Episode 15: Midlife Priceless: Reinventing Yourself at Any Age with Sairan Aqrawi
In this episode of Redefining Us, I sit down with Sairan Aqrawi, an engineer and business strategist, who redefines midlife as a time for reinvention, not crisis. She introduces the concept of "midlife priceless," encouraging women to embrace their evolving journey with confidence. Sairan challenges the idea that midlife is a decline, instead presenting it as an opportunity for growth, fulfillment, and pursuing forgotten dreams.
With a unique mix of technical expertise and strategic insight, Sairan empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential. She dives into common barriers women face—feeling stuck, seeking validation, and losing a sense of purpose—and stresses the importance of curiosity, resilience, and taking action. Confidence, she says, is built through movement, not passive reflection.
Sairan also discusses how to overcome fear, rejection, and self-doubt, urging women to leverage their hidden talents and passions to create meaningful side businesses or pivot careers. A major theme of the episode is embracing change and lifelong learning, especially in the face of technological advances like AI. Rather than resisting change, she encourages women to lean into new opportunities and continuously evolve.
Sairan’s energy and wisdom shine throughout the conversation as she challenges listeners to redefine success, embrace their next phase with courage, and remind us that it's never too late to take risks and create a life that’s fulfilling and exciting.
Want to connect with Sairan? She’s offering a complimentary one-hour consultation for Redefining Us listeners! Mention this episode when reaching out:
LinkedIn: Sairan Aqrawi
Instagram: @sairan_aqrawi
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Don't think that your job is just your job making money. Your purpose in life is way deeper than that. If you sit down alone and you think deep inside and ask good questions yourself, you will find out that you have so much to offer. And if you don't do it now, then when? You've got to start now.
Speaker 00
00:27
This is Redefining Us, and I'm your host, Stephanie Contrera, licensed professional counselor. And I'm so glad that you joined us today so we can dive into what it means to be a woman in today's society, figuring out how we balance everything, how we grow, how we be more authentically us and figuring out who we are through the transitions of life, whether that be motherhood, success, relationships, and all things that have happened in women's lives, because it's definitely not a linear journey. And I think by talking about it and normalizing it and validating, we can all rise together and be the women that we were meant to be. So keep tuning in. and I am so excited about joining the conversation and being in your ears each week. Let's get into it. Hi, welcome back to Redefining Us. I'm your host, Stephanie Controhera, Licensed Professional Counselor. And today I have with me Seyran Okrawi, who is an engineer and business strategist dedicated to helping individuals and organizations unlock their full potential through a powerful blend of technical expertise and strategic business insight. She empowers her clients to gain crystal clear clarity Take bold, decisive action and achieve meaningful, measurable results that last. Her unique approach combines the precision of engineering with the foresight of business strategy, equipping individuals and organizations with the tools to future-proof their careers in a rapid, evolving world by seamlessly aligning technical capabilities with strategic planning. Sayrun enabled leaders to make smarter, data-driven decisions that drive operational efficiencies, fosters innovations, and ensures sustainable growth. Sayrun... works with clients to create tailored solutions that address today's challenges while positioning them for long-term success. Whether individuals are navigating a career transition or organizations are seeking to optimize their business operations, Seyran's guidance ensures they take purposeful, well-informed steps towards their desired outcomes. Through her strategic coaching and hands-on expertise, Sayrun transforms challenges into opportunities, empowering her clients to thrive at the intersection of STEM and strategy. Her focus on integrating technical expertise with strategic foresight helps individuals and businesses stay ahead in today's fast-changing professional landscape. Sayrun's clients don't just achieve their goals, they gain their confidence, direction, and tools to continually elevate their performance and reach new heights in their career and business. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 01
03:19
Thank you, Stephanie. I'm very glad to be here on your lovely platform. Thank you. Yes. Thank you.
Speaker 00
03:27
Yeah. So I guess like, let's just dive right into it. What do you think is particularly important for the women that are listening to hear about your message?
Speaker 01
03:37
I think my message is very important now for all the midlife women, because women, we tend to undervalue ourselves, professional and personal life. We think that we have to be perfect. We have to figure out all and we have to have a black belt in everything we do. You cannot get that mastery and black belt unless you take action as you go. So aging, it's something that we cannot jump. We cannot pass. We cannot say, I'm going to skip the 50 or I'm going to skip the 40. Guess what? It's coming. If you are 30, you're going to be 40. If you are 40, you're going to be 50. So it's better to thrive and love and adapt those stages of your life. And my message is important now for all women, professional women, especially in the tech and STEM and engineering, because we tend to put so much effort and time just to get degree. and seek validation from outside at work, getting a degree, which is nothing wrong with that, and getting certification, thinking that's all. When you hit your 50 and you turn around and you see that your kid's already almost halfway in the school, they are independent. Some of them may be in their 20 or late 18 or 19, they start driving, so they don't need you to drive them to places. So they become independent. And you're going to look back and you said, okay, now what? Am I done? And the society telling us, oh, you are 50, you are done. Or workforce saying, oh, you are 50, you are too old to start a new job. My message here is that your midlife is not a midlife crisis. It's a midlife priceless. It's the time that you can thrive, reinvent and start again and finding your hidden gem and actually live again your best version.
Speaker 00
05:31
Yeah, I really love that reframing of midlife crisis is actually midlife priceless. I think that's really important for people to hear because I do think when people hit this middle age in their career or just in their personal life, it's like, what do I do now? And they might find themselves feeling a little empty or stuck. And so reframing it as like, there's so much hope still and so much opportunity to live their best life. I think that's a really great message. I guess I'm kind of curious, do you find that there's a lot of specific barriers that women are experiencing who come to you that maybe are struggling to see that priceless aspect of their midlife? And what are those like common barriers that women come to you to talk about?
Speaker 01
06:22
Yes, I'm glad to ask that question. It's very important because the majority of the women, most of them, when they come to me, they are already well established at their career. They make good money. They are managers. They are supervisors. They are team lead. And they come and they tell me that they have the perfect life. They have a good husband. Their kids are a student. They have a million dollar house and they make good money. And I ask them then why you are here seeking my, you know, consultation or my coaching. They said, we don't know. We just go to work. We come back. It's like a daily routine. Even when we take vacation with our family, we feel we are muted. We feel like we are numb. We kind of like doing the same thing on and on. 2024, same like 2023, same like 2025. I said, what do you think it is? I always ask them the same question because as a coach, we can tell them what is the right solution. We have to make them think, as you know, what is the right things? What is bringing value to them? And most of them, they said, yeah, we see the money coming, but we don't see the sense of impact. There is no sense of belonging. We feel like we are just making money. We're paying the bills. We're taking vacation. We take pictures with the family. But at the end of the day, we are not feeling that we add value. And for every woman midlife until we die, we tend to thrive on love adding value. Being a mother, being a sister, being a wife, being a girlfriend, We always love to be needed. We love to be asked about advices, asked about help. Oh, don't worry, girlfriend, I got you, right? And same thing, sister who is same thing as a wife. We always feel so good when we say we found out a way how to fix that problem because we tend to think that everything, we are able to figure out everything in a good way because we are a mom. Nature, we give away, right? I feel like from my experience, the confidence, the courage, the stuff that I'm doing now, I never thought about I will do in my 30 or 40. Never. I mean, I have a degree. I was an engineer. I'm still an engineer, full-time engineer. My business is a side business. But I never had that courage and audacity and confidence to start something like this, which is very competitive. When I hit my 50, I knew that I have too much to give. And I knew that just finishing my master in engineering, that's all what I, that's not everything I got. I keep asking myself, okay, now what? Okay, I got the degree. Now what? Is that all I can do? So then my message to your audience and all the women in midlife, don't think that your job is that just your job making money. Your purpose in life is way deeper than that. If you sit down alone and you think deep inside and ask good questions yourself, you will find out that you have so much to offer. And if you don't do it now, then when? You've got to start now.
Speaker 00
09:34
Yeah, two of the things you said that really stuck out to me were the words audacity and courage, because I do think it takes a lot of audacity and courage to challenge what you're so used to doing and Most women, like you mentioned, are kind of trained to be these like caregivers or these people that feel like they need to do something for others in order to add value. And it sounds like you're really having these conversations with women to take a step back and pause and ask themselves, like, I can do more than just like give value by helping other people or supporting other people. Like I have other skills that can be highlighted and really used for my own purpose and fulfillment and not just to fulfill another person's needs or desires or goals.
Speaker 01
10:25
Yeah, totally, totally. Because life taking us in every day, you know, paying bills and taking care of the kids and school and doing daily job. And when we hit over 50, we turn around, we said, now is my time. So I tell women, this is not the end. Actually, this is the start. And they said, how comes? It's I feel old. I'm 50. I said, I haven't seen that book which is say 50 is old. I think you are old when you stop dreaming. That's when you are really old because you have lost the ability to dream about your best version. You are not old in 40. You are not old in 50. You are not old in any age. If you keep progressing, the success is going those small bite that's go every day. If you see yourself a better version than last year, that's success. That's not old. But if you're stagnant and you're just staying comfortable, we said, I'm making money. I'm paying the bills. Life is good. Guess what? Life is not good. There's a lot of problem around us. If you just take initiative and you start thinking about the humanity and say, okay, there is one issue I can solve here. I have the ability. I have the skills to talk with women who's going through the same thing. So I'm helping myself and other women. Because I was able to reach that level that I'm able to start a business while I'm working and having kids in college. While I'm doing it myself, I'm helping other women in their midlife to do the same thing. And I'm trying to tell them, hey, it's doable. I was able to do it coming to this country when I was 26, starting with a couple of hundred dollars and starting a career, a family, raising kids, then going back to school and earning my master. What is stopping you? What's stopping us is the fear from failing and also from the judgment. Well, when you hit your 50, don't worry about the judgment. Those judgment statement will not help you later in life. Those people who think you are not too skinny or you are not too pretty or there's so much wrinkles or you are not a chief or your LinkedIn doesn't look right, they will not help you when you are really in a bad situation and thinking about your life when you look back in your life. So it's better to pick up your soul and reinvent the wheel and say, hey, my 50 is the start. I'm going to start stronger and bounce back higher and stronger than ever. And that's come with this wisdom come with age. My daughter just turned 21 two days ago and my son's turning 23 next month. I'm not expecting my kids to figure out everything in their 20s. So don't expect everything will come ready in your 20 or 30, not even in the 40. You just have to add up the skills and the wisdom as you go. Don't hate the age, love it, welcome it. It will come with a lot of fulfillment, a lot.
Speaker 00
13:23
Yeah, I feel like another part of your message is really like leaning into the curiosity of like what can happen next? What other opportunities are there for me? Rather than feeling like it has to, Be filled with fear or judgment or perfectionism. Like just lean into that curiosity that you might have about what is possible.
Speaker 01
13:46
Yes, that's a very important word, Stephanie. Curiosity is very important. It's like equal to innovation. Because if you are not curious about what's coming, I mean, what else in life? If I lost the sense of innovation and curiosity and just seeking, that's what we're all doing in life. You and me and everyone, we keep searching. for the best version of ourselves. We keep learning. We are student of life, right? If I lose that ability to be curious and to be innovate in my ideas and stop dreaming, then what's left is just a numb life. Every day is the same like yesterday. And I don't call that a life. That's not a life.
Speaker 00
14:26
Yeah, it's definitely not a life. That's very exciting or very fulfilling, I imagine, if you're in that place where you're just kind of in a circle and doing the same thing every single day.
Speaker 01
14:36
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And action breeds the confidence like they say. Like when my client come and said, I'm an engineer, but I love to ride. I'm an engineer, I love to paint. I'm an engineer, but I love to cook. I said, what do you have done towards that dream? Well, I just love it. Well, without action, You're not gonna gain the confidence to move on in your business. You're not gonna figure out everything, Stephanie, the first year or the first even five years. I changed my niche two years ago. I used to be international transition expert, only guiding women who came to United States internationally, legally with engineering degree. I was helping them with fulfilling their American dream. I changed that niche. I become a business coach because I felt like I fulfilled that niche It's time for me to thrive and challenge myself as well. And changing niche, it's not a simple thing. So as we go, as we age, and going back to your curiosity point, we learn as we go. Don't expect you're going to figure out everything at one time. You have to fail. You have to get a lot of no rejection. I can write a book about the rejection letter and email I got in my life. but it's shape who I am. Don't expect everybody will cheer for you and clap for you. Actually, that clapping doesn't help at all because you're not going to evolve. You're not going to gain more skills. But the rejection, if they are really honest with you, if they reject you at work, if they reject you in a book session, they reject you in a speaking gigs, they will tell you what is missing and you take what's missing and you work on it. and you're gonna become a better version of yourself. So you're not gonna figure it out all at once. You gotta go through the process and the phases.
Speaker 00
16:36
Yeah, I heard something in there that I wanna really highlight for the listener of like, even if you're rejection, maybe there's, or you receive rejection, there's this way to reframe it of thinking about it as like just an opportunity to grow and to challenge yourself and see it as feedback to continue growing to evolve rather than like a stopping point where you just need to like give up.
Speaker 01
17:02
Totally. And this is funny what I'm saying, but I had a couple of rejection and, you know, in business and work-wise. The people who reject me for that particular project, they are best friends with me now. We are best friends. We learn from each other. I was not fit for that place. And it was for my own benefit. You get upset in the beginning and you start questioning your abilities. Like, okay, I apply to be part of that speaking gigs. What does he or she mean that I don't fit that platform? Well, you are not. Not everything is personal. When we are younger, we tend to take everything personal. I was when I was in my 20s and 30s. I thought the whole universe against me. Why? Nobody has time to think about us, right? Everybody's busy talking. building their own life. When you hit your 40 and 50 and you start thinking, this is not personal, but even if it's personal, let's look at the positive side of it. If they reject you on a speaking gigs or they reject to be part of the book project or they reject you in a promotion, let's think about it deeply. What is it there for me? And when you really sit down And look at it by yourself. You will see that it's happened for your own benefit. And you're going to bounce back in a better opportunity. Those people I told you that, like I still remember, they are a good friend of me now. We keep talking and we meet for lunch and dinner. But back then, a couple of years ago, when I approached them for certain project, they were part of it. I was rejected. But I learned. I learned a lot from that.
Speaker 00
18:46
Yeah, I'm curious in that example, what do you think really allowed you to like let go of they've rejected me and create this relationship with them that is ongoing? Because I think that could be really helpful for maybe people to consider when they receive a rejection.
Speaker 01
19:03
Yes, yeah. When you get the rejection letter or email or job or business, both is the same. You have a business, you have a job like me. At the moment when you receive the rejection, I'm not expecting you to dance and sing. Say, yay, I got rejected. That's abnormal. We are human beings, right? You put your effort, you sweat about it, you surge, you put money, training, skills, everything. You put your soul on it. And here it is, the email saying you are not qualified. Well, go through it. What I tell my client, never brush things away. When things really bothering you, and you know this way better than me, you have to green, you know, and that I'm not going to compete with you on that. When the things really bothering you, if you don't go through it and digest it, learn from it, it's going to come back again in an ugliest way, in way much uglier, right? But if you face it and said, okay, let me look at the email. Let me see what was the reason for the rejection or what was the reason for rejecting me and the business opportunity. And think about it alone. Don't start listening to the noise around you. Not everybody giving you advice are even qualified to give you advice. You have to make sure who's really giving you the advice, right? And when you go through it, you don't brush it off and kind of like sleep on it. We say like sleep on it, right? Sleep on that rejection. Let it sit right there for a couple of days. Then go back and read it. Go back and analysis the situation. And within a month, maybe less than a month, you will find out it's happened for your own good. That was the best things happen because there is something else better lineup for you. That's not you. It's not personal. It doesn't suit your ability. It doesn't suit your charisma. It doesn't suit your personality. That's peace. It's happened to be built for somebody else. But we think at the moment when we get the rejection, oh, I'm not too good. I'm old. I'm ugly. I'm not skinny. I'm whatever. We label ourselves. We are guilty of labeling ourselves the bad things. Nobody say those things. It's not on the rejection email, but we tend to only pick up the bad things and label it to ourselves. But if we really think about it and let us sit and think about it later, we find out that's happened for our own good.
Speaker 02
Yeah.
Speaker 01
21:43
And again, it's come with aging. I was not that wise when I was in my 20s. It's come with so many rejections.
Speaker 00
21:52
Well, I want to highlight again, I feel like this is kind of what you're really saying is like you are talking about resilience, right? Like receive a rejection, you... look at it, you internalize some of it, you leave what doesn't fit, you look at other opportunities, you really examine it rather than just kind of allow it to be this emotional roller coaster and then just push it aside. You like really are encouraging not just other people, but yourself to like build that inner resilience that I think is so needed in today's world, especially for women. I think as their career continues to evolve, like from, you know, from 40 till retirement.
Speaker 01
22:35
Yeah, those things, those call life, right? Like, let's not always say it's called life. I love when he say it. It's life action. It's life task. It's life event. Those things will shape you. It's make you make who you are now. You wake up in the morning and if you, not just manifesting, if you decide to make your day is the best day It's going to become a good day. Even if you go to the first stop in your day, if you go to the grocery shop and the cashier is really rude to you, don't take it in a way that he just have problem with you or he hate you. The cashier don't know you. The cashier at the grocery store, maybe, maybe I'm just making up a scenario. He might receive a call from the doctor saying that his son have a rare disease. He's stressed out. So when he's rude to you, I'm not suggesting that they should be rude to you. They receive a bad phone call. But don't put it on yourself. Don't say, oh, I wake up this morning and I decided to be a great. And here you go. The first stop I did, the cashier was rude to me. He's racist. He's bad. He's rude. Let me call the manager and let me complain about him. Well, you ruin your day by yourself. That person don't know you. They were trying to work, but it happened that you become in front of their face in a very bad timing. So again, Stephanie, like I said earlier, those things come by practicing life, by going through up and down, the roller coaster, like you said, the success and the failure, the excitement and the disappointment. Those things shape you. If I wake up every day and everything looks perfect, then what is the lesson? What I'm learning, I'm the same version of yesterday. But when you get those slaps and blocks and obstacles and wall that require you to climb, on the other side, you'll be like, whoa, I did it. I cannot believe I did it. You just have to go through them. Don't brush them off because they're going to come back in a very ugly way. You just have to take them That's another thing like resilience. Adapt it because things are changing so dramatically, so quick. When I compare engineering world or business world from 10 years ago before AI and before JGPT and before all those smart people who are inventing apps that make your life easy, imagine how much we have to learn to keep up. You don't have to be genius, but you just have to cope. You have to adopt the change so you can move on. Don't be scared from the change and say, I'm an old school. I graduated in the 90 or in the 80. Then I'm not learning this artificial intelligence. I'm avoiding. That's not a good idea. The best idea is to cope with the change, learn it and move on. Live and learn.
Speaker 00
25:48
Yeah, this is making me think of a lot of things that I talk about with clients when they find themselves feeling like stuck or not willing to like learn something or adapt. And it's like, well, you've done it before, right? You didn't get here in this life position that you're in now just from like not learning anything or staying the same. Like you can learn, you can adapt. Look how far you've come from the time that you were a teenager to the time that you were you know in your early 20s or whatever like you have the skills to continue to evolve let's tap into that because saying that you can't learn something new or that you don't have interest in trying something different you're only getting in your own way
Speaker 01
26:29
yeah and you mentioned a word stuck and I'm sure in your practice you hear that a lot maybe more than me because your nature of practice a little bit different than mine
Speaker 02
yeah
Speaker 01
26:42
That word overused and people don't find a good word. They said, I'm stuck. Okay, I'm stuck in my weight. I can lose weight. I done everything. And when they said everything, it will be like, okay, what's everything mean? I'm stuck in my relationship. I did everything. He's still a bad person. I'm stuck with a bad friend. I did everything. What does everything mean? I don't know what's everything mean. Did you really did everything to get out of that stuck mode? I don't think so. When we feel stuck, what I tell my client is, that's mean you are not moving. You are stagnant. You feel stuck because you're doing the same practice every day. This is why you feel stuck. Like your foot in the mud. You are not able to get out of that mud because you are in the same spot. To get out of that stuck, the first thing is just to jump out of that situation. Just do dramatic action. You're stuck in a relationship and you know that relationship is not working well for you. Just end it. Then you are not going to be stuck anymore. Just cut that toxic relationship and start something new. You are not stuck anymore because you jump out of that situation. You're stuck in a job that you don't like. Okay. Do you know that you can find another job? Maybe. Okay. Take action. If you find another job, guess what? You are not stuck. You're moving away from that bad situation. You're only stuck if you're doing the same thing every day. And that's applied to losing weight as well. People say, I've done everything. I speak about myself. I want to lose the last 10 pounds because I used to be a swimming coach and I always have ideal body. But after having two kids and hitting my 50, it's a little bit more challenging. I'm not going to be... saying hard, but it's more challenging to lose that extra pound like before. But it's not impossible. People have done it. So when people come to you and say, I've done everything, you should just ask them, what does everything mean? Can you list what's everything? Because everything is endless, right? And I don't think people have done everything to reach what they want. They might have done one or two, but not everything. We have to choose our words so wisely. And they teach us in the ICF, you know, when we get certified for the ACC for being a coach, they said, we tend to try when we speak with our client to tweak and change the connotation of word, like making it from negative connotation to positive connotation. And sometimes with some client, it's hard. As you know, you practice it every day. They just want to feel victim and they want you to believe they are victimized and you have to feel sorry for them and they are not lucky and people are treating them bad for whatever reason. They are comfortable in that situation. And those are clients are hard to coach or, you know, treat in your practice as well. Yeah.
Speaker 00
29:58
Yeah. And I think sometimes There's a space for like validation and honoring. Like, yeah, shit is hard and it's hard. And like you do have some autonomy here and choice to do something different, to think about it differently, to see life in a variety of colors, not just in this like very black and white way that you seem to be like feeling like it's comfortable.
Unknown
Yeah.
Speaker 00
30:28
or familiar maybe is a better word. It's like familiar to be like in this, everything is bad, everything is hard, I can't do it place. But if you actually like want to be out of that place, you need to get a little uncomfortable and like push the ways that you think about your life and your place in it.
Speaker 01
30:48
Yeah, and avoid too much analysis and too much going back to the same point on and on and analysis the way how people did it, I did it, and giving facts and bullet and make the small events such a huge event. We tend to like not only exaggerate things, but we tend to give bigger size to things that's really small. Like the same example I said about the cashier. I mean, it's just a bad incident. Just move on, just move on. Don't talk about that incident. I went to the cashier. The guy was very rude. I end up calling the manager. He was racist. He hates me. He talked to me down. It's not. It's just a bad incident. And it's happened 10 o'clock in the morning. You're dragging that until you sleep. That's wasting time and energy. And you lost that energy and that positive aura that you carried in the morning for one incident. which is not personal. It's hard, Stephanie. What I'm saying is not easy to be done because, again, when I was younger, just like a lot of younger people, we feel like everything should be perfect. I should not get that rude cashier in front of me. I should not get rejection letter. I should not get denied by a job opportunity. I should not be denied about any relationship. But life, the reality is the opposite. You're going to be up and down until you die. It's the key is how to find the joy in your daily activity and just take the best out of it and find something that's really excite you. That's what I tell my midlife client. I said, don't talk about the job all the time. Tell me what's really excite you. What is that one hobby that you really love to do in the weekend? Are you writing, reading, gardening, knitting, painting? What do you really enjoy? And do that more. And when I asked them, they said, yeah, when we do those hobbies, we don't feel the time and effort. We feel like the clock, is this three hours I've been just writing or just reading a book? Just find those stuff that's hidden, that is sleep inside you and bring them up and enjoy them and make them like books I call it in my business, your hidden gem. Make it your core genius and thrive on them and make them a side business and enjoy them. So when you have something in a side that you really look forward to it in the weekend, you're going to stop complaining about your boss or stop complaining about daily things happen to you because you cannot wait that what will be done at five o'clock or the weekend or the holidays coming that you're going to practice your business more and more. because it's something that you really thrive on. Don't push it away. It's in you. Each one of us had that hidden gem. And what is the better than a midlife woman to start thriving in their hidden gem when they are in their midlife? When they see that their kid's more independent, they can have more time alone with their partner, you travel more, you read more, you spend more quality time. Just pick up what's really excite you and make it a business and life will be different.
Speaker 00
34:26
Yeah, it sounds like you really encourage people to like lean in to what their passions are and figure out how they can make that into something that is maybe like more prominent in their life rather than focusing on all the things that maybe they would identify as make their life like monotonous or unexciting or unfulfilling.
Speaker 01
34:46
Yeah, because life, it's messy. People are messy. Human, we are messy, right? I mean, there is no manual. There is no book I can give you and I say, Stephanie, if you come to the engineering world, read this manual and you are good to go. Well, you are not. There is no manual for people. You know that. You have a degree about, you know, dealing with this. And you might even speak about this part way better than me. People are different. People are way different. You see them outside for lunch or happy hours. They are totally different than at work. At work, they wear different masks. We all wear different masks. I can be exactly the same as a mom or as an engineer. As a mom, I give love and attention and support to my kids. Same face you see at work, I don't blink. I have to give that tough face like she know her numbers. Don't mess with me. The design is wrong, right? Because I'm not giving love and attention to the co-worker. I'm here to make the job done correctly and precisely, right? I have to be precise and concise in my statement and my calculation. I'm an engineer. There is no mistake here. But at home, it's different. You argue with your kids. You have disagreement with your partner. That's personal life. So... The more we learn, the more we listen. I feel like communication, it's the best. I think I have it even as a post in my Instagram last year. Communication, it's the best trade. It's the best skills that you need to learn in order to start a business. You can have a PhD degree. You can have a 10 PhD degree. But if you lack of communication skills, you cannot go anywhere. And communication, the first one-on-one communication rule is be a better listener. Sometimes your client come. I'm sure you're going to agree with this. My client, your client, they come. All they need just to listen to them. They have nobody that listen to them. So they have needs is not being met. They have gap of loves that's not being given when they were younger or when they were, you know, in teenage, whatever. So they have those needs that nobody met those needs and they want you to listen to them. I have some client, all they need that I listened to their bad day and I remind them after 10 minutes, I said, this is not a venting event, right? You're not here to just to vent, I'm your coach. Can you tell me what is the goal for the session? And just after I listened 10 minutes to them, their face, even their energy to speak with me is totally different because I was able to listen to them. So communication is very important. And I'm sure you know that during your practice every day.
Speaker 02
Yeah.
Speaker 00
37:53
Yeah, I think people undervalue what listening to other people does for themselves, as well as like for the person that they're listening to. And that like mutual exchange, I think can really help people. Yeah, like, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 01
It's
Speaker 00
38:36
not rocket science to listen to another
Speaker 01
38:39
person. Well, basic are important because as we go and become a better communicator and better listener, you get that skills that you can read between the lines. In the beginning, when I started my business, I thought listening is just saying, okay, let me take notes. It's not. Sometimes actually what they are saying is not exactly what they are really bothered about. That's not exactly why they are absent or they want you to listen to them. But when you surprise them, telling them that I read between the lines and I think you're having a bad day because such, oh, how do you know? I didn't even say it. Well, the more you listen, the more your communication skill level up, you will have the ability to really understand and translate what's between the lines. And again, that's come with aging. So look for aging. It has a lot of benefits. A lot of things will get better with aging. So don't learn from aging.
Speaker 00
39:41
So I just wanted to wrap up here and have you share where people can find you or connect with you to work with you.
Speaker 01
39:49
Yes. So in general, I feel like I taught all my life. I taught swimming. I taught engineering, communication, leadership, team leading. I love teaching. I love to teach women and men Both need help to take them from A to B. If you look at my skills, the reason why my coaching style is a little bit different, I merge my IQ and EQ. I use my strategy thinking and solving equation and designing a building on a bridge. All my numbers should add up. Same thing with my consultation and my coaching. When you come to me, if I am not capable to take you from A to B, I'm going to tell you, you are not a best fit for me. So if you want any, for the sake of your audience, if they want any technology, engineering guidance or consultation, they can reach me at my LinkedIn, Seyran Akrawi. If they mention your name, Stephanie, and if they are a regular listener to your podcast, they will get a complimentary one hour consultation with me and LinkedIn. And, but if they want, if on the other side, they want to start a business, And they are clear about what's really their hidden gem or what is that one talent that they want to thrive and make it a side business. Also, they can mention your name and your platform and they get one hour consultation complimentary with me by an Instagram, say Rana Krawi. And those are complimentary, no charge, which I normally charge. They can even search. I charge good money about it.
Speaker 00
41:29
Well, that's very nice of you. Hopefully a lot of people take you up on that.
Speaker 01
41:33
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for having me at your platform.
Speaker 00
41:38
Yes, thank you. And I just want to share with everyone all this information will be in the show notes as well. So you can find it there. So hopefully you will connect with her. And yeah, thank you so much for being on. It's been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you. Thank you all for listening. I hope you found some inspiration, validation, had some questions answered, or just enjoyed listening to this week's episode. I encourage you to check out our website, well-minded counseling.com backslash redefining us pod for any resources that were mentioned in today's episode, check out my new program on our website as well for first-time moms, where you can join other women entering into motherhood. The program offers three phases, phase one, exploring where you are on your journey towards motherhood and connecting with this new identity. Phase two, preparing your mind, body, and spirit for giving birth. And phase three, reconnecting to yourself while caring for your baby. I truly appreciate if you leave a review and rating so other women can find us as well. Thank you all for listening again and keep on connecting with yourself and with others in the community and redefining us.