← Miracle Mentality with Tim Storey (Motivation, Self Help, and Mental Health)
Miracle Mentality with Tim Storey (Motivation, Self Help, and Mental Health)
Maha Abouelenein: How Your Storytelling Strategy Will Save or Sink Your Brand | Communication | E22
00:41:08
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- [00:00]
A
Hello, my name is Tim Storey. Welcome to Miracle Mentality.
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B
Remember, rooftops drawing spaceships on the ground.
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A
It's for the dreamers, the doers, the believers in something greater. In each episode, I'll invite you to rise above the mundane, to push past the messy and learn to live boldly in the miraculous. Every episode will have practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and my guests will explore what it takes to activate your miracle mindset. Remember to subscribe, follow and and life. Welcome to the Miracle Mentality. My name is Tim Story and this podcast, I like it. Could you imagine liking your own podcast? Well, guess what? I do. I'm getting such good feedback about this podcast because my idea is that there's three levels of living. Almost most and utmost. Almost means not quite, nearly barely. It almost happened. Most means you did good, but you hit a ceiling. Utmost means you went beyond. That's what I'm all about in life. So I have a guest today that you're going to really like. She is a personal friend, and when I saw her speak recently at a great conference with several thousand people, I literally wanted to rush the stage. She was that good. Everybody loved her. Her name is Maha Abu Ala Nain and she is a brilliant lady. So let me just tell you what I know about her. If you were to study what it says about her online. It says she's a strategic communicator, advisor, brand builder, storyteller. But, you guys, she's much more than that. She has a book that I have read two times. And I also, as you guys know, I life coach people that do very well in life. And eight of my coaching students are reading her book right now because I told them they needed to. 7 rules of self Reliance. Welcome to Miracle Mentality. Good to see you. Hi, Maha.
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B
Hi, Tim. Well, thank you for that introduction. I actually love the show. I love listening to the show. I'm so grateful to be here today. And thank you for reading my book not once but twice. And I'm so glad your students are reading it. If you want me to do a session with them, just to jam, I'd love to do that.
- [02:39]
A
Yes. Yes. So, you know, I have the best CEOs in the world. I work with the best sports teams in the world, greatest actors in the world. I literally have eight people going through your book, male and female. I've read your book twice. Because one of the things that I love about you, because we are actually friends, is that I think that you look at life from a different perspective. And as you know as well as me, Is that your mindset is yours to set. And somehow you have set your mind in this position of looking for the good in life, looking for the better in life, looking for the magical in life. I love the way you think.
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I think the general approach to my life that I think I want other people to think about and we think about how we live in society today is not putting an emphasis on transactions, putting an emphasis on relationships and doing that good. Because when you do that, everything else comes from it. And if you treat people right, you look for the right thing. You look to add the right value. You look to build a genuine relationship. You look for the good by not saying, okay, what's in it for me, for me to do this? I threw that out of my window a long time ago and decided I wasn't going to play by those rules. Because when I saw people doing it, I was like, that's not how I'm going to take my path to success. And it's not going to be by using other people or transactions for other people. It's by doing the right thing, because that's always the right thing. And then hope and pray that that's going to lead to good things and that it always, always did.
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A
Okay, so let's build first on you as a person, and then we get to your skill set. Then I want to get into how you started to master your skillset, to become this person that we now know who you are. Okay, so your background, it says, as an Egyptian American, what does that mean to me?
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So I am born and raised in Minnesota to two Egyptian parents. I lived in Minnesota in a very small town, grew up in Minnesota, went to kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college, Minnesota. And When I was 27, my parents, who came here to go to school, ended up spending about 40 years here, decided they were gonna go back to Egypt. And I was 27 years old. My mom had multiple sclerosis, and I was taking care of her. And so when they said, we're moving back to Egypt, I went with them. And I was kind of a caretaker. And so I had a great job at General Mills. I was single, living in the Twin Cities. I wasn't living at home with my parents. And at 27, I moved to Cairo. No friends, no network, don't speak the language, had only been to Egypt on vacation. And I need to find a job. And actually, guess what? I'm going to move back in with my parents because I'm taking care of my mother. All of this at 27. So I went back into living with them, taking care of my mom, and having to build my whole life over at 27 in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language.
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A
Okay, that's pretty intense.
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It was.
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A
So as an Egyptian, you were born in America?
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B
Yes, I'm Egyptian by the nature that both of my parents are Egyptian, but I'm born, raised in the U.S. okay.
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So question to you. How come you don't say Minnesota? Like, all my friends who are from Minnesota say Minnesota.
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Actually, a lot of people say I have a Minnesota accent. Like, when I say YouTube, they're like, oh, there it is. That she's got that Minnesota. I don't think I say YouTube. Funny. But everyone says there's specific words that I say that sound like the movie Fargo and, like, hot dish and all that kind of stuff.
- [06:34]
A
Okay, I find this very, very interesting. So I'm going to ask this question. So I'm Spanish and Cuban black. My mother has the Spanish side. My father Cuban black. Afro Cuban. We were raised predominantly on Latin food because of my mother's side.
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Yes.
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So were you eating Egyptian food? And if so, what is Egyptian food? Please tell the audience.
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B
Inside the four walls of my house in this small town in Minnesota, it was Egypt. The food, the rules. My parents were speaking Arabic to each other, watching Arabic shows on satellite tv. They were listening to Arabic music at home. You open the door, you leave the house, you're in United States of America. But inside the house, it was all the culture and the rules. And my dad was a really extraordinary cook, and so he used to make all these Egyptian dishes. And it's red sauces with okra and lots of meats and lots of rice and beans. And that's what they made. Anything with, like, a red sauce. Meat with red sauce and vegetables over rice was like a traditional Egyptian meal. Cooking a lot with eggplant, cooking a lot of grape leaves. Like they have Egyptian food. So, yeah, my parents were preserving the culture as much as possible inside the four walls of our house. And a lot of times, me and my sister were trying to, like, educate them on American traditions like homecoming and cakewalks and high school parades and prom and all that kind of stuff. All the traditional stuff that you do in sports events and stuff like that. But, yeah, I mean, we grew up essentially. Our parents were trying to teach us Arabic, but we didn't really learn it formally. We had lessons and stuff like that, but it was more like, what can you pick up from listening to a song or a TV show? But so nothing formal.
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So the language is Arabic.
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Yes. And when I moved to Egypt, I didn't speak Arabic. I'm fluent now, but I lived there for such a long time, and then I picked it up. But it's very difficult. We write left to right. They write backwards. And so, yeah, it's a completely different language to learn and master and understand. Completely different.
- [08:43]
A
It's very similar to me being raised in a Spanish culture, but not being able to speak Spanish fluently. But I. I will tell you this, that even though I'm at this stage of life, not an age, but a stage, I am going to master my own language, Spanish, because I need to. But I have a question for you.
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Yes.
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Why do I walk through airports and Egyptian people come up to me at times and think that I'm Egyptian. Tell me why that is. I'll take my glasses off.
- [09:16]
B
You do look a little bit Egyptian, actually, now that I think about it. You do have that look. Yeah, for sure you do. That is actually a really good point, actually. It's so funny. Whenever I'm traveling, I can always spot the Egyptian in the airport. I don't know how or why, but you just kind of had this innate feeling where, you know, would I be.
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Considered a handsome Egyptian or not?
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You would be considered a handsome Egyptian. Yeah, for sure. I think the biggest thing when I was growing up in Minnesota, I have dark hair, I have dark skin, my name is different. I kind of stood out. Everyone in Minnesota was like, you're not from here. And then I would go to Egypt and everyone's like, oh, you're so American. The way you dress, the way you talk, your English accent, you're not Egyptian. So I was never accepted by either culture that I was part of that culture. So I always felt like an outsider trying to explain who I am. I'm like, no, no, no. I was born, raised here. I live here. I've never been to Egypt. And then I go to Egypt and they're like, wait, you are so American. There's nothing about the way you operate that makes you Egyptian. And I'm like, well, it's changed now. But when I first moved there, I stood out like a sore thumb, that's for sure.
- [10:19]
A
Okay, let's start out with the high, and then let's get into how the process was for you to get to where you are. So in this field that you're in, in leadership, teaching and leadership, working with companies like Google, all these other companies, you're playing in the 1%. So I told you in another conversation that I Just suggested you to one of our biggest companies that we have in America in the area of hair care, etc. To be someone that was teach them on leadership. Because you're phenomenal in my opinion. You're playing in the 1% in leadership, leadership coaching, development, etc. Now, when you were in high school, let's take MAHA 16, 17. What were you thinking of even becoming? Watch a model, a fashion designer, an architect. What were you thinking about?
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Actually I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be reporting live from Cairo. I wanted to be an international news correspondent. I loved storytelling. I loved the pulse of knowing what was happening in real time. I love the idea of broadcasting information to other people. Growing up, I wanted to be a journalist. I watched it on TV and I thought was fascinating. You can travel the world, you get front row seat at the stories, you work in real time communications, like it was something that just fascinated me to no end. And when I was in university, when I was in grad school, I signed up to be an intern at a local news station. And that's when I got the bug. That moment where something was coming in off the wire and. And the newsroom would have to figure out how to package it. How do we condense it into a short story to tell live on air and what pictures should we show and what does the script say and then we broadcast it to the world. That excited me. And that's when I knew I wanted to work in communications. My undergraduate degree is in international business and marketing and French. And I didn't have a degree in journalism. I didn't study that in school. But I like the idea of crafting a story, finding a narrative. And I didn't know because when I worked here at General Mills in the US Before I ended up moving to Cairo, I worked in sports marketing. I did a lot of promotions and sports promotions and I ended up moving to the Middle east and building this career of one of the top communications experts for Google, Netflix, Uber, the ruler of Dubai. Working in communications to help people find their narratives, tell their stories, build their reputations. And now today, Tim, it's one of the most important skills you can have is to know how to communicate. But two, given that we live in a real time world in 247 media and the advent of AI, how do you stand out? How do you show up? How do you articulate who you are? How do you get a competitive advantage if you want to sell a product or build your personal brand? How do you articulate what you stand for? If you want to get a promotion or get a customer or get an investor. It's actually what connects us. Stories are what connect us and what move us. And so we being good at telling stories and sharing your narrative, it's critical in today's day and age.
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A
Okay, so you've watched me speak before.
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B
Yes.
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Where I have learned on how to be a good communicator is not by watching other speakers, because I think that a lot of the speakers that we speak on platforms with, they're kind of just doing, like, the five steps of success. I learned from comedians going back to the 60s all the way to currently Caucasian, Asian, black comedians, because I think comedians are very good at pace. They're good at pace. So that's how I learned how to speak. How did you learn to understand more about storytelling? Give us one or two ways, a couple things.
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One example I gave you. When I was at Newsroom, I understood the importance of taking something big, making it simple for someone to understand, and then broadcasting it to the world. But I also was a big consumer of reading a lot of books. And I had a manager who told me, if you want to be good at writing or good at storytelling, you have to be a good reader. And she would force me to read the Economist. One of the biggest stories I can tell you about, how did I get good at storytelling is I consumed a lot of information. I started studying. I started, how are stories told? What are the things that they're putting in the headlines? What are the stories that people are sharing with other people?
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What are.
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What are the things that get on the front page of the newspaper or the beginning of the newscast? Cause it was back in that day that that's when I started learning about news. It's obviously very different now because now it's on a feed and it's real time, and there's a lot to cut through the clutter. But that's how I initially started, was I would analyze and consume and read a lot of stories. I also love to read a lot of books. I'm a very curious person, and so I want to consume a lot of books. I just did this post where I was like, I read, like, eight or nine books this summer. I want to be always learning and give myself insights from different people and information. Your news digest cannot be one source. You can learn from people. You can learn from podcasts, you can learn from YouTube videos. You can learn from books. Yes. Printed books in a digital age matter. That's how I learn about storytelling, is I continue to consume Content. And I continue to read and, and I continue to talk to people.
- [15:48]
A
I like that. So do me a favor. Tell me a moment, even in the last five years where you either spoke somewhere or you wrote for something or you were on Good Morning America or whatever, the moment was where you went to yourself behind the scenes, like, yes, that was good. That made me feel good. Give me a moment that maybe you would not usually share with someone else.
- [16:15]
B
Yeah. First of all, I feel it's important that you share gratitude every time you achieve something. So not every little thing or small thing would stand out, but I feel like it's just an overall presence of I'm grateful to be here. There's a saying that Billie Jean King outside the US Open on the Court that says pressures of privilege, like, if you're able to work and complain about things, then you're probably grateful that you have those opportunities. When I launched this book, when I did this book tour, I did the.
- [16:42]
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CBS Morning, I freak out because this book, like I said to you, because we're real friends, I know every part of that book. It just sits there. And you have to understand, I have a lot of friends. You know that, right? So they send me a lot of books. And my assistants would come in and they go, I'm going to take this book to storage. And I go, no, don't take that one to storage. I kept your book right there.
- [17:05]
B
That's so sweet. I'm so grateful. You know, when I did the book launch, I went on CBS Mornings with Gayle King and Nate Burleson, who both I know personally. So it was so rewarding to be on the show with them. But the funnest part about it was my family got to be there, right? My family got to join me and be on set. And that's. I was like, oh, this is so fun for all of us. For me to share a moment like that with them was really, really special. And in general, I love speaking on stages because I like to connect with audiences. It's a form of storytelling where you're doing one to many. And you know what it's like. You speak all the time. You're on bigger stages than me, but you get that feedback, you get that interest of what really moved the needle for them. How can I have impact beyond just the clients that can hire my company? That's my next stage of my life, is figuring out how can I help other people through a $15 book or $13 book or whatever the cost is, or a free workshop or online PDF there's so many people that care about building their personal brands and being good at communications. You don't have to be a CEO of a big company to do it. And I feel like the democratization of the Internet has allowed everyone to have access. And it's free. And everyone can build a brand or build a business or tell a story or get a customer for free, because the Internet is for free. And so I want everyone to be able to take advantage of that and learn those skills because it's empowering and it's powerful, and it makes you feel good that you're able to share your expertise with others.
- [18:34]
A
Thank you for watching the Miracle Mentality podcast. So many of my friends are texting me, DMing me, speaking to me, and saying, tim, thank you for these great guests that you're bringing on. So share it with somebody, a friend, a family member, a colleague. And then make sure and reach out to us at Tim Story official and let us know that you love what we're doing. Thank you for being a part of this movement. Before we get into your book, you raced through something that you're friends with. Gayle King. So am I. But also Burleson, who did the interview with you, too. He's quite smart and such a great dresser. Okay.
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B
Yeah, Nate's got good threads.
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I mean, he's a former NFL player. He's in great shape. He's very together. So I want to ask you something. How do you prepare for this kind of interview? Because this is very, very interesting. I was just talking to Oprah's executive producer 23 years yesterday. So a lot of people, when they get on these interviews, bless their heart, they do run on sentences, they talk too long. They don't realize that if they have four minutes, six minutes, or eight minutes, they better have like a one minute answer max. Okay, so how did you learn to prepare for that type of stage?
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B
So, first of all, it's a three to four minute segment, max. And they have three different anchors that have to each ask you a question. So there's not a lot of time. So if you think about it, three questions, you have three minutes and they have to ask a question. So their questions are at least 30 seconds long, and that means you get to have three 30 second answers. How do I prepare for that? This is what I do for a living, is I prepare clients for interviews. Think about what's the story you want them to walk away with or what's the one thing that they want to introduce you to the audience. How are you Going to tell your life story or what the book is about in 30 seconds. So you have to prepare. And I did the same thing. I prepared. I'm like, okay, if I only get one shot. Because they don't really tell you what the questions are going to be. They say, we're going to talk about these general topics, and then they naturally talk about what they feel they want to talk about. I don't even know the order who's going to ask me first. Which camera do I look on? You just look at that and you just go. And once you're in the studio and it's live, you're in the studio and it's live. And so here's the piece of advice I gave to myself that I give clients all the time. Keep it short, breathe and talk slow. Because what happens is you tend to do these run on sentences and just kind of mumble. So less is more. Keep it short, breathe. We tend to, like, just hold our breath and then you don't come off sounding like you normally do. And then talk slow. I really have to focus on slowing down my speed. And it might seem like I'm talking super slow mo because when you get nervous, you tend to speed up and go up and go high. So I gave myself those three tips. Keep it short, breathe, slow down.
- [21:45]
A
Okay, so MA strategic communicator.
- [21:49]
B
Yes.
- [21:50]
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Advisor, Brand builder, storyteller. In the midst of all this, let's stay on this side because I have a lot of people that could use you. How did you learn this idea of the art of communication? Where was that? In the midst of all these other studies that you were doing?
- [22:10]
B
The reason why I latched onto working in communications and helping people with their communications is I saw a lot of people doing it wrong. I'm like, you have a great story. Why aren't you sharing it? You have a powerful message. Why aren't you able to make it simple for people to understand? And a lot of times, a lot of the clients that I work with, I will DM a CEO and I'm like, listen, I love this video, but it would be greater if you did it like this. I got interested in how do I take people who are underdogs, who have great stories, who just aren't good at storytelling. And it's a skill just like anything else. You just need to learn it. And once you do, you can master it. Everybody's capable. Just you need to put a little bit of effort to learn these small tips and tricks of things you can do if you want to build your personal brand and monetize your expertise, do coaching or offer a workshop or sell a product. But people don't know who you are. They're not going to buy from you. So why don't you make a simple piece of content introducing yourself and pin it to your Instagram page so anyone who discovers you can learn who you are and what you're about and how did you get there? People follow people. People connect with people. So my appetite for wanting to help other people, including anyone listening to the show, learn how to be better at communicating, it's not because they want a promotion or they need to sell something. It's good for their reputation. If you have a LinkedIn page and it's not updated the way you want, that's your chance to have free real estate on the Internet of who you are and what you're about. You should make sure it's what you want people to see because you put it there. Not something that they Google and find that someone else put there. You have the right to do that and it's free. You should advocate for yourself because if you don't, put you at the top of your priority list, nobody else will.
- [23:57]
A
I like this. All right, so let's sell a bunch of books right now. And I'm not shopify, but I have a big following. 7 Rules of Self reliance. Break down this idea because I'm a wordsmith. Reliance. What do you mean by seven rules of self reliance?
- [24:16]
B
So when I put the term self in the book, a lot of people are like, oh, that's selfish. She's teaching us to rely on ourselves. We don't need anybody else. We can do everything ourselves. It's actually the opposite. This is a playbook, which is actually the opposite. How can you be the most powerful asset so that you can get all the things that you want to see in your life? So, for example, one of the rules about self reliance is I have to do a certain number of things before I reach my hand out to ask for help. I want you to rely on other people. I just want you to be your best self before doing it. I want you to be invested in yourself. I want you to have relationships. I want you to know how to create value for other people. I want you to stop selling yourself short. I want you to stop waiting for the things you want to see in your life. And one of the chapters of the book rule number three is don't be a waiter. So much of our life, we're waiting. We're waiting for permission from others. We're waiting because we fear failure. We're waiting because we don't want people to judge us. We're waiting till we lose 10 pounds or until we get more money in the bank account. And I'm telling you, stop waiting. Go from being a waiter because you think you deserve it and it'll come to you, to being a creator. What are the things you need to create in your life that you want to have?
- [25:33]
A
One of my favorite chapters, because I so agree with you that I think we constantly put things off for the various things that you just said. Wait till I lose 10 pounds. Wait till my son starts acting right. Wait till my husband starts acting right. Wait till I get married. No, I love this. Stop waiting. Start creating. There's something about creating your own current.
- [25:56]
B
Yes. I think that if you value that, you are the driver's seat of everything that you want to see in your life. A lot of people are like, well, Maha, I don't have the skills. Well, what do you need to do to get the skills so that a year from now you can do it, or if you don't have the experience? Well, how do you get that experience in that field and what do you need to do? Reverse engineering, what those steps are? I think the biggest thing that sticks people when they read this book is it's a confidence builder. A lot of it, we wait till we have confidence. I'm like, when you take action, you'll get the confidence.
- [26:29]
A
I love it. Okay, Maha, who is this book for? I don't think it's just for the entrepreneur. Who is it for?
- [26:36]
B
It's for anyone with ambition. My niece and nephew who are in their 20s, read it and it is a playbook for how they want to think about living their lives so that they can have invest in their futures. Is for my sister, who just retired from her Co. At 36 years at general Mills, who's a leader in transition, who now wants to learn how to build her own relationships and networks so she doesn't have to rely on anybody else to introduce her to people. She knows how to get that skill of building a relationship, nurturing a relationship. It's for employees and middle managers who want to know, what do I need to do to be a value creator? How can I be the most valuable person in someone else's life? At work, with my friends, my family, and then anyone who cares about their reputation. The biggest message of this book is that your reputation is your currency. It's the most valuable thing you own. What's its Worth, what's its value, and how do you make sure you're investing in it? If everyone woke up every day thinking about their reputations and how to build it and grow it, we would be in a different mindset right now because we would know the importance of how we treat other people.
- [27:42]
A
I have a great friend, Charlie Sheen. He is on a tour right now. They have a Netflix special. He has a new book out. I'm about to interview him on this podcast, but he's my buddy. I've known him for 32 years.
- [27:55]
B
That's amazing.
- [27:56]
A
Yeah. And he would say that I helped his life. Tell me if you believe it's possible to rebuild your reputation and then give me one step on how one can do it.
- [28:07]
B
First of all, you control your actions, and you can build your reputation by controlling your actions. So one of the ways you can do it is by first and foremost, protect your reputation online. So when people Google you, make sure you have stuff on your LinkedIn page, your Instagram page that you put there, because that's what people are going to see. LinkedIn has the highest traffic on the Internet, so make sure your page is good and solid. It's a good picture of you. It's what you want to say. So the number one way you can protect your reputation is by building a good digital presence for yourself, because a lot of people live online. The second thing you can do is your relationships. How do you treat people? Because your reputation comes from what people say about you when you're not in the room. Are you kind? Are you helpful? Are you thoughtful? Are you generous? Are you a go getter? Are you aloof? Are you difficult to work with? That is your reputation. So your relationships are your bread and butter of everyone out there. What I call Tim deposits in other people's trust bank. I walk through life trying to put deposits in as many people's lives as possible. I don't necessarily need to make a withdrawal, but if I need to, I want to know that I've made enough deposits where I can make that withdrawal and everyone's going to be happy to do it for me. Right? So the second way you build your reputation is by developing genuine relationships with people that you care about or people that you want to do business with or people that you're associated with.
- [29:35]
A
Okay. Because my podcast is called the Miracle Mentality, and I hope you like that title.
- [29:40]
B
I love it.
- [29:41]
A
Tell me about extraordinary, uncommon, not normal thinking on why that's important in Maha's life. Because I know you enough that, believe me, you think up here?
- [29:56]
B
Yeah. So I do this a lot in my life. I think about if I want to build a relationship with someone, I find extraordinary ways to create value for them, and I don't wait for them to ask me. And I give countless examples of the book so that you can figure out, okay, if I were to do what she's doing, how do I put into action? It's the chapter about being a value creator. What are you willing to do to create value for somebody? And it's not what I think is valuable, Tim. It's what I think you find valuable. So I might start with a simple question. How can I help? What is it that you care about? You care about doing business in the Middle East. You care about speaking. You care about books. You care about a specific industry or company. I think I need to invest in learning what do you care about? And then figuring out where I could pull that thread and add the most value. And one of the stories of the book. I met Gary Vee almost 10 years ago, and I really wanted to work with him. I was living in Dubai. I didn't want to do his PR. I really wanted to open VaynerMedia, his advertising agency office in the Middle east, because I had opened PR offices with Barbara Shandwick. I'm like, oh, I can open VaynerMedia, Gary's offices. I could be his representative in the Middle east and open his offices in Dubai. And so I went to him and I met him, and I had a great rapport with him. And he was like, I need to get to know you, because he doesn't know me. I'm some woman off the street. You know, we're just saying here, I'll open up a business for you in the Middle East. And so he wants to get to know me and see who I am and what I'm about and educate him on the region and why. Why does this matter and what's good for his business? Do you know that I worked for him for a year and a half for free before I even got a contract signed?
- [31:33]
A
Incredible.
- [31:35]
B
And now, 10 years later, he's one of my closest friends and clients and has been with my company for next year, it'll be 10 years. But I had to do that investment. I had to show him the value. I had to show him I cared. I had to show him my reputation was what he looked it up to see. I had to back it up with my actions. And I feel like if someone is willing to go to an extraordinary length and I'm not saying you have to do a year and a half, but it was me showing up, trying to be consistent, to show this is who I am, these are my intentions. And if I do this and I make all this ever for you and I'm working for free, and imagine when you hire me or my company, what level of service we want to give you. Because we really wanted to work with you and we showed it. So there's a bunch of examples in the book, but I think if you can learn how to create value for someone, they're going to want to keep you around in their lives because you are there to give value to them, to help their business grow or to be someone of material quality in their lives. And I always think about the closest people in my life, even my family or my friends. And how can I be a value creator for them so that you have a good reputation. They do want to work with you, they do want to refer you. And that matters in life.
- [32:47]
A
So here's how I look at this. I say, lucky Gary Vee, because with you, you're a star. So whether it's this guy, this lady, boom, bam, you're here. So fortunate for him that he saw your skill set and what you could add to what he is doing. Okay, I have two more questions for you today. One is what do you think is next for you? Because I teach this, I say some things in life, you decide some things you discover.
- [33:27]
B
Yes.
- [33:27]
A
And so what is next? Are you going to have your own talk show? You're going to be on Gayle King's show every Tuesday? Are you going to have three more New York Times bestselling books? Take your time with this answer. What is next for you? Because you know that the things that I said were next for me 15 years ago all happened.
- [33:51]
B
I know you have such good energy and incredible vision. Yeah, I like your advice. I mean, honestly, I listen to you because I like your advice and I believe in what you preach. What's next for me is so I have a consulting firm and when I came to sell the book, it was the first time I did something direct to consumer for like $15. And when I went to go sell it and talk to companies and speak on stages, a lot of people wanted to work with me, but I realized I didn't have anything to sell to them or that I could work with them on because you're not paying this big fees. So what I'm trying to do next is do stuff that's direct to consumer online courses, PDFs I am working on my next book, but I want to be able to coach every single person on how to build their personal brands. It's the one thing I think is game changer for everybody. We live in a trust economy. We live in a world where everyone has direct access to the Internet and to tell their own stories. I want everyone to be good at that. It's good for your reputation, it's good for your bank account, it's good for your relationships, it's good for your livelihood. And it's a skill that everybody needs, not just the CEOs of the world. And I started an online coaching program. You know, I have like a dog mom and a solo entrepreneur and a real estate agent and a shopkeep owner. That's who I want to help. That's the impact for me that's meaningful, is how can I do it for the non Gary vees of the world to help them get the same tools, access and learning. And so that's what I'm doing. Focusing on next.
- [35:20]
A
Okay, last question is going to surprise you. What do you like to do on your downtime right now? We're just coming out of summer and so many of my friends have been in Italy, they've been in France, they've been in Marbella, Spain, they've been in Dubai, They've been in all these places. What does it for you? Are you riding a bike in the Hamptons?
- [35:44]
B
I'm not that bougie. My downtime is three things. One, I'm on a tennis court. That's my happy place. I play a lot of tennis.
- [35:53]
A
Slow down, slow down. Because I'm a tennis player, too. So you've been playing a long time?
- [36:00]
B
A long time. Since high school. I was on the tennis team in high school.
- [36:04]
A
Okay, how much am I loving this? So was I. Okay, so you love tennis. Keep going.
- [36:10]
B
Second is my family. Any free time I have, I'm with my sister, her husband, the kids, the dog. So I'm like, all about my family and my friends. And then third, I like to read a lot of books. I'm absorbed in just having downtime. It's meditative, it's silent. I'm not on my phone. I'm reading. I'm focused on words. I'm learning, I'm feeding my curiosity. Usually it's one of those three things.
- [36:35]
A
I like that you're not that bougie. That's easier on mine and your friendship.
- [36:41]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like to ride my bike. I mean, the weather's nice now. Where I can ride my bike. I live in Minnesota, so it's like, it's winter most of the time, so when the weather is out, I'm not hiking or biking. But, yeah, just being outside is so good for you.
- [36:54]
A
Just so you know, I want to say this in public. I look forward to doing more things with you. I'm a collaborator. Thank you, Oprah, for all the things I get to collaborate with her on, from documentaries to books to being on her shows to all these things that I've been able to collaborate with her and will continue to do so and with so many other people. I just like the way you think. Okay, last question is, how do we get in touch with you? And then maybe a course that you're offering right now.
- [37:23]
B
Yeah. So if you go to my website, mahaabulane.com, there, you can sign up there. I have a newsletter. I send all the information out about my course workshops, or else follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn. And I answer all the DMS myself. Whoa.
- [37:37]
A
My God.
- [37:38]
B
It's okay. I mean, I don't have millions of followers. I'm not Gary V. I don't have 15 million followers. So I can answer them myself. If you message me, I will take the time to answer you, and I'd love to hear from anybody.
- [37:49]
A
It's not all about the followers, because I do okay. On the followers side. It's your impact. Your impact is so solid, so amazing. So, as you know, I'm a big fan of yours, and I'm a big fan of yours, and thank you for that. So I just want to thank you for being on this podcast, Miracle Mentality. And can you hold your book up one more time?
- [38:15]
B
I would, and I appreciate it. If you don't get a copy, it's available on Amazon. You haven't read it? It's on Amazon. And there's my name if you want to go to my website or my social media handles. And great. I appreciate you, Tim. This was so fun.
- [38:28]
A
So fun. Let's do it again. Let's do many things together. All right, Maha, thank you for being on Miracle Mentality. You guys make sure to like and subscribe this program. The Miracle Mentality. Yeah. And thank you, Ma, for saying that. I'm a movement guys. I don't play around. I've been in 82 countries of the world, and I love to collaborate with other people that are more amazing than I am in certain areas. Maha is one of them. But like, and subscribe, and once again, follow Maha. Everything that she's doing is brilliant. Get her book. 100% of you should get this book. Life is good. Let me close with this quote. You may not be what you want to be, but thank God you're not what you used to be. See you soon. Thank you for sharing space with me on this episode of Miracle Mentality with Tim Story. If today sparked your courage or helped you understand why you're created for success, I invite you to carry that miracle mentality forward. Visit me@timstory.com that story with an ey on the end. Until next time, walk by faith, embrace possibility, and create your own comeback. Story.