"I was comparing myself to a lot of other people. I was seeing what they were doing and it seemed like they were getting ahead and really quickly as well. I just thought, why can't I do that? Why do things not happen that quick for me? I know what I want to do, but it's not really happening."
"I found the things that Mariella shared about my natural advantage and my natural habit style helpful. I was thinking: that makes sense, that is me, and maybe there's more to this. I was keen to explore it further to see how it will impact how I do business and how I am with people."
"I'm definitely more forgiving, more gentle on myself. It's helped me to not compare myself to whatever everyone else is doing. I’m thinking: they can do it like that. I’ll just do it my way and I'll do it in my own time. If it takes me a bit longer than it takes me a bit longer. I feel more accepting of myself and the way I work now."
"It felt like why can't I do it their way? Why can't I just get it together and sort myself out and do everything strategically, even though I know I'm not a strategic person. When you feel like everyone else seems to be able to do it all and you can't, it just makes you feel a bit like a failure."
"I've done the work on the Clifton Strengths Finder and Human Design because I've been on this journey of finding out about myself. I had quite a lot of background information and I wasn't sure whether Mariella was going to tell me anything new."
"Learning about my natural advantage was an eye opener. It gave me confidence to be able to know my top strength. Because it is that top one, isn't it? My natural advantage is the one that covers everything."
"The coaching taught me to forgive myself and give myself grace to not be annoyed because I'm not doing it the way that other people do it. To understand that I'm doing it my way and that just felt like a relief. It was a relief because I felt that it's okay. I'm still okay. There's nothing wrong with me."
“I was feeling really overwhelmed with everything that was happening. My responsibilities as a mother, as a spouse, and then running my own business. Work-life balance was missing, I felt like I was running from one task and activity to the next… everything just felt overwhelming. At the same time my energy levels were lower. I think there’s a bit of interaction there too, you know, getting into a bit of a vicious circle of low energy and overwhelm.”
“I’ve taken different courses, workshops, therapy to deal with different things in my life and being introverted is one aspect that I hadn't looked into. It clarified a lot of things for me. I was always trying to be efficient. The whole “time management” thing, doing as much as you can in the time you have. I was really getting stuck on efficiency. Learning from you how it's about energy management and not time, that paradigm shift has been so helpful.”
“It’s helped me also to set my boundaries around my work-life balance. I make a plan for a week and that plan includes things like promises I make to do things for my children or my husband. Realizing that by having that planned out, I can see where it's possible to adjust for unforeseen events without it throwing me off. Knowing that, it’s easier for me to know what to ask or communicate with my family. It will still get done but not at the cost of my mental health or with me getting overwhelmed.”
“I know that I'm a coach, I know that I help people, I know that people have profound changes when they work with me. But I didn't know why or how I was doing it in a unique way. It was happening naturally as a result of my training, but I wanted to be able to share with others what my individual skills and what my unique talents were.”
“It's been really interesting to have an external point of view on what I do and how I do it. We can often see other people's gifts and other people's powers and it's difficult to notice our own. So it's really lovely to have someone to reflect that back in a very clear and powerful way. The process that Mariella identified that I use when in flow is one I recognize from the way I choose to write a story. I discover a problem that needs solving in the world, use my learnings to create a solution and share that within my stories."
“During our sessions, being reminded of the skills that I used in the past when I was looking to help others and the process that I used reminded me that I was able to do that and do it with good results. It's kind of given me the courage to have another go."
"Discovering my natural advantage has kind of rejuvenated my sense of personal power. It made me feel stronger and more reassured that I can do it again and that maybe the time is coming when I will be creating something that's going to help others on a wider level.”