Unbreakable Mind & Body

Mentorship Magic and Curious Questions

• Tiana Gonzalez • Episode 8

Share episode

What happens when the universe delivers exactly the mentor you need at precisely the right moment? My new podcast episode unpacks a deeply personal journey through mentorship.

After navigating three different roles in 16 months and putting my personal brand on pause, I found myself seeking clarity before deciding my next move. That's when a serendipitous moment in a mall—complete with tears, a text message, and a perfectly timed Instagram video—led me to the mentor who would transform my outlook almost overnight.

The magic of finding someone who truly speaks your language is unmistakable. This episode explores how the right mentor doesn't just teach skills or strategies but creates a safe space for vulnerability and growth. My mentor combines practical business guidance with profound inner work, helping me explore questions that aren't meant to be answered immediately but instead marinate in. The result? A lightness, intentionality, and reconnection with purpose that ripples through every aspect of my life.

Whether you've consciously sought mentorship or benefited from guidance without labeling it as such, this conversation will inspire you to consider who might help elevate your journey next. I challenge listeners to find someone a few steps ahead who understands your struggles intimately and can help you navigate both the strategic and emotional landscapes of growth. 

Send us a text

Connect with Me!

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tianasmindandmoves

Website: www.unbreakablemb.com

Email: info@unbreakablemb.com

Join the newsletter:

https://unbreakablemb.myflodesk.com/jwxbj7vz3l

Disclaimer: This show is for education and entertainment purposes only. This is not intended as a replacement for therapy. Please seek out the help of a professional to assist you with your specific situation.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Unbreakable Mind and Body podcast. I am your host, tiana Gonzalez, a multi-passionate, creative storyteller and entrepreneur with a fierce love for movement. This is our space for powerful stories and actionable strategies to help you build mental resilience and elevate your self-care practice. Together, we will unlock the tools that you need to create an unbreakable mind and body. Welcome back to the Unbreakable Mind and Body Podcast. I'm your host, tiana. This is episode eight, and on this episode we are going to talk about the importance of mentorship.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you've listened to previous episodes, in episode six I talk about some of the twists and turns that I have taken throughout my career, particularly the last couple of years, and how I put my personal brand to sleep for a little while and I'm not sure what I'm doing with it, and how I dove into a very tough industry and faced quite a number of challenges, three different roles in a 16-month timeframe. Yeah, that was a rough one. So I spent time thinking about what did I want to do next? What was the direction? Do I want to revive Fit by Tiana or do I want to come up with something new? And here we are now recording Unbreakable the podcast. I want clarity before I decide what I want to do with any new brand or any offering. So I have hired a new mentor and I'm super excited about it. She's amazing, somebody that I have followed on social media for quite a number of years, someone who combines the inner work, what we have to do, to navigate our mental health and our spirit, our heart, and make sure we have the capacity to not only offer something online or in person, but to hold the space needed for it. There are a lot of people who launch something and it's a one and done, or they launch it maybe two times and it's not the huge success that they hope for and they give up. And so this particular coach works with people both on strategy, skills, systems, all sorts of things like creating a funnel to bring your audience through, to lead them into either a live offering or an evergreen product and if I'm speaking another language to you, don't worry, it's just online business talk. You've been in a funnel, whether you know it or not at this point. And she also works with people on their mindset to make sure that they have the clarity, that they know the direction, that they have the big picture vision and, yes, it is a bit woo and it's also a lot of strategy thing for everyone. And that's really what I wanted to talk about today because, whether you know it or not, at some point you've had a mentor, you've had a guide, you've had a teacher. You may not consider them a mentor, but at some point you definitely had one.

Speaker 1:

Think back to an early time in your career. Think back to when you played a sport. Think back to, maybe, when you were in some sort of professional organization and you were looking up to people. You were being coached. I've been so lucky. I've had quite a few phenomenal business coaches and mentors over my life. When we were in the lockdown timeframe in 2020, I started working with Jill Coleman. She spoke my language. She helped fitness professionals take their business to either a hybrid model or completely online. I was already working in the hybrid model, but I had a lot to learn and Jill taught me all of the things I needed to get things off the ground. I also hired someone to help me refine my process and my presence really when I was doing sales calls.

Speaker 1:

Now, most people who decide to become a personal trainer do not know anything about sales. They might know some marketing, but sales is a beast unto its own. So it's very common I would meet people who are passionate about helping others. They really want to get the powerful information out there just about diet, nutrition, movement, exercise. And then, when it comes to asking for the sale, and then, when it comes to asking for the sale, showcasing their value and making sure that they clearly understand the person they're speaking to, there's a lot of gaps. There's a lot of error. I have learned this the hard way. I have just recently done more sales training, not because I'm only interested in making more money which I am, by the way, and I would be remiss to say I'm not but just so I would have better questions to ask and, interestingly enough, that's what's happening with my mentor now.

Speaker 1:

So the sales training I did, that was something. I just bought a book and it came with some online videos and, of course, I was in this guy's funnel. So he's sending me emails every day in a drip campaign and then his team is shooting me text messages and there's urgency and scarcity language. I'm familiar with the whole thing. I really just wanted a little nibble. I wasn't looking to bite off the whole thing. I wasn't looking to join any intense sales program.

Speaker 1:

Once I got into the low ticket you know, getting the book and doing the included videos and not going further you know, I realized, okay, I don't think this is the right fit for me. And that's perfectly fine, and that's actually something I've encountered with my fitness business too is, you know people, I meet people and it looks like it could be promising, but we're not a good fit for each other. It's happened a lot. So it's kind of what happened with this guy. I just I liked the stuff, I liked the video, I liked the books, but I said no, I don't think this is a good fit, it's not for me. I need something a little more heart centered. So now I've got this new person, I'm hooked on her. So now I've got this new person, I'm hooked on her.

Speaker 1:

I'm listening to her podcasts, I'm following the two different programs, I'm taking my time consuming the material, doing the exercises. It's a lot of writing also, it's a lot of self-exploration and it's fun. It's been a week and this past week at my job, where I work in person, I've noticed that I'm happier, I feel lighter, I'm more engaged, plugged in, passionate. It feels more intentional than before. That's really the best way to say it. It feels more intentional than before, and that's because I'm doing the work. And that's because I'm doing the work.

Speaker 1:

In a previous episode I talk about how important I think therapy is and how. Had I not gone to therapy multiple times in my life, the lockdown would have been really tough for me. I was licking a wound and I had the tools and the strategy to work through my feelings, which I think a lot of people downplay. You know, you can feel something and then you can ask yourself some questions about it, questions like is this true? Does this have any impact on my future? Is this something I really believe? Or is this a narrative that I have been brainwashed to believe? Or is this just the vibe and the culture that I was immersed in as a young child, during my very impressionable years where my personality was being formed, and now I think this is my personality. Is it my personality? I think it takes someone vulnerable and who can be really honest with themselves to explore these types of questions and to sit with them and to answer them and to let the answers come. So that's the other part of this work. That's really cool.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes I'm driving and bing, I'll think about something and the answer will come to me, and that's kind of how I found this mentor in the first place. So I've been following her for years and I didn't even know that I was looking to work with someone. I was just looking for more information I felt myself seeking. Particularly since I launched this podcast, I have been connected to new people, looking at websites, reading different things about how successful podcasters run their businesses, what types of offers do they have, how do they do it, and I knew that this person has a podcast, but I had only listened to a few episodes. I happened to be listening to an episode. I went for a walk, I was in the mall, I was actually at Sephora, which happens to be one of my favorite stores because I love makeup and I decide to take a seat in the mall.

Speaker 1:

Press pause on the podcast. Go onto Instagram real quick. The first video that pops up is this woman and I was like oh okay, let me. I'm listening to her on my podcast, but whatever, same voice. I'm watching her on Instagram and it's the type of video where she's responding to a comment from another video. She's responding to a comment about something and the person saying they don't have any time and she's providing some powerful, thought-provoking questions. And while she's doing that, I get a text message from a family member and it literally spun me out.

Speaker 1:

I had to pause the video, I had to sit down and I started crying because the things that were being said in the video and the text and what I had just been listening to in the podcast were all connected, and they were connected to a very deep, rooted, unreasonable fear that I have and I said to myself oh shit, I have to figure out how to make this work. I need this woman in my life. She's speaking to me, she's talking right to me about something I'm carrying around in my heart that I didn't even know, or maybe I knew, but I wasn't willing to admit to myself. So I scurried home I mean literally like booked it home got on my computer, opened the website, started looking at the offerings and I just made a game time decision right there. I was like, okay, this is it, I'm enrolling in this program and it's been life changing. It's been seven days and it has been life changing already.

Speaker 1:

Can you only imagine? I've said it a few times to people in my world and I will say it here, I am the type of person I can be guarded, I can be closed off and I can be hard and harsh, cared for and protected. Now I can relax, now I can surrender, now I can let my thoughts flow. It's kind of like how some of you listening, I know you have kids. Your children act differently at home than they do at school. It's the same kind of thing because they're in a safe environment that you've cultivated for them. And so this person makes me feel safe, she makes me feel seen. She's speaking my language. She knows exactly what to say to get me to think outside of what I've been thinking, and that's potent and it's powerful.

Speaker 1:

So imagine if you were to link up with someone. They don't have to be miles and miles ahead of you. They could be three or four steps ahead of you, but they've been in your shoes before and they know exactly what you're feeling and probably exactly what you're going through. They can speak your language. You don't have to paint the picture each time. You can just get right to it. There's no excuses needed, there's no explanations needed. They know what the fuck is going on. Now tell them what the state of the state is, so that they can help you with the right questions to ask yourself, so that you could sit in those questions so that you can think about it.

Speaker 1:

You know, I actually said this to one of my clients a couple of weeks ago. I said you know, I actually said this to one of my clients a couple of weeks ago. I said you know, sometimes questions are not meant to be answered right away. They're meant to be explored, they're meant to promote thinking and feeling, and they meant to those things, those thoughts and those feelings, are meant to come to you on divine timing, not when you want. You don't get to say that, you don't get to choose that If you don't know the answer.

Speaker 1:

For some of my people out here that are impatient, unfortunately that happens on divine timing. Let's take a breath, okay. So if you haven't had someone in your back pocket in a while, I would like to challenge you from a healthy place, from a heart-centered space, to find a coach or a mentor, your shoes and figured out how to get to the next level and who is capable of speaking your language and showing you the ropes, giving you the strategy and some of the mindset work so that you too could get to that next level in your life and in your career next level in your life and in your career, and on that note, I will leave this here. I do want to say thank you to everyone who has been listening to the show At the time of this recording. We've had 210 downloads, which I'm so pumped about, and if you like what you're hearing and you want to be a part of my exclusive community, please join my newsletter, check the show notes on how to do that and I'll see you on the next episode.