Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nancy Mueller. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nancy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I started teaching self-defense classes in 1998 when I was a student, competitor and teacher in the martial arts. It was easy getting clients because I loved talking about the benefits of feeling confident based on what I was learning as a martial artist.

Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher and when women started paying me to teach them how to feel confident and protected, I will always remember the day I was standing in front of a classroom full of students when the realization hit me that my desire to become a teacher had manifested!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a child, I learned to keep secrets. Secrets that included the mental, verbal and physical abuse that escalated to sexual abuse by the age of 12. At the time, I had no way of knowing that these secrets kept me feeling powerless because of my painful childhood experiences. There was no one to turn to at that time and the people that should have been protecting me were the people I most needed protection from!

I always wanted to be a teacher because I had several teachers that I felt safe around and wanted to somehow pay that forward. It wasn’t until I became a mother that I felt the need to find a way to believe in myself and feel more confident. I wanted to be a better mother than the mother who raised me and martial arts taught me how to feel like I had taken my power back. The more empowered I felt, the more I promised myself that I would spend the rest of my life teaching other women how to take back their own power!

Martial Arts taught me the physical aspect of learning what I am capable of. The more I studied, I soon became aware of the non-physical (mindset) teachings as well. As I began teaching the mindset work in my self-defense classes, I could see that this was the information women were benefitting from and my work organically transitioned from the physical to the non-physical (mindset) work I do today.

I have reinvented myself many times over the years, and each time, there were two things that remained consistent:

#1: A CLEAR DECISION TO LET GO: making a conscious choice to release old beliefs, habits, or roles that no longer served me. Letting go of the past allowed me to embrace new possibilities and grow into the person I wanted to become!

#2: A DEEP TRUST IN THE PROCESS: reinvention often involves uncertainty, but I trusted the journey and my teachers. Even without knowing exactly how things would unfold, I maintained faith in my ability to adapt and thrive, which gave me the courage to step into the unknown!

These two elements, letting go and trusting the process, are powerful drivers in any personal transformation.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a child I had created self-limiting and self-sabotaging beliefs about myself that my adult-self was still holding onto. At the time, I didn’t believe it was possible to think about my childhood without feeling the emotional pain that went with it. When I finally allowed myself to believe what my teachers were telling me, I experienced the happiness of realizing that it is possible to heal the pain from childhood experiences. That’s when I was finally able to celebrate my power instead of reliving my pain.

Goals, dreams and aspirations don’t always turn out like you thought they would. The more I worked on me and the more empowered I felt, I could also see changes in my personal and professional relationships. My husband of 32 years asked me for a divorce and the bottom fell out of my world. I lost everything, but this time, I had the mindset tools to carry me through the hero’s journey of my divorce.

I rebuilt my life around my purpose and my passion; teaching others that “it’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what you do with what happens!”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Divorce can create a whole new set of limiting beliefs about yourself; just when I finally felt I was worthy to teach what I was teaching, divorce made me feel like an impostor because my life was imploding!

Instead of giving into my limiting beliefs, I wrote and published my first book. This was my way of letting people know about the road that had gotten me to where I was before my divorce had been full of childhood trauma but the road I wanted to travel as I was putting my divorce behind me would not be full of secrets, it would be full of reasons about why I deserve to enjoy my best life!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.masteringyourbeliefs.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancybeginnings/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyBeginnings
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancybeginnings/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NancyBeginnings
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NancyMuellerLifeSensei
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sensei-nancy-mueller-huntington-beach?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
• Other: Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/senseinancy