How to Unlock Self-Reliance and Create the Life of Your Dreams

This episode is one you do not want to miss! I’ve got the one and only Maha Abouelenein joining me—a true powerhouse with a story that’s all about grit, growth, and going after what you want.

Maha's journey is insane. Born and raised in Minnesota, she started her career with Fortune 500 giant General Mills, where she crushed it in sports marketing, working with the Olympics, NFL, NASCAR, and more. But she didn’t stop there. She took a massive leap, moving to Egypt and the UAE, building a killer career in communications, and running her own firm, Digital & Savvy, with clients from top tech startups to global giants.

In this episode, we dive deep into her journey of self-reliance—going from the corporate world to building her own empire. Maha drops truth bombs about personal branding, resilience, and owning your story. We’re talking about how you can take charge of your life and build a career on your terms without waiting for anyone’s permission.

You’ll get a sneak peek into her upcoming book, 7 Rules of Self-Reliance, where she spills the tea on the mindset shifts that changed everything for her. Maha’s all about taking bold steps, shutting down self-doubt, and staying true to who you are, no matter what.

Here’s a taste of what’s coming up:

🔥 How self-reliance starts with trusting yourself—and why waiting for permission is killing your potential.

🔥 The 3 game-changing moves to build your personal brand and stand out in ANY industry.

🔥 The secret sauce to becoming indispensable in your career—hint: it’s not what you think.

🔥 Why networking and building strong relationships will unlock long-term success (Maha’s got stories for days on this one).

And that’s just the start. Maha’s insights will leave you buzzing with ideas and ready to level up your life.

Ready to dive in and claim your own space? Hit play Queen. You’ll want to listen with a notebook handy because the gems she drops are next level.

Want more?

📖 Grab Maha’s new book, 7 Rules of Self-Reliance here https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/760285/7-rules-of-self-reliance-by-maha-abouelenein/ to get the full blueprint.

👉🏽 And don’t miss out on the Self-Reliance Summit featuring Gary Vee, Halle Berry, and more powerhouses. Free tickets here: Self-Reliance Summit. https://www.mahaabouelenein.com/self-reliance-summit

Hola.

Hola.

It's your girl, Erica from America.

Welcome to the Confidence Chronicles podcast.

This podcast is all about helping you stand in who you are.

Stop giving a fuck when people think about you.

Start standing as your fully expressed self, as you are queen as is.

There is no filter needed.

You are fucking awesome.

And I am here to remind you, I'm a confidence coach, a business mentor, a speaker, an authorization, and I am obsessed with women standing up, showing up, and creating their confidence.

And I cannot wait to dig into today's episode with you.

Welcome to the podcast, my friend.

Okay, so today's episode is I have the most amazing guest, the beautiful and amazing Maha Abul Alena.

She is the founder and CEO of Digital Savvy.

She's also the author of the new book seven Rules of Self Reliance.

I need to tell you why this woman is amazing.

And I am obsessed with this episode that we just had.

First of all, if you are a business owner or a leader and you are looking to grow your personal brand, you must, must, must get a paper and pen and listen to this episode.

Get ready, because she's dropping the goods.

Not only that, head to the link in the show notes and make sure that you order a copy of this book, because I'm telling you now, the tangible exercises, the stories, the insights, the education that she gives in this book.

Oh, my goodness.

Let me tell you about maha.

Okay?

So she was born and raised in Minnesota.

She is Egyptian.

Her family is Egyptian.

She went to school and university and basically came out working for General Mills, a massive company, Fortune 500 giant company.

She combined her love for sports with her work, and she built sports marketing programs for, listen to this.

The Olympics, NASCAR, ATP, tennis, GPA, golf, and the NFL.

At 14 years old, unfortunately, her mom got diagnosed with miss, and at 27 years old, they decided to move to Egypt.

And she went to Egypt with her mom and dad.

A new country.

Yes, she's Egyptian, but she didn't really speak the language.

And she shares so much about that experience and how that experience shifted almost everything for her.

She built this incredible, amazing business, has worked for some of the biggest companies in the world, has done heaps of work with Gary Vee, and is dear friends with Gary Vee.

Y'all know how much I love Gary Vee.

We actually talk about him on the show as well.

And now she's the founder of digital and savvy strategic communications firm.

She has over 30 years of experience in her business.

She supports people to build their personal brands, to master self reliance, and what that actually means.

And let me tell you how much what she shares in this book and speaks about on this episode relates to what we talk about here on the podcast about resourcefulness around radical responsibility, taking around not letting the opinion of others hold you back and what it actually means to be self reliant and why you need this.

She is such a beautiful soul.

The experience that she has shedded has value added to so many companies and so many celebrities and so many amazing people.

But her humility.

Her humility is next level.

And she's just a beautiful soul.

I cannot wait for you to listen to this episode.

Before we start this, what I want you to do, tag me.

Tag maha on your stories.

If you're enjoying this episode, click the link in the show notes.

Make sure you order this book.

I'm telling you now that you need this book in your life.

I cannot wait for you to listen to this.

Without further ado, please enjoy this episode with the amazing maha maha.

Welcome to the Confidence Chronicles podcast.

Thank you for having me.

I feel confident already.

You look amazing.

I'm so happy that we could do this finally.

And massive congrats on your new book.

Oh my goodness.

The seven rules of self reliance.

I'm waiting on like 14 copies to arrive to Australia on the 8 October because we're going to give some away to our amazing audience.

Oh, how exciting.

Actually, the date is a big celebration.

It's a big moment.

Like, I have been wanting to write a book for my whole life.

And, you know, you talk about your dreams and your goals and I'm like, one that last review, like, I have to do this.

I have to write this book.

And I'm just excited that it's out there and that people get a chance to read it and, and practice these rules, which I have tried and tested and lived my entire life.

And it's really exciting.

I'm excited because when a woman like you writes a book to everybody listening, you better get on there and order right now.

Because the wisdom and the experience, we're going to talk about it.

That you have lived the life that you have led, the companies, the people, just the experiences that you have, that you put into this and you poured into this book.

I just know it's going to be next level.

But I want to ask you, somebody gets this book, they buy it right now, they go to the link in the show notes and they order 15 copies as well.

What are they going to get?

What are you hoping that they gain from this book?

First of all, I hope they get a lot of confidence.

To trust themselves, to rely on themselves is not about being independent.

To rely on yourself is to be powerful.

It is to be an asset to yourself and to other people.

Self reliance to me is about self advocacy.

I want to be putting myself on the best foot forward.

What skills do I need?

What relationships do I need?

What experience do I need?

How do I build my personal brand?

How do I build my reputation and rely on yourself to do it so that you can be valuable not only to yourself but to others?

Go and get it.

Okay.

So we spoke a little bit about confidence, and you said, this is literally the definition is that self trust.

And so when you think about self reliance, what comes to my head?

When I was reading about this book, I was like, the world needs this book because it isn't something that everyone has.

And it's kind of a thing as entrepreneurs and business owners and as someone who coaches.

I'm always like, self reliance, self responsibility, resourcefulness.

What does it mean to you to be self reliant?

It's about, like, we just hit it on the head.

It's about being resourceful, but it's also about trusting yourself.

Often we are waiting for permission from others.

And so I'm like, trying to tell you, don't wait for permission from others.

You know what's best for you.

No one's going to put you at the top of your priority list but you.

And if you can rely on yourself to trust your decisions, to trust your gut, to invest in yourself, not only will be unstoppable and valuable to others, you'll be happier because you control the cards.

I want people to have the cards in their hands and not wait for someone to bring them opportunities or wait for someone to anoint them.

That project that's going to make them a not rock star.

You know, somebody told me early in my life that I was a waiter.

I'm like, what do you mean, I'm a waiter?

And he's like, you're waiting for mister, right?

You're waiting for your boss to give you that promotion.

You're waiting for life to just hand things to you.

And I was angry.

I'm like, what?

I'm not a waiter.

I'm going to go home and think about this and how can I create the opportunities I want to see in my life?

Then I realized I was missing stuff.

I was missing relationships.

I was missing experience.

I needed to learn things.

I needed to do different things.

And I feel like anyone who wants to rely on themselves, it's simple.

Start by being curious.

What are you curious about?

What do you want to learn?

One of the things, you know, Erica, it's just, it's.

We live in the best time to be alive right now.

Information is at our fingertips.

YouTube is for free.

Podcasts are for free.

Everything is available to us on the Internet for free.

You no longer have to have, like, a degree or get into a fancy school to know things.

I don't want to be left behind because I don't know things.

I want to rely on myself to know the same thing that anybody else can learn, and I have access to it, and it's free.

This is.

I could kiss you over the zoom right now.

Okay.

Like, this is what.

It's such a great time to rely on yourself 100%.

Like, it's honestly the best.

I love that you said it's the best time to be alive because, I mean, I didn't.

I was still lucky.

There was instagram.

There were things.

But, like, the Internet is free, free 99.

And it is a place where we can learn.

And I just said to my clients yesterday on a call, if you can google it, if you can chat, GPT or perplexity, the question, don't bring it to this pole.

Like, have that drive.

What do you feel that that gave you?

Because I know in the book you share beautiful stories about your family and your amazing dad, who's full of wisdom and shared a lot with you, but where do you feel like you got your self reliance?

Were you born into this in your egyptian family living in Minnesota?

No.

Did you learn it?

Okay, tell us.

Nobody's born with self reliance, but you can certainly master it, right?

It's just the ability.

And I ask a very simple question.

If not me, who?

You should say to yourself, why do all these other people get these opportunities and get to do these things?

Well, if not me, who, like, I can do it.

Somebody several times.

And I give really good examples in the book to help illustrate this.

I got asked to do things I'd never done before, and I said to myself, I can't do that.

Like, that's not what I do.

That's not.

I'm like, wait, if they think I can do it, what makes me believe I can't do it?

I am the one who's, in my own way, I'm the one who's overthinking things.

I'm the one who is kind of self sabotaging, negative, talking myself into saying I can't do it, when actually, I never tried before.

How would I know you don't know what you're capable of until you get asked to do it.

And I find that that's just a very, that revelation came to me very early in life that I shouldn't think I'm not good enough or I shouldn't think I can't do things because if I actually try, not only can I do them, I can master them.

So it's like, it's like that trusting yourself, which to me, that's what confidence is.

It's like, it's not that, you know, you can do it or that you think you're unstoppable, but you're like, if it's here for me, if it's presented, I can give it a crack, and I trust myself to work it out and figure it out.

Yeah.

And even if you fail, you've learned things.

You've learned about yourself.

You learned about, okay, I need to learn how to learn better.

I need to learn how to build better relationships better.

I need you learn something.

You always gain something from an experience, whether it's a positive experience or a negative one.

And so take those lessons and turn that into something that you're going to rely on yourself to dig out of the next time even better and really, really make a difference.

Yeah.

Why do you think in today's day, like, with social media, with AI, with so much happening, people struggle with self reliance?

I think because we have so much access to information and stuff that we just kind of expect people to, like, make decisions for us or bring opportunities for us.

Like, I feel a couple of things.

One, social media, we compare ourselves a lot to what other people are doing, even though we're not on the same journey.

Two, we have so much choice that sometimes we can't make decisions because we don't know what's best.

And so we're hoping circumstances will make the decisions for us.

I feel like we have a very big trust deficit.

Like, we don't trust ourselves, we don't listen to our guts.

And I feel like a lot of people, even in my career, you know, I got into so many situations where I felt not good enough or I wasn't worth it or I shouldn't do it.

And I really was like, that's when I said, if not me, who?

But I also said, I don't need to figure things out by myself.

Being self reliant is not about not needing anybody.

It was having that self awareness of, what am I missing?

Okay, now I need to go get help in this area because now I know.

I know one, two, and three, but I don't know four, five, and six.

So I need to go find somebody who knows how to do four, five, and six.

I love that because that one of my questions because I have.

I'm getting my bachelor's in psychotherapy, and I'm not going to practice psychotherapy.

I just want to.

I don't want to be an Instagram coach.

I want to know more of the things for myself so that I have the skills, right?

And one of my lecturers this week said, you know, hyper independence is also codependence.

And I was like, what?

Because I feel like my traumatic, crazy background has made me ridiculously self reliant.

And my husband reminds me sometimes too much, can someone be too self reliant?

And just.

If you lose trust in others and you're like, I'm just.

I got to do it myself.

It's all on me.

And you don't reach out for help because I know a lot of the women that listen to this podcast, they're like almost a lone wolf, right?

They feel like I got to make it happen by myself, and they lack trust in other people.

Can you speak to that or have you seen that before?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So let me put it into context for you how I think about it when there's no such thing as too self reliant.

When I think about the definition of self reliance and what these rules talk about, one of them, for example, is treat your reputation like a currency.

You know, what's its worth?

What's its value?

If you treat it as something so precious, how will you spend it and invest in it?

Right?

And that has a lot to do with your personal brand.

So there's no thing of being too self reliant when it comes to owning your personal brand.

So a lot of people say, I don't want to be a social media influencer.

I don't need to have a personal brand.

I'm not talking about that.

And I'm not talking about personal brand equals personal life, because they don't.

I'm talking about how you show up in the world.

What do you control?

You control a lot of.

And you should rely on others to define your reputation, to define who you are, to define what you stand for.

So you should take a proactive role in driving that.

And, you know, I don't know about you, but I care about my reputation.

It's my name.

It's how I get my business, my clients, my family, my neighbors, my pickleball team, my tennis team, that's your reputation, is all you have, right?

At the end of the day, you bought that hat, you acquired that jacket, you got that desk.

You were born with your name, it's the strongest asset you have.

So you need to be very intentional about how you carry it and how you invest in it and how you place it.

And being self reliant means you understand that importance of your reputation.

You understand that you shouldn't outsource that to other people.

You shouldn't have.

You know, I can guarantee you, if you are not focusing on your reputation, that someone else is doing it for you and it's not what you want.

You know, in that case, be intentional about how you show up on social, how you show up at events, how you show up in real life.

And that matters.

Like how you treat the barista, your team members, your community, your family, your neighbors.

I just find it incredibly empowering.

I find that it's about being valuable for yourself so you can be valuable and indispensable for others.

It's not about not eating other people.

In fact, it's the opposite.

Mmm.

I got that from, like, your socials and watching you and subscribing to your email sequence.

And you talk a lot about, you know, what personal brand is.

And I think a lot of people think it's the colors and the fonts.

And although we love all that, it's like, you talk about the values, and I think you shared that example of, like, how do you treat the coffee guy?

Like, how do you treat the people at your local cafe?

How are you?

And a lot of people usually will say when I meet them on social media, like, oh, you're the same.

Like this crazy, poor, crazy, poor husband's.

Like, she's like this all the time.

Like, energy in the morning, energy at night.

Like, hyper and crazy.

And so, like, all the time behind the scenes, in front of the scenes.

And it's such a beautiful compliment to be like, you're the same person.

It's like, yeah, you want to be the same person.

We're not putting on this facade.

I'm a lot smaller in real life, that people think I'm tall, but I'm not.

I'm really big energy.

Big energy.

I love that.

But, yeah, it's like, I love that you say that because it's the values that you live, right?

Your virtues, who you're being.

Would you say that kind of the.

Yeah, 100%.

100%.

And if you.

If you're an entrepreneur, you need to care about your reputation, because that's how you're going to track the talent, that's how you're going to attract the investors, that's how you're going to attract the suppliers and the partners you want to work with.

And if you work at a company, you can think, I don't need to worry about my personal brand.

I'm not an entrepreneur.

Actually, you need to work on it harder than anybody because you're never going to get the promotion, you're never going to get that next level in your career, you're never going to get that project because your personal brand, are you a problem solver?

Are you a collaborator?

Are you resourceful?

Are you a good listener?

Are you a team player?

That's your personal brand.

That's your reputation.

And so you need to think about it and care about how you show up in the world.

We know, Erica, now.

We live in a world where I'm not just competing with people that live in my hometown because of remote working environments, my competitive pool has become anyone with access to a laptop and an Internet connection.

So it is more competitive than it's ever been.

So how you show up matters.

What's your reputation?

What does your LinkedIn profile look like?

How do you conduct yourself at events?

And that's a big part.

The biggest chapter in this book is the chapter about how to build your personal brand.

It's that important that people take it seriously.

It is.

One of the core rules of being self reliant is you know how important that is and you're good at it.

I cannot wait for this book to arrive at my doorstep because personal brand is such a big thing that I think a lot of people now are starting to pay attention to.

And you are the queen of personal brand, amongst other things.

I know that you've done and you've had an amazing career.

I'd love to.

I want to dig into personal brand a little bit, but before then, it trips me out that you're from Minnesota, because like I am.

I know I haven't met anybody as cool as anyone like you from Minnesota.

And you are egyptian originally, but you grew up in Minnesota.

Yeah.

Take us through that because you have an amazing journey.

Maha.

Wild story, girls.

So I am born and raised in Minnesota in a very small town, 16,000 population, home of Laura Wilder from Little House on the Prairie.

It's very like iconic middle America, Midwest hometown.

And I lived in the US until I was 27 years old.

I worked at General Mills in sports marketing.

I was intern at Weber Shandwick, a PR firm, and when I was 14 years old, my mother got multiple sclerosis and she was quite sick and I was taking care of her.

And when I was 27, my parents, who are both 100% egyptian, said, we're moving to Egypt.

And I'm like, what?

We're moving to Egypt.

Like, I.

I love Egypt.

I've been there on vacation, but I'm not.

Even though I am egyptian, I don't know the language.

I don't have any friends.

I don't have a job.

At 27, you're a professional.

When most people are moving out of living with their parents, I moved in with my parents.

Right?

Anyway, so long story short, we get to Egypt, I can't find a job.

I wanted to work, like, at an american firm, so I knew the culture of P and G, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, one of the multinationals, couldn't find a job.

I got asked to work for this billionaire as his assistant, and I was completely devastated.

I was like, what?

I'm not going to be a secretary.

I'm overqualified.

I was too big for my britches.

I was like, no, this is not acceptable.

I'm not doing this.

And I have a job.

And my dad was like, you just moved here.

You don't know anybody.

The assistant to a chairman is a very powerful position.

It's like a chief of staff, and you'll be able to meet a lot of people and learn the business.

If I were you, you go back tomorrow and you accept that job with pleasure, and you just put your head down and you do the hard work, and you prove to him that you're capable of doing more, but you have to do what he wants first.

I was so mad, so I did it.

I listened to my dad and I did that.

And he was right.

It changed my life forever.

I ended up working with him for several years.

I worked on the largest IPO in the history of Egypt.

I worked on the largest acquisition in the history of Egypt.

We ended up becoming business partners, opening Weber Shandwick's pr firm in the Middle east with 18 offices.

I oversold the operation in Cairo.

I went on to lead head of communications at Google, head of communications, or launched, actually, Netflix in the Middle east, and served them for five years as a client.

I worked for the office of the ruler of Dubai, I worked for undersecretaries of state, for public diplomacy, and I stayed in Egypt and Dubai for 23 years.

Wow.

So, like, you're late twenties to thirties, you were there doing all of that from 19?

Yeah, when I was 27 years old up until I was 50.

And then I'm 54.

I'm 54.

You're so gorgeous.

Zoom in, girl.

You look great.

And during lockdown in Dubai and I never see my family again.

That scared me to no end.

And after living overseas for 23 years, in 24 hours, I pulled the plug and I moved back to Minnesota, and I got home the day the lockdown started.

And I've been back us for four years now.

I open an office and I have a team.

We work remote, we've got a killer team.

And I still have an office registered in Dubai.

And here we are.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, here we are.

This is like, how many hours do we have?

So 20 years now, I've been an entrepreneur.

20 years of running my own company.

It's a lot of work.

Yeah, it is.

I think Netflix was like, come and work for us.

You were like, I'm not going to go into corporate, but I will consult for my company.

Because you were like, I want to be an entrepreneur.

When did you know?

Because General Mills, that's massive for you to come into that at that age.

Obviously, you had skills when you came out of school and you were, like, doing this, but, like, when did you decide, like, I am going to run my own show and I'm not going to work at corporate anymore.

I actually.

I did that when I was.

But, like, honestly, Erica, like, I didn't really know what it.

What it meant to be an entrepreneur.

Like, you don't know what you don't know.

I'm like, I'm really good at comps.

I'm good at strategy.

I'm good at messaging, storytelling, pr narratives.

This is, like, in my veins.

I don't know anything about running a company, building a team, building a culture, leading people, managing people, HR, legal, finances.

And I was like, wait, that's not fun.

Like, that's, like, the things I don't how to do.

I don't want to do, but if you want to be a CEO of a company or an entrepreneur, you got to do all those things.

So very quickly I was like, oh, shit, they're going to come.

I remember the first day in my office, I was sitting there and I got in, got dressed, put my suit on, went to office, and then I sat in my office going, oh, no, my team's going to come in here and ask me questions.

And I better know the answers because I remember going into my boss's office to ask her a question and she always knew the answer.

And then I'm like, what am I going to do?

If they ask me something and I don't know, they expect me to know.

And then I was like, what I knew, I knew, and what I didn't, we figured out together.

But, yeah, I mean, that's basically how I knew.

I knew I wanted to control what I did every day and I knew I was good at comms.

Like, I knew after a couple of projects and working for people that, hey, this is something I can consult for multiple people and scale it and have that be my business.

And frankly, I was kind of tired of making money for other people.

And I'm like, I should just do myself.

And that's kind of the reason I became an entrepreneur.

And I quit Google and I quit general mills to do that.

And, you know, of course I was terrible manager in the beginning, but I'm, I'm much better now.

Oh, my goodness.

You've just had such an incredible career and been able to work with some of the most amazing people.

How did you find bridging, like, the cultures with the US and the Middle east and logic place?

Yeah.

Like, how did, how did you go with that?

Yeah, I mean, everybody knows what american business culture is like.

Results, hustle, performance, delivery, no chit chatting, no socializing.

Get down to business.

And then I moved to the Middle east and I did that.

And someone was polite enough to kind of tap me on the shoulder and say, we don't do that here.

Like, you need to.

All business is personal.

You need to slow down.

You need to put warm notes in your emails before just getting straight to business.

And I was lucky that people told me and gave me feedback so I didn't walk around like a bull in a china store because I was like, we got to get results.

We got to go.

You know, we got to do that.

We got to do that american thing.

And then I learned the beauty of doing business in the Middle east is all business is personal and it's built on relationships.

And then I.

I learned to, like, work at their speed and.

And to break bread and to have coffee, and it's not small talk.

Genuinely be interested in who they are.

And.

And that's the longevity of some of the best relationships I have, is I took the time, and I never thought of it as an important.

It's actually one of the rules in the book of how to be a long term player is to build those relationships over time, make deposits in other people's trust bank over time.

You know, be valuable to people over time, and don't worry about making withdrawal.

Don't worry about getting your share.

Don't worry about introducing a to b and them leaving you out.

It just.

It doesn't work that way.

Oh, my God.

Okay, so I was.

I have on my little paper here, because I have a million notes for you.

There's something that I always say, and it's like, I'm making deposits and I don't withdraw.

Right.

And it's so funny you say that because it's like a bank account.

You're just like, deposit, deposit.

And I can really hear that throughout your career, you've been a value adding.

You've been a problem solver.

You've been someone that's been able to, you know, connect the dots and strategically support and do things.

And I love that you say it's a relationships game, because when you're not thinking about, what can I get from this, then you are pouring into people.

Then you're obviously being of service.

You're helping, you're adding value, you're supporting.

Does there come a point in time for you in this journey that you had where you got good at asking or, you know, calling in?

Because I think, for me, this is my answer, too.

Yeah.

Because I suck at this.

And I'm like, this is my year.

Because I just finished my book, my second book.

And as you know, now that you're on this side, I can't wait to be on your side.

It's so much fun.

You're gonna be on my show.

Yeah.

Oh, girl.

I'm like, it's just so much fun to sell it.

I'm great at the selling and marketing, not like, so much sitting and writing.

I'm like, oh, gosh, this is so hard.

But when you get to those places you really want your.

Your book, like, this book is gonna help so many people.

You do have to ask and you do have to share, and you do have to talk about it.

And I know many of my beautiful clients that are listening to this particular episode, they couldn't wait for you to be on have issues with saying, hey, you need some help, especially the women.

They're there.

They just themselves.

Yeah, talk about that.

Like, I feel like one of, like, again, going back to self awareness.

What do I know?

What do I don't know?

And I gotta fill those gaps, right.

You know, asking for help is a sign of strength.

It's not a sign of weakness.

But be specific with your ask.

Know what it is you want.

You know, don't leave it open ended for that other person to figure out exactly where you need to go.

Try to be specific, and then always follow up and always thank them, and then try to offer help.

You know, one of the biggest things, you know, me and my team, we have this joke within the company.

One of my team members always says, tell me, like, we'd be in a meeting.

She's like, so tell me.

And you know, my thing.

We're like, everyone.

What you're saying that if you, you say it so many times, we should make it on a t shirt.

And they said to me, like, maha, yours has to say, how can I help?

I love it because I like to ask people, how can I help?

And I'm also a big believer in asking for help.

And I want to be specific in what I'm asking for and when do I need it and what do I need it for?

And I feel like asking for help is difficult to do because you feel like, oh, you don't.

You don't know.

You need to ask for help.

But I think if put it into context for people on what do you need it for?

Like, is it something for you?

Is it something for a client?

You know, giving them the context helps them understand the level of necessity or urgency that you have.

You know, I work with Gary Vee, and Gary interviewed me for my book on his podcast.

He actually talked about this point because sometimes I might need a favor, and I want Gary to do a favor for me.

And he's like, well, tell me what it's for.

Is it for you?

Is it for somebody else?

Like, you're asking me to help.

What's the purpose?

So I know and have that transparency because, like, sometimes people just ask for help and just their askers and their takers.

And I feel like it's really important that you pay it forward.

If somebody helps you, help them back or help them in another way down the line, or if there's something important for them, send them that article.

Make an introduction for them be a super connector.

You know, find ways to bring value to people who help you, because everybody's busy, everybody's not working on your schedule and your priority list.

So if you have something to ask for someone, make it specific and really make sure that you do follow up with people.

Yeah, I love that advice so much because it makes it tangible and it's like, it's actually of service.

And I'm trying to.

I have a friend who wrote a book called the gift of asking, and, you know, it's a challenge for so many women to ask and to make the ask, as you said, that's so good.

Specific.

How much of this plays into, like, the humility, the ego free, the self awareness?

Because I really hear you as this beautiful, humble, kind, giving person.

But you're driven and you know where you want to go.

Huh?

No, I'm not that.

I'm not.

No, it means not that easy.

You're oversimplifying.

I think, who you think.

I mean, thank you.

It's very kind of you, but I.

Feel like, I think you're a nice person.

You know what I mean?

You're like, yeah, sure, but you're okay.

Yeah, yeah.

No, but you have to, like, you know, put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Right?

Yeah.

There's a lot of things I don't have, and there's a lot of access to resources or issues or people that I don't have, and I need to ask for help.

And I feel like sometimes you just have to be humble and put your ego aside and say, listen, I can't get this done unless I get help.

You know, anyone can help me.

And sometimes you're not asking them directly, but by putting them a question, saying, I'm asking for advice.

Somebody told me once, if you ask somebody for advice, they'll give you money.

If you ask someone for money, they'll give you advice.

So, like, just the way you ask, like, if you really want money from somebody, but just ask it in the question of advice, you'll get the money.

But think about just asking people for advice, and maybe then they'll get the hint that maybe, oh, you need help.

Like, I'm in a.

I'm in a dilemma with this problem.

Can you advise me?

And then they might offer other suggestions that you didn't even think of.

Yeah, yeah.

It's so good.

And it's such a thing that I see women especially, we struggle because we carry all the plates and we try to do all the things.

Okay.

So obviously there's a level of self awareness, obviously there's a level of growth mindset that you have.

Would you say that there were mentors or people that supported you as a.

I had Gary on the show once and I will say for personal brand, I would literally have my business because of him.

Obsessed.

My kids know him like, they grew up watching him with all his bad words, they say and like learning.

He's so lovely and he could like, yeah, I have some millions of downloads, but I'm not the biggest show in the world.

And he could say no.

And what I learned about him with personal brand is like, I can give you 15 minutes of my time, 14 minutes and 59 seconds.

But I wanted to ask you about this because I think about, you know, the personal brand and when you share about personal branding and the seven rules, I wanted to say, because you say the personal branding is like your skills, your experience and your personality.

Yes.

Can you talk to that?

Because I love the personality side.

Because that's the side that you say, like, that's different.

Yeah, yeah.

So like, Erica, you and I can have the exact same skills and experiences, but what makes you unique is your personality.

Right?

Because a lot of people think about, I don't need to invest in my personal brand or my reputation, for example.

And I talk about the same example all the time because it's common.

Personal trainer who is a personal trainer.

It's like, I don't want to start my instagram because I have zero followers.

Like, there's a million personal trainers on the Internet.

Why they come to me, I'm like, yeah, they may have the same skills and experience exactly on paper that you do, but they don't have your personality and think about your behavior.

What do you bring to the show, Erica?

How do you talk differently?

How do you treat your guests?

What is your message that makes people attracted to listening to you?

There's something emotional that people connect with you.

There's something that people like from your personality that carries your personal brand and always put yourself in the shoes of the consumer.

What makes you stop your thumb when you're scrolling story connected with you?

A message resonated with you.

The personality of the person delivering the message resonated with you.

You like their style, you like their personality.

And that's the key.

That's the thing that a lot of people are worried about sharing because I don't want people to say, who does maha think she is?

And I think people do.

You're right.

Like, people want.

They want realness, they want some authenticity.

Yes.

And it's like, what makes you give yourself permission to be who you are and allow others to see you as you are?

And I say I get metaphorically naked on the Internet.

Obviously, I know that's a crazy metaphor, but it's like, hey, see me?

This is all of me.

And I swear it makes people feel safe.

I swear they feel like me too.

Oh, we're the same.

And then they draw in, and then they get in my work metaphorically naked.

And now we have the first 5 seconds vulnerability.

Ah, this is beautiful.

And it's a space on the Internet that we can be real and raw.

And it doesn't seem like there's many spaces like that.

Yeah.

I mean, I think about the personal brands that we are attracted to.

They have these three qualities.

One is that they're authentic.

They are who they are in real life, on the camera, in meetings, at family get togethers, they are who they say they are.

Second, they're consistent.

Right?

You know, they're consistent in how they show up, they're consistent in how they present themselves on social.

They're consistent.

And.

And think of just anyone that you love to follow, any figure, celebrity, business person, athlete, whoever it is, you.

You want to see the same thing over and over.

And your brand also needs to be consistent.

And then the last is they have a purpose, right?

That's the hardest thing for people to discover is what's their purpose or what should their purpose be?

And I put a ton of exercises in the book to help people do that, but I think I, that's the key is like, you know, like what you're passionate about or what you want to share with the world, and you shouldn't be shy to do it because you think somebody else is already doing it or doing it better.

That is the exact opposite of what you should do.

There is such an abundance in the market.

There are room for hundreds of millions of people who still have not begun to create their brands and content still coming into the market every day.

Podcasts still haven't even scratched the surface.

Influencers are still haven't scratched the surface.

I just feel like, what are you waiting for?

There's no reason to wait.

If someone's thinking and they're listening and they're like, I'm getting this book and I'm really focused, and I want to build my personal brand.

What would you say is, like, the beginning, where they need to start before they even go out there and build it?

I think they should just be curious about what's the best way they think they can build their personal brand.

Like, do they want to do things in the community?

Do they want to be speaking?

Do they want to do a podcast?

Do they want to do video?

Do they want to be a writer?

Do they want to do a blog?

Do they not want to do it through social media?

Like, that's the first question.

What do I want to do?

And you need to know, who is your audience?

You know, helping them find purpose.

There's a whole exercise in the book that helps them find their narrative, find their purpose, find their audience.

I walk them through it step by step because I just feel it's the most important thing.

Even in one of the things I give people advice.

Even if you're not going to post a single thing on any social media platform, go and register name so you can own it.

Yes.

Even if I'm never going to post on TikTok or Snapchat or LinkedIn or whatever.

Go get that handle.

So you own your name, you protect your name.

That's so important.

I love that.

Okay, so, question for you.

I know that there's seven rules in the book.

Are you okay to give us a sneak peek and tell us what they are?

Can we, can we do that?

Oh, I'm so excited for this book.

Okay, so the first rule of the book is stay low key.

Moving and stay low means not stay low profile.

It means stay focused on your goals.

Put blinders on, stay low.

Everyone's going to try to distract you about everything else that they care about.

Everyone's going to start to doubt you.

Everyone's going to tell you, you can't do it, you shouldn't do it.

You shouldn't quit your corporate job and do.

Everyone's going to give you this.

So stay low means stay laser focused on what you care about and put in the hard work.

I'm not an overnight success.

I'm 30 years.

I got fired from jobs.

I failed plenty.

I messed up.

I did.

I'm not like a.

It's not linear.

Life isn't linear.

Right?

So stay home by putting in the hard work, putting in the effort, putting in the reps.

Keep moving.

Because anyone who's self reliant knows that shit happens.

Life happens to setbacks happen, obstacles happen, people get fired, economic downturns happen.

So just, you have to keep moving.

You have to know, this is the strike of life.

We just need to stay low and keep moving through it.

That's number one.

Love it.

Second rule is be a value creator.

How do you create value for other people?

This has been the secret sauce for my business and my life.

And it started with my parents.

Both my parents were very sick, and I was like, what's the one thing I can do to make them smile today?

What's the one thing I can do to make their day better?

What's the one thing they were, like, bedridden, completely handicapped, couldn't do anything for themselves.

Not eating, feeding, bathing, nothing.

And I was like, okay, I'm going to try to create value for them.

And then when I did it, I felt satisfaction, I felt happy.

And then I was like, what if I can do it for my parents, I could probably do it at work.

Maybe I should try to create value for the company with, like, me taking initiative to do something without them asking.

Maybe anticipating needs being helpful to my other team members.

Maybe I can think strategically about something I saw in a meeting, go do some work, come back and add value.

And I put points on the board without them asking.

And then I became indispensable and valuable for them because they were like, ma is trying to always create value.

She's always thinking about our needs before we even ask for things for her.

Number three is don't be a waiter.

You can be two things in this life.

Wait for things or create things.

And I told the story earlier, but don't be a waiter.

And I help you through in the book to look at the exercises to see, are you a waiter?

Maybe you're a creator, but you want to be creating better.

What does it mean to create instead of being a waiter?

How do I recognize if I'm just waiting for people to.

I was felt I was expecting people to do things for me.

I was expecting people to see my value.

I was expecting people to bring me opportunities.

That's not how it works anymore.

You need to create those opportunities.

Another rule of the book is unlearn, relearn and invest in yourself.

I would say if you walk away from listening to this and you only walk away with one thing, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to invest in yourself.

No one can take away the knowledge that you sink in, that love and that effort that you put into yourself.

I don't want to be left behind because I don't know things.

So I want you to invest in yourself.

Think about, what do I need to unlearn ideas that are no longer serving me.

What do I need to relearn?

What are the things I can do to invest in myself?

I don't like AI, but maybe I've never tried chat GBT.

Should I lean into that?

Should I maybe take that photography class?

Because I've always been fascinated with cameras.

Should I learn how to edit a video?

Should I learn how to play pickleball?

What am I curious about?

And learning doesn't have to be work related.

It could be a leisure book, it could be a skill, could be playing the piano.

You just have to invest in yourself because that's good for your brain.

But it's also good to challenge yourself, to do things outside your comfort zone.

And that's the thing that self reliant people do.

They know the importance of investing in themselves.

Another rule is be a long term player.

And I told the story of I worked for Gary for free for like a year and a half before I started working for him formally.

And I knew the value of building a relationship, working with him through osmosis, spending time with him and his team, and that was a very long term.

Like, a lot of people shouldn't work for free unless you can afford it.

Know the risk and benefits and the reward.

But I always say, think about opportunities in two ways.

Are you learning to or are you earning?

And I knew I would learn a lot from being around someone like him.

I was going to, you know, hopefully want to do business with him, but I knew I was a long term thinker.

I was like, okay, my long game with him is to try to invest in this relationship, bring him value consistently and show up and show up in a positive way where I can contribute to his business down the line, but I have to show him who I am, what I do, and play it on his terms.

And a long term player also knows the value of relationships.

So I teach in this chapter.

How do you network through DM?

How do you network on Zoom calls?

How do you build relationships in today's modern age?

How do you actually know how to be a super connector or a super networker?

Because you know that's important and not get left out.

What's the trick to doing that?

What's the skill you need to have?

Because I feel being a long term player is essential.

And then the last rule, which is rule number seven, is live with no regrets, which is very easy to say and extremely difficult to do, but I had all the cards stacked against me.

I don't come from money, I don't have a rich family.

I'm a daughter of educators.

My dad's a teacher, my aunt and uncle teacher.

My grandfather was a principal.

I had two handicapped parents who were very sick.

I had to move to a foreign country, essentially, without knowing the language.

Everything was against me and everything that I went through in that journey with my parents and in that process of moving to the Middle east, even though I am egyptian and I don't feel like I belong there.

And everyone said to me, oh, you're so american.

Your English is so american.

You know, it taught me so much, and it was part of my story, and I don't regret it, even though it was the most difficult chapter of my life.

I learned how to take that struggle and turn it into a strengthen, how to take my setbacks and turn them into comebacks.

Like, it was difficult.

But it also taught me about patience.

It taught me about perspective.

Like, I can't really complain.

My mom and dad can't even swallow.

They have to have feeding tubes.

So when I think about perspective and regretting things that happened to me, I immediately said, you know what?

This is a blessing.

This taught me so much.

And if you read the book, I talk about, you know, the Super bowl and the prime minister and this and that and celebrities and parties and a lot of the work I did, nothing compares to the pride I have for what I did, for taking care of my parents.

That's all that matters.

How you treat people, how you give them dignity.

And I feel like, try to live with no regrets.

I know it's hard to do, but, like, feeling sorry for yourself is a waste of time and life is too short.

We're only on this planet for so long, so really take time to think, huh?

2025 is right around the corner.

Get this book.

I've tested it.

I've lived it.

Yeah.

Oh, I did.

I remember I watched a reel of you.

I think you shared it on LinkedIn, and it made me, like, super emotional, and I messaged you about it, and I was like, you are amazing what you did for your family.

And of course, in your heart and soul, you're like, of course I'm going to do that.

But there's choices that we have in life, and there are a people that would make different choices.

And I just.

I hope that you know that your heart and your being, you're a very special human being, and you've done some amazing things, and you could be completely different.

And the success and the care that you pour into your community, your team, your team is amazing.

You know, everything that you do, you're led with your heart.

You can feel it.

Like, I haven't met you in real life, but I can just feel the heart and blanket love that you give and what you do.

And so just a massive shout out and thank you to you for being such a good human.

Yeah.

You know, energy matters.

Like, the energy you bring into Rome, to your team, to your leader.

I'll tell you one of the biggest things in the Middle east, they manage by fear and yelling and being powerful and using your authority to, like, get things done.

And I did that in the beginning because I was, like, trying to adapt to their style.

And then obviously, I met Gary and everything changed.

But, like, you can't do that anymore.

Like, that doesn't work.

And by the way, it was stressful for me and not fun for my people.

And, like, now I'm a very empathetic leader.

I'm a more joyous leader.

The things that used to just get on my nerves, that I would just come undone as a leader.

And now when it happens and I'm like, I literally roll off my skin, I'm like, sometimes I'm like, who are you?

Like, you, before you would have come, like, done something like that.

Like, I'm letting it pass.

Like, I think my team, I'm like, you guys don't know how enlightened I've become.

Like, yeah, like, I just don't sweat the costume or, yeah, because I can get all worked up and, like, who's that gonna make happy?

Not them.

Not me.

Like, unless I always tell them on the calls.

I'm like, as long as nobody's dead, like, we didn't kill anybody at work, then any that happens, I'm fine.

Nobody died.

We're okay.

Yeah, we're fine.

We're fine.

The meme, it's context.

Yeah, but it's true.

It's true.

It's like.

And I think that one of the things, when I did interview Gary, I did have a question, because I've been following him for ages, and I did feel like, you know, I say, and I probably do this for my clients now that he gave me a loving bitch lap, you know?

Like, listen, Erica, no one's going to come knocking at your door and be like, hey, I heard you're amazing.

Would you like to write a book about your cool life?

Like, he's like, you have to build it.

You have to.

And I just felt like, mahat.

Like, I had just had a baby, and I was, like, struggling, watching YouTube, breastfeeding, trying to change my life.

And it was like he lit fire in my butt cheeks, and I was just on fire, right?

And it was like, go for it.

Let's do this.

But I asked him on the podcast because I recently noticed the softening of Gary Vee, the.

I don't know.

I was like, I'm a therapist.

I'm a coach.

And so I do self work.

Like, this is my world is self work.

And I asked him, like, have you had therapy?

Have you done any self work?

And he said yes.

And I was like, I knew it.

Like, high five.

How do you feel?

Like, what do you think in regards to working on oneself and your mindset and your healing your wounds?

We all have them.

Yeah.

Like, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I went through a lot of trauma.

Like, after, like, I told my parents, like, within a year, a year, like, in four or five months with each other, like, that was traumatic.

I spent, like, 18 months.

I talk about in the book where I was like, who am I?

What am I doing?

What's my purpose?

I was a caretaker.

What am I going to do every day?

Who am I going to look after?

I just, like, I got to just do a routine.

I just got to get up, go to work, come home.

I just got to, like, keep myself moving.

It was devastating.

I, like, I moved to Egypt with them, and then they both died.

And, like, what am I supposed to do now?

And, like.

And then my sister was like, move back to Minnesota.

I'm like, no, I can't make another dramatic change in my life.

I'm not mentally emotionally stable right now.

Yeah.

So, yeah, you know, and my parents, like, gave me everything.

And my mom was sick since I was a teenager, so I became super close to my dad.

I was completely daddy's girl.

He'd come home from work.

Dad, how was your day?

Like, I completely became attached to my dad.

And then when he died first I couldn't believe life was going on and people were going to work and, you know, watching tv and life was happening.

I'm like, wait.

My whole world just paused.

I was devastated.

And everyone thought I was never going to recover from losing my dad because I was so, so, so close to him.

And then I was like, okay.

I just started focusing on my mom.

And then two weeks after he died, she got incredibly sick and was in hospitals, and then she deteriorated to the point where she passed away.

So, yeah, I mean, you have to work on that.

Like, that was a lot of trauma and therapy I had to go through to deal with losing their parents.

And then I had to do it through a self discovery.

Like, who am I?

What am I doing?

My job?

What's my career?

What am I going to do now?

I live here now.

Like, I guess I live here.

And by that time, I had moved to Dubai, but I was like, okay, you know, yeah, it's a lot of change.

You got to work on yourself.

Yeah, yeah.

A lot of journaling.

I did a lot of journaling back then, and I just felt like that helped me.

A therapist, obviously.

But, yeah, you have to put in the work in yourself, and, like, life is too short also to not get therapy because wouldn't you want to be your best version of yourself instead of walking around with all that?

It's just painful, 100%.

And that's what I think when I see people that are like yourself that have done lived such an incredible life.

And there's still more around the corner.

Like, Maha's book has just come out, and she's on a mission, right?

And I want to hear about your mission, because you can see that you're driven.

And, I mean, I don't know you, but when I watch you and when I listen to your stuff, like, I can feel your beautiful mom and daddy input into you, like, their values and who they were and your family life and how you care and your work in the Middle east.

And, you know, I know that, like, what I.

What I mean is, like, it doesn't mean you're a softie.

Like, nobody gets to the place where you are with being soft, but you have this heart and these values, these virtues that you can see lead you.

And so I like to hear about, you know, what was the book or the mentorship or the.

Or the moment that you went, oh, I have to work on me.

I have to develop me.

I have to, you know, fill me up as a person because I believe the same thing as the Middle east business is personal because you're the person in the person.

My parents were sick.

It's like, almost that.

That what they saying.

They say on the airplane, put your oxygen mask on before you can.

Like, I had to, like, I could be a full time caretaker, but then I was like, wait, I got to take care of myself because I'm not.

I'm not.

I couldn't just be 100% all with them.

I had to, like, make sure I was getting good rest.

I had to make good decisions.

I had to go to work every day.

I had to pay for their bills.

I had to make the medical decisions.

Decisions.

So I had to, like, hey, I need a timeout.

Can someone come sit with mom?

I can't.

I can't do this.

I got to get out of the house.

It's like, I had to do that like, I could.

I wasn't just, like, selfless, like, I'm a human being.

I needed to go out with my own friends and grab a bite or go for a walk or get a coffee like that.

That's just life.

But I also think, you know, how you carry yourself and how you share your values shows up in so many ways, you know, and it starts with how I treat my family.

It starts with how I treat my team.

It starts with, like, I want to live in a certain way, and I want to make sure that I'm consistent as well and how I do that.

And I think the biggest thing for anyone who is going through a journey like that where you have obligations, if you have take care of your family and or your kids, but you have your own ambitions, you have to fill your cup first.

I didn't.

I wasn't 100% just, you know, daughter.

I was like, I have ambitions, and I'm going to try to just push myself to the limits to be able to do both and get helped with my parents and get full time nurses with my parents so that I can have, you know, you can balance ambition and career.

I had a woman come up to me at an event recently, and she heard me do a talk, and then she's like, you know, I'm struggling.

I have ambitions of my own life and my own things I want to do with my career.

But I'm also a mother, and I have a five year old, and I want to do a good job in being a good mother because my mother wasn't around.

She was working all the time when I was a child because she had to put food on the table and stuff.

And so she's like, how do I deal with that and how do I balance that?

And I said, like anything else in life, you set your priorities and you have to allocate it.

You can't do one or the other, because then you'll be out of sync.

Yeah.

And that.

That scale, that balance, you know, you have to put one on each so that the scale balances you.

Just, sometimes it's going to be a little bit more this, sometimes it'll be more that, but prioritize it, otherwise it will never happen.

Yeah.

And you'll, like your whole life living for other people, and then you'll get full of resentment and regret.

And, yes, that's the worst.

The rule number seven is no regrets.

You need to live.

No regrets.

I love that.

Fill your cup first, because it's a huge thing.

And I think those of us that I know, a lot of the women listen to this podcast are leaders, or they run a business and they are mothers.

70% of them are mothers.

And so if you're listening to this, maha is saying, fill your cup.

Make sure that you look after you.

Yeah.

And I do think you can have it all, but just not all at once, right?

It's like you have to take the steps that you need.

Everything has its season.

Everything has its season.

They're like phases, right?

There are.

There are steps that you're on.

I can't wait for the big phase, but it's like, you have to be on this one.

Okay.

So I have a question.

What is next for you?

What.

What is.

What is the, first of all, what is the purpose that's driving your impact?

And what's next?

What's around the corner?

So I'm in.

I think I kind of like to think of my life like, my first phase was living in the US till I was 27.

Then the second phase was living in the Middle east, and the third phase is now being back in the US.

So, third chapter, third time, I'm reinventing myself.

This book, obviously, is a huge priority for me to get this out into the world and to scale the ideas and.

And to help people implement these rules.

And I don't.

I don't plan beyond that.

Like, I want the opportunities that present themselves, to present themselves.

I still run a full time business as CEO of a communications firm in the US and in Dubai.

And I just want to help other people implement these rules.

And so I will do more.

My podcast, obviously, new episodes will be out.

I'm going to share more stories and train more people and do workshops and master classes.

And I really want this book to do well.

And I want people to give me feedback about what they liked about it or what helped them, or if they want any other resources or help, I don't want to be there.

My mission is to help people communicate better, whether it's internal comms, external media, pr, storytelling, crisis, whatever.

But I feel like this book, like I said in the beginning, it's not about what anybody on this podcast listening, what they do.

I want them to think about how they do it, because that's what can transform their life and their mindset.

And make them more self reliant.

Oh, I could speak to you for, like, 17 more hours because you are amazing.

Thank you.

I'm really grateful to be here.

I love Australia.

I came with Australia with Gary.

I came to Australia with Gary.

We went.

We went to.

We went to New Zealand.

We went to Melbourne.

We went to Sydney.

We went to Brisbane.

It was so nice.

Your puerto rican friend here in Melbourne missed you.

When are you coming back?

Yeah.

And I have to say, I'm very proud of this point that I'm about to say.

I was there for five days, and I did it all on a carry on.

Wow.

That's.

That is.

I was impressed.

I was impressed.

Well, you know the reason why?

Because I travel with Gary, and I didn't know this because I started traveling with him a lot in the beginning.

We were always, like, on the road before the pandemic.

Like, he'd go to, like, Malaysia or for the day.

And if you had check in luggage, Gary doesn't wait for you.

Like, you're at the airport, and we landed, he takes this thing, and he leaves.

And the first time I took a global trip with him, I had, like, a suitcase with all my stuff.

And then he's like, see?

And I'm like, what?

And he's like, I'm not waiting for, like, then I quickly learn you don't check in luggage if you're traveling with Garrett, you have to have carry ons.

And then I'm like, wait, we're going to Australia for five days on a carry on carry?

No, but it's like, different shoes.

It's different.

It's like day outfits, night outfits.

How am I going to do this?

And.

And then now I'm the professional traveler and hacker.

But I learned quickly, like, you will be left behind if you check in a bag.

And then I never checked in a bag again.

Wow.

So quick note, learn how to do carry on baggage.

Oh, gosh, that's hard.

I actually love it now.

I'm very good at it and very creative.

So packing cubes are the key to life.

Can you do some?

Whoever invented packing cubes is, like, a genius.

And I also like you.

You know, you have to, like, wear your tennis shoes.

So those are bulky.

They take up space, you know, just, like, little hacks like that.

How do you mix and match your outfits?

How do you do layers, different colors?

Like, it's just a game now for me.

I'm like, okay, I'm gone for 14 days.

How can I do that on a carry on?

Like, because I don't want to also get my luggage lost or wait, airports, like, so now I have a carry on, like a puller bag, and I got a little duffle that goes on top of it.

In between those two things and my little cross body, I'm good.

Okay.

I'm getting, like, a message you for tips later because I'm traveling a lot, and I'm like, how do I not bring my silk pillowcase?

Just bring the case, not the pillow.

Maybe I could do that because that's a big old thing to put into the luggage.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, maha.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

For everyone who's listening.

I know.

Okay, so everything is in the show notes.

I want to challenge you not to just get one book.

Here's what I want to challenge you.

If you're listening, I want you to get two copies, two plus.

Because, number one, when somebody writes a book, it's a massive thing to pour your life stories, your work, the value adding results that you want to give the world into a book and to write a book.

But also, there's so many people in the world that need to listen to this book, that need to hear what you have to say.

So please support your local author here and get two copies, if not more, and send one to a friend, someone that you know.

Or if you're an influencer listening to this podcast, please do it as a giveaway because we love that.

Maha, you are incredible.

I can't wait to squeeze you in real life.

I'll have there seven rules of self reliance.

Maha, thank you so, so much.

Thank you, Erica, thank you so much for listening.

I freaking love you.

I appreciate you.

Thank you for your ears and your energy and your attention.

Thank you for letting me into your world.

And thank you so much for listening and tuning in to this podcast.

There are so many podcasts you could listen to, and I deeply, deeply, for real, for real appreciate you listening to mine.

Do me one big favor, one big thing.

Please share this episode or this podcast with a woman who you know needs to hear this.

This is my mission on planet Earth, to serve as many women as possible so that we could show up, stand up, speak up, and create the confidence in the life that we desire.

I appreciate you, my love.

I will see you on the next episode.