Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Applying Personal Agility to Unlock Your Passion w/Maria Matarelli EP 6

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Wish to learn techniques that can work wonders for your professional life and your personal life? Today's episode will teach you how you can apply personal agility to unlock your passion and creativity. In today’s show, we interview Maria Matarelli, CEO of Formula Ink and co-founder of the Agile Marketing Academy and Personal Agility Institute, where she reveals how her agile management strategies can catapult you miles ahead of the competition both in your business and personal life. Always a hard charger, Maria started working at 15 and paid her way through college. When she entered professional life, she decided to pursue agile project management – which was then an unknown field with very few experts. Maria progressed quickly through the corporate ranks, and as a 22-year-old, she was managing a 120-person team and saving her employer $1.5 million every year through her project management expertise.  So, when she was handed out a measly 5% increment, Maria decided to push back against the system, and ultimately, she managed to wrangle out a 100% salary increase. This win proved to be the turning point for Maria as she realized that if she worked hard enough and made herself indispensable, she could bend the rules.  After some more agile project management stints, Maria decided to branch out by kickstarting her own consultancy. While this was a brave and farsighted decision, the first year-and-a-half certainly tested Maria’s mettle. Maria went all out to realize her vision, from running through her entire bank balance to buying one-way tickets to Thailand and India. Agile techniques, Maria reveals, can help you improve not only on a professional level but also personally. So, if you are routinely bouncing off things, lack consistency and follow-through, then listening to Maria will surely help you out.  Enjoy! Questions That I Ask In This Show How do you transition from the insurance industry to agile management consultancy? Can you recall your AH-HA moment? How did you overcome your fears and doubts when you were starting? What do you do to stay on top of the market? Do you recall your first big success? What did it feel like? How have you applied your agile methodology to your personal life? How did you make a name for yourself as a DJ? Why did I see you wearing a T-Rex Costume? Where do I get my own money gun? What You Will Learn In This Show How I started my own agile management consultancy How to overcome some of the biggest entrepreneurial challenges How to build your personal brand in the consultancy space How finding your own niche can drive profitability and growth. How to apply agile methodology to your personal life And so much more Follow Maria here: Maria’s Website - http://mariamatarelli.com Formula Ink - http://formulaink.com Agile Marketing Academy - http://agilemarketingacademy.com Personal Agility Institute - http://personalagilityinstitute.org     Follow John R. Miles Here: Website - https://passionstruck.com/​ ​​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_str​uck_life ​​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr ​​​Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles ​ ​John's Website: https://johnrmiles.com/​ - John's New eBook - The Passion Struck Framework https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ ​Follow Passion Struck on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/iampassions​truck  

I just remember thinking, is this the dream? Is my passion in life IT project management? And the answer I came back with was maybe not. And I remember I always yearned for more. And one of the things that I did is I wasn't sure what to do. And even for those listening that are trying to think, well, what's my passion?

Or I want to get out of my job and start something that I'm really excited about. I always say, you know, you don't have to know everything, and this is agile right here, right? You don't have to know everything. You just gotta be willing to take a step. And even if you're that step isn't to the end zone, it's a step forward.

And then take another step and pivot if you need to. Welcome to the PassionStruck podcast. My name is John Miles, a former combat veteran and multi-industry CEO, turned entrepreneur and human performance expert. Each week we showcase an inspirational person and message that helps you unlock your hidden potential and unleash your creativity and leadership abilities.

Thank you for spending time with me today and let's get igniting. Welcome to the Passion Struct Podcast. I am so excited to have Maria Matterelli in the house for the show. Maria is just an awesome guest and brings so much passion about what she is doing. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Maria is an international business consultant and experienced agile coach and a certified scrum trainer who consults and trains companies

on reaching true agility. She travels to consult to Fortune 100 companies and speaks at industry conferences with locations from Shanghai to Singapore and Thailand to Nova Scotia while looking for ways to continue to expand Agile outside IT. Maria and her team have been applying Agile to the marketing realm with incredible results which led Maria co-founding the Agile Marketing Academy. She then also co-founded the Personal Agility Institute, helping people use Agile to do more of what matters in their lives and shift the culture of organizations. Maria is also the founder and president of Formula Inc, an international

consulting company, and is passionate about working with people and organizations to increase speed to market, increase efficiency and get greater results in business. You are in for such a treat with this episode and Maria goes through her story of how she started out at 15 on her journey. What became that crisis that caused her to give up, what she calls her J.O.B. in the corporate world and to jump on her entrepreneurial journey of becoming an agile coach. And then how she has applied agile, which was originally designed for the corporate workplace

into marketing, into personal agility, and into other aspects of her life, like being a DJ and doing other things. There's so many great tidbits of information here to unpack. I can't wait for you to hear this interview. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music of the Agile manifesto, said, agility is the ability to adapt and respond to change. Agile organizations view change as an opportunity, not a threat. And Esther Derby said, when we are blind to systematic causes of problems,

all the solutions we try will likely make matters worse. I use those two quotes as a backdrop because today I am absolutely thrilled to have Maria Mattarelli on the show a true passion struck leader. Welcome to the show, Maria. Hey, thanks. Don, great to be here. Thanks for having me. I'm ecstatic to have you. So you and I first met a few years ago and I remember I was just really taken it back by your ingenuity and the variety of businesses you had started at that time. And so when it came to putting on this podcast, you were actually one of the first people that came to mind I wanted to have on the show.

So the purpose of our show is to help growth-minded individuals understand how to unlock their hidden potential, and ignite and prioritize their passion journeys. Can you take me back to the start of your journey and discuss your situation back then and how you found yourself, you know, at this time it might have been, you know, in the insurance industry before you had made the leap. Yeah, John, I appreciate this question. It's always fun to go back down that trail of memory lane. I remember working in an office, and I remember thinking, is this my life?

Is this cubicle my future? Like, is this all that there is? And to back up a little bit, I started working when I was 15, and I worked three jobs at Pima with your college. And if I didn't do that that I wasn't going to go. And so when I got into the corporate workforce, I already had years of experience from that. So you're talking about insurance, I started state farm insurance corporate headquarters, systems technology department,

and running IT projects, project management, managing $5 million projects a year, early 20s. and I remember just thinking And I'm done with my work halfway through the week because I felt like I really took two project management It's very clear cut. It's efficient as I plan out the work and then do the plan right and like make sure you're on track and I just always loved that type of type of work But I realized like I was done with my job halfway through the week, and then I'd have to sit there on site, and I'd have to clock the hours. So I'm like, okay, well, what else? And so then they'd load me up with projects.

Now, I've got seven projects, and I'm barely can get through the day meeting, the meeting, the meeting. It's like, okay, this is interesting. And I just remember thinking, is there more to life than this? And I remember I put up a little post printed a little text on a sheet of paper and I put it up on the wall, my cubicle, and it said, living the dream. Or just another day of paradise, like these motivational things, right?

And I just remember thinking, is this the dream? Is my passion in life, IT project management? And the answer I came back with was maybe not. And I remember I always yearned for more. And one of the things that I did is I wasn't sure what to do. And even for those listening that are trying to think, well, what's my passion?

Or I want to get out of my job and start something that I'm really excited about. I would say, you know, you don't have to know everything. And this is agile right here, right? You don't have to know everything. You just got to be willing to take a step. And even if you're that you don't have to know everything, and this is agile right here, right? You don't have to know everything. You just got to be willing to take a step. And even if you're that step isn't to the end zone, it's a step forward. And then take another step and pivot if you need to.

And so I actually started by speaking at conferences. And that's how I got out into the market to where people started to know who I was, I started doing agile project management. And what was interesting is a lot of the people I worked with, they didn't want to change. So they just wanted to manage all their projects in the traditional method. They'd always done.

They didn't want to do anything different. They didn't want to learn a new methodology. And so I was like, OK, I'm going to become an expert in this thing that nobody else seems to want to learn. And I took that upon myself. And what really was that first step out into that entrepreneurship type of rel was when I started speaking at these conferences.

And that started to get me out of the industry. I just thought, I think in order to get ahead, you have to do something more than just the bare minimum. You can't just do your job, right? And then from there, I branched off in the launching a company, launching multiple companies, and the rest is sort of history from that. Okay, well, you bring me back a number of years, and I remember on my own journey, I was working at lows at the time, and I was in charge of all software development, and we were using

waterfall methodology at the time, and it was like the business sponsor would try to put everything in the kitchen sink in the requirements. And I remember, you know, we have these documents that were this thick. And these projects were supposed to take, let's say a year to 18 months. And every single time they would go over. And I remember talking to one of my good friends, Scott Butterfield, he was the SVP of strategy at the time, and he goes, you know, John, we are absolutely phenomenal at grading projects that are absolutely obsolete by the time they're delivered. And I will never forget it because, you know, after that, I had brought ITEL into the organization when I was in operations and security,

and then I got introduced to Agile, and I can't tell you how much fighting I had with some of the peers in the business over wanting to introduce it. So I kinda understand where you're coming from and some of those frustrations. So, you know, when you were at this pivot point that you described, what was the single event

if you think back then that made you finally take action? Hmm, such a good question. So, yeah, you think, oh, I want to do something more, but you're like, what is actually the point that makes you take that step right that pushes you forward to doing it I remember when I graduated college. I worked as I worked in an internship with his college undergrad worked at another very large fortune 100 company out of college and When I went over to work in the company that I ended up going with safe farm I remember that I had another job offer on the table.

It was actually for $10,000 more, which when you're first coming out of college, that's a lot of money, right? And so I was like, oh, wow, cool. But for a variety of reasons, I wanted to go with the second option and get more into the project management. And so as I did, I remember they told me,

they were like, well, here's what this job pays and it was $10,000 less. And they said, well, Maria, they told me, they're like, well, here's what this job pays, and it was $10,000 less. And they said, well, Maria, if you do a really good job, a really good job, if you're really hard, we can see if we can get you up to that, right? But you just have to really show us that you can produce that value. So my first projects are the Enterprise Server

release Windows Unix Server upgrades. And basically, it was a $3 million portfolio. And once a year, we did two releases, and we went from two releases to three, streamline the projects, and we will offshore the work to other people overseas. And free of our onsite people, more strategic work, which was a passive residual cost savings of $1.5 million. I was 22 years old managing those projects. So I'm saving the company one and a half million dollars a year. And what happened is when I went in for my performance review a year later, and I had a stack of documents of all kinds of accolades and people saying thank you and of

what a great job I did because I thought, oh, I'm supposed to make this case, right? That's what they told me. And they changed the game. They changed the rules on me. And they're like, oh, Maria, we put this but a new policy in place. You can only get maximum 5%, but great news. You qualified for the 5%. John, I did the math. It would take me 10 years at 5% increase every year to get down to the job I turned down the year before. And that's when I realized the system was broken and it wasn't going to work for me. And so I was furious. I felt betrayed. I felt lied to. I was, right? And so I go back to my desk and I was just like,

how do I make sure this isn't going to happen to me again? I cannot trust the system. It's not working. And what I did is I worked even harder the next year. And I did even better on my projects. You know, right? We tried to imagine within timeline and budget and to have a successful launch on the ever project it is. And I went out in the industry and I interviewed because here's the other thing

I discovered all the people around me They were making like double my sorry and I'm like how are they making like this? I mean some people just even 30 40 50 thousand dollars more than me and I'm like What are they even doing they're managing two projects in maintenance mode like like service work? Like they're literally attending a status meeting once a week and updating it. And I'm planning out these like hundreds of line items with 120 people on my team,

intricately like predecessor, successor, like all of who's seven. And I'm like, how am I managing seven projects, saving the company millions of dollars a year and then getting five percent? That doesn't work for me. And so what I did is I worked very diligently and I started saying well what would my value be in the actual industry outside of these

walls and so I interviewed with multiple companies I actually had three job offers lined up on the table the following year so when I walked into my performance review they're like oh congratulations you did an excellent job you get your 5% raise raise, pat on the back, pat on the head. And I was like, oh, yeah, about that. I was like, that's not going to work for me because I know what my skill levels in the industry. And just because they hired me in here, that they wanted to inch me up from there.

But I'm like, but my skill levels actually hear, right? It's way greater than what you're thinking. And so I said to them, I was like, I would like for you to match these offers. And it's about double my salary. So I can bring it. There's no way we can jump you up that much. That's just not how this works. Like, okay, cool. Let me know if you want me to put in my two weeks notice, or if you want to escort me off the client's site today. And I walked out of the room, went back to my desk. Within 10 minutes, they called me to come back to the conference room. And they said, so we kind of need you to train all of our new people.

And we really don't want to tell, because as through an external vendor, we don't want to tell external staffing that you're not renewing, because they think that you are. And so I was like, okay, well, you're going to have to match this. And they said, well, we can't get you that in a salary,

but we can give you this base, plus two large bonuses spreads throughout the year. And if we do that with you training the new people, we need you very close. I said, thank you. I'd like to take 48 hours to think about it. Like, no, we need an answer today. I was like, yeah, but I'm pretty sure everyone else

gets 48 hours. And so I'm going to let you know Monday. And I walked out and I ended up renewing. Why? Because I just planned out all my projects and they were all in maintenance mode. I did most of the work. And I thought, you know what?

I'm comfortable here. But like, let me see what else I can do to grow. And they were able to me pretty much my request. And John, like, where this came from? Was it came from a place? And I think this is something for all entrepreneurs and people that finally take that leap for their passion. This was just like a baby step of seeing what I could do to push against the system, right? This is before I went out on my own, but it was a turning point because I was like, wait a minute, I can change your rules of the game. I can take more risk,

and without the risk, you don't get the reward. And so it comes from not having anything to lose. So what I did is I stacked the deck, so I wasn't afraid, if they said, okay, great, you're done here. Great, let me pack up my desk. Okay, I literally had the offers on the table. So like, similarly, so I stayed there a couple more years,

trained up all the new people, became the go-to agilist, like the person who the table. So like similarly, so I stayed there a couple more years, trained up all the new people, became the go-to agilist, like the person who was like the Agile expert, led lunch and learns, did coaching with other teams. And at one point, I realized, you know, I do want more, it still wasn't like enough of what I felt I was capable of. And so I started off by speaking at conferences

and getting up in the industry to build my name, build my brand, before actually venturing out to start my own business. And that was a pretty good run-way. That's great. Well, that's an amazing story. So how did it feel that day you took your first step? Were you excited? Exactly.

Yeah, were you excited, skeptical, reluctant, afraid? How did you feel? Ah, so what happened was this is actually, it's not even that straightforward. I was hungry. I was hungry for opportunity. And so I actually was talking with an organization and they were a global organization. And I had an opportunity to do some consulting with them. And so I went and like talked to them, but I didn't know how to pitch it.

So I went to a friend of mine who had a consulting company and I was like, Hey, can you help me with this? And so he helped me put it together. I would put the proposal and went through his company and I ended up actually working two jobs for almost a year. I was a project manager full time, and a scrum master for half the projects. And then I was literally in the morning checking email,

over lunch, shaking email, and then working from 5 p.m. till like midnight every night for about half a year to almost a year. And so I was actually stacking additional work on top of it. So when I was working with this consulting company, I started getting the experience. I actually didn't jump out on my own

because I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to write a proposal. I didn't know. And what I realized, John, is that I had been working in a J.O.BB so long that I had lost original thought. Like my ability to have original thought was gone. I was so used to people telling me exactly what to do.

Followed the, you know, solution development methodology and you go through the phase gate approach and this, that, the other, you know, using the Scrum framework. And so it actually took a couple of years to, like, get my mind honed into thinking like an entrepreneur. So I ended up quitting my day job as a project manager and scrum master because I ran out of vacation time and I had an opportunity to go to an event in California and I'd never been there and I kind of wanted to do that so I put in two weeks. And so I actually spent the next several years working with this other boutique consultancy. Now the challenge was that, you know, I was working for someone else still.

So I was being told, hey, maximize your time with the client site. I sold a quarter million dollar contract to a client in Chicago, and I was doing all the work, and I was making just a fraction of the actual bill of blowers. And so that's where I started ramping up,

speaking at conferences. And I was like, well, let me get myself out there in the industry more. And as I did that, I had less billable hours, right? So the person I was working with was like, well, let me get, let me get myself out there in the industry more. And as I did that, I had less billable hours, right? So the person I was working with was like, no, Marie, you need to bill all the hours. I'm like, well, you're not on site with a client. Why am I bringing in all the money? And so we ended up having a difference in sort of vision.

And I wanted to do more inspirational stuff and work with entrepreneurs. And I wanted to do something more thought leadership. And he's like, no, go on site and just make money and just coach and consult. And so I ended up stepping out on my own. And John, when I did that, it was one of those things where it was not a smooth transition. I went negative in my bank account three times over the next year,

trying to figure out how to get my business started. And it was not easy and it took me over a year to figure out how to even do it. Yeah, so what, you know, as I have been interviewing people and doing more research, it seems like more and more people are getting stuck in what I call the contagions of the human mind and the contagions of the human spirit. They're like, they're stuck in their comfort zone and they're stuck in their zone of whether you call it apathy or indifference and they can't break through. You know, what you're saying isn't unusual for an entrepreneur. It's actually very usual to go through hardships

before you break through. You know, what got you through those hard times and you know, what, you know, because I'm sure I feel it myself as you're doing it, you've got fears, you've got doubts, you know, what tricks did you use to help you get over that? Ah, such a good question. I like blindly fumbled forward as the best way I can describe it. I did learn from the first UT consultancy I worked with, but when I went on my own, I really, I didn't know what I was doing.

I fumbled forward. If you fail and fall forward, at least you're making some kind of progress, right? At least you see what doesn't work. So I was like, wanting to do, okay, let me do training, right? Project management training, agile training, but I didn't really niche down. So I'm like, oh yeah, I can help businesses consult entrepreneurs, but it wasn't like, it was like kind of too broad,

right? And so what I realized is that I needed to niche down and get something very specific. So I was like, okay, let me go into project management consulting, specifically agile project management, specifically the scrum framework, specifically a certification around that. And so like, that's actually a niche, and what they say, the riches are in the niches. So if you can niche down, that's where you get the results of the profitability, because you can really connect with that ideal customer. I mean, basic marketing.

And so when I got very specific on who I was trying to serve and exactly what value, now in order to do that, it actually took me four years to get certified to teach these certification classes. So it was definitely a journey. It was the feedback I got. Like I failed the the tack review the first time I went through it. And I questioned it was such harsh feedback I got. I questioned if I should ever speak in public again. True story. It was harsh. They're like, ah, you're not ready. This and that. Do you even know this stuff?

And I was just insulting. And I just remember thinking, OK, so I failed. And now what? But I really thought that was a niche I was really good at. My most effective agile project was, we're doing a website migration project. And there was a vendor we were working with. There were 50 other identical organizations who when I was working with,

that had already used the same vendor. And we ended up using an Agile approach. We got to market more than 80% faster than 50 other organizations identical to ours. And the variable of the vendor was the same. And so that's literally just the difference between traditional project management and using Agile, and I knew I could get results.

I knew I was good at it, right? How do you streamline a three million dollar project to 1.5 million annual cost savings in your early 20s? You understand how it works, right? And so when I got denied for the certification, I'm like, you got to be kidding me. And there was a couple of friends of mine, a couple other trainers in the industry that are like, Maria, don't you give up? And they listen to me. They listen to me complain and talk about how unjust the world was, right? And I just appreciate them so much for being supportive and just saying,

hey, just keep going. You can do this, right? So I think having a little bit of a support system can help. But really, I mean, it was one of those do this, right? So I think having a little bit of a support system can help. But really, I mean, it was one of those things where I was like, I think I need to niche down. Here's a niche that I think will be lucrative. And in order to get certified, I had to fly around the US and co-trained with existing certified trainers. I mean, it was probably minimum $20,000 or more

of cost just out of pocket to go and do that. Like, it was not easy. But I really had done my research. I had the expertise and experience and I knew I just needed to prove it. I needed to show it. And the second time funny story done, it's like one of those things where you're in like a car, right?

And it's like you're almost out of gas. And you see like the little levers like below the E and you're like how long before below the E do I have right and I was so out of money by this time that I was up for the second review for this group because they made me wait Almost a year to go in front of the panel review again I Could not even afford to buy the flight. I could even afford to stay in a hotel I had a friend of mine actually bought me the flight to fly to New Orleans to actually go in front of the panel review again to try to get certified.

I couldn't even afford the hotel so I actually, I didn't even, I flew out and fly at like six or six or eight a.m. So I stayed up all night. I ended up passing out in like one of the couches in the lobby of the hotel because I couldn't even afford a room. And that's how bad it was. When I got approved, the certification licensing fee was $5,000. I couldn't even afford that. And I had jobs lined up that I couldn't even accept, because I had literally gone to the end. I believed so much in what I was doing. It's like I burned the bridge behind me.

It was like, this is either going to work or it's not. And it's that persistence that I think really gets you there. And it's believing in what you do. And it's that persistence that I think really gets you there and it's believing in what you do and it's it's getting feedback It's pivoting. It's finding support, right? And it's not giving up. It's that resilience that you have to have Yeah, I absolutely think that resilience or grit is a is a huge part of it And I really appreciate you're you telling your story I you know when I I work with my clients, I take them through a five phase process. The first thing I try to do is I try to help them analyze,

what are those things that are blocking you from this vision of your life that you want to have? And then as you were talking about, it's once you analyze, it's then what's this vision of your life that you want to have. And then as you were talking about, you know, it's once you analyze, it's then what's this vision of the future that you want to have? You know, what do you want to have a year from now? Five years from now, 10 years from now. But you brought up in a very important thing. Once you have that, you've got to commit to it. I mean, you've got to ignite that passion journey and then commit to it and then execute on it and then I find you have to keep renewing it because once you execute on it, things change and you have to go back through the whole process and do it again. So as you've been yourself now in a business, a number of years since then.

Do you have to keep analyzing what you're doing and making sure you're staying on top of the market, etc? Yeah, over the years, it's having clarity on where you're going to go. It's being willing to put in the work. One of my goals was to be a global consultancy. And so I was like, I would like to be someone that consults companies of all sizes and global, like around the world. And so you have to again, take risk.

Every time you step forward, there's risk to be taken. But it's also there's a reward on the other side if you do it right, right? So can you do calculated risks? So for me, interestingly enough, when I was in Chicago, my consulting contract came no close, and I didn't renew it. I left the other consultancy, and that's when I had like a year to try to figure it out, and I took me like a very stumbling year, right? And in that time, I remember my apartment in Chicago was up for renewal for the lease and they're trying to jack up my rent

And I'm living downtown Michigan Avenue top floor overlooking the like Michigan. I know well. Whoo beautiful right also expensive so I was there and I remember thinking you know for me to do what I want to do I had the clarity of vision of what I wanted, but I just realized I had too many constraints. So instead of renewing my lease, I actually just let it expire. I started selling my things. I got one store unit and I started traveling. I started traveling on one way tickets. And so as I was traveling, I'd like to go speak in a conference here over there. What I found was it opened up a world of opportunity because I took away needing to be in Chicago having to pay thousands of dollars every month for rent. I took more risk as well. So I ended up to Shanghai, Singapore, Thailand, India, throughout the US, just one-way tickets

and I actually did that for five years. Now that's a little extreme and I don't necessarily recommend that, but what it did was it allowed me to create these global connections, a global network. And so I was speaking in all these conferences, then I started leading training classes, had partners in other countries, and then from there, it just kind of started to take off because I put in the legwork. I was making those connections and I was delivering the value and then getting hired back. So, I mean, that's a fascinating story. I haven't myself had taken the risk to just travel some place on a one way ticket.

I envy your boldness for doing that. I have been to many of the places you have been under very different circumstances. So it seems like you've had to use so much grit along the way, and you possess what so many passion-struck leaders I have found possess. And that is this innate ability inside to be willing to risk it all,

to be willing to put it all on the be willing to, you know, put it all on the table to pursue that thing that inspires, that makes you want to unleash your creative and leadership capabilities. So, how do you know you had finally succeeded? What was that moment like? What was that moment? Like, how did you know when you had succeeded on this mission? You know, was that? I think it was. I'm trying to think if there's one defining moment,

and I'm not sure if there was, there might have been a series of them. So, you know, what to Johannesburg South Africa lead a training class for Microsoft, led training for IBM in seven locations across multiple countries. You know, speaking at a conference in Singapore, keynoting, and then leading a training class

and flying to India and Portugal. And when you look at this type of stuff, I feel like there were definitely several moments where I'd be at a conference and speaking for thousands of people and they would know who I was by being the speaker and I'd walk off stage and all these people knew me, but I didn't know them.

And I was like, oh, wow, that feels good. Like that feels like I'm actually, I'm getting the credibility and recognition for all the hard work that I've done. So I'm trying to remember, I don't know if there's one specific moment, but I think it's probably a series of moments of being in those events, being at those events where I realized that I was

inspiring people. And people reaching out on LinkedIn or sending a follow-up email and just saying, hey, Marie, I appreciated your talk on agile marketing or personal agility. And wow, like here's what I've done in my life. And it's actually given me a positive change. And to me, that makes all the difference. And one of the things I've

been focusing on lately is creating case studies. So actually documenting the results that people get with Agile. And the results are absolutely incredible. And so there's this feeling of, I feel validated in what my contribution is to the world and validated in that people see that. They see that value and they see and recognize that, you know, I have this intrinsic desire that's insatiable to create this positive impact and it's starting to happen. And it's recognizing that. So I think it's like the indicators are other people

feed back from other people that, wow, this was inspiring or because you did that. Now I'm doing this. They're like, okay, cool, that was worth it. That's awesome. And, you know, in what you were describing, you kind of parlayed, you know, agile for business into agile for the individual. And that's something I'm really fascinated about because I think, you know, in what I do prioritization I think is, sits at the key to success or failure.

You know, oftentimes we have all these great ideas, but there's so much going on that we don't prioritize them much. And when I think of Agile, that's something that, you know, I always thought it made you do is prioritize the most important thing. So can you kind of lead us through what was this transition to taking Agile to the individual and how does that manifest itself? Yes.

So it's probably about five years ago. Actually started with just exploring Agile outside of IT. Could you apply Agile and other arenas? So we started with applying it to marketing and looking at what are the results you can get of Agile outside of software development because that's where a lot of people are familiar with it, right? Works really well for large complex projects, but when you look at other applications, it also works really, really well.

So the first thing was with looking at AgilPy to Marketing, it's like, okay, cool. We can get way more return on the dollars spent in ads by using the same technique. First client, we worked with, we got over 300% increased revenue in six months, over 780% increased revenue in a year. So it's like, okay, cool, like that's new. That's exciting.

And so Nick Sementanai, we co-founded the Agile Marketing Academy and that's when I started traveling and teaching Agile Marketing around the world, Europe, Asia, throughout the US. We let a class for McDonald's in Shanghai. We had, it was at their office there. And then with Capital One in DC, we had people from the Capital One that attended.

And it's like, okay, so people are recognizing this. And so then it was a little bit after that that I ran into another trainer from Switzerland, named Peter Stevens, and he was talking about his concept of Agile in your life. And I'm like, yeah, Peter, of course, you can play Agile in your life. Of course, it's gonna get results. We all know that.

And he's like, yeah, but look at what I've been putting together, and he had this thing that he was calling personal agility. And as we were talking more, we started to realize that it was actually something very powerful, effective, and meaningful. And the reason that agile is so much more incredible in your life than just in getting business stuff done is because we ask the powerful question,

what really matters? And invite people to take a holistic view of everything that's going on in their life. And saying, do my actions of what I do every day? Are they in alignment with what I say really matters? And can we map those back? And am I on track? And the answer is often we get so distracted by stuff.

We're just being so reactive, running around busy all the time that we lose sight of that. And it's not just about rinse and repeat and do agile in your life to get more things done, because I've applied agile to achieve some ridiculous things and successfully, very successfully. But it's like there's a lack of sometimes of what I think is most important and that's happiness and fulfillment. We're so busy chasing achievement and things and like statuses that we forget what really, really matters. And I think it's actually being happy and being fulfilled in the things that we do. Yeah, I mean, that's great.

I talk about the need to make a personal contract with yourself. And the next step is exactly what you're saying is you can make that contract. And when I say you make it and needs to have some formality to it, I like to laminate it, put it up, but the hardest thing that people and to have a problem with is adhering to it. So, I think every single day you've got, I like to get up in the morning and think about, my morning walk and my time of mindfulness,

what are the key activities I'm doing today? And are they matching up and progressing against a goal on that on that contract? And that's very difficult. And then at the end of the day, which is even more difficult is I go through process of kind of evaluating what did I get done today and self auditing myself, did I allow myself to get distracted? Did I achieve what I set out to? Because you're absolutely right. What happens is we get so distracted by all the stuff that's around us,

we put urgency over what's important. And I think that's one of the key things that agile and personal agility can do for you. Absolutely. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that over 70% of individuals who did personal development courses masterminds or one-on-one coaching benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. Here at PassionStruck, we are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential

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So if you're a person and you're wanting to apply this in your life, what do you think is the first step? Yeah, so the first step is really to take the time to pause and reflect and ask yourself what really matters and just take a moment to get clarity around that. And so what we recommend is you pick the top three to four things, a whole list of you of everything. So this could be related to your job, career, your business, it could be related to health, family, relationships, it could be a hobby or just some random thing you've always wanted to do. And so when you start to think about

what really matters, the challenge we're going to do is that if everything matters, then nothing matters. If we're so busy doing all the things, or if we're not even able to visualize what we're spending our time on, then chances are you're not necessarily going to get to where you really want to be. You might get an inch of progress in multiple areas, but not a mile of progress in any one area. So what we say is like, start by looking looking at if you're not sure what really matters

then look at what we call the breadcrumbs trail. What are the things you did last week? What about the last month? And there's clues in like your phone and you're who did you talk to? What was on your calendar? What did you do? What did you mark done if you're tracking your work? And are those things that you did, if you carbon copy last week forward to the next week, and the week after that, and the month, if you take last year and carbon copy that to this year, would you be satisfied with that growth, that progress toward those goals? And most often people say, well, no,

I didn't make any kind of, anyway, near the progress that I had hoped to. And so it's through what Agile provides is it provides transparency and accountability. So being able to visualize what really matters and get clarity on that, without the clarity, it's hard to actually take the steps to get there.

And one of my favorite quotes by Lewis Carroll is if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Doesn't even matter what you do because you didn't have a plan, you didn't have a destination. Yeah, I think one of the concepts I like to talk about is this idea of pinball leadership, and I think we all, too many of us are leading pinball lives. And what I mean by that is if you're a pinball, there's no intentionality in a pinball machine. You're bouncing off and letting the game drive where you're going.

Even when you try to give it direction, you end up bouncing off of things and have as great a chance to go down the gutter as you do of achieving your goal. I think so many of us today get caught up in this thing where we're not intentionally going after those things that matter the most to us, just like you're saying. And we practice too much of pinball leadership instead of intentional leadership. Sounds great. I'm glad you brought that up.

Well, I want to talk about, you know, you have done so many things, touched, you know, literally thousands of people around the world. You know, what is your life and the lives of those around you like now compared to what it was before you began your journey? Ooh, you know, I think that before I began my journey into entrepreneurship, I was, I've always been like a high performing overachiever, like always wanting to do my best to things, dash a perfectionism in OCD, right?

And so when you look at, okay, what is it that I went in life? I was like a dreamer without a real destination. So I think back then, like let's rewind 10 years before I started my first business, I was like someone that was hopeful, but someone that was just like trying to figure out what direction do I take, right? So I mean, just just a person that talks about good ideas, like people talk about good ideas every day, but the difference is who acts on them, the people that act on those ideas that make it a reality.

I mean, you can have a great conversation that's super insightful. The person who writes it down and publishes the article is the leader, right? Is the person that's looked to as someone that has expertise. And so now, I think the biggest difference is instead of just being a dreamer, I firmly believe you can achieve anything that you want in this life, anything. And you just have to have clarity on what it is

and start to identify the steps to get there and then take those steady steps And so things like the personal agility system. It's a simple framework to do that if you have a proven method a proven system If you have someone that's done it before that you can just follow in their footsteps of what they've done the trick success leaves a trick And so the difference now is instead of just thinking oh, I wish I had a better life I'd love to live in the big city. I'd love to live in Chicago. I'd love to travel. Instead of just wishing and talking about it,

I actually do it and I do it on a whim at times. And so it's like, one of the things that happens a lot of the people around me, they're like, they all know agile. They're all getting certified and like the things that I train, like my friends, my family, they're all like, you know, that's like an occupational hazard as a certification trainer. It's like a lot of the people around you start to learn the methodologies and the frameworks and stuff. And so it's like

really kind of neat because now I'm surrounded by other people that are in more alignment. They understand the same methods and the ways of getting things done. The tagline for Scrum is twice the work and half the time. Who doesn't want that? That's why the Fortune 100 companies will pay so much for someone to train that. That's why the Fortune 100 companies will pay so much for someone to train that. That's why there's only a couple hundred trainers in the world that are certified to teach that to actually maintain the integrity of the quality of that training. And so like the biggest difference now is not only have I done this for myself, but I'm starting to do it for other people. So like all the people around me, it's almost like, my friend Sharon, she's come a good friend

over the years. She just says, Maria, everything you touch turns a gold. And so like when I'm talking to me, I'm like, ooh, I see opportunity to opportunity here and there with Sharon, I showed her how to use personal agility. She went from working five jobs

and barely getting by and declaring over six figures the first year in business, with her dream job. Then she landed a six figure client beginning of last year. So it's like, wow, okay, let's like, twice a work and half the time, twice the results and half the time, right?

And so, that's what Agile does. So instead of me just talking and thinking and wishing, the difference now is that I take action, I do and I create the results. There's empirical evidence you can see, whoa, that's pretty cool. And if someone's willing to put it in the work, willing to learn, they can do it too. Anybody can do this stuff.

You just have to have the clarity on what you want, and then have the consistency and the follow through. And it can be that easy. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny you bring that up, and that example of Sharon is a great one. I just published an article in the Entrepreneur's Handbook called How to Avoid Becoming a Visionary Arsonist. And we all set out to do these great things.

And I think if you're an entrepreneur or a growth-minded individual, you tend to be visionary as one of your core attributes. And being visionary has its definite advantages because you see this horizon before you, but it also gives you this constant itch at times that you want to change things. You want to do you want to do more, you want to do this. And I think this whole concept of visionary arsonist is sometimes we can be our own worst enemy because we don't like stay in the box of that vision and we tend to try to change it and alter it and do all these things instead of just focusing on getting one piece of that

vision accomplished and then building upon it. I think with what you're talking about, Sharon is, as you gave her the self-belief that she could achieve that vision and then build upon it and then over time, she went from where she was working the five jobs to, you know, now living this dream, you know, creation of her being her own entrepreneur. And, you know, I think that's a great, a great story. So, since I've gotten to know you better, Agile isn't your only passion. And I remember, you know, we live in the same town, so I happened to be walking around the block one night.

And it took me, I guess it, I at first didn't even think it was you because you see someone and then you see him in a different realm. But I saw you DJing in front of a large crowd and you were awesome at it. And then I did some research and found you're globally renowned DJ as well. So how in the heck did you get into that and how do you find time for it?

Yeah, such a good question, John. So I kind of had an opportunity to come across my path. I was speaking at a conference in Philly five years ago and they didn't have any music entertainment. The people coordinating the event, they ran out of budget, they just didn't coordinate a network event, and a friend of mine was putting on the conference. It was the heart of Agile Conference in Philly. An Alistair Coburn, one of the co-authors of the Agile Manifesto, he was like, he came to my friend Nick and I, well, because we were sponsoring the event as the Agile Marketing Academy.

I was speaking about Agile Marketing. And he was like, guys, there must be music, there must be dancing, there must be some kind of networking event, it was like the first year they did that conference. He's like, otherwise, people are not gonna remember it as a fun conference. That's where the magic happens,

that's where people network and talk and connect. And that's where they, you know, it's like, make or break, right? And so he's like, hey, can you in real like DJ or something? Now Nick had been, he had used to run a creative incubator in Chicago. So he said, if you ever run an event space, at some point you're going to have to learn how to DJ because at some point the DJ is not going to turn up, you got to figure out how to use them equipment, right? And so he's like, hey, where are you in a DJ? And I was like, yes, okay, I don't know. I've never done it before.

I literally can't come off of seven days of back-to-back training across three cities. So one was in one of the suburbs of Chicago. It was like three days, like sales training. Then downtown in the city, a two-day class flew out that night, arrived in DC the next morning to another two-day class, and then drove actually flew one of my assistants up to meet me and we then drove from DC up to Philly for the

conference. And so I literally was back to Mac events right before the event, but I think it sounds kind of fun. So the first thing I did John was I created the DJ flyer because I thought that was important. And so Nick's like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, if we're gonna DJ, we need a flyer, right? And I mean, the design quality on this flyer was so good. I mean, back to the marketing routes, right? Like, people like, I DJed the first time at this event and I was kind of nerve-wracking because there were a couple hundred people there,

and I'd never really done it before, but Nick taught me the basics, I knew enough. And then he got us a standing gig in the warehouse district of St.P here in Florida. And so then we were DJing an open mic night. And so after that, I was traveling. And I happened to be in Singapore at a conference, the conference organizers were there. And there's another event in Munich, Germany two weeks later. And I had to stop and speak at a conference and Portugal between. And I was like, you guys are going to get a kick out of this. And I showed him the DJ fire. I was like, you're not going to believe this. And they saw it. And it was like, you guys are going to get a kick out of this and I showed him the DJ fire. I was like, you're not going to believe this. And they saw it and it was like the heart of agile

and night outside IT, right? It sponsored by the agile marketing academy. And so they're like, this is amazing. Do you want a DJ in Munich? I was like, well, don't play with my emotions like that, but yes. And so I didn't have any of the gear. Nick had it all here in Florida. I went out into the streets of Munich, Germany, I found a music store, but all new DJ here, and I was just like ready. Preparations means opportunity. I get to the event and they're like, Maria, we have been planning this event for a year,

no you can't just come DJ. And I was like, oh, okay, well they told me I might be able to. Two nights later, the IBM was sponsoring a conference. There's 750 people there. They were sponsoring a networking event on Tuesday, and there was no music. And the PR girl comes running up and she's like,

where are you? There's no music. And I'm like, so she's like, you can DJ. You can figure out how to work up the AV equipment. You can DJ. I had no idea how to hook up the AV equipment. The way we did it, I got on the mic. I was like, is anyone here know how to hook up the AV?

Some guy comes over. We rigged it through a wireless mic is how we got it to go throughout the entire room. And I think that this just goes to show it's preparation means opportunity. So I discovered I loved it and I've now DJed all around the world from Fiji, the New Zealand to Paris to cruise ships and launched an international DJ career. And you know what's funny, John? All I did is apply an agile to do that. And so I have a whole presentation how I launch an international DJ career

using agile marketing. It's just the agile techniques work. You can literally apply it to anything. You can apply it to your life. You can apply it to launching a product to market. You can launch it, launch a DJ career apparently. And so it's one of those things where agile just works, no matter where you apply it, it's effective.

Well, I want to, at this point, you know, since you just brought that up, where can people learn more about this? You know, how do people, if they want to learn more about agile, more, you know, getting contact with you, you know, how do they do that? Yeah, so you can connect with me if you go to findmarya.com. You can then find the link to all my social media and all the information to get through to my website to find more information on Agile, Agile Marketing Personnel.

Okay, that's great. And I do have to say, you're marketing expertise and I come from marketing world myself even surprises me. So in addition to that story about seeing you DJ, I remember being on top of your apartment building one day in your pool area and all of a sudden a T-Rex appears out of nowhere. It starts bouncing around the area. I remember being with my friends and like, what in the world is going on? In the costume was you.

So what was the idea behind that because this T-Rex started sprouting up all over the place? Yeah, you know, so the giant inflatable T-Rexes, I adore them. I think they're amazing. I think they're hysterical. You know, John, if you've ever studied, like, NLP neuro-linguistic programming,

there's this concept of the pattern interrupt, right? So can you interrupt the pattern of what's happening in life? So people stop and they reflect or they see things differently. And so I think really, I have a lot of shenanigans. If you connect, look on my YouTube channel, really matterily, there's a lot of shenanigans if you connect look on my YouTube channel Maria Madarelli If there's a lot of shenanigans, there's I've done Harlem shakes and Istanbul Panama. I've done

The mannequin challenge in India like there's just like so many shenanigans I really think like life is about living and my motto is to help people work better and live better. And so you can apply agile techniques to all of that, but I think it's also important to have fun while doing it. And there's a new concept that we're putting together, a couple of people that I work with, Mark Wombardi Nelson, Alistair Coburn, Joe Justice, and we're calling it permission to play. So in our agile training classes, corporate training, we actually have to do a product simulation.

So over the years, it gets boring doing the same class over and over, the same simulation over and over. So at one point, we started writing like poems, agile poems and blog posts, and then we started writing agile rap songs. And so what's interesting is by the end of the first day, when we're doing the project simulation just to see how it scrummed the flow works, it's like, okay, now we're going to write an agile song or poem according to this topic. Here's the parameters and the acceptance criteria. Oh, by the way, rap songs are highly encouraged. And what we started to discover is that when you give people permission to play and have fun, they show up in a whole different way. You want to talk about passion, strut, and tapping into passion. Well, people don't want to just go through the motions every day. They don't want to just be a cog in the wheel at a company.

So the whole idea is how can you tap into that passion and let people know it's okay to play. It's okay to have fun. That's where innovation comes from. That's where true engagement comes from, right? And so, my shenanigans are a little ridiculous if you follow me online and my social media. And it's because I think that it's okay to have fun. And if you can get in a giant T-Rex costume and run around, like people that that could make someone's day, they're going to remember

that. I've actually done that at conferences before, it's a big hit. You know, it's about, you don't need to take life too seriously. Like what do you want? Get clarity on it. Take the steps to do it. Find a proven method or system. This is one framework. That doesn't work. We find another, right? Like, what resonates with you? So, I think it's just important to have fun along the journey because if you just hit the destination, it's like, oh, or nothing. Was this the thing that was going to give me full happiness or not? I was in a meeting with one of our global ambassadors for the Personal Jility Institute. We're launching training in Australia.

I shot off my money gun at the end of the meeting yesterday. When we had our next call, she was just like, Maria, that I was telling my husband about it. That was so funny. That was great. I mean, why not end every meeting or interview with a money gun? I mean, that's not going to hurt anything. A friend of mine got me this money gun with my face on it. It's like, why can't you live the way you want to live? You can.

So I just want people to know it's okay to tap into that passion, get people permission to play. And you might be surprised at the outcome that it's greater than you ever thought it could be. Well, I think you just ended us on a phenomenal money gun note. And you actually answered my last question without me even having to ask it. So I thank you so much for coming on the show. You were an incredible guest. And

you know, I love how you told your story, the passion you told it with. And you have so much to be proud of in your amazing career. And I just can't imagine what it will be like in the next 5, 10, 15 years. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Appreciate it. Great to be here. What an amazing show that just was with Maria. And so many words of wisdom that she gave by telling her story the struggles she went through You know starting her career as what she calls a J.O.B Realizing there was a better path for her willing to risk it all to become hash and start to pursue it and take it to the next level So many lessons to be learned from this interview and to be unpacked in your own life.

As I like to end every episode, make a choice, work every day, and step into the sharp edges. You can do this. You have the ability to not only ignite but live your passion. Thank you for watching and listening. And please stay tuned to our next episodes. Thank you so much for joining us. A purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. By sharing the knowledge and insights you can use to unlock your hidden potential. To hear more, please subscribe to the show in iTunes, Spotify, Stitch Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you'd love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes where if you'd simply

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