks.

Yeah. My 22-year-old just got his CDL, Wow. What a coincidence. Right. But when Maria first came to me, I know like you were, you were really down when you first came to me. Do you remember that? Oh yeah. I was in. I was in, depression mode where I didn't wanna get up and do anything. I was, not doing good.

it was really rough when I first met you, because I remember going through the internet. I actually went through YouTube and I found you through YouTube, through the classes that you offer I was listening to the free information that you were, you were giving and and being, I'm not diagnosed with HD or ad.

HII, I get confused with the initials A, T, D and D and I forget a DH, adhd. Yeah, there you go. I'm self-diagnosed, I was depressed. I was under my covers. I was under not wanting to do anything, I only did what was mostly important, 

I didn't really do much as far as planning ahead, getting my schedule done. I was a wreck before I met you 

I remember I was, Just under a rut. I remember I told you I was in a rut myself. Like I couldn't get out of my, my in, in the head that I couldn't do anything.

And then I was just like, I'm good for nothing. And I would like tell me myself all these negative, negative, things to myself and put myself even down more. But then I start Listening to the YouTube videos and different conversations you had, then you, you always mention, talk to me one-on-one and we can work on one-on-one 

So I thought maybe if I get a class or a session, I'll get myself up and going and give myself a push to become. Better in what I'm doing in my own private life, in my own business life, because I had the businesses going already and I have an assistant, right? And I have, my kids helping me, my 21-year-old helping me, my 19-year-old helping me.

So I figured why not take a chance and get a session with Mandy and see how she can help me, because that was a wreck I had. I remember I had a paper calendar That I would always forget to take with me when I needed to write something on there. Like I actually had to write things in there, get so, so I can get things done.

And then you showed me how to transfer my paper calendar to.

My Google calendar on my phone, my phone's with me all the time, but now it's always with me. I schedule everything on my calendar. I am able to look at it. I'm able to do the tasks on Google Calendar tasks, and it's just been a game changer. It's been a game changer where, yeah, sometimes because I have rheumatoid arthritis, my body just tells me to shut down and just relax, and I'm able 

to run my businesses in a better, in a better state of mind, if that makes sense. sometimes with my rheumatoid arthritis, my body wants to shut down and just be in bed because I'm hurting.

My joints are all hurting and I, my hands cramped sometimes. And. I have to, my body just has to lay down and yeah, and relax. I can't really be doing anything because I got pain and the medication that I get, it's not really, helpful with when I'm hurting. All I just need to do is just stay down, relax.

And just use my phone or my laptop on bed and then just get the things that I need to get done through my assistant and so forth. Yeah. But, yeah, I've come a long ways since we first met you. Have, you have one of, I remember our first goals were just getting you outta bed. That's right. That's all it was.

I take my kids to school in the mornings. the first one in the morning, it's at five 50 in the morning. I have to take her to the bus stop, then I come back right straight to bed 'cause it's a responsibility and it's like it triggers me to get up and go do something.

'cause I need to take her to the bus stop. Then my second kid gets in school at seven 20, so I drop him off. But then after that I was like. I wanted to go for walks, go for, a stroll around the community or go to the gym. But in the beginning it was just, I would just stay in bed and it would be one o'clock in the afternoon and I'd still be in bed.

Yeah, and we only moved it back to let's get outta bed at by noon or 1230 or something like that. And then we'd move it back a little bit and a little bit, and then we went into routines that would make you feel better. And one of those was your morning routine. And do you remember that?

I had to, oh yes. Put the Post-it on your mirror. Yes. Like little things like, okay, Maria, wake up, get up, brush your teeth, brush your hair. Dress up for the day. it was little things that just a normal person, I guess, would do automatically, but being, coming out from depression, coming out from things that had happened to me and I didn't wanna

get out of the shell, I guess, but it was just those little things that would help me look forward to doing. And it came to a point where I just do them automatically that I don't need the reminder anymore. Yeah, I do remember it was funny about that reminder though. But I mean, one, you were thinking I shouldn't have to put these things down.

And I'm like, trust me. Right. Trust me. You do. I have to. Everybody has to when they're doing this work. And the other thing was you're, you said my kids are gonna make fun of me about the Post-It on the mirror. And they did say something, didn't they? 

The kids were like, mom, why do you have reminders for simple things like you're not a kid anymore. And 'cause I used to have them for them when they were younger.

And then we would check off, we would put a check a little sticker. On each ones that they did in the mornings. Yeah. And it was like, why if you're not a kid anymore, mom, why do you have those on there? But it was embarrassing, but it got me to where I'm to point now where I don't need to have those reminders.

Yeah. And I think that's so important for people to hear because there, there is that person out there that's. That's thinking, I shouldn't have to do that. I shouldn't have to have these reminders for myself. But we all do. We all need them at first. Right. Until we, we really get going. 

It's those simple things that people think that everybody else is just doing it. Not everybody.

There's people like me, there's people like Maria, there's people like lots of my clients and lots of people that watch the YouTube videos and listen to the podcast, and they're struggling with just simple things and we tell ourselves, oh, I should be able to do this. Everybody else is doing this. Well, it's not true.

There are people just like you out there, and Maria doesn't have to have those reminders anymore, Something new might come along where we need to start reminders on something else. And now you probably wouldn't even think twice. You'd just do it. Right. Well, those little things that we have, don't get me wrong.

I'm using the calendar and at the beginning I felt overwhelmed if I would put everything that I do in the mornings. even my sleep time. I put it on my calendar. In the beginning it was overwhelming, but now it's like, okay, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is, how much time I have in the day to do different things.

I don't put the small things like brush my teeth, brush my hair. It's just like my morning routine. I just label it morning routine, night routine. take the kids to the bus, sleep time. And then everything in between that I need to get done for work, is on my calendar and it's color coded.

So whenever I see a red item on my calendar, it means that I have to go out. Of my comfort zone and drive somewhere else to a meeting, to an appointment. Just the fact that I need to go out of the house and everything in green is green light. I'm used to it. I'm comfortable with interesting that I'm doing at home or in my home office.

My home office is only like 10 steps away from my actual room, so I'm fortunate enough to have. a office in the back of my house where I don't have to drive out and deal with traffic I have my assistant come three times a week now, where before she was five days, then it came down to four days.

Now it's three 'cause now I have a consistency of. Of doing things. Yeah. That. I don't need her all the time. That's amazing. And I love your calendar. that you put things on your calendar that way. And that you did that for yourself, where it's like the things within your comfort zone and the things out of your comfort zone.

That's very smart. I was working with another client where I was. Doing the same thing. I'm like, let's put, for example, I have, I'm looking my calendar's right in front of me for some reason. I have Zoom in another window, but right in front of me it says, get ready.

30 minutes clean. 30 minutes. That's in the morning. the first thing in the morning is getting the kids doing their project. 'cause they each have a morning project that they're doing. And then I plan my day during that time, before getting ready and before cleaning.

But that's all my morning block. and that's on my calendar. And whoever I was working with. She was saying, I shouldn't have to put those things on my calendar. And I'm like, well, I do. And I shared my screen and I showed her my calendar and you go later in the day and it's like, okay, Jim. tonight's supposed to be date night.

I even have what I'm supposed to, take a shower or a bath and I put all those things on the calendar. Maria puts those things on the calendar. she doesn't break it down and neither do I, right. It's like, get ready, but We don't break it down to like brush teeth.

But you could. If that helps you then do it. I just want to really normalize for people that it's okay to do that. And without that, for me, even though I'm years into doing time management this way, for me, having that there, it just kind of settles my brain to go, okay, what's next? Okay, this is next.

And if I didn't have that visual reminder. I think I would struggle in the morning. I would not get ready and then clean and then, you know, I might skip things, I might do things out of order. I might add other things in there. It just really helps me to settle and calm down and be aware of what my intentions were for the day.

What does it do for you? it works for me because it keeps me on my toes as to what's next on my calendar. What's next that I'm gonna do? Because if I didn't have a calendar and I leave it in limbo, it either doesn't get done or I just don't do it because it's not there consistently helping me if I don't write it down.

Yeah. I remember when I first met Juan, this is years ago. We've been together over 20 years. He would tell me, Maria, write the things down that you need to get done and it'll help you. And I would ignore him. But then when they came, see, like 20 years later, I'm listening to you telling me to write things down on my calendar.

as little as brushing your teeth, doing your hair. Like I said, now I don't have them that detailed. I just have morning routine and then I know what to do. it started off that way where I had to literally write one thing at a time, like let little kid to just start the consistency role and doing what I need to get done.

Yeah. it helps. I don't know if there's a lot of other people like us out there, It does help by writing it down and putting in a calendar and having a little reminder to get it done, whereas I'm sure there's people that don't have a DHD, did I say that?

Yeah. You got it. Yeah. And, they're successful in, in whatever they're doing, but with those type of people. We gotta have it written down. I think of my husband and there's no list, right? There's no, there's no nothing.he just knows what's next. And I would say that for the most part, that works.

But I would say for like projects around the house, unless there's a list. He tells me there needs to be a list. And so I keep a list on the fridge and without that list, he struggles to get those things done. But for work and for, personal stuff, he knows. He just knows what's next. And so I think that's an important difference to point out there.

I'm so glad you said that because if your brain is just one that doesn't know what's next, that's okay. You just need to support yourself with tools, and I think we said that we've been working together for six months. Do you know it took me two years to do what you do. Oh, wow. Two years of me going back to my coaches at the time, and they weren't specific A DHD coaches, they were just, you know, or regular life coaches.

And just going back to them and going, I'm trying to manage my time. I'm not looking at my calendar, it's not working they would support me through that, but because. They didn't have and they were helping me, but because it wasn't a DHD specific, I don't think they knew like the small little things to help me.

Like they never thought to say, put everything on your calendar. And that's what helped me. I heard a psychologist say, you can't be mentally healthy without routine. And when I heard that, I was like. Oh, do I have routines? And the reason I'm bringing all this up is because what I struggled with, I was able to go, okay, I see all the obstacles, I see all the shortcuts, I see what works and what doesn't work, and I'm able to go to somebody like Maria and go, here's what I learned.

And we're able to get it done in six months instead of two years. Which is really good. I like the way you say, routines. Creating routines help us so. Without routines, we're not gonna go anywhere. and what it did for me when he said, you can't be mentally healthy without routine, and I've had a lot of, not mentally healthy in my life, trust me.

A lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, a lot of, and I think those of us with a DHD, a lot of us are dealing with that. Mm-hmm. And so if you're out there and you think that you're alone, you're not. It's by virtue of. Oh gosh. I mean, there's so many reasons we, you know, we tend to have those comorbidities of anxiety and depression and things like that.

But setting those routines is what helped calm my mind. Is what helped me go, okay, for these blocks of time, for my morning routine, for my evening routine, for my workout routine or my, you know, not just workout, but within my gym time is also because we own the gym.

There's responsibilities there within that time. I know when those are, I know exactly what's happening within those times. I don't have to worry about those anymore. I can just put 'em on my calendar and put 'em on repeat and just. Wash and repeat every day and just keep doing the same thing. 

I remember when people used to tell me about routine, I was like, ah, I mean, I like to just kind of do what I wanna do. I don't wanna be held down. I don't want, you know, I, I just wanna do what I feel like doing at that time. And that just got me nowhere really, because I wasn't being intentional with my time.

How do you feel about that? 

the routine part of it. It's, it's part of getting, getting ourselves together. Mm-hmm. And when we mention that we need to write down every single thing that we do in the beginning, it's gonna help us. Even, even when you wake up and you, you, if you meditate or you pray, it makes a big difference. When you do it and when you don't do it.

I really thank God a lot because he's really got me out of this rut with the help of Mandy, and having it written down in the first few months where I had to see it. Meditate, pray. And then do my thing that I do in the mornings, brush your teeth, take a shower or whatnot.

it helps a lot because it aligns your faith with what you're doing in, in work and life and, and general. So it's, I don't wanna cry because when I do it, it gets really sentiment.

But having someone to help you out in getting your lives straightened out, it's really helpful. You're gonna make me cry, but I do wanna bring up what you brought up there about your faith. That was actually one of our goals that we were working on. You remember that it was, you were struggling to get to church.

And that was something that you really wanted for yourself, and so we put into place, you know, okay. Maria's used to me always asking, I do this with all my clients. Okay. When. When are we gonna do that? And how are we gonna help? how are we gonna support ourselves with that? And you were gonna support yourself by telling the kids that you were going and you were gonna make sure that you had the clothes.

And that was an obstacle, was having the clothes to go to church and mm-hmm. There was some mind management around going to church as far as you know, other, other parts of it. I won't go into detail for privacy reasons, but, there was some other obstacles and you got past all of those obstacles 

it's made a difference in your family, right? Yes, it has. It, it has where we get together on Sundays and it's just a big difference. It's a different environment. It's a different, when you just give thanks to God and, and give him all the glory that He's deserves, our life is gonna be so much easier to be because, you know, there's faith that goes into it.

It helps with, believe it or not, it helps with anxiety, it helps with depression, it helps with, it just lifts your spirit in a different way. Yeah. Than just living at a different, in a different situation where you don't have a belief. I mean, if you believe in the higher power, if you believe in, Jesus and God and whatnot. it just makes a big difference 'cause now you have a, like a layout of how your life is going to be lived so that you can do other things here on earth and, and be successful. and isn't it amazing, it's not that you didn't have faith when you weren't going to church, right?

It's just that you didn't have the action of going to church. You didn't have the community. Of the church. you weren't seeing the people. there was something missing there. You had the faith the whole time. Right. But you felt better when you were actually attending and getting there.

Yes. it's a whole different ballgame. And if people understand that if you have a community or a family and church, it is completely different than not having it. And it's helped me with my kids in keeping them going the right direction that I want them to go because we can lead them with just telling them things to do.

But once we put them into action, it's a whole different leadership. Yeah. Once you, you put into action what you're, you said you're gonna do, and that's what. What your program has helped me do, actually do what I say I'm gonna do and get it done, and it's, and then just keep going, keep going and, and, and getting things done.

And it's a good feeling to feel accomplished and making, making better decisions. Yeah. And you mentioned action there, and I, I love that you mentioned that because what do we do every week? I take your notes, and then at the bottom we have action items, right? 

Usually I only let clients have like three to five items on that action item list, but Maria's can be 10. But it's just because you heard in the beginning, Maria's got so many things going, that your action items just happen to be longer. But then what happens when we come back? You wanna tell people what we do when we come back and just go through the list and, and just.

Just the fact of going through the list and saying, done, done, done. Or that's gonna get rescheduled for a next day or another day. it's just, very self-fulfilling. believe me, there's times where I'm like, I can't take the call today because I haven't done so much that I said I was gonna do.

And sometimes I'm like, I don't wanna take the call, but I have to talk to. Mandy, but there's times where I'm like, okay, we're on it. We can do this. We've done it. And it just feels, I feel the support that I need. 'cause I can't, how do you say it? I don't have the person that I talk to that holds me accountable for the things that I need to get done on a personal level.

Everybody's busy doing their own thing, I have friends with other businesses that I know are busy doing their things.

Hey, this is where I need to pour out my things that I just need to get out of the way. And some of the items are really hard to get done and really hard to get off that list. And then there's ways that you come up with, let's do this together. Let's work it out this way and see why get to the main point, why you don't wanna get it done, and things like that.

It's been so helpful for me because otherwise I would've been still laying down in bed and just not doing anything. And now it's like I get up and I tell myself what happened to me when I was just. In the depression mode that I didn't wanna get out of bed. It was one in the afternoon and I was still in bed.

But helping, you know, helping to see what things are, things that need to get done, and. Getting to church on Sundays. Now I wanna work into getting to church during the midweek service. See if I can do that. Good to know. That's, that's a good commitment there. We'll get that on your goal list there. I just did it.

what Maria was describing there is I'm always thinking, so I just to let you guys know how we meet Maria and I. There's different ways I meet with clients. There's two different ways, but Maria and I happen to meet 30 minutes twice a week.

And what you're describing there of not wanting to show up because you didn't do your things on the list. We all experience that. And like I have coaches myself I didn't know that you were struggling with this the first time I heard it.

One thing I worked with another client on that was struggling with that is I said, all you have to do is show up. That's it. If you show up, I guarantee you, you will get what you need from every single phone call. You'll get some sort of nugget, you'll get some sort of motivation.

You'll get something that will help you if you just show up, and she was so proud of herself. She started showing up and then she started getting things done. And then she moved to a whiteboard and then she did this other thing and she would just, she just did so good. And I was like, see, all you have to do is show up.

that's all you have to do. And so I'll offer you that, Maria, you've obviously worked through it on your own 'cause you show up anyway. but let's talk about that accountability because. That is a big piece of what I do besides the mind management, like Maria had mentioned, some things are really hard to do and we discovered your reasons why some of those things were hard to do.

There was a big emotion behind that thing, and that's why you were struggling to get it done and we didn't uncover it. Immediately it took time, right? But once we did uncover it, it's like, of course, of course it's taken this long to get this done because you were feeling this way, like anybody that was feeling that way.

And you had good reason for feeling that way, and just normalizing it as a human. That you're gonna have these big emotions and you just didn't know that that big emotion was behind that task and that's why you were struggling to get it done. But what Maria's describing as far as I come up with things is I'll be thinking about my clients between sessions and I'll be thinking about like challenges they're having or things that they're struggling with.

And I got on, I think WhatsApp and because I have Maria on WhatsApp. And I have her on text too, but I think I got on WhatsApp and I was like, Hey, what do you think if we take our session and you get in your car and you go to this appointment that you've been struggling to go to, and I think you got really nervous, but you, you agreed.

You're like, okay. And what happened instead is, yeah, I remember. 

I still remember that like if it was yesterday that you were going to be there with me to go to this one appointment and I actually ended up going without you. Yeah. So when I got the call, I gave you the surprise that I already done it.

Yeah. And it was this thing you were so worried about, and you were worried about the outcome. And I knew, I knew the outcome was gonna be way better than you thought, but you didn't know. and the lady was so nice and she helped you, and she like, went out of her way, to give you tips on how to make it better.

And, but yeah, Maria surprised me and had it all done before we even got on the call.

Another thing about accountability is what happens when you don't get those things done? You have your list of things to get done, but what happens when you don't get them done?

When I don't get them done, it just goes on and recommit. Yeah, and Just tell myself, I'm gonna recommit in doing this and getting it done on a certain day or time, but give myself that day. not leave it out in limbo. Give myself, you know, if it's a Thursday, I would say, well, we can get it done next Monday, Tuesday at the latest.

I retrained it to say, I'm gonna recommit. what Maria's talking about there is, I have on my whiteboard here it says, review, revise, and recommit. And Maria has really grabbed a hold of the recommit part because every time there's a challenge, and sometimes it's not even something on the action item list.

Sometimes it's something that you've had going, Maria's. one of the goals is to get a certain amount of steps every day, in getting that exercise, which has gotten your blood sugar down as well as getting to the gym. You've been doing really good with that. but when those things come up, you'll say, I need to recommit to that.

Yeah. I've been working a lot on that. even with, because you hold me accountable for My health it is one of my reasons why I'm with you too. to get my sugar levels down, walking every day, checking my glucose levels. Not every day, but every other day I'm doing it.

and it's a commitment that I need to get done so my health gets better and. Without the accountability, I don't think I would get it done. Yeah. That leads me to our Yay Me group. You wanna talk about that? Let's talk about that. so I started a WhatsApp group with several of my clients actually, and it's called Yay Me.

And what I've noticed, especially with my female clients, I will say, is. We notice what we don't get done more than we notice, what we do get done and we kind of pick. Some days it's, it's something small. Some days it's something big, but we'll pick something to put in that WhatsApp group and say, yay me, I did this.

And my last one that I put in there, it was like I went to this big social event and you guys, I am such an introvert. Please just leave me in my house with a book or a Lego set or something like that, I love working with my clients. That's like my outlet, but as far as put me in a public setting, that was really crowded, by the way, with a bunch of people in my community and it was wonderful.

I and I talked to so many interesting and fun people and I loved it, but it's so out of my comfort zone. I, that's where I, I really grabbed onto Maria talking about things in her comfort zone and out of her comfort zone on the calendar, because I was thinking as you were saying that, of all the things that are out of my comfort zone.

but yeah, that's, that was my last yay. Me. And then we'd like encourage each other. what was your last, yay. I don't remember. If you want to share, you don't have to. Yeah. My yay is, was checking my glucose levels. That's right. That's what we're working on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

I don't remember the other one. There was something else. Yeah. That you did. I don't remember what it was either. Yeah. But yeah, we get on there and we do that and encourage each other and it's just that little thing where you're. And I encourage those of you that are watching or listening to do that as well.

I used to do this when my kids were little. This is a great example. When my kids were little, my husband would get home and at the end of the day I would say, they did this and they did that. And they're so cute and they said this and they did that. And I would just give him this rundown about how all the wonderful things that they did, right?

Yeah. And I thought, why don't we do that for ourselves as adults? why don't we do that for us? nobody's that mom. Talking about their kids anymore. We're not the little kids, right. And so we have to do it for us and we have to go look at me. I did this and I did this and I did this. And it was also wonderful.

And like I said, sometimes it's big stuff, sometimes it's little stuff. I don't know what mine I'll be for today. It might be recording this podcast. I don't know. We'll see. But today's, checking, yours is gonna be checking your glucose if you haven't already. Right. Right. Yeah. What, so there's other entrepreneurs out there watching and they're, they're looking at you and, and their lives might be similar to yours.

What would you say to them? I would say to them if they're struggling and getting themselves accountable and doing things, because we have no set schedule, but if we have someone that can keep us accountable, Mandy does a really good job at keeping us accountable and doing our. Little nitty gritty things that we need to get done.

but yeah, it's the accountability, 

The consistency of meeting with someone either once a week or twice a week like I'm doing, it's a lot twice a week. Mm-hmm. But it keeps me accountable. It keeps me on my toes, it keeps me on a level that I can do more things in my schedule that I thought I couldn't do. I'm more open to new ideas, new things that are coming into my life that I'm like, okay, it is.

If it's time for a change, I'm more flexible in doing a change than when I previously didn't meet with Mandy. it's very rewarding. it feels very rewarding and as to getting things done. Feeling better about myself and getting out of that depression mode, anxiety mode that I used to have.

I mean, it helps you with managing, the depression, managing the anxiety, and just letting it go and telling yourself you're gonna be doing better than what you used to do before. Yeah. It's a new way of looking at life in a different perspective where you can get things done 

Simple things like my room, keeping my room in check, like make my bed, put my clothes away. Little things like that. I know I'm not the only one out there, but Keeping it organized and having my laundry days. My kids have their laundry days scheduled during the week, so everybody has the machine available once a week.

Mm-hmm. And we all do our laundry and I can tell my kids to keep up with their rooms because mine is kept up and it's a whole different ball game. Yeah. you've done really, really amazing. You've made such a turnaround. And of course our goal here is to teach Maria to fish. Of course.

And you are learning the skills, and you're doing such an amazing job with it. But I wanted to say more about that accountability there. It's, it's very much positive accountability. It's never, like Maria mentioned, Sometimes not wanting to come to the call because she didn't have things done.

I know that was a hundred percent in your mind, right? that's because if Maria came to the call and had nothing done, what would happen? I would just say, okay, well when are we gonna do it? Or what's getting in the way? we would either figure out the obstacles, maybe look at it from a different angle.

pull in a different piece or just recommit. Sometimes it's just a matter of like, life was crazy. And so I'm always asking okay, well why didn't it get done and not in a. Why didn't it get done? And then, okay, how can we solve that problem? And then when can we get it done?

Now that we've solved the problem and you got hit with some big stuff, Maria kept getting smacked around by life. Well, we've been working together and hit with some really big bills and some really extreme things happened and I was able to be there. Through this period of time and go, I've seen you fix this before, or You've described how you fixed problems bigger than this before, so I know you can do this.

And I wonder if it's helpful to have that reminder of somebody else looking at the big picture and going. You've solved this problem or something way worse before, so I know you've got this I remember one time there was a problem and I'm like, how would you solve this?

And you just rattled it off. You were like, I would just do this, this, this, and this. then we don't have a problem. You know exactly what you wanna do to solve this. there's no confusion I think part of our work together too has been allowing the emotions Sometimes you're upset about these things, rightly so.

Mm-hmm. And you can have that emotion and you can be upset, but we're still going to move things along where we can. I do take it easier on you weeks like that though. Yeah. it helps a lot to have someone to be able to talk about the situation and know it's gonna stay there. But then the emotional part of it, it's like.

why am I going through this and why? And the questions of why always come up and how am I gonna fix it and how I'm gonna do it. And yes, a lot of times I know how to navigate through it. It's just more that emotional part of it. sometimes we say life is not fair.

And in situations like that, it's just. Getting it done, you know? Yeah. Getting it done and get the process going and, and then figuring it out. And then when you get the results, sometimes the results are much, much easy to accept than what you thought you were gonna get. Yeah. At the end of the day. 

But it helps to have someone to. To express what's going on and what the feelings are behind it, and then just getting it out of the way so that we can get to the results faster when we're working together, it's, I think it's important and I, for those of you, if you go get another coach, like have them do this for you, meeting you where you're at.

So those weeks that. Like, maybe you were exhausted or maybe you were down, or maybe something really challenging was happening. And we would just say what if you could just in your bed, get something done, what would it be? And we would just get a little list of things that you felt like you were capable of at that time.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it helps, it helps a lot. like you said, you're not gonna hold my hand all the, all the. You know, the rest of my life. But there's gonna come a point where I'm gonna have to be responsible enough to know what I gained in all the sessions that we've gone through, and how you work and how you manage through my schedule, and just have it embedded in me where I can do it on my own.

Mm-hmm. and continue growing that way. Yeah. Well, I'm proud of how you don't need me to be proud of you, but I am. Oh, thank you so much. you've grown so far, like you've done so well, and Maria has been one. if you're thinking about coaching, follow Maria as lead and she's shown up anyway. I love that you describe, I've had those too where I'm like, I don't wanna go to this call, or I don't know what I want coached on this time, or like those have been my private experiences 

I don't know why I need coaching today. Today's going so well. those have been some of my thoughts and I just show up anyway and I always get what I need and that has been true for me. So I appreciate that, that came up in our call. 

but I, it's definitely happened for me and still does. Thank you so much for being on. I, I know it's like kind of nerve wracking to do stuff like this, but I appreciate you putting yourself out there and telling your story, and it's gonna help, it's gonna help so many people, I'm sure.

Oh, thank you. Thank you for the invitation. All right, thank you. And we will see you guys next week.