Coming Full Circle

Embracing Intuition and the Courage to Start Anew: A Conversation with Stephanie Yonan

In this special episode of 'Leap 2 Empower,' host Shaila Lalani sits down with Stephanie Yonan, an intuitive coach and pivotal figure in the creation of the podcast. Stephanie shares her transformative journey from a successful career in property management and investments to embracing her intuition and helping others through personal coaching. 

The conversation dives deep into the challenges of starting over, the balance between financial and emotional empowerment, and the courage it takes to follow one's true calling. Stephanie also discusses her grounding practices, the importance of living in the present, and actionable advice for anyone feeling stuck. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of following whispers of intuition and making life-changing leaps.

01:20 Stephanie's Career Journey in Property Management

03:45 Challenges of Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Industry

07:30 Discovering and Embracing Intuition

11:38 Transition to Intuitive Coaching

18:10 Facing the Pressure of Money

19:31 Taking the Leap of Faith

20:23 Embracing Financial Empowerment

22:10 The Power of Meditation

24:22 Finding Joy and Freedom

26:18 Advice for Those Feeling Stuck

31:05 Soul Sparks: Rapid Fire Questions

Thanks for tuning into Leap 2 Empower for real stories of real people who dared to leap.

Follow along on Instagram @leap2empowerpodcast for updates!

If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs it. And remember your leap doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be yours.

Transcript

Shaila 0:00

Hello Leapers and welcome to the new episode of Leap to Empower I'm Shaila Lalani, and this podcast is to honor the real life stories of people who dare to leap into the unknown. I am so excited as this episode is extra special because it features someone who played a key role in the very creation of this podcast. Stephanie Yonan is not just my guest, she's the wise friend who looked me in the eye and said, Shaila, you're going to start the podcast. Those words stayed with me, and here we are, full circle. Stephanie has always had a deeply intuitive presence. Her journey spans years of experience in property management and investments where she built successful teams and made sharp decisions, often guided by her gut long before she named it intuition. Now she's following her heart, working one-on-one with people to help them realign with who they are. But in today's episode, we're not just talking intuition, we're talking about the reality of starting over and what it takes to leap into a life that actually feels like yours. In this episode, we talk about the courage to change, what it means to empower yourself financially and emotionally, and how our deepest leaps often start with a whisper. Let's get into it. Stephanie, I am so excited to have you on the show today. Let's get started.

Stephanie 1:26

I'm so excited to be here and I just can't even believe that you started your podcast and that I get to be a guest on it, so thank you. Okay, so my story I originally went to school for marketing, although I can't say I've used a marketing degree at all in my

Shaila 1:44

career. Really,

Stephanie 1:44

although I do feel like I used it, I didn't use it professionally. I was not in a marketing department of any sort. So, I actually went directly into property management. I worked for a company which was a REIT. I really learned how to do things incredibly well while also using attorneys and making sure every T was crossed and every I was dotted. And then I did go private after that, and continued to just move up the ranks. So I learned a tremendous amount. After that I went back to a REIT. Working at a REIT is very differently than working for private. And all during this time, I, had a daughter. And so I was working probably 12 plus hours a day, if not more. I was exhausted. But I had this fire in me to do it. So although I was exhausted, it was fueling me. I enjoyed it. I was learning a lot. People were complimenting. There's something about that, as women, we feel more worthy I think, sometimes when we're getting positive feedback. And so all of that was happening. And again, my career just kept advancing and I kept growing. I ended up going private after that. And for the last eight years of my life, that's where I was. And I've worked both on the property management and also the investment side. So also participating in raising capital. We start working these projects, three years before they actually break ground. Mm-hmm. And so you are trying to choose trends that you don't even know yet. Yes. And you're trying to make sure they're innovative

Shaila 3:09

and

Stephanie 3:09

timeless so that way they can continue trading for years to come because it really helps build a reputation. And so I enjoyed it very, very much. Each day was a little bit differently. So when I left, I was one of the vice presidents, on the operations side. And I have three daughters and then, I am married now, so all in between this kind of career growth that I've also had just tons of personal leaps along the way. Some of which I always said each child was my last child. And then one more came. So they're all surprises to some extent, but I won't trade any of them in. I love them all. But, in a nutshell, that's the beginning of my story. I remember at the start of my career you work primarily with men in this industry, and so there's so many dinners that you're supposed to attend, and as a woman, you have to be on all the time. Like you're on all the time and people just expect you to be accommodating and happy. And, as I've grown in my career in the corporate world, the most challenging part to me about being a woman was like, you want to be pretty. So to have people take you seriously, but you can't be too pretty or that would distract them from you actually being like, but I need to raise this money from you and you wanna look nice, but you can't look too sexy. Like you had to watch and observe every part of how you showed up to everything. Because you're that critiqued all the time as a woman in business.

Shaila 4:31

Wow. Yeah. Your lifespan of going from REIT to REIT to private. That's very interesting. But I do see a little bit of spark in you, you were excited for that next thing and the next leap.

Stephanie 4:44

And I learned, I really loved numbers and finance. Okay. I think more than I realized I did. Any discontent that I did have, because I wanted to get better and you strive to continue building that career. You get to a certain financial state, you've put in so much work that the idea of just being able to change my mind or do something maybe that I just loved, almost didn't cross my mind at first like that is for other people. Like it didn't feel accessible. It also felt you get to an age where you're like, can I start something new? And also do you want to, it's like learning a new language. And here I am and I'm very successful and I know what I'm doing. And then to just lead that and start something that I don't know what I'm doing also felt just again, almost impossible at first.

Shaila 5:31

I do wanna go back to that point that you mentioned that you'd get that critique every time. Be less of this and more of this. How did you stand for your self worth in that time? In fact, I met you at one of these dinners. You did. You did. And we were amongst a small minority of women mm-hmm at this dinner particularly where I met you. How did you stand up for yourself?

Stephanie 5:53

Yeah. Do you know that took a while to be able to do that. Like in the sense of where I felt truly felt within my own self worth or felt like I could even feel worthy to ask for what I was worth, like financially or to say no, I'm taking this time off, and it took a while to where I knew I was incredibly good at what I did for a living. So I think to some degree my worth came when I almost wouldn't rest until I became so good at it that, that I knew they needed me. And in a weird way that gave me some reassurance. And I think as a woman it is difficult 'cause men don't have to be as good and as a woman you are kind of speaking for a lot of women when you go into a room, agree or you are representing a whole group of women that are trying to get to the level that you're at, and so you hold that responsibility a little bit more. So it took a lot of time. I am outspoken. I was born quite confident. I'm gonna throw that out there. So I, I had that going for me. But I don't want it to just seem yes, I'm very confident and yes, I tend to say what's in my mind, which gets me in so much trouble all the time. But, to truly say I felt worthy and a level of self worth that took a long time and it took pretty far into my career. Maybe people would've assumed I felt worthy the whole time, until I advance further into my career.

Shaila 7:11

So for you, it was I'm gonna be the best mm-hmm at what I do and I'm going to prove it. Yeah. Yeah. It's very interesting as I've done a few of these, a lot of women have come forward and said it's about being the best at what you do. Yeah. To prove yourself. Right and then in turn to prove to others as well. Yeah. Yeah. So throughout this journey did you always have that intuition And let's talk about how you took this leap to finally say, this is what I'm gonna end up doing.

Stephanie 7:40

Yeah, that's probably been the biggest leap. I just wanna say, it's not that I didn't take a lot of leaps when I was younger, but when you are younger, leaps are easier to some extent. Yes. You do not have the weight of a whole family on you. You get a little bit, more fearful as you get older. It is the biggest leap I took, but I think emotionally as well, because I am older now and it feels differently than taking leaps when you're younger. Yes. But yes, so I did always know I had intuition. I always knew that. And I used it a lot through my career, so maybe it wasn't reading other people, but it was understanding good land versus not good land. When we're looking to build, I could get a sense for it. Now our world is not set up for intuition. Intuition is not logical. So logically, if there wasn't good enough points to buy the land, no matter what my intuition was saying, I could not present it to the board of directors and then be like, oh, cool. No. Well, as long as your gut says go for it, girl. It's just not where we're at. But, so as much as I had it and I used it. I still needed logical reasons for us to move forward or it wouldn't have worked. So I used a ton in hiring a ton with ownerships. And again, understanding them allowed me to shift my personality to match theirs in a way that they would understand what I'm saying and I could better serve them. So I used my intuition all the time, and I knew that's what I was doing. I would also give little readings to employees 'cause at that point we had worked together so long that they would be like, do that thing you do, Stephanie, or, I just want your opinions. You, you just know things. Right? And so I would do it for them. And of course I would do it for my, my poor family, which even now, my husband will tell you like, no, I block it. My superpowers, I block her. So she cannot read me anymore. So yes, always knew I had intuition, but very comfortable in this world doing business. I never ever, ever would've expected that I would do anything outside of that and it wasn't ever something that I advertised to people or talked to them about again, when we met, yes. I had just started talking about it, like even just a little bit like that was it, and it was still so hard to talk about out loud because again, it just was something that I called it kind of like Stephanie's way or like, it wasn't even something we put a label to. And it was around that time a little bit before that, and again, it had kind of gotten creeped up, more and more since my youngest was born. And I just kept getting more desire. And of course I got more into meditation, which only strengthens it, right? And by that point, I, told my husband, look, I have to explore this. Now, keep in mind, Shaila, I'm not like exploring it for a career change like that. Correct. Would never have crossed my mind. I did not put all this time, energy, effort, time away from my children to build this career, to shift it, to do something that I didn't even fully understand. So when I was saying that to my husband it was more about talking about it and it was more about understanding it than it was ever about using it for a career. After I started talking about it and after I started to let myself do it a little bit. Lose that control. Yes. The desire to do it was so strong that maybe in a whole other world, if I could just jump to a different world. Yes. My dream job would be to read people and to help them further their life and to really coach them. But again, that seemed so far from reality that, but it was around that time that seed got planted. Even again, not realizing that a seed got planted, my heart would feel it and be like, oh my God, whoa. I wish, oh, I wish that would be so good. Yes. Yeah, but not, not reality. And somewhere along the line, it just kept getting stronger and then my family was like, enough, no more reading us, like we want privacy, take it elsewhere. And so I started to do some free readings for people on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work. And it had been years of being unhappy and it had probably been about five years before I actually quit and each year got a little bit harder and harder. And so I think you would ask what is that defining moment? I don't know if I had one. I do know my company shifted to change out different presidents at that time. And there was a shift in the culture of the company. And I remember being really upset about it and then I also remember being like, this is it. This is what needed to happen. 'cause as long as I was happy enough, I would never leave. And the day that I gave notice, like I can't even tell you what happened. Why. And again, I gave a six week notice. Okay. So like I still work for six weeks and, I wasn't exactly sure if any of this would work out and I knew in the back of my head at that point, I'm incredibly reputable in this industry, I could easily get another job. Let me just try this out.

Shaila 12:36

So I remember when, I met you for the first time we were at this dinner and we were sitting next to each other. It just organically happened and we were talking and you said a couple things. And I'm like, what? Are you an intuitive? And you're like, no, what is that? And, you were just so in denial rather. Yeah that's what I felt. Yeah. And I told you one day, Stephanie, this is what you're gonna end up doing. Yeah. Your intuition was coming

Stephanie 13:05

in strong.

Shaila 13:09

You were so good at what you did in that moment that I just knew in my heart that you were gonna be what you are today. So let's talk about that. Okay. Yeah. What is a personal, intuitive coach really mean?

Stephanie 13:20

Yeah, no, absolutely. So I can only speak directly for myself and like how I interpretate that to be and what it means like during a session with me. So for me, the one thing that I really, when I decided I wanted to do this was I wanted to use like real world, real words and not just spiritual words where it's just surrender. Just surrender into this. 'cause I felt I would hear those messages and I'm like, but tell me what that means, right? So I always wanted to make sure however I received these messages, I was getting clear answers for people to really help them progress. With almost a coaching piece of it to help them move forward in whatever area they're trying to go into. So that felt really important to me, which is one of the reasons that I would call it an intuitive coach. I also focus more on the present moment than I do. Look, we, we can go predictive if you want, but really personally, if you're not living to your fullest life in the present, then why are we predicting out anything to come? So I try to focus in the present 'cause I really feel if people started living more right here in this moment. It would be the best thing they can do. It'll really help their life in a big way. So when we come into a session, I will do a quick read of people's chakras, and I do that specifically because it gives me information about them that I wouldn't have known otherwise. So it helps people feel at ease, okay, I think she knows what she's doing, so it helps calm them down. But it also gives me an assessment of if you're incredibly ungrounded and your root is ungrounded, and when I go into that, the basis of it is money. And then if I take it up to the sacral and there's this worthiness part of you, like those are things that we probably need to touch on those if we really wanna get you to where you're going. So I'll always do a little bit of a chakra read. But I work with people's higher selves, so I always say it's like sitting with your soul. And I get messages. I go into meditation beforehand and I get messages for each person, and I tell them those messages, and then we can take that session wherever they wanna go. A lot of times those messages are exactly what that person is coming to see me for. And then we just go further into it. Like they'll confirm certain things, which then opens the door for me to then receive further information. But the whole idea is that it helps you. One, gain clarity. I always say like the biggest reason for it is for clarity and it's really to confirm to you that your feelings are correct. 'cause almost everybody knows what I tell people, they're like, oh yes, I had that feeling already. So it's to give you confirmation and better clarity and to inspire you to move forward in your own life.

Shaila 15:49

Yeah, I would say hearing you, it's also helping people understand their blocks Yeah. Of energy. And how they can surpass those. 'cause sometimes we don't know? Yeah. And I'd say that this practice helps you meditate more.

Stephanie 16:04

Absolutely. Yeah.

Shaila 16:05

So let's talk about this big leap that you took? Money has gotta be a big part of it, yeah. The financial empowerment has gotta be a big part of it. Oh, yeah. What were your fears?

Stephanie 16:17

Yeah. Well, one, I was a huge financial contributor to our household because of my careers. So yeah, imagine having that conversation with your husband. Ooh, I think I wanna try this. It's like really been weighing on me. He tells me all the time, that's how much I love you. I really believe in you. Right. Because that is, it's hard. The money piece kept me from doing it for years. Right. And again, we all just use something as our excuse and money was mine. I luckily had some savings. That is helpful. And so I was able to sustain everything that I was paying, like through my savings. And then I started this. And again, my backup plan was I had several people calling to recruit me at the time, so I felt very confident that okay, if anything fails here, like I can just go get a job. Of course that's not what I want, but it did give me the confidence to keep going. And so yeah, so I started this and I started charging a very small amount of money, so I charged only $55 per reading because I also was developing my own self worth as an intuitive coach. Yes, was I good And I was getting people telling me I was good, but I did not know my worth there. I did not know my value there, and I was learning that. And with each person, as you do more and more readings like some of them, like 95% of 'em go fantastic. And then you have this 5% where you could almost sense when someone shut down and that wasn't what they wanted to hear. And but yet you have to give the messages that are coming through. And so those get in your head a little bit and you're like, oh, maybe this isn't for me. So there's a lot of just growth. I also wanna say I went from a career where, I was available for people 24 7. I was checking emails nonstop. I held an immense amount of stress, and now I had to meditate all the time. That is just an incredibly difficult shift to make for somebody. I was really going quite the opposite. And that alone, probably the first month, I remember feeling just so uncomfortable. Am I really gonna meditate again? And so there was a big transition there. Was I making money? Yes, but the pressure of money to make what I needed to make became overwhelming and it started to make full circle, which is what I call my business. It started to make it feel a certain way, and of course you need, when you're talking about a very energetic, intuitive business, like the energy and the vibration of your business needs to stay high. So putting that pressure on that business did not feel right. So I still do supplement my income and I have a number of different contracts that I work with. So I still do work in the other field, so I could take the pressure of money off of my

Shaila 18:58

passion. Passion. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. How did you pass through the fear

Stephanie 19:02

Do you know? There was a point where I never thought I could, my mind could not physically wrap around, like how it would ever be possible. Even today, like how I would ever make the money I was making, doing this still throws me off sometimes, and I actually have to let that go because you see people all the time living their dreams and making incredible money at it. So I know it's possible, but I will tell you, there was a big piece of me that never thought it was possible, which is why I kept throwing my dream aside. Mm. So. It really took the leap of faith and how that came to be. I don't know, Shaila, I turned in a notice six weeks later, I'm out of my job. Like it was bizarre. To this day, I don't know. It was divine. It was divine, and I had no fear. This is crazy. But it had to have been divine because I also had no, inkling to take back my notice. Like never once did that happen and I was offered a really huge position when someone found out that I had given notice. Another company called, me with a dollar amount because that's how they were going to get me to come in to take the job. And I was like, nope. Not interested. I got this. wow. Divinely guided.

Shaila 20:17

You knew it in your gut. That okay, this is gonna work because that is the only option. Yeah. Period. And as far as financial empowerment you followed your passion, and still on the side to support my family, which is beautiful. Oh, so much

Stephanie 20:32

freedom. Yes. When you ask me like what empowerment means to me, it's freedom. It, gave me the lesson that I can make choices for myself and for so long without even realizing it. I wasn't if my family's I'm gonna go on vacation, I'm going through to check? Would that work for my company and would that work for my employee. Most of my decisions were around other people? And for whatever reason, when I finally made this choice, I realized it was really the first choice that I was making specifically for myself. Knowing that it could not work out and being okay with it, it really empowered me to realize flexibility, freedom and choosing what works for me was really important in this stage of life for me. It was

Shaila 21:12

empowering for you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if money was to walk into the door today, what kind of relationship would you have or what would you tell Money walking into the door?

Stephanie 21:21

I love this question and so I actually do this exercise almost on a monthly basis. And I'll tell you, for so long, money felt like a celebrity to me. It is just within probably really making the leap of faith where money, if it came to my door, I would be like, come on in. Almost as if we're in partnership, like we're creating something together. I know one day full circle will be my full business, it will be my career and I'm also okay giving it the time it needs to grow to that. And I almost feel like I'm in partnership with money now. Whereas before money definitely felt like a celebrity. If it came to my door, I'd be like, oh my God, hey, like, oh, I hope my outfit looks good. Like where now? It's like, come on in, let's strategize. Okay. Yes,

Shaila 22:09

yes, definitely. With all this shift that you've been going through what keeps you grounded?

Stephanie 22:16

Yeah.

Shaila 22:16

Meditating.

Stephanie 22:17

Yeah. I meditate and I really swear by it, I really, even just being able to take the leap of faith, I don't know if I would've been able to do that without years long of a meditation practice. Yeah, definitely meditating.

Shaila 22:31

So, since how long have you been meditating? And how did you get into that? Mm-hmm.

Stephanie 22:36

Probably around 20 17, 20 18. I started doing just like a stillness meditation. 'cause that's all I knew. I didn't know there were a variety of meditation styles and I would just sit there for 20 minutes and then it turned into a mantra where I would repeat a mantra for 20 minutes and then it turned into a breath work meditation. In the morning I do a small breath work meditation, and it's just, I stillness, there's something about sitting in that power that lets me know, we're all divinely connected. So I feel so connected when I'm in that space and that's what it looks like today. I know you do some Joe Dispenza stuff. I have done that. It's actually what taught me the power of the chakras. I never would've understood those.

Shaila 23:20

What sparked that meditation?

Stephanie 23:22

It was this moment of I felt so stressed. And I remember it specifically, I actually was eating a lot of sweets. Look, I'm a sweet lover. Just, you know, in general. But, it was this thing that I felt why do I need so many cookies? And it, came down to okay, I'm just, I'm so stressed that became a coping. And I recognized it. And I also had always heard about meditation it wasn't totally unfamiliar. I was practicing yoga religiously at the time. I did a 5:00 AM yoga class before work, and so I'm like, let me just meditate. And that's how it started again. I was so new that I didn't know the varieties and meditation and it was painful to just learn to sit there for 20 minutes. I'm happy. That was the first way that I ever learned to do it. 'cause I think it really, it quit me to do other meditations in the future.

Shaila 24:12

It's beautiful that you started it earlier and have been enjoying it throughout your life so, is there anything else you'd like to share?

Stephanie 24:21

Yes. I think it's important to share that after cutting the expenses and really working on that to make this possible. I am so much happier now. Yes. And so many things that I thought would make me unhappy, or so many things that allowed to hold me back, oh, but I want my kids to have a certain life, or I don't want them to feel less than their friends or what I can provide for them, or all these things, right? I spend so much more time with my kids. When my youngest is mom, I wanna play, but it's dinner time and I should be cooking dinner. I don't feel the stress of being like, no, no, no everything has to stay at a certain time to keep things running. I'm like, yeah, let's go play. And I've learned I'm so much more calm. I am a better mother. I pack my husband's lunch for him because I also learned like I was so busy that I didn't get to do little things like that for him. I enjoy getting to spend more time with my family. And just overall happier. I have a freedom that I didn't know I could have even though I'm not making as much money as I was I am so much happier.

Shaila 25:30

That's beautiful, Stephanie. Yeah. You took the step of saying, I'm choosing myself. And you have to shut that door for the new door to open up in your life and make you feel even better about yourself. Yeah. And happier. Yeah. So that was gonna be my next question and I think I got the answer. The question was, looking back and connecting to the dots of your life how do you feel? And I think your answer would be, I'm so much happier.

Stephanie 25:56

Yeah. And I think our world has really taught us consumerism to a really unhealthy degree that we feel like we need so much more. And because of that, we forgot like what happiness feels like. And so it was almost weird when I started to feel so much lighter And that genuine joy again.

Shaila 26:16

Yeah. That's beautiful. So what would you say to our listeners who feel stuck today? If they need that little nudge or that leap to say, go ahead. What advice would you give them?

Stephanie 26:27

Yeah. It would be to one. 'cause I really believe you need to be able to do it in a rooted way. So what I would tell you to do is do very grounded action. So have a set amount of money that you know, would make you feel comfortable enough to do it. Or again, if you're depending on your career, as long as you know, you could get another job. Take that leap if you have enough to save. But I always say have something grounded there, because having that grounded amount of money allowed me to feel comfortable taking the leap. So give yourself some sort of grounded action. I. And then do it, like it can't go past that grounded action that you set for yourself. And you really will if nothing else, it'll teach you. The one thing I'll tell you is pivot often and so you never have to get stuck doing it one way. Just pivot if it doesn't work. But keep going. Yes.

Shaila 27:13

Yes. And keep trusting. Keep trusting. Yep. Yeah, I feel like I'm talking to myself. All of us. This point me all the time at this. It's been great and I do wanna ask you one more question maybe an intuition question, rather. Yeah. Considering the challenging environment, the global environment or personal that we may be going through. How can we bring joy back? What advice would you give us to be present every day?

Stephanie 27:38

Yeah. Well, one, being present is not what we're doing enough of, so actually being present in each day. I think we live. As a society really heavily in the future, or we live in the past, we're constantly planning for what could be and or we're regretting things that we didn't do or how we would've done it differently, so we don't live in the present moment enough. And so I think just getting here, I think my leap helped me even see that. I was always thinking five steps ahead. And so I was never in the present moment. And so just being here is one thing. But also understanding that joy is not in what we purchase. And again, it took me a second 'cause, I'm not overly big on buying a ton of stuff, so I wouldn't have put myself in that category. But it was shocking almost in that first couple of months looking around my house and almost seeing like all the stuff I have, like it was just like, whoa. We do just buy a lot and I think it is to make us feel happy in that moment, but I'll say one. What is your dopamine? What is that for you? Is that buying things? Is that having a glass of alcohol? Is it your coffee in the morning? Whatever it is. Look at what your dopamine list is and then observe how often you need to get hit of it. And that would be where I would tell you to start because a lot of times we're over supplementing our dopamine too often, and so we're not actually getting to feel ourselves. Learning how you're getting quick fixes is giving you a shot of happiness, but that's not allowing it to be happy. And with all the readings I do, I see how often people are doing things just to give themselves a quick fix of happiness. Which we can't get to full joy when we're doing that. We're, living for that next high, almost. Right. And again, that can be buying things and makes me feel pretty when I wear something new or whatever. Well, that's just a temporary fix. That means there's something bigger in your life that is not making you feel fulfilled, but it's hard to get there until we can observe what is keeping us from the joy. And sometimes it's those hits. So just look at your dopamine list. Don't judge it, don't do anything, but write it down. Keep track of how often I need to get that dopamine hit. And then think of what is it that I did that day that I feel the need to take that dopamine hit. So is it after a really hard day at work? Is it. Yeah, after I was with my kids all day. Or what is it that makes you feel like you need it? Because then maybe it's, I just need a nanny for an hour or two because having three kids is very stressful. Or maybe it's that I haven't been happy with my job in a really long time, but sometimes I need you to observe something tinier before we can get to that bigger point. Usually there's that bigger point if we just shift it a little bit. That joy just naturally starts to come back. But it's the thing that we have the most fear around shifting, right? Like it's the thing that we don't wanna fail at or whatever it is. So there's usually a lot more pressure there. So start by just looking like what is it and how often are you doing your dopamine hits and what causes that to happen throughout the day? Some people it's food, right? So look at just, how often do I feel like, oh my God, I need to go eat. And maybe it's after every conference call. Maybe you don't actually like to be on conference calls and you need a job that just doesn't do that. So it's just looking at things like that first to see what you're blocking.

Shaila 30:55

It totally makes sense. It sounds so simple, but hence so hard to do always. It is the simple things that are harder to make a difference. well it's been great. We will now get into our rapid fire which I call soul sparks. Okay. So here we go. A book or quote that changed your life.

Stephanie 31:13

Mm. Mel Robbins. Let them just like the, let them theory in general, even for emotions, let them happen.

Shaila 31:19

I love that one. A leap you're most proud of. Yeah.

Stephanie 31:22

This one leaping to start full circle. Ooh. Yeah I mean, I like my kid leaps too. Like my kids are really good. But

Shaila 31:29

A piece of advice you return to often.

Stephanie 31:31

Pivot often. Yeah. Don't get stuck in one way. You have nothing to prove. Just keep moving. And as the wind blows, move with it.

Shaila 31:40

A moment you'll never forget.

Stephanie 31:41

Probably the first reading that I did, my unpaid reading was with a guy. I had no idea who he was, and so it was my first just totally blank reading and I had no idea what a reading for myself would look like, and it just, that would probably be a moment I won't forget and how well it went.

Shaila 31:59

One or two words that captures your journey right now. Hmm.

Stephanie 32:02

Probably freedom and joy.

Shaila 32:04

Bold thought you wanna leave our listeners with?

Stephanie 32:07

You are meant to do your heart's desire.

Shaila 32:10

Beautiful. Thank you so much Stephanie. It was great having you on the show today. And I'm so happy and excited to hear more from you in the future about your journey.

Stephanie 32:18

Me too. Thank you so, so much for having me.

Shaila 32:21

Stephanie's presence is a reminder that we all carry the quiet wisdom and that sometimes the bravest thing we can do is to listen to it. She didn't take a leap, she came full circle. She believed in this podcast before it existed. If you're holding onto a whisper or nudge from within. I hope this episode gives you the courage to follow it. If this conversation sparked something in you, share it with someone who needs it. And remember, your leap doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be yours. Your story is the light someone else is waiting for. Until next time, keep leaping. Keep believing in your magic.