We recently connected with Martha McAnlis and have shared our conversation below.

Martha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I was in the wrong career for 16 years. While I learned a lot and excelled at what I was doing, I was bored and burned out. Every 1.5-2 years, I was either getting promoted, changing locations or changing companies. I was winning awards and being recognized for all of my contributions so one would think, why do you say you were in the wrong career? The big thing I noticed looking back was that I felt this overwhelming feeling that I was not being used to my full capacity, I was really bored after I became efficient in my role and I burned out due to the repetition of the work. What I know now is that what drives me is having several things that I can be involved in to keep my mind moving from project to project. Not one of my mentors ever recognized or suggested that I might be in the wrong position or type of work due to my success on paper.

Fast forward to 2019, I was given the opportunity to build a team and work with a phenomenal group of women. What I noticed was that several of them were rockstars and excelled on all cylinders. Another group did the job well enough and just wanted to come to work and go home, but there was a third group that was great at what they did but you could see they were burned out and kept asking for more. In this group, it was apparent that they had skills we weren’t using and they weren’t doing the “right” kind of work for them. We had the right people, just not the right people in the right seat. This is when I realized that I saw myself in all of them. I was able to mentor, coach, and develop the skills they needed to get to the “right” seat so the organization could still benefit from their strengths. When we shifted their perspective and got each member of the team in the right place, they flourished and so did I. It was amazing to see the transformation.

Throughout this process is really what inspired me to build Motivation Plus Coaching, LLC so that I can help women know who they were designed to be and what they value so they can confidently know where they belong and they can say no to the things that do not serve them.

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

We never get to choose the life we are born into – the place, the parents, the peers – all of that is for God to decide. What we DO get to decide is how we build a life for ourselves regardless of the circumstances around us.

I was born a farm girl in Pennsylvania, with no means or privilege, into a life where the people who were meant to be my closest allies hurt me and held me back every step of the way. I don’t need you to walk the path of my trauma beside me, because we are all here right now to overcome, but I do want you to understand that success is something we build for ourselves – through our own grit; through our own passions, our own faith!

I believe that everyone can have the faith to find their purpose. I specialize in empowering faith-driven women on a transformative journey. If you’ve been carrying a profound sense that you’re destined for more, our coaching is tailored just for you. We are committed to guiding you towards embracing the life God intended, unlocking your full potential, and paving the way for a purposeful and fulfilling existence. Let’s embark on this inspirational journey together, igniting your faith and propelling you towards the abundant life you were meant to live.

For as long as I can remember, I know my relationship with God was the strongest bond I would ever have. And my faith has persevered despite my trials. God was my constant when nothing else in my life was.

The saying goes “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” right? But that’s only true if you choose to fight. From neglect, sexual abuse, false ideation, and abandonment – I emerged a fighter. I was literally the first female wrestler in my school. I won pageants. I built confidence and character, without encouragement from others. I went to college, even when my family told me, “that’s not what we do.” I found the strength to start a career, a Chosen family, and fight for everything I thought I wanted. What I came to find out along the way is that if we aren’t fighting through our faith to find our true purpose in life, then we are still fighting a losing battle. Because even the most successful people have known the fatigue of living on auto-pilot. The stress of being stretched too thin. The empty, aching feeling that surely we are meant to be something more.

It doesn’t matter how successful you are today if you aren’t living with the faith to find your eternal purpose – that one thing that God put you here to discover – that one thing that only you can bring us. And I was seeing that more clearly each day.

Even though I knew I had the power to overcome immense obstacles; even though I had proven my successes; even though I have faith in God’s great guidance – I knew I was destined for more. I knew I was settling into a life that looked successful on paper, but brought me No purpose. That’s when I discovered the path.

Through founding Motivation Plus Coaching, I’ve proven that purpose is within reach, and I believe we all can have the faith to find it!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My entire life has been sprinkled with the opportunity to preserve. As I mentioned, I was born a farm girl in Pennsylvania, with no means or privilege. At an early age, I had a drive in me that when posed a challenge, I dug in and said “I’m doing it!” I never allowed restrictions to inhibit me from anything if it was on my heart. I was the first young person to be baptized as my declaration to the world that I would follow Jesus, in my church. In the 80s, when it was thought that when you chose to make this declaration, you had to be an adult. I was 7. Then, I became the first female in my area to wrestle on a boy’s team for 5 years and I excelled. I was used to this type of situation with having all brothers and having to “fight” for my place in life. At the age of 14, I was taken out of my mother’s home due to less-than-ideal circumstances. Thankfully, a foster sister was able to open her home to me (That is a whole different story for a different time). I then went on to be the first in my area, in WV, to compete in pageants. This paved the way, for a timid, introverted young lady to learn public speaking, how to carry myself with grace, and gain confidence that I had never known. Through this experience, it allowed me the opportunity to gain scholarships and I was the first in my family to attend college.
Being able to persevere through all of this and more built resilience in me that constantly knocks at me to challenge the status quo and to go against whatever society is shouting. I pray that I always find the energy to live that truth and be authentic as I now live to not fight through life, but thrive as the woman God has allowed me to grow into through this building of resilience.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Throughout my life, I have always had this overwhelming desire that I was meant for more. When I went to college, I planned to become a Pediatrician and serve children. However, when I got to college, I had to work 3 jobs to make it through and I wasn’t in a position to dedicate every hour to my studies so I shifted to Clinical Laboratory Science so if I wanted to continue my education after school, I could. That time never came, as I quickly jumped into my Pharmaceutical Sales career. I had a very successful career in this arena and was able to utilize my desire to help others, but throughout it all, I still had this overwhelming feeling that I was made for more. The monotony of doing the same thing over and over each day bored me and burned me out. Even when I won awards for top sales and was promoted to be a national sales trainer several times, I still had this urge that there was something more for me. In 2019, I was called for a unique opportunity to build a start-up for a health system that owned its own insurance company. I would lead a team of clinical and non-clinical people who would be a concierge service for their employee group in a new approach, called Benefit Management. I was so excited to utilize all of my experience and leadership skills that I had gained so far. Throughout my time in this position, I realized there were several people in the wrong role. They were burned out on the work, but asking for more. When I assessed where they were and where they wanted to be, there were skills they possessed that we were not capitalizing on. When I was able to skill them up and get them where they wanted to be and get them in the “right” role for their skill set, they began to flourish as I also did as the lightbulb was coming on for them.
I then found myself in another situation where I needed to shift to owning my business to help women find the “right” seat in the organization to be who they are meant to be.
Often times we do all the things we are “told” to do and we lose who we are throughout the process. I want to help women understand who they are so they can live free from all of those boxes that we allow to form from other’s or our own expectations.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.findpurpose.today
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motivationplus_coaching/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MotivationPlusCoaching
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martha-mcanlis-166a1a12/
• Youtube: Motivation Plus Coaching
• Other: Podcast: www.Throughdeepwaters.org

Image Credits
The purple dress photo (Photos by Yvonne- Yvonne Sadowy Moryc) Orange Jacket Photo, Gala photo in Royal Blue (The Dougie Fresh Photo-Doug Hinebaugh) Conservative Hooch Photo Shoot, navy outfit with tan bag (Korey Woods)