Hey, you guys welcome to another episode. I'm so excited to have you here. And you're in for such a treat. This is not only a really funny one, but so insightful and inspiring. We'll jump into that in one second. I just wanted to let you guys know that I have the doors open to my program, stuck to strategy for just this week. So if you are in any position that you're unhappy in a career that you don't want to be in, but you don't know what path you should be on and you want some help. You want some guidance to go through this with a group of other people who are in the same position who are really trying to figure out how to have a more fulfilled life. I would love for you to join us. You can go to quitter club.com/group to check it out.

The doors will close on July 2nd. So make sure to jump on there quickly. And I hope to see you there. You can shoot me an email if you have any questions about it and I'd be happy to answer them. Okay? I'm so excited about today's episode with Naja Hall. I mean one, because she's a delight and hilarious, but two, because you know that one of my main purposes for this podcast is to show you what is possible. I know with so many people that come to me, feeling stuck in their careers, they're limited to the things that they know are possible, right? You don't know what you don't know. And so they're constantly looking at different corporate careers and none of them look that good. It looks just as unhappy as the one that they're in. And what I really wanted to show in this podcast is that the world is just so different and what the internet and the online space.

There's so many possibilities to do things outside of the box. And you have to be willing to take an honest look at what you really love doing and what you're good at and what you can help people. And really the possibilities are endless. And I feel like Naja is the perfect example of that. She started out in the entertainment industry and we'll talk about how she even got into that and the acting and comedy, but it wasn't until she met the love of her life, her husband, who also had children. And so she found herself in the position of being a stepmom and she decided to just create a community so that she had a place of like-minded people that she could, you know, vent to and will, and really with no idea where this would go and it has taken off, she has a community for stepmoms called the VIP step-mom.

And she also has the largest blended family community for millennials called blended and black. She is a certified coach and educator that understands that family is the most influential entity of human development in her work centers around helping these individuals and families navigate these tough transitions into blended families. And it's just amazing because really it was her finding through her own experience, how to navigate this world that she realized like, Oh, I can help other people do this with empathy and accountability and emotional intelligence and figuring out like how to do this in a more heart-centered way and in a way that actually leaves people better off. And it has grown unbelievably. We'll talk about all that. She has a popular podcast called. I Know I'm Crazy with Naja hall and she's the author of the book series girl by she is just incredible and has done so many amazing things. So without further ado, let's jump in and talk to Nasha. Hi Naja. Thank you so much for joining me today.


Naja: Hey, Goli.

Goli: I am so excited to have you. How are you?

Naja: I am awesome. I had a great bike ride with my dad this morning, and now I'm talking to you, so I don't see how it gets better.

Goli: I love it. And we're going to jump into that because that is the beauty of entrepreneurship, but we typically start back kind of more at the beginning, right? So why don't you tell us what you went to school for and what you sort of thought your career was going to be looking like.

Naja: My degree, I have a bachelor's in family and consumer sciences. So I thought that I would become one of these high fashion buyers picking out clothes on, off the runways in Paris, putting them on the backs of consumers on Fifth Avenue in New York City. When I graduated from college, though, my first buying job was at JC Penny. I think that might be defunct right now, but I was in jewelry. I was a jeweler, a jewelry merchant. And so literally my entire day was, but he's 11 by 17. You know, the big pieces of paper and not the 8x11, the massive pieces of paper. I was literally, what do you call those little things you hold in your hand. Magnifying. Yeah. Analyzing numbers all day.

I was like, wait a minute. Miss Naja is way too fly and way too fancy to be sitting here in this little box with no door analyzing spreadsheets all day. And I genuinely thought I would be a fashion buyer. Now, of course, there are jobs that people do buy for big stores, but they never told me that by. And I did an internship and everything. I got bamboozled. They never told me that being a buyer was not a glamorous job. You're not on the runways in Paris. You're not having lunch with Anna Wintour. And so I felt like a lemming. I felt like I got hoodwinked and I honestly did not like it. And I quickly found out that I just didn't really fit in with the corporate culture. I was a total Renegade. I mean, I didn't dress like those people and I didn't walk like those people.

I started hating the job and when you hate a job, you start to hate yourself and nothing goes right. I got a chance to meet some wonderful people. One of my coworkers did acting, did theater on the side and she invited me to a show. She was a theater major in school. And her parents had convinced her that theater folk never made any money. So she got a real job. So she invited me to a show and I was like, you know what? I have entertainment roots. I was in all the performing arts champs and in school. And I was always in musical theater, even though I can't sing to save my life. And I auditioned for the theater troupe that she was doing. So my first job, no, well, my first I didn't get paid for this at all. None of us did, but my first like side thing was dinner theater.

I don't know if anybody out there listening has been to dinner theater, but you go to dinner and then there's these actors. And there's like, we do a murder mystery and we turn the lights off and try to figure out who done it. Yeah. So that kind of really wet my entertainment chops again. And I did that for about six, seven months maybe. And I had a friend from my hometown that lived in New York. He was like, Hey, why don't you come up and visit sometime? You know, I would gripe to him about my job. He was already an artist, but you know, at that point I was living in Dallas, Texas. I had an expensive apartment. I had just bought a brand new Jaguar. I even had a little puppy that I kept in my purse, like Paris Hilton used to do. I was living the dream.

I was a $50,000 millionaire as we used to call them back in the day late, honey, you ain't making but $50,000, you know, so, but I was a single girl, no case possibilities. So to me, that was a lot of money, 15 years ago. And so I went up to New York and I immediately felt like I was home. I was like, the energy is electric. Like these people are in the street painting and Oh my God, look at the subway. It was so beautifully different to me. And I remember within three or four months, I put in a two weeks notice. And I was like, I don't know what the other side holds for me, but I know what this life looks like because my boss was a beautiful woman who probably had dreams deferred herself. She had children and responsibilities, the executives at my company.

They were not in a position to go out and explore and leave because they weren't comfortable. It just so happened that I never was able to be comfortable in that environment and packed it all up. I sent my dog to a parent's house. You know, it was a deadbeat dog and my parents' house packed up my New York apartment, put some stuff in storage, gave stuff away, got rid of that car. And I ended up in New York city and that was 13 years ago.

Goli: Wow. Okay. When you're making these decisions and I think a lot of people listening can relate to not feeling like they fit in and just realizing that this isn't for me, this is not the life I want and wanting something else. And there are a lot of people who have those thoughts, but then in the back of your mind is like, well, I'm giving up this. Like you were saying, it's a good paycheck. I have a comfortable life. I'm imagine that your mom and dad were saying like, are you crazy? You gonna quit and go and do what, what does it, what does it mean? Like for acting it's such a hard industry.

Naja: My parents have always been ultra supportive. I think, you know, parents would kind of live vicariously through their kids. So my mother, she will say this in front of my dad to this day, even last night, they're celebrating 43 years of marriage next week. And we're sitting outside barbecuing, me, mom, dad, and my husband. And she was like, you know, the only reason I married your dad is because your grandma wouldn't let me join the military. I said, mom, why did you want to join the military? She said, well, because I wanted to travel. I probably have 20 full passports right now. I've taken my mom on some trips with me, my husband and I have taken both of our parents with us. You know, they were really supportive. They're kind of just like, all right, if that's what you want to do, because you know, I didn't come from the type of, you know, my parents didn't own a company, so I didn't inherit a family business.

I didn't inherit wealth. We're all just people trying to figure it out. And I think they saw me trying to figure it out. And my dad and Myers, the adventurous side of me, they got married so young. So there was so much that they didn't get to do. They kind of discouraged my sisters and I from settling down early. Cause they were like, you know, you just, you guys got to live. So thankfully my parents really supported me and the rest of my family. Not so much, but you know, as we say, they weren't putting a coin in the piggy bank. So their word was kind of nothing. Right. But that's such a blessing to even have that support. You know, I think a lot of people, cause what you were saying, when you have parents that didn't get to do a lot of this stuff and worked really hard.

I think a lot of that then becomes the fear that they instill. You know, it's like, yeah, the good paycheck and stay in this secure thing and don't try to mess it up for yourself. And so it's such a blessing to have family or support it. You know? I think even if it's not your parents, maybe somebody else I can support you in seeing like, Hey, you get this one shot. Like why not? You know, be adventurous and try things. Right? Exactly, exactly. That's how it happened. And so when you got to New York, what was the plan? Oh God, I had another friend who knew of my acting entertainment aspirations. And he was like, Hey, I know this celebrity, you can be his assistant. I mean, maybe that'll help. And I was like, all right, I signed it. We call it a nondisclosure. So, but you know, so, you know, I was like, I know this celebrity.

He was like, but just he's really seedy. He is kind of a scumbag, but you're a grown woman. I know you. I know if anybody can make an opportunity out of this, it can be you and you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You know, at that point I had already quit my job. So I was like, alright, cool. I'm going to go to LA and I'm going to be a celebrity's assistant and I'm going to be an assistant for a year. And then I'm going to, he's going to introduce me to his agent and I'm going to be in movies. That was my plan. And it didn't go like that. And as soon as I got there, he was, you know, like one of these, me two guys, like he's literally one of the people that I've seen in that movement, I was just like, damn man, whatever those girls are saying that Duke did, he did.

So it was like one of those people that experienced really, it was like a smack to the face because you know, I have a very strong family that I came from and that situation represented the dark side of the business that I said I wanted to be in, but I knew nothing about it. I didn't have any allies. I didn't know anybody. So, you know, I'm fresh meat to any person, especially a man with wealth and power far more than I have, wouldn't be able to. So I was an assistant for celebrity for like a month. And then he fired me because I was not one of those girls that would take hold to his advances. But in that, you know, he sat me down. He was like, Hey, you know, you can't be my assistant anymore. I was like, yeah, I figured that he was like, what?

I really like you, I think you're really cool. And I was like, well, I'm still probably gonna move to LA. He was like, all right, we can just stay in the house then. And I was like, cause he had an employee's quarters. So he allowed me to stay in his employees quarters for a couple of weeks until I figured it out. At that point, once he saw and made his advances toward me and he saw that, I was just like, dude, Whoa, what are you doing? Like, no, this is not, I'm an educated woman. I have degrees. I am not, you know, I was, and then he was just like, all this chick is going to be too hard. We would change his tune with me. And I ended up staying there and he did introduce me to his agent that didn't work out. I went on some auditions.


I caught up with friends out there and that's what let me know because I got a commercial gig when I was out there. And that paid like no commercial. If you do a cereal commercial in it for 10 seconds, that's the $10,000 check. And I was like, wait a minute. I made $50,000 in one year. But from doing this silly commercial spot where you can't even see me, I got this big check. I was sold, you know, hook, line and sinker. And so of course I knew that I couldn't sustain myself in LA. So I had a friend in New York that I mentioned previously and he was like, Hey, you can crash on my couch until you figure it out. And that's what happened. I went there and I crashed it. Four boxes. I just put duct tape over four months at Walmart and bought four of those big old moving classic things, put duct tape on them and mail them.

Yeah. I mean, that's how my journey started in New York city. And I was like, I was an actress, AKA, a waitress slash bartender. That's what you do. Right. That's what, that's what actors do, you know? Yeah. And so I want to kind of fast forward are in New York, you're doing acting and comedy in this time, you meet your now husband and get married and tell us a little bit what you're starting out your business, how that ever started and how you've kind of grown that fast forward, past all of my, you know, acting I did radio for quite a few years. I still have a podcast now went into comedy for a very long time. And then I'm still in my artist's realm. I met this amazing fellow amazing, the most amazing fella to this date that I have ever been with the same as Tony.

He's the best thing since sliced bread for me, I love that Tony came with some other slices of bread though. I have three kids. So he has three kids. He was ending a very tumultuous situation with a previous partner. And I was coming up on the tail end of that thing, like it was over, but the fumes of anger, visceral contempt were still there. And that's how any woman, by the way, you know, if you're going to date a guy with kids and just please make sure you're not his first serious girlfriend out, like please don't, I don't want to be the Guinea pig. So I started dating this fellow and he was amazing, but he was just attached to something that was the complete antithesis to the type of life relationship that I wanted to have. And it just came down to it.

Naja do you want this man? And he's awesome. You know, when I say Tony, is there sickness and in health, like he's that guy that really put my foot down. And I was like, I don't want to lose this guy because I can't deal with, you know, his previous situation. I don't want that to happen, but I was not prepared at all to deal with the divorce dad or X that was full of conflict. I was not in a lot of people don't know how to deal with it. So what I did, I took to the internet, I started Googling, you know, what does it mean to be a stepmom? What does it mean to be in a blended family? Like, well, what the heck is this? As I mentioned, my parents are still married. My husband's parents were still married. We don't know how to do this.

Right. We don't do this. And so I was looking around for support groups and there were a lot of them online. I can totally say that. But what I found was a lack of diversity in these support groups. And I found that the people talking, they didn't look like me culturally, they didn't speak my language. You know, like I just felt excluded. And so what does any strong woman do? She builds and that's exactly what I did. I created a space for people like me that… We're new to this whole blended family thing that we're trying to figure out, how do I love amongst conflict? And you know, it was first, it just started as a Facebook group and me posting about my own drama. But what happened was, you know, 2000 people joined in 4,000, then 8,000. It's like, people are constantly joining and there's three, 400 posts going up every week of people just are that are crying.

They're pouring out their hearts. You're talking about their broken families and situations. And I was like, wait a minute, Naja. Yes ma'am. Because at that point I started talking to people on the phone, you know, they would tell me their issues, but they wouldn't share my information with their friends because I had helped them. So like I mentioned at the very top of my degrees in family and consumer science is at the top of my career. I was using the consumer sciences portion of it as a merchandiser, as a buyer. But then I was like, let me tap back into this family science part of it because I know some stuff.

And so I started taking clients and I started charging like 50 bucks, 40 bucks. A lot of it was still free. And I realized, I was like, this is something that you can monetize. What did I want to become a therapist? I thought about that. And I was like, ah, this can't really yell and cuss at their clients in order for me to get through to people. I find myself yelling and cousins. So I was like, I can't, I didn't want to go that route. And when I started getting therapists as my own clients, I knew that I was on the right track. So I have a business, I have Naja Hall coaching agency from there. I realized that there was a very much, a big hole for I'm a stepmother and the realm for women. Our stepmother's, well, it's just a wide open niche.

And so I started a membership community while I charge a monthly fee for people to be a part of that. And on a slow month, we're making 20 grand right now. And it's only been open for a year. That's incredible. Yes. But the coaching agency, I'm moving more away from individual coaching and focusing more on the membership portion of it because you know, when you're a coach, it requires energy, absolutely soul work. If I could help multiple people at one time, as opposed to just one at a time, then I think I could spread my message a lot further.

Goli: I love this. I wanted you on so badly because like I said, I mean at the point of the podcast is to show people just how much opportunity is out there and how many ways of thinking outside the box, because so many people want to try something, but they only look at what has already been done. And I think, you know, most people probably have never heard of a coach for step-mom's. Yeah. And so I love that there's this example. I love that you saw a hole that there wasn't something that you wanted for yourself. So you built it. And I also love that you just started like using it. You started a Facebook group, I'm sure. At the time that you started the Facebook group, you didn't know that it was going to turn into this

Naja: There. God, no, it was just for me to talk about how much I hate my man's baby mama. You know, I never imagined it would turn into, of course I've cleaned up all those posts, but I never imagined it would turn into a diverse, the largest space for people in blended families. I never imagined that not in a million years,

Goli: What an incredible thing to have to build for the world. And like, it's such an amazing journey. Like again, I think I've hammered it home and like every podcast episode, because I think so often where waiting until we know the whole plan to start like, well, what would this be? And how would this, you know, so often it's just like starting and then pivoting, like trying something and then seeing where that goes and then doing something else.

You know, you got to bump your head a few times. You know, I see people getting trademarks done. They come out with a great idea and the trademark is a date and they build a website and then do all this. And then they realize, Oh my God, this doesn't work. Yeah. And then also you really hold yourself up with doing that. There's been so many ideas that I've had that I didn't do. And within two, three years I've seen someone go do it and knock it out of the park. I'm like, dang, why didn't you just do it? When you said you were, you know, now my life is everyday execution, service and execution. Number one, how can I be of service? And then what executable goes away. But when I wanted to start a podcast, I ordered a $40 microphone off of Amazon.

And I just started reaching out to people that I knew and a hundred. And my podcasts as of March was a year old, a hundred thousand downloads. We have amazing, you know, just from talking smack, you know, that's what I'm tell people. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be a pro. You just got to put your heart into it. And people that love you, they're going to love you because now they're a part of your beginning. They can say, Oh, watch her grow. I remember when she was starting. I remember when her audio quality, wasn't that great.

There's also something to the fact that a lot of times people want to learn from someone that's just a couple steps ahead of them. Like they don't want a motivational speaker that has millions of followers. They want somebody that's like, Oh, she's doing it. So it's possible for me.

Naja: Yes. You see that this is actually possible. I know that companies now that are looking for influencers, micro influencers make a ton of money because they know that, like you said, you know, I can reach a very large group of people in a very specific niche and people want to feel like they can reach out and touch you. They want to feel like you're accessible. They might not bother you all the time, but they at least, you know, you're not so big. You're not this larger than life thing. So to where they can't relate anymore, I never want to be like that. And always want to feel like, Hey, you know, you can call me. I gotta tell everybody my phone number is three, one five, seven, five blend. Like, that's my number. It's going to be my number. I've given away on my podcast. Sometimes people text me. Sometimes people call and most of the time that I answer, you know?

Goli: Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. But so what you were saying that like, when you were doing this, I think what stops people a lot of times is the thoughts of who am I to give someone else's advice? Or who am I looking at saying like, you know, I'm not a therapist. I don't have this degree. I shouldn't be giving this advice. Did you ever think those things or like if you did, how did you kind of push through that?

Naja: To be quite honest, I still suffer from imposter syndrome because it's like, I look at a person that I have a lot of respect for and are therapist. I've seen therapists before in my life. I have a lot of clients and friends that are therapists. When you start to make the same or more money than people, or you're getting more accolades and people, or you're busier, then people that you do, you have respect for like me, for example, I really respect education. I admire the PhDs of the world. I learned from them. I study their work all the time. Dear God, I don't think I could go for another four years of school. So that's why I really admire these people. But you start to feel like you're an imposter, because like you said, I don't have these advanced degrees. Who am I to tell people what to do?

I'm a woman that's only been through the trenches and made her way to the other side. I had pulled myself out and my family out and now thousands of other people, aside from that, I'm a certified family life educator. So I had to complete 15,000 hours of field work. Yeah, yeah. And field work just in the blended family field. So I don't know, one therapist that's done more work in that field and you know, that's specified niche in me. So I had to go and prove to myself that I was qualified. I really had to, cause I've had, people may be a hater or two to be like, how are you going to tell somebody what to do? And your family still jacked up. I'm like, well, honey, I'm not jacked up. I'm not messed up. As a matter of fact, I'm preaching what I know. I'm pretty sure what I know and what I've seen myself go through. When I ask, you know, I tell women, I said, you guys, some of you have male gynecologist, but he doesn't have a hula, he's gone out and studied a very specific part and become an expert at that. That's what I've done. So I have to remind myself of that.

Goli: I love that.

Naja: Yeah. Look at me now. And I still have a ways to go, because guess what? I'm in the business of blending families, families are something that are always transitioning. You have birth, deaths, marriages, divorces, you know, so I'm always in a state of learning and I'm a student, I'm a student of life, of situations, of love. And that's kind of the thing that makes me keep going and gives me the confidence. Even when people tell me that I shouldn't be as confident.

Goli: I love that. And it's always, I tend to think when it's people like that, it's people projecting their own insecurities on you because at the end of the day, like what you just said too, I mean, even doctors or therapists, like if you think you're going to a therapist who doesn't have their own issues, then you're deluding yourself. Because like everybody, everybody has problems.

Naja: Yeah. If you're looking for a perfect soul worker or specialist, it's not going to happen.


Goli: A hundred percent because you've been doing while you're going through this journey. I imagine that this work has… It must have helped you so much within your own family.

Naja: Oh my God. Sometimes it feels like people shouldn't be paying me because they're teaching me a hundred percent. They are teaching me. I feel like if you're a person that is in this field or any sort of field where you're helping people and you're not always open to learning, then you probably should stop. But you know, I've gotten so many good principals. I have some great clients by the way. I mean just some amazing people. First of all, for you to hire a person or join a membership community, because you want to make your family a family that you probably didn't create yourself. It was ready, mate. You know, for you to want to dig into that and lean into that. So where you'll invest your time and your money, you gotta be a heck of a woman, a heck of a person. I learned a lot from my clients. I can't say women because it's male and female and kids.

Goli: I love that. So tell us a little bit about your membership. Like what do people get when they join and what's a part of the program.

Naja: Oh my goodness. So the membership community right now is just for step-mom's, I'm a stepmom. I got, kinda got a soft spot, soft spot. Cause you know, I know the struggle. They get discounts on coaching. I do an interview every month with an expert in the field and that's not available anywhere online. So they get access to my monthly expert interview. They get a copy of step-mom magazine, which is the oldest journal. By the way, if your stepmom out there, you know, and you haven't read an article from, you probably have heard a stepmom magazine for short, they also get a private podcast. I have a public one, but then there's a very private podcast. There is also a secret and members area like a chat room because Facebook can be kind of invasive. You know, I tell women all the time and men, honey, if you put it on Facebook, it can be used in a court of law against you.

I've had to go to court. I've been subpoenaed to court before because people have said things in my Facebook groups. So I decided to create a completely separate area. Oh, and there's a monthly video. So I do a monthly zoom meeting of all of my premium members, women from around the world, all walks of life, ages, creeds, colors, professions. We sit and we meet and we look at one another’s spaces and we talk about our issues. So it's like group therapy. It's a lot of fun. That's probably people's favorite part of that's wonderful. Yeah. So it's a true feeling that you are an exclusive member of the sisterhood of women that understand the struggle.

Goli: Oh, I love that. And I'm sure that there's tons of people in this audience that could benefit from that. So where would they be able to find this membership?

Naja: Oh, you go to VIP step-mom dot com. That's it just go to VIP Step-Mom dot com on Facebook. I'm on Instagram as VIP stepmom on of course the website where you actually join and get all of the resources, go to VIP step-mom dot com.


Goli: And then what is it? Tell us what blended and black is.

Naja: So blended in black and as you, it, I mentioned that a lot of the spaces that I was a part of, they didn't look right. Like me. They didn't feel like home to me. And so don't tell anybody this, but I really just picked the first name that was available. And I was like, what has the word blended in it? I was like, Oh, okay. I'm in a blended family and duh I'm black. I was like, and so women in black is actually the Facebook group that kind of catapulted everything. People always ask. There are white people, Asian, Pacific Islander, et cetera, et cetera, are they allowed abso, freaking lutely? Because my goal is to create allies that isn't, that's always been. One of my missions is to let other people see very human stories of people that are often dehumanized. And what better way to do that, to invite you into our homes and to such vulnerable places like our family. So you can see it like damn blended families. I deal with all sorts of races. And I can tell you this crazy doesn't have a color, everyone's ass is crazy.

Yeah. Living in black was actually the Facebook group. And also there's a separate coaching agency with blended and black as well. And again, like one thing I can say, and everybody knows it's about Naja Hall is I have the most diverse client roster out there because I make sure that everyone is represented. Everybody knows that my message is for them. And I'm thankful that I've been able to cross the barriers of that because a lot of people in my niche have not been able to, but I've been extremely intentional about being inclusive, no matter what your sex is, your age, your preference.

Goli: Right. That's wonderful. And so, okay. Where should people go first? If they want to, like, you know, I know we said the VIP step-mom, but where do you mostly hang out? Where can they find you to follow along?

Naja: Okay, so seriously. So I created a hub website cause I was like, there's a lot of stuff that I do and it's just najahall.com. So if you're in a blended family, it'll take, you know, you can be directed to my blended family stuff. If you're a stepmom, it'll take you there. If you want to see some of my old comedy stuff, my old acting stuff, I even threw that on there. So people can get some kicks. This girl is human.

Goli: I love that.

Naja: Such an amazing Testament to the fact that one, like there is no one path, you know, I mean, when you were doing comedy in New York, that you would have a community for blended families, you know, you know, if you would've asked me this 12 years ago, I would have looked at you like you were in Spain because Miss Naja didn't date men with kids. That's just not what we do. I don't deal with baby mama drama and kids and jobs report in court. And then all that stuff I said I'd never, ever, ever do. It literally became my everyday life. Right. So, you know, it's kinda like the universe last.


I love that and with a lot of the things that we think are the hardest and most painful, oftentimes comes these blessings in disguise and opportunity. Yes. I often say I've turned my pain into purpose into profit and I'm so intentional about doing it. And I'm also open to the fact that I might think of another idea and it's even better than these two here at first, I was still married. So my two communities, I'm like, it's so much work, dah, dah, dah. But I was like, Oh, if not me then who and why not do it? I have the bandwidth to do it. I have help. Now. I have people that believe in me and support me. So if something else comes up in my life, I'll be an advocate for that to last for that too. I love that. And I think that that's something that comes up with a lot of the guests that we have on this podcast. Because oftentimes when you've only done one thing or you've kind of done the traditional thing, that jumps seems so scary, but then you do it and you realize, okay, like it wasn't that bad.

It wasn't as scary as I thought it was. And yes, there's hard work and pain and all this stuff, but yeah, it's something that you can handle. It opens you up to so much more possibility. Like I think about the same thing. I think I have no idea what I'll be doing in 10 years. And that's like the most exciting thing because I could do anything when you learn how to relinquish that control that need for you to be in control. Like I see people do it every day. You see anxiety and depression dissipate because you're not living in the past and you're not living in the future. You're so appreciative of where you are now. And then if you can just control the moment that you're in, you've already won.

Goli: Oh my God. That is perfectly said. I love that. Thank you so much for being here. Naja, this was wonderful.

Naja: I appreciate you having me. Thank you so much Goli. I appreciate it.

Goli: This has been great. And I will link to everything that we talked about in this episode so that people can confine you. Cause I'm sure that a lot of people need your guidance.

Thank you so much for listening. I can't tell you how much it means to me. If you liked the podcast, please rate and review us on iTunes. It'll help other people find the show. If you want to connect or reach out, follow along on Instagram and Facebook at lessons from a quitter and on Twitter at Twitter podcasts, I would love to hear from you guys and I'll see you on the next episode.