Maya Stephens

I would say it's all of my clients' success stories, because if I hadn't had the bravery to start my business, to market my business, to bring awareness to these women and their situations, they wouldn't know that I was a resource, and then they also wouldn't know about relationship dynamics. They would still be attaching their worth to things that are outside of them. Especially for the women who have helped save their marriages - their marriages were mid-divorce, and one lady's was at the end of divorce where her husband couldn't stand to be breathing near her and couldn't wait to get out. We worked together for 6 months, but in that first month, she saw a turnaround, and he was begging her to stay with him, saying that he wanted to work things out and he didn't mean the divorce. That was about 2 years ago, and they've been together ever since, and they're happy, and she's always learning new things about herself and new things to add to the marriage. The biggest thing would be the client successes, because they go from either on the brink of giving up or having gave up on love, to 'oh my gosh, I'm so in love.' Or sometimes they go from 'I can't stand men, I hate men, I'm done with men' to 'I love men, I love dating, this is fun.' The client success stories and transformations are the most rewarding thing to watch.

I would say there's two pieces of advice that really changed everything for me. The first one was understanding that the reason it's hard for you to shift is because your nervous system recognizes how your life is as normal. So everything else that you want, or you're working towards, it seems a little complicated or a little far away, or like it won't happen, because it's not normal to your nervous system. That was a wake-up call for me, because I remember thinking, oh my goodness, I'm cycling being broke because it's normal? Who wants that to be normal? I had to unlearn that and tell myself to experience other normals, and to tell myself, no, this is not normal, this is actually peculiar. The other piece of advice that was pivotal to my career came from Will Smith - the fastest way to kill a vision is to give it to a small mind. You cannot expect others to validate your vision, because the vision was given to you. So the person who executes the vision is you. If you take your vision and give it to someone else who doesn't have your vision or the capacity to hold your vision, they're gonna shrink it, because it didn't come to them, it came to you. That pretty much empowered the crap out of me, because it was like, okay, well, if it's mine, then I have everything to execute it. I don't need to ask anybody to validate it. They can validate it after it's done. That has saved me from a lot of heartbreak and a lot of disappointment, and it's led to a lot of self-trust, because since I only have me to depend on for the vision and then God, I just take my blueprint and go.

Value yourself by holding the same standards in love and relationships that you do in your career—stay authentic, don’t settle, and allow others the opportunity to truly choose and appreciate the real you.

A core challenge in this field is helping clients shift deeply ingrrown relationship beliefs and nervous system patterns that keep unhealthy dynamics in place. At the same time, a major opportunity lies in expanding emotional intelligence and relationship-centered training for women leaders and corporate teams seeking more aligned, sustainable success.

Impact is the biggest value for me - I'm really about impact, and I feel like two impactful sources work better than one impactful source. I mostly enjoy networking and being a part of other people's causes and missions. Outside of work, I really still like teaching and pouring into people, even when it's not as involved as formal coaching. I find myself doing that even outside of work because I like talking about it and giving people new insights where they think, 'oh, I never thought of it like that' or 'that's interesting.' In my personal life, I love to read, I love smoothies, I love travel, and I love the beach - the beach is my happy place. Family time is always a big one for me. I have 3 kids, and then my sister has 3 kids, so we like hanging out together. Hanging out with my fiance is important too. I also really enjoy podcasting and recording things, because I enjoy teaching and pouring into people even outside of formal work settings.