Join host Tessa Lynne Alburn and guest, Mia Moran, who shares her journey of transformation and overcoming challenges in her life. Mia discusses a turning point in her life, when she was a mother of three young children and owned a graphic design company. Despite having checked off all the boxes for success on the outside, she felt unfulfilled and exhausted. Mia talks about how she heard a kind yet firm inner voice, which she now identifies as her intuition, guiding her to prioritize her health.
"Planning is a gift from your past self for your future self so that you can actually be in the now." Mia Moran
Check it out!
● External success alone can leave one feeling unfulfilled and exhausted
● Listening to your intuition is a key factor in making better choices.
● Planning is a gift from your past self for your future self
● Creating a supportive “village” is important for helping you stay aligned with your goals
About Mia Moran:
Mia is a mom of three, and a coach who has struck her perfect balance between motherhood, wellness and work. She supports high achieving, female entrepreneurs, who are overwhelmed with the “life” and “wellness” pieces, find their version of balance. She is the host of the PlanSimple podcast, bestselling author of PlanSimple Meals, and creator of the FLOW Planning Method, the FLOW Planner, and FLOW365.
Mia’s Free Gift:
Connect with Mia, and receive her Free Gift, from Overwhelmed to Ease
https://plansimple.com/freecourse
Website: https://plansimple.com/
Instagram: @plansimple.co
* About the Host *
Tessa Lynne Alburn believes that every woman has the ability to learn to express their true voice, be heard, and fulfill their dreams.
Tessa’s Free Gift: http://www.tessafreegift.com/
As a Feminine Energy Coach and Soul Connection Mentor for women, Tessa supports you in having the freedom you crave and strong connections with others, as you live powerfully with joy and a sense of adventure.
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May You Say YES to Your Soul.
Transcript
Tessa (00:15):
Hello there. I'm really happy to say that we have a
special guest today. Her name is Mia Moran. She's a mom of three, and she's a
coach, and she struck her perfect balance between motherhood, wellness and
work. And she supports high achieving female entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed with
the life and the wellness pieces so that they can find their version of
balance. She also has a podcast of her own called Plan Simple podcast. So I
want to welcome her. Mia, say hello.
Mia (01:00):
Hello. <laugh>. Hi. Hi everyone.
Tessa (01:09):
Hi. So you have, you know, transformed your own life. You
somehow got out of the problems that you had. You're a mother, you're a
successful coach. I wanna know, my audience wants to know how you overcame one
of your biggest challenges to get where you are.
Mia (01:29):
Yeah, so I feel like one of my biggest challenges was more
like a big moment, a big turning point in my life. <laugh>.
Tessa (01:40):
Yeah.
Mia (01:41):
Which was about 14 years ago. And my kids are now
teenagers, so I still had all three, but they were all under five at that
point. I'm actually trained as a graphic designer. That's what I'm an artist by
trade. And so that's what I was doing. I owned a graphic design company at the
time, and I sort of had all the things, I checked off all the boxes, let's say
that on the outside. And I also, you know, was a creative in a very
non-creative world. Like growing up, I had gone to all the schools that weren't
creative until I got to art school, which happened in my second time I went to
college <laugh>.
(02:17):
And I was an introvert in a very extroverted household.
And so I had checked off all these like, boxes that were from outside of me,
and I thought that I was supposed to be happy. And so it was this moment where
I just felt, the exact moment was literally this afternoon and it was like 2:30
or 3:00 and it wasn't quite time to go home yet. And I just remember like the
visual was this stack of coffee cups that had built up over the course of the day.
And I just remember thinking like, how am I so
tired? How am I feeling so unfulfilled? What is wrong with me? You know, like,
why can't I make, you know, why is it that I have these things and I feel so
awful?
(03:04):
And I just, like, there was this like,
disconnect. Like it was like I was not allowing myself to feel awful and I was
feeling awful. And it was like sort of the moment where those two things came
together. And so that just started this journey, which actually, it's funny that you mentioned the meal
planning book, because it started off with me shifting my food and when I
shifted my food. So at the time I did not know how to cook. I had these three
little kids. I used to wait for my husband who did cook, but with the kids I
couldn't. And so it was a lot of takeout and frozen food and hodgepodging stuff
together. I was not at my healthiest at all. And on this particular day, I just
like, just heard this voice that was kind and very firm that it was time to get
healthy.
(03:50):
And so it didn't feel like the mean voice. It felt like
the kind voice. And I now would call that my intuition. And I just started
taking one step. I just started, I just, I was like, I kept trying to get back
to that voice and like the first thing I did was like, okay, I need to get
healthy. So I just literally looked up from my desk and was like, what would
you do if you wanted to get healthy? And someone was like, a new yoga studio
open. So I was like, okay, I'll go to yoga. I called the babysitter, which was
not what I normally did. I was either at work or at home, and I was like, I won't
be home for two hours. And then I went to yoga class and I, as an introvert, if
anyone listening as an introvert, you might get this, but I am not somebody who
would go introduce myself to the teacher, but I felt very called intuitively to
go introduce myself to the teacher. So I did. And she was like, what do you do?
And I said, I'm a designer. She said, I need a website. I said, I feel awful
right now. She said, I have a plan for you, come to my house tomorrow. So I was
like, okay. So then I went to her house and it was just like one day at a time,
I would just close my eyes Yes. Yeah. And be like, what's next?
Tessa (04:54):
Hmm. You close your eyes and you heard that kind voice,
but firm. And I love that distinction, right. It's not just like some little
fairy voice. It's like it really knows. It's clear.
Mia (05:08):
Yeah. Well, and there's a voice like even today that's
like, oh, come on Mia. Like, stop working so hard, just go watch Netflix. And
I'm like, that's the other version. That's the shadow version of the one that's
telling me to work too hard. Right. Like, that's not it. Neither of those are
it. There's this other voice that's kind and firm and much wiser.
Tessa (05:27):
You know, I, yeah. I think that's great because one of the
things that, I think a lot of people have a misconception about is they think
they're gonna close their eyes on a meditation and suddenly they're gonna hear
this booming God voice or something. Right. Like, this is what you need to do.
This is your destiny. And it's not like that at all. Right. It's very, for me,
it's like the soft voice and a feathery voice.
Mia (05:55):
Yeah.
Tessa (05:55):
But it's clear. And I love that distinction, that it is
kind and it's firm. It's very succinct.
Mia (06:07):
Yep. Well, and sometimes it can be like, it's so succinct
and sometimes it can be so fast you don't hear the voice, to me, sometimes it's
just as much about the pause. So just even using, being here with you today as
an example, I have a business coach and she was like, I challenge you to speak
four times next week. And I hung up and I was like, how am I gonna speak four
times next week? I literally think I said that outside. And then I literally
was like, I'm gonna go procrastinate right now. And I opened my inbox and there
was this in inbox for email from one of my friends who was like, will you come
speak at my thing? And I was like, oh, sure. And here I am on six speaking
things today, you know? So it's like, sometimes it's in your inbox. Sometimes
it's like the letter that comes in the mail. Right. But it's like you have to
have had that pause to know that the thing you're seeing is the thing. And it's
not like part of the hundred things that are really the shiny object.
Tessa (07:04):
Exactly. And it's different than say, where's the sign?
What am I looking? Right. It's not like that grasping thing. It's like, yeah.
So what I'm hearing from you is it's almost like really being clear. Like you
accepted that challenge to go do four speaking things this week, and you got
clear that you were doing it and you paused and you open your email box and
you're like, oh, look at that. It's a fit.
Mia (07:30):
Right? Yeah. It's totally a fit. And it was easy. It took
me 10 minutes. Right. And the second I get into like, oh my gosh, this is gonna
be so hard, I'm disconnecting from that pause. Right. Because the pause needs
like the quiet, the second my brain is in there being like, you're not enough.
This is never gonna work. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I might
not have even have seen the email, you know, like ...
Tessa (07:56):
Exactly. It would've been, oh, I'm not gonna look at it or
throw it in the trash.
Mia (07:59):
Yeah. It was actually in my promotion, so it wasn't even
in my box. I was just sort of like playing around and I was clicking things and
there it was, you know, but it needed that pause.
Tessa (08:09):
Yes. Very, very important. The pause. So for you, after
the pause, is there something that supports you say around your choices or how
you make your choices
Mia (08:22):
Yeah. So from that seven cups of coffee day, I had this
whole sort of journey that led me to get healthy and write a book and do all
these things. And from that, I started just comparing when things worked out
and when they really didn't. So I started noticing that when I take this pause,
when I listened to intuition, that's really helpful. And something that I was
not giving myself the space to do. And from that usually comes also a component
of being a little bit more dreamy than I might let myself be in normal
circumstances. So it's like I'm centered, but then I'm focused on a vision. So
it's less about me right here, right now, making choices from the me 10 minutes
ago. It's about me right here making choices for the me that's like a week, two
weeks, a year from now, right?
(09:17):
So it's like I can connect to a bigger version, like a
greater version of myself. And I think that that piece is connected and really
important. And from there then I make better choices. And so it's like, from
there then I think it becomes a creative process that many of us, it might look
like a to-do list or like a brain dump or whatever you wanna call it, where
we're like, okay, we're centered. What do we need to do this year, this week,
this day? And we sort of write out what the possibilities are. And then we have
to again, have that gut check, that pause to choose. And, to me...
Hello there. I'm really happy to say that we have a special guest today. Her name is Mia Moran. She's a mom of three, and she's a coach, and she struck her perfect balance between motherhood, wellness and work. And she supports high achieving female entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed with the life and the wellness pieces so that they can find their version of balance. She also has a podcast of her own called Plan Simple podcast. So I want to welcome her. Mia, say hello.
Mia (:Hello.
Hi. So you have, you know, transformed your own life. You somehow got out of the problems that you had. You're a mother, you're a successful coach. I wanna know, my audience wants to know how you overcame one of your biggest challenges to get where you are.
Mia (:Yeah, so I feel like one of my biggest challenges was more like a big moment, a big turning point in my life.
Yeah.
Mia (:Which was about 14 years ago. And my kids are now teenagers, so I still had all three, but they were all under five at that point. I'm actually trained as a graphic designer. That's what I'm an artist by trade. And so that's what I was doing. I owned a graphic design company at the time, and I sort of had all the things, I checked off all the boxes, let's say that on the outside. And I also, you know, was a creative in a very non-creative world. Like growing up, I had gone to all the schools that weren't creative until I got to art school, which happened in my second time I went to college
And I was an introvert in a very extroverted household. And so I had checked off all these like, boxes that were from outside of me, and I thought that I was supposed to be happy. And so it was this moment where I just felt, the exact moment was literally this afternoon and it was like 2:30 or 3:00 and it wasn't quite time to go home yet. And I just remember like the visual was this stack of coffee cups that had built up over the course of the day. And I just remember thinking like, how am I so tired? How am I feeling so unfulfilled? What is wrong with me? You know, like, why can't I make, you know, why is it that I have these things and I feel so awful?
(:And I just, like, there was this like, disconnect. Like it was like I was not allowing myself to feel awful and I was feeling awful. And it was like sort of the moment where those two things came together. And so that just started this journey, which actually, it's funny that you mentioned the meal planning book, because it started off with me shifting my food and when I shifted my food. So at the time I did not know how to cook. I had these three little kids. I used to wait for my husband who did cook, but with the kids I couldn't. And so it was a lot of takeout and frozen food and hodgepodging stuff together. I was not at my healthiest at all. And on this particular day, I just like, just heard this voice that was kind and very firm that it was time to get healthy.
(:And so it didn't feel like the mean voice. It felt like the kind voice. And I now would call that my intuition. And I just started taking one step. I just started, I just, I was like, I kept trying to get back to that voice and like the first thing I did was like, okay, I need to get healthy. So I just literally looked up from my desk and was like, what would you do if you wanted to get healthy? And someone was like, a new yoga studio open. So I was like, okay, I'll go to yoga. I called the babysitter, which was not what I normally did. I was either at work or at home, and I was like, I won't be home for two hours. And then I went to yoga class and I, as an introvert, if anyone listening as an introvert, you might get this, but I am not somebody who would go introduce myself to the teacher, but I felt very called intuitively to go introduce myself to the teacher. So I did. And she was like, what do you do? And I said, I'm a designer. She said, I need a website. I said, I feel awful right now. She said, I have a plan for you, come to my house tomorrow. So I was like, okay. So then I went to her house and it was just like one day at a time, I would just close my eyes Yes. Yeah. And be like, what's next?
Tessa (:Hmm. You close your eyes and you heard that kind voice, but firm. And I love that distinction, right. It's not just like some little fairy voice. It's like it really knows. It's clear.
Mia (:Yeah. Well, and there's a voice like even today that's like, oh, come on Mia. Like, stop working so hard, just go watch Netflix. And I'm like, that's the other version. That's the shadow version of the one that's telling me to work too hard. Right. Like, that's not it. Neither of those are it. There's this other voice that's kind and firm and much wiser.
Tessa (:You know, I, yeah. I think that's great because one of the things that, I think a lot of people have a misconception about is they think they're gonna close their eyes on a meditation and suddenly they're gonna hear this booming God voice or something. Right. Like, this is what you need to do. This is your destiny. And it's not like that at all. Right. It's very, for me, it's like the soft voice and a feathery voice.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:But it's clear. And I love that distinction, that it is kind and it's firm. It's very succinct.
Mia (:Yep. Well, and sometimes it can be like, it's so succinct and sometimes it can be so fast you don't hear the voice, to me, sometimes it's just as much about the pause. So just even using, being here with you today as an example, I have a business coach and she was like, I challenge you to speak four times next week. And I hung up and I was like, how am I gonna speak four times next week? I literally think I said that outside. And then I literally was like, I'm gonna go procrastinate right now. And I opened my inbox and there was this in inbox for email from one of my friends who was like, will you come speak at my thing? And I was like, oh, sure. And here I am on six speaking things today, you know? So it's like, sometimes it's in your inbox. Sometimes it's like the letter that comes in the mail. Right. But it's like you have to have had that pause to know that the thing you're seeing is the thing. And it's not like part of the hundred things that are really the shiny object.
Tessa (:Exactly. And it's different than say, where's the sign? What am I looking? Right. It's not like that grasping thing. It's like, yeah. So what I'm hearing from you is it's almost like really being clear. Like you accepted that challenge to go do four speaking things this week, and you got clear that you were doing it and you paused and you open your email box and you're like, oh, look at that. It's a fit.
Mia (:Right? Yeah. It's totally a fit. And it was easy. It took me 10 minutes. Right. And the second I get into like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be so hard, I'm disconnecting from that pause. Right. Because the pause needs like the quiet, the second my brain is in there being like, you're not enough. This is never gonna work. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I might not have even have seen the email, you know, like ...
Tessa (:Exactly. It would've been, oh, I'm not gonna look at it or throw it in the trash.
Mia (:Yeah. It was actually in my promotion, so it wasn't even in my box. I was just sort of like playing around and I was clicking things and there it was, you know, but it needed that pause.
Tessa (:Yes. Very, very important. The pause. So for you, after the pause, is there something that supports you say around your choices or how you make your choices
Mia (:Yeah. So from that seven cups of coffee day, I had this whole sort of journey that led me to get healthy and write a book and do all these things. And from that, I started just comparing when things worked out and when they really didn't. So I started noticing that when I take this pause, when I listened to intuition, that's really helpful. And something that I was not giving myself the space to do. And from that usually comes also a component of being a little bit more dreamy than I might let myself be in normal circumstances. So it's like I'm centered, but then I'm focused on a vision. So it's less about me right here, right now, making choices from the me 10 minutes ago. It's about me right here making choices for the me that's like a week, two weeks, a year from now, right?
(:So it's like I can connect to a bigger version, like a greater version of myself. And I think that that piece is connected and really important. And from there then I make better choices. And so it's like, from there then I think it becomes a creative process that many of us, it might look like a to-do list or like a brain dump or whatever you wanna call it, where we're like, okay, we're centered. What do we need to do this year, this week, this day? And we sort of write out what the possibilities are. And then we have to again, have that gut check, that pause to choose. And, to me that's everything we've talked about so far is like a very feminine process. Like we're really tapped into our inner knowing. It's very feminine. I think planning in general, which is, you know, some people say, I'm like, the planning coach or whatever is a very masculine practice, but when we bring the two things into balance, then the masculine can actually contain the feminine and it can hold us. And it can be this like beautiful way that we can fulfill our promises to ourselves because we have a little bit of structure around having tapped into our intuition.
This is a great conversation. Absolutely. So I think one of the things you've hit on here that a lot of women misunderstand is how to have structure without becoming the masculine.
Mia (:Yes.
Tessa (:Right. And so then, and the brain, the intellect loves to have structure. So we can over structuralize, we can implement all these goal planning things for example, or, you know, an endless to-do list because that's a structure, but that's an endless one. And so we need to have more, it's a structure and kind of a container.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:For the energetic of the feminine to be able to be in it and to pause.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:Sometimes one of the ways I think about it also as like discipline, right?
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:We need the discipline of the structure and we need to show up for it.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:But we don't, but we need to access our greater wisdom, which is the feminine.
Mia (:Yes.
Tessa (:Right. To make the choices.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:For us. Well, I love this process that you have. So here's what I just wanna reflect back cuz I think this is really important. One of the things that Mia was just saying is when she's listening to her intuition, she's listening to make choices for herself. And so she lets herself become a little more dreamy. Right? So whatever that means to you. And then she intentionally brings in the future version of herself, right? Would you say that you're like thinking who I wanna be?
Mia (:Absolutely. Absolutely. I, I'm really thinking about becoming versus what I need to do, right? It's like, who am I really becoming? Who do I wanna become?
Tessa (:Who am I becoming? Yes. That makes so much sense. So it's not about doing, it's about being and becoming. And when you connect to that who you wanna become, it's like the magnet and the future that the rest of you pushes forward to or moves forward to. We're not really pushing, but you're connecting to that greater version of yourself. Because that is your future magnet. You're anchoring to it. And so therefore you must make better choices to get there. And so it all works together beautifully.
Mia (:Yeah, absolutely.
Tessa (:I love it. Now do you ever get in any problems, like you find yourself not able to do that, or it's challenging to do it, like if you're tired or you kind of off course.
Mia (:Yeah, I mean, and I feel like that's the thing. I mean, we're gonna get off course, but we always have the ability to tap back in. We always have the ability to pause. We always have the ability to come back to ourselves. So it's just the remembering to do that instead of to panic, freak out, get stuck. Like I find a lot of women just get stuck. Yeah. And then it's like this feeling of like, oh my gosh, how did a week pass? How did a month pass? You know? And it's just because we're stuck in a loop somewhere we haven't take interrupted ourselves with that pause to just, you know, take the step out. And so, I mean, absolutely I still get stuck, but I just feel like quicker I, I remember to like pause and ask myself the universe questions.
Tessa (:Wonderful. So this has really become a very integrated part of your life. Yes. And I know that, um, as a coach, you've also developed something I think what, what were you calling it? The planning home or something?
Mia (:Yeah, so we have a method called the flow planning method, which was just planning flow, planning method. And flow stands for food and wellness is the f, l is lifestyle. O is o and W is work. And I just find that we live these siloed lives where all these things exist separate, but our lives are too full for them to live separate. Cuz that leave, there's so many dependencies. And so I love really thinking about all of them and especially that own piece really how we can be supported by, by spirit and soul to follow through on the things that we want, want the most or, um, or are called into doing the most. And one of the things that I also believe about women is that we really operate best in a village and our world is not set up that way.
(:And so, you know, if we're in this, like we're, it's almost like we're flip flopping the model. Like the world wants us to like take from Instagram, take from Facebook, take from magazine, you know, take from media. And like that becomes our to-do list. But that's like a hundred and million people's to-do list. And that's one of the reasons I think it becomes so overwhelming is it's not ours. It's not the one that came from our, you know, highest power. And so, and then we go off and we do it all alone because we're exhausted from all the people and all the opinions over here. Especially for an introvert, right? Yeah. And so if we flip it and we let ourselves be res like choose from a restored place, meaning, you know, and I think this it's funny, I'm like, I'm assuming this is true for everybody.
(:I really definitely know. It's true as an introvert
Yes, yes. It can be very lonely. And also then that's where the negative voices start to come in. Yeah. Because it then, then those old patterns of like feeling like we don't belong and all that stuff get triggered. So it is part, is what I'm hearing you say is that oh, it needs to be intentional also Yeah. To get the supportive village.
Mia (:Yeah, absolutely. And it's, I think it's easier to
Tessa (:Oh, so go ahead.
Mia (:Well I just think it's easier to do that once you've started off intentionally because then sort of those people sort of start to magnetize you just like that yoga teacher, right? Like I couldn't have made that up in my head that I would go introduce myself to this yoga teacher. Like I wouldn't have done it in my head, but like I was very called forward to just go do that. And so it didn't feel hard.
Tessa (:And I would say you were probably very open also. You were called to it and you knew you were in that I'm gonna do this kind of mode and the synchronicity started showing up and you just kept saying yes. Yeah.
Mia (:And I was ready to receive. Yes, for sure.
Tessa (:Yes, you were. Well this has been amazing. Yeah. I would, would do you have one last tip or piece of guidance? So,
Mia (:So I love thinking of planning as a gift from your past self for your future self so that you can actually be in the now. So I'll just leave you with that. You can ponder it.
Yeah. I like it. Definitely gonna highlight that in the show notes. All right. Thank you. That'll give, give my ladies some things to think about. And Mia, um, where can people reach you?
Mia (:Yeah, so, at our website plan simple.com is probably the best way cause I love sort of being an email contact. Um, I always ask for feedback and stuff. So I think that's where I am the most. So if you go to plan simple.com, you'll see that there's a way to get into our course from overwhelmed to Ease, which is free. So you could join us in that. We also always have workshops, so that's all up there. And inst, I'm on Instagram plan simple.co.
Tessa (:Fantastic. Yeah, I know that some of my people are gonna wanna find you and hang out a little bit cause you are brilliant and I love Thank you all your insights. And I love just kind of your fresh take on how you're working with the pause.
Mia (:Yeah.
Tessa (:Interrupting the things that aren't supporting you so you can hear the call of your soul to hear your higher power and say yes to your heart and yes to your soul. Thank you so much for being here today, Mia.
Mia (:Thank you so much for having me. Mm-hmm.
All right. Thank you for thanks listening. Thanks. And we, I wish you all an amazing day filled with rainbow light throughout your heart and plenty of kindness. Bye-bye for now.