SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to What Would Amber Do with your host, Amber Howard, your weekly dose of guidance, inspiration, and strategies to have your small business and whole life thrive. We bring you incredible guests who share their real life experiences of being an entrepreneur so you can have your whole life work. Now, here's your host, Amber Howard.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Welcome back, everyone, to What Would Amber Do? It's so great to have you with us for this episode this week. It is really my privilege and my honor to be speaking with Maria Diaz today. Maria transitioned from a 17-year career as a mortgage broker to launch her business stand coaching services. Maria empowers women by guiding them out of their own way and into their passion, purpose, and self-expression. Maria is a mom of two amazing young women and most recently has just become a grandmother. Like that's last week, everyone. So congratulations, Maria and your daughter on the birth of Amari. And just thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

It is an honor and a pleasure and a privilege to be on your podcast, Amber, and to know you as my friend, as one of my coaches, as somebody that um has really stood for me in my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah. Maria, so much of the conversations that I've been having with uh, you know, small business owners and entrepreneurs has been about that transition, right? Like most of us started our lives. We didn't start off as entrepreneurs, we started off um working in corporate or working for someone else's businesses. What really had you make the decision to say, you know what, I'm really good at this, I'm successful at it. And it's like there's something else that I want to be doing with my life and my time. Like, what was the catalyst for you making that transition to creating stand coaching services?

SPEAKER_03 2:10

You know, I'm gonna start uh answering that question by saying that it it takes something to transition from a specific industry into something completely different. And what had me, and I and I played with it for a long time. I really want to do coaching, I I love contributing to other people's lives. I already do that in my mortgage business through what I do, but I want to do more. I want to be able to touch and inspire people at a deeper level in a way that will really transform their life moving forward. And and it it actually what stopped me in the beginning for a long time was was the fact that, oh, I know how to make money in mortgages, I don't know how to make money in coaching. Um, I know how to do this here, I don't know how I'm going to create an audience. I don't know how I'm gonna uh uh cost clients, I don't even know what my ideal client is. So that middle ground of you know that that actually had me stuck and had me stopped for a while. And then um what really um shifted things for me was COVID. It's when COVID hit and everything went to a standstill, and I had time to actually reflect on what I really want in my life. And and and had time to really sit with myself and the fact that I had been putting something off that was my life purpose. And and and it just didn't work anymore for me to make excuses and put it off. So I I jumped on it and I said, you know what, I'm just gonna go for it. Um and it was really, really looking at at the things that I was afraid of and and uh and going for it anyways.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

So much of what you said is so powerful, and I'm just really present to what becomes available when we stop looking at the how and we just get clear and and aligned with what our purpose is. It's like, why was I created? Why why am I here? And one of my mentors says regularly, the how is none of our business. And I think like that just stops human beings so much. I don't even once we become entrepreneurs and we're in our own businesses. It's like, oh, I want to create this new product or I want to create this service, and and versus just going for it like you did as a result of the circumstances surrounding the pandemic, we get caught up in in the how of things. So, you know, I really acknowledge you for and not only does it take something, as you said, to transition out of a career where you know success into something where you're like, I don't know what it looks like to be successful as a coach, but to do so during a global pandemic when the world is kind of turned upside down on its end, you know, just speaks to your resilience and your commitment to fulfilling on your purpose.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Thank you. And I do want to add to that question is that another thing that really stops us is the finances, right? Because we want to be responsible with our finances and taking care of our household. I'm a single mom. So for me, um it's it's my income only. So it was really that's another thing that it really tackled with is you know making my um monthly responsibilities and at the same time transitioning into something that I really love where my life purpose lies. So um I would say to anyone out there looking to do that is it's just really um to save, to to um, you know, like I didn't let go of the mortgage business all of a sudden and that was it, it's done. And I still have my license, right? And my past clients from time to time still contact me. So, so it's also being responsible and transitioning, um, and and still uh making sure that your income is there to provide for your necessities as you're building this new business. I just want to also say that that that's also very important because that's something that stops a lot of us is is is the fact that we also have responsibilities in our lives, right? So not letting that fear of you know trusting yourself that you know that you have the capabilities of this new business that you're embarking on because it's your life purpose. It's something that you've been dreaming of. Um and and just asking for support, I would say is really, really valuable in that transition.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, I think the plan, you know, and I I mean I had a loose plan when I transitioned out of corporate, you know, my transition looked like moving from a corporate environment until into you know nine to five contracting positions at first, where I was still had a six to twelve month contract. And uh I definitely think you that is a vital point. Like it doesn't have to look a specific way. And it's important to make sure that you're really grounded, and this is something I talk about with my clients all the time, like that you're grounded in the what's so, the reality, and and you don't allow the what-so of the moment of your present circumstances to dictate what you want and what you want to create for the future, and you leverage it to be able to understand where your gaps are so that you can put us, you know, a plan in place to be able to close those gaps, right? What and I and I think your approach, continuing to do, you know, serve those mortgage clients works because it allows you that flexibility to start transitioning more and more to what it is that you want to be doing with your time while it's still taking care of your of your responsibilities. You know, we're both single moms, and my kids are well not that much older, but a little bit older than yours. Matthew turns 25 next week. It's crazy. I can't even like wrap my head around it some moments. And I know that being a business owner and being a single parent, or being a parent in general, let's just be honest, but definitely being a single parent can can offer a unique set of challenges. How have you dealt with those challenges of your daughters and their needing support as well as you know, being in both of these businesses at the same time?

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Well, um, it has been challenging, and it all has to do, um, you know, having it all work has to do with uh honest and authentic communication. So, you know, I I communicate with my daughters. And the other thing that I do is I communicate to them my purpose of what I'm doing. Why is it important to me? Why is it important to me in my life? And they know who I am, and they know that, you know, in both businesses, I'm of service. In my new coaching business, you know, I'm out to transform the lives of 11 million women in the next 10 years. And they're part of that. They're part of that uh um change and transformation for humanity. So I enrolled them into my life and I enrolled them into my life purpose. And so, you know, it doesn't mean that from time to time they don't feel like, oh, I don't have enough time with my mom. Um, but at the same time, they're also very conscious about my life purpose and what I'm out to cost, and they actually contribute. My younger daughter helped me set up quite a few things technologically wise to help me in my business. So yeah, they've become a part of it. And now my older daughter, who's a new mom, completely gets my life purpose now that she's a mom. So yeah, I would say that it has to do with a lot of communication um and including them and enrolling them into my why that has been powerful in my life.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

You then create a team. And I can look back at my you know, my journey through all of this and see where I did that with my kids and where I did it. And in the times where I have really gotten them clear and their support in terms of like, this is why I do what I do. It makes such a big difference. And I think this could, you know, this would go for anyone, regardless of whether it's a child or a spouse or your parents. Because oftentimes, especially at the beginning of starting a business, there's a huge time and energy and resource investment. And so that so it's about getting everyone on the same page about like, well, what is this all about and why am I doing this? And because sometimes, especially with children, I think it's like, oh, the people are doing something to me. So it's like my parents are like doing this to me, versus no, I'm like actually here creating something for us. Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

I would add to that to have self-compassion and to have compassion for your children. I think that's really, really big. Because when we, when we, you know, and it didn't start off like that for me, there was a lot of periods of times that there was a lot of conflict between me and my daughters as to my time and how much of it they got between everything that I had been doing, business, self-development, everything, right? In life. And so I think I think like really having compassion for oneself and having compassion for them and really listening to them, even when they're angry at us, has made a huge difference for me in uh in in my relationship with my daughters.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, that the really listening and not from a place of like needing to respond or be defensive, but just to into really here. Uh I 100% agree with you. I think that makes all the difference. Yes, it does. So you know, you're on a mission, Maria, to transform the lives of 11 million women in you what does it mean for you? Why, one, why does that matter to you? And two, your company is called Stand Coaching Services. And part of the conversation I wanted to have with you is why is it why does it matter? Why it what it what is it about standing for someone or something? Why is that so important?

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Well, um that's an it that is important to me because I know what it has been like on the receiving end for somebody to stand for me and for my life and for my future and for my daughters. So you and I have been part of uh self-development together. And in one of the programs that we were together, you were actually one of my coaches who stood grounded for me and my life. And in that specific program is where I discovered at a deeper level what it feels like to receive unconditional love. And it was it was weird uh at times because it's like no matter how I behaved, no matter what I did that didn't work, or that was sneaky, or how I behaved like a jerk, or how I ran away, or how I was hiding, which were my normal things to do when I don't want to confront something. No matter how many times I did that, my coaches never gave up on me. Uh, nobody ever saw me anything other than the leader that I am. Nobody ever saw anything than my greatness. And because of that, I developed at such a rapid rate, and and it really impacted my life and the lives of my daughters and the lives of everyone that is in my life in such a powerful and profound way. So nothing gives me more joy than to actually stand for another human being. Because for me, when I stand, standing for another human being for me is seeing the God in everyone. So when I when I'm with anyone, how no matter how they behave in their life and what they choose to do, I see the God in people. And so that has me stand grounded in knowing their leadership and and and just standing grounded for what they say they want out of their life.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah, for me, it's like it's about holding space for someone. And uh I think a stand doesn't have to necessarily look a specific way, but it and it's about uh being unwilling to see that person as anything less than the biggest of possibility. And when you when you're when you're in that space of seeing someone bigger than they could even imagine themselves. And and and it reminds me of grace. So every year I go on a journey of discovery, 2020 is my year into wonder. And I think 2015 maybe was one of the years, 2016, one of those years. I journeyed into grace for a year. And my favorite definition of grace was seeing past someone's behavior to their heart. And I think that that's what part of me, for me, what comes up in this conversation about a stand is people granted me grace. Grace was granted to me at times. And and so to be able to give that to another human being, to be able to uh show them grace, to see past whatever they're doing and and and see them as that possibility, I think um it really is something.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

It's quite divine. It's quite divine.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Yeah, divine's a very good word for it.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

With their humanity, to be with their humanity and yours, because when you stand for someone and you are present to their humanity, sometimes your humanity shows up too. My humanity shows up as well. And so it's like being in that awareness of my humanity and theirs, and just being having compassion for myself and having compassion and grace for them. That's very powerful.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

There's uh a really great quote that I'm present to by a gentleman by the name of Andrew Boyd. And he says, and I think this is part of what we're talking about here, he says, compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything, and you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, get empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst words. And and I think in this conversation, like that's present for me. And I'm was having a conversation a few weeks ago on this podcast with my friend Grant Hill from Texas, and he talked about death cycles. And he talked about like we talk about transformation and like personal development, like it's kind of fluffy, and really it can be brutal at times as we die onto our old self and get reborn into something new. And and what what we talked about is when you're going through that process, some of your worst behaviors come up. Some of your like some of your not so great ways of being, or you default to habits that are unproductive and unworkable. And so having that grace for another human being as they're going through that transformation, holding space for them uh is divine. I think it it's just for me, love is acceptance, granting someone being just as they are and just as they're not. And I think having a stand for someone, holding that space for them is really is really accepting every part of them.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

That's very beautiful, and I agree completely. Um, I was trying to look for a quote myself as well. Um, and it was by Ayana Vincent, and she said something, I'm not gonna say it correctly, but she said something about that the hardest part that we have to face in life is it's not what we're wanting to have in that dream, right? But it's like actually giving up the parts of ourselves that we're so comfortable with, even when they're toxic, even when they don't work in our lives, but the fear of the unknown is almost greater than the frustration, the pain, the sadness, the emotional distress, and the dysfunction of what we're complacent with in life. And and and something that I've really um resonates with me about what you said, self-development is not fluffy, it's actually a work that has you look at the parts that you don't want to look at. And and it is confrontational at times, and and and let me tell you, most of the time I've wanted to run away because I've had to face parts of me. Like, for example, when I exited my relationship with my ex-husband, it had me look at the parts of me that was an abusive mom. The parts of me that I used to yell at my kids, I used to call them names. I didn't know how to deal with life, the parts of me that I was controlling and manipulative with them, the parts of me that resented them for the things that I didn't get to do in my life because I was taking care of them. And then I had to face all of that. And I actually had to face like who am I as a mom and what does motherhood mean to me? And and deal with the shame and the guilt of thinking that I was not a good mom. And then forgiving myself and then having self-compassion and then creating a brand new relationship that's healthy and intimate and beautiful with both of my daughters. So, and it takes something.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Yeah, and it's well, thank you for that vulnerability and and and for sharing that. And I think the humanity of it, uh, we we whatever our experience of parenthood uh from our parents to us or with our own children, we all go through that. And I think it's uh like to bring it back to the conversation about being a business owner, it it's so uh it drives up so much uh choosing to step into uh creation in any capacity, right? When you're creating this business, when you're creating uh fulfilling on your purpose, uh, it drives up uh all of that shame or the The feelings of the fear of failure, all of the things that kind of separate us from our other people and have us experience disconnection. And it's so funny because I think for so much, for so many people, we try to compartmentalize our lives. We have this career, and it's a profession, and we have this business, and then our there's our family. And we're not compartmentalized as human beings.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

No, we're not.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Someone very wise once said, wherever you go, there you are. So whoever's showing, and I remember when we were doing the Introduction Leaders program, our our coach Audrey would often say, like, how you do one thing is how you do everything.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

That's what came to mind immediately.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Yeah. Can't get her out of your head. I know. We love you, we love you, Audrey.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

She's permanent, it's permanently in our hands. And we love it because she's exceptional.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yeah, she is. But and yeah, wherever you go, there you are. And how you do one thing is how you do everything. So if you're showing up that way with your children, then you're something about that is showing up in your business as well. Either it's hiding that, so you're you're hiding your shame or whatever you have around that and not being fully seen in the other, but we we're just not compartmentalized.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

Yes, I agree with that a thousand percent. Um, and and what I want to add, you know, when it comes to to the business, you know, something that I've learned at a deeper level, especially being in this new business, is that fear of failure, um, not to let that take you out and and and that not knowing, right? Like I don't know. This is my first time, so I didn't know how to build a coaching business. And so something that's so valuable is to actually ask for support, you know, get a mentor, ask for support, hire a coach. Um, you know, ask people who already know some of the things. Like I have asked you, I actually asked you. We had a coaching call about LinkedIn and how to put up my profile and make it professional, right? So, like reaching out to your community and asking questions is also very, very important. Having community around you is crucial. Um, because when you try to go at it alone, you do feel alone and it can get overwhelming. So, so doing thing in things in community and asking for support and contribution is a huge part of being an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Yeah, I love that. And I I say that all the time. You don't have to go it alone. And as long as you just get clear about what it is that you want and even asking for that guidance, and as my journey of faith is has deepened over the last couple of years, like that you can even ask for guidance. Just I don't know what to do next. I'm not clear. And you could ask the people in your community, the people in your tribe, or you can even ask the universe God, you know, whatever's sourceful for you, uh, for that guidance. And then it that the importance of being quiet and listening.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

And and allowing the guidance to come to you, be willing to receive it, which I think, again, so many of the conversations I have with entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, the whole piece about self-image, self-worth, all of that comes up to the surface because that willingness to receive is critical. You can't, you can't get the support you need if you don't actually, if you're not willing to receive and view yourself, your image of yourself as being worthy of receiving. And I remember as I was like beginning this journey when we were in the coaching body. I don't know if you were a coach, yeah. It might have been one of the programs that like the program that I coached you. Even asking for help was such a big deal for me. I would like share, we we we used to have these WhatsApp chats where we would share what we were dealing with as coaches, and I would share something, and it was my way of like reaching out and asking for help. And then I would go back and look at them, and no one, you know, I would get some, oh, that's great, Amber. Yeah, I've been through that too. But no one would be like picking up the phone and calling me, and I'm over here, I don't know how to make it work, I don't know how to have everything go the way I don't know how to cause what I've given my word to, and I have it like I've asked for help. And then I would go back and read the message, and there was no actual request for help. So it's like even sometimes the act of asking for help is a breakthrough for people.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Yeah, absolutely. It it is, it is, you know, and especially for us women, like I find for myself as a woman and as a single mom, I've had this thing in the past of like proving that I can do it on my own. And that was part of proving my worthiness and that I can do it on my own, and and you know, and wanting to be right about that. And that actually stopped me from moving forward and moving further because I wasn't asking for support. I wasn't asking for contribution. I was just sitting here by myself trying to do it all. And in and you know, in the Introductions Leaders program, we our life just becomes so so open and there's nowhere to hide. So asking for contribution, you know, especially in that program, just became something very normal for me to do. And so now it's it's it's easier for me to just pick up the phone and ask and call. Um, and and I would encourage anyone or and everyone to do that, especially as a new entrepreneur just sit transitioning into something uh that they're just starting to build.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah, so good. What's something you wish you knew at the beginning, Maria?

SPEAKER_03 28:24

To take a deep breath, to trust in myself and to ask for contribution.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah, I I develop people in their personal resilience. And one of the things that I know uh about myself is when things go real bad, I will ask for help. And and knowing that, having that awareness about myself, I've now been able to start stepping in and taking on. Well, what if you asked for help before the proverbial S hit the fan? Exactly. What if you like actually had team and people be part of your regular existence day in and day out? And it's so funny, guys. I just had a conversation with one of our mutual friends, Fatima, today. Uh, I was stressed all day. Like I've set some pretty ambitious goals for myself for November, and things are taking me longer than I thought they would. And I was feeling at the effect of that today and making myself a bit wrong for it. And just before I got on the phone with Fatima, I took a deep breath and I was like, there's nothing wrong. Just like ground yourself, stop. And she goes, Amber, who's reviewing your goals with you to make sure that they're actually feasible? I was like, me. And she goes, okay, let me in only a way that for those of you who listen to the podcast would have heard Fatima a couple weeks ago, and only a way that Fatima could could say, let me ask you that again, because you didn't answer my question. Who's actually and so even that, like getting that awareness today, like, wow, am I checking in with someone else and like looking at the plan? And I and I think as a business owner, having those supports around you to just say, you know, this is what I'm thinking about launching this month. What do you think? And then they're gonna be like, wow, well, maybe you should take on half of that. Maybe you should do one of those things this month and do the other things next month. And it's not about I think it's not about not standing on what's possible, but sometimes we're not always the best judge uh of and and I think I know for myself, Maria, I I tend to make things hard. And I think this is sometimes one of the ways that I do that, is by creating goals that are, you know, really big. And then I don't enjoy the actual journey of the creation. And so that's just something I'm discovering in this conversation with you right now, which is beautiful that we get to keep doing that, right? That we get to keep discovering.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

Absolutely. I just got for myself as well in what you just said, is that we are so we're conditioned that in order for us to really achieve our dreams, we have to work really hard. And what working hard means to us is it has to seem impossible. It has to be like you gotta leave it all on the table, not realizing that um that there is flow and ease with everything that we do as well. Like we could uh achieve our goals and do the things that we want to do without having all of this conditioning of it has to be extremely hard.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

I couldn't agree more. And I one of my biggest my big discoveries since COVID, as I've been taking time to reflect, is as someone who did go through quite a few struggles throughout the earlier parts of my life, it it that conditioning, it's like the brain is hardwired for struggle. And so then, in the absence of the circumstances making life difficult, I would be making it more difficult than I needed it to be. Because the brain, the brain is conditioned for struggle. And and so part of it is how do you keep growing and creating what you want in your life and at the same time not allowing, like really being an interruption for it has to look a certain way, or giving up that that experience, allowing for that flow, allowing for what if it was easy? You know, and even myself right now, like what if I did launch all of those things and create everything I wanted to this month and it was easy? And what would that look like? Who who would I have to be? Who would I have to become in order to have it be easy instead of have it be challenging and difficult?

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Yeah, so what you're pointing out is asking the right questions. Yes, that's so important in any area of life, not just businesses, asking ourselves the right questions, the questions that are gonna have us be curious as to um as developing further and achieving the things that we want to achieve with flow and ease and fun. This is this is why, you know, part of being an entrepreneur is like you can have fun, you know, like one thing that I implemented for myself because I love salsa dancing. So I will work and then I'll take a break and I'll put on a couple of my favorite salsa songs and I will salsa out, I'll sweat, and it just gets me into a different state of mind and being. And then I can get back to work with a lot more energy and a huge smile on my face. Because I just love dancing. So do something that you love or meditate, go for a little walk, like take breaks and and regenerate yourself throughout the day. That's also really important.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Yeah, I think making sure you're what what I hear when you say that is like being responsible for the vibration that we're in. And so if it's not feeling good, again, there's nowhere to get to. There's nowhere to get to with any of this. Like we're all gonna end up in the same place someday, one day down the road. And and life is the journey. And if we can't stop and and enjoy the moments of creation, then it just becomes a never-ending cycle of, you know, like just go, go, go, go, go, and and to get where. Because whenever we get there, you know, whenever the there becomes a here, there'll be a new there.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah. So I I love that you self-dessed.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

What I'm getting from what you're saying is like be choose to be happy and fulfilled every moment because happiness and fulfillment is a choice, no matter the circumstances, right? It's how we respond to life that makes a huge difference. And so, no matter what's happening in our life, like choosing powerfully to be happy, to be fulfilled, to find joy and to have gratitude for every moment. Because we're here, we're alive.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah, my uh I I get an like uh I love my gratitude practice. I I do about 10 minutes of gratitude every morning and every night before I go to bed. And one of the things that my mentor, I was listening to her webinar today, she was talking about actually taking on gratitude for the things that you have, like your goals and being grateful for them as if you've achieved them and you're having the experience and getting emotionally attached to having achieved them in the now, which I thought was was really brilliant. So it's like I'm grateful for when you're like you're choosing right now to be in the experience of that feeling of when you've actually served those 11 million women, and that you could choose to be grateful for that experience now, even though the experience is yet to come. And and that will pull you into the the kind of the alignment and vibration that you need to be in in order to attract what you need to attract on that journey. And the other thing that she she said that was uh just it it almost moved me to tears was it's always happening for us.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

I believe everything is always happening for us.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

I agree a thousand percent.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah, even in those moments where it like sucks. And like, let's be straight, sometimes it the the circumstances of our life are not ideal. But even and even in those moments, we could choose to believe that it is all happening for us in order for us to fulfill on our purpose and achieve the things that we want to in life, and how beautiful is that.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

It's divine, it's it's just exceptional. And when we live life from that perspective, standing in that everything is happening for our benefit, everything is happening for our advancement, everything is happening for us to be elevated and to grow and to expand in ways that we never even imagined possible. Like, what actually becomes available when we live life like that? Like, damn, it's beautiful. Like you live with passion, you're alive when you live life coming from that perspective. Because even the hardest of things, like I've been through quite a few things. And in wow, when when when I really looked at the lessons and and I forgave and and and went through the process of dealing with my emotions and all of that, like I come out the other side a hell of a lot more powerful as a woman, as a human being, with a lot more compassion, with a lot more um love for myself and for others, and just like in an expanded way, it gives me a higher capacity for uh being able to just live powerfully in my own life and and be able to treat others with kindness and and and understanding and compassion. So yeah, I love it. And and yeah, during while we're going through it, it sucks.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

It's like love the analogy of the seed, right? Like it literally becomes completely undone in the process of becoming a tree or a plant. It it's unrecognizable. You you wouldn't it the seed no longer exists once the plant has been it has grown. And I'm sure like that process of being undone, yeah, it has its moments, and we can even choose to create our experience of that. Like we're never stuck. How how great is that? And and what a blessing is that to know that we're never actually stuck with because of our higher faculties, because of our ability to shift our our our perception or or take on a new point of view or choose to be grateful for and and I love sometimes I feel like this conversation can land for some people, like, oh, you're being positive. And I love having this conversation with you because I know your journey and I know your story of being in an abusive relationship and and dealing with breast cancer and and many of the things that you've been through. And and and I know that we're talking from a place, this conversation is coming from a place of actually having been there. I, you know, in in some really dark moments.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

And in moments of hopelessness, and yet at the same time, and I think that, I mean, of course, is the benefit of time and perspective and being able to look back on things and to know, but that that experience having gone through that brings confidence and faith and emboldens one's faith to know whatever the experiences are in this moment, uh, it it is. I can I can see that in my own life that it life is unfolding for my greatest good and for the greatest good of those around me.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Absolutely, absolutely, you know. Um cancer is the same. I like in so many ways. I lost my right breast and I gained my life. Uh, because I used to be somebody who um I was hiding behind the persona of who I wanted to be. I was hiding behind being busy, being a successful mortgage broker, having the house, the car, money in the bank, and all of that. And I was being truly living the life that I wanted. I truly loved. I was hiding behind all of these things, the pain that I was going through, and the pain of not feeling worthy enough to go for what I wanted in life. And when I had to face death, and then face the fact that so many women die from breast cancer, and why was I left alive? And in having the new opportunity to continue raising my daughters, which that was my biggest fear was to die and leave my daughters. They were little, and so um, yeah, facing all of that just had me look at my life, examine my life, and reflect on what is it that I actually really want? Like, I was like, God didn't leave me here just to, you know, not live a full life. And so, what is it that I'm that am I going to do to then fulfill on the purpose as to why left God left me here? Like, why did God leave me here if it wasn't for me to, you know, break through what was stopping me from living my best life?

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Yeah, I really have been getting a lot of juice out of this notion uh beautiful destruction. So the idea came from Vision, the creator of Mind Valley, in a webinar I listened to a few weeks ago, where he talks about as we grow in awareness and we start moving towards alignment with why we were created, because I I fully believe, and I know that you do, that every single one of us was created for a purpose. There is nothing that exists on this planet that it wasn't created for a purpose, even mosquitoes, even though I haven't figured that one out yet. But vision says, like as you as you move through levels of awareness, God, the universe, will will gently, and maybe it doesn't always feel gently, remove everything that no longer serves you. And it's beautiful destruction. Because you know, that's part of I think that you what Grant was talking about, those cycles of death and rebirth, that that opportunity to continue developing and growing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Maria Diaz, thank you so much. I uh I loved dancing in conversation with you tonight. Thank you so much for being on the show and for sharing yourself and your experiences of that journey to becoming an entrepreneur and a business owner. And yeah, just thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here and having this conversation with me.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Thank you. I love you, Amber. I love Podcast. And yeah, it's it's it's extraordinary having conversations with you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

I love you too. Thank you, everyone, for joining us tonight. Have a wonderful week.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode. For show info, visit what would Amber Do.com. And for information about Amber Howard and Associates' offerings and services, visit AmberHoward Inc.com.