132- I'm Back!

Episode 132 I'm Back!
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the My Opinion Podcast. This is a podcast that focuses on women in entrepreneurship and leadership. All in my opinion. I'm Maya Ler and I'm your host, and I'm so excited to be back. You guys. I took a very long break from. And I'm going to reconnect with all of you today and talk about my break, talk about what I've been up to.

It was not my intention to take such a long break from the show. It's been two years. So in 2023, that is when I released my last new episodes of the show, and I wanna get into all of that with you. I wanna share all of that with you because one of the really beautiful things about this show, my opinion podcast has just.

Been my vulnerability and sharing with all of you my entrepreneurial journey, my, [00:01:00] my personal journey, what I'm personally going through, and we're gonna continue that journey together. And I'm going to continue to share with you what has been happening in my life, because I think it's really helpful. For the entrepreneurial woman and for the woman who is leading and paving her way, whether you're wanting to start your own business, maybe you're just wanting to start a side hustle, then it turns into a business wherever you are in that journey, whether you're just thinking like, I'm really burnt out.

I don't wanna be in corporate life anymore, which that was the start of it all for me, which I've talked about on previous episodes, but we're gonna talk about that a lot more as we continue this journey together. But wherever you are in that journey or wherever you are in that process, you will connect and understand that there are times that we need a reset and we need to step back from some aspect, maybe of our business or our personal life and really [00:02:00] understand like what's important to me right now, what do I wanna focus on right now?

And. Where am I? And, and where can I maybe take a break to reset? And that's the point I came to. So let's go back so that we can also look forward and also talk about what I'm currently doing and, and where I am. And I can take you along this, this pretty exciting things that I'm, I'm up to. And I'll also tell you where we're going with the My Opinion Podcast and also just with the brand in general.

To go back to 2023, if you listen to our most recent episodes. Prior to the break, I had my incredible sister as my co-host, which was so fun. It's some of the best episodes, I think. So many people love them. I will just shout out that there's an episode about green flags and entrepreneurship, and so I would definitely check that episode out of You're looking for a fun one, or if you're really just kind of [00:03:00] questioning.

Is entrepreneurship right. For me or is building a business in general? Right. For me, it's a great, it's a great one where her and I really go back and forth just sharing our opinions, because that's what we do on this show is share our opinions on entrepreneurship and leadership. I so enjoyed having my sister as a co-host and to give you some more historical data on the show.

If you started listening to me at the very beginning, I started the show in 2017. Cohost and I started the show with. A a totally different trajectory and a totally different intent. I had no interest in podcasting in 2017 like that whatsoever. But after losing my brother to homicide, as I talk about on another show, which I'll.

I get into that as well and what I'm up, up to there and go and doing it in the public eye and being on a dating reality show and having this successful corporate career and all of this [00:04:00] kind of collided at the same time. A friend of mine said to me like, why aren't you? Doing a podcast and sharing your side, sharing your perspective, and I thought, why not?

Why not? I just went through the worst thing that has happened to me in losing my brother and in this very public way, and I was just kind of struggling with telling my story and sharing the opinionated side of me and who I've always been. And so I did it. I went for it, and through that journey. I've developed this show, um, the My Opinion brand and created an event company through that and have also created this other podcast where I help siblings who have lost siblings called the Surviving Siblings Podcast.

Of course, check that out, if that can help you. And now I, I'm evolving into a tech startup, so. You can listen to my full story about how I, I got started with all of these things. Um, just a [00:05:00] few episodes back. If you listen to reintroducing Maya and my sister interviews me two years ago, so you can really hear kind of the core of.

What happened in 2017 and how I started this podcast and my entrepreneurial journey, and I think she does a really beautiful job interviewing me and getting to the know with a lot of that. So I'll bring you up to speed now. So when we concluded her part of the journey in 2023 when she was my guest co-host.

I loved having her on. I thought we had great energy together and I love her business and what she does, but she was moving. Uh, I was going through the second hardest time of my life in, in full transparency, and I needed some time to be able to talk about that because it felt very inauthentic that I was on this show that I've always been so open and raw and, and honest on, and I really couldn't talk about a lot of [00:06:00] the things that I was going through yet.

The whole point of birthing my opinion in the first place was to be able to share my opinions and share my perspective wherever I was in my journey. When the show first started, it was sharing about the loss of my brother, and it was sharing about reality television and just my opinion on pop culture things.

Then it evolved into sharing my opinion about women in leadership, and then it went into more entrepreneurship, and so I felt extremely inauthentic towards. The, you know, this about this time. Uh, so this, these new episodes are coming out in October. So about this time I started to feel quite inauthentic because in 2023 I went through a miscarriage, I went through infertility, um, failed IVF, and.

My marriage fell apart. And so I felt extremely overwhelmed that here I am trying to run this event business. I had this tech startup that I didn't really know what I was [00:07:00] gonna do with. It was still kind of an MVP phase. And don't worry, we're gonna talk about that. And I had two podcasts. I had the My Opinion podcast, this wonderful show that you guys have continued to listen to, which I wanna thank you for as well.

Then I had my other show, the Surviving Siblings podcast, and so it came to a point where I didn't feel like I could be my authentic self and share my authentic opinions that I enjoy doing on this show. So I said, you know what? I need to take a step back. I need to take a step back. And it was. Really difficult for me because this show has been so important to me and it's helped me connect with so many incredible women, and I missed it so much.

And as much as I love the other podcast that I do, it's a very dark topic, talking about death and loss all the time. And while that's been very healing for me and a really beautiful thing and a beautiful community that I've created over there. [00:08:00] I've benefited from and, and hundreds of siblings, thousands of siblings, listen to our show now actually, but hundreds are a part of our, our community and our events that we do.

This show, my opinion is me. It's a hundred percent me, and I've just missed. Being raw, authentic me, but I feel it's a really powerful lesson in branding, in entrepreneurship, in business. When you feel like you can't be a hundred percent yourself and you just know that you can't do that, it's okay to hit the pause button.

I intended to do it for six months to a year, and here I am two years later, but I'm so grateful for the time. I wanna, again, thank all of you for continuing to listen because we have now been mentioned in Forbes. I've been written to by countless women's organizations, associations. I'm now speaking at them.

You guys are listening to the show. You're listening to the trajectory of my life and how I've created [00:09:00] businesses and the different ones. And you know, some of are, some of them are quite successful and some of them are in the the infancy phase. And I'll continue to share that and share my opinions. With all of you.

And of course we'll have incredible women back on the show to share their opinions. But I think the lesson and the takeaway from this kind of welcome back episode is sometimes we need to take a step back. Sometimes we need to reset, sometimes we need to understand and, and then we need to understand why we need that.

And for me. I needed to feel like I could come back to the table and, and share my opinion. The, the show is called My Opinion, my Brand is my opinion because I'm, I am fearless, uh, in sharing my opinion. I know not everyone will always agree with me in, in my opinion and what I share, but that's a part of who I am and sharing my journey into being a business owner, into entrepreneurship, into creating all these different things.

To [00:10:00] help people and also inspire people and to connect with people. And when I felt like I couldn't authentically be myself because of these personal things that were happening in my life, they were devastating. And so many women listening I think will connect with this and understand who have gone through loss, who have gone through infertility, who have gone through a marriage, going through a really difficult time and, and not working out and.

Going through, you know, miscarriages and infertility and difficulty in your family dynamics and so many, so many things, and I just felt that I needed to hit the reset button. So I've been itching and itching to come back, and I'm excited to come back refreshed and sharing more openly and more vulnerably with all of you, because I feel like that's the.

The beauty of this show and sharing my opinion, and if you go back and listen to a lot of our incredible guests, they come on and they share their opinions and they share their perspective of what it was like to [00:11:00] overcome and to build businesses and to be true leaders in their community. So looking forward, that's what I'll be continuing to do, is sharing all these, you know, the difficulties because 2023 was the.

Hardest year of my life, right next to the year I lost my brother. And I always say that it was really like 20 16, 20 17, because I lost my brother at the end of 20 16, 20 17. I did not think I was going to make it out of the hole guys. I just did not think I was gonna make it. And if I could go back in time and show the 2017 Maya, what she's done now and what she's created.

Ugh. It would be such a warm hug, but that's not how it works. Right? It's not how it works. But I think another inspiring thing I think about too is 2017 was such a dark year for me, but that was the year that I founded this podcast. It was a very different show then, as I've mentioned before, but that's when I founded.[00:12:00] 

The name, the brand. So something I hope you take away too from this welcome back episode is that in great darkness can some of the most beautiful lights in our life can be born. And I think that's a big message for me that in 2017, which that was the darkest year of my life coming out of such a significant and traumatic loss, this was birthed my opinion, it's my show, it's my brand, it's what?

Started me on my entrepreneurial journey and with 2023 being. Almost a tie for how dark the year was going through so much loss personally, and, and just, I, I felt like I wasn't gonna be able to pull through with my business as, as well because it was affecting me. But a lot of beauty came out of 2023 as well.

I've started this tech business. Um, I encourage all of you to check it out and ask me questions about it. It's called Find a Cohost and we match [00:13:00] podcasters, um, with. Their significant other, right with their co-host. So a break also came out of 2023 where I allowed myself to reset and really think about where I wanted this show, where I wanted the My Opinion Podcast to go.

And I'm really excited about where we're going. So I'm gonna be spending time with you, like before new episodes will be out every week. I'll be sharing more with you guys. There's gonna be some solo episodes at first, where I'm sharing where, where I've been, where I'm going, challenges that I've had in the business, and how I've managed to grow my business, and also the wins and how I've been able to win, and things that have worked for me and everything in between.

So each week I'm gonna be sharing different. Difficulties wins, losses, things that I've been through while interweaving my personal life into it, because [00:14:00] that's what I share here. I share my opinion, I share my raw perspective. I share my heart and soul with you because I think that's a big part of business, and I think that's a big part of why people win in business.

Because you do business with people that you like, you do business with people that you can connect with. You do business with people that. You, you connect with their story and you understand their mission and you understand their product or their service because you genuinely like them and you're bought into them.

So that's a little preview also of an episode that I definitely think, you know, you will enjoy. But that's where we're going. Of course, we'll have incredible women back. On the show and interviewing as well. But I think it's really important that I spend the time reconnecting with all of you and just thanking all of you for continuing to listen because these it mentions that we've had about the show and honoring our mission and what we talk about are incredible and it's incredibly humbling.

And I knew it was time. I knew it was time to come [00:15:00] back to the mic and share my opinion once again with all of you. So you look forward to many solo episodes where I just. Catch you up, share with you my, my, my big wins, but also my big failures, my big challenges, and I hope you can learn from them and come along this journey with me as I share about my more established businesses that I have, like my, my opinion event business, but also my find a cohost business that I'm growing and I'm evolving with, and we're launching different aspects and I wanna take you on that journey with me.

And I'm excited to share other women's stories as I've done in the past too, and I'm even more excited to announce that we'll be bringing some events and some networking aspects and some ways that you can get involved in the My Opinion community and. The movement, the My opinion movement of leaving that corporate [00:16:00] burnout, leaving that all behind, and finding out what your passion is, whether you wanna start a business, whether you want to be an entrepreneur, or whether you just maybe wanna start a side hustle and supplement your income.

Maybe you wanna stay home, whatever your dream is. You are going to enjoy these episodes and I hope they're extremely inspiring for you. So don't forget to like, subscribe and share the My Opinion Podcast and visit our website@myopinionpodcast.com and follow me on social media at My Opinion podcast or Maya LER on all major social channels.

And we'll see you back here next time. And thank you so much for listening.