Rise Beyond Self-Doubt

Confidence isn’t a mask you wear under bright lights. It’s the architecture you build when no one is watching, one honest question and one small decision at a time. We sit down with Nada Nasserdeen—CEO of Rise Up For You, TEDx speaker, and author of The Confidence Builder—to unpack how real self-belief is forged and why soft skills drive hard results.

Nada takes us back to a teenage setback that rewired how she handles rejection and effort. From there, we dive into her Rise Power Up framework: self-confidence, emotional and social intelligence, transformational leadership, and influential communication. You’ll hear how these four skills shape careers, sharpen relationships, and strengthen culture—whether you’re leading a team, launching a business, or rebuilding momentum. We also get tactical with a five-question blueprint you can use today to map a five-year vision or a 90-day sprint, plus the underrated power of saying no to protect focus.

The conversation gets personal and practical: twice-yearly life audits across six pillars, planning non-negotiables into your calendar, and separating identity from job titles so achievement doesn’t become a stand-in for self-worth. Nada shares her journey from $100 and deep loss to leading a seven-figure, women-owned company—fueled not by hacks, but by financial literacy, consistent habits, and values-led choices. We close with the role of faith and silence in building resilience, and how to design freedom and flexibility so you can adapt when life changes without losing yourself.

If you’re ready to build confidence from the inside out and upgrade the soft skills that compound everywhere, tune in now. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge forward, and leave a review with the one skill you’ll practice this week.

To Learn more about Nada Lena: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadalena

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Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/

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Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-edwardsconsulting/30min

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

Today, we're joined by the Powerhouse and Personal Growth, Nada Nezardine. She's the founder and CEO of Rise Up For You, a TEDx speaker, and an author of The Confidence Builder. After years as a performer and educator, Nada turned her life's mission into helping people rise beyond self-doubt, lead with purpose, and build unshakable confidence from the inside out. Her work has impacted thousands across the world, proving that confidence isn't still you fake it till you make it, but it's a truth you build. Nada, welcome to Hashtag ClockedIn. We're so grateful to have you here. The first question is before we talk about your framework or your success, I want to start with this. Can you take us back to a moment that you lost confidence and what it took to rebuild it?

SPEAKER_01: 1:48

Oh, that's a really good question. A moment where I lost confidence. Okay, this might sound really silly, but I remember losing confidence when I was like 16 years old. Okay, so I'm going all the way back to high school. And I auditioned for the cheer squad. I really wanted to be a cheerleader in high school. And so I practiced, I worked really, really hard. And my friends, all of my friends and I auditioned to be on the cheer squad, and every single friend made it except for me. And I was devastated in high school. I ran home. I was crying and I was super dramatic and I was like questioning my existence and God. And I remember my mom like yelling at me and being like, Don't you ever question God ever. Like whatever is meant to be is meant to be. So I lot, I lost a little bit of confidence as a 16-year-old. And I was also like embarrassed that my friends made the team and I didn't. But then you know what? I started practicing again over and over and over again. And then the following year, I made the varsity team, and then I made the varsity team again after that. And I was one of the main choreographers, and I ended up being like one of the top cheerleaders on the squad.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00

This is like the Michael Jordan story. Like, no, but it's true because in high school, people are so, why why did I not get this right away? And we don't understand that the work that's required to actually get there. Yeah. And it so much of the time we have to put in so much intentional work and we just miss that.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that was that's a moment that I can remember. Um, I would I would say in my adulthood, I've I've been pretty, pretty confident, pretty, pretty consistent with the belief that I have about myself as a person and as a woman.

SPEAKER_00: 3:31

How do you think you develop that? Because when I see you carry, like I see you talk to the mic, confidence is there, you go on stages, you're talking, you're impacting thousands of lives. There's probably a lot of people listening to this that are, hey, this is even scary. I can't even post a TikTok. What do you mean you're just you're going on there on stage? It's scary. How how do you how do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01: 3:52

Well, honestly, a lot of it stems from childhood, like most of it dies. And so it's so important to, if you're a parent listening, it's important for you to understand that the second you have a child or a baby or whatever, you are creating their belief system, right? Like the first 15, 16 years of their life, their belief system and their thoughts about themselves stem from the environment that they're around. So that's their parents, that's their siblings, their teachers. My parents, like I always say that my greatest, the greatest gift from God was my parents. Like, you know how sometimes your parents will be like, oh, our greatest gift was our babies that you know we gave birth to. But for me as a daughter, I feel like my greatest gift was that I was born to two most amazing parents, that there was no type of abuse in any way, shape, or form. They were the opposite. They were really good at teaching my brothers and I soft skills. Like they were really good at teaching us resilience and working hard and self-confident. So, like if I put myself down in any way, it was like my mom had these magnificent ears. She could be across the house, and I would say something under my breath about myself, and she would like come running. Don't you dare talk about yourself that way. And like, so that's how we were raised. And a good portion of my self-worth and my confidence and and the belief that I have in myself, same as my brothers, they have the same amount of confidence as I do. It stemmed from childhood. And so the reason why that's important is because as you get older, people put you down, right? You go your whole whole life, people make fun of you, they put you down, they say you can't. And because we had that foundation, when somebody said to us, like, you can't do that, we would question it. We'd be like, I can't, who what do you mean I can't do that? How do you know I can't do it? Like instead of most people would be like, Um, you know, maybe you're right. And they would take that belief as their own. My brothers and I were like, Yeah, I don't know if that's true. My parents taught us the opposite. So that's that's where I learned most of it.

SPEAKER_00: 5:56

Well, I think that's incredible because you start to sit there and realize that you create your own confidence, meaning that the more you practice, it's an internal game, it's not so much external validation and the amount of people that sit there and go, I got support. Like someone told me, Great job. That's the highlight of my name. No, I told myself great job. That's the highlight of my day.

SPEAKER_01: 6:16

100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:18

Because it happens to the best of us. It really is. So, so with Rise Up for You, you have multiple different pillars. Some of it's through confidence, some of it's through other pillars. Tell us about how did you even come up with these and how did this get started and where where did this all begin?

SPEAKER_01: 6:34

Yeah, so our goal is to really support organizations, leaders, and entrepreneurs to be the top 10%, period, not just in work, but just like as a whole. So for an organization, that would mean like the culture, right? Like, how do we become the top 10% as an organization with our team, with our culture, with you know, impact? And then as an individual, how do we become a top 10% person in life? Meaning that I truly believe you can have it all, right? So uh happy life, healthy life, sexy life, you know, romantic life, you're making an impact and all the pieces just feel great. And the question always is well, what are the skills that help you do that? So, like, how do you become a top 10% company or person? What are the skills that actually allow you to become successful in every aspect? And so through all of our research and all of our experience, it's come down to four major soft skills. The first one being self-confidence, and I could dive you know into each of them.

SPEAKER_00: 7:36

The second one well, first off, yeah, before we dive into that, I just want everyone to realize what Nada did there, where she literally sat there and asked herself an empowering question of how do we become the top 10%? Who's asking these questions? They're just like, What am I having for dinner? You feel the difference there? And I just want you guys to realize that the better questions you ask, so like really realize how valuable this is. Yeah, keep going.

SPEAKER_01: 8:01

Yeah, and I and I just want to add to that it's how do you become the top 10% as a whole human being, not in just your work, because we know, you know, Jordan, we know a lot of people that are super successful at work, they make a ton of money, they have a great job, but their relationships suck, they're not healthy, they don't really enjoy life, they're in a ton of debt. And so it's not about being successful like in a silo. It's like as a whole person, how do I build, how do I build just a freaking amazing life and what skills do I need? And so that first one is self-confidence. The second one is emotional and social intelligence. The third one is being a transformational leader versus being transactional. And then the last one, which is the hardest, is influential communication. So, how do I influence people to take action when I communicate? How do I get them to have movement? And so those four pillars are what we call the Rise Power Up Framework. And this is what we use with companies and entrepreneurs all over the world, everything from Google to like a local nonprofit.

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

I love that. I love that because it starts to get you to think differently. Like right now, I'm actually on uh an interesting journey. Um so what by when I say that, I mean, so last year we ended up, me and my wife, we traveled for seven weeks in Europe, and I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool. And then so now we're here again. Like, I'm actually in Italy right now while we're having this conversation. But as you're describing it, I'm sitting there and I'm like, Well, I did have to have self-confidence to go against the grain. Everyone's like, This doesn't make sense. Like, how are you going for that long? What are you talking about? That what about the time zones? Like, so you have to have the self-confidence yourself. I'll figure it out. Good, and then you start to look at these different things where you have to be have these different um soft skills to be able to just even create this experience because a lot of the time no one's gonna help you. It's like go figure it out on your own, and you have to be empowered enough to take action on that.

SPEAKER_01: 9:59

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely 100% is the truth. And I always say, like, if you don't start to create these skills, and if you don't start creating creating a belief system that serves you, somebody else is gonna give you a belief system that's gonna sabotage you, and so you got you gotta right. Like you, you had people that are like, What are you doing? Why are you doing that? And that's because that's their belief, and so they're like their belief they project onto you, and so you have to be wise enough to say, No, I have my own structure, I have my own belief system, and this belongs to me. And thank you for your thoughts, but those aren't mine.

SPEAKER_00: 10:38

Yes, and the funny thing is, everyone thinks you have to agree with them, but that's not true. Like the way you answered that, where it's thank you, uh, that's not for me, that's okay. And that's gonna happen with your family, your relationships, everybody, because you have to have become confidence in who you are. Because the majority of the time we don't even know who we are. So, how do we go through this self-discovery? How do we figure out these beliefs that we start to have about ourselves? Because you start to realize that a lot of people, it's not really that, it's just these are the different opportunities that came up for them, and they're like, Okay, cool, I like that. But what if someone's sitting there and they go, I need a change, like I need something different?

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

It's a really good question. So there it depends where you want to start. So, like, it depends if you're an entrepreneur wanting to build a business or if you're in corporate and you're trying to climb the career ladder. But I always say, like, the very first step is to figure out like what you want. And you'd be surprised, Jordan, how many people don't just sit down and map out their ideal life and mapping out your ideal life without self-doubt. Like, how many times have you been with the client and you map out like what do you want in your life and they start talking and then they say, Oh, but I don't know if I can do that, or and they start like sabotaging their own like dream life, right? All the time.

SPEAKER_00: 11:59

It happens. I I do, yeah. So with Edwards Consulting, we start off with every new client. We start off with a five-year vision.

SPEAKER_01: 12:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

Like, hey, let me pretend that I'm calling you in five years and you're gonna tell me how awesome your life is. Let me hear it. And so a lot of the time it's like it's like it might be like mild stuff where it's like, no, let's really reach, like, let's go crazy. And the reason I say that is because a lot of us restrict ourselves. Like, if I ask you for a one-year goal and then a year, and then like a week later, I ask you for a five-year goal, you'll say the same goal because most people don't even realize the difference of the length of time because we can't conceptualize it. So it happens all the time. Yeah, and it's like we just don't have that belief of like, hey, no, you could do this. Like, what would be like what would be crazy? Like, let's go wild here.

SPEAKER_01: 12:48

And you just so I have a framework that I use, right? And you can use this on a micro level, meaning if you just like have like a quick 90-day goal, and then you can also use it on a macro level. So the first thing I ask is like, what do you want? What do you want in your life? And don't have any filter on it, don't have any self-doubt. Just like ideally, what do you want? Don't worry about the how, and if you can, just like, what do you want? Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing is, why do you want it? Why is this important to you? Because Jordan, you and I both know that starting is super easy. Anybody can start. But showing up and staying in the game, that's that's where the hard difficulty comes in, right? That's where 90% of businesses fail because anyone could do a startup, but after three to five years, most of them fail because it really takes the top 10% that show up consistently that stay in the game. So that second question is why do you want this life, whatever it is? If you say, you know, in five years, I want to be a millionaire and I want to be married and I and I want to be living on a lake and have this awesome. Why? Like, what does that mean for you? And what will it feel like when you get there? So that's the second question. The third question is probably the most important. It's like, now how are we gonna get there? What are the action steps that are smart, right? We use SMART goals because we need specificity. What are the action steps that we need to start taking to get there? So, for example, um, if you want to build a business but you're still in corporate, okay, well, what are some of the steps that we need to take to transition from corporate to start building your own business? What does that look like? And start creating that action plan. The fourth one, which um the last two are really important for me, is who's gonna help you get there? So is it your spouse? Is it a mentor? Do you need to hire a coach? Like who are the people that you need to surround yourself with that are gonna help you build that ideal life and support you on that journey? And the last one is my favorite. What do you have to say no to in order to make it happen? Because so many times we get derailed. We get derailed by substance abuse, crappy food, going to bed late, Netflix spinges, uh, people that are toxic in our life, negative beliefs, all the excuses. Like we get derailed, and two years goes by, and you're like, I wanted to write that book. It was on my list, and I never did because of all these things that took you away from it. Most recently, uh, we there's been a lot on social media about the signal voices the noise. That's basically the same thing, right? So, what is the signal? What is that thing, the two or three things that you got to do every day that you say yes to? And then the noise is what you're like, no, absolutely not. Don't even bring it near me. Non-negotiables. So that last question is what do you have to say no to in order to reach your success?

SPEAKER_00: 15:43

Yeah, I I think that's so powerful because the majority of the time, and no, I'm smiling because I was just I do this uh podcast, like one of the podcasts I do is like a five-minute Friday where it's a quick tip, and it was just about this do less, do less of the all the stuff. Why? Because there's we're doing too many things, there's too many times where we're going in a million different directions, and if you don't have like a manager or an employee or someone to actually take control of that, you can't do that, you can't do a lot of these activities. So that last question of what is it that you're gonna say no to, and that might be your fantasy football league, that might be other business opportunities, that might even be some family time during the week, whatever it may be, or Saturday mornings, or whatever you want to do, but you have to be ready to commit and put in those actions because when I think of building a business or building skill sets or any of these, I think of them all as muscles where it's like the more we work it out, the better you get at it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:44

That's right. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_00: 16:47

Yeah, and it's something that a lot of us are like, what do we do? I don't know what to do next. How does this work? And it's like, if you have that person to help you with that, it makes a world of difference, and it really does.

SPEAKER_01: 17:00

Well, and I think that most people never reach where they want to reach because they don't carve out the time to map it out and to commit to themselves. And like the reality is, is some of the most successful people have like 10 journals, like me, right? Like I have a planner, I have my Google Calendar, I have a spreadsheet. And so like every week I'm like, okay, what am I focusing on? What's my intent? What are my non-negotiables? And then, you know, if I get 80% of it done, I'm like, great, good job, Netta. You got 80% of it. And when I plan my week, I don't only plan work, I plan my health. I plan, okay, I'm gonna work out at Monday, 6 a.m. Tuesday, I have really early meetings. So therefore I'm gonna work out at 5 p.m. after work, I plan what I'm gonna make the kids, I plan like the date nights with my husband. I plan all of it because I do believe you can have it all. But if you want to have it all, like you have to be intentional. It doesn't just like happen, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 17:56

Super intentional.

SPEAKER_01: 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:58

No, because you're absolutely right, and it's whatever is on your calendar, you're gonna prioritize. So it's funny when people sit there and they're just like, Oh, I waited for my friend to text me. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, like, like I've had stuff going on because the thing is, like, if you don't have a plan or an objective or a stuff, like you're not just gonna roll out of bed and end up in the gym. It doesn't work that way. You gotta have the bigger goal of like, hey, I actually want to live to 105. And you're like, 105. Yeah, you gotta see these people in Italy, they are like 90 years old, like thin.

SPEAKER_01: 18:32

You have a blue zone there.

SPEAKER_00: 18:34

I feel it. We're going up the stairmaster, which is just a hill to the place that we're staying. I'm like, this is crazy. Uh, but my point being here is that you just realize that there's so many different ways to live, and there's so many different ways of doing this. So, for you, how often do you like reevaluate? Hey, am I going on the path I want to go? Do I want to think about this differently? Is this important to me? Because I feel like that's a big challenge that people have as well.

SPEAKER_01: 18:58

I do it um, so for sure, I do it twice a year. So I do it every July and I do it every December. So I I have a um like a tradition with myself on December 31st, before I ring in the new year, I'll sneak away by myself. Or you know, last year my husband and I did it because I I'm married now, right? And I believe when we first met, I wasn't. Thank you. Um, and so every December 31st, I'll reassess the six pillars of life. So my self-worth, my career, my romantic life, my health, the relationships that I have in my life that are not romantic, and then my money pillar. So I'll assess that in December and I'll put, okay, where am I at? I'll score myself one through 10. And then I'll make my goals for the next year. Like, okay, I have a seven in health. Well, I don't want a seven in health. So what are my goals? Why did I put a seven and where do I want to be? And I'll map that out. And then in July, I'll bring it back out and I'll be like, okay, I put this as my goal for this year. Where am I? Did I forget about it? Did I start? Am I hitting it? Am I on the right path? So that's what I do. And then I also do it if I feel like um things are hitting the fan. Like if something drastic happened in the economy or society or with our client, and I feel like things are falling apart, then I'll like regroup and reassess. It's like, okay, what's happening? Why are things not working? Um, and you know, that might happen maybe once a year, maybe.

SPEAKER_00: 20:25

Yeah. Yeah. I love that because it's just it just shows how intentional you are, and that that's what's missed by so many people. So I just want the audience to realize that this intentionality isn't it's not that hard, it's not that many more hours, it's not anything extra. It's just these little micro decisions each and every day going, Hey, I'm gonna get a little closer to my goal. Hey, I'm gonna go and try to build this. And if you think about the health pillar, maybe it's like, hey, maybe I need to pick up a new sport, or maybe I have to go do a challenge, or maybe I have to do this, and you start to think about it a little bit differently because it causes you to think differently. So why do you think a lot of high achievers you brought up self-worth as your first pillar? So why do you think a lot of high achievers struggle with that?

SPEAKER_01: 21:12

Um, well, it's funny that you mentioned that because oftentimes high achievers struggle with self-worth, which is why they tend to overcompensate to achieve more. Does that make sense? So they make up for it in their career, but their relationships, their romantic life, um, their community like reputation might might struggle. But I know a lot of people that have like very little self-confidence, but because they have very little self-confidence, they're very aggressive and they overcompensate to like prove their worth, which helps them hit the goals, right? They become like very high performing, and so a lot of it is overcompensation. They they never feel enough, and so they're constantly trying to achieve the next thing, which brings them success, like let's say in their career. But even when they get there, I mean, Jordan, you know people like this, and I know a lot of people like this in the entrepreneurial space. They have achieved so much flipping, like so many accomplishments, it's amazing. And you talk to them and they don't feel enough. They're like, I'm not doing anything with my life. And you're like, What? What are you talking about? And so a lot of it is overcompensation.

SPEAKER_00: 22:27

Yeah. No, and it becomes very challenging, especially I think in business, you're very incentivized to go get more clients, get more employees, grow bigger and bigger and bigger. And then in your personal life, you want to like keep it very simple. Like it's it's very challenging to do both because the things that help you in business do not help you in your personal life. Like, you want to have deep, I mean a little bit. I mean, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 22:51

I I think that it depends.

SPEAKER_00: 22:54

I could be wrong about it. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 22:56

I think it depends what your values are and what success means to you in life. So for me, some people build businesses because they want to make a lot of money. And then some people build businesses because they want freedom, flexibility, and they want to build a life that they truly feel proud of, like in every aspect. Yeah. And so, like for me, I'm the ladder. Like, I love money, don't get me wrong. But I didn't start becoming an entrepreneur because I wanted money and I was hungry. I became an entrepreneur and built a business because I wanted to build something that made an impact, that made money, that also allowed me to have freedom and flexibility and take care of my health and like be a present parent and be a wife and not feel like I was only a career being versus a whole human being, right? So I just I think it depends what your values are. And so for me, I uh like I work really, really hard. I'm very driven, but I am also confident enough to like understand that like me as a person is not contingent upon my business. Like, God forbid, if Rise Up for You fell apart tomorrow, I'd be like, all right, I'll just I'll just rebuild, I'll start over, you know. And I think that um a lot of people miss that element.

SPEAKER_00: 24:11

I I love that because the amount of people that you ask, hey, hey, what do you who are you? I I literally I've done a coaching where I went to everyone in the group and I said, Who are you? without describing your job title.

SPEAKER_01: 24:23

And they're like they can't answer.

SPEAKER_00: 24:25

Yeah, they go, Well, I'm in the I'm in this profession, and I'm like, I asked you to just and that person who said that was like a marathon runner, they did amazing things, and I was like, How do you not see this? Like, how do you not see that you're way more than your job? Exactly, exactly more than this. They don't re-evaluate that identity, and I'm like, This is such a travesty. So, how do you how do you use that freedom? How do you how do you think about that freedom? Just to give the audience an example of like, wow, that's a token of possibility.

SPEAKER_01: 24:58

Like yeah, I use freedom, so like don't get me wrong, I work really, really hard, but I I worked hard so that I can make the choice to do something else if I needed to. So I'll give an example. Uh, yesterday was a Monday. I worked really, really hard, but my puppy was sick and was vomiting all over the place, and I had to take four hours away from work to go do that. And that's fine, right? So I had that freedom to do that. Um, I have a husband that I, you know, I just got married to like almost a year ago. And so now I go back and forth between two locations because I have the freedom to do that because I built the business that can be done all over the world, right? Where some people are stuck to their city because it's like, well, I go to work. This is this is what I do. That I I have to go into this headquarter or to this office. And so, like, I have freedom and flexibility at my fingertips that if I need it, I can use it, right? Currently, right now, um, you know, my kids, I I now have kids. So when I got married, I also became a mom at the same time. And their uh teachers are on strike. So all of the kids, almost 700,000 kids in this region, aren't going to school.

SPEAKER_00: 26:11

They just nowhere. Really?

SPEAKER_01: 26:14

We got a message that said, Don't send your kids to school. There's no teachers, and it could last for two months. They're saying it could be like two months of a strike. And so, because I work from home and I have flexibility, this morning I was able to shift my schedule and I taught the kids for three hours. I'm like, Oh, you're not sleeping in. Wake up. They woke up just as if they were going to school, and I taught them three hours of curriculum. I had that freedom of flexibility. And so, like, it's about creating something that that again allows you to adapt as you need to. Where unfortunately, so many people they just feel stuck. They're like, What do I do? A lot of people are stressed here because they haven't built that freedom of flexibility and now they have kids at home and they don't know what to do with them.

SPEAKER_00: 26:59

Yes, and it it's years of compounding. So when I say that, it's usually the business, yes, it's creating an incredible business, but also it's the habits with the finances. You brought a finance as a pillar. So, what what are some tips that people could take? Because I know we're at like all-time highs and credit card usage and all this kind of stuff, and it's very concerning, but like if you're financially feel fit, like fit financially, then you make better decisions. So, what are some of those tips or tricks that you might use for your life to be able to do all this stuff?

SPEAKER_01: 27:33

Yeah, and I and I'm gonna I'm gonna share one thing and then come back to the finances. When I started my point is that when I started building this business uh, you know, six years ago, I sat and asked myself exactly what we just talked about. What do you want? Why do you want it? You know, what are the values? And when I started the business, I said, like, I want to be able to be a mom and a wife and travel and have that freedom of flexibility. And so from day one of building this company, I built it so that now, today, six years later, I can enjoy what I what I wanted to build, right? I can enjoy the fruits of my labor, which again is not necessarily the money. Anybody that runs a business that has employees knows that money fluctuates. Like there's months where it's like, oh my gosh, I've never seen this much money in my life. And then there's months where I'm like, are we gonna make payroll? Okay, I'm not gonna pay myself this month because my employees are like first priority. And that's the life of an entrepreneurship. So it can't be just about money, right? Because sometimes that is in flux. So I'm just, you know, going back to like I had that intent starting the business that like I wanted this lifestyle. Now, when it comes to money, I'm not a money expert, but here's what I can tell you from my experience. When I built this business, I had no money. I had$100, I was completely in debt. Um, I was going through a divorce where I lost everything. I was only married for three weeks. I lost my entire like savings, my job, everything because of the divorce. And both of my parents just died. So I was turning 32. I had a hundred bucks. I just buried my second parent going through a divorce, didn't have a job, didn't have a car, and I was buying my groceries at the 99 cent store. And my budget was like$23 a month to get food. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 29:23

So I I appreciate you sharing that because it give it gives people a real perspective on where you're yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 29:29

Yeah. And so when I started the business, I started it out of a hospital when my mom was passing away. And I started building this business. And today, because of the skills that we talked about, self-confidence, emotional intelligence, learning how to communicate with influence. Today, I'm happy to say that we're 1.9% of the female-owned businesses in all of North America that make seven figures or more. So let me rephrase that. Only 1.9% of businesses that are run by women ever hit seven figures or beyond in all of North America. And we're a part of that, right? And it's not because I had investors, I don't have any partners in the company, but it's because of the soft skills that I used on myself that we now teach today. And so for money, I was in debt for a long time. And then I was like, okay, like I gotta figure out how to be financially fit and like to have financial literacy. And so once I started to get the business on track, I started learning. I started learning from Dave Ramsey. I started learning from, I can't remember his name, but he wrote a really good book. He's a young, uh younger guy, and it's like uh he had a Netflix documentary series for me, sexy. Yes, yes. What's the book called? Um I would teach you to be rich.

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

I think it's that one.

SPEAKER_01: 30:53

Yeah, something of that sort. I read that book and I just started executing. I was like Okay, so when I pay myself, I'm gonna take this much percentage, I'm gonna put it in my savings. And then like I have this credit card that's maxed out because I only had a hundred bucks, but it has a 29% interest rate. I'm gonna roll it over to this credit card that's 0% interest rate, and then pay that off as fast as possible. So like I started to just read and educate myself. There's no magic pill of Jordan. I just was like, okay, like I gotta educate myself.

SPEAKER_00: 31:24

So I started reading and no, no, I uh but I appreciate that because then it it lets everyone know that it's possible. Yeah, you know what I mean? And it doesn't have to be this big swing that's like, hey, I went from a hundred dollars to uh ten thousand to a hundred thousand to like it it's steps, and I want everyone to realize that that we're all like it's it's also a skill and it's a habit that you keep building where it's like okay, I got paid, I'm gonna take 10% for later me. Later me will be grateful that I have that, yeah. And it starts to give you this clarity where it's like, hey, I could be unemployed for three years and I'll still be good. And you start to realize this stuff, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna make different decisions, I'm gonna be in a better headspace because of that. And so I appreciate you sharing that. And I'm sorry to hear about your parents. Like, that is a lot to handle when you start looking at it and thinking about all this stuff. Um so for you, there I with Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars: it's mental health, physical health, community service philanthropy, relationships, and spirituality. So for you, I'm gonna ask you real quick, what is your mental health like today on a one to ten? I know we don't have a scale, but like, what's it like on a one to ten today? And why do you think it is that? By that, I mean like, is there any habits or tips or tricks that the audience could sit there and go, wait, she does that? I should start applying that.

SPEAKER_01: 32:53

Yeah, I would say 8.5. Yeah, I wouldn't give it a 10, I would give it an 8.5. And I probably would normally I would say like a nine, but today I would say eight, eight point five. And and honestly, really, just because the teachers run on strike. And so, like, there's a different, I have to have a little more capacity, right? So currently, like, I'm running this podcast and the kiddos are upstairs, you know what I mean? Like reading and studying and watching TV and whatever. Um, you know, I I'm still running a business, I still have a team. I woke up at six o'clock or 5:30 in the morning to do a 6 a.m. class this morning before the kids woke up. So I would say about an 8, 8.5, just because there's a little bit more, I don't want to say stress, but yeah, there's just like more things that are happening that I'm trying to kind of like juggle.

SPEAKER_00: 33:39

Yeah, absolutely. So so you think that the the early wake up helps you?

SPEAKER_01: 33:44

Yeah, it depends on the day, to tell you the truth. There's some days where I am just exhausted and I let myself sleep in. When I say sleep in, I mean like 6:45, 7 o'clock. Like I never sleep past seven, and then I'll do a workout a little bit later. And then there's days like today where I'm like hell or high water. I'm waking up at 5:15 to get my 6 a.m. workout in because the rest of my day is packed. So if I don't do it in the morning, like it's it's probably not gonna happen. And so I did. I made that decision to get up early and it was still dark outside and go get my my fitness time in. And I love it. It's important because for me, and some people might be able to resonate with this when I work out, for some reason, my mind doesn't think about anything but working out. Yes, like my mind can't think about business. It it doesn't think it really does, it just can't. It doesn't think about anything other than like picking up the weight or running on the tread or doing the yoga. Yeah, so for me, it's really important to have that fitness time because my brain really does go into like basically blank and focusing on my body, which I love, and that's the the present, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 34:57

So when I'm in when I'm in the states, uh I usually I have a pretty solid routine for the morning workouts because I ended up joining a 6 a.m. class because I like that strategy because then you're forced to be accountable and you're like, okay, I'm gonna not gonna let them down. Yeah, um, but I would but what I was doing was Muay Thai for the past year and a half. Oh, I love that. It's like they're literally punching you in the it's okay. I'm gonna focus. I'm gonna there's no like you're thinking about other things because they're literally punching you. You're like, yeah, okay, I'm not gonna get hit. Um, but yeah, no, I absolutely agree. And I think fitness is one of the best things. So, what do you think your physical health is like on a one to ten?

SPEAKER_01: 35:33

Um, I would say right now my physical house if health is like a seven, seven point five, which is pretty low. Um, I'm healthy, don't get me wrong. Every time I go to the doctor, I'm fine. You know, I have good stamina, but I've gained some weight and I don't like it. And so I I score myself lower. The last year there was just a lot of transition, and you know, I um I ended up just like maybe using food as comfort. And so I'm like 20 pounds heavier than my normal body weight. And so for me, like some people would look at me and be like, oh, you look amazing, but it's how I feel, and I feel like, you know, a little bit more tired. My joint, like I can't hold the plate like I used to, and I'm like, okay, we got to get this back in shape. So currently I'm at a seven, but I hired a trainer last week. And me and my girlfriends here in the community, we just made accountability group, and then the last week we've been like dialing it in.

SPEAKER_00: 36:26

Yeah, absolutely. But that's what it takes sometimes. It's that change of action where you realize, like, hey, I want to make a change, I want to do something different. We're gonna step into this. And so I appreciate you sharing that. And the vulnerability is huge because the other thing about physical health that becomes really interesting is like everyone's got their own parameters of what they feel, right? So sometimes it's the look, sometimes it's the scale, sometimes it's the body mass, the body fat. Sometimes it's hey, can I run five miles in an hour? Like everyone's got their own parameters. Yeah, so sometimes when people are just like, wait, wait, wait, I'm like, uh there's a million different ways to feel good or feel different. And like, like you said, there's so many variables that we have that make it really challenging.

SPEAKER_01: 37:11

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And for me, it always goes back to a why. So, like, I have my why, right? And it's a combination of all that. It's I want to feel good in my body and not feel like, oh, like my hip hurts, you know, I'm carrying an extra 20 pounds. I want to look great. There is a vainess to it. Like, I'm also a keynote speaker. Like, I want to be on stage and look the part. I don't want to be on stage and be like, oh, I could barely walk and talking to people about like self-confidence and success. It doesn't match, right? So, like, even for our industry, it's important that we show like externally what's happening in our mind. And I always say, like, your body is the window to your belief system and your soul, right? It's a representation of how you take care of yourself. Um, and then the third reason is I want to live a long life. Both of my parents died at 63 years old and they died young. They weren't fat, but they had stress and they, you know, had disease, and they died young. And I would like to live longer.

SPEAKER_00: 38:07

Yeah, absolutely. And if you guys listen to that, there was like four or five empowering things that are like, I gotta take action on this. So when you guys are going through this activity of you go on your own, you need to realize that like you have to start having multiple reasons. It's not just one reason I want to look better. No, it's like I want to look sexy for my for my wife or my husband or whatever, or a new partner, or whatever you want it to be. I want to be, I want people to be empowered. Like, I want I want to inspire people, whatever it is, you have to feel that. So now the the third pillar is community service philanthropy. How do you see that in your life? Some people are present with it, some people are like, I don't really know.

SPEAKER_01: 38:49

Yeah, it's a good question. So I do it in a couple of different ways. First off, like the company rises it for you. Even when we made zero money, we always like gave back to nonprofits. Even like I would have people that are like, What are you doing? You're like, you're not making any money. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. Like, I know that if we give now, like it'll always come back. And so we typically choose about four nonprofits a year at Rise Up For You that we will support. We'll either support them from a financial perspective, or we'll do uh like service-based work, or we'll we'll go and we'll get in the trenches with them and we'll provide confidence to maybe like women that um have been victims of domestic abuse. Like we'll we'll give back in that aspect. So there's that. Um, and then I typically like once a month, I'll speak for free for an organization or a nonprofit that maybe wants to have an empowering message for their community. And I'm a paid keynote speaker, and but I I'll always gift one for free. So there's like certain things that I do from a philanthropic community perspective.

SPEAKER_00: 39:49

I just want to bring that up uh uh because most people only look at it through the financial lens. So for you to sit there and actually understand hey, I have value, hey, and this comes back to the self-confidence. People pay for our services, uh I am going to give them for free, and that is a donation because that's teaching a man how to fish, you know what I mean? So that's giving them it for a lifetime, and people don't realize that that like sometimes you already have the skill set that people desire. So even if someone's like really like, I want to learn from you, I want to all right, come over for a day, just just watch me, just do whatever I do, and that's mentoring, that's community service, like because you're building the next group of leaders. So I really enjoy that you brought up that it doesn't always have to be financial that we'll actually pick up clients like that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Then the next one's this one's kind of interesting. It's relationships. So we can do friendships, we can do uh family, you can kind of deem it however you choose. But what do you think your relationships are on a one to ten?

SPEAKER_01: 40:58

My relationships are pretty good. I would say my relationships are like nine, nine point five. Some of them are ten.

SPEAKER_00: 41:07

How do you keep them good? How do you keep them maintained or keep them positive? Because like you mentioned, you live in a couple different places, you do a couple different things, you you have a business, you have family, you have all that. How do you focus on the relationships so that you're there for them?

SPEAKER_01: 41:23

Well, there's different levels of relationships, right? So you have like let's say you're close family, you know, my brothers, my brothers, my husband, brother-in-law, you know, that sister-in-law's, and those are high, those are really high scores because we communicate really well together, we love each other, we have strong family bonds, strong family values, right? And then that next level would be like your close friends. And, you know, I don't have like a thousand close friends by choice. I think most people don't, right? You you have a solid community that's maybe like four to ten people. And I mean, typically when you build friendships, you build people. I mean, I know for me, I build friendships with people that are like-minded but different. So, like their their ethos, their morale, and the foundation of who they are is the same, right? Like they want to continue to grow, they want to be better, they want to learn how to communicate well, and we want to push ourselves. And so those are really high relationships. And then underneath that is acquaintances that I don't have any acquaintances that you know, we have blood bad blood. I would say the one or two people that maybe is like not the best are people that I really don't know. Right? It's like they might have opinions about me, but it's like I don't even know their last name or like what you know much about them. And in that case, it's not something that I lose sleep over.

SPEAKER_00: 42:46

So you so you start to realize, uh, and I'm just saying this for the audience, to realize that okay, so she's got her family, her close friends, her siblings, uh, her close friend group. Like, you know what I mean? It's it's not a thousand people, it's maybe like 20, 25, like you know what I mean. So you start to realize that it becomes a lot more manageable. But when everyone thinks every relationship is as equal to that, that's when you have a lot of issues, and you're not yeah, and you'll have um a major, major setback because then you're not prioritizing the people that should be prioritized or that you chose, and you're also wasting like energy by focusing on something that um isn't a huge part of your life.

SPEAKER_01: 43:30

Like, uh, don't get me wrong, I have people that don't like me that are naysayers, but I can't tell you the first thing about them. I already I don't I don't know much about them. So at that point, it's like, well, that's a you problem, not a me problem. Like, I don't know you, we've barely talked. So if you have certain feelings about somebody that barely knows you, then like that's your own problem. You gotta solve that.

SPEAKER_00: 43:53

I think that's becoming more uh popularized just because people there's so many like micro people that are becoming like like this the whole idea of a celebrity back in like the 1990s, 80s was just because people are on TV or movies, so people saw them more often. But with social media just going bigger and bigger and bigger, people are like, I really like this person, like I see this person, I know this person, and it's like I've never met you, but you might have watched 3,000 hours. If you watched every episode of this podcast, you've watched me for like 300 hours, so you probably know a little bit about me, but they don't know much absolutely, yeah, absolutely, absolutely and then the last pillar is spirituality. So, where do you think you are on a one to ten for spirituality?

SPEAKER_01: 44:40

Today I would say a nine. I'm pretty connected. Uh, when you say spirituality, I also think of like religion, my faith.

SPEAKER_00: 44:47

I leave it, yeah. So I leave it up for grab because everyone, some people are like, I'm super religious, some people are like I'm super spiritual, some people are like in the bagel line. I like to say hi to people. That's my spirituality. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 44:58

For me, it's religious and it's my faith, and I'm pr pretty strong in that. And I have an amazing, I believe I have an amazing relationship with God. And so for me, like it's I would say between a nine and a 10, like I consistently pray, I consistently have conversations um with you know the higher being and build a relationship that's important for me. That's actually my number one value. My number one um importance is my faith and my relationship with God. My second is myself, and my third is my family. Those are my top three.

SPEAKER_00: 45:30

So if someone wanted to explore this relationship with God, regardless of religion or any of that, how would you say to go about it?

SPEAKER_01: 45:39

The first step that I used for myself is silence. Like if you want to build the relationship with yourself and with God, you gotta you gotta sit in silence. You have to become self-aware of your thoughts. You have to be able to sit in a room by yourself and enjoy the company you keep. But so many of us are distracted by external things and by social media and consumption that we don't even have time to think straight. We don't even know what's going on in our head. And so my relationship with God has been strong because I allow myself to sit in silence every morning and just talk and like become aware, like what's in my head, how do I feel? And I've also gone through a lot in my life. And again, back to parents, like they always taught me, like, don't question God, like there's a plan. So when my parents died and I was like completely devastated and like depressed and shocked, like I kept saying to myself, like, thank you, God, thank you, God, for the quality of parents you gave me. Thank you. Like, I kept thanking God for the quality, even though in my heart I was like crushed because I lost them. But I just I kept going back to like my faith and thanking him for what he did give me, which was like two phenomenal parents where I could have like deterred from my faith and been like, life sucks, and like this is you know, this is going nowhere. But when you have faith, you remind it, like there's always a bigger plan and there's always a bigger something that you don't know right now, and that's okay. You don't have to have all the answers.

SPEAKER_00: 47:07

I really appreciate that because uh it's becoming more and more uh things that people need to start valuing. So I appreciate you sharing that. It's it's sad, but it's the end of the podcast. We're we're gonna learn more about you.

SPEAKER_01: 47:22

Thank you. So for the company is called Rise Up For You, completely spelled out. You can go to riseupforyu.com and right at the top, there's a button that says free resources. There's a ton of free stuff. We have a self-confidence quiz, an emotional intelligence quiz. There's free classes on confidence and emotional intelligence and leadership. So you can grab it there. Also on social media, rise up for you. We're on every channel. And then if you want to connect with me personally, uh, it's Neta Lena Nasser Dean. Jordan, I'm sure you could put my handle in the show notes. And I'm very active on Instagram and LinkedIn, and I run my own LinkedIn and Instagram. So if you send me a message, I will definitely reach back out to you.

SPEAKER_00: 48:01

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01: 48:05

Welcome.