We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paula Swope. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paula below.

Paula, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Success is earning wealth by doing what you love to do. The moment something feels like work, you’re in a danger zone for attracting things you don’t want. I learned this the hard way, so I can confidently speak on this. Here’s the deal.

People are conditioned to believe they must work hard in a job they hate to earn money. They accept that belief and find a job to pay their bills. They settle. They conform. They allow an employer to own their time, and they engage in things that make them miserable daily. They dedicate their lives to helping someone else achieve their dreams instead of dedicating their lives to achieving their own dreams. People become burned out, resentful, hateful, and tired. And the worst part of this madness is that they still don’t have enough money to do what they want to do.

I lived that life for many years. It got me nowhere. In 2015, I took a huge leap of faith and left jobs that disempowered me. I vowed to myself that I would never allow anyone to own my most precious asset, my time. When I quit that job, I said, “I will never wake up to an alarm clock ever again.” Each day, that alarm clock went off at the crack of dawn, and the sound automatically put me in flight or fight mode, and the day hadn’t even started. That life wasn’t for me. Overworked and grossly underpaid? I don’t think so.

Five days out of seven, I was exhausted, miserable, and irritated. I talked about how exhausted, miserable, and irritated I was constantly. When I wasn’t at work, I was talking about work. My low energy attracted poor health, sleep deprivation, weight gain, stress, high blood pressure, bad habits, hateful tongue, and brain fog. I couldn’t articulate my thoughts, which I hadn’t struggled with before. I was afraid to speak my truth, and my relationships suffered. Overall, I felt lesser than others because I was reminded how unimportant I was five days out of seven. The other days of the week, Saturday and Sunday, were spent dreading Monday.

I call myself a “Former Conformer.” I tried conforming, and it nearly stole my spunk. I am grateful for my days as a conformer because I learned a valuable lesson that made me wise, and you can’t put a price tag on wisdom. The lesson I learned is the true meaning of success.

Success is owning your time. Successful people know their dharma and use their unique talents to serve others while making a fortune. Success is waking up feeling enthusiastic about the day. “Work” never feels like work. The word “job” is no longer in a successful person’s vocabulary. Successful people fulfill their dreams, and others benefit from them. A successful person’s health improves because of their work, and their feel-good energy trickles down to the people they serve. That’s success.

If you had asked me this question 20 years ago, I would’ve immediately said, “Money!” A Rolex and a fancy car would’ve come to mind. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love anything luxurious, but material things are nothing more than a source of happiness. You grind, go after your dreams, and when they pay off, you get the monetary rewards, but true success is freedom in every sense of the word.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

In 2015, I started my own grant-writing consulting business, which was my career path until May 2021. I had a remarkable run. I helped various nonprofits raise $60M in grant funds throughout my career. I loved the work for the longest time, but I started to feel the burnout caused by the unrealistic demands that accompany this profession. Research shows that most grant writers are entirely burned out after five years. It’s a stressful career that will keep you awake at night. During COVID, I realized I had to make a change because I was bordering on misery at that point. I loved my clients, but the demands became more than I could handle. People were running scared during the pandemic, and this fear and frantic energy trickled down to the nonprofit world fast.

I’ve always known my dharma but feared acting on it. Society told me I couldn’t make money doing what I loved to do, but my heart said I could. So, in May 2021, I resigned from my long, fruitful career in fundraising and became an author. I love to write, but I love to help people even more. Since May 2021, I have been building a business that allows me to write, create, and help people simultaneously. The mission of my business is to help people transform their lives the way I have. I turned my whole life around when I realized how to create my physical reality. Although we all do this naturally, some people must be taught how to do it. I’m the spiritual teacher that helps people learn how to regain their power for the first time, particularly those raised in poverty and toxic environments.

I have written two books, one self-help book and a children’s book. Neither of them has been published yet. I am in the process of querying agents. In the meantime, I created programs and services to earn money and help people reach their goals. Those programs and services include:

• Free Monthly Newsletter
o Goes out on the 15th of each month. Sign up at www.paulaswope.com.
• Individual Coaching
o Empowerment Coaching and Spirituality Coaching
• Primordial Sound Meditation Instruction
o I am a student of Deepak Chopra at the Chopra Center.
o My Total Well-Being Teacher and Coaching Certification will be completed in December 2023.
• 30-Day Manifestation Challenge
o People from all over the world are participating in my Challenge and experiencing life-changing results.
• Motivational Speaking
• 7-Day Thought Slob to Thought Snob Challenge
o Scheduled to launch May 2023 (there’s already a waiting list)
• Free Guided Meditations
o Available on YouTube
• Virtual Summits
o Aspiring Author’s Summit 2023 is Coming Soon!
o Upcoming topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
 How to Overcome Interstitial Cystitis
 Seven States of Higher Consciousness
 Benefits of Meditation
 Thought Snobs Get What They Want
 Law of Attraction for Sinners
 Seven Spiritual Laws for Success
 Shit Reversal

I am just starting, so these programs and services will continue expanding exponentially. Have you ever heard the saying, “We’re building the plane as we’re flying it?” That’s what I’m doing! We’ll never do it if we wait until the time is right.

What am I most proud of? Me. I refused to feel lesser than anyone. I refused to endure and accept abuse from toxic family members and others. I refused to conform. I refused to go without sleep to make someone else rich. I refused to allow the lies I was told early on to continue to control and sabotage my life. I refused to live in scarcity. I refused to be controlled. I refused to engage in anything that did not reflect my true purpose in life. And all of this resulted in helping other people. Hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from my conscious choices, and these folks have given me the endearing title of “Most Relatable Self-Help Influencer on Social Media.”

In today’s world, a new author like me must build a large platform for any agent or publisher to pay attention to. In May 2021, when I transitioned from grant writing to becoming an author, my social media presence was virtually nonexistent. Flash forward to today. As I write this, I have over 200K followers across all platforms, and my engagement is 99% higher than users with comparable platforms. What does this tell me? It tells me people need help. TikTok and Instagram responded to my work with kindness and curiosity that reiterated what I already knew – people struggle because of what is buried in their subconscious minds.

The miraculous thing about my new career path is that my enthusiasm has trickled down and touched so many people. My followers see my enthusiasm and want to reap the same benefits I have from using spiritual tools daily. When I made choices to benefit myself, I never thought others would benefit. I used to say, “If I can make a living out of helping people, I’ll have it made.” Be careful what you wish for because you’ll get it. We are infinite decision-makers, which gives us tremendous control over our lives. My work helps people to become keenly aware of this. Once a person is keenly aware that they do not need EVER seek power or wisdom from external sources, solutions to their problems naturally emerge.

God gave us free will. Society takes it away. The good news is I know how to get it back. The Universe is an equal opportunity employer; you don’t have to be Mother Teresa to create miracles. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you’ve made. You can turn it all around.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Micromanagement causes employers to lose excellent people. I don’t manage. I don’t believe in managing anyone. I believe in transformational leadership. Managing doesn’t work. Managing accomplishes one thing and one thing only. It makes people feel lesser than those at the top of the hierarchy.

With management, there’s a list of people ranked from most important to least important. The most important person makes the decisions, controls the staff, and makes the most money. If you’re the least important person in a business or organization, you will feel like the least important person. That alone is a motivation killer.

A leader doesn’t behave this way. I don’t behave this way because we all come from the same source. No one is better than anyone else, so hierarchal structures need to be dismantled in the workplace. The scholarly literature is wealthy in data that back up this claim. Workplaces that enforce management instead of leadership have higher turnover, attributed to poor job satisfaction and low motivation.

First and foremost, employees are individuals with different needs and goals. A leader finds out what each individual needs to stay motivated, and the leader motivates each person accordingly. Leaders get to know the people they work with through effective, healthy communication. Easily flowing communication isn’t possible, enabled, or encouraged in workplaces with hierarchal structures; therefore, managers barely know an employee’s name, much less anything about the employee’s personal life. A true transformational leader knows not only the employee but also the employee’s kids, spouse, and friends and what the employee needs to stay as healthy and motivated as possible.

Leadership is the opposite of management, and here’s why. Leaders encourage flex time, participatory decision-making, individuality, equality, autonomy, creativity, communication, and a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic reward systems. The result is happy, satisfied employees who are motivated and loyal to their employer. Everyone benefits from a healthy work environment. No one benefits from a toxic work environment, not even the person who sits on high and looks down low.

Here’s an example. Some people like to report to an office, but some prefer to work from home. Right now, I’m here to tell you that if a person prefers to work from home, they need the freedom to work from home. I cannot work in an office with people because of the endless noise and chatter. I am ten times more productive working in an environment that I am comfortable in—allowing someone like me to work from home benefits the business or organization as a whole. Forcing someone like me to report to an office that makes me physically ill doesn’t benefit anyone. Employers must take these needs into consideration; otherwise, many will appear as bad hires when they are the furthest thing from that.

“Don’t Fence Me In” by Bing Crosby comes to mind. Some people are not made to be fenced in, and I’m one of those people. Putting me behind a desk for eight hours per day and telling me I must stay there is comparable to a death sentence. Leaders instinctively know these things about the people that help them carry out their mission. If personality traits are ignored, the mission suffers. First and foremost, we are individuals and should be treated as such.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

My last name isn’t Kennedy or Kardashian, so a new author like myself must be savvy to get her name out there. Authors usually do not make money from book sales; therefore, programs and services must be designed based on the books. With this wisdom under my belt, I created multiple revenue streams for my business. Those include:

• Individual Coaching
• Manifestation Challenges
• Books
• Speaking Engagements
• Branded Content Partnerships
o As a new author, one of the things I had to do was build my platform. My social media following is significant, leading to
opportunities to make money.
• Virtual Summits
• Meditation Instruction

Again, I’m just starting, so this list is not definite. I am creating new revenue streams every day. So far, my popular service is my 30-Day Manifestation Challenge. People from all over the world are participating and seeing significant results. Seventeen years ago, I embarked on my spiritual journey. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was lost but excited about the changes I intended to make. I had no support from anyone because the people around me didn’t understand what I was doing. I designed the 30-Day Manifestation Challenge with younger Paula in mind, so the Challenge has built-in support systems at every angle, including mentors and manifestation buddies for participants that need additional support. Visit my website – www.paulaswope.com – for more information about participating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.paulaswope.com/
• Instagram: @thepaulaswope
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PBSwope/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-swope-9072811b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@paulaswope
• Other: Tiktok – @pbswope111 Medium – https://medium.com/@pbswope111