TrueLife - Regina Huber - Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce our distinguished guest, Regina Huber. If you’re a team leader or manager craving career advancement, Regina is the guiding force you’ve been searching for. With a profound understanding of the challenges you face—feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and perhaps overlooked—Regina draws upon a remarkable journey of personal and professional growth to inspire and uplift.Regina’s narrative unfolds from her roots as the self-proclaimed shyest kid in the village to a stellar 16-year career at Boston Consulting Group, where she ascended to leadership positions and managed global offices. Yet, craving new horizons, she embarked on a transformative journey that took her from successful entrepreneurship in Argentina to a painful setback in Brazil, losing both her business and self-esteem due to a fraudulent partnership.Undeterred, Regina’s resilient spirit led her to New York, where she courageously began rebuilding her confidence. Merging holistic studies, leadership, and neuroscience, she discovered a profound purpose in mindset, energy, and heartset. As she rebuilt her own life, Regina recognized a shared struggle among women in financial and tech services—brilliant yet unrecognized.Regina’s mission became clear: inspire others to overcome these challenges. Her proven methods have helped individuals achieve rapid promotions, negotiate substantial raises, and reclaim control over their professional destinies. Today, Regina Huber stands as a beacon of empowerment, ready to guide you toward your next career milestone. Get ready to be inspired and equipped for success with Regina’s invaluable insights. Welcome, Regina Huber! One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark. fumbling, furious through ruins maze,

lights my war cry, born from the blaze. The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Kodak Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Friday. It looks like we made it. I hope everyone's having a beautiful day.

I hope you got plans for the weekend. I hope you got to wake up in the embrace of the person you love the most. I hope the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the wind is at your back. It is with great pleasure that I introduce our distinguished guest today, Regina Huber. If you're a team leader or manager craving career advancement, Regina is the guiding force you've been searching for with a profound understanding of the challenges you face. Feeling stuck overwhelmed or perhaps overlooked, Regina draws upon a remarkable journey of personal and professional growth to inspire and uplift.

Regina's narrative unfolds from her roots as the self-proclaimed shyest kid in the village to a stellar 16-year career at Boston Consulting Group, where she ascended to leadership positions and managed global offices. Yet craving new horizon, she embarked on a transformative journey that took her from successful entrepreneurship in Argentina to a painful setback in Brazil, losing both her business and self-esteem due to a fraudulent partnership. Undeterred, Regina's resilient spirit led her to New York where she courageously began rebuilding her confidence, merging holistic studies, leadership, and neuroscience.

She discovered a profound purpose and mindset, energy, and heart set. As she rebuilt her own life, Regina recognized a shared struggle among women in financial and tech services. Brilliant, yet unrecognized. Regina's mission became clear. Inspire others to overcome these challenges. Her proven methods have helped, individuals achieve rapid promotions, negotiate substantial raises, and reclaim control over their professional destinies. Today, Regina stands as a beacon of an inspiration, ready to guide you toward your next career milestone. Ladies and gentlemen, Regina Huber, how are you today?

I am doing great. How are you today, George? I'm fantastic. Thank you very much. I'm excited to talk to you. I've been looking forward to this, and we've kind of touched a little bit in that, in that introduction. We talked a little bit on who you are and who you got to be. But I was wondering maybe you could share a personal story about something that that has really transcended the way you see the world in the last few years. Yes. There are definitely a myriad of stories in my adventures life. I have had a very eclectic life as I like to think about it. It started in Germany, as you said, you know, as a shyest little girl in the village. And this adventure spirit inside of me has always pushed me out to the world a little bit. That's at least how I felt it was. And so at

19 I moved to Munich and then I really never stopped moving ever since. So I moved to, and I moved to Madrid after Munich abroad for the very first time at 26th. And I've since lived, in several different countries on several different continents and worked on five continents as well. And this very rich multicultural experience is, I think, what shaped me into who I am today. And then there are all these little stories, of course. We all have our rejection stories. We have our adventure stories. we have our pain stories, our growth stories.

Yes, I believe that one of the stories that really shaped me was a not so happy one with a fraudulent business partner in Brazil, which taught me many, many different lessons, of course. There was a big loss of money involved. I lost a business eventually through this experience. But most importantly, at the time, I lost my self-esteem and my confidence, and I learned how to rebuild it. I learned how to step out of this victim mode that it is all too easy to fall into a self-empowering mindset. And this was a big, big growth experience for me. It didn't happen from one day to the next, but it was a process that has definitely shaped who I am today.

I have a lot of really interesting adventure stories too that are much happier than this one. But I wanted to share this because a lot of people go through challenges and I believe that we all learn through our challenges. Yeah, it's one of my mentors growing up. He was a very successful businessman and he decided that he was going to get into the fishing industry in Cabo. He went down there and he bought some boats and he had what he called his Mexican baptism. that was losing almost everything, you know, and it sounds similar to, I like the idea of a baptism because in some level, it's like you are being initiated into the other world's ideas of business and who you are. And on some level, when you go to start a business in another country,

you are dealing with all of another culture's ideas of your identity, unfairly, probably on a lot of different angles. But maybe we could dive into like what happened down there. Like, you know, were there unrealistic expectations when you went down there? Was there a friendship that was sort of, you know, manipulated? Like, what happened in that story? Yeah, no, it was really somebody who turned out to be fraudulent to embezzled money from a mutual account that we had set up. What happened is I had my business. It was most, for the most part, it was my business.

It was a dance and holistic wellness studio. It was a brick and mortar business for which I had bought a house. I had it built out. You know, it took a while, of course. It was a big house. I put all my money into it, all my efforts, all my heart and my passion into it. And when it was finally already, and we were ready to inaugurate, and I had invited all these people to this big inauguration party.

That was when I found out that he had embezzled money from an account we had for another, project that we wanted to start sort of a side project. So his role in my business was actually only a partial role. He was, I was going to use his name for part of the business, right? Because that's just how, how that collaboration was going to work. And then this happened. And so what, what that meant is now not only could we not do the second project, which was not the big issue really, but I could not trust him for what we already had. it was all all of a sudden, you know, crumbling for me because it did depend greatly on his, on his name. So that was, that was what happened there.

And I think one mistake I really made is I didn't do my due diligence. I had always been really going with the flow, which had worked out just fine until then, right? And all of a sudden, also there was this doubt that although I'd done really everything by myself, in the past, okay, there are always people who, you know, who we collaborate with, but I had walked on my own path pretty much and all of a sudden I thought, okay, maybe there's somebody who can help a little bit and maybe it's just better if there's someone else, you know, you're in this country, you don't know everything so well. And that was, I think, one of my mistakes or learning curves, rather, when I figured out later that,

I could have perfectly done it by myself. I didn't really need this other person. I had done it before. I had established, I had founded and opened and successfully entertained my own business, also breaking more to business in Argentina before. And that despite having to fight against corruption, corrupt city authorities, I even won a lawsuit against the city of Buenos Aires. I mean, there's, you know, I was totally.

able and capable of doing this. And why did I not trust myself enough and think I needed somebody else there to help me? I think that one of the things, but also to just not ask around enough. I trusted this person because he had a name because I had met him on a friendship basis, you know, and we had done some other small business. I was actually accustomed in a way because I took classes with him. So all of this seemed enough while I believe that there was actually an inner voice, an intuitive voice that was whispering to me saying, hey, you know what?

It doesn't sound quite right. Something's not quite right. And I didn't listen to it because I wanted it to be right. Yeah. Yeah. It's that confirmation bias. It gets us sometime. But it's such a unique.

Well, maybe the unique is not the right word. I think that in the world of entrepreneurship, like we're faced on both sides. One is that you can't do it alone. And the other two is who can you trust? And those two forces kind of come at each other at a level that coalesces in that inner voice. And you really have to hone that inner voice, that heart set like you call it. Maybe you could maybe talk a little bit about that more because we do need each other to grow, but how do you trust people? And what happens when you trust and you get burned?

Yes, absolutely. I'm all for co-creation and collaboration. Okay. I just believe now that, first of all, I have learned to trust my intuition more again. I have really practiced this heart set, this one asset that we can find in our heart of many, many treasures that we can find in our hearts, right? So I had to relearn to trust this inner voice. I had to also relearn to, I don't know if that's even the case. I do trust people relatively easily because I always want to see the best in people. However, you know, that trusting in business situations where money is involved, where it's it's something deeper, a longer term collaboration.

I think I'm just much more cautious with that right now. And I'm also more cautious with who I let into my core business. So one thing is to collaborate on different projects with other people, which I love doing. And another thing is, who do I let in? to my business as somebody who has an important voice in it or even even an external reputation voice, you know? And and there I'm pretty protective, I have to say. Because also, it's so hard to account for other people's messages. Now, oftentimes, even sometimes, it has happened to me on a number, on podcasts or in in life situations words, then hard to correct where people quote some

celebrities that I do not resonate with at all because I know too much. So these are situations that are a bit tricky. And when you, when your name, your good name is at risk, I think we need to be protective as business owners. That does not mean we cannot collaborate with others. Yeah, it's a, I think that that is maybe it's where I'm at in life or maybe that's the state of the world or I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning is, but it does seem like we are in this new space where we are trying to come up with a message when we co-create. And even though we may come from different parts of culture or we come from different parts of business.

You know, how do we get a message together that resonates? Like, what do you do when you meet with someone that's in a business that you like, but kind of has a different message? How do you co-create with that? Yes, I think they can coexist and coexist peacefully and even co-creatively, which is more than that. Right. Co-creation is even more than collaboration. We create something new and bigger together than we could create on our own.

How do you bring these complementary, call them sometimes assets, right? This complementary skills, talents, wisdom, knowledge, resources. How can we bring those together so that we can build something bigger together or something surprisingly different that we just could not build. on our own somehow, right? Because we have different perspectives, because we have, yeah, no ideas, different types of creativity and how it fits together. Somebody might be a great speaker and the other one might be a great writer just to give you a single example. And they come together in this, in this perfect symbiosis where they can create something beautiful to

together. You know, it's interesting. I hear a lot about co-creating, but it seems there's something that plagues us, and it's this idea of identifying categories. Like, you know, one I hear all the time is that, you know, like, I think that we all could benefit from having more woman founders out there. But often one of the problems I hear is that a lot of, a lot of people that are like, saying that there's no funding for women out there.

They get such a small percentage of it. Like, do you think it's a problem when we identify as a group? Like, when we play like group dynamics, doesn't that on some level drive a wedge in between the people that need to fund the people and stuff like that? Like, breaking us down into like groups, that seems to be a problem for me. Like, why can't just the best ideas win?

Yeah, I'm absolutely for the best ideas to win. Yes. I'm absolutely for merit-based everywhere. And companies, you know, just talked to a lady the other day who said, I should have been promoted to this and that, you know, position last year, but I was told that I couldn't because they had to promote a diverse person. And I mean, first of all, I have to laugh because we are all diverse, right? Such a good answer, yes. Yeah. And then, you know, I mean, how can one person alone be diverse?

That's not possible. So that's not okay because that creates division. That creates resentment. that creates all the things that we supposedly want to not create with these initiatives. You know, it's just not right. So, yes, everybody should have the same possibilities, the same opportunities, you know. Sometimes it's also what we do with them. And I'm not saying that there has never been discrimination or whatnot. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying, you know, we are taking it to an extreme where we are constantly putting people,

people into, you call it categories. I often call it boxes. And we forget to see the individual. To see the human being. And you know what? For me, inclusiveness is exactly that. To see the individual human being with all their unique greatness and unique brilliance. Because that's what it's all about.

Because when we do that, the discrimination goes away automatically, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. You know, when you shine a light onto differences, that's what you find. But when you shine a light into, you know, a diverse group of thoughts coming together, that's what you find. And I think we just get that, we get that mixed up sometimes because it's, there's so much emotion evolved and involved in it. It's fascinating. I do think we're on the precipice of creating a better world where a more diverse group of people can come together and solve problems. but we kind of have to get out of our own way, I think. Yeah, and out of this conformity thinking, because a lot of those initiatives have to drive us into more conformity

rather than more diversity, more diversity of thought, more diversity of perspective. And we need to be really careful to not cross that line too much because it is a lot about, you know, it's really a lot about mind control, frankly, and politicizing the topic. So to come back to the funding, I've heard this too. I don't have all the exact data.

I'm not so much a data person. I really look at how can we find a solution for the individual or, you know, if it's a training group, whatever, or a team, how can we find a solution? Right. So not so much looking at, oh, poor me, I'm not getting the funding. I'm looking at, okay, what can you do? right what can you do to maybe get it and you know some businesses don't get funding easily if i create a coaching business and a lot of women who are founders in that sense or who are entrepreneurs they are in coaching they are in in in in activities that don't as easily attract funding i think also

because we're natural caretakers, at least to some extent. And we also need to look at, okay, how is this data composed? And I don't know the exact answer, but from we're observing, you know, there are women who get funding when they have physical products more easily, for example, right? We could maybe get, you know, some people get grants, but I think it's a difficult topic. I really don't know that it is because they are women, frankly. And I don't, I'm not contradicting it.

Right. I just don't. Yeah. I really think that there's a opportunity for maybe for us to move past the idea of founders and start working as like a team of founders. I think that when one individual is a founder, you know, it really puts a lot of of pressure on you to be this incredible thing that doesn't really, I don't know that one person creates anything. It seems like a team of people create or give energy to an idea. And when you,

you know, when you look at, I don't know, it just seems, it just seems odd to me. But I'm really, I think the future is going to be a lot more co-creation. And once we start getting over these rigid ideas of categories and blaming things and stuff like that, I think we're going to move into this world where we have a lot of abundance. And that, it kind of brings me up to this idea about networking. And in your experience, what role does networking play in career advancement? And how can individuals effectively leverage networking opportunities? Yeah, absolutely. Networking is, of course, key. We know it, right? Now, I would say sometimes it's worth going outside of the regular networking path, like walking a little bit outside of that. So instead of, for example,

if you aren't in an organization, you want to build your internal network or extend it, then maybe go a little bit outside of your business line, right? And look into other business lines within the organization. Go outside of your organization also. I used to be, a member of the financial women's associations leadership group, not because I'm a financial woman, but I wanted to connect with these women because I can help them. And so I did a lot of volunteer work setting up events, doing some speaking also through that, right?

And, you know, they were networking with other women, of course, in other organizations, but then also, and gladly so, there were women, or also some men, but mostly women in this case, who came in from other industries and joined them. Because I noticed also that they could actually benefit from potentially providing services. And it's not just about coaches. There were lawyers.

There were other professions that connected as well. And I believe that when we show true curiosity and interest for what other people bring to the table, then they are also more easily willing to help us out and make introductions and connections. I love to connect people and build bridges. And when somebody does that, they will also get offered new connections that might potentially lead to new business or. a collaboration or whatever it is. Yeah, it's, I think there's something to be said for the bridge builder, someone who can go into, you know, a group or some meetings

and maybe not come out with anything for themselves, but can come out with something for the other person. Like, you know what? You know who you should talk to is this other person over here. I notice you guys share this thing. And I think that's a vital part of building who you are, building an identity or even a business, is just being able to understand the connection.

And I think that's where networking can really play a big part of it, which connects to the idea of meaning. Where do you put the idea of like a deeper sense of purpose in business? Like how does that fit into the idea of business in your mind, like a deep set of purpose? Yes. First of all, I believe that purpose has several meanings, right? And it depends on how everybody defines it for themselves. I believe my purpose is twofold or maybe threefold. One is growing in life, growing as who I am.

Call it a soul being or whatever you want to call it. Another is to make an impact, to make a difference, to do something as you call meaningful, right? Something that has intrinsic meaning. And that could be, you know, that could be cleaning. It could be anything, really. It doesn't always have to be something like, you know, a speaker that speaks to millions of people from a stage.

Then the third is to really also then that type of, yeah, so really grows making a difference and also feeling that this is aligned with who I am, right? So it doesn't feel inauthentic. so that actually I can be happy while doing it, while I might not be happy in every little moment. You know, overall, I feel fulfilled and happy with what I do. Okay.

I believe some people can find this outside work. Some people, you know, do their work because they want to do their work and make a certain amount of money. And then they volunteer. or they find it in their family, whatever. I just don't think that's, for most people, that's not sustainable forever. That's at some point, frustration sets in,

or maybe even depression or burnout. That's why it's important, at least for most people, to do the work we love, or at least a piece of the work we love. And also feel recognized through it. Because if we only work, work, work, and if we even love the work, but nobody sees it ever, and we are never acknowledged, then that can also lead to frustration, of course.

Yeah, I want to touch on that for a minute. Like the idea that, and I think this happens to most people in your life, is that you begin creating something and maybe you're happy with it for a while, but then it doesn't go the way you want and you lose that inspiration, or you lose that fire or you lose the motivation or maybe it's just an age thing where like you've aged out of something and you're no longer finding the passion and joy in there what and for some people that can be a blessing later like leaving something behind that you no longer want to do and taking an opportunity to reinvent yourself whether it's magic or tragic you know in your case it was it took

losing everything in order for you to rebuild something new that you was a new part of you maybe you could speak to that transition. Like, what is that something that happens with most people? And what do you do when you have left everything and you're starting something new? What's that transition like? And what are some tips and tricks you can help people maybe move through there? Yeah, for me, it was also harsh in a way because I really had not planned on leaving Rio de Janeiro, but my work permit was somehow also eventually lost because I didn't

pay the authorities off. I was fighting it. I always like, I have this thing. I want to stay in my integrity. I don't know. Right. Corruption. Okay.

Was not an easy thing to do really because I really wanted to stay in Rio de Janeiro. However, I also had this inkling that I at some point potentially wanted to live in New York City, which I hadn't really seriously considered before. And when I arrived in New York City, I was literally standing there and saying, hey, what am I going to do with all this eclectic experience, with the resilience I have gained, with all my leadership experience at BCG with the different languages, now coming back to an English speaking, you know, territory after speaking, of course, Spanish and Portuguese for seven years without a network in New York City, not knowing anybody except for like maybe three people

were always busy and traveling for work. So it was a completely new start, but I was excited. And I said, okay, how am I going to fit all of this together into something meaningful? Here it comes again. Where it could have meaningful me personally, give me satisfaction, but also make a difference. And that's how transform your performance was born, this coaching, speaking, and training business. Of course, it wasn't from one day to the next.

had to do a lot of clarity finding. I had to, first of all, gain my confidence back and my self-esteem. That's also how eventually I wrote the book that I wrote, Speak Up, Stand Out and Shine, because I had to come up with crutches for myself, some tools and techniques that allowed me to even go network and speak about a business that didn't exist yet. So all these different things that we encountered on this path,

yes, and I, you know, it wasn't totally clear in the beginning. beginning, what exactly it should be, who exactly I wanted to work with. It was all a journey. I believe that sometimes when we're not on the right path or when it's time to take the curve or to, you know, have or just really go in a new direction, do something different. If we don't do it, if we drag it out too long, if we resist it and procrastinate it. The universe sometimes steps in and says, hey, you know what, here you go. Here you go. And now you see how you resolve it, right?

And that's when this blessing moment, as you mentioned earlier, I believe, if I remember well, when he said, you know, sometimes it's a blessing in disguise. A lot of people can't see it in the moment because that's when we are shocked, when sometimes we're even devastated when we're in pain, but later we recognize that this somehow had to happen so that we would embark on a different journey. And I see this also with clients of mine who get laid off. You know, some of them have been like considering, like playing with the idea for a while,

but they didn't want to take the step. And all of a sudden, boom. now and then they they got to take the step but then they actually often are relieved because it was no longer right for them you know and and it could be anything

really hopefully for some people it's a sickness hopefully for most people it doesn't have to be that a lot of people also go through deep transformation when they get seriously sick Yeah, it's, I love the holistic and borderline spiritual approach to it.

I think that there is a force bigger than us. And it's going to, like, it's going to walk you up to the edge and then push you if you don't jump. You know, it's like, okay, you got to jump and I can't do it. And then there's just this force that says, yep, you sure can. And it's going to push you off. And like, it's that leap of faith that is not only frightening, but liberating. On some level, when you take that jump, you no longer have the weight of the world on your shoulders.

You may have a new weight on your shoulders. You may have the fear of falling on your shoulders. But I heard a good quote that said, the difference between fear and excitement is a breath. And I think that's what happens to people. You know, and it's, I hope that people who find themselves pondering the idea of starting something new and creating a new pathway in life versus staying with this old. thing that's creating a lot of misplaced anger, I hope they choose the first option because the world's trying to tell you there's a better option for you, but you've got to believe in yourself to do it. And you touched on something that I want to go back to for a moment.

That is this, when you moved to New York, you had to build crutches and tools in order to get to the spot that you wanted to be. Is that something like, can you just talk about that a little bit? Did you need to know that you had to build a tool to get where you wanted to be or was it like an energy or let's talk about that one. I think that's amazing. Yeah, so I had studied a lot of holistic stuff, you know? holistic modalities like body talk and then some other really powerful modalities. And those gave me a lot of the tools I needed to transform back into my courageous self and into my more confident self.

And of course, you know, they gave me ideas for tools, right? for, for example, how to trigger a feeling of confidence. I had learned that I could anchor something in my muscle memory and then just trigger it if I wanted, if I needed it. Yeah. For like a challenging situation. Like speaking in front of an audience, for example, or going to a networking event.

I had learned how energy works. I could use energy tools, right, and optimize my energy to enhance my presence my perceived presence, and two, at the same time, and this is why I love the energy tools, raise my confidence level with those exercises, right? And these are what I call the crutches that I later put into my books,

because they're not in shine, because I figured that they could help other people as well, and I wanted them to be available also to other people. And, you know, I also want to touch on some something else that you said. So you talk about fear and excitement. I sometimes also call it to turn anxiety into excitement because sometimes it's that anxiety borderline fear that we that we experience, especially when we move or want to stay in this so-called comfort zone, which is actually not comfortable at all once we know we want to get out of it. So actually I call it

usually the convenience zone. And why do we not want to step out of that? Because there's uncertainty outside of that. And there's fear that we need to face. But there's also no courage without fear. We cannot have courage, which, by the way, is also in our heart. We can find courage in our hearts because fear is in our minds. Courage is in our hearts, right?

And if we cannot feel fear, we do not feel fear, how are we going to find courage? Courage is doing it despite the fear. Fear can actually be a really great transitioning tool, to call it something, into the jump that you mentioned. Yeah. Right. Without that fear, maybe nothing happens, actually, if we don't face that fear. So it's okay to face that fear and acknowledge it instead of suppressing it and make a decision to move through it and face it and say, okay, I'm going to do it anyway. And then it might feel still a little scary, but it feels already better because you know that you're moving. You know that you're taking. action. You know that you're taking the next step. And sometimes action means just sitting down and reflecting and making a plan if you're not ready yet to take the first step. That's fine. Also, a lot of people struggle with confusion. I always say confusion is the first step to clarity.

Don't be afraid of confusion. If you're not in a state of confusion and you want to have a big change in your life, how would you get there? If you never go through confusion, you will never start thinking and reflecting and listening inside of yourself. At least this is my take on it. Yeah, it's beautiful. And this is why people should be clicking the link below and checking out your books and reaching out to you, is that you have a wealth of knowledge and more than that lived experience. You know, what's it like to, when you talk about confusion being the first step to clarity

or finding tools in order to be stepping stones and to give. to the places where you are. That's hard enough in your own environment. But what's that like to go to another continent, another country and try to put that into action? Yeah. So I sometimes traveled with a job, but sometimes I also traveled to a whole new continent

with just a dream in my pocket. I love it. Now, when I left my job, my leadership role at BCG San Francisco, I packed up everything I was, had I flew down to Buenos Aires to open a bed and breakfast. I had no idea of how to write a business plan. I had no idea whether I needed a business plan. I had no idea of how it all worked, whether I find a house, you know, how a bed and breakfast even works. I just, I went there and I started doing it. And you know what? It was number one on TripAdvisor for the entire time almost it was open. And you know why? Because there was not, we didn't have as many tools back then. There was not as much online. But yes, I set up a simple website in four languages or whatever.

Everybody could understand it. It was pretty basic. And I signed up for TripAdvisor. And I had this idea that if I sent every single, every single guest, a review link afterward that they could easily fill out in one or two minutes that they would, do that and this is how i got to number one i believe you know also because i had great mattresses and and the most amazing breakfast of all the other 24 better breakfasts okay sometimes even made the brand myself so and really great tourist service you know information where i i told people about things a little bit off the beaten track which is what i like to see when i travel so plus and here comes the collaboration right George I made friends with a neighboring bed and breakfast and they soon sent me that overflow

because they were more established longer established and so we exchanged guests when we had you know my place was relatively small yeah so I mean I just I sent people to them and they sent people to me and that's how I work it's on it's beautiful and I think it does This does speak to the idea of collaboration. It doesn't have to be the zero-sum game. We're like, you are here and I'm here. And if you don't lose, I don't win. It doesn't have to be like that.

But for some reason, it seems we've been plagued by this all or nothing mentality. And it just people can work together and be successful and be even better. You know, we can have our own ecosystem of people that are willing to trust a little bit. And it's hard. Like you said in the beginning of the story, like you can get burned and you probably will get burned. And if you do get burned, what lessons did you learn from getting burned? Right. It's amazing.

Yeah. And even, you know what? I have the craziest stories with this. I hear them. This one story when I sent my money down to Argentina, right? I'm not going to go into too much detail because it's a little. But at some point, this money had disappeared on its path to Argentina. And I had to literally find it again because the guy who was helping me with this, his English wasn't great.

So I found my money again on the internet. Can you believe it, George? I don't know how. Somebody must have, like my spirit guide must have said, look here, look here, look here. Because there was no other way, no other way. I was like so baffled when I said, oh, here it is, here is, here's my money. How did I even get here? You know, I would never be able to describe it again.

And so the money was gladly not loved, right? But later, I actually had to transport that money from where it was to the seller's bank. And we had to pay cash in Argentina at the time, at least. It could still be like that. You had to pay dollars in cash at the bank. So you can imagine this like you're sitting around a table at a bank, at the Sellas Bank usually, and you're counting dollars, like hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then you pay and then you sign and then it's yours. So it was not recommended to take a cab just outside the bank where I was picking the money up or the or the place because there were cases when taxi drivers actually were observing that, you know, and robbing people.

So I found myself on a hot summer day in Buenos Aires carrying several hundred thousand dollars in my socks from one bank to the other. Can you believe like one wrong money falling on the street like and it could have been gone like I have more of us. Many many actually did it again. when I sold again. So anyway. Were you born with an adventurous spirit? It sounds like you have these, did you have similar adventures as a kid growing up?

Like, is this something you're born with, do you think? Well, here's the thing, right? I was very shy as a kid, extremely shy. There were also not many kids my age in the village of 10 houses where I grew up. I grew up on a small farm as the oldest of five. And what I did see, though, is my dad, although, you know, we could never travel as kids for vacation because my parents never had a vacation. They could never get away.

My dad had a full-time job in addition to the farm, so you can imagine. But we did go to the mountains sometimes, which were not too far away. Whenever my dad had time and, you know, could make it, we would go to the mountains and he would go also on ski tours and stuff like that. So he loved adventure, actually. He took his bike to Budapest once a simple bike, like back then, right? Not these modern whatever. No, it was a very simple bike. He rode it all the way to Budapest from our little village in the southeast Germany of Germany, not too far from Salzburg.

And then later, with the same friend, they went all the way down to, I think it was the same friend anyway, to almost Rome, Italy where it's like all hills and, you know, that's the stuff he did when he could, right? And later I found out that we actually had an extremely adventurous person in our family in my dad's lineage, who I never met. He, I never knew about him until a few years ago when there was a documentary about him. This guy traveled up all the Nile from East Africa, where the Nile starts like, you know, Uganda, Rwana, all the way up to Egypt in a boat by himself. He's, that's the crazy thing to read. I don't know that anybody has ever repeated that or survived that, right?

He was almost eaten by crocodiles once. He was thrown into prison once because he needed a permit, which he actually. had to travel through a specific area. He ate with the pygmies. I mean, it was like everywhere he slept, everywhere he stopped, sorry, he ate and, you know, and slept with the people he encountered along the way. This was this guy. And he had also actually climbed mountains that hardly anybody has ever climbed by himself. And he was just not famous. He did presentations, light presentations, to finance his trips and so on, but he wasn't like world famous. You know, he just did these things very humbly by himself.

And he did have an older friend who sometimes was with him. And then sadly, he was killed, actually, at the end of this trip. And probably arriving to Egypt in Egypt. It was almost done because he, we know because he, there's the proof in the form of postcards and some photos that he he would send with those, you know, cameras that we have back then the instant cameras. Right. Yeah. But it's a, it's a really, really fantastic story. I had no idea.

So when you asked about adventurous spirit, it's probably coming from that lineage. I love it. And to me, it speaks to the idea of success. You know, it seems it is, at least in the Western world, we identify success with lots of money in a bank or living a comfortable life. But perhaps for some people, a successful life could be an adventurous life, someone who's taken chances and someone who's traveled and someone who has a wealth of stories they could tell by a campfire that would keep people captivated.

Like, you know, I'm hopeful that we can. begin to see success or broaden our definition of success into these things. And I think that when you do that, I think that you have more to give. You know, it seems like someone with a lot of money has a lot to give, but maybe someone with a lot of experience has even more to give. And I think that's one thing that's unique to you is that you have all these adventures. You have all these amazing stories. And that is where I think a real teacher can stand out. And I think that's what you are. We're helping so many cool people and you've written these things. And I think you're just getting started on some level. You have all these cool things, but maybe you could speak to this idea of

delegating 10 to 20 hours a week of busy work and how leaders can effectively identify tasks for that. Yeah, absolutely. Before I do, I just really wanted to pick that idea up really quickly because, you know, a rich life to me, as you said, you know, to me it's about having a freaking amazing life. That is, you know, this is really what I call a freaking amazing like it's not always perfect it has its ups and downs you all have them but it's it's about okay do you live the life that is aligned with you right with who you are but to come back to your question yes yes so i have created what i call a taskmaster tool it's a very simple tool i made it in excel where we identify activities i made this once for a client who needed it and then i created it

as a freebie, you know, for other people as well, and where we really identify, okay, what are activities that are indispensable, what activities that we don't really need to do? If those are the ones that usually go away when we don't do them, get to them in a week or so, right? And all of us, they magically disappear. And nobody cares if they're ever done.

And then there are things that we need to delegate. And sometimes that doesn't depend on us, so we have to negotiate the delegation. And when we're in a leadership role where we have that what we call authority sometimes or that decision-making power, then we can decide it for ourselves. But then we also need to trust our team because we cannot delegate or it's hard to delegate when we do not trust. We want our team to trust us as leaders. we want to build trust, but do we trust our team?

This is a two-way path, right? So I think that's also important and important learning curve for a lot of leaders because it's, of course, sometimes hard to trust that somebody does it equally well as we. But what if they could even do it better? Yeah. And some people feel threatened by that too, right? Yep. but a lot of times I think is that we don't trust that they can do it as well as we do.

And maybe it doesn't always have to be perfect. Maybe it just sometimes has to be good enough. And maybe it's not even good enough the first time around and then we need to step in. But then, you know, and support, not do it ourselves again, not step in that way. But support so that we can then create that learning curve for the people who eventually. can do it themselves. And over time, this will free up, of course, a lot of busy time. I also believe that sometimes just by taking a break we can actually save time when we are too stressed out or anxious or, you know, any of those dates where we feel debilitated,

it's really hard to focus. a little break can do one another times too. But again, to come back to that very simple tool, taskmaster, it has several different columns where we, here we do categorize into, you know, tasks or activities according to also whether they are important for our career, whether they give us visibility, whether they're important for the next level, want to get to so that we can make sure we have enough time also to focus on our own career growth if that's something we want. There's a lot of people just shove more and especially

women oftentimes they shove more tasks and responsibilities onto their already full plates thinking that someday they will discover it and rewarded for it with a promotion or a race and that's just usually not how it happens. And they don't realize that they get busy and busy and busier, but they don't really have the time to be visible and to do, you know, presentations to decision makers or participate in a panel or find those opportunities for themselves. So I also want my clients to be very conscious and deliberate about what new responsibilities

they take on and which ones they better leave to the side. it's fascinating to me to get to hear the different perspectives of someone with so much lived experience. Additionally, I'm always intrigued by someone who can speak multiple different languages. You know, it seems to me when you can do that, you're forced to think in different languages, which forces you to see the world in a bigger way. Like you're able to see the symbolic meaning of things. Maybe other people can't.

Like some of, if you only speak one language, you know, you have like this sort of lens that you put on and you see the world. But if you can see through three different shade color glasses, all of a sudden, you can tell the lilies from the roses. And you can tell the, you know, the Venus fly trap from this other carnivorous plant over here. But maybe you can speak to this idea of how not only getting to travel to these different continents and countries, but also getting to speak the language. has helped you model reality in a different way. Absolutely. Different languages have different structures. They have different grammar,

and that tells you that people think differently. Okay. And there are words that are untranslatable. Like, for example, the Portuguese word, saudade in European Portuguese pronunciation or Saudaji, Brazilian, It means something like yearning, something like many things, you know, like missing somebody. It can have all these different meanings, but there's no exact translation for that word. It could be nostalgia, but you have always to somehow describe it or use a translation depending on the context.

And that happens, I think, with any language, right? Their language is where certain concepts have 10 words where we only have one. It is really amazing how that works, right? I believe you're absolutely right. It opens up your horizon. You start thinking in different structures and different types of logic. because also language have their logic. The English language is the least.

As far as pronunciation is concerned. But yeah. And then even your mouth adapts. Everything adapts according to what language you speak the most. I had this experience, for example, when I spent my first few years in Spain and I would come back to or go back home to Germany once a year. And I could not pronounce the German S.

Everybody would say, do list list. The German speakers here can know what that means. I was like speaking like with an S that did not sound German, okay, not at all. It sounded Spanish. And it took me several days. to be able to pronounce that naturally again. So it was really interesting. Also, my siblings always laugh at me

when I visit home now, especially my younger sister. She likes to tease me with these things. The word he just said does not exist. You know, I make words up because it's from other languages. And I just make them up. And sometimes, you know, even in your own night, native language, you say the other way around is it would be in this other language. It happens sometimes.

So it doesn't mean you mix everything up, but just there are certain, you know, words. But anyway, it's a very interesting concept. How culture flows into the language, just as culture flows into the dance. I love to dance and to observe all these different dances. I learned a bunch of lessons through dance for business and for leadership as well. So, you know, there's... There's all these different aspects of culture. Also, how languages sound.

Some languages sound very abrupt, like German can sound abrupt. European Spanish can sound abrupt too. Latin American Spanish, the different versions of it usually sound less abrupt. They sound more, I don't know what to call it, now softer. or European Portuguese sounds completely different to Brazilian Portuguese. To an extent that sometimes they don't understand each other and the movies have to be dubbed. Really? So, you know, it's such an interesting phenomenon.

Language is also probably one of the reasons. why I love to pick language apart and question so much, because when you learn a foreign language, you want to understand the logic sometimes or the why something is called a certain way. Now, when I look at certain terms in business that don't make sense to me that I just cannot use them. I would never use the term time management doesn't make any sense to me. Priority management, yes, but time management, we cannot manage time. Time just is. It doesn't let itself be managed.

And that's why people get so frustrated when they want to manage it. Or work-life balance. What is that even? Work is part of life. And balance we're not going to achieve anyway. It's again about priorities. It's about what's most important right now, maybe in your life. Yeah, it's mind-blowing to me.

Like, I had never thought of in my life how speaking a certain language can change your facial features. But why wouldn't it? Of course, like, those are all the muscles in your face. And if you pronounce this a certain way, it's going to change the way you look. And then that bleeds into, you know, why does this culture look this way versus this way? Or, you know, it's so mesmerizing or even dance. I never thought about that either. But what does that speak to when someone does the samba?

That's such a different relationship than someone that's doing this other dance over here. Like it speaks to the idea we interact with each other and why maybe this culture doesn't really get along with this code. Like they have whole, you could see it everywhere. It's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. And I believe, you know, maybe your face doesn't completely change, but your face muscles adapt, you know, they're adapt. And they, and what becomes easier to pronounce is now, you know, some things.

are now becoming easier to pronounce versus other things. Now then when you start speaking a different language again more often or for the first time more often, then you adapt to that, right? That's why when we even spoke a language in the past and haven't spoken it in a while, why it's harder to pronounce it correctly again because everything has adapted. Yeah, and I like what you said about, structure too sometimes you put the noun before the verb or the verb before the noun like you know you can see that in society well this is more important in this action we're going to talk about it right now and some people like we're going to do it right now like i bet there's a lot of similarities in the structure of the language and the structure of the action right but i don't know i mean we

and jr and we're always at the end so we would never take action right but that's what makes the translator for when they have to translate to German or to know actually from German because until the end of the sentence, they don't know what the person is going to say in terms of the verbs. But in English, because I would come pretty much at the beginning, not exactly, but yeah. So that's what makes the life of a translator hard sometimes. Yeah. It would be interesting to see. Is sign language universal?

I don't know. Is that, are you familiar with sign language for people that? I'm not. I'm not. And actually it meant interpreting, not translation just now. Right. Translation is usually used for written. Yeah.

But, but anyway, so, so yeah, I don't know what I would, I would think so. I, you know what? That's a question that I asked. I said, and then I forgot to actually look it up. So I have to look it up now. Me too. Maybe in the audience as somebody who knows. Yeah.

If there's anybody in the chat right now, put it in there. I would love to see that. It's just fascinating, the idea of language and communication and all these ideas that we have about translating and interpreting and taking action. It's wonderful to me. Regina, this is a fascinating conversation. And just like that, an hour already blows by. It's so much fun to talk to you. I hope that everybody will take a moment to.

go down to the show notes and check out the books. Reach out to you as someone who is a coach and a leader and someone with lived experience. But more than that, someone who sees life as an adventure. I think that the world needs more of that. And I think that you are a uniquely place to help people see the adventure in life and in themselves. But before I let you go, what do you have coming up? Where can people find you?

And what are you excited about? Yes. I have several new projects in the works right now. I just cannot talk too much to them yet. But yeah, there are some collaborations actually going on, and I am considering also to do a co-creation project for a podcast with a friend in South Africa. So that's something I think I can already say. Again, you know, just really the usual, lots of exciting projects,

some online workshops in the works, a masterclass on pay raises, coming up next week again. I have done some similar ones. This one is going to be a little bit shorter because sometimes people don't have an entire hour. So I'm focusing specifically on pay raises and this one and three secrets in that context that people need to know. I have been, and I shouldn't maybe even say this because it might become a commitment, right? But I have been thinking about this new book and I started jotting down some notes and whatnot. I just haven't really gotten to it yet, but at some point there will be another book. And yeah, I always, you know, love working with bold, value-driven and people-centric leaders. If you need anything

in your career for your leadership, for your leadership presence, your leadership skills, I'm here to work with you to support you. Reach out and we'll have a chat. Well, hang on briefly. I'll speak to you briefly afterwards about a few small details. But ladies and gentlemen, I cannot recommend Regina enough. Go down to the show notes. Go check her out. And I hope everybody has a beautiful day and a beautiful weekend. And I hope you choose to live an adventurous life and do some pondering on night, your idea of success.

That's all we got for today, ladies and gentlemen. Aloha. Thank you.