85: No More Layers – Reclaim Your Power Beyond Burnout w/ Martine Cohen

Welcome with your host and business guru, Nakisha King. This podcast is the ultimate destination for women creative entrepreneurs who want to break free from burnout.

If you are overwhelmed by client demands and feel like you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right place. Now let's dive in for steps to take back your time and self, simplify your workflow.

All right, Nikisha, take it away. Hello and welcome to Iconic CEO Podcast, where free spirits find or fall in love with systems.

I'm your host, Nikisha, and also your sales and systems coach. And on today's episode, we have an amazing guest. We have Martine Cohen.

She is here to share a little bit more with us about transforming as iconic CEOs. And I will love to introduce who this person is that you're going to engage with today.

So, Martine Cohen is an author, speaker, and a transformative coach. She has dedicated her life, her enjoyment to empowering individuals like you to lead themselves from authenticity.

She separates their identity from their emotions and their thoughts. Thoughts and make choices from a deep inner awareness and alignment. You guys know this is why you're here and this is why she makes an amazing guess.

Martine's work is rooted in belief that true success comes from within. And she is passionate about guiding others to find that ease, that joy and fulfillment by removing the layers that obscure their inner light.

As both a lawyer and a corporate leadership consultant, I, Martine is known for her ability to help high achieving professionals navigate their personal and professional transitions. Martine, welcome to the Iconic CEO podcast. Thank you for being here today.

Nikisha. I'm so happy to be here today and thank you for having me.

Yes. Now, you stated that you practice law and you now help women find their light. Can you tell me what happened and help me understand?

By the way, my audience. Yes. I'm getting to know Martine, just like you. I love this. I get really curious when I read their value and I'm like, hold on, what happened?

Tell me more.

Oh, yeah, because. Because you know when you read that, that something definitely had to happen. It just doesn't, you know, organically work that way.

So in my case, it's quite a story.

You know, when the universe has plans for you and you're kind of like that little inner voice and you're not listening and it gets louder and louder and louder. For me, it literally hit me over the head. This is what I mean.

So, yeah, I started off as a corporate attorney, kind of like a little bit type a, sort of like perfectionist, love law. Absolutely adore law, but not so much the perfectionism aspect and the other stuff that comes along with it or that I embodied at the time.

And when I came to, I was later diagnosed with post concussive syndrome, which means that I had a serious concussion that wasn't going away on its own in a couple of weeks. And I couldn't have a conversation. I didn't understand words when they were put together. I could kind of speak, but I couldn't filter the world.

And I didn't know who I was anymore. It was a very dark and scary period, like the scariest time of my life. And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I would be okay again.

I didn't know if I'd be able to work. I couldn't feel who I was anymore. It's like I lost myself.

And then I was thrust in this kind of, like, abyss or darkness and really, really frightening time. The interesting part was that I had no thoughts other than feeling fear, other emotions around it. I had no story, I had no judgment.

I had no criticism because I had a dysfunctional brain. So all of these things and all these limitations and all these beliefs actually come from our brain.

So when our brain is out to lunch or checked out like mine was, I call it the blessing of dysfunctional brain. Because in a way, it really was a blessing. I had no sort of, like, experience about it except really being in the moment of experiencing all of this.

And at one point, something either instinctive or intuitive, I don't really know to this day, made me go within. And when I went within, I saw all these fears and darkness. I. I explored what I like to call my inner landscape.

And I started seeing all the weeds and all the.

I call them, layers that we have from childhood that prevent us from being who we are and hold us back and all these mental constructs and all these, you know, hats that we wear that we believe become who we are or we think this is who we are. So I thought I was my brain and I'm not my brain.

And at one point, as I'm going through this and really exploring and feeling the intensity of those fears and working through them and watching them dissolve before me, because if we lean into fears and we shine enough light, eventually they just have no choice but to dissipate, which was really interesting to experience. And then at one point I'm like, but how do I know I'm doing this? Like, at one point I was aware of my awareness. Fascinating.

And it like, hold on, my brain's not working. I can't have this conversation with another human being. But I have all this awareness.

And that was my true, powerful aha moment where I was like, oh, my goodness, I'm not my brain. We are not our brain. We are so much more.

And that was kind of became this sort of, like, guiding light or this kind of understanding or knowing rather, that sort of instructed the rest of this journey where I worked through my layers and. And as I worked through them, I just became more of who I was. I was still concussed, and yet I felt like myself again.

And that was so powerful to know that, you know, you're not your organ, you're not your looks, you're not your status, you're not your job, you're not your roles in life. You're the essence of who you are.

And just we, though, constrict that with all the roles and identities that we place on ourselves and expectations, rather than expanding into it and then do whatever we're going to do and interact from that place. So for me, it was this expansive, transformative journey that I am so grateful for. It took every ounce of courage to keep walking it, but I did it.

And I'm very grateful for my concussed self at the time because it brought me to this point. Then I ended up healing my brain. And once I did, I realized, oh, my goodness, this was not just for me. This really wasn't for me.

This was for me to then bring this to the world. And I started a little group in my living room of women not knowing what. What I was doing, but I just did it.

And I. I started, you know, teaching these things and having conversations and discuss whatnot. And at one point, one of these women came up to me afterwards and said, I think you can help my mom. Would you give her a recession?

I'm a corporate attorney. I don't do sessions. I don't know what that means. And something inside of me said to say yes. So I said yes. And afterwards I reflected.

I was like, oh, my goodness, what did I just say yes to? How do I know what to do? And I just said, I need to trust myself. I need to empty myself out, really ground myself.

And just this is something that's being offered to me that I need to step into. And this woman came to see me, and I was able to help her. And I was shocked that I was able to help her.

And that's when I started realizing, okay, there's a gift here. There's something that I was given because I chose to walk this path and say yes when I was concussed and go through my own layers.

And I started to trust it slowly getting out of my head, it's always been in my head.

And starting to trust the other parts of me and starting to trust that connection with the universe and starting to trust that I could read soul energy and I could read other people and, and I could truly guide them and help them remove and dissolve whatever blocks and layers that you know, resided within them that they were not maybe even aware of that were still there. And so people would start coming to me and start asking me things.

And my clients, they became clients afterwards were started telling me, you know, you should write this in a book and you should this, you, you gotta disseminate this further. And I was like, nah, I don't know. Then at one point I sat down with myself and like, okay, listen, why not?

And to be perfectly honest with you, I didn't have a good reason why not. And so I embarked on writing a book.

And it was a two year long journey because I wanted to meet the reader exactly where they were at and offer them an experience based on my own. So I had to be vulnerable.

And I'm really a private person by nature, but I was like, if I'm going to ask a reader to show up and to receive, I need to be able to open up and be vulnerable and show them that it's okay. And you can. So I did that. I wrote the book.

It has client stories, it has exercises to integrate, it has questioning, it has deep dives, but it's really an experiential, transformational journey. It was written as such because that was my intention before I wrote the book. And it won awards.

It just won best self leadership book at the International Business Awards. It won gold and silver. It won at the Indie Excellence Award. It won, it won actually first place for Self Help Spiritual.

So to me that shows me that A, there's a need, B, it's being recognized and it makes me deeply grateful and joyful because it's getting into the hands of the people that it can help. And that was really my intent. So today I'm a speaker, I'm an author, I'm a personal coach.

I give workshops on self leadership and ownership of self and stepping into your power and freeing yourself from the inside out. And I've recently pivoted full time to this because while law is a passion of mine, this is truly my calling. You know, it's okay to do that.

It's really okay to follow what, you know, you need to do to contribute to the world.

Yeah, the interesting part was a transformative journey. The transformative journey was not having consciousness of fear and all the things that limit us and then becoming aware of it while still concuss.

And then in that allowing, saying yes, and I think as iconic CEOs, that is a transformation.

The transformation is letting go of the identity you were given when you were younger, the conditions, the beliefs, and refreshing them, updating them, shifting them, and then deciding this new step, this new journey, your mission, your purpose was put in place just for you. And you have everything you need for that journey.

And when you share your story, it took a moment in life where you had to go down into a valley to rise again. It's like a phoenix, the phoenix rising. And we all experience that in different ways.

Some are very life threatening, some are a aha moment because that was what it was for me. And it doesn't have to be in the valley. It could be different ways in the valley.

It doesn't always have to be this physical, life threatening experience. But we all experience it differently because sometimes when we're fully in our brain, we can't get out.

I don't know about you, but when we're fully in our brain, we're like.

Not only can't you get out, but your brain doesn't want you to get out because it's when you're in there, because it can keep you safe.

So all these identities, by the way, and all these rules that we play and all these sort of limitations when we think we're actually expanding, we're restricting, is because the brain prefers to play itself safe. And by safe it means let's just go to the known, let's just go to familiar. It doesn't have to be good or bad. The brain has.

That part of the brain has no discernment like going through this process. I learned so many brain hacks and that's what I share in the book and that's what I teach my clients.

Because in reality, if you really understand your brain, your brain will become your best assistant, but you will never let it be in your driver's seat again.

Okay, now in this series that you're a part of, we call it the but what if series. And there's a lot of great things you just Shared with us because there's one instance but what if?

And you created transformation because you were looking at the opposite. When someone said write a book, you was like, I can't find the no.

Right.

You, there's a what if happening. Mentally, you're processing.

And I want to kind of help my clients and my listeners and people who are in our world understand what the but what if series is about.

So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions pertaining to this and pertaining to your amazing knowledge that you can share with us, especially as an author and a writer, and awards, which I love. So. But what if the layers you've built to protect you are now limiting you.

A lot of CEOs, a lot of business owners, a lot of solopreneurs are at this moment where they're building protection, but this protection limits them rather than expands them.

And I want to know, since you often speak about the layers we develop as protection, how does those layers show up for women who've spent years doing to prove their worth?

And what does it take to start peeling them back those layers of proving their worth so that they can design a business from authenticity, not defense? Share a little bit about that because there's so many people trying to prove themselves to boss.

There are so many people trying to prove themselves to their partner, husband, you know, wife, whatever it is. There's someone trying to prove themselves that I can do it right. What if they didn't have to prove themselves?

What if they can do the things without limiting themselves and protecting themselves?

Yeah.

So in reality, when you're trying to prove yourself to your boss, to your spouse, to your friends, to the world, you're actually trying to prove yourself to you. And, and honestly, we are born worthy, we are born capable.

We each have different gifts, we each have different strengths which help instruct what direction and what path belongs to us, because otherwise we wouldn't know. So this is how we need to look at what we have, that's stronger, what we have that sort of needs more attention and loving care within us.

I don't use the word weakness, but I use the word that I, I look at it that way because in reality, we take our strengths and we help, you know, heal or sort of grow the other parts of us that have, have not yet flourished. Everything is waiting to flourish.

But when you feel that you need to prove yourself to a boss, you want to take a step back and you want to say, okay, what part of the situation makes me feel less than not my boss makes me feel Less than. I'm accepting, I'm receiving. We were talking about receiving before we started the show. I'm receiving this message that I am less than.

Do I agree with it? Do I like it? Does it feel good? And if it doesn't, then it's not coming from me.

And if it's not coming from me, it's a layer from before that I forgot that I have, that I don't know, that I put there because it was something that I understood or got a message from the world at a very young age that maybe I'm not, you know, as good as. Or maybe I'm less than. Or maybe I'm too much, right? Too loud, too happy, too this, whatever it is.

It's never like right in the middle where it's like, just be you. Like nobody tells you at three years old, darling, honey, just be you.

But if they did, I'd be really fascinated to see what kind of generation would grow up from that. Right? So there's always something wrong. And when we're young, we don't have any filters.

You know, when you give a cookie to a 2 year old or you don't give a cookie to a tool, that's their entire world in that moment, and it has a huge impact.

So imagine those words or those experiences and the way a two or three year old or a four year old filter or understand or store the experience might not even be the way you would at 30, 40, 50, whatever it is, store that experience.

But yet that experience gets stored as part of a pattern of experiences as you get older that your little brain created and your older, wiser brain still maintains.

Because we haven't gone back to reprogram, to sort of update the software and to sort of revisit and say, this no longer serves me, it served me then. Or this is what I knew then, but I know so much more.

So by not knowing that we even have these, then we can't actually do anything about them or go question them and say, I don't need this anymore. Right? It's like you buy beautiful furniture in your house, but 20 years later you might want to shift something and that's totally fine.

It doesn't take away from the furniture at the time you bought it, but you also have a right to expand or, or, or shift, you know, your tastes or just need something different. Well, it's the same with our internal landscape.

It's the same with how we understand ourselves and then how we show up to the world based on how we understand ourselves. And our place and how in the world. But at 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, we can't assume that we will.

We understand the world in the way we would want to or in the way that we will when we are, you know, 30, 40 plus, but yet we don't go back to revisit whether those beliefs are following us or limiting us or with us. Just because we expand in our knowledge, our intellectual capacity, just because we grow up and we're actually, you know, bigger human beings.

It's like having, you know, your favorite T shirt when you're five and you're like 45, and it doesn't fit well, there's no expectation that it would fit. So why would the layer fit? Why would that belief system fit?

Why would the way in which I believed, who, what I thought about myself at that age, you know, why is that, you know, following me?

If my teacher said I was stupid or I would amount to Nothing when I'm 10, but I am this iconic CEO, I don't need to prove that to anybody, but I did it. So obviously I'm not stupid, but I didn't have to receive that from the teacher.

But at five years old, of course I'm going to receive it, but I don't need to bring it along. It's like excess baggage. You know, airlines charge you for excess baggage. If we charge yourself for excess baggage, I think we would shed it. So.

Right. It's just. It's the awareness. It really starts off with an open mindset, which I call the adventure mindset, which is no expectations, no judgment.

Just go in with some courage, curiosity and excitement.

And if we should have everyday life that way, I think we would understand it and process it and experience it in the way that it's meant to be experienced, which is an empowering way.

Some of those three words, curiosity, excitement, and.

And courage. Because it always takes a bit of courage.

It takes courage because, you know, excitement and nervousness or those are almost like two sides of the same coin. They're the same frequency and energy. And sometimes they'll go to something that stops us and something. I'll go to something that propels us forward.

So if we're aware of that, we can choose when we want to stay away from something because maybe it's physically dangerous, maybe because we're just trying to follow everybody else, but we're not really aligned with doing it. And sometimes we have that kind of like, you know, trepidation, but it's really something cool and something that we want to experience.

And so we Turn it into excitement, whether we realize it or not. And that allows us to go into it a little bit more.

It's interesting we're having this conversation yesterday I was chatting with someone on my DMs, and as we're chatting where she came up with this beautiful analogy about like a scratch off, you know, lottery, scratch off. And in speaking to her and what you shared about the transformation, the baggage, there's people who don't know they're traveling with extra baggage.

They're not aware of that. Right.

And when she used the analogy to scratch off, it's like when I was talking to her, I was scratching that silver layer off and then she was seeing what was underneath it. But she couldn't do it herself. Like there was something where she would felt like she was a number hidden and she couldn't see it.

But when someone came along and scratched that gray layer, she started to witness, oh my gosh, I have this baggage, you know, and that's the thing that I honestly am going to say to you, that you doing what you do is so needed because a lot of people have that silver layer and they can't see what's underneath it. It's hidden. They don't even know that it's there to scratch it.

And with your, your transformation, your gift is exactly that, to speak to those people, to help them go. But what if to see the other side, to see the other perspective, to get that transformation that they need, you know?

So what I'm going to do is ask you another question. Sure, I want to know, but what if you're making decisions from survival, not self trust from survival.

You talk about the difference between a decision and a choice. How can high achievers recognize when they're operating from old patterns of fear, control or scarcity?

And what does it look like to start choosing from a place of grounded awareness instead? Like, what's the difference? How can we tell between a decision and a choice?

Like, these are the things I want our listeners to really be able to weigh and look at and know when they're making a really good decision or like a choice. Or is it coming from a place of fear, a place of control, a place of scarcity? Like, how can they see the sign?

So I love that question, Nikisha. Thank you. I talk a lot about the difference between, you know, decision and choice.

And people use those words interchangeably, but in reality they have a different meaning and a different energy attached. And therefore our entire body reacts to each very differently.

And this is what I mean most People will make decisions in their life and decisions are things that we do to get them off our plate to, to decide on something. When we're in a question mark which was in an unknown, the brain can only stay there for so long.

Or we're gonna decide to have somebody else bring the kids to school, or are we gonna decide, okay, I'm gonna postpone this meeting or I'm gonna have it now, or I'm gonna going to try to juggle three things at once. Those are all decisions. Everything that is layer based is also fear based.

So whether it's control, whether it's a scarcity mindset, whatever it is, that's all rooted in fear. At the the bottom line, all these things are about fear. So a, it's okay to fear it doesn't mean it needs to run your life.

Like, we do not have to fear fear because that's our fear. Our biggest fear is fear itself. So if we can acknowledge that and breathe into it, you know, like, I fear fear, that's fine.

As soon as you say it, you've already shed some light on it and then it's like, wait, what? I don't want to fear fear, right?

Then you can start questioning, then you can start opening up that door and saying, hold on a second, I want to be in charge. Choosing is from a place of alignment. Choosing is proactive.

Deciding can sometimes actually be reactive to take some stress off, to take some, you know, to do that checklist, you know, and to sort of put some checks off the list. But those are all really reactive.

When you approach something with all of you, you're being proactive and you're choosing how, what your next step is, when you're placed or when something comes before you. And that's a very different process than a reaction.

A reaction is you're not in control, a proaction or choosing your next step looks the same on the outside, but the internal process is so different that the entire experience and storage of it afterwards and empowerment is completely different. So we decide multiple times a day. We don't always take the time to choose and it takes about 10 seconds.

But its presence, it's awareness where before you take your next step, you check in with yourself, it's like, okay, hold on, who's running my show now? Oh, it's anger. I'm about to lose my temper, let's say, right? Or, oh, my goodness, it's fear. I'm about to walk away. Or, oh, my gosh, it's sadness.

What's wrong with me? Right? So then there's a judgment.

So if you ask yourself those questions and it really just takes a few seconds, and I tell my clients, sometimes if you're in front of people, just go to the washroom, take a bathroom break. You can do that. It takes 10 seconds, right? And so then you'll get the answer. When you ask the question, you'll know inside the emotion.

If you place your attention within, you'll know what's going on. It's just that our attention, our attention is so outward that we're not. We, we disconnect from ourselves.

In the moment of reactivity, in the moment of decision making, in the moment of scarcity mindset, in the moment of any fear, we just disconnect and we have to bring ourselves back into our body, right? So, oh, I'm about to lose my, my, my, my temper. Or I'm, I'm, I'm about to walk away from fear. Or, or I'm about to freeze.

All right, but for this feeling, what would I choose? What would I do? How would I choose to think? How would I choose to feel if my brain came to me and said, hey, this is what's going on?

What do we do here? How. How are we feeling? How are we going to feel? You know, Nikisha, what would you, you know, what are your thoughts on this?

Because our brain doesn't ask us. It just decides for us and gives us a conclusion, and we're stuck with it. So the idea is really to take, Regain the reins of ourselves.

You don't need to control anything else. You just need to be in control of you. You need to be in your own driver's seat. And we often, when we don't even know that.

So the first thing I ask my clients often is, okay, who's driving you today? Who's in your driver's seat right now? And as soon as they're made aware of that question, they know the answer.

Oh, like I'm discouraged today or I'm super frustrated. Like, they know, but 10 seconds ago, before the question, they didn't, and they would have continued in their day in that way.

I have a whole chapter on what I call the inner boardroom in my, in my, my book and it's really, really juicy because it's about creating your own inner boardroom where then you're in charge of your meetings. And instead of getting the conclusion from your brain, you can actually listen to every component.

But then you're going to choose what's aligned for you.

And that's a way to start having those subconscious sort of thoughts come to the conscious level and through your awareness and to be more aware in your day to day and more present so that these things happen less and less and you are actually much more in your driver's seat.

So true.

As you were sharing, there is something that was coming up for me and when you mentioned about the choice and how you should ask yourself those questions. Who's in the driver's seat? What's happening when you're getting angry? Check in. Right. So you can make that choice.

And I've worked on my awareness to the point where when I'm getting defensive, I'm defending my idea, or someone says something and I can. And usually for me, my feeling is usually defenseless. And when I feel it coming, I could feel it. I know when it's coming. My heart rate increases.

I'm ready for battle. I could feel the fight coming. Right. And what I've started doing is going. I verbalize. The choice I'm making is while I'm processing, I'm verbalizing.

You know how you mentioned some people need to step away? And that's fine. People do need to step away because everyone's different.

Everyone's different.

Yes. When my husband and I are having conversation, I feel like I'm about to defend myself. You know, I like law, too.

I'm black and white all day, every day.

Yes.

So I'm just like, hold. I like, put a hold. And I go. I could feel it. I'm getting defensive. Give me a second. Because I need to question why. Because what you did was.

You hit me in my soft spot.

Right.

There is something deep down that you're talking to that I feel really judgmental about within me. And I just need a second to. I need a. I just need a. I need a second to be like, it's okay, Nikisha. You're not. You're not under attack.

You're not going to. No one's coming after you breathe and go. And I verbally say it. I go, give me a second. I'm defense. I'm getting defensive.

So you're touching something really soft to me. And that thing is, I have a feeling of less than in regards to this topic. And I want to be able to receive you. So I have to just get it contained.

I just have to help my body go, it's okay, and get my system back to normal. So when you speak to me, I can be open to what you're saying. And then I can get curious and ask you, what made you think that?

Like, I can get curious, Rather defective, offensive. And it's a skill I had to learn because I wasn't born with that skill. I wasn't given that skill. Like you said, it's a skill I had to learn.

But what I love about it, it allows me to connect. It allows me to decide what I would like to do after I make the choice of what's happening. Decision for me is a place of power.

Anytime we decide on something, there's power because there's movement, there's action. But before the action, there is a choice of what makes you want to do the decision, what makes you want to do that.

And that's what I was getting when you were speaking. Sometimes I feel like they're hand in hand, but the choice is the processing part. And I don't think a lot of people process.

I think they just go into deciding without realizing what's happening internally.

Yeah, because we disconnect, right? We disconnect.

So what you're talking about is really bringing your attention back to you and what's going on your body before you react to your husband or before you interact with him. Next step, and what I do with my clients is we start there and then we start going backwards and saying, okay, what is this really saying?

Because it's an expression of a layer, a trigger is simply an expression of a protective mechanism from a young age that's saying, hey, I want attention and do you still need me here? Because I'm actually restricting you. And this is how. And as you get older, as you become more of an adult and a parent or whatever it is, or.

And a CEO, business owner, professional, it'll restrict you more and more because you actually need it less and less. You just don't know that you still believe you need it. And that is all below surface level. It's. It's subconscious.

So the idea is, okay, let's go check in and lean in on this and say what happened there? And I never say why, because why is judgment? What is openness and curiosity? So what is it that's going on here? What is this trying to tell me?

And then where is it coming from? What is it about? And then we work through the layer Backwards so that it gets dissolved, and then that trigger no longer is right.

That pain point becomes healed, that vulnerability becomes stronger, and then there's almost like the person is made up differently. Right. Because now they don't have that to heal each time, and it no longer comes up. And it's a process that we do.

And it's wonderful to see people sort of flourish and blossom and say, wow, like, I know I would have been triggered right there. I would have been triggered. And like, oh, my goodness, something else came up. And then I was creative, right?

Because we can have, like, you know, conscious communication and creative communication. And then we can create with another, even if we disagree because we're not triggered anymore.

So then we step into a whole other realm of power that we don't always get a chance to tap into because we're more in reactive mode.

So true. And that realm of power is amazing.

Oh, yes. Very juicy.

It is. You know how people say that statement is always greener on the other side? And people don't think it's true?

I go, this is exactly greener on the other side. Like, that is greener. Like, it's freaking glorious.

It's glorious. But you know what? It's greener within.

It is there.

It's inside. So we all have it. All of your listeners have it. And if they don't know how to tap into it, that's okay.

Just being aware that it exists and then going to explore and being willing to discover it, that's the first step.

Yes, the awareness is the first step. Listen, it's one of the gifts that I was given. And it's so nice that we're speaking because people don't know we're meeting for the first time.

And now they do know because I said it.

Yes.

But we come from the same. The same spiritual seed family in regards to our purpose and our mission.

Because we can hear things and we can see things, and we get to ask the questions. We're the mirror that reflects.

And in that reflection, people get to become aware, and then they get to make a choice, and then they get to put power behind it by deciding. Exactly. And they get to transform, ultimately. And to have that gift is heavenly. It's beautiful. And every one of us have our own gifts.

And I know that for a fact, because the people I work with don't have that, but they have something else that serves this amazing being, you know? And I'm so grateful for you to come and share that with us. You know, now I will be sharing your book in the show notes.

And I want you, before you go to give us at least three actionable steps that our listeners can take to help them build their awareness to start the process.

Yeah, I'm going to give you more than that because I actually have a giveaway for your audience that's specifically around us. There's around that. So it's funny that you're actually mentioning that that I really wanted to gift everybody, including yourself here today.

If they look at my website, which is super easy, it's Basically my name martincohen.com forward/connect with me.

There is a two day sort of mindset reset, but also starting to become aware of your thoughts, how to quieten your mind, how to get out of your head, how to have your brain sort of like give you space so that you can sort of feel your essence reconnect from within and then build that awareness. There's also like a one page little exercise thing.

There are two videos, there's also writing and you can listen to it over and over again and you'll see the evolution on your path. The first thing is to have an open mindset. It's the three pillars of my book which are adventure, awareness, alignment.

So haven't wake up in the morning and say, what's my intention for the day? Because often we're so on automatic pilot we don't check in. What's my intention for today?

Not I want my, my, I need to do, I want to get everything done. No, what's my intention for me. How would you like your day to go?

Because that is your 10 minute brain programming where it's above conscious level and the rest is going to happen below conscious level. When you program your brain to see your day in a certain way, to experience it in a certain way, it will show it to you in that way.

It's fascinating how it works. You know, some of the best days that people have are not the days that go the smoothest.

It's the days where they showed up to a challenge in a way they never thought they could and they actually conquered the challenge. Those are people's best days. You'll hear they're like I had a flat tire and my, I was late at my meeting. But you know what? I don't know. It felt fine.

I did it. I felt good. I was empowered. I found a creative solution. That's empowerment. So not to be afraid to lean in fully in every challenge is an opportunity.

In every problem or every, you know, question, the answer lies within. It's there for Us to discover, not to shy away from, not to be afraid of and. And not to sort of walk away from or run away from.

We don't need to hide. Be all of who you are. And if somebody else doesn't like it, I heard somebody say, just put on sunglasses, right?

Like, be you unapologetically, but be authentic, genuine. You don't have to prove anything. Nobody else has to prove anything to you. And you don't have to prove yourself.

And if you have those kind of things driving you, you want to go within and see. Hold on a second, let me check in. Does that actually feel good to me? Is that what I would want to do?

So questioning yourself, checking in a few times during the day. It doesn't take long because we really do go on automatic pilot. And then we don't know. It's like driving, like, oh, I don't know how I got here.

I didn't have an accident. I didn't burn any red lights. But I still don't know how I got here because I wasn't present to the body. Bring your energy back to your body.

We fragmented with the interactions that we have. Even when we have an unpleasant interaction, consciously bring your energy back to you because otherwise you've left it out there.

And then by the end of the day, you are depleted and exhausted.

And then the other two, you had also awareness. Was that part of that?

So that's awareness. So once you start, you know you have an open mindset. You approach life not with fear, but with curiosity.

And a great brain hack is if you are curious, your brain forgets to be fearful. You can't be curious and afraid at the same time. It just doesn't work. Try it, you'll see it doesn't work.

Just like there's no fear when you're in the present moment. Fear is based on past experiences and it's based on future anticipation. But in the present moment, it does not exist.

It doesn't. I know.

And it doesn't. It just lives there. It's not the frequency, which is wonderful, because if you're afraid, say to yourself, hold on a second. Where did I go?

To the past or to the future? Let me come back here.

It helps you regroup, it helps you refocus, it helps you ground yourself and recenter, and then it will give you a creative solution. So that's the beauty of it. Like, we disempower ourselves a million times a day without realizing it. So always make sure it's okay to do it.

We're not Perfect. We're not meant to be perfect. This is an exploration. This is a discovery journey and a learning process. But take it back. Take your power back.

Every time you're aware, become aware that you've given it away. And then the last thing is alignment.

Because having that kind of adventure, mindset, open mindset that leads to awareness, then allows you to make choices from a place of alignment. Imagine you pause for a second before you choose something, but you make sure that you're aligned with it. You're not doing to please some.

You're not doing because you're stressed. You're not doing because you need to get something off your plate. You're not doing to avoid something or to chase something.

You're doing it because that was what you truly feel is right for you.

And when you do that, you're okay with whatever happens afterwards, because you can manage that, because you just showed yourself that you can trust you, and that's so powerful. And that allows you to live a life of authenticity. So it's like the three A's that lead to the fourth.

Yes. Thank you so much, Martina.

My pleasure. It's great to be here.

It's a pleasure to have you here. And when people question, what is an iconic CEO, this is it. This is the transformations they go through. Choice, awareness, presence.

Therefore, as they increase their capacity in doing what they're meant to do, they don't get scared, but they get curious, and they have an exciting time doing what they love and everything about that is what I get to live today. And I shared this the other day with some people with my community, and they asked me, were you always like this? And I go, hell, no.

But that's the best part, right? So audience, guys, like, you know, gals, actually, right? We are not born this way.

No.

Maybe we are born this way, and then society conditions us to be something else. But return to you. Return to yourself. Be all of who you are. And look at us. Oh, I was so not like this, right? Like spiritual attorney, expansive.

Like, you know, but we all have it in us, and we in it. And honestly, it's our birthright.

It's your birthright to go explore it, to find your path, and then to walk your path proudly, boldly, and own it fully, because that's the power.

So true. Martine, what a blessing to have you. Thank you so much for joining us on Iconic CEO podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

Honored to have you here, sharing, giving us that amazing gift. I can't wait to see it and do it myself and I will be definitely in the Show Notes.

Can you share a little bit of how people can find and interact with you? Where can they find you?

Absolutely. So through my website, martincohn.com but also they can email me if they have questions or if they want to work together, they want to explore.

It's infoartincohen.com and I just want to say that to me, the connection with my community, the community is the most important thing. So if they email me, they will get a personal response back from me.

Not a team member, not a bot, because that's very important to me and it gets time consuming, but it's something that I cherish and I value very much and that's really important. So they will hear from me. They can also take a look at the book. It's on Amazon. It's called no More Layers.

Discover your inner power and reclaim true freedom from the inside out.

So amazing. Thank you, Martine.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for joining us today. We loved having you with us. Remember, each action you take, no matter how small, adds up to big results.

If today's episode fired you up, hit subscribe for more insights and visit our resource hub, which is linked in the Show Notes. There you'll find tools to streamline, organize and grow your business. Keep moving forward and we'll be right here to cheer you on next week.