Apr 24, 2018
What does a doula, massage therapist, high school math teacher, and a 7-figure relationship expert have in common?
Meet Marla Mattenson. She’s a successful coach who works with entrepreneur couples to strengthen their relationships and business. In this episode, she threads the pieces of her random past together to prove that you can leverage one core skillset to create endless opportunities throughout every leg of your journey.
Episode Topics
- Parallels between childbirth and entrepreneurship
- ‘Doula’ defined
- Communication and trust as an expertise
- Self-reflection and pivoting after trauma
- Entrepreneur’s intuition and listening to your calling
- Do you have an affinity for intensity?
- The impact of a trustworthy inner-city high school math teacher
- Earning trust to help clients through intimate issues
- Applying an entrepreneurial spirit as a teacher
- Why Marla doesn’t believe in fixed incomes
- Finding opportunity on a plane. Again. (see episode 7)
- How hiring a money mindset coach boosted Marla’s self-confidence
- Doula clients vs. relationship coaching clients
[5:39] Born entrepreneur: Since age 11,
Marla's monetized everything she's done from babysitting to
hand-crafted jewelry.
[7:17] Starting line: In 1993, she became a pregnancy massage therapist and one of her teachers mentioned she'd make a good doula. Turns out, she did.
[8:01] Realizing potential: Began working with couples as a postpartum doula — coaching them through high-intensity moments.
[9:22] "The intensity of how comfortable I can be living in the unknown, flying blind, living by my vision without anybody else paving the path ahead of me. I'm paving my own path. That's kind of what birth is."
[13:01] Traumatic transition: Marla was in an accident that rolled her car down Topanga Canyon in L.A.
[15:06] Soul searching: She took a month off to heal, meditate, and self-reflect. "If I had another life to live, what would I do?"
[15:31] Pivoting: Went back to school to
be an OBGYN but changed majors to Mathematics. Earned her Masters
in Mathematics and Medical and Life Sciences at
UCLA.
[20:33] Increasing impact: Took her drive
for math into the classroom and taught math to inner-city high
schoolers in L.A. for 7 years.
[20:53] Continued education: With the support of Math for America, Marla earned a national board certification and taught math and Pedagogy to teachers across the US.
[22:17] Seeing opportunity: "I was
hired initially at a school with a principal who was very open to
me developing programs, so I did a lot of project-based
learning."
[22:58] Honoring entrepreneur spirit: Marla's methods were recognized by a man who helped with project-based learning around the country. He trained her personally —leading to more opportunities.
[24:17] Earning client trust: "You'll never get hired as a doula or anybody who's really gonna help someone through something intimate unless people trust you...People tend to feel very safe with me."
[29:18] Entrepreneur’s intuition: Felt the pull to coach couples full time and hired a high-level entrepreneur business money mindset coach.
[31:06] Shifting into expertise: “[My coach] did for me what I'd been doing for others all these years which was to help me see, 'Oh, I can believe in myself as much as I can believe in others."
[32:35] Same skills, different format: Marla applied the same skillset as a doula to working with entrepreneur couples.
[36:56] Opportunity seeker at heart: "I don't believe in fixed incomes...there's always more you can do to uplevel if you're not happy with how much money you're bringing in."
[37:25] Opportunity everywhere: A man made conversation with Marla on a plane. He was the president of CBS in LA and offered to have her on a show.
[38:03] First client connection: Marla compares her first paying clients as a doula to her first clients as a relationship expert.
[40:54] Channeling energy: "I'm just a vessel here. I get myself out of the way more and more so [energy] can easily and effortlessly really channel through me so people get results."
“You have to not be looking for opportunities to really miss them.”
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