Your Data Is Lying to You About What Works

[00:00:00] Mona: I can say that if you are in a place where you feel like you shouldn't be doing that anymore, move.

[00:00:08] Mona: There is a reason. You don't feel those things and then you're supposed to ignore them. You feel those things because those are signs from your higher self that you're not aligned, from your guides, whatever it is you believe in, in general. You're just not supposed to be there anymore,

[00:00:24] LuRae: Welcome to And Then I Did This. Prepare to be inspired as we celebrate the unique journeys of individuals who've had the courage to break free and live life on their own terms. Their lives prove that you truly can be free to live your best and most authentic life.

[00:00:44] Mona: Let's get to it

[00:00:47] LuRae: Welcome to the show.

[00:00:48] LuRae: Today, I have a special guest, Mona Loring. She is a CEO, psychic medium, and energy healer who has spent over two decades shaping some of the most recognizable names in entertainment and wellness through her agency, Conscious Living PR. After training in Peruvian shamanism and certifying as a Reiki master, she now brings both worlds together.

[00:01:12] LuRae: I cannot wait to hear more. Mona, welcome to the show.

[00:01:15] Mona: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited about this, and I feel like we're gonna have such a great conversation because we always do.

[00:01:23] LuRae: So I'm so curious about your journey to this point. And you can start wherever you're drawn to share a bit about how you've gotten where you are and, and your gifts and, and all of that.

[00:01:37] Mona: Okay. Well, that's always an interesting starting point 'cause there's so many different... You're like, "Where do I even wanna begin?" But I, you know, I recently just had this thought, so I think I'll start here. I recently, we were talking before we started recording about, you know, the fact that I've been making some social media videos, and recently I made this one video because I was really pondering about how my journey started and how I got to this place where, I never really was striving for the successes that I got.

[00:02:07] Mona: I was always striving for success. I wanna make sure I, I explain this correctly. Success has always been an energy and a frequency that I truly always felt like I had, and I mean that humbly, but I was in high school and I'd be like, "I don't think I need to study that hard. I'll study, but not that hard.

[00:02:26] Mona: I'll be successful later." It was just in me. It was strange but, you know, as someone who just always believed in the core of my being that I could figure it out, not because someone'll hand it to me or anything. It was always like, "I'll be a self-made whatever." I didn't even know what I wanted to do. And so I guess my journey sort of started with taking little breadcrumbs that would come my way and making the most of those breadcrumbs.

[00:02:51] Mona: And, I felt lost after I had graduated college. I thought I was going to be... It all started when I thought I was gonna be a music video producer. This was back when they actually mattered. So depending on what age people are when they hear this, I'm always like, "You don't even really understand what I'm saying."

[00:03:05] Mona: but you know, music videos were huge back in our day, and, I, I always loved them. I love the entertainment industry. I love music, still do. And, you know, we had a connection through the family that had this, one of the top music video production companies in the world. They were doing Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Pink.

[00:03:24] Mona: And I was like, "That sounds fun." You know, you're, you're in your 20s. You think that, fun is where to go, right? And I, through college I created my own major. I went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. And I told them, I said, "I'm here..." I was really honest then, too. I said, "I'm at this school 'cause my husband wanted to go here."

[00:03:43] Mona: I was married, by the way, in college. And I was like, "So I'm just trying to figure out how to make this, like, an entertainment industry major." And they're like, "We're an ag business school." Okay. And I was like, anything can happen. And it's so funny because it's just, like, again, innate in me where I was like, "Well, let's just figure it out.

[00:04:02] Mona: We can figure it out, right?" And so they were like, "Okay." So I was a s- liberal studies major with a theater minor. That was the closest thing I could do to create my world. And, that's really how the journey started, of just me being like, "I think I'm gonna create everything as it comes." So skip to I graduate, I realize I don't wanna be in music videos, ironically, because you have to work so many hours.

[00:04:27] Mona: You can't have a, quote-unquote, "family", which is so funny that I got into entertainment PR, because you could say the same exact thing for the business I'm in now. But I made it happen. But, you know, cut to years later, the connection is still there, where the owner, one of the owners of that music video production company, she started a children's publishing house.

[00:04:50] Mona: And totally randomly, I was pregnant. I had been looking for a new job. I had literally... I was like, "Okay, I need to do something new." And I started to build a copywriting business because, again, who even knows why? It just came to me. Through my copywriting business, I realized I wanna write locally, and so I started doing a little local journalism.

[00:05:10] Mona: And this woman was on my mailing list, and she was like, "Are you a publicist?" And I was like, "No, what's that?" What's that? Sounds interesting, but no. And she was like, "Oh, I'm looking for a new publicist. Like, I have a children's book line that is just really not k- k- getting steam, and it's not going anywhere."

[00:05:29] Mona: And, you know, she knew me, and she was like, "You're a smart girl, Mona. You wanna figure it out?" And I was like, "Okay." So that was my first breadcrumb, and that was technically, in many ways, the catalyst of everything from there. I still, uh, anytime I do a podcast interview, I look around 'cause I'm like, where are those books?

[00:05:46] Mona: I still have PR for Dummies sitting somewhere on my... Like, that's how I started. I started by just reading as much as I could about publicity, and just using my intuition and growing this company from there. And from there, I've been really blessed, where, you know, I've had some incredible people come into my life.

[00:06:07] Mona: you know, it was incredibly hard. I was always willing to, at the beginning, it wasn't about money. It was just about, you know, the goal. And so I would focus on, okay, how do I get to that biggest client? And how do I get to, you know, what was driving me, 'cause I thought that mattered back then, truthfully.

[00:06:24] Mona: Now it's not about the biggest client. It's about the most, you know, the client that I feel the most tied to and, and, you know, who we're a energy match with. But back then it was all about, you know, how do I get the biggest client? How do I get the person who's gonna get the Academy Award? And building up my life that way.

[00:06:40] Mona: And I just followed the breadcrumbs. I, I know that was a really, I, the, girl, I could have kept you the whole podcast on that story. But, it's just following those little signs that the universe is like, "Hey, do you want this opportunity? If you don't, you could go another way." And I still to this day question, and I'm curious what you think, of- was it always meant to be for PR to get me to this place for what I'm supposed to really do for my life's purpose?

[00:07:03] Mona: Or would a different type of career brought you to that final landing place anyway? I don't know, and I wonder that.

[00:07:10] LuRae: Well, it's interesting because I think of the one parallel experience that I had was when I graduated, had a degree in advertising from the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon, and I remember having a conversation with my mom, telling her, "I think I wanna move to New York and work for either a magazine or an ad agency."

[00:07:29] LuRae: And her response was... I was the last of five, and it wasn't real encouraging. It was more, "Oh, that's so far away. Are you sure that's where you wanna go?" And then a month later, I met my children's father. And so I didn't move then, but literally, like 20, over 20 years later, I wound up making that move to New York, and I feel like I was ultimately meant to go there, and wound up working for the largest ad agency in the world.

[00:07:58] LuRae: And, another connected story with that was, you know, was once I got there, I was like, "What am I doing here? This is so much." I remember I would always fly into New York and say, "Oh," and when I would leave, like, "Oh, I'll never live there." And, you know, never say never. So I think there is a destiny that

[00:08:15] LuRae: If we're meant to do something, there is a way. I say we can listen to the whispers, or it'll get louder until we listen and have to make a shift or make a change or go in the direction we're meant to go in. That's just my personal experience, I'll say, with that. See

[00:08:32] Mona: it the same way. I think so, too.

[00:08:34] LuRae: Yeah. So it's so interesting, the other part of your self, which I know from kind of how we interact even on, like Instagram, and we have this, like cool group that has kind of come together in the conscious healing space. And talk a little bit about, because I'm also a Reiki master, which is ironic, most people don't even know that.

[00:08:57] LuRae: your Peruvian shamanism and your Reiki path, talk about that and how your gifts opened up when you were even younger.

[00:09:05] Mona: Yeah, so you know, those are two different stories because my gifts when I were youn- when I was younger was mediumship primarily. the passageway, so to speak, into healing and Reiki and the Peruvian shamanism came from, you know, unfortunate mental health issues with my loved ones.

[00:09:26] Mona: And, I was obviously very spiritual then, and I was just trying to figure out, how do I heal them? How do I heal them? Like, what can I do? And I kept, finding practitioners that weren't taking, and it wasn't helping, and it, And- I'm just, like, shortcutting the story of, "Hey, by the way, like, unless you wanna heal or you're ready to heal, no one's gonna be able to heal you."

[00:09:44] Mona: I just wanted to put that out there just to keep things honest. But through this journey,I was like, "Please, you know, Spirit, show me the way," andI got into the Reiki master, work pretty quickly. I met someone just randomly locally, and she was like, "Oh, I do Reiki."

[00:10:02] Mona: And I was like, "That sounds fun. I feel called to do that." And it was so bizarre because when I went there and I started taking one-on-one private classes with her, within, I think it was, like, four hours of the very... It was, like, long days. Within four hours of that first day, I was like, "What am I emanating?"

[00:10:21] Mona: Like, it was just already in me, and I was like, "I just feel like I know how to do this." And I... This is not a story with ego or anything, but it's really the body's remembrance and the soul's remembrance. And she was like, "What do you mean?" And I was like , "I don't know. You know, I haven't learned anything.

[00:10:37] Mona: This is my first day." And so I was showing her, I was like, "I just feel like being here with you, you know, you're bringing it out of me, and I just know how to do this." And I was able to just push that energy out of my palms, and, I showed her. And she's like, "Yeah, okay, this is crazy. I feel this." And I was like, "This is crazy."

[00:10:56] Mona: And she literally that first day invited me to her Reiki group that night to do a distance healing with them, and it was amazing. And that got me so excited because I was like, "Oh my God, I'm re- I've done this before clearly," you know? And that was a really interesting, trippy experience because that opened me up to really realizing for the first time of, like, it's already in you.

[00:11:18] Mona: we find these paths again in these lifetimes, but we've perhaps done them before. So from there, that was a side, you know, "Let me just figure out how to do that. Maybe I can heal people. Maybe, you know, what it will be." It didn't work at all for my family members. True story. but it was New Year's Eve, I believe, or around New Year's Eve, and I was at this New Year's group meditation with a local healer.

[00:11:45] Mona: And my sister and I went just because we were like, "Let's call in, you know, beautiful intentions. Let's see what... Like, let's just go and see what happens." And during that meditation, I got the download to seek out shamanism. And I literally remember sitting there and, like, you know, everybody's eyes are closed, and I'm, like, looking around trying to see if I could get my sister's attention because I wanted to be like, "That's the weirdest download."

[00:12:11] Mona: Like, I'm the person who cannot even, like, hold it in. you've been around me in situations. Like, I'm like, "I gotta tell people what's going on. I need to talk about it." And, you know, literally we leave the meditation, and I Google, "What is a shaman even..." Like, I was just... You know what a shaman is, but you don't know what a shaman is if you're not really into it.

[00:12:29] Mona: And, I was like, "Am I gonna have to go to, like, Peru or, Costa Rica? Like, what is this?" And, when it's time, I always say that the teacher appears. And so I Googled and found this app that I had never heard of before called Meetup, and in my area on Meetup, there was... And oh my gosh, I'm gonna get teary-eyed 'cause I haven't talked about her since she's crossed over, but I found my first teacher, and she was literally 15 minutes away from me Who would have thought?

[00:13:03] Mona: And I went to a meetup that she had that was just, a Peruvian shamanic circle, like a women's circle. And from there I said, "Are you willing to be my teacher? I got a download, and you seem like you're the one for me, and you're local." And she was like, "I've never taught before, but I'll take the job."

[00:13:21] Mona: And so she taught me, and we had an amazing journey together, and she led me to other teachers, and I started going to Mount Shasta for additional healing training. I feel very... I wanna be so authentic when I tell this story, and it's always funny because I'm careful. You know, I've had... My PR clients will be like, "Oh, she's the PR shaman," or, "She's the shaman," and they'll give me the label of a shaman, and it does not feel like something that is true to me.

[00:13:45] Mona: I am definitely not a shaman. I don't like to take that label. I've studied it, and I'm really big on saying, like, I've studied the healing. I've done the healing. I do the healing. I have my Peruvian altar right here, um, in the Mesa tradition. So it's just like, you know, it's like I feel like- It was just, again, another passageway and a gateway for me because through learning it, and this is why I'm so big on it, and I've, and I've been really careful about my wording about it to stay truly authentic, it's just led me to another thing, and another thing.

[00:14:19] Mona: And it opened me up to learning about plant medicine, which is what helped some of my loved ones heal, not me becoming, a healer. Uh, so you know, my healing work has progressed though through the teachings that I've, been able to encounter. And, it's kind of been where you open up. Like when I was doing the shamanic training, for example, you would be told, "Well, don't do it this way.

[00:14:42] Mona: Don't do it that way. Don't..." And I'd, I'd sit there and I'd be like, "But that's the way I see it," you know? And, and I think I'm gonna do it differently. I don't think I'm meant to do this exactly how they're teaching me. And I respected how they were teaching me, but I knew, again, maybe it was a remembrance, and maybe I was meant to do it a different way.

[00:15:01] Mona: I was starting to see when I'd look at people through the training, I could look at someone when I decided to look at them through that lens, and I would see their energy body. And I'd... Chakras were kind of my coding system, and so I'd be like, "Okay, that... Ooh, okay, throat chakra. What does this mean?" And then I'd use the psychic work that I know.

[00:15:21] Mona: And so it was like the psychic work, and then I'd bring in the Reiki healing so that I could bring in energy and frequency. And then, you know, when I learned about the crystalline healing from my shamanic teacher, I would learn in how to bring some of that energy. So it was just sort of this like compilation of everything that I had been learning over, and it was crazy 'cause it was compacted in so short a time because I was on this journey to help my loved ones heal, that it was just, I was so driven.

[00:15:50] Mona: Like, "I gotta figure it out. It's gonna be me. I'm gonna have to save them." And of course, that was my own ignorance back then of not knowing that you can't save them yourself. But, and I can say that luckily my loved ones are all doing great now, and you know, their frequency has shifted, and everything's been wonderful.

[00:16:04] Mona: But that's a little bit of that journey, and what's been really interesting is- As you introduced me, I'm, I'm a publicist. I'm, I'm not, a spiritual healer as a full identity. You know, it's a part of who I am. I think it's a part of who many of us are. It's a part of who you are. You're saying you don't usually talk about that when you do the Reiki healing.

[00:16:26] Mona: And I feel like it's so awesome though because we can bring in that energy work into whatever else it is we do, right? We bring that into life, but I bring it into my PR work now, and I've learned to integrate it.

[00:16:40] LuRae: Yeah. Yeah. I hear and I love all of it. I totally relate. I, I remember even after my daughter, my youngest...

[00:16:48] LuRae: Well, both my daughters have had near-death experiences, which is really ironic, um, to have both daughters. Um, and after the s- the younger one, had a near-death experience, I wound up moving to be near her so I could help with... She was in the hospital for three weeks, and she's, she's now fine and, all that.

[00:17:05] LuRae: But I, I was in a space where the invitation to become a breathwork detox facilitator presented itself. So I went to Utah, to St. George, Utah and spent, you know, almost a week becoming a breathwork detox facilitator. And I use that more in my personal life. I know when I r- sometimes run into people, and I know how the body keeps the score, the, the emotions and things that we have experienced, the trauma.

[00:17:31] LuRae: But we carry that until we let it go or learn to integrate it and release it, all of that. So that comes into play, I think. And it helps a lot with the business-type work that we do because I can ha- I have an intuitive sense of knowing what is going on with someone or what is showing up. Depending on how someone reacts and, or responds to whatever the situation is, though, it helps to be able to maneuver through that easier than not knowing, right?

[00:18:04] LuRae: Yeah, than not knowing. So what I would love for you to share a little bit, because you talked at the beginning about starting down the path, you know, choosing a school because of circumstances where you were not necessarily ali- aligned with what you thought you wanted to do, but you found a way to make it happen.

[00:18:21] LuRae: There are, I think, a lot of people that listen to this and are looking for solutions or signs or steps to take if they know they're not doing something they're meant to be doing. Can you talk a little bit about that and any advice you would have?

[00:18:37] Mona: Yes. Yes, and I love that theme with your podcast. It's just, I feel like that's just something that so many of us need in our lives.

[00:18:46] Mona: And, uh, you know, I've been working with a business coach since October, and we've both been using this term that I believe it came from Lacey Phillips, so I never wanna steal a term from anybody. I believe it came from her, expander. And I feel like these things are such expanders when you just hear other people's stories and you're like, "Well, if they can do it, I can do it."

[00:19:05] Mona: Like the five-minute mile, the four-minute mile, like they're expanders when you hear that someone else can do something. So I just wanna kind of say that because I wanna start this conversation with that energy for anybody listening. And I can say that if you are in a place where you feel like you shouldn't be doing that anymore, move.

[00:19:26] Mona: There is a reason. You don't feel those things and then you're supposed to ignore them. You feel those things because those are signs from your higher self that you're not aligned, from your guides, whatever it is you believe in, in general. You're just not supposed to be there anymore, and I feel like fear holds us back from so much greatness in this world.

[00:19:46] Mona: And it will always work out. Like we talked about where it's like, okay, well, one thing led you to one thing to another, and you ended up in New York anyway, and you know what I mean? And it's like you ended up not staying in New York anyway because you weren't, you know, but you were meant to have that chapter for wha- for whatever reason.

[00:20:04] Mona: And I think we're all so scared of mistakes that we don't make moves as soon as we were supposed to or should have, and it's still, even that's okay, I think, but with my journey, the part of the journey that I really like to talk about that h- that when I, when I found out what your amazing podcast was about, I was like, "Okay, this is where it, it clicks for me in my life and my career," is When I was, uh, well, I don't wanna say when I was.

[00:20:31] Mona: I don't remember how old I was, but let's say about 10 years ago I started Conscious Living PR because I had my original agency, MLCPR, and it was a strictly talent agency. And I had got to this place where I should have been on top of the world, and so grateful, and so satisfied, and so happy, and yet I was as miserable as ever.

[00:20:52] Mona: And that's how you know something's wrong, right? And I was attracting the wrong clients and, you know, there was a lot of toxicity in the business around me. Not to say the whole business is toxic. I always like to... With all the stuff that's going around these days about the entertainment world, I'm like, "No, there's also light.

[00:21:08] Mona: There's also good people." but, I just got to this place where I was like, "Okay, do I leave? Oh, God," like, "I put so much time into this. This is awful. Do I just let it go? Is this for nothing?" And I'll never forget, it was Labor Day weekend and I was meditating on the beach, and I was just like, "Please give me a sign.

[00:21:26] Mona: What do I do?" And I got the download that I should start a conscious PR company, and that that would bridge my desire for the spiritual, because I was very spiritual at that time and it was just only growing, and I was just seeking and seeking and seeking. This is a similar time to everything else that I was telling you about with my training.

[00:21:45] Mona: And I was like, "Okay, that sounds kinda good," you know? "If I start a conscious company, I can do it my way. I can make sure that things are less toxic if I can control as much as I can control," like which is never the way to go. You can't control anything. and I really just kinda bit the bullet and like, you know, was like, "Screw it," like, "I'm not worried about the fear.

[00:22:09] Mona: I'm just going to do this. I don't care what this means." I wanna tell you about another point in my career too because, and then we can talk about wherever you would wanna go with it. But that was the first thing where I was like, I didn't leave all my talent clients but I, you know, I parted ways with the ones that didn't feel aligned, which I've done many times in my career, and this is...

[00:22:28] Mona: You know, I always say this with a grain of salt because it's like it's not necessarily that they were bad people or not good enough for me or anything, we just weren't aligned. I always feel, like, that guilt, to wanna make that really clear. but Doing that was amazing, and it was real quick just to say, within a week, I started the company, I created the website, I hired a team, and I had clients within a week.

[00:22:52] Mona: when things work that fast, it's insane and you just don't question it. The energy was just flowing. The abundance was there. It just wanted to have a home and a container, right? The other thing that I did was in 2020, which I think is a more interesting conversation, in 2020, right as the pandemic hit, I was really feeling like this is a catalyst.

[00:23:14] Mona: This is a catalyst for change for anyone, let alone myself, who wants to take it. This is your time. The world is literally stopping. The world is pausing to let you do what you're supposed to do. And for me, I was like, "Okay, well, I'm gonna come out of the spiritual closet." I had not... You know, even though I talk about this now and I have these stories and I did this training and I did this and I did that, the bulk of people in my life had no idea that I had, you know, the abilities that I did, and that I would be able to, like, as I'm sitting there, like, talking to them, I knew that their grandma was behind them or whatever.

[00:23:50] Mona: Like, I just kept all of that, including my parents. My parents didn't know. I had tried to talk to my parents about it when I was a teenager, and they didn't know where I was going with it, and they were like, we don't talk about weird things like that here." You know, it was like they shut me down so early, my dad especially, Okay, I'll do this on my own."

[00:24:04] Mona: But, you know, so in 2020, I came out of the spiritual closet. I started a podcast that I only did for one, one season, in the conscious space, and I did an Instagram post where all of the industry and my clients saw that I was like, "Yeah, I'm a psychic medium and I'm proud of it, and I have a podcast now, and I'm going to be blending that side of my life with my PR world."

[00:24:27] Mona: And it was so scary, Lorraine. it was just... I only lost one client over it who was, who was very religious, and they did not feel aligned, and that's okay. But out of losing that one client, I gained so many more contacts and people, and fr- people that were like, "We would way rather work with a publicist like you than someone who's not into this or not aligned and whatnot."

[00:24:51] Mona: So it was just, as an example for, you know, anyone who's listening, the reason I'm telling these two stories, but especially the latter one, is because- when you really have that calling and you really step into your authentic self, things get even easier. So if you're unhappy right now, it's not easy because you're not where you're supposed to be, I think.

[00:25:12] LuRae: Exactly. Oh, I absolutely agree. It's like, it... Staying beyond your expiration date, th- th- you will get signals and signs and whispers, "It's time to change. It's time to do something different." And we can either listen or ignore it, and that's where people will either, like, you know, lose their role or w- you know, s- some health thing happens to interfere and intercept the direction and the path they're on.

[00:25:43] LuRae: And that's part of what got me out of New York, which it, you know, was a blessing. I, I mean, I wound up taking, eh, eight months. I wound up with a, like a, a mini health scare with, an infection that went through my body and the antibiotics caused tendon tears. So I remember going to the rheumatologist, the doctor who was treating me, and he was like, "You need to go get MRIs done."

[00:26:03] LuRae: And so I did, and sure enough, he said, "You need to get to a hand surgeon as soon as possible. You have tendon tears in both your wrists." Well, I had kept traveling and doing work. As soon as I was able to get back on the pony, I was like, you know, oh, the head of client development for this large media buying firm and, and I wasn't meant to be doing that.

[00:26:21] LuRae: So I, yeah, ultimately, I remember, you know, I had wrist surgery literally on my right wrist, and then we prayed over the left one and didn't have to do that, and it healed on its own. And I went back to New York, took, like, eight months, found myself actually sidestepping. We'll have to meet and talk about this separately.

[00:26:40] LuRae: I hired a publicist. I was, uh, very big into millennials and I wound up going to the United Nations, meeting the senior communications director for the UN, after I left the agency role, and volunteered, t- and worked with him for a bit and then wanted to go and talk about millennials because I w- went as a thought leader to the UN for three days.

[00:26:59] LuRae: and so it's like, you know, the... When you step out, as you said, you step out in faith, you step out in the knowing of your gut, you will be guided in the right direction. I mean, you... there's no doubt that everything you're meant to be doing will unfold if you are open to the path and don't let the fear stop you

[00:27:19] Mona: No, and you know, you said it right while I was thinking about it because, you know, those whispers are, you know, you're knowing.

[00:27:25] Mona: But if you ignore those whispers, I always say that spirit somehow throws a boulder in your way. And so your health scare, you know, your, your health emergency, that, that's a boulder. You don't wanna get to a point where you get the boulder. You just wanna get ahead of it. And if you're really feeling that, then

[00:27:41] Mona: Maybe if you need the fear and you know you have a reason for the fear, have the fear be, "I don't want the boulder," and have that help move you.

[00:27:49] LuRae: So what kind of, uh, I guess f- final advice would you have for people to get in touch with themselves on what they should be doing? Anything is and was helpful for you when you're at that apex and you know you should be doing something else, but you're just not sure how to figure it out.

[00:28:07] LuRae: Any words of advice?

[00:28:09] Mona: it depends on someone's scenario. Um, I'm trying to think of like what would be the most general advice I could give, but, I'm sort of thinking that you can do two things at once, and so sometimes when you're trying to make a transition, that could be the best way, and I did do that in many ways.

[00:28:27] Mona: I'm still in many ways still doing the two things at once. I'm a Gemini, so it's like in proper Gemini fashion. but you know, when I started The Conscious Company, I still had The Talent Company, as I, like I said, I still do now, and I'm so glad that I didn't just rip one thing and take it away and go to the other, because they found their harmony and they found their balance.

[00:28:47] Mona: So if you're listening to this and you're sort of like, "Okay, well, I'm in the medical industry, but I really, really, really wanna go into the spiritual side of things," it's like find a way to do both, you know? And I get like, "Well, there's not enough time in the day. I'm a parent, too, and I ha-," again, little tiny steps forward, you know?

[00:29:05] Mona: Is there an online course that you could take that you pay attention to at night or the weekend that'll help expand you, you know, that'll help open you up to the new horizons? And as you take those little steps, I really believe, and I've seen it myself with myself and my clients, the path shows its way.

[00:29:21] Mona: You know, you see a little bit more light and you're like, "Okay, now I'll go this way," or, "This opportunity just came." And you'll find new opportunities that are guiding you where you don't have to take that blind faith leap, but just take a step and try to maybe do both. That would be my advice.

[00:29:36] LuRae: You know, and, and it's interesting you say that, 'cause I know when I had moved to New York, my boss at the time said, "There's this place called the New York Open Center," and he's like, "I think you'd really like it."

[00:29:46] LuRae: I mean, they did meditation. They, they did all kinds of healing courses. And so I went on the website and saw, oh, they're having an open house for coaching for transformation. That sounds interesting. It was like, you know, coaching program. So I remember on a Friday, I had worked from home. It was g- getting into the evening.

[00:30:02] LuRae: It's like, you know, that was gonna start at like 6:00, and I'm like running to the end of the block up on the Upper East Side trying to get down to the place before, it was too late. And I went to an open house, and I got paired with the founder of the program, and they were doing an icebreaker.

[00:30:18] LuRae: And so we were paired up with each other, and the question we were supposed to be asking each other was: If you could do anything with your life and there were no barriers, And you knew you would succeed, what would you do and why? I literally couldn't answer the question. My response was, "How long do you continue doing something that's sedating your soul?"

[00:30:42] LuRae: Ooh. And I had tears rolling down my cheeks, and I knew... I sat through... That was like the icebreaker, so that was just like the intro to the evening. and it continued for another hour, hour and a half maybe, and I remember being in that building, everyone else had left, and I was there. I remember calling one of my daughters on my, on the phone like, "I just attended this thing and I have to do this.

[00:31:04] LuRae: I'm not sure h- how I w- I'm gonna do it." I- and I was working full time as a managing director, senior partner by day, and working, you know, the, through the program, a nine-month coaching program, 140-hour program, volunteer coaching, you know, by n- weekends and then one night a week. and so to your point, just be- if we're open to the opportunities and the direction we're guided to, we will find a way, and things will clear out and our path will open.

[00:31:33] LuRae: There's always a way. My mother used to always say, "If there's a will, there's a way."

[00:31:36] Mona: Yeah.

[00:31:37] LuRae: Right?

[00:31:38] Mona: I believe it. Absolutely.

[00:31:41] LuRae: So Mona, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom and inspiration and your light. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.

[00:31:50] Mona: I appreciate you. Thank you. It's really fun chatting with you here.

[00:31:54] Mona: I appreciate it.

[00:31:56] LuRae: And that's a wrap on another episode of And Then I Did This, celebrating the lives of those who've walked away from the beaten path to pursue work and a life that nourishes their soul. If you're feeling inspired and ready to explore your own path to freedom, check out youcanbefree.life where you'll find resources and support to help you break free and live life on your own terms.

[00:32:20] LuRae: See you next time.