When the Life That Worked No Longer Fits: Doro Fisher on Trusting Your Inner Voice

0:00Hi, I'm Debbie Thompson and this is A Stone in My Shoe, the podcast where we explore how midlife can become the most true purposeful and fulfilling chapter yet when we choose to follow our inner wisdom. Each week I speak with women who followed a quiet nudge and chose curiosity over convention and created a life that feels more aligned. And today I'm so excited to introduce Doro Fischer from Valencia in Spain. She's a senior communications strategist and international coach who has spent over two decades helping global organizations that the United Nations communicate clearly and meaningfully about things that matter. She is also a seasoned moderator and facilitator and an expert in international funding.

0:51And if that's not enough, she speaks and works in four languages. So welcome, Doro. Nice to meet you again, Debbie. You too. And thank you for taking your time from your busy schedule and communicating between Australia and Spain. It's a wonderful ability to be able to speak to anybody all over the world. Exactly, I love that. And you didn't say, actually, I'm German by origin. Maybe this is like an additional thing that also explains why I'm multilingual. I've been living in Spain for 18 years now. Wow, yes. That's a long time, isn't it? Wonderful. So, Doro, where do you find yourself now? What's happening for you? Well, this is a big question. Obviously, life is always a journey and it's always

1:40dynamic. You know, we never jump into the same river twice. So you see that there's always things in motion. I think last year was really a year of transformation for me, I would say, because on the one hand, as you've rightly said, I've been working in international communications for more than 20 years. I've been or I'm running my own international agency. I work with the UN, the European Union and other international organizations. And that's something I continue doing. But at the beginning of last year, I was actually starting a deep crisis The stone in your shoe. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. It was really a year of transformation because they stopped some of my projects because of the geopolitical situation in the world. I'm not going to enter any political discussion here because that's not the point now. But

2:28basically, the world order is changing at the moment, the way things are done. We're returning a little bit to the strongest gains and power struggles that we thought we'd left behind even. I've grown up in the generation where we always believed in peace. We even thought that a war in Europe would never be possible again. And then the war in Ukraine came back a few years ago, still ongoing. And that actually had a side impact on my projects. I don't work directly with Ukraine, for example, but I have other international projects that have seen the impact and some of my clients have gone into paralysis, I would even say, or like a thinking phase,

3:14because they no longer know how to communicate and what would be their strategic approach in that sense. So that was the beginning of last year. And I really questioned whether I should continue doing what I've been doing in these past 20 years, which I deeply believe in because most of the projects I work on are about sustainable development or human rights. So they're really purposeful in their essence. But I've seen actually that the way they're being done, I don't really connect so much any longer. And I even seen a lot of toxic environments and mental health issues in the organizations. So sorry for this long introduction. It's important to know that. So you are a mum of four girls. Yes, three girls and a bonus child. Three girls and a bonus. We all like a bonus child.

4:02And so this is obviously quite a big stone in your shoe. And we're going to unpack that later on. Was this the first stone in your shoe, because you know, you're a mum, a working mum with your own agency, working the UN, like a lot of responsibility. Is this the first one or was there something else, you know, a previous stone in your shoe that you're like, I need to, I'm not perhaps not aligned with what I should be doing and I should be doing something else. Yeah, good one. Yeah. And we're going to unpack what I'm doing now in a little bit later. Yeah, the first stone in my shoe was definitely when I was a younger mum, I would say that was around the year 2013-2014. Two of my daughters had been born by then. And I was really struggling

4:53with the nine to five jobs. I was working in an international project at the time. I was the communications manager. I had a stable income. And even from the outside, it looked like, yeah, you're doing a good career. Like people were like, even proud of me and saying, wow, this is really interesting, what you're doing international cooperation. Also, in the situation, we have to remember that it was just around the financial crisis in Europe and in Spain, and Spain was really hardly hit hard. So a lot of people were unemployed and were looking for stable jobs. And I had the stable situation, but I was really suffering with this like being in the red race, being in this nine to five job. And then like being a mum at the same time, I felt I was not really serving my kids well. At the same time, I was really

5:38struggling with the strict time frame. And I realized I really wanted to get out of that framework because I believe so much more in results based work, you know, like not counting the hours, even being more efficient is better, you know, like when you're in an environment where the people look at nine to five, they look bad at you when you go for coffee, or they ask why your kids ill and you have to go to the doctor now, but they don't actually see sometimes that you work over the weekends or the evenings and that you may be even just more efficient. You get your job done in an hour instead of other people that need three, you see. So I didn't really like that setup at all. So what did it look like for you? Was it burnout? Was it, I mean, I guess what I'm looking for is what kind of indication was

6:24your intuition giving that this was not the right path for you that perhaps you weren't aligned is question number one. And question number two, did you listen to those nudges? Interesting question. On the one hand, I also felt boredom. It's interesting because I was also in a job that was a little bit repetitive with respect to the content. So for example, I had to do this one communication campaign every year and it was the same topic every year. So I had to find new ways of doing that. And at the same time, I did try a few things, like I was always the one that was really like proactive and creative. And I really had two or three like key situations where I thought, what, I'm not going to accept that any longer. That really brought me to my boundaries. Like for example, one male colleague got a promotion

7:11and he was the one who never did anything. I even took over a lot of his tasks. So I went to my mother and said, why did he get this promotion? And you know that I'm so active here and I'm really moving things forward. And she said to me, yeah, because you don't need it. We know that you're motivated all the time. We wanted to motivate the colleague. Isn't that shocking? I thought, yeah, really, I'm the busy bee all the time. I get things done. And then you think like you motivate the male colleague like this. And then there was another situation because we have problems financing some of the projects we did. We had to ask our colleagues in Finland. It was like, yeah, some internal bureaucratic stuff. But basically in the annual report, the project was like then mentioned as one of the Finnish projects. And it was mine. I had done all the work. And I just felt I didn't get any recognition

8:00for whatever I was doing. So that was actually, I think that these, these two situations were the kick out point where I just said, I'm not going to take this any longer. I know I can do more. And, and then yeah, and at the same time, I wanted to do so much more out of that in like little box because I wanted to work more worldwide. I was working in Europe at the time. And I thought, well, I'd really love to work more in Africa, Latin America and other regions of the world. That was another motivation. Yeah. Well, that's, that's amazing. So it was kind of like the stone was becoming sharp and sharper and being, you know, additional stones added in there with those two events that happened. Right. And then you're starting to, you know, you're being more aligned with working internationally, working more with Africa. But at the same time, you are in a stable job in a,

8:48you know, in Europe that, in particularly Spain that was hit quite hard. So giving up a stable job and jumping off a cliff or out of the airplane, whatever you want. How did you, how did you navigate those waters? Because those, those are unknown and for many people, very scary. So talk me through that. Yeah. Actually, it's not something that happened from one day to the other. And I think that's also something I give as an advice to people that I work with, like my coaches and stuff. I realized, okay, this is no longer a fit. I have to prepare my way out somehow. So for example, I already been doing some voluntary work in addition to my job where I was creating like a new community or building up new contacts.

9:34And at the same time, I like, I made a list of 10 organizations that I thought could be interesting for me, like, and to like, to offer my expertise. I also did like a whole work around, okay, what can I offer to the world? What are my strengths and weaknesses? Because you know, when you like become a freelancer, you really, it's, it's not like, you don't really know, will people hire me? Will they really see my expertise? Or is it something that I feel I am good at? So that was the whole process I prepared. It took me a few weeks. And then I was really lucky because I went to a conference and I got to know this Italian foundation and I immediately sometimes you connect with people who just feel a good vibe. And, and after that conference, I looked at their website and it said on their website, look, we're always looking for experts to collaborate for a new collaboration. And I thought, yeah, really, I'm going to write them an email and just offer myself.

10:23And, and they immediately wrote back, yeah, actually, we really, we have a project now and we're looking for somebody with your profile. And at the beginning, I thought I could start doing this next to my job, like building it up slowly. But actually, after a month or so, I realized this, there was a conflict of interest for the type of project that I was involved in. So I, I went to Rome, I went to see now, look, I love working with you. I love the project you have. But I actually have a problem. There's this conflict of interest. So either you give me seven days per month for the next year. And I work for you and I quit my job. Or this is the end. I was actually quite courageous when I think about it. And I said that because I had nothing to lose. I still had my, my job, you know, I hadn't quit my job, but I just felt this is the right direction. And it was actually the day when you

11:11asked me now with my experience, the daily rate was really super low. So it was actually seven days meant quite a low salary per month still, but I knew it was enough to pay my rent and just like whatever it's basic food and stuff, I wouldn't get very far with it. But for me, it was like now, looking back, this was my startup grant. You know, I know in some countries you do have startup grants, but in Spain, there wasn't any help for like women entrepreneurs at the time that I could use. So in the end, I found the startup project and they hired me for a year and we even continued working together after that. But the moment I was on the market, I quit my job. I was on the market. My, my, my former employer even gave me a project straight away. Look, we want, we have this

11:57newsletter. Could you continue doing that? So, and then I won a tender and, you know, the ones I was in the market and I actually, one of the good things, this is also, I always keep insisting on that. I'm actually a very good community builder and a good networker. And I have, like, I've been using LinkedIn for a long time and I'm, I really look for quality contacts. It's not about being the influencer with 100,000 followers or so. No, it's really who are the quality people that you may want in your content, in your, in your, in your network. Because once I was out there and I started posting on it on LinkedIn, even people started contacting me there. And that's amazing. So actually, yeah, it was quite a soft landing for you then. And, and that was,

12:43I mean, it sounds like you're very logical when you get a sense that something's misaligned, it's like, okay, so what do I need to do? You know, what steps do I need to put in place? You have your North Star, you follow it and you, and you do, you take the aligned action, you actually take the action and make it happen. And so, so when you went across your own agency, actually with all the networking you had done and with the, you know, the people in Rome and your old company, you had a number of things to keep you safe. Because I think safety is often, or fear, is a big thing that holds many people back. Fear of failure, fear of, you know, fear of so many

13:28things. Do you think it was your logical way you approached it? Or do you think it was your clarity of where you were going that made this, because it sounds perfect. And so easy. It sounds easy now, but it wasn't because obviously I was in conflict, I was also, I mean, I have a family and actually my, my partner at the time, I got divorced actually one year later to that, that first husband, but he was, he was actually an architect and an artist, he wasn't earning very much, you know, a lot of money. So I was actually more of the breadwinner of the family. And that also, yeah, that, I mean, that, that wasn't easy. What I did actually, another thing for the safety question is, I had saved 10,000 euro. And I always told myself,

14:15okay, when you, you start being a freelancer, I mean, you have to be aware that sometimes clients don't pay on time, you may have to use some of your savings, you know, no to bridge, whatever costs. And I knew I had that. And this is again, this is part of the preparation. I didn't jump off the cliff from one day to the other. No, I prepared for a year. And then it felt like, and then maybe the other thing that helps me actually is always the question, what makes me unique is interesting, because when I start having imposter syndrome or even doubting, okay, will people hire me? Am I good enough or whatsoever? I start with, okay, Dora, what makes you unique or what, maybe what are the skills that you could maybe use for whatever job? Because I also told myself, I'm trying this for a year. I'm trying this for a year. If it doesn't work, I'm going to look for another job. But I knew also that

15:03finding an international job in Valencia wouldn't be easy because it's not a real international hub like Brussels, Paris, or whatever. And one of the answers I can always tell myself is, for example, I speak for languages, Dora, okay, don't forget that if it doesn't work in Spain, whatever in Spanish, you may find another one in German or whatsoever. And that's even, this is just a mental self talk. But I think we all have this, what makes us different, maybe from others, we should remind us of our strengths. And we all have strengths, and we're all unique in one way or the other. And that was really a good practice that helped me out of some of the dark moments that I also experienced. We all have that as well. We have bad days or like question marks, this is going to continue. But I have to say I was also very lucky because for a long time, I didn't even have my own website. This is another funny thing,

15:51I work in communications. And for the first five years, I didn't have my own website, because I didn't need one. Because the pros are generated from recommendations, snowball effect, network. So at a certain point, I thought, I need a window or something, like I need a show place when people ask me what kind of process have you done. So I created the website in the end. But it wasn't because of the website, that I got new projects, it's really the community, the recommendations, and then a good project obviously then also brings another one and so forth. Until last year when the second stone. Well, before I go on to the second stone, I just wanted to ask. So this was Doro at

16:36how many years ago was this where you transitioned from your job into, sorry? 2014. 2014. So that was 11 years ago. And what did you learn in that process? What were the major learnings about yourself, about the world, just about your intuition, just anything that you'd like to share with the people listening? One of the sentences that always comes up again is trust the universe. I have the feeling that the universe really had something lined up for me that is much bigger than the projects I worked on before. When I look at them now, when I look at my previous job, I feel so small. And I think I can have so much more impact working as my own boss

17:21and working on my own projects. And also the diversity that actually the world is open. This is another thing I love even being an entrepreneur because it doesn't define or restrict you to one certain tasks or type of projects. For example, I also did a children's book in between of all of that. I published a children's book because suddenly I had this idea and I met this illustrator and we published a book. So I love actually that as an entrepreneur, whatever comes up as an idea, you can follow those if you feel that this is something that there is an attraction there, a resonance. And for me, that's actually very, very powerful because it feels like a super engine from inside. Wow, okay. So for some people who, I guess, trust in the universe and I know you've done quite a

18:13lot of work around this, but for somebody new listening, how do you go about trusting the universe? Is that the same as trusting your intuition or trusting that your intuition is taking you in the right direction and that opportunities and the right path will emerge? Interesting. Yeah. First of all, it's true. I think I'm really working a lot with my intuition and it has become better over the years because I've started to listen much more to it and and everything that is connected with it, gut feeling, feeling it in your heart, you know. Actually, in German, you say gut feeling, Bauchgefühl gut feeling. It's really, you notice when you want to take a decision and maybe the rational decision

18:58would be one way, but your gut just says, I'm not so sure. And then sometimes the other one, which feels crazy or so much more courageous, just feels like the right one. So knowing and trusting that the universe has got your back, did it feel, it was a feeling in your body, in your gut, in your chest, in your heart that it was right? And then when that happened, you just went, okay, this is the right thing and just took the next step in that direction. Is that how it worked for you? Yeah, it works. And even on a private basis, because you know, when I got divorced, that was a very difficult decision because, you know, I had small two small daughters. I had, yeah, I knew, okay, in the worst case, I had to bring them up myself. And I couldn't really count on any financial support from my

19:47ex. But in the end, it worked out fine. But you know, when you get separated, and you know the other earns less than you, you cannot count on that support. If it happens great, but I have so many examples of women around me that actually never got any support from their ex partners. So I knew, okay, if I go that step, or if take that step, that direction, that could mean that I'm on my own now. At the same time, I actually, I met somebody else. And it was really funny, that story, because I met that somebody else in my girl's school. This is like a bit of a movie story. It was my daughter's best friend's father, who was also... It's a bit like love, actually. Do you remember when Liam Neeson meets Claudia Schiffer at the local school? Yeah, exactly. Something like this.

20:35So it was really funny, because if I wasn't looking for a new partner, but it just happened because we were on the playground and our daughters got on so well with each other. So I suddenly fell in love very quickly. And I actually, I also got pregnant very quickly, which wasn't planned at the time. And suddenly I was like, oh, I'm going to have like a patchwork family. Am I going to say yes to that? And in the end, like all of, like all of our families, they were looking at what you just, you know, just started a new relationship. Now you're pregnant from that man, you don't know this guy. And it's so funny, because we both knew, we asked ourselves the question, do we want to go this way together? Do you want to have this child? And we were so certain there was no doubt whatsoever. And I can tell you now, more than 10 years later, this was the right decision because I'm still with that man and

21:23we're having a lovely patchwork family. But obviously looked like people looked at us from the outside, they just thought we were crazy. Isn't that the thing about intuition and knowing? Because yeah, logically, people can look in and go, stay safe. Because you know, we crave so many people or we're kind of wired for safety. And then when you go against it, it scares people. And but the thing is, I guess with you, you'd had these 10 years, you'd had this moment where you, you know, you left a job, you set up your own agency and you were trusting your intuition and you felt that the universe had your back. So when the feeling is right, you're like, okay, I'm just, I'm just gonna go with this,

22:09which is beautiful. And also, do you know what? I don't overthink when I, when I take decisions, when I feel this is the right one, I don't overthink and that's actually a good thing to do because if I, if I did that, probably I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, go forward with certain steps. So another advice, just follow the intuition without overthinking. If you feel right, just go for it. And you'll never have safety. You'll never, you'll never know everything, will you? You can't predict everything that could, you know, could happen in the future. And I know, because that's something I used to suffer from only because, you know, my logical mind was, give me all the answers, give me all the answers, give me every possible scenario. And how can you predict that? And then you talk yourself out of things. So it's, you know,

22:55I guess for somebody listening is that gut feeling and that intuition and learning to really listen to it and trust it. It's so powerful because you don't waste days, hours, whatever, second guessing yourself, redoing the decision, decision made moving on, feels good moving on. But at the same time, one funny thing is also, I have this side, but I also have the controller, which is quite strong. Exactly. And actually, the controller comes out when I do financial management. And actually it's, it's not bad to have this part of, for example, I have a very good Excel. I see in advance, I know exactly how much I will earn more or less, or like how many invoices I will send which month. So I also see in advance when there will be a gap or when like, you know, income will go down because I don't know, maybe projects have less

23:42projects in June. So then it's like, okay, I have to switch on the motor, the motor to the end to generate new projects for that period. Since I see it in advance, so this is really, I do a lot of strategic planning and I see like a lot of financial controlling. I've never been in the situation to be without projects, without money. And I see it in comparison with my husband, who is from Latin America who doesn't have this side. I think it's my German origin or something like this. Yes. But you know what, it's a good combination. I'm realizing that more and more now that on the one hand, trusting your intuition, having this like ability to tap into that wisdom, but at the same time, controlling certain parts that you can control. I mean, this is part of,

24:27you know, like what I mean, that doesn't depend on the universe. If I do my Excel or not, I can do that myself. And then I see certain things coming. And I react on time before it actually stresses me out in a survival mode. And I think that's it several times. Yeah. And I think that's a really important point, actually, is the fact that your intuition, because I was struggling with this and sorry for digressing and trying to, I have a controller, very, very strong controller, and my intuition. And we've made truth. The two of them have had a chat and we've made a truth. But my controller wanted to know everything. So if something new came up, so my intuition would go, something would come up and I'd go, that's interesting. And then rather than taking the next step, I wanted to know all the steps to the end.

25:18And my controller would not feel safe until all the steps revealed. Of course they can't be. So what it, you know, does, it shuts it down. No, that's too risky. And now it's gone. Okay. Intuition knows the direction, but it doesn't know every step. The controller will come in and take the action in the right direction. So they're working together quite nicely now. Intuition sets a direction, controller does the work. And often, you know, the journey is the destination for me. Even I do a lot of like trainings on this with my coaches, because I realized the goal setting is really relative. Some people have difficulties in knowing what is their overall purpose or what's their super big goal. And sometimes it doesn't, it's not necessary. Just start walking, no more or less

26:06the direction that you're going to, what's actually giving you energy, what's attracting you, make that grow in your life, and then something will unfold. And actually, I love even when the universe surprises me. And if you control everything 100%, the universe will never surprise you. So, so give this opportunity even, and I, what I also feel more and more is like, attract the things that you want to grow in your life. And this like attraction and resonance, frequency work, I believe more and more. And because this, this is when the magic happens. And this is when you are first of all aligned with yourself, like your heart and, you know, like, and your purpose, you really, you operate from the heart. And that, and I think, and I think things happen very quickly, don't they, you meet,

26:52you know, you meet the right thing or your right situation, or you go to somewhere and, you know, somebody's there and says something. And the synchronicities, I mean, I'm sure everybody listening has had synchronicities. But as you align yourself more and more, as you, you know, your energy and, and I guess it was clarity as well, where you're going, those synchronicities become closer and closer and stronger and stronger. Do you find as you're growing your intuition and all these, these skills? Completely, even like an acceleration moment. That's what I'm going through right now. I feel I've planted so many seeds along the way. And suddenly, like they're all growing and things are starting to blossom in a beautiful way. And that's always, that's also very powerful because that again, gives me energy back and

27:40gives me trust from the inside. Yeah, I'm on my journey and it's okay. And it's also okay if some things don't work out. And it's also good to ask yourself, like on a regular basis, is this still a fit or not? And if it's not, maybe let's get rid of it. That's a really important one, isn't it? Because, you know, often we think once we start something, we need to finish it. And some things were aligned once upon a time, and they're not anymore. So it's, it's really important to get rid of them and make space for other, you know, for other things. So that segues on making space for other things. The second stone in your shoe. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah, I mean, I mentioned it before that I went into this crisis moment at the beginning of last year. And I was really thinking, okay, are these institutional projects still a fit for me?

28:30And I thought about it the whole year, even until the retreat where we met in Bali in November, because I was really in doubt. Is this really my purpose still? On the other hand, I knew these were purposeful projects. And I had a moment where I found clarity. And it's funny because sometimes we're just one thought away from the solution. And basically the way I see it now is, okay, you're giving your voice to these institutions when you work with them, and you're like the press releases and the campaigns, etc. And it's okay. It's okay. You can keep doing that as long as it doesn't drag your energy or really makes you feel like you're down. Because it can be your enabler. It can be

29:19the enabler for the other things. And basically, the journey last year was, I've been more and more developing my own voice. That's been really beautiful, because for a long time I had only been communicating for the others in a successful way. But I hadn't really developed my own voice in such a strong way. So when they canceled my projects at the beginning of the year, I suddenly had time, which I never have. And I was like, I thought I would go to Africa in February. Now they canceled my trip. So what am I going to do with that? And so I had a few dormant projects within me, boiling within me already, let's say. And suddenly I said, okay, there's no excuse Dora. Now you have to launch these. And one of them was like a training with a colleague of mine, which we've done already like twice now. In the meantime, I also started a newsletter

30:10on LinkedIn, which is called Women Who Inspire the World. And this is really a project that comes from the heart, because basically I realized, I always meet so many incredible women when I travel around the world and I work in Africa and I work in the communities. And these women are not famous, they're not VIP, but they do an incredible work and they can inspire others to do the same. And I have access to them, you know, like this is another thing. I realized, yeah, I can actually easily access women in Afghanistan. And I can talk about education in Afghanistan. I mean, it's not so easy. And I really like to actually rate that. And exactly as you said before, it was all about network. One of the things that you said before is you were great at, you know, building communities and networking. And,

30:57you know, the right people in your sphere, you know, energetically as well. Exactly. And not quantity necessarily. No, no, exactly. So just a question around that. So these two projects had been something that you wanted to launch before, but you just never had the time. Exactly. Because I'd already done trainings, like, yeah, how to create your lead magnets and create your communities more to create your own online products, etc. But I just wasn't, yeah, I wasn't ready because I needed this space, even this creative space to really do it. And the good thing is also, I put some pressure off me by calling them pilot projects. You know, the way you launch a new project and you feel like you need to be successful straight away. So by calling them pilot projects, I thought, this is a test.

31:46That's amazing because it just takes the pressure off you. And the outcome is, you know, and I think so often when we get caught up in outcome, we get nervous because, you know, the perfectionist in us wants to come out and the achiever and all these other parts. But when it's a pilot and you're just doing and seeing where it's going without a, you know, a particular outcome, I think we can just relax and enjoy it. And I think often when that happens as well, you open yourself up to so many other possibilities that you might not have thought of. And, you know, with the creativity and people coming in and what you create is like, whoa, that was that was magic. And the journey was enjoyable because it was no pressure. Exactly, because failure is also can be part of that

32:33journey. And failure can be the learning experience to find unit relaunched in another way, etc. So so that for me is actually one of my maybe tips or so to others. If you do it that way and you take the baby steps, you concentrate also on one step after the other without even pressure. Okay, I have to launch it next week. No, no, you can launch it next month. It's still okay. But I did a little bit of planning and I set myself, for example, for the newsletter, I launched the first edition to see how it would go. And it was amazing. I got like, I was contacted by women all over the world that I didn't even know that read the article. They felt like, wow, this was resonating so much with them. So I got really encouraged to keep on doing this. And I set myself like a frequency, okay, how often do I want to do this? I said, okay, once a month, once a month is not stressful,

33:21but it keeps like regularity. And I've been doing that ever since. And actually, I even realized now that it doesn't give me any money that kind of pro like the newsletter in particular. But it gives me so much joy and even mental balance. I realized when I have a toxic situation in one of my paid projects in the international organizations, then no, wow, tomorrow I'm going to interview this great woman in Chile on her indigenous wisdom. I did this interview last week. Wonderful. So much joy and gives me so much energy. And that gives me then the power to keep going and even not take some of the like bad things in the other projects personally and protect myself from them. I realized, excuse me, good balance in the end. So now that I see these projects as an enabler, I can keep on doing them.

34:10I'm even, I focus on gratitude. I'm grateful that I have this enabler to be able to focus more on my own projects. And actually, you know what happened? This is when the magic happens. The universe was so nice with me. There was a bouncing back a bit like what happened to many people after the pandemic, you know, when they stopped and then suddenly there was a bouncing back, because funny enough, like I think it was in like in the summer, more or less, I was contacted for a new project. And it's with Canada, the United States in Europe, and also very funny in the current world. So just right now, working with the United States really. But yeah, it's become this is like an urban cooperation project. And it started with like a few working days. And they liked my work so much that they've given me a lot of extra things now. And I

34:57was able to employ my first full time employee. And that's a big step as a growth step within my company as well. Because so far, I've only worked with freelancers. I have like a network of 15, 20 freelancers I regularly work with. But since I work in different languages, different countries, I so far didn't really make sense to have a full time person. But now this new project that I won, which is a three year project. And the good thing is also that this person is working on the project about like three days a week. And the other two days is working for me for my own project. So this is going to allow even more space and come up with more creative things. And, you know, to, you know, once you give yourself space to think

35:43and, you know, allow ideas to actually go, you know, as you said, just throwing seeds out and having all these amazing seeds, because those are the ones that give you, they might not pay you, but they give you the energy and they give you the balance. And it's so important that we have not just focus on things that give us money, but things that give us joy, the things that make us grateful, things that expand us, things that help us learn, things that allow us, you know, greater access to our intuition. And it sounds like, you know, when you first started getting feedback that you're on track and your intuition is right, you're getting so much feedback now. Yes, you're on track. Yeah, we'll call here. Yes, we'll do this. And that must be incredibly

36:31empowering, Doro. Yeah, it gives you more power. And actually, it's beautiful because all these new opportunities that are popping up, for example, I've also worked on two retreats in the meantime. And like it feels so nice when you can also share this with others and empower others. This is where another magic happens. It's not about me. And it was never about me, even this newsletter was never about me showing off like, oh, you can write nice articles. No, it's not about that. It's about creating these connections, empowering women around the world. And this is where the magic really happens. And I just did a retreat this weekend, which was so beautiful. And again, it was a bit of a pilot. It was the first one day retreat I did here in our house. And I realized, wow, I have this space that could be really a meeting point is another vision I have for this year. We bought this house a few years ago in the mountains

37:21close to Valencia and renovated it. And and actually we realized we have a meeting point and we want to have international account as I already have new ideas now for artistic residencies for new retreats. This is where and then in the end, the money also comes, you know what I mean? It's not about the money, but you suddenly bit by bit, it's also there is also in the return of investment. But it was never about that in the first place. But when the universe is aligned, it shows up also in that way. And that's so beautiful. It is so beautiful. And it sounds so you've got so many things happening, like lots of things sprouting. It's what you it's what you focus on. But it just sounds like this so, you know, from when you first started and how the geopolitical landscape is changing

38:09and how to go and and despite that, because so often we can get caught up in our own lives and what's happening to us. And despite that and despite that being part of your your job, you were able to create other things because I think that's a really important thing for anybody listening is that we are the predominant creators in our in our lives. We can create and things are not perfect. In fact, they're never perfect. Often we create, as you've said with these two stones, when things are tough, you know, because you have to dig deep and you have to change the direction because it doesn't feel aligned. So and I just want to talk about the ripple because the ripple that you're doing, you know, giving all these women from around the world, these voices, ordinary women, powerful, amazing woman, giving the voice and

38:56giving yourself a voice and all these projects. Where do you see this ripple, you know, happening and the impact on the world? This is a big one. I just maybe I'm going to start with something else that came to my mind, maybe we can come back to it. Because one of the words that just popped up now in my mind was it's there's a bit of a rebellious act in all of this. Because you know, I have also a bit of an activist gene. And this is why I started to work in these kind of projects in the first place in my communication projects. But it's funny because lately, a lot of the discussions I've been leading is around what kind of leaders do we want to be and what kind of within feminist leadership and more masculine leadership. And it seems like the masculine

39:43like powerways that's gaining. And I feel no, we should actually stay like to like how do you say this, we should continue with the way we think is right. And I believe in a more empathetic leadership style and more feminine leadership style, which doesn't mean I can I can also be a lion if I have to. And I think you said that to me in Bali, you said, Dory, you're a bit like a lion or lioness, you protect your children, you can be very soft. But when you have to be strong, you can. And it's having it's having the yin and the yang and knowing when to use it, because you're right, the leadership at the moment just power and and my way and, you know, logic, logic, this is how we're going to do it. But the more feminine heart centered,

40:32sympathetic, empathetic, it is so important. So is this something that you see yourself being beautiful? And I think you have to lead by example, because some of the women that I work with as coach, for example, their doubt that they're really doubting if they're on the wrong, the right track now, and if they should put out put on more mass, I told them, no, I mean, maybe you have to adapt in certain situations when you're in a room with only guys and they're that way, then okay, maybe you have to, like, be a bit stronger as well. But don't change who you are, don't change your essence. And so I feel this is why I'm saying I feel like I'm a bit of a rebel right now in the world that we're seeing around us, because I'm going to change who I am. And I just hope I can attract more like minded people and that we can make this community of like conscious spiritual entrepreneurs

41:23grow and lead by example. And I also see it a bit like a pendulum, like I hope that we're now okay, we're going to one extreme, let's hope that it will also go back fall back on the other side again, because sometimes you can actually feel despair when you think about it too much when you see what's happening in Gaza, when you see what happened in Venezuela, Greenland, all these conflicts, more and more conflicts, people are really suffering. When I think about it too much, it really makes me feel bad, but at the same time I feel it's not in my control. I can't stop what's happening in Gaza, but I can actually lead by example in my community and I can hopefully be contagious in that community and convince others that this is the way forward. Yeah, I love that. And I think it's so important because

42:11authenticity, the vibration of authenticity is so powerful and it allows others to be authentic as well. And I think when people are authentic and they're being truly who they're meant to be, I think you get enormous power as well and it allows other people, people feel supported. And I think there's also because when you're with authentic people, you feel safer, you feel stronger, you feel energised and we can't dismiss the energy that authenticity gives out and the power that it has on people. So Doro, that's amazing and as you do that and your light,

43:02authenticity grows, so it does other people and other people and all these women around the world and this whole network. So that's amazing. What a legacy you're leaving. I hope so. I can also tell you I did a lot of healing work on my own family, like where I'm coming from. It's not that it was all just for granted, I was just born like that, just maybe also a message to others who may be in the darker period right now. It took me quite a lot of time to get to who I am today and I'm almost 50 now. So I mean at last I can say that now that I'm middle aged, I feel finally I can accept also my flaws. I feel a bit more relaxed even about my beauty

43:48and all these kind of things but when I was younger there were a lot of issues around that and also a lot of family heritage that was energy draining and I had to get rid of that in the healing process. So maybe it's also something to share because it's not all about being the strong and the great and the contagious now. There's also been very dark periods. It's not the topic of today but just that people know you don't have to be perfect and if you're now in the darker period the light is coming, the light will always win. And I think that's a really important one because any journey is you know you go through the hills and valleys and there are times that it's very dark and you have to dig deep but I don't know but in my life the times that have been the hardest have been the times that I've learned the most.

44:35It's not fun but I wouldn't give up any of those times because it was so much learning that happened and once that learning is done or the unlearning depending on you know what you're doing with the healing work, it just gives you this inner peace and this inner power and this inner knowing that you are perfect, you're great the way you are, you're not broken, you are you, you're whole and I think that's really important because so many people in this world today feel not good enough, broken, have to be somebody else and whenever we live like that and we don't live authentically something always happens and the universe reminds you who you are.

45:21You know you will get a kiss. So I just wanted to, just your final words to the listeners like you know a woman in midlife perhaps who's at the first stone in your shoe thinking of you know I'm overwhelmed at work I'm trying to be a mum and you know this is just so and I just don't feel aligned I feel drained and also somebody you know perhaps who's beyond that who wants to then really start creating from their from their heart and what words would you leave them with? I would actually say if not now when. Yeah because you know this is also a thing that

46:07has been like been growing within me it's really it's the time is now don't wait until you're retired you know like our parents generation had this like thing oh we're gonna work hard and then eventually we retire and then we can travel the world or something like this and you know my dad never got there because he got ill when he was 55 and he died at 69 so he never got to that retirement paradise so don't don't wait for it start now and start with baby steps without overwhelm and start breaking it down and think about your strengths focus on your strengths and not on your weaknesses the weaknesses can maybe be part of your learning journey like what do you have to do maybe training to get better at but don't like let your weaknesses

46:53drag you down it's not worth it because by now you you have a suit everybody has a superpower one way or the other and sometimes they're in our extracurricular activities even somebody's good at painting or or music and sometimes it's even combining those and you never thought that this could make a profession or you could do something more with it because it was always your hobby or you know like something you did outside of work so so listen to that and and just yeah and and make sure that you open this this channel for the intuition and I can tell you also from experience if there's too much noise around if you're running too much in the red race this channel will not open up and another thing that I've done like personal experience on my side is I stopped drinking alcohol like maybe a year and a year and a half ago and that has

47:43actually strengthened my intuition it's not I'm imposing that on anybody I'm just I'm not like a guru say you don't drink any longer that I can tell you that for me it has opened up a lot of channels that I didn't even know exists like even things like in my healing processes with my ancestors and my lineages that was very very powerful so maybe something to think about because people sometimes get too busy in their weekend parties because they have a nine to five job and then they just wait for Friday to come and then they party all weekend and then just continue and then never stop and then never take time to think and I think you need to give yourself a bit of a bit of space if you want to create something new and grow to your next level give yourself that space in one way or the other and can be a retreat it can be slowing down

48:29certain things but I think that's important yeah I think that's very wise words and for me that was definitely you know being a an achiever had to you know be achieving all the time or doing something and for me to slow down was was hard but when you make that space and you start hearing the little whispers or feeling it like everybody's going to feel it's something they're going to see it or hear it or you know whatever it is amazing and then when you go okay let me follow that and then something appears and as you said the unknown and something you know magical line for you and you go wow okay I need to trust it so it's a little steps getting feedback maybe starting you know something slow not giving up your your job maybe starting on something smaller

49:15and just really take time to listen to your intuition give it time and space and everyone will feel it's somewhere different so I think those are incredibly wise words and yeah if not now when exactly so good luck to all of the listeners out here who are like you know at the brink of starting something new or like for 2026 it's your year brilliant thank you so much for joining us we've really appreciate um you know everything that you've shared so much um and we wish you well and get out there and let's get some beautiful leaders out there because we we need something to change don't we yes thank you so much Debbie was great connecting with you and also good luck with your own endeavors thank you thank you see you bye bye