Aligning Your Business and Career with Purpose ft. Maria Kellis (Leadership Coach)

As our listeners know, the purpose of The Resilience Report is to highlight the amazing work of entrepreneurs and business leaders making a positive impact on the planet. In each episode, we explore and celebrate the way in which they have successfully married business with a bigger purpose.

But how does one get there? While it is great to hear these stories and get inspired, sometimes we are just not sure how to get started, or how to apply it to our own careers. And to be honest, this has only been amplified since 2020. Over the past few years, I have had numerous executives share with me that they are seriously considering giving up “business as usual”, but lack guidance on the best path forward.

Which is why I am so excited to welcome our next guest, a leadership coach focused on aligning business with purpose.

Maria Kellis is a Leadership Coach, Intuitive Business Consultant, Inspirational Speaker, and Best-Selling Author. With a strong background in engineering and management from MIT, she co-founded multiple technology companies in the US and worked in high-level positions for the Greek government.

Today, through Maria Kellis International, a global company with clients from over 15 countries, Maria focuses on empowering business leaders, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs to strengthen their leadership skills and create successful products and services aligned with their true voice. She is passionate about teaching others to achieve a life of independence and freedom and is constantly exploring how to accelerate this journey for her clients.

Maria is originally from Greece and now shares her time between Thailand, Greece, Cyprus, Bali, and the United States.

This is absolutely an amazing episode for anyone looking to more closely align their work with a positive impact. But even if you are already successfully aligned, Maria shares incredible tips and tricks for professionals to help us be more efficient and effective in our day to day work.

So whether you are a lighthouse leader or an ecopreneur, I know you will find some incredible nuggets in this conversation with Maria.

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[Host: Lauren Scott] Well, thank you so much, Maria, for joining us today on The Resilience Report.

[Guest: Maria Kellis] Absolutely, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here, and I look forward to our conversation.

So we've had lots of different leaders on our podcast over the past little while, and you bring in this additional layer as a leadership coach. To get things started and maybe to go back a little bit, could you explain a little bit more as to who you are and how you got into this position today?

Absolutely. So, for me, leadership, including self-leadership, is the one thing that we can change that will change our lives, our companies, our projects, everything. And I mean this from the moment we’re children in school all the way till we're retired and beyond. Leadership is really knowing what is my value, what is my purpose, why am I doing this, what are the things that I'm willing to do and not willing to do, what am I willing to compromise on, and truly knowing that we lead with value and our truth, our authentic voice, as opposed to compromising and trying to fit in. Because the truth is, and this is a common expression, but everybody else is taken.

You are unique, and your uniqueness is your value. The better you are aligned with yourself, the more you can be aligned with your projects, with your vision, and your version of the world is what the world needs from you. That's why you were born. Everybody is different, and that is a good thing, that is the value that we bring. And often, we are scared to be authentically ourselves because we think that we're going to be criticized, ridiculed, put down, not succeed. The truth is that the more we are ourselves, the better our careers will be. And some of us will be controversial, and that is okay. I've learned a long time ago to not care so much about what people think because, well, that's their opinion about something that has nothing to do with me. And the more I accept myself, I have found that shift, that people accept me as well. So, this is what a leadership coach does. Helps somebody who's a leader, owner, an aspiring leader become the best version of themselves because your results will directly depend on your leadership abilities.

Absolutely, and I would love for you to walk us through how you came to become a leadership coach, and perhaps to add an extra layer in there, I know that you do have three separate degrees from MIT. Perhaps you can walk us through from that education path to where you find yourself today.

So, I have degrees in mechanical engineering. My love in mechanical engineering was manufacturing product development. And then, I got a joint master's from the business school at MIT (the Sloan School of Management) and the engineering school in innovative product development. So, I was very much geared towards product development as my training. I have been involved in startups since '94 or '96, I think, so I can't remember. I was still in school, and I have always loved being an entrepreneur. I have always loved knowing what to do. I have always loved creating. This is part of who I am. And the reason I became an engineer is simply because in my family, I come from a nice Greek family, so they, my father believed that engineering was the only way to go. And so, because he was an engineer, my mom was an architect, so he said, "Well, you know, choose to be an engineer because that's an awesome profession. You will be okay with that." And the truth is, I am a creative person, so I always care about business. I am really good in math, and you know when I'm really good at math, when it involves a dollar sign. So, yeah, a true engineer should care about interest and degrees, and I'm like, "Not so much." So that's why I've always looked for something that encompassed projects.

That being said, I had learned something tremendous from my engineering degree, which is organization, systems, processes, putting things in order in order for us to create. And I always like to use the analogy of the yin and yang because I think of life as a river, and a river is not just the water, which is our creative or flowing side, it's also the riverbed, it's the container, it's where we're going with it, it's what we're going to be doing. And this is truly important to understand and embrace because if we allow ourselves to just go with the flow and, well, where are we going? Are we just going to go wherever the wind is blowing us? Yet if we put direction and goals in place, then we are truly achieving something extraordinary. And at the same time, we can be leaders, and we can bring as much creativity as we want to the process.

That’s so informative. And in your practice, you really focus on combining the business element with purpose. What have you seen in this practice as being one of the biggest obstacles when meeting with leaders and helping them align these two different aspects?

So, people come to me typically because they're extremely stressed or because they feel that they have these golden handcuffs. So, they're at the stage in their career where they're doing well, and at the same time, they feel empty inside, and they're like, "Why am I doing this? What am I doing?" They've achieved their goals, and they are trying to see what's next, something that will give significance to them. And we are geared as humans to seek out this purpose, this significance, and it can be part of who we are and very much a part of what we're going to do in everything that we do. So, when we think about what is going on with ourselves, the biggest obstacle that I have seen is people don't really know who they are or what they like, or they feel embarrassed to be themselves. They're like, "Well, but maybe I should be a little bit different. Maybe I should be what people expect me to be," as opposed to realizing that they're perfect just the way they are. And if I have one message today to give to people, it's like, you are extraordinary. You have the ability to be extraordinary, so be you. The world needs you, not another version of something else. You are the one that the world needs. You were born for this, literally.

And with those clients coming to you, do you see a pattern in terms of when they typically or when people typically look for a leadership coach? Does it tend to be straight out of university, and someone is trying to find their way, or is it mid-career? Is there a trend that you've seen?

It depends on the maturity of the person. I have had clients as young as 16.

Oh wow!

All the way until their 70s. So, it really depends on when that person realizes that there's something that they want to do. I love young people because they have the dream in their eyes, and they haven't been conditioned to think that they cannot do everything, they think that they can which is true. So, usually, though, most people come mid-career, so usually in their 30s, 40s, or 50s. And that's because we are following a path unknowingly. Our education system tells us, "Well, you get a degree, then you get a job, and then you rise through the ranks in that job, you get married, and then you have a perfect life." And they do those steps depending on how fast they can do them. And then they're like, "Well, my life is not perfect." And that's when they start asking questions. So, usually, that's when they start having this stress or they may be pushing themselves beyond their limits, and so they believe in a state of constant stress. I have seen people meet me and come to work with me for different reasons.

My favorite is to always discover why people are doing what they're doing because “why” is a really big question to ask a human. They really don't have the capacity to answer it, yet we internally are looking for that why because our why will determine what we do, how we do it, why we do it. And so, I always say to people, there's three levels of why.

• So, there's the selfish why, I want to make money, I want to have a nice house, I want to have a nice computer, I want to travel the world, I want to enjoy life. This is the selfish why, it's about you.
• There's the selfless why, which is the why that involves maybe your family or your work, and maybe the world. "Oh, I want to help alleviate poverty on the planet," or "I want to help abuse victims," or "I want to support women's growth," or "I want to create equality in disadvantaged regions or neighborhoods." That is the selfless why, the altruistic why.
• And then there's one more why, which is the, I'm going to call it, intrinsic why. Are you having fun in the process? And very often, people forget that fun is part of the process. If they're not necessarily enjoying what they're doing, then their why is missing. So, what in the process is fun for you?

So, for example, as a leadership coach, I love people. I love seeing people grow. And more than that, since I was a little kid, I've been wanting to help people. This is not new to me, and I always thought, "Well, I'll do “my job”, and then I'll help people on the side because that's what I love doing." And it took me a very long time to decide that it's okay to have this as a profession. It's okay to spend my entire life worrying about people's problems and helping them because, to me, it is truly what I enjoy doing in life. I love helping, and it took me a while also to develop as a coach, to learn how to be not responsible for them, so to be the strongest supporter, to believe in them if they don't believe in themselves yet, and at the same time, let them find their power, let them find their strength, let them be themselves, follow their path because I cannot do it for them. And I tried. I cannot do it for them. People have to do it for themselves.

Nobody can do your push-ups for you. This is a Jim Rohn famously said, so if you want to have the beefy top torso, you got to do push-ups. Nobody can do it for you. And even though nobody can do it for you, a trainer will help you by saying, "Yeah, you can do one more, come on, one more, here you go, one more." Or they may say, "Well, when you do your push-ups, you're folding. And well, that's creating problems in the back. So, what if we change the position, right?" And I'm using exercise analogy, but in business, that can be, "Well, what is your revenue coming from? What are your main sources of revenue? Well, great. Which ones do you love having, and what do you want to contribute or what do you want to achieve? And then let's create more revenue sources for you, or let's simply give a variety of revenue so that you're less stressed because you know that money is coming in no matter what. Let's create passive revenue sources where you can have revenue while you're not working." So, the idea is that if we trade our time for money, that's only a limited time. Yet, if we create leverage, then we really don't need this trading time for money. We can create projects, and this is more important.

And you mentioned that keyword of revenue, and we certainly work in an ecosystem where short-term return on investment is often top of mind and prioritized within companies, and even as individual teams. How do you balance this approach of pursuing purpose within the business world and just recognizing this is a reality for much of our economy?

Oh, absolutely. I do want to say that we are in business to make money. So, if we're not making money, we're not going to be in business very long. We always need to make a profit. We always need to be ahead. We need to have money in reserve. I've worked in startups for a very long time, and we always say “cash is king”. So, even though we have that big vision, we also are always looking into the short-term, and what is important to know is that it doesn't have to be 100% either way. It can be 50/50. It can be 60/40. It can be 80/20. And really, 20% for the long term is enough. People are passionate about the long term because that's really where their heart is, and they forget that the immediate step is the short term. Yeah, we talk our vision and our mission and where we're going, and at the same time, if we don't have enough money to survive until next year, we're going to go out of business, period. So, 80% of your time or less, if you need to, up to 50% maximum, can be spent on short-term revenue-generating activities, and 20% on goal-driven, purpose-driven, long-term projects.

And more than that, I do want to say something. I always tell people, "Are you working on a business or busyness?" So, very often, when we don't know what we want, we're just busy. We do things. We work 12-hour weekdays or 18-hour days in some cases, and we do so many things, and at the same time, we don't have a direction, so all these things seem to be going nowhere, and we tend to lose our path. So, it's very, very important to stop and say, "What is really a revenue-generating activity?" and prioritize that. So, slide in things. Maybe you can get an assistant to do that. Organizing things. Maybe you can get an assistant.

And I always say to people, no matter what stage of business you're in, hire someone. Hire someone to support you because if you're doing the work of a cleaning lady, no offense, that's how much you're being paid. And think about if you're spending two hours cooking when you could get a meal for like six dollars, well, you just were paid three dollars an hour. Is that really what you want to do? I'm not saying don't cook, yeah, if you enjoy this, do this, but know that you do this as an activity for fun. This is part of your activities.

So, one thing that I always recommend to people is to start with what we call time blocking. So, time blocking is really looking at your calendar, and I like colors because I'm a very creative person. So, I'm like, let's put lots of colors. So, things that have to do with revenue-generating activity, I usually put in green because green is money. And things that are important, like, for example, if I'm being interviewed or if I have a public activity, that's red. And things that have to do with a team, back-office, then that becomes blue. So, I can very quickly, as I look into my week, I can see, does this look like a balanced week? If the week is all blue, I'm talking to my team, and I'm not making any money. I'm not talking to any customers. Also, one thing in time blocking is start with your priorities. So, for example, for me, I know for my health, exercise is a priority. So, I start my calendar by putting in my exercise first because I know that if I don't put it in first, then I will find myself busy with something else, and I will just say, "Hey, you know what? I'll skip today," and or things like self-care. Do I like having massages? And so, massages go to my calendar as part of self-care, and they go in first because then the rest of my meetings can be arranged. Yet, if I don't put those priority items in there that take care of me and my health, how am I going to survive long-term? And if you have, for example, there's some projects that are maybe more difficult. So, for example, when I write books, I usually put book writing first thing in the morning because my mind is fresh. I haven't gotten a thousand other things I'm thinking about, and I can start writing and being creative. And then I go into meetings, and that's okay. But if I don't do it the first thing in the morning, in the afternoon, if I try to do it, I need an hour to just recover for the day, so I don't really do anything. So, think about priorities and activities. So, time blocking is extremely important. And of course, that assumes that you're using a calendar, which I, hands down, highly recommend.

Such important and very tangible tips as well. If someone is going down this path and this journey, what is the impact of their immediate environment, and perhaps more specifically, the culture around them? So, it could be in their home, but certainly in the office: if there is this culture of "but we've always done it this way," how do you coach your leaders in navigating that environment?

I'm going to start by saying that, coming as a woman, I was told how things are supposed to be, and it did not fit my idea of love and life, and it took me a very long time to say, "Well, you know what? Not for me. Monkey see, monkey do. That's not my style." So, it takes a little bit of a, well, I'm not going to say rebel because a rebel rebels against everything, but a very strong person to say no. And we can all be strong in our own way, in our own lanes. So, when people tell you, "Well, this has been done always this way," ask why. And maybe there's a really good reason, and maybe not. So, for example, I'm going to give a silly example from my business. So, my computer is a Mac. And so, well, I have two computers, but we have Dropbox where I record meetings, and then my team, but we mostly operate through Google Drive. And there was a time a few years ago where Google Drive was not good enough for Mac. So, then we went, and we're using, for security and safety, we're using Dropbox. And that created this major issue that every person in the team had to go through Dropbox to pick up the file from my computer to put it in Google Drive so the team can use it. And then this year, we just kind of looked at it, and we're like, "Why are we doing this again?" It turns out that Google Drive is now really good, so we’re using Google Drive now and letting go of Dropbox. So, it's sort of like, it has always been done this way. Well, it was always done, and you know, as we're training new team members, we train them in that in those systems, and yet we need to ask, "Why are we doing it this way again?"

And maybe it's a remnant of an inefficient way as we were learning how to do something. We were doing the best we could at the time. So, regularly, every six months to a year, we really, we put everything in systems and processes. So, we create the systems and process documents, and then every six months to a year, we go back and we reevaluate why we're doing this and how we're doing it, and see if maybe there's a new tool that now we're using, and maybe there is something else. So, this constant asking, "Well, why are we doing this this way?" is important. So, I first practice what I teach. And so, when I meet somebody, and they say, "Well, we have a problem," like, "Let's see where your problems lie." So, in a corporate structure, there's always these bottlenecks. And as I said, I use my engineering background in manufacturing. We always looked at bottlenecks in order to know how to do the flow in the production line. So, I'm like, "Let's look at the bottlenecks in your business. What is it that takes the most time and is the least efficient process?" Well, let's start there because there's low hanging fruit for improving your business efficiency and capacity.

Is the approach that you take when working with a leader who is an entrepreneur, classic entrepreneur, versus an "intrapreneur," someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit but within a larger business, is the approach you take different, or is it quite similar?

For entrepreneurs, I always, always say, let's start by having you have a team, at least one assistant. And thankfully, we live in a time where hiring an assistant somewhere in the world can be extremely affordable. And the reason I say that is because very often, entrepreneurs have this idea that, "Oh, my God, I can do it all myself." And I can tell you that, yeah, you do need to know how to do things in order to train people, but you're not going to be the best at everything. You're just not, simply not. And when you train somebody whose job is to do the same thing over and over again, then they're going to do it better than you, clearly, because that's their job. So, you have to let go of this idea of control. I have to control everything for things to be well and accept that maybe in the beginning those people are going to be 80% as good as you not as 100% and that's okay. Over time, there might be 150% as good as you.

Also, look at your personality. I am a creative. Very often, entrepreneurs come in as creators. Well, we have some things in general as creatives that are not good for us, right? Accounting, tax preparation, legal – no offense, but those are like the ones that we're not necessarily well at. Guess what? There are professionals whose job is to be specialists in that. Why are you trying to do, your own taxes? Why are you trying to do, your own legal when you're not good at it? And I say this for myself first. I am not good at this. I am just simply not good. I get bored. I forget. My balance sheets never balance. It's just not my idea of fun. Even in business school, I was brilliant. I was a really good student, right? Except for accounting. Accounting, I had to drop and take again because I was failing it, twice!

Well, I understand you on that side. That was the one class I had to take. I had a tutor in university as well as I was in business. So, I can definitely emphasize on that! And do you see a difference in generations in terms of how they approach combining business with their purpose or their passion? For example, do people become perhaps more risk-averse as they get older, or do you see more risk aversion when people are fresh out of school and perhaps still very much following what they were told at home and in school as well?

Again, my answer is, it depends. I think that as humans, we're unique, and I always respect and value the uniqueness of everybody. I mean this in the nicest way. If we look at people as a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all, it's never going to work. So, when there's wonderful tools out there, there's wonderful personality tools like the Enneagram, there's human design, there's the DISC assessments, there are a lot of tools out there that will give you your strengths and your weaknesses. As we build our teams, we need to supplement our weaknesses always, because this is why teams work better than individuals. We cannot do it alone. This is not about conquering everything alone; it doesn't work. It's about sharing responsibility. It's about co-creating. It's about learning how to hold on, when to hold on, and when to let go.

And this is—I know I speak about teams always when I answer this question because it's very, very easy to say, "Well, what can I do myself to improve?" And I used to have this perfectionistic mindset. If I'm bad at something, I'm just going to get better, period. And you know what? I was suffering. Instead of looking at my strengths and making my strengths better, I was looking at my weaknesses and feeling bad about myself. So now when I look at people, I'm like, "Let's find your strengths. That's where we start. What are your strengths? Let's strengthen your strengths. Let's surround you with whoever supports your weaknesses, and let's create a life and projects and roles defined around your strengths." Because that's what you're good at. And don't take your strengths for granted. Absolutely not. We have a tendency to dismiss our strengths as easy, so we tend to focus on what is our weakness because, well, that's hard work. Well, guess what? It's hard for you, not for someone else. So what are the things that come naturally and easily for you, that are your strengths, your abilities, your magic sauce? Yeah, this is your magic. This is how you give value to the world. And by the way, this is where you're going to get paid the best for.

And when individuals are lucky enough to work within their purpose, one thing I have seen, whether it's someone working in the environmental space or animal welfare or healthcare, there is a possibility of compassion fatigue where you just feel perhaps overwhelmed with being so deep in your purpose. How do you help your leaders navigate those sorts of situations?

Just to be clear, you're saying that people who are fully aligned with their purpose feel exhausted?

That perhaps sometimes the cause they're dedicating their time to can feel overwhelming. For example, I can take myself in the environmental space. You can dedicate all your time to it, and then at the same time, you are exposed to the reality of perhaps the broader impact of what's happening.

Thank you for clarifying this question. So, I'm going to answer from the perspective of the victim. So, I, myself, am very familiar with being a victim because I myself was abused in every possible way – mentally, emotionally, physically, and sexually. So, no fun. And I grew up to be a victim. There is something that we call the victim triangle. The victim triangle has three positions: there's the aggressor, the person who's abusing or the abuser; there's the victim, the one being abused; and then there's a third position that is always there, and that is the most hidden position, and that is The Rescuer. We live in a culture of the hero, of rescuing.

What that rescuer does is say, "Well, you're the victim; I'm going to rescue you because, well, who am I? God?" So that's where our ego comes in. When we find ourselves exhausted, it's because we've shifted from the person who's leading to the person who's rescuing. I do a lot of work in sustainable development, in environmental studies, supporting communities, charity, and when I try to rescue people, I always am exhausted and it never works. What I do now is I give people their own responsibility. I lead them. I become their leader. The purpose of the leader is not to control or manipulate; that is the low vibration, the old paradigm. In the new paradigm, a leader gives vision and inspiration.

So, I find people and I inspire them to do the best for themselves, the best they can for their cause. Then, I know that I did my job, and then I'm done and I can go have a rest. If they're not doing a good job, it's not because I have to step in and do their job for them. If I have anything to do, it is to go back and help them become leaders on their own. For those people who find themselves exhausted, ask yourself, did you fall into the trap of being The Rescuer? Because if you did, get out, because you're still in the victim triangle, get out, be the leader. Be the leader because truly, if you're being the rescuer, you're discounting what other people can do. You're saying, "Well, I think you're not good enough, so I'm going to tell you how to do it, and in fact, I'm going to do it for you because I see that you're not doing well." That's me. And guess what? Our impact can be minimal in those cases, whereas if we let people be themselves and find their own leadership, their own strengths, their own power, then they will do extraordinary things.

In China, they have this proverb: "If you teach a man to fish, they will never be hungry." So if you give a man a fish, or it could be a woman, it doesn't matter. If you give a man a fish, you feed them for a day, but if you teach them to fish, you feed them forever. So, teach people how to fish. Do not try to give them fish because that's not going to last very long. It's not going to go very long. It's not going to go very far.

You've already shared some great tips. I love the time blocking. I love this visualization of the triangle as well. If someone is just getting started on this path of pursuing business and combining it with purpose, are there perhaps three next steps or actions that you would recommend for them along that path? It might be oversimplifying, trying to get a list, but are there three perhaps tips where they could get started?

Sure. So, as I said, start with "Why." Why are you doing this? So, definitely determine your why, and that is important. There's a huge body of work by someone named Simon Sinek, and I highly recommend his books. Those are important.

Then, in the Japanese culture, there's this concept of the "ikigai." The ikigai is truly aligning what we can do, what we can get paid for, why/what is good for the world, and what we're good at. So, your ikigai is the combination of all that. Even though you may not fully know your ikigai, go and find an ikigai guide. You will find them online, and then do that because then you will know your strengths and you will know your weaknesses, and you'll know where you're going. Because truly, when we are on purpose, we're in the center of the ikigai.

I was reading some studies on longevity in places where they were looking at centenarians. There are some what we call Blue Zones, where people live very long, happy lives, and they have centenarians at a rate that is very, very different from the rest of the areas. They found that they have this idea. For example, in Costa Rica, there's a small area in the north where they have this "Vida" – oh God, I forgot. I don't remember the actual term, but truly, this idea of a guide of why you're doing this and truly, your ikigai. So, it might be easier to find a guide because in business, we have a lot of ikigai descriptions, and it's very, very easy to find. But the important point is that your skills, the more you are aligned with your purpose and skills, the more money you're going to earn, and the more you're going to be fulfilled and happy.

I always tell people when you are operating in your Genius Zone, not only are you good, but it also does not feel like work. It feels like you're having fun the whole time. And that is the goal. Can you find what you're good at, enjoy it, and then find a way to be that person on a continuous basis? Well, then you're really not working. People who do extraordinary things don't do work because they have to; they do work because they want to. And that is clearly a very different perspective, and it's also very, very important.

I've really enjoyed this conversation, and perhaps before we wrap up, I would love if you could share any links or websites that you would recommend that our listeners check out if they would like to learn more about your work.

Absolutely. So, I have recently written a new book, and it's a little bit between a book and an ebook. So, it's the AI and the Yin Yang for Enhancing Leadership. It's about how we can blend ancient wisdom with high-tech in this age where things are moving fast. If people go to my website, they can pick up this book. So, it's mariakellis.com. Maria and then Kellis with a double L, so k-e-l-l-i-s.com. And this book is meant to give you inspiration on how you can navigate the changes that are happening at a rate that is unprecedented. Because if we are not centered, if we are not sure about where we're going and what we're doing, then we're going to fall into the trap of being overwhelmed and stressed because computers for better or worse, right now, they are outperforming humans in basic tasks.

So, instead of trying to control it, it's important to know your goal, and then you can go from there. For example, I am a creative person. Well, my life has changed. OpenAI put out that ChatGPT. Thank you for making AI available to the masses. But English is not my first language, so I sit there with a huge writer's block. So now, I just start talking to AI, and I'm like, "Well, you know, that's my idea," and then it gives me some ideas. I'm like, "Huh, that's not bad. Can you make the tone a little bit different? Can you change the sound? Can you make it more professional? Can you make it easier?" This happens in automatic steps. I don't have to worry about drafting the English language, and I don't have to worry.

I remember I spent years and years of my life sending drafts to editors because I'm not good at being detail-oriented. So, I never see a comma that's out of place. I never do it. So now, AI takes care of that for me. I love the advances of technology, and I think that right now, if we let technology take the lead, we're not doing our job either. We need to know ourselves, our values, our leadership, our abilities, our vision, our mission because that is going to drag. So, having better tools is not going to make you successful if you don't know where you're going. This is why it becomes extremely important to maintain this balance, especially as things are accelerating.

And I do want to say we're at the cusp of this; things are only going to get faster. Acknowledge that change is happening so fast. Tools that we used five years ago are ancient right now. So, allow yourself to accept the speed of evolution, and that happens by being more and more in your center and knowing exactly where you're standing in your own path.

That is so interesting, balancing that, not pushing away the technology side. So, I love that embracing and just helping get deeper into our why. And we do like to end every episode with the same question, which is, what do you think it will take for businesses and leaders to be resilient going forward?

It's a very good question, and going forward, I feel that we are shifting into a new business paradigm where business with purpose, profit with purpose, is becoming more and more important. We have seen companies that are part of what we call now the conscious business movement outperforming the S&P 500 by far. So, we can see tangibly that as we actually increase our humanity and strengthen our values and principles, then this is creating real tangible results.

There's a beautiful book, I think it's called "The Blueprint" (The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism) by Hubert Joly. He was the CEO of Best Buy, and when they hired him, the business was failing. He realized that what they were not using was the human catalog. So, he installed policies in the company to improve the lives of employees. He no longer treated them as replaceable cogs; he started treating employees and working them towards their goals – buying a house, creating a better life, having a favorite charity, whatever they wanted to do. The company was aligned in helping those employees strengthen their leadership. They found that this leadership by Hubert Joly changed the course of the company from one that was heading for bankruptcy to one of the thriving companies in America.

Again, thank you so much, Maria, for your time. This has been a very helpful conversation, and I know that this is going to really resonate with our listeners and our leaders who tune in on a regular basis. So, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.