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

Meryl, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

“I know you are more than capable of doing this on your own, but why should you have to?” These were the words of my soon to be mentors, as I embarked on what became the most defining moment in my career. At the time, I was not building my career as a coach, I was building a “side hustle” network marketing business, alongside my professor of practice career at University of Miami, while raising two teen athletes. I was pushing myself to extremes, because it’s my nature to do everything to the fullest and to never want to disappoint or not show up, or not do what I say I’m going to do…so I was doing it all. My body was a mess. There were several things going on simultaneously, the biggest to note was degenerative collapse of my spine, in addition to an abdominal hernia, and progressing blindness from Glaucoma in my right eye. My back pain was at an all-time high and was making my foot go numb when I walked.

While suffering from the vast array of physical obstacles, I found myself battling a million thoughts in my mind. Constant self doubt, self sabotage, old thoughts of teen-age distorted body issues, and twisting and turning internal debates about where my life was and where it was headed. The rabbit hole was endless.

To say the least, I was in the struggle but also unwilling to stay stuck. I’m not a big fan of sitting in my “stuff” which meant it was time to go on a hunt for help. In addition to seeking the right medical care, I was fortunate enough to have a friend who cared about me enough to make an introduction to Steph and Shay Schafeitel, authors of Master Your Mindpower, and my now mentors and coaches.

After speaking with Shay, and a little extra nudge on her part to remind me that I did not need to keep fighting this battle on my own, I decided to embark on my own Mindpowered journey. It was time to do the thing that is often the hardest for so many of us to do… take a good luck inside and start working on ME.

I said yes, and set out to embark on an 8-week Mindpower Breakthrough experience, where we were promised the guidance to get rid of what we call “running parachutes” – which can be described as the negative emotions and limitations we have been holding on to… things like fear, guilt, sadness, feelings of not being good enough, and so on.

And after 8-short weeks, I literally found myself in a moment of disbelief. I was now 2-weeks pre-op from having major spinal surgery and could NOT find the pain in my body. The pain in my back had gone from a 10-out-of-10 to a Zero. My mind was clear, the aliments in my body were not bothering me, I was more mindful and stress-free at home, and life was appearing, well, different. Literally, all I could ask was “what just happened to me!” LOL – I was almost unrecognizable to own myself.

Admittedly, despite the zero pain level, I did proceed with my back surgery (although I did not tell the doctor I was at a zero, I was almost embarrassed to admit it being that I was about to undergo this level of intense surgery); I have been pain-free and thriving ever since. But that’s not where it ended. I then had my long-awaited glaucoma surgery, where I was told by some of the best surgeons in the world that I would no longer be able to wear contacts again, and yet there I was 3-months post-op back in contacts with zero scarring on the eye. And of course, also fixed my hernia while I was at it. I forgot to even think about that one to be honest..I think my husband was starting to get a little concerned how invicable I was behaving.

Everything about the Mindpower Breakthrough program and philosophy was deeply resonating and I was firing on all cylinders with excitement, motivation and clarity like never before. I couldn’t contain my excitement as I was literally watching every area in my life improve exponentially. I got clear on my 3 P’s, my principles (aka values), my passion, and my purpose that was helping me make decisions about the trajectory of my life. I realized that network marketing was not my calling. I realized that my health was in my control. I recognized so many of the tools I already used in the classroom were founded in the methods of Mindpower, and now had more tools to bring to my students. I was excited, energized and fulfilled like never before. My eyes were wide open and could not unsee what I had now seen.

I knew what I had to do and answered the call to certify as a Mindpower Coach.

One year after certifying, I exceeded any previous business venture I had tried before, and now had a thriving coaching business with a variety of high performing clients who were also now excelling at exponential rates. Two years into coaching and now certified at the Masters level, I 6’xed my business from the year before, filled my client roster, joined forces with another coach to create a platform for speaking engagements, online programs and workshops, and have shut off all the noise around me and in my head. I am clear as crystal. I am confident. My family is thriving. I am stronger and more certain than I have ever been about who I am, and what I was meant to do. And now, I’m on a one way rocket ship to fulfilling my dream life and my purpose on this planet.

Meryl, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I like to say I grew up in the advertising industry. From college graduation through my early 30s, I worked as an industry creative. To those familiar with the field, this period is what I also refer to as my mental toughness and emotional resilience training ground. While I genuinely love the creative industry, my happiest days, after 13 years into my career, were when I worked on my non-profit accounts or mentored my team. It was around that time I realized my calling was something a bit different. I decided to shift my passion from the industry to the classroom, where I could satisfy the part of me craving a teaching and mentorship role, and also expand my charitable side. I have been a professor at the University of Miami for over 15 years, and still loving it.

Soon enough, my students schooled me. Teaching at the university level wasn’t just about mentoring in the classroom. I frequently found myself in closed-door office meetings, helping my students navigate the turbulence of life. I was humbled and blessed to be able to play a role in guiding them in such special ways.

After years of teaching, several alumni started reaching back out, now as professionals, seeking mentorship, guidance, and even mindset coaching. They wanted to hire me to help them navigate their next stages of life because they knew I would push them to be their best. While reluctant at first, I realized this was another part of me that I hadn’t fully explored and became extremely curious about and started to pursue coaching as an extension of my career. It wasn’t until several years later, during my eye-opening Mindpower Breakthrough experience, that I decided to fully jump in and certify as a Mindpower Coach.

Now, as a certified Master-level Mindpower Coach, my most valuable strengths from coaching, mentoring, and even the classroom are fully integrated into what I do, and I am more aligned than ever in my life.

As a coach, my mission is to help clients increase their mental toughness and emotional resilience so they can become the best version of themselves. I set the bar high, and push my clients to reach it. As a born and bred Jersey girl, sometimes that comes with a bit of tough love — but I personally think sometimes we need that.

Mindpower is where mental toughness and emotional resilience converge. Mental toughness is an unwavering strength of mind, and emotional resilience is the ability to move through life’s obstacles with grace and ease.

The magic of the Mindpower system is rooted in a special technique that helps clients to release their running parachutes. These metaphoric parachutes are the negative emotions and limitations that create the resistance and drag that makes it so hard for us to move forward. When released, it’s almost like a superhuman feeling of speed, clarity, and confidence. The negative self-talk and external noise literally falls away, and a future-forward and hyper-focused mindset appears.

What’s truly special about this process is that it is fast and highly effective. In just a few months, clients experience a significant difference. This is crucial for my clients because no high-performer, business leader, mom, athlete, or individual with big goals has time to sit in their “stuff.” As a Mindpower coach, my job is to help clients get the lessons they need quickly so they can use them to move forward fast.

My goal is to make a massive impact on this planet helping as many people as I can become the best version of themselves and do this through a variety of services including one-on-one coaching, in-person and virtual workshops, keynote speaking, and most recently am venturing into a new project with my business partner to create a group coaching program. I specialize in working with high-performing individuals, including but not limited to leaders, business professionals, moms, young adults and athletes. The one thing my clients all have in common is a readiness for change. They know where they are is no longer where they want to be, and have made a commitment to themselves to pursue that next level.

As a professor and coach my most proud moments are when my clients/students find the success they seek. There’s nothing more rewarding than being able to be apart of the journey.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I believe whole-heartedly that our path is necessary to get to where we are right now. Therefore, while I have changed my course and focus over the years, I believe it’s truly all towards a bigger plan.

I’m so grateful now that I can see this too, because for a long time I would kick myself for all the things I didn’t do, the choices I could have made if I knew then what I know now, and so forth.

But that’s not really how life goes, is it?

So now I look at my career path with gratitude for getting me to where I am right now, because I have no doubt I’m where I’m supposed to be. I actually look at where I am right now and often think to myself, “damn, I’m just getting started!…And how exciting is that!”

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As a mental toughness and resilience coach, I better have some of these of my own, right?! hahah. Truth be told, I’ve got plenty of them: hiking mountains in Switzerland, running a marathon, overcoming distorted body issues, pursuing my master’s while holding a high-level creative director role at an ad agency, navigating motherhood, saving my dog’s life, enduring multiple surgeries in one year, becoming a fitness competitor at age 40, and launching a new business in my late 40’s… the list goes on.

Rather than recounting any one of these stories, I’d rather focus on the resilience lessons I’ve learned when faced with the obstacles.

To truly overcome the obstacles, you have to know what you want, why you want it, and what it is you’re fighting for. Any obstacle can become a moment where we decide we aren’t strong enough, fit enough, resilient enough, but it’s in those moments we get to decide, are we going to find a way to forge ahead or is this the moment of defeat.

In each of these moments, I had a reason why I must succeed and made the unwavering decision that it would happen. The “how” didn’t matter; there are countless ways to reach a goal. What mattered was the certainty that I would succeed, filling me with that inner resilience.

So, to anyone reading this, here’s my advice: boost your resilience, silence the negative self-talk, rid of the old negative stories that no longer serve you, and get laser-focused on what you want. Without a doubt, you will get what you want.

Contact Info:

• Website: MerylBlauCoaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meryleve/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meryl.eve/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meryl-blau-588710b/
• Other: TikTok: @merylblau

Image Credits
Portrait Photographer: Valeria Quintero Meryl Blau and Carlene Murray (group photo NA)