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

Pegah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I have been on this path of facilitating healing and promoting resilience in people for a long time. As such, there have been so many defining moments in my life and career, each bringing with them significant lessons and tremendous amounts of growth.

For the purpose of this article, I will share the most recent of these defining moments that reinforced my commitment to authenticity and brought me to the heartfelt realization that everything I have experienced on this path has been purposeful and made me not only more of who I know myself to be but ever more equipped to do the work I am meant to do.

At the start of 2020, like so many entrepreneurs, I had many goals and visions for my business that I hoped to see come to fruition. And, like many entrepreneurs, I had to do a hard pivot based on the events that transpired around the global pandemic that took so many of us by surprise. Admittedly, I scrambled and the hustle factor increased exponentially. I became so focused on what my brand was projecting and how I was marketing, that I lost touch with what was really important to me which is the basis of why I do the work I do with people, to begin with.

I spent the next 18 months putting out a podcast, writing newsletters, doing social media “lives” and trying every marketing tactic I was taught by multiple coaching programs to sustain and grow the “business”. Did some of it work? Yes. Did a lot of it flop? Absolutely. I poured every ounce of energy and resources I had into the business and the incredible team of people I had that were there to support it. I maneuvered, brainstormed, and efforted until I literally had nothing left to give. And you want to know what happened? I burned out. You see I got so focused on the goals and the numbers and the growth, that I lost myself and my WHY in all of it.

My body gave out, my mind felt exhausted from “trying to figure it out” and my heart…well my heart wasn’t really in it. I had to put a hard stop on all of it and reconnect with what my soul had been attempting to quietly whisper to me the whole time.

“Pegah, if your heart, intuition, and God are not who you are turning to for guidance, you will keep running in circles and none of it will feel good in the end.”

You see, I got too wrapped up in what “they” the “experts” were telling me to do. I stopped listening to myself and my own inner guidance and went chasing after the shiny objects and “accelerated growth” being promised. In the hurry and hustle to grow a business, I lost touch with what the whole thing was for which was to be of joyful service to those who were drawn to do their inner healing work and grow on their spiritual path with me.

The path I am on is not about projecting a brand, but rather showing up as who I am as authentically as possible and providing a service. In short, it is not about ME it is in fact about the work itself. It is about the people I am meant to serve. It is about asking, “God, where would you have me go, what would have me do, what would you have me say, and to whom?”

It took bringing everything to a complete stop, taking several months to rest, recoup, heal, and reflect to realize why things hadn’t worked the way I wanted them to.

I have had several moments on my path where I pushed too hard and overworked myself into burnout (I often didn’t realize I was doing it until it was too late) but this last time was a moment of true awakening because, well, I let be,

So, what did I learn?

1. I can trust my intuition.

2. I must be connected to my heart and my WHY when making ANY decisions about how to move forward.

3. God, Spirit, The Creator of All That Is or whatever name you wish to call it, must be the primary advisor in all things I do.

4. It is ok to pause, regroup and start again.

5. To ask for help, be willing to trust it, and receive it is brave and necessary to be a resilient human being.

I am still learning. I am always going to be. And I am grateful for every single moment on this path even the ones, especially the ones, that bring me to my knees.

Pegah, 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?

My journey into the work I do was certainly not a linear one. Like many people, I am shaped by life circumstances. I actually started out in the performing arts and ventured into the world of holistic healing by way of yoga and then moved into the mental health and personal/spiritual development space.

These days I consider myself a psycho-spiritual healing practitioner and coach. I work with people to cultivate resilience in any facet of their lives where they have undergone radical change or devastating loss. I use a variety of modalities in that work including, Theta Healing, Hypno-therapy, Neuro-linguistic programming, the Enneagram, and Internal Family Systems.

In addition to this one-on-one work, I facilitate workshops and retreats as well as do corporate leadership and culture change training. I most recently got certified in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism work as well.

I have a podcast called Radical Resilience the Podcast which you can find on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

By far and away the most impactful thing for me in my field has been life experience and my willingness to take pain and turn it into purpose as well as take trials and seeming moments of failure or loss and see them as opportunities for growth and learning. There isn’t a single life circumstance that I haven’t been able to bring into the work I do in a way that is impactful and useful.

The other things I believe have helped me succeed is my inner resilience as well as the incredible community of human beings I have in my innermost circle of trusted friends and advisors.

Lastly, my willingness to continue doing my own inner work has been crucial to any success I have had.

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

I could share so many moments in my journey that illustrate resilience, but the one that stands out most significantly is the journey back from losing my father. I never knew how significant a role he played in my life until he was gone.

We lost my dad very unexpectedly to a massive heart attack when he was 67. It was only five years ago but still feels like yesterday.

I was away facilitating a training when I got the news and it literally brought me to my knees.

I wish I could say that I navigated the time after his passing with grace and tapped into the pillars of resilience that I teach but the truth is, I defaulted to old habits of overworking and I effectively burned myself out. It took another big life change of losing a job that I loved for me to stop and pay attention to what my body was screaming at me to notice and to slow down enough to the healing work and processing that was required of me.

In the end, I did end up moving through the various Pillars that I teach in my work to come back and demonstrate my resilience but it took a lot for me to take my own medicine.

A year and a half after he left us, I finally started to feel like myself again and was able to draw on that experience and all it taught me to support my clients even more effectively than before.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coachpegah.com
• Instagram: @pegah_kadkhodaian
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachPegah
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachpegah/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyg719zdMoRi5-IJ2XaMJXg