Eva is one of those women who truly knows how to empower women everywhere and her journey, of course, had to start with working on herself. After many difficult moments in her life she eventually made the decision to reconnect with herself in order to be the best she could be. Today she is a successful Entrepreneur, Coach and widely read Author. In this interview she provides us with very important messages that are relevant to all those who seek perfection. And, through a series of valuable tips, Eva explains that perfection is just the expectation we have for ourselves. As an author she has received very positive feedback and her book, “Stop Believing The BS !: 7 Steps to Awaken Your Feminine Power” provides an essential guide for every woman who seeks to be empowered. It has also made her one of the most clicked authors on Amazon.
Eva, as an entrepreneur, when did you realise that it was time to embark on this journey?
I always felt in my heart a deeper calling to help women on a different scale from a really young age but I did not know how to embark on this journey. So, I had to go through my own growth and self-development journey in order to better help others. I went through big transformational challenges in my life which I now realise were wake-up calls. I came to understood that I was playing small, I was on the wrong path and I was disconnecting from myself. The biggest wake-up call was when I lost a baby and I had no other choice than to reconnect with myself and feel the pain and suffering at a time when nobody could really help me. I had to find my own path. Since then I have done endless training in order to be able to serve, to spark transformation and to inspire. I trained personally with Tony Robbins being a Platinum Member, and completed full training suites with Brandon Bays, Viana Stibal, Joe Dispenza, John Grinder and many others while also working full time as ‘Head of Innovation and Commercial Digital Transformation’ at one of the top three Pharmaceutical companies in the world. I embraced my courage to step beyond my own fears in order to be an example for other women and for my daughters. Three years ago, after twenty years of self-preparation I finally felt it was time to rise as well and share it with the world more openly.
What were the first barriers you encountered?
I first encountered my own fears; fears of other’s judgment, fears of being rejected, fears of not being good enough and the fear of not being understood. I was lucky, because each time I face a fear, subconsciously I challenge myself to face it.
At the beginning of my adult life I was more focused on pleasing others and on treading the path I was supposed to, instead of following my inner calling. I wanted to be successful and to be the perfect wife, perfect mum and perfect career woman to regain the love I never felt. But, of course, as I was coming from a place of lack, lack of self-love, lack of self-respect and lack of self-acceptance then I only encountered the opposite in life. I ended up getting married, having kids, a successful career and a beautiful house. But if you had asked me: “Were you happy?”, I could not reply to this question as I was no longer connected with my own feelings. I was reaching out to others instead of connecting with myself. I was living the life of others instead of my own.
How do you manage to help women?
Thanks to my mum, Edith, who was a successful entrepreneur and who always taught me to go for my dreams, I always felt the calling to be an example to other women. Many friends were coming to me for advice. Twenty years ago, when I started my own professional life I also started to mentor colleagues and friends. I ended up training myself in coaching to better support them and slowly many women clients started contacting me for support. That’s when my self-development journey really started as a trainer, coach, mentor, consultant and teacher. Then I realised I did not have enough time, as I still had to dedicate time to my corporate job, my family and myself.
I continuously train myself and I love it. So, last year I challenged myself to write my first book: “STOP BELIEVING THE B.S. 7 steps to awaken your feminine power”, as a tribute to female empowerment and to inspire women to stop playing small in life and to embrace their own natural gifts and shine them to the world. We need more women leaders in this world and nobody can do it for us, we need to rise up!
The book became an International and #1 Best Seller in less than 24 hours. Suddenly I could not hide myself anymore. I could not hide my hobby from my family or from my colleagues so I decided to go full on and newly create the “Global Women Leadership Academy”. The purpose of the Academy is to inspire as many women as possible to embrace their feminine superpowers so they feel unleashed and fulfilled. Under the umbrella of the Academy I offer many different trainings such as “STOP BELIEVING THE B.S.” which is a seven week program based on the book’s seven steps reframe to spark self-confidence, empowerment and the courage to skyrocket their life. My mission and vision is to lead coaching programs, masterminds and retreats to best support the next generation of strong, confident, grounded female leaders.
Throughout your career you have encountered many women who are afraid of prejudice and who have got stuck somewhere with their lives. Can you tell us some of their stories?
Indeed I have met and I still meet a lot of women who are stuck in their own beliefs, feeling weaker and feeling less smart than their male counterparts. They never feel prepared before accepting a new corporate role and think they need to compromise between their career and their family. They feel that they have to constantly choose instead of feeling they deserve it all and sacrificing themselves almost all of the time. I have been there too and it is suffocating. Then one day we understand that we need to change because the pain is so high that we have no other choice than to take a chance and make a different choice or try a different decision at least for once. Yes, it is scary, but there is no other way than taking the lead and being willing to change.
It all starts inside of ourselves. Anything that happens in our life is a reflection of our inner story and inner beliefs. So, if we want to change our lives we need to start by changing our inner story. It is not about others, it is about us.
Throughout my career I have met many women who are extremely competitive, even towards each other; trying to be strong and decisive like men. Simply because it was the way they learned by copying male examples.
I myself, started in a male dominated industry where you soon understand that you need to behave like a man to be respected, heard and understood. You need to take decisions fast and you need to be assertive. I heard many times that I should not be too feminine or too sensitive or too emotional.If you ask me today, these are all lies we believe in. For the last ten years, I have been fighting for my own identity and the more I have respected my own gifts and my feminine energy, the more I have shared myself authentically with self-confidence and the more I had an impact in my life and in my career. In allowing myself to own and share my intuition, my sensitivity, my empathy, my creativity and at the same time working on my limiting beliefs, I have seen a huge transformation in my life. I divorced, moved countries, got promoted several times, met my soul mate, recreated a beautiful family and started my own business to empower other women to do the same.
Right now, I am teaching a group of women through one of the programs of the “Global Women’s Academy”. They are all extremely powerful women, even though they might not recognise it. One of them has so much to offer to the world: enormous wisdom and huge love, but she is so afraid of her own power and the traumas of the past that she is only now, slowly opening to the possibility that life has much more to offer than only challenges. Almost all women have the feeling that they are not good enough or not powerful enough and are striving for perfection instead of fulfilment.
Having worked with hundreds of women, I realized that they were rejecting their own power by misunderstanding its origin. They often think it means overruling others instead of owning themselves and their own gifts or being afraid of abusing others. They are afraid of triggering big changes in their lives, afraid of being rejected, not loved, not appreciated. So they often played weak as a consequence and rejected any responsibility for their own lives.
How do you assess the contribution of women in society today? Their role and the challenges they have?
Women leaders are needed more than ever in society today. The dynamics are changing. We now see women governing countries and they are starting to be recognised for it. Others are leading big corporations – but it is still the exception. We congratulate ourselves when we achieve a top position and rightfully so, as most of the time it has required colossal effort. I am waiting for a time when we no longer need to congratulate ourselves simply for achieving this as a woman because it is the norm. Women leaders are showing new traits, caring for their teams, their people, their companies, their countries. They are leading from their heart and not only their head. They use their intuition as much as their smartness. Their empathy level is far more developed. They do not focus only on what needs to be done but also on how it needs to be done in order to bring the highest impact. But of course, all of this is true only if they are aligned with themselves, living authentically and in harmony with themselves.
I truly believe women and men are complementary when they are in balance. Being a woman is being a creation of many factors going far beyond the physiological. Feminine radiance is feeling, sensitivity, openness, empathy, loving, intuition, nurturing, caring and compassionate. It is not about our body type, our sexuality, our hair style, or how we dress up. It is entirely about our inner self and how we project ourselves in life. The feminine is about ‘being’ while the masculine is about ‘doing’. Over the years we were all trained, men and women alike, to reject our feminine side. In misunderstanding its openness, sensitivity – and viewing empathy as weakness, we thought we had to reject our emotions to be strong. But actually, it takes courage to be truly open. It takes strength to be in truth, and to speak the truth.
The pressure on women is high nowadays; we are supposed to be perfect wives, perfect mums, perfect friends and perfect career women. We are not taught to take care of ourselves but simply to serve others or serve a higher cause. Most end up exhausted at some point in their life as it is far too demanding.
Is there a secret to how women can become perfect?
Perfection is simply the level of expectation we have of ourselves to thrive and to be the best at all times. It is also how much we need to prove ourselves to others and to ourselves. It is a way to seek love, acceptance and belonging.
Perfection only exists in our own mind. By letting go of the need to be perfect we realise we are already perfect the way we are. Life is a growth and self-development playground and by understanding this we can then relax as we understand that every challenge is perfect because it allows us to grow anyway! Seeking for perfection leads us towards a life of anxiety, while living a life of self-appreciation leads us towards fulfillment and inner wisdom.
The secret really is to “Stop Believing the BS” – so whenever you notice a belief that does anything but superpower you just face it and let go of it! Allow yourself to be the perfect creature you already are.
Eva as the author of “Stop Believing The B.S.!: 7 Steps to Awaken Your Feminine Power”, what did this book change for you? And also for the public that read it?
This book gave me the courage to follow my path. In my mind I wrote this book for one woman only that I wanted to help. I was not focusing on many women but just one. I even gave her the name of ‘Ana’, and if I could help her then I would feel fulfilled. I was not expecting the book to have such an amazing impact and ending up being a multi #1 international best seller. I received lots of beautiful and spontaneous feedback from many women around the world such as the following:
“Your book gave me someone who understood and dared to go beneath the surface, with clear understanding and explanations and extremely fast, simple exercises that work to change not just how to lead our lives more powerfully, but also showing us how to simply make changes from the inside to give us a better quality of life all round! It’s a unique book and a refreshing read”.
Many women reached out to me as they finally felt understood and heard. This book is a tribute to feminine power and leadership, to inspire women to skyrocket their lives. The book is filled with many exercises and tips they can apply from day-to-day to empower them in upgrading their beliefs. We are all driven by purpose and by service, so this book gives them the clues as to how they can embrace their power to have a bigger impact in the world and consequently contribute to a better world.
Do you have moments when you yourself feel tired or exhausted and, if so, how do you overcome them?
Definitely. I am driven by challenge, I love feeling that I am growing and I love feeling I am helping others in their self-growth. It feeds my soul and it gives me energy. But indeed, being a corporate leader driving the transformation of a big Pharma, being a mum of three, a wife,a coach and leading my own academy often leads to moments when I need to stop and take care of myself. I meditate every day, I have my own coaches, I also exercise every day, I eat healthily and when nothing else works a little bit of Swiss dark chocolate helps!
What is the motto that best characterizes you?
I have two mottos, the first one is that I can do everything in life if I choose to! And the second one is that life is a reflection of my inner world, so if I want to change my outer world I need to start by changing my inner story.
If you would like to learn how you can awaken your feminine power and transform your life, grab your copy of Eva’s powerful guide; “7 Steps To Manifest Your Goals Effectively”. In this free guide you can find out everything you need to manifest your goals, attract exactly what you want in your life and start your journey of transformation. Grab your copy now: www.evamartins.com/manifest
