In this episode: Discover why recognizing you need change and actually making that leap are two different things, and the framework to build the bridge between them, with executive coach Briana Mascaro.

Briana Mascaro spent over a decade building a successful corporate career at a Fortune 100 company—loved the job, loved the people. But then a year-long psychology course, a colleague's sudden death, and her daughter's simple observation converged into a wake-up call she couldn't ignore. In this conversation, Briana walks you through the intentional, unglamorous work of preparing to change: the financial decisions that gave her freedom, the identity shifts she navigated, and the Release-Replace-Reinforce framework she now uses with her coaching clients.

Whether you're standing at the edge of a big change or already in the messy middle of one, this is a conversation about processing and navigating change in a ground way (not an-overly romanticized way.)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Knowing you need to change and deciding to change are two different things. This episode talks about how to know it's time to chance, prepare for the change, and actually make the change.
• Listen for quiet alarms that you're out of alignment: Sunday scaries, numbness, losing patience with loved ones.
• Financial clarity will make the change less scary. Prepare by being honest about your numbers, and building a savings runway.
• When you change your life, you're releasing the old identity, replacing it with a new one, and reinforcing daily. Some people around you won't be willing to growth with you.
• Bravery is intentional and accountable, not impulsive. Set goals, build infrastructure, and hold yourself to the plan

"Knowing and deciding are two really different things. And that's where building that bridge is so critical." — Briana Mascaro

CONNECT WITH BRIANA

• Sophos Website https://teamsophos.com/
• On Linkedin
• On Instagram

Connect with Teresa

• Join the Becoming Obsessed Playground, the weekly email for curiosity-led women building a life they love.
• Instagram: @becomingobsessedpod and @teresaajean
• Leave a review on Apple or Spotify Podcasts. Reviews are the biggest thank-you, and reviews help ambitious women find the show.
• Website: teresaajean.com

Topics: career change, personal development, saying no, work-life balance, coaching, happiness, self-discovery, overcoming fear, building confidence, entrepreneurship, mindset shifts, prioritizing self-care, professional growth, navigating transitions, emotional intelligence, creating boundaries, self-reflection, goal setting, financial planning, personal growth strategies, career pivots for ambitious women, quiet alarms and early warning signs, decision-making, leaving corporate, the messy middle, personal growth podcast for ambitious women, building a life you love

Mentioned in this episode:

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Foreign.

I gotta know what I'm no longer available for and what I'm going to start to be comfortable saying no to.

And it could be no to family, it could be no to the corporate side and really starting to prioritize what you want to replace that with.

We're building new habits, new skills, new relationships.

When we do that, sometimes we lose people.

In those moments, it's incredibly hard because you think you're doing something wrong.

Now I see clients going through this.

They're changing for the better.

And their life no longer has room for people who bring them down or envious of the fact that they're willing to take the leap.

Welcome to becoming obsessed, where curiosity leads you to a life you love.

I'm Teresa Stasny, and after over a decade of traveling the world, working with small business owners and creating a couple businesses of my own, I know a thing or two about playing by your own rules.

It's not always easy and it's often messy.

It can be hard, especially, especially if you're doing it alone.

I've seen way too many incredible women shoot for the stars only to burn out along the way.

Or worse, live on default and never chase their dreams.

We're done with all of that.

Together we're gonna challenge what keeps us stuck and figure out what it takes to live a life we truly love.

Have you ever been standing at the edge of a big decision and you don't know what to do?

Or maybe you do feel what the right answer is, but it is so hard to just make that leap because that moment and that feeling and what's on the before and after is what we're gonna talk about today.

And I am so excited to have an incredible guest who is an expert knowing what it's like to be at that moment standing at the edge, needing to make a decision but not knowing what comes next.

And now she helps other people navigate that as well.

I'm so excited to introduce today's guest after a career defining wake up call.

Briana Mascara founded Sophos to help successful but stuck professionals recognize when success stops feeling like enough.

She's a people strategist, executive coach, wife and mom.

And I love this.

The slightly outnumbered but fully devoted human to four Yorkies named Loki, Thor, Minnie and Daisy.

Who?

Brianna.

Welcome to becoming obsessed.

Thank you for having me.

I'm honored to be here.

Now I want to go to this what you say, career defining wake up call.

Like, take me back to that time and walk me through a little bit of your journey of how you ended up here as a coach.

Yeah, big three moments kind of came together for me and I think it's relevant to call out three because so many of us will have these little gifts given to us and we don't see the first two that hit us in the face.

It's kind of the culmination.

And it was all within a about two and a half, three weeks of each other.

I had in the midst of corporate crazy hours.

One of my really good friends said, you need to take this class on applied positive psychology.

And I looked at her, I said, I don't have time for a class.

Like, are you kidding me?

I'm working 60 hours a week, I'm traveling.

She said, please, do you trust me?

Take this class.

And I trust her.

So I took this class.

So it's a full year class, like a spring and fall semester.

And it was about the science of happiness.

And that sounds kind of quirky, but it opened up my eyes and my heart and my body to really understanding what is the science of happiness and how our brains work.

And in one of the modules we had to write our eulogy, which sounds like a very morbid exercise, but it was incredibly eye opening.

And I wrote it and I was super proud and jazzed.

And it was all about my career.

It was how I was a super young executive, a lawyer, and negotiating contracts and traveling and these big titles and raises.

And I completely left out that I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a daughter, I'm a friend and a fur mama.

And it just like this sickening feeling just sort of washed over me.

How could none of that be anything that comes to mind?

So that was the first big moment, the second moment.

Within a week, a colleague of mine, we walked out every Thursday together.

Work from home Fridays, so we walked out every Thursday and we were joking around.

He was a little bit older than me, but not that much older than me.

And he didn't come back on Monday morning.

He actually passed away from a massive heart attack that weekend.

And he had a 13 year old daughter.

He had his retirement retirement date on the calendar.

And I remember him joking around with me like, hey kid, I'm not going to be at that next project because I'm going to be at that retirement.

And now he wasn't going to.

And I remember my boss called me that Sunday morning.

It just shook me to its core.

And it was such an aha.

Moment of tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.

And so here my eulogy talks about all of the success.

My colleague who had achieved similar success is now gone.

And then we go leave for spring break.

Type A high achiever.

I've got every detail mapped out of this spring break.

We're in London, my daughter's eight and we are ready to head out.

But I'm juggling time zones and emails.

My laptop's open, catching up on stuff.

And I remember she just put her hand on my arm and she said, mama, you're not where you're supposed to be.

A little sassy.

If you know my kid, she's a little sassy.

I mean, I still sort of, like, get that feeling.

And it gets me kind of emotional.

And I just looked at my husband and he knew the tears were coming.

He kind of had that panicked look.

And it was just such a moment of, I'm not even enjoying this trip with her.

And so those three.

And it still took years for me to leave corporate after that.

And knowing and deciding are two really different things.

And I think that's where building that bridge is so critical.

But those were the critical moments for me, Theresa, where it just, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I appreciate you so much sharing that with me because that story right there is in so many ways why I started becoming obsessed.

Can we just help each other get there sooner?

Can we just help each other not have that wake up call?

And to some extent, like, we're all going to have some wake up call someday, but how do we talk about those moments more so that we're learning from them and learning from each other again so that we don't have to wait 30 years and then realize we actually will never get to our retirement that we've been waiting for our whole life.

And I actually liked my job and I like the people I work with.

I actually enjoyed the work and I loved the atmosphere.

It was just this.

I was changing.

I still kind of can't believe I laugh, to be honest.

Like, it's still a little bizarre to me, but it's so the right thing.

I am very curious because you talked about your writing, the eulogy, and then you're like, okay, all of these accomplishments came to mind.

When was it that you realized that?

When was it when you, like, read it?

Did somebody say to you, like, hey, this is all accomplishments?

Yeah, so cranking out the homework in my spare time.

And then we get to the class that week and then you go to share it and everyone's sort of watching you and I'm listening to everybody else's eulogy and I just looked down at my notebook and I looked back up first.

I freaked out.

Sound like I failed the assignment.

The high achiever.

Right.

And I didn't fail the assignment.

The assignment was a huge success because it stopped me in my tracks.

But it was in that moment when I realized I'm in this class about happiness, and this is what I'm talking about.

Did you read what you had wrote word for word after that, or did you edit.

Edit it in real time?

By the time we were at this point in the class, we were all pretty comfortable with each other.

And I think they had already stereotyped me as the type, a corporate Persona, so they knew what they were going to get.

But I did acknowledge it real time.

And I said, I'm going to read you what I wrote, but I'm having some very deep realizations.

And so they all had them with me.

Oh, that's beautiful.

It's like when you can do that together, even in a classroom setting, that's really powerful.

So those were some of your kind of like, signals or alarms or, like you said, these three big moments.

And I know you talk about kind of the quiet alarms that help to signal that you're out of alignment.

What are some of those that people can start to look for in themselves or even ones that you've seen in your own life or with your clients?

Yeah, I would say with my coaching clients, you've got the Sunday scaries, and then you've got the Sunday terrifying.

There's a little bit of a difference between I got to prepare my lunch for tomorrow or get the laundry started versus a visceral, I don't want to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

And again, grateful I didn't have those signals.

But so many of my clients, it really stops them because they've invested so much in this career.

And now it goes to the identity conversation of that's my identity, and now I'm sort of rejecting it.

So a very deep Sunday scary kind of moment is one of them, I would say a calendar full of checkboxes that you just coast like you're just moving through them.

You're not really present for them.

It's okay.

Moving to the next thing.

Almost like apathetic about it.

Yeah, Just very.

And who wants to be meh about something you're doing every day?

We spend so many hours working in our lifetime that you might as well try to find some joy out of it.

But what you said about the Sunday scary is actually this week on Instagram, I posted on my Story.

And I said, you know what?

I. I was driving to a coffee shop on Monday, and in my head, I was like, I love Mondays.

And then I realized I hadn't thought that in months.

And I used to think that every single Monday.

And I was writing about, like, that is a signal for me that my work has been out of alignment for a little while now, and I am working on it.

But it is.

It's like this signal of, like, what is that actual, like, feeling?

Like, are you dreading it?

Or are you like, okay, great, let's get into the work.

Like, let's do this.

I enjoy my coworkers.

I enjoy my office verse.

Oh, my gosh, I can't do another day of this.

We don't always have to get to that moment before we realize we need to make a change.

You just sort of feel numb.

I would say the other really big, quiet alarm.

And maybe it's not so quiet.

You start snapping with people, snapping at people that you love and care about who are in your corner.

And that I did experience and, you know, losing my patience with the people who cared most about me, because God forbid, I'd never do that outside my house.

That would hurt the image.

But you're always safe to sort of let your hair down.

And I'm like, that's not really the hair down.

I want to be remembered for either.

And so really having to find my patience again.

But that's definitely a quiet alarm when you start beating up on people you love.

That's a great pause moment.

You mentioned that you had these kind of moments of realization, and then it's still, the deciding and the doing are not always the same.

Will you walk me through that in your story and kind of how you prepared to make the decision?

And when you finally acted on the.

Decision, a couple of things happened.

I fell into the passion project of coaching.

So throughout this applied positive psychology class, I was introduced to coaching in a very formal sense.

I had always been mentoring people and coaching people informally as a leader for over a decade at that point.

But then I actually started taking on clients more of like a pro bono.

And my husband said, you know, you come out of these really jazzed and energized.

You should hang a shingle, so to speak.

And I started doing that.

And then I went through the certification piece.

I was almost inadvertently building a side business unintentionally as a passion project.

Truly how I was finding the time, my capacity grew because my brain started looking at time so differently because I was changing as a Human.

It didn't feel like extra work on top of a 10 hour day.

It really didn't.

It felt like almost like an escape.

And I was coming out refreshed and energized.

So that was sort of happening.

And then a few months go by and I go, wait, I'm actually saving money from this.

And it goes back to your question of what took so long.

Huge issues with scarcity, mindset and lack of abundance.

And I have always been financially independent in my marriage and my relationship, and I've always had my own money come in.

We've never had a marriage where I've asked permission to buy a pair of shoes or something that I wanted.

I just did it.

It's this freedom that I've been blessed, that I've earned.

And so I went, oh my gosh, what if I lose that?

Is my husband going to feel different about our relationship?

Am I going to feel different about me?

So then it was really making me a totally different identity.

Forget the corporate one.

Now I have me as a woman in my household, role modeling for my daughter because I always want her to have her own financial security.

And so I went, okay.

I get paid really well at my corporate job and the coaching stuff's great, but it's not the same.

So I made very intentional money decisions for a year.

Very intentional.

And change my spending practices.

And what an awakening that was.

Man, I wish I had done that five to seven years ago.

I'd have a huge pot at the other side of this rainbow.

And I said, what's the amount of money I'm going to need to feel safe for over six months?

If no money came in, what would I feel really good about having for six months?

I exceeded that goal in savings.

And so once I exceeded that goal, I went, well, now I don't have that to hold me back.

So there were a series of things that I was doing to sort of prepare me for that leap.

I really wanted it to also be the right time for my corporate family.

We were going through a lot of pretty big transition.

I had a senior leader who left the company after 50 plus years.

I mean, she's a legacy and I learned so much from her.

But she left the company last year and another one of my fantastic mentor leaders stepped into her role.

So with that change, I didn't want to be another disruptive changed.

And so I really wanted to give her the courtesy of the Runway to get her footing under her in this role because I love working with them so much.

And I didn't want to burn any bridges with the company I work for because I genuinely love working with them.

It's like such a big change, like when you work with a team for that long and like you said, you enjoy it.

And often we talk about, especially in becoming obsessed, I feel like for me there's these moments where it is just like so apparent that it's like, oh, it is time for a change.

And sometimes it takes a long time.

And I'm kind of in the process right now of a change that is going to be probably one of the longer periods of change I go through.

Usually it's like, okay, great, cut it.

Like with, you know, relationships, I'm like never talking to them again and I can just step into something new.

And right now I'm kind of sitting in this change where I am helping to replace myself.

I love that you share these milestones of, you know, it's not just quit my job, complete new career, or doesn't affect my family life at all.

It's like all of this is intertwined.

And I love talking about the human existence as this duality where nothing is just singular by itself.

But I especially love that you're sharing these identity shifts that you allow yourself time to go through.

I've seen you use the term before being brave without romanticizing the risk.

And to me it feels like that really is what you did in some ways, like going through the steps of allowing yourself to catch up with your new identity, I would almost say.

But how do you help or how do you view taking a big risk and being brave without just like romanticizing, oh, we'll just go shoot the wind.

Just go do it.

Yeah.

Well, you're talking to a pretty risk averse person.

And so to the external world, well, the people who really know me know that I've had a lot of experience speaking in front of large audiences.

So I come off very confident and I am confident when I know my stuff.

But this was really confidence shattering in a way.

And the thing before we get specifically into bravery, Theresa, is getting over the fear of judgment.

I really had to think about who I wanted to be when I walked out that door.

And I knew people were going to talk.

Like I said, former boss who worked for this company 50 years.

People don't leave this company when they're happy.

I was so afraid people were going to think I was unhappy with the job itself or the people and it would reflect poorly on me and those I was leaving behind and then just judge kind of who does she think really I was terrified of that.

And so I needed to build my own confidence over these years of, I can do this, I can earn money on my own, I can determine my own value.

And when I had to think about bravery of like, oh, Bri is making this courageous decision.

Bravery is not impulsive, it's intentional, and it's accountable.

And I very intentionally had to set goals and hold myself accountable to them in order to be able to build this bridge, to exit the way I wanted to.

Reducing, not eliminating, but reducing my fear of judgment from others so that I could feel really good about this new chapter.

And I feel great.

I can't imagine turning back now, having the freedom to determine what I do and how I do it, and now grow my coaching into an HR consulting practice as well.

I'm living the dream.

If somebody is listening right now and they're looking for those little ways that you started to talk about of building their confidence, of feeling so scared or like, maybe just being like, I need to make this change, but they're not there yet.

What are some of those little ways they can build their confidence in the direction of making the change that is calling to them?

I think the first thing they have to ask themselves is, what's in my control?

There's going to be a lot we can't control.

We can't control what people think about us.

We can't control certain external things, but there's a lot we can actually control within ourselves.

A lot of me is wrapped up in financial security, so quitting loud and just kind of like blowing the door behind.

I wouldn't advise that to anybody.

Unless they're in an incredibly toxic situation.

They should really be planning.

So look at your finances.

Do you actually know how much money you spend every month?

You think you know, but you don't actually know, and then saying, okay, well, what if I don't have any money coming in for X amount of months?

What do I need to save to do that without asking people for money?

I mean, maybe people are comfortable with that or taking loans out.

That's not something that I was willing to do.

So I had to really look at my finances first because I knew that was going to help me build the confidence.

The other thing, not everyone wants to leave their job.

They just want to change how they function within their job.

So what's within their control?

Is there any opportunity to look at their scope of work?

Can they talk to their manager or leader about their current scope and actually have an honest conversation?

Can they change teams?

Can they change Roles within the company that they currently work for.

Maybe there's a great opportunity right over the fence, but the one they're in just isn't a good fit.

And they don't have to leave.

If they're thriving in corporate, they don't have to leave.

They just might have to find a new home.

The power of negotiation.

Can they negotiate?

If it's about money, we all bring something unique.

So can they negotiate for a raise or negotiate for a different job scope, negotiate for a different benefit?

It's not always about the dollar.

It could be a perk.

It could be a work from home day.

Start a side hustle, find the passion project, get something going before you leave.

That's again, I couldn't echo the courage and confidence that that has given me and test something new out.

Test something new, be a little daring.

While you still have the security you mentioned.

Like, do you know what you're actually spending every month?

And so even if you're not thinking of leaving your job, one of my best friends is in tech sales and so she's experienced the layoffs multiple times.

And so it's like even when you might not know a change is coming, I think Bree, that's such solid advice to just get very clear on what are you spending.

And then like you said, you could have maybe like changed it years ago and been in a different position where you didn't have to then save it as you wanted to make the decision.

So love that advice right there Definitely can be tricky or hard and like the your financial state can be really tied to part of like your identity or your ego or just that scarcity mindset.

So just meeting with your money can help.

That's a Megan Hale, one of my guests that I've had on who I adore, Megan Hale.

She says to like meet with your money and I'm here for that.

I am all for buying the really bougie coffee maker and you will make that money back in well less than a year.

And I love going to cute cafes, but man, those $10 cappuccinos catch up to you.

They we're going to switch gears a little bit here because as somebody who has been so successful in corporate for so long and now like you said, you are turning coaching into HR consulting.

How is the business been going?

Like, how is becoming a business owner going?

I think you mentioned that your husband is very entrepreneurial, so it's not necessarily something that you're not familiar with.

Is it your first time, like, starting a business?

Like, walk me through the landscape on that.

I mean, besides for the lemonade stands growing up, I would say this is my first legit operation.

And that was one of the things before I left corporate.

I said, what are the things I need to have in place?

The infrastructure, getting the legal documents, getting the bank account set up, QuickBooks, you know, how you're going to figure out taxes.

And those were things I've quickly realized.

I'm so grateful to ask my husband for advice.

He's a math genius.

I am not.

I'm the people side of this relationship.

So we have our strengths and we leverage them.

And he said, these are the things you have to have up and running before I would ever even think about taking the leap.

But he has so much business experience.

His business is up and running for over 10 years.

So I really worked hard on the infrastructure side.

And even though that bank account took a really long time to get those first few numbers in there, now I see it growing.

Is it going well?

It's going really well.

It's exceeding my expectations.

But this was so intentional, Teresa, because I knew, okay, if I'm leaving at this time and the type of clients that I want to serve and the price point and the value and the investment I'm going to be seeking from them.

These are not folks I'm just going to quick hit, fine.

These are clients that I have to nurture.

And I have noticed that it is taking me anywhere from three, three weeks to three months to nurture a client before they sign on.

So I was nurturing clients six to eight months before I started really picking that end date with corporate because I knew I wanted to have folks on the bench and coming onto the bench once I left, because if I left with nobody on my bench, I would have freaked out.

I would have had a complete meltdown.

And so I worked very hard at building that little bit of book of business.

And it is absolutely the peaks and valleys.

And so I'm so grateful I had a few really consistent things in the hopper and I could only really focus on the coaching side of that while still in corporate without acting in conflict now that I'm outside and I can really grow the consulting side of this.

This has been the really fun part of now, getting to learn to market a different value offer, getting to talk about different areas of expertise that I have.

It's a totally different way of working with.

With clients.

I don't want to take on tons of clients.

I want to take on few really great ones.

And I want to be choosy.

And that goes back to saving the money to have the Runway to choose.

Now, who do I want to have in my client?

I want it to be of my choosing.

I want to help small businesses grow and be successful and minimize people risk and business owners.

You know, I even think about the challenges my husband went through growing his business.

They're not trained on how to handle the people problems, but I'm really good at that.

So I get so excited and geeked out to now talk to potential clients about that.

And I've been bringing a few on and I'm just so grateful.

I feel so blessed how it's all falling into place.

But it's falling into place because I started this mental mindset months ago of how I was going to approach this consulting side months ago, practicing, rehearsing, talking about it, making sure I can articulate it in the confident, thoughtful way.

So, yeah, long answer is, yes, it's going home.

I love that because it is what you're saying of building the safety net so that you can be choosy and you're not living or working from a scarcity mindset, Especially when you're like, I know I operate and like, maybe my default has been a scarcity mindset.

So how do I intentionally set this up so that I can feel confident making this decision and moving forward and starting a business?

I've been talking to my marketing girls lately.

I have a marketing collaborative with two other women and we've been talking a lot about how working with clients who are desperate for money is really difficult.

Because that's the energy you put out.

And one of my friends has a client who is putting out that energy and she is helping them with meta ads.

And it's like it's out of alignment.

It's out of balance.

And so working with that client is near impossible.

And then it does drag you down.

And luckily she's at a place now and we're kind of talking about how she's not reliant on that client.

And so it's like now that she knows that this is not a good fit, like, she can end that relationship, whereas a couple years ago, maybe it wouldn't have been.

You know, she couldn't have done that without really feeling the tightness of that decision.

And I'm sure there's still going to be moments where I'm going to take on a client because I feel like the timing is right or there's a need that month or whatever it is.

But it's still, I guess, having the wherewithal of knowing this is just temporary.

And that's okay, and setting it up so that you can know when you're in.

Okay, maybe this isn't ideal, but let's do it.

We're going to roll with it.

That's right.

You have mentioned before also kind of having this framework for navigating the messy middle.

And so I would love to also, like, when people are in this messy middle, how do you help them get out?

Like with your clients, how are you helping them navigate that?

Yeah, this is so hard.

It's so individual, depending on where folks are at.

And the first thing I had to do was really decide, what am I no longer available for saying no.

People pleasing.

You know, I coach former versions of myself, sometimes current versions of myself.

I think that's where we find our clients and we say yes.

And then the cost of the yes and then the yes is that follow.

And it's like, okay, that messy middle and how to get out of that or even tolerate it of like, I got to know what I'm no longer available for and what I'm going to start to be comfortable saying no to.

And it could be no to family, it could be no to the corporate side, whatever that is.

And really starting to prioritize what you want to replace that with.

So kind of releasing.

We're in a form of release.

And then what do we want to replace that with?

We're building new habits, new skills, new relationships.

And when we do that, sometimes we lose people on that journey.

And in those moments, it's incredibly hard because you think you're doing something wrong.

Why is that person no longer talking to me?

Why don't they get it?

And what I realized, and now I see clients going through this, they're changing for the better, and their life no longer has room for people who bring them down or maybe are jealous or envious of the fact that they're willing to take the leap.

And it's so hard, so hard to let go of that.

But that's part of this release or shedding of the former life.

And you know what?

Maybe they'll catch back up to you one day when they realize, man, they could have really ride your coattails of the change.

And Change with you.

But some people are just not going to do that.

It could be your parents, it could be your best friend, and that's really earth shattering.

I'm so grateful that I really can't think of anyone in my village who hasn't jumped on the bandwagon with me.

I mean, some took a little longer.

My parents are very traditionalist, but they see.

They see now and they totally get it.

But that I think is the second big thing of, like, when you release and now you're replacing, then you got to reinforce it.

So what's that?

Daily proof that you're now stepping into this new life, this small action.

Okay, I'm gonna work out.

Well, I will tell you, Teresa, in my new life, I thought I was gonna work out every day.

I thought I was gonna go for walks in the afternoon.

It's like, oh, shoot, I'm falling into old habits.

It's like a different job, but it's the same person.

And that was.

Was the first wake up now post corporate of like, okay, I now have to rebuild habits, and I can't blame anybody else anymore.

The three R's I've kind of developed with my clients is first of, what do we have to release?

What do we need to start replacing it with?

And then how do we reinforce?

So that's my framework.

I love that.

It's so funny what you're saying too, of like, yeah, when you're your own boss, like, you can't blame anybody else.

It's a blessing and a curse.

But when my life is messy and chaotic, like, I have no one else I can blame for that's right.

Than me.

Well, with that, I have a few last questions for you.

I want to know what you are obsessed with.

And something that I love so much is play.

And those moments of like, how do we slow down, take care of ourselves, get creative?

So when it comes to playing and creating and finding joy or sparking joy in your life outside of work, what are you obsessed with?

Yeah.

So I am now in my 40s.

I know you recently entered your 30s, so congratulations.

The 30s are a blur, but you will love them.

40S are already showing up very differently.

And with that really is a new lease on health.

And I had the privilege of going to a local health conference a couple months ago.

And it was so inspiring to have a full panel of women doctors talk about how we really, as women, need to be the CEO of our own health.

And so I really have been prioritizing my health, health in a very different way.

In this new space, this new life of mine, I have been more intentional to make time for exercise.

It's not super programmatic.

Sometimes it is a walk with the dog.

Sometimes, yes, I'm in perimenopause.

I have a weighted vest now I'm that person.

And the other thing I learned of like all these tests that medically we're told we need to wait for our 50s, maybe even 60s to get.

And I got the, I went and got them all within the last six months to really understand kind of how could I take advantage of my 40s?

And I'm so grateful I did because I learned some things that were a little scary.

And so I now can make really intentional choices around not just shooting in the dark on supplements or exercises, but really spend the next decade being quite intentional.

So I'm really obsessed with learning more about that.

I'm not a doctor, so please, whoever's listening, talk to your doctor about this.

But I had always thought just about muscle and the bodybuilders and stuff.

And with all this research I've been doing this health conference, creatine, there are studies now that relate it to Alzheimer and dementia in women.

There's data and research shown that it impacts women and if we start taking it earlier in life it can reduce our risk of those things.

And so I'm kind of obsessed with that.

But outside of my health, my daughter and my husband have two very time intensive hobbies.

So I'm obsessed with being there for them.

My daughter is an aerialist, so she does silks and hammock, so very like circus Soleil type of performance.

She won gold for both of her solo performances.

And so now I'm a competition mom.

We go to competitions.

Well, congratulations to her.

And I know that you have to put in the hours as a parent to get a child to that point.

So congratulations to both of you.

That's amazing.

She arnotted, she's so much fun.

She's 10, turning 11.

She's very sassy.

I don't know where she gets it from.

My husband on the other hand, you know, he's very busy with his business, but he now races cars.

He's done Ferrari challenge for the last two years and now he's graduating to GT3.

So it's another type of race, more endurance racing, still in Ferrari.

So I'm a track wife, which is a very bizarre scene for me.

It's not always comfortable, it's a little weird, but.

But I love it.

It's a lot of fun and being on the headset with my daughter and we're cheering him on.

And it's a very different vibe.

It's relatively new for us only a few years in.

And so it makes this new chapter, this new book really of my life so much better because I can take it on the road with us.

I'm not stuck.

And that was really one of the big AHAs of 1.

My daughter picked up this hobby and now it's really making her so happy.

And my husband, I was so torn where to be, how to do this.

And now I can really zhuzh, very technical, zhuzh, all of it, and really make it work for me, for them, be more present.

And so I'm obsessed with learning more about women's health and my health.

I'm obsessed with being there for my daughter and husband at their very time consuming hobbies.

And then of course, my fur babies.

I'm a Yorkie mom.

We have four right now.

Why?

We have four.

We're crazy, that's why.

And they're all Disney characters because that's what we do in our house.

House.

And I love them.

I mean, I have to say Loki, one of my favorite shows to come out of Disney.

So I'm here for that name.

And their personalities totally line up.

Really?

That's amazing.

Totally.

One last question.

When it comes to learning and kind of the education space of helping to navigate becoming a business owner and kind of going on this new journey, is there any, maybe it's just the psychology of Happiness course that you took or is there anyone that you're really following learning from any resources that you're obsessed with?

Right now I am watching anything and anything about AI I'm trying to really understand as a one woman show, I don't yet have marketing support and funnel.

Like I don't have all of those things yet before I just hand them off to someone or something.

I want to learn about what I actually want, what I actually need.

And I know AI can help me do that.

And I don't want to be left behind.

So I am learning how to write prompts.

I'm learning chat, I'm learning Claude.

And so any online training classes on LinkedIn or any platform is paid unpaid.

I'm really investing a lot in that space.

And the things I have learned in just the last year alone is explosive.

I'm so grateful for it.

I don't think I'd be able to pull off most of the stuff without any its support and help, even just to brainstorm.

But then also, in hindsight I wish I would have taken more finance classes.

And I was really afraid whether that was in undergrad or grad or even like a local college class or an online class of just the basics.

And yes, I can have ChatGPT tell me how to do things, but there's a difference.

I think there's a difference in a learning environment and in hindsight.

So if any of you are listening or still picking comments classes or maybe going through an MBA program or some type of graduate program and you don't have that really basic financial planning, financial skill set, in hindsight, I would have really added that on.

I will say I am so not even torn on AI.

I have a marketing agency where I do done for you email newsletters and one of my clients is a Data science and AI consulting firm.

So I think this is week 104 of writing an AI forward newsletter talking about what's going on, what to be conscious of the local, like, tech scene in Omaha, Nebraska, where I live.

So part of me is like, yes, hot tip, get off.

You know, OpenAI, because I despise that company.

But Claude and Claude's skills and projects have helped.

So much so that you're not like reiterating and it uses a little bit less power because it's like not free, going through everything all of the time.

And then personally, I'm so torn because I almost, I think I'm in it so deep in the AI space that I'm like, I would rather do less by myself than do more with AI because it's intensifying.

There's a study that, I think it was MIT researchers, they went into a tech company that was like 200 people and it was a very like, they adopted AI and they weren't being pushed on it, but they adopted it.

And the researchers did like 40 interviews and they found that a lot of people actually were working more hours because AI is intensifying the feelings that we can do more.

And we're not filling the space that it creates for us.

It's not creating that much space for some of us.

We could get into that too.

But it's interesting because we're filling the space it creates with more work and more feelings of we should do more.

And so as you're talking, I'm like, yes.

And I'm like.

And also like, it is this tug that we're kind of going through as a society right now.

Well, in the corporate environment that I worked in, it was the service sector, hospitality.

So there's an extent where technology and AI can only go so far.

And then you have to make a choice.

You either have a person or not do that particular test, especially in a guest customer facing environment.

And at Disney, it was all about the guests and the people interaction.

And so, you know, for a Fortune 100 company that was definitely learning how to embrace AI from that perspective, I found their approach really thoughtful.

As a solo on my own, I mean, it's saving my butt on a couple things for sure.

And the work smarter, but not harder.

I completely appreciate it, but I hear you on the consulting side of me where I bring my legal background and I'm assessing that people risk.

Yeah.

Could Claude or Gemini or Chat do it?

Sure, I'm sure it can.

But there are just subtle nuances to people challenges that I think can really get lost and create unspoken risk.

So I still have a huge gut check hesitancy towards it as well for certain spaces.

So what you're saying completely resonates.

I don't think we can replace us just yet.

And who would want to?

Even if we could, it'd be too boring.

There's this video that this like real estate influencer guy, I don't know who he is, but he has millions of followers and I've seen his video going around.

But he said that there was a $50 million deal he was working on where it almost fell apart, or it might have fell apart.

He didn't know where it was going to go yet.

Where both parties, the first party said, hey, chat, am I undercharging on this 50 million deal?

And the chat GPT was like, yes, you are.

And the other one was like, hey, am I being overcharged?

It's like, yeah, you are.

And so it really is.

It can help us so much.

And also nothing it gives is based on accuracy or meaning.

It's based on a algorithm of like predicting what comes next.

So everybody.

That's my AI disclaimer.

Yes.

We'll get off our soapbox now about AI.

Talk about one without the other.

Amazing.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Becoming Obsessed.

How can somebody get into your world?

Work with you, Just connect in general.

So the easiest way, I think is through LinkedIn.

You can find me at Brianna Mascaro.

My website is teamsofos.com I check them regularly.

You can just submit a form building the Instagram.

So looking forward to that.

It's a little bit more personal for me, but I'm definitely more of a LinkedIn gal and just so grateful, Teresa, for this conversation with you and you inviting me here and just excited with all the things that you're working on as well.

So thank you.

I have loved having you.

And for everyone who is still hanging out with us, go find us online.

You can DM me at Becoming Obsessed Celeste Pod on Instagram.

And then send this to a friend who could really use the little reminder or encouragement if they're in the messy middle trying to navigate it.

Maybe they just made a huge decision or they're weighing one.

Send this to them to help them along.

Then leave us a review and give us five stars because it helps get the word out as well.

And we are on a mission to help more people build a life they truly love.

Okay, y', all, let's go get obsessed.

You're still listening, which means this episode connected with you, and I want to know how.

Send me a DM on Instagram Becoming Obsessed Pod.

Then send this episode to a friend.

If you know someone who is building a life that they love or they're feeling a little stuck and might just need a nudge, send this to them.

Then rate and review, because it also helps us get the word out.

And as you know, we're on a mission for more people to live a life they truly love.

All right, let's go get Obsessed, Sam.