From Corporate Success to Fearless Nothing: My Bold Journey to Reinvent Myself.
In 2020, I embarked on a transformative journey, leaving behind a successful 15-year corporate career to start my own business.
Through cycles of germination and testing, as these are defined by the sacred geometry system of Yandra Yoga, I redefined my identity, confronted my deepest fears, and embraced vulnerability to become Elli 2.0 - a more authentic person and my next-level self as an entrepreneur, a consultant, a coach and a creator.
Join me as I share my reflections and insights, exploring one of the biggest challenges of grown and growing leaders in evolving in a dynamic, ever-changing world.
The Journey.
In 2020, I embarked on a new nine-year cycle of my life, as defined by the sacred geometry system of yoga, Yandra Yoga. That year, I gave birth to my lovely daughter and made the life-changing decision to leave behind my successful 15-year corporate career to start my own business.
Since then, I’ve moved from cycle one to cycle two, which Yandra Yoga calls the Germination phase.
In plant life, germination is when the seeding first starts to form and where the right combination of soil, water, air, temperature, and light is crucial for the sprout to emerge.
For me, it was a phase that I reached out to my network and connections to let them know about my new venture and started to build partnerships that I continue to nurture today.
I also went through a transformative stage of redefining my well-established corporate identity.
This was a painful process as I had to first acknowledge that the identity which had led to my past successes wouldn’t help me on my new path.
Even after I’ve acknowledged that, I had to figure out how to move forward. It took a while to realize that instead of uprooting this identity, I needed to transform it into my next-level self.
“The root of suffering is attachement”
Next, I entered my fourth cycle, which Yandra Yoga calls the Testing period.
This was indeed a challenging time, one that I initially resisted.
This was a time for pulling out the weeds from my garden to gain clarity on my service offerings, to have peace on mind for assessing my progress and deciding on the best next steps.
This process was about letting go of certain roles, clients, and familiar ways of doing things; some of which had brought me successes in the past.
But they just had to leave, and this was not about quitting, but about letting go.
Realizing today.
During this period, I realized how much I wanted to reach more people and amplify my influence in creating more workplaces where the business and the people can thrive - both of them at the same time and place.
I was thinking of this for a while until I made the decision and then I was postponing it for some more time before taking real action. Eventually, I did, and here I am today.
I started working with a coach and a communication expert team to help me become more extroverted through blogging, vlogging, streaming, podcasting, and whatever else they suggest.
Don’t get me wrong; I totally trust Johny and his team on this, but at the same time, all of these are new, distant, and quite scary to me.
Despite the fear and the unknown, I’m diving in, fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead.
In any case, this is one of the reasons I have hired an expert team to guide and empower me in the making of Elli 2.0 – my next-level self as an entrepreneur, a consultant, a coach and a creator.
The Alpha-Fear: Vulnerability.
I clearly know that there are certain actions I need to take going forward that will make me feel uncomfortable, fearful, or confused and this is OK. But there is one thing that really hits my biggest fear; at a level that gets me almost freeze.
This is about being vulnerable while carrying successes and achievements in my shoulders.
Let me explain…
I think of my clients, the people I’ve worked with, and those who have a positive perception of me. These people have certain expectations of me based on my past successes and I hold the same expectations for myself too.
But, as I step into this new era of social media exposure (while podcasting, making solo videos, and so on), I am certain I will make mistakes and have some embarrassing moments before I learn and improve.
This is inevitable in any change process; it takes time to excel at something, and often, you must fail first.
The fear of vulnerability is one of the major challenges that leaders face today in their journey to grow and evolve.
I’ve seen this many times…
Leaders who are afraid to leave their comfort zones because their performance might dip, and their successes might slow down. They struggle to openly acknowledge their weaknesses and mistakes while demonstrating comfort with who they are in the moment and while transforming.
“The fear of risking to lose what they carry on their shoulders holds leaders back from moving ahead, quickly enough.”
But I assure you of one thing: if you are willing to be vulnerable as a leader, it changes the dynamics for you, your team, your organization, and everyone around you, including those you serve.
Embracing vulnerability leads to better leadership, better teamwork, and better service to others, ultimately creating better results for ourselves.
“You only lose what you cling to.”
Closure… or not?
As I step into this exhilarating new chapter, the journey of Elli 2.0 is just beginning. With each challenge embraced and every fear conquered, I'm committed to sharing my ongoing evolution and insights with you.
I overcome the fear of losing and failing because as Buddha taught me, you only lose what you cling to and in an ever-changing world you should not cling to anything!
I welcome you to think how you can keep reinventing yourself, so you don’t cling to any current version of yourself as a leader.
Stay tuned for continuous updates as I navigate this path, striving to create workplaces where both businesses and people can thrive.
The future is full of promise, and I am excited to grow and transform alongside you!
Key Insights in less than a minute
Sometimes, you need to become inactive before you become more active again.
You can’t really let of who you were, but you can evolve into a better version of yourself.
There are times that things are expanding outward rather than upward and it’s still a progress.
“Embarrassment is the cons of entry. If you aren’t willing to look like a foolish beginner, you’ll never become a graceful master.” (in the words of Ed Latimore)
Vulnerability will not break you at all. On the contrary, vulnerability builds trust and leads to growth.