Episode 4: She sold 15M in 5 months at AWS (as a new hire), then quit her job

I should just end this. If I can make money, I'm I'm worthless. Look at me. I can't get this done.

I witnessed her going from someone who needed validation, who needed approval, who needed to achieve, to feel worthy. She sold $15 million in less than 6 months after transforming herself.

Um, my childhood was rather chaotic. Um my mother suffered a addiction and my father was very absent which led to me spending a lot of time alone in neglect and people gave me awards and I became addicted very quickly to winning and when I was not winning I was in deep depression.

Everything is starting to black out and I'm driving. I start to feel this feeling like I'm genuinely going to that. The greatest version of you is right behind all that pain.

Welcome to the Untap Your Sales Potential podcast. I'm so glad you're listening cuz I'm going to bring you real stories from sellers who have gone from average performance to elite by mastering their mindset, habits, and selling skills. These are all sellers that I've coached and I've watched them transform their lives. and they're going to share exactly what they changed to become elite. So, if you're not getting the results you want, if you know you can do better, if you're frustrated and you're not sure what to do, listen up because these sellers are going to share the exact playbook that they learned and used to become top performers. Can't wait to dive in.

All right, everyone. Welcome to Untap Your Sales Potential podcast. I'm so excited to be sitting here with Athena who is our sales strategist who recently came to work at Untap Your Sales Potential and she has a really powerful story. I've been fortunate to coach her over the past year and mentor her and she's been in the program for several years and I've just witnessed a remarkable transformation in Athena. So much so to the point where I decided to hire her. I witnessed her going from someone who needed validation, who needed approval, who needed to achieve to feel worthy to somebody who really is confident in her own skin, who uh truly is focused on serving other people and who is detaching from her outcomes and attaching to serving other people. I um am excited to share her story with you a bit about Athena. She has um been in tech sales. She's only, is it 32 years old now?

33.

33. Okay. So, she walked away at age 32. She just turned 33. When me and Athena worked together, she sold $15 million in less than 6 months after transforming herself and really showing up without neediness, without, you know, any kind of achiever mindset. Truly just showing up and being bold. and then she spoke in our last mastermind on um getting back to your true self, the person you were all along. So, I'm excited to dive into your story. Athena, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks, Ian. Thanks for having me for that beautiful introduction.

Absolutely. Well, let's start. Why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself and your background?

Yeah. So, I was born in Venezuela and I am a middle child. I have two sisters. Um my childhood was rather chaotic. Um my mother suffered of addiction and my father was very absent which led to me spending a lot of time alone in neglect. And I adopted a lot of survival mechanisms that served me well as I continued in my journey to the point that I was able to survive a lot of difficult moments in my childhood and later on in my early teens. At the age of 13, I found out that my father had a different family in the United States. And at the time, Venezuela was going through a really rough patch. Still is. that made me better and he made a decision to bring us to the US to the US for vacation where we then found out that he had a second family. Um at that point my parents decided that we were going to move to the US and we did. So I moved to my stepmother and my father's house at the time and I had three other siblings that we didn't know about. So proceeded to live from 13 till 18 years old in that household and then I went to college. Um I always wanted to help people and be happy. That was kind of like what I always wanted to do. So I studied psychology because that was not a profession. After I graduated, I made a decision that I was not going to stop interviewing until I found a job that basically felt very in alignment with me. So after interviewing for three months, I realized that I loved interviewing and a company called Insight Global called me. They said they really wanted me to come in an interview and I was set on another job. But I had this feeling that I was looking for them and that kicked off my career in sales very rapidly after I got promoted from being a recruiter in just three months in a row into account.

So you started as a recruiter and then did you stay at that same company or did you go to another company to move into sales?

I was there at Inside Global where I started my first sales job.

Okay. What were you selling initially?

Initially I was an account manager for enterprises in South Florida where my role was to understand what were their open Rex and then work with our recruiters in our office to basically sell someone into their role, right? somebody that we sourced very deep relationships. I highly recommend any turn to sales to start in the recruiting field because it's like super cutthroat but at the same time the opportunity to develop very strong relationships with executives is like I mean it shaped the rest of my career and I take those lessons with me till this day in B2C.

So

Gotcha. So you went from recruiting to tech. Tell me about kind of that transition. Why did you decide to go into tech and what what led you to that shift because recruiting is very different.

Yeah, it's a very different role for sure. But what ended up happening is that I became rookie of the year at Inside Global very quickly in my first year in sales and then I went to my first President's Club equivalent at that company. I was basically running one of our biggest accounts in the South Florida office and I saw a deep need at the time for my clients to take advantage of something called professional services. At the time I didn't know what it was but professional services were really important because instead of like placing a person which was in essence a bandaid for a project I had the opportunity to lead an entire project with a group of people. So, a lot more money. And this was a net new go to market for Insight Global. At the time, they did not have an open position for me to transition there. But one of my clients um had just moved to a value added reseller. So, he basically said, "Anina, there's no better seller than you. You need to come work for me." I trusted myself into it. So, I took a really deep leap of faith and went from recruiting to selling product and professional services, which is something I had no idea what I was getting into. Um, but just a lot of space and that's what actually kicked off my tech sales career.

Gotcha. So, that's I guess uh a few years into your career. I'm curious kind of at the beginning what it was like for you and and specifically sales tends to attract people that have um chaos a little bit. Um it seems like there's a certain personality type that does really well in sales. You got into sales, you got account executive of the year, very quick success in tech within a couple years. I mean that's you didn't go the BDR route or spend you know five years trying to get into tech. I'm I'm curious what do you think made you successful early on and and more like why were you attracted to sales? Was it the intoxication? Was it you know the ability like tell me about those early early years of how you showed up you know your first I I'd say three to five years in sales.

Yeah. So, like I said a little earlier, I always wanted to help people. And when I got that role in recruiting, I felt like I had this unique opportunity to really help people find their dream job and really help companies find their dream talent. So, with every role I've had, I've always like sold myself a strong why that basically gets me out of bed. Now, what made me really successful beyond that was definitely my trauma. There was a perfect shoe for like Athena to fit into was like tech sales because of all the chaos that I grew up in, right? So what's really big in sales is like validation, right? And work will start calling you names like internally I had a really negative selft talk because of where I grew up. So my job was my saving grace. It's like I would at the time I had a really toxic relationship. My friends were all partying. there was all this mess going on around me and I've always been very sensitive which so that those things stopped me. I always was trying to like kind of find my place in the world since I was very little. Right? So now here it's like I had a nickname and people gave me awards and I became addicted to to being that right? They call me things like warrior or relentless or the mark of genius or Athena the great at Athena. Ath standing for alltime high like these are things that give me validation in the world and I just didn't have that before. So I became addicted very quickly to winning and when I was not winning I was in deep depression to be honest.

So tell me about that.

It looked like abusing a very early in my career so that I could do things faster. It looked like saying yes to things that were not really in alignment with me just to because I thought that if I said no it would cost me the relationship whether it was with like colleagues or you know at the time when we were still in the office like having happy hours after work and doing the most to be part of the culture was like a big deal and my mom was an alcoholic. So for me being around alcoholics or people that drink a lot is like very triggering. But I had to put myself in those situations to like kind of fit the mold so that I could continue with my brand and be seen as someone that is like a perfect fit for the company. So I was putting myself aside so that I would be embraced by others because that was honestly the only awareness of validation that I had in me. It came externally.

It makes sense. if you didn't get attention as a kid or if you're neglected or in your hectic environment, sales can be really um haven a haven because you're getting all of that attention and it makes a lot of sense. So talk to me about what happened next. So you go to this tech sales, then you go to Palo Alto and leading up to Untap Your Sales Potential, maybe kind of talk about that journey of being a high achiever and and and what it cost you and and also why you decided to sign up for coaching even though you were getting great results.

Yeah. So I was I started to pick up this pattern where I would spend a year at a company learning and become like awarded for like my efforts like always got like a grid award or like rookie of the year. So the same thing happened when I went to UDT which was my second company right. So um my then customer asked me to come over. I did I went over and I learned a lot there about myself. I I was very scared. Um but I I I had to do what I did. I had to figure out a way to sell. So I became really tied with the sea level executives of that company and I basically sat in their office and I was like tell me what to tell these customers. like act as if I was the customer and like sell it to me so that I can ask you questions so then do the same thing for my customers and it was a small company so that was available for me and after that year of learning the second year I was number three the company >> so got my second president's club and at the same time now co was kicking in right so we had just been sent home we were working from home and I decided at the time that I was going start doing yoga very seriously. Okay. So, I decided I'm going to do my yoga certification and that's when I met my now husband Al. And just 3 weeks or so after dating, I was pregnant and I had just interviewed to go to Palo Alto Networks.

Wow.

And that was my dream job. Okay. So hit president's club, met the love of my life, became pregnant, interview networks, get the job and I had to make it work. So I remember this is going to be this going to help some people just being so nervous and afraid of telling my manager that I was pregnant. And I literally asked him to lunch and I sat in front of him and I was like in the verge of tears. This was like a month and a half into my role. And I'm like, I have something to tell you. And I tell him I'm pregnant. He's like, this is the best news you can give me. So I was so blessed to join that company at that time because my manager, Chris Williams, was genuinely an angel on earth. So they embraced me and something happened then when like they said yes to me even though I was in that vulnerable situation that like I wanted to make it up to them. Okay. So I worked harder than anyone else. a pregnant woman in the summer in South Florida going meeting after meeting partner after partner customer customer after customer and very quickly created a brand for myself. I finished my first year 136% of my number effort alone and then I had my kid went on maternity leave and something happened at the birth of my first son where like I really I've always been high achiever right so as a high achiever in terms of birth for me that meant like having my son at home I really wanted to do that but I had to spend all this time out working myself to prove to Palo Alto that I was worthy of being there because I thought I had to do that. And when it was time to give birth, I couldn't slow down. So, I was in a state of fight or flight during during my birth. So I was in labor for like almost 3 days at home until finally I surrendered and I said okay take me to the hospital ended up having my baby but then that pattern continued during my maternity where like I realized that basically the speed that drove me to so much success in my career up to that point I had to explore where that came from because now my baby was asking me to slow down and I just couldn't I could not slow down. I was afraid of it. Like my heart felt like it was going to break. My heart would be beat so fast. I would look at my kid. I couldn't even see beauty. I was like so distorted from that experience. And I was in like a deep postpartum depression.

Nice.

In addition to that, my mom had just moved to the United States. So I was looking at my predator. I was looking at my son. And I had no awareness of how to be a mother or how to be a daughter to my mother. And all of that happened at once. So what I did was I hired a nanny to take care of my kid. So I did what my mom did back then, hire somebody and outsource me. And then I just like got back to work as soon as I could because work was my same grace. That year as I went back to work, I ended up hitting my first president's club at Pal networks. So I out hustled everybody even more than the first year. And I did that at the cost of of being present with my kid.

What does that look like? When you say at the cost of of being present, what does that mean?

It meant that I didn't really enjoy his first year of life. Um I was I was not there. Um, I was just always trying to escape and it was just really difficult for me to to even acknowledge him. I nursed him for a year, but like even nursing him was like so difficult. And you know, my son, he's such a beautiful, beautiful boy and I love him so much and I had no access to this love. He broke me into it. He taught me this love and I was not ready when this all took place or I was ready but it happened how it happened and and the cost of not being aware of my own survival mechanisms at the time and how they would show up at that moment in time and how I would survive the pain through going back to work costed me missing precious moments with him that I'll never get back and I only knew the cost of those moments when I had my second son.

So that second year when I hit President's Club at Palo Alto Networks, um I was also pregnant with my second son. And something I did differently is that because now I knew that slowing down was a big problem for me, like something that I really needed to get a handle of because if not, my son would have a similar childhood as I did. Um is that I I got really deep into therapy. Uh, and I also when I found out I was pregnant with my second son, I I talked to Al. Al is my husband. I I asked him to please go into this um process with me to to be able to have my baby at home cuz I really wanted to go through that. It felt like a life mission for me for some reason. I know that's weird, but it translated into me having my biggest year at Palo Alto Networks and I was number one globally in the commercial segment. And at the same that same week I had my baby at home which was like I wrote my prayer to God. It was so delivered. And when I had that experience and I had my second maternity with my son, I saw my son in a way that I could not see my first son. And I realized what I missed. But I also realized the path that my first son created for me to have that experience with my second son. So it pains me, you know, till this day to know that I cost something to my son by my inability to be with him. But I am also so grateful that he was that courageous one that came my way to save my life. And since that moment when I had my second son and my second maternity leave, I knew I had to go back to work, but something happened. I just didn't want to go back to work. And that's when I came to on top because I realized that I'm the bread winner in my family. I had just stepped into a power that I didn't know how to like, you know, recanalyze it into something meaningful, which was like my feminine power, my ability to birth, create life. And nothing seemed more important than having my kids and raising them. But I do have this responsibility. And with that responsibility, I chose to respond to differently this time by joining your program with the goal of slowing down and being able to enjoy the journey of motherhood while also being a high achieving woman in tax sales.

Yeah. And and for people who don't know, again, Athena is is the bread winner for the family, providing, immigrated when she was 13 years old, grew up around addiction, and has been crushing it while having two young kids. Up to this point, it's been at a great cost. It's been at the cost of presence and the cost of appreciating what's right in front of you. and love. I would say if we're not present, we can't love in our full capacity. I want to unpack a little bit around if I understand this. You said I was going really fast. I missed my first son's first year. And then I said, I'm going to slow down a little bit. When I got my second son, I slowed down, but I was still up to that point, up to the birth going fast. But then right before the birth, you invited God into your home, into your family. And at that point, you had the at home birth. And then you didn't feel the same motivation or drive that you once felt and you joined Untapped to reignite the fire and to, you know, to get that motivation back. Was that the leading did I get all that right? Because I know that I know the story of when two years working together, but up to that point, is that why you you joined because you wanted to feel the motivation or were there other things going on that led you to invest in yourself at this capacity?

Yeah. Um that's one for sure. I wanted to be able to enjoy the journey and and just not sacrifice my family, not sacrifice myself. I I now had a new priority which was to to love my kids. Love requires presence and love requires availability. And when I'm going so fast, I'm missing all the details. And kids are all about details. Kids are all about attunement. They're all about seeing and hearing what they cannot say and what they cannot say with words. And those abilities are not were not available to me at work. And at the same time, I had just started to cultivate them at home. I fear that going back to work would lead me to forget this new ability that been given or that I had just recognized within myself. And at the same time like generally was such a big competitor like I was the type of person that I was happy if you were winning but like I was not happy if you were above me. You know what I'm saying? Like I could I was so driven by being number one and it was exhausting. I love I love the the drive, Athena, but um there's there's a cost to it, a big cost in in terms of you said depression, mental health, speed, appreciation. Um and I know firsthand now having you on my team, you know, what that looks like when you beat yourself up for not achieving what you want. And and we'll talk about that. I don't want to jump too far ahead, but let's let's keep going with your story. So year one in the program, tell us about what happened your first year. You decide to coach with I think it was Mike Fioneia on my team the first year. Tell us about the first year of the program and what what happened during that time.

Yeah, so it was very interesting because I made this big investment to join on top and I started coaching with Mike but like I did not know Mike, right? So I feel like I had just built this big ego. There's like there's like levels to the story, right? Like awareness I think is the biggest thing. I didn't know I had such a big ego around my achievements. And something happened when I like started coaching with Mike that like I could not see that he could teach me something for a long time. Like I was so big that I could not even allow this wisdom to get through to me for more than three sessions. We worked on my ability to receive and I could not receive.

So literally I put a daily invite on my calendar that said be open to receive. It's already here. Like it doesn't get a lot more a lot better than making over 500k, having a baby at home, life being amazing, living in your dream home, like having an amazing man next to you. Like I had I have the life except that I felt like I was not having it right.

You were unhappy even though you had everything you thought that would make you happy.

Yes. Yes. I was

I didn't have the next thing to chase and I had already been at that peak. Then like I was not willing to go to a valley but I also didn't know what the next peak was. So I was in this state of like wanting to slow down but slowing down meant like actually surrendering and surrendering meant for me like if I slow down then I want to achieve because I've never slowed down to achieve more. And at the same time like I had this ego where like Mike was just you know showering me with amazing wisdom and I was like I know I know that I know all that. I know that and I wasn't really embodying it. Okay. So that was the first phase that I had to work through and then it finally started getting to me and it materialized into me actually slowing down.

Mhm.

And what that meant is that I was able to work less. I was able to build better relationships with my with my customers, with my solutions engineer, with all these things were much more amazing. But then something happened that I got an opportunity to move to another team that was major accounts. And to me, it was it was like a really shiny thing like, oh, I've always wanted to be in major. So everything was going well. You slowed down. You had the dream job and then you're like it's not enough. I need to go now chase the next thing. So it was like

I like couldn't I couldn't not chase it. Yeah. And it's like it's it's really important to go through this because to be clear the the role as a major commentator sounds really big, right? Sounds like she did that, right? But in reality the territory was not amazing, right? It was it was in very hard territory. It was something that like someone with my skill set could go and do, but like why do that? It's it's so costly. But the but the title though, the title the title sounds so nice on LinkedIn and it looks so good everywhere and I get to tell the world that I'm a major account manager. And so my ego started to get a grip of me again. And I remember specifically getting the offer and talking to Mike and deciding I'm not going to go for the role because I realized these things. So I decided to decline the offer. And then something happened in my current role where like the way that the organization was structured changed. And mind you, I had the perfect boss, the perfect SE, the perfect customers. Commercial is an incredible place to be for anyone that's wondering. It's like for me personally, I think it's a sweet spot. And I felt like this was a sign, you know, because I started to feel FOMO for not having taken the the prestigious majors role. So I actually ended up asking for the role and they gave it me. So I did go for it in the end after knowing in my heart that this was not the right role for me.

So what happened afterwards? What happened next is that I took the goal and my membership went on top and I said, "I'm not going to renew. I don't need more help. I'm good. I'm already slowed down." Okay? I'm already it. I'm just going to do what I do now here and now slowing down more. Except that, you know, when we have these patterns of our life that have been driving us for three decades, it's not like with one year we undo them. It's not like with 12 1-hour sessions we don't do them. It takes a lot of intention, attention, and commitment. And I I had all those things while I was working with Mike. But as soon as I lost that accountability, my always got the best of me again. So that [clears throat] next year, it looked like me traveling all over the US monthly, sometimes three times a month. It looked like me being on calls very late. It looked like me people placing my way into settings. It looked like me saying yes to things that where I know based on what I knew were my list of priorities. And I started again putting my kids and my husband aside for the potential that I had in this territory.

Yeah. I always tell people, well, first and foremost, I want people to understand like nothing's wrong with you if you're listening. If you're I relate a lot to your story. I also studied psychology, was good with people, was very high achiever and always wanted to be the best and ran very fast and and I've been slowing down the past couple years and um really trying to enjoy the life that I've built. And once we look inward and we realize that there's nothing wrong with us, it's it's a product of how we're raised and that that speed that you ran was was literally survival mode. You were running to survive. Did you reconcile that and give yourself grace or was it more like beat yourself up because you're not present with your kids or because you're you're always chasing and you didn't know why? When did that self-awareness come in where you realized, hey, I'm surviving because I was traumatized as a kid and because I was raised in a chaotic environment where I did not when did you give yourself that grace or what happened to make you start to realize that this was a problem and that because I think I think that that self-awareness combined with that grace and self-love to why we are the way we are is is is essential to healing and then changing. If you just beat yourself up and shame yourself, then you can't actually transform yourself. So, I'm I'm just curious kind of you you did a year, you slowed down, and you went right back. So, had you done the real healing work or that self-awareness work or talk to me about a little more about your own awareness at that time of yourself?

Yeah. So look, to be perfectly honest, Ian, like I know we're saying this now with words, but like the experience of my childhood and the experience of moving to a new country and not speaking the language. Um, all of these things like it created a situation where like I knew that something was wrong and I was running away from myself. When I came the awareness that what I was running away from was me was was when I met my husband cuz my husband for the first time shine like held the mirror up and was like this is not normal and my husband is the only person in my life that has never walked away from me. He's the only person in my life that that has provided me a soil to blossom. He's the only person in my life that chased me when I ran. And that was the moment when I took my healing seriously and at that moment I was pregnant with my first son. Okay. So I started gaining the awareness of what happened to me. So just for some perspective, I only spoke Spanish until I moved to the United States. But at the time I was 28 years old and I started doing therapy, which is when I met my husband. I I get on phone with my therapist. I can't even say a word of Spanish because the trauma was so deep.

I couldn't speak the language anymore. That's how much I was running away from that past.

If he asked me to do two plus two in English, I could tell you four. If he asked me to do two those md in Spanish, I was like running away creates this these patterns in your brain that that you probably think you have bad memory, but it's not that you have bad memory. is that you've literally cancelled the opportunity to remember in order to survive.

What were you running away from?

It all goes back to the day of my birth. Um when you know my parents already had expectations of me. Um, I was conceived to remediate a marriage and my mother and my father already had my older sister Nicole and for several reasons, my mother and my father just they had a toxic relationship and they decided to come back together and get pregnant and had me and then remediate their relationship, right? So, my mother describes her her pregnancy with me as like the most beautiful experience. But the day that she had me, my father was not there. And the moment that my father was gonna meet me, my mother already outsourced me to a nanny. Okay? So in Venezuela at that moment, this was a thing. She basically hired a nanny before I was even born to to care for me. So this woman happened to be in the parking lot of the hospital when she sees my father and his friend making out in the parking lot and she proceeds to go upstairs to my mother's hospital room and tell her that my father was basically cheating on her the moment that she that he was about to come up and meet me. So from that moment on, my mother became extremely depressed. As you can imagine, it's already very hard to just have a baby and you just gave birth to an organ that you grew and a baby that you grew and your problems are insane. And now she had to deal with this. So like I did not live up to my expectations from the get- go. Now, something else that is important for everybody to know is that the internal state of a mother is the internal state of a child. There's this there's a bubble, you know, where like the mother and the child, even if they're not in the same room, the child will feel like the mother does. So since I was a very little baby was wondering why I was here wondering the meaning of my life telling myself it was my fault that my mother was in so much pain. I became a memory of the worst day of her life where she would look at me and she would get glimpses glimpses of that pain and I could not figure out why I could not connect to my mother as I continued growing and that she was an alcoholic. So she was also doing that and that led to very difficult experiences like one that marked me forever for instance was when I was 7 years old we went to a party my mother got really drunk and when it was time to leave she actually drove drunk with me in the passenger seat in the front seat by the way and we went in the highway on like the wrong way for like five minutes. We were going against the flow of traffic for five minutes and I remember at that moment how meaningless I was. You know what I'm saying? Like not for a moment it took.

Do you remember that you were 7 years old when that happened?

Yeah, of course. I remember like grabbing onto the seat like this like looking at the car scum this way and just ready to die at 7 years old cuz my mother was in position. So these were many moments. So, I started to fall asleep with a backpack under my bed just in case my mother was drunk and ready to hit us or be emotionally abusive to us. I started to escape. Many times I would get into my friend's cars and go to their house and then come home and get a beating. Always escaping. Always escaping. That was that's the root of my fastness.

Superpower in sales. But inside of me is a remembrance of a lot of pain and the the reality that I'm unable to heal my mother's wound.

I appreciate you sharing that. Can't imagine how hard that would be as a seven-year-old or just your whole childhood.

Me and my sisters.

I think what's important, you've done the therapy, you've done the deep work, you've done two years of coaching, but if you think about the patterns that we run in our adult life, I I too have gone through a lot of therapy. They're the same patterns we ran as a kid. So for you to run away from relationships, for you to run away from jobs where you're doing well, for you to run daytoday and just run fast, it's you running away from your mother.

Yeah. And you know, I was I was 30 years old when I got on top. By the time I was 30 years old, I had moved 29 times.

You've moved 29 times? Yeah. the pattern of dropping h job hopping. It was the same pattern that I had from boyfriend to boyfriend. It was the same pattern that I had from friendship to friendship. It was the same pattern that I had look anywhere.

It's a pattern like how we do one thing is how we do everything.

Yeah.

It's that's the meaning of awareness. But having the awareness is one thing, Ian, but embodying a different way of living requires divine intervention and commitment and just the the willingness to sit in the And that's extremely difficult. And if that's something that you do extremely well, hold space for someone that that needs to feel the pain. And and I think that's one of the most impactful things of working together that you helped me do. If you're listening to this podcast, it's because you want to be the very best in tech sales. You want to grow, earn more money, and perform at your full potential. You hear the guest speaking and you say, "Hey, if they can do it, I know I can do it, too." But here's the thing. Every guest that you hear made a critical decision before they got the results. They decided to invest in themselves and hire me as their sales coach. If you're not getting the results that you want, you know you're capable of more, I'm offering a free strategy call to all my listeners. Visit untapyous salespot potential.com/mpodcast to book your free strategy call today. I'll see you on the inside so you have awareness. I have a pattern of running away, job hopping, moving. I don't like this pattern. I want to slow down, but I can't. Even after coaching, I run to another job. Then you meet me and your life transforms. I I say me. You decided to coach one-on-one with me. After you said, "I'm going to quit Untap." And this is the work we've done for the past year. And I'm I'm curious. You said awareness is not enough. It's embodiment that makes the difference. Can you share kind of how you've I know it's a work in progress still and it takes a lot of time. It honestly takes a lifetime. For me, I've been in personal development, coaching, therapy, and programs for 10 consecutive years, and I'm finally at a place where um I'm very clear on who I want to be and how I want to show up and taking the right actions, but it's doesn't stop. We've never arrived. So maybe talk to people about the transition from awareness of why you are the way you are to full detachment and letting go of this old identity. How did that transformation occur? Was there an aha moment in the program? and talk to us about what that looked like to embody embody trust and surrender and anything else that helped you to become this new version of Athena because you are a different person from when I met you in every sense of the word.

for knowledge of that I do feel very different and you know when we start gaining awareness we don't realize that awareness is not enough okay so that's important we can see what happened to us and and and up to that moment our capacity of understanding is that okay that happened to us and now I know right but it takes layers and like a lot of introspection to then see in in how many infinite ways are these patterns playing a part in our life and in many ways ruling over our life right so what ended up happening is I did never knew and I said it was financial reasons because I honestly did not want to stop being on top I love being here so much, but I knew I was about to get into a situation where like I was going to be covering 4,400 accounts that had never done business with us and I was going to be the saving grace. So I said, let me let me lock in and let me like not spend extra cash and let me just focus on making this a reality. And I thought at that point, okay, my awareness of how I live my life and my awareness around slowness and and doing this thing is going to be enough. Except when we are in vulnerable moments and when we are in negative situations, we will always go back to our subconscious mind which is that space of our brain that is developed in those early years. So slowly but surely, I started to go back to my old ways, but now at a brand new capacity because for the first time in my life, I now had two kids and a and a husband and responsibilities and not making money during the buildup of those of that pipeline of 40 million. I was just hustling with nothing coming in except my salary. And that was the first time in my life when I had so much responsibility and I also was like working so hard and at the same time not seeing results immediately. Right? So when all these things took place it's like all those patterns showed up but they showed up on steroids. So when you have a beautiful life the cost of ignoring that life is is that you will stop having a beautiful life. And very slowly my kids starting acting up a lot. My youngest son started develop a very strong case of eczema. My older son was biting people at school. My husband and I were not having intimacy. We were disconnected and I was prioritizing making money. I was making money by God instead of making my priorities my priorities. This led to me going into the same demotions that I felt as a little girl, which was why am I here? My family is better than me. I should just end this. If I can make money, I'm I'm worthless. Look at me. I can't get this done. And regardless of all the effort that I was putting in, I couldn't value myself from just that. The way that I had learned to work was not working. It was not working. And my family was suffering and I was traveling like crazy. And then I started to develop these crazy migraines. Two to three days of the week, I was developing like 10-hour migraines. And I was working through them. I was literally on the computer on calls working through them. I'll never forget one day I took a trip to see one of our customers in like California and then we came back and I had to drive from Fort Lauderdale where we landed all the way to South Miami for a meeting which I decided to bring the president of our company to that meeting which is super high stakes and then I had to drive back home. Okay. And in the ride back home and I start to develop very strong heart palpitations and I can't say straight everything is starting to black out and I'm driving. I start to feel this feeling like I'm genuinely going to die and I don't know what's wrong. I text Al and I say I need to go straight to the ER. I feel like I'm going to die. At this point I was like girl you're just you're just doing what you always do. You're working like crazy. I keep telling you to slow down and I'm like not listening right cuz I don't care about anyone when I'm laser focused on being number one. I don't care about anyone else at that point. I will run over my kids, my husband, everyone. As soon as I get that spot, that's what happened. So, I'm in the car. I'm having a panic attack while driving. I drive myself to the ER. I get to the ER. They check me in. They do all the tests. They tell me, "You're perfect. You can go home." And I'm like, "What? I am dying. You need to like give me a scan of my heart. I'm dying. They give me a scan. They show me the scandal and you're perfect. I finally let the cry out for 4 hours. I am sobbing at the ER, having nurses come up to me trying to hug me, giving me towels because I'm I'm cold. And I realized that I was having a panic attack. And I was like, "Well, okay, let me

"Just go home." You know, and like an angel from the sky, Tanvir calls me a week later. And he's like, "Hey, how are you?" And I'm like, [sighs] "Ten, you'll never believe this. I am now a major con executive and I have 40 million in pipeline and I am back at the gym and I am doing amazing and my kids are happy." And he's like, "Girl, chill." I said, "How are you? What are you doing?" Not, "How many awards are you getting?" I said, "How are you?" And I just again started to cry and I said, "I need help. I I feel like I'm going to die if I don't if I don't get help." And I came back.

I do feel sometimes looking back in your life, you realize every moment and especially the the rock bottoms are God moments. God shots to to then surrender and to say my way is not the right way. My way is destructive causing pain. And that's what that's what happened. Even though you had everything, you're not okay. All that stored pain came out. And I think it's great you work for Tanvir because his work we always say in my program the work the work is what is unique to you that if you work on will change your life your results and your family and your whole legacy on this earth if you work on it and if you address it and the work doesn't stop the work is always the same work but Tanver's work is your work Tanver's work is the exact same the the fact you I know Tanner is listening to this the fact that you actually work for him now and he's had the same issues with panic attacks and always needing to run and feeling like if he wasn't achieving he wasn't worthy. If he wasn't producing he wasn't worthy. I don't think it's coincidence. It's it's God's divine design for you to work for Tanvir and he's done that healing so he could help you. And even what's happening now in our business, you're getting the opportunity to really lean in and say am I ready to shed the old identity or is it going to come back? So that call came at the perfect time. What happened next in in the next year when you started working with me? Talk to people about because that's really where you saw your true transformation become the one I'm sitting with now.

So basically I paid up front to start working with you which was like a huge leap especially taking into consideration the fact that at that point I was on a super long sales cycle who that who knew when it was going to end but I knew that I needed this and like that surrender I think it's like my ability to receive feedback at that moment was like life or death and like for the first time I was there that's one thing and then I knew that I needed to be like like I had already been around you several several times and like I knew that your ability to speak to pain could really relate to mine and I knew that where I was is somewhere familiar to you and that's what made me want to just do this and go all in. And so what that looked like was us getting on that first call and on were like I knew we were going to go deep on this first call but I didn't think we were going to go this deep and yeah effectively um we were able to to see a beautiful use case for the integrity gap where I this is what I tell now our potential members like you know you want to be a person mother you know that you want to be with your husband you know that your kids are first you know that making money is second you that you can trust God. You know that you're a high achiever and that money is always going to come and yet you're acting out of scarcity and you're like not showing up for your kids and not showing up for your husband and putting money first. And so this space here is where I was living in suicidal thoughts, in pain, in panic attacks, in anxiety, in I had no mental capacity for anything that was not work. And it was costing me at this moment my health, my relationship with my husband and my ability to connect with my kids.

So you were very clear with me about what was happening to me and I needed to hear that and I I had to really face myself like okay so here are my options. I can continue to do this which will require the level of effort that I've been putting out because now that's that's what I've created for myself or I can say enough is enough. let me change my life. Right? So the the two options were continuing to choose the deal at the cost of your family and sanity or choose a different path, prioritize your family and realize that work is work and you are already a great achiever. You will achieve wherever you go cuz and I chose the latter with your support. And it was generally one of the most difficult decisions of my life because that was the opportunity to make potentially over a million dollars. And and that sounded like the epitome of success. But something I've learned in my career is that when you make your first big check of commission, you realize very quickly that it doesn't change a thing. Commission hangover it's called. And for people listening, the integrity gap is the distance between your identity or your values, how you see yourself, what's important to you, and your actions and behaviors. So, if you see yourself as healthy and fit, but you're drinking a lot or you're not working out or you're eating unhealthy, you're going to feel shame. The distance between your values and your actions is directly proportional to the shame you carry. And shame will kill. It's the lowest grade emotion. It will destroy everyone near you and it's very painful to carry. So, that's what we worked on. We worked on how do you live a life that's aligned with you as a mom putting your family first, your kids first, and truly have boundaries around what's acceptable, what's not acceptable at work, in terms of your schedule, in terms of what you say yes to, in terms of your values. And we did that and it led her to leave Paloata Networks and go to Amazon from a place of potentially giving up relationships, giving up um money, giving up uh this opportunity that was in mid-flight, this huge pipeline she had built. So talk to us. That was kind of the the catalyst of you walking [snorts] with integrity is saying, "I can't work here anymore. I need to do something that you know is is more aligned." talk to us about that transition and and really I guess other things that changed that made you really embody this new person who lived her values.

It is really true that like the only time we change is when the cost of staying the same when the pain of staying the same is is higher than you know embracing something new and like that was what I was facing. I was already a living death. I was already a walking dead woman um pretending like everything was fine and and and I was dying inside. That was my an actual experience that I was having. So I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. And that's the beauty of rock bottom. When you're there like the only way you can look is up. And something really important happened too that it's like for the first time I realized that I was just a number to the company I work for. And I generally believe my core that like my company loved me and appreciated me and they'll do anything to keep me and like the reality is that a company is a company. It's a business. It cares about making money. The next year will come. And I thought that I was special. And when I started to have conversations about leaving, it was very clear to me that it was like, okay, great. No worries. And that was kind of like a, oh, I'm not special. Nobody really cares what I do. So why am I caring about what others care about? Why am I caring about them? Like I need to focus on me and my kids. I need to focus on my life. That realization like I remember specifically being at the gym. I was lifted and I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like, "Oh, there she is. There she is. This is who we are now. We are warriors and we fight for ours and nobody's going to get in the way of our family. cuz now I have a faith and now I have a beautiful life and that's what I put first above all things. No matter what the situation, no matter the amount of money you put in front of me, there's God, there's my family and there's nothing else. And when I really made that decision to surrender to the reality of of what I cannot live without, which is my two kids, my husband and God, I was able to make decisions from a place of peace. And I realized perhaps for the first time as an adult woman that my role is to help others but never at the cost of what makes my life great. And so I love >> and it felt great. >> You went to Amazon. >> And what was this new version of you that and I think this is important because a lot of people they say well I have to run at the same speed. What got you here won't get you to the next level. If you really want to, you know, triple, quadruple, 5x your income, it requires becoming a different person. And that's what I noticed when you went to Amazon. You had you became this different person. And you weren't running at the same speed. You weren't as stressed. You were very self-rusting. You were very authentic. Your values were, you know, very um aligned around your faith and your family. you were studying to get baptized. All these things were happening at once. But how did that translate to your sales? Because I think a lot of people are afraid. They think, well, I have to hold on to the way I did it before cuz that's what made me succeed. But your success, you had a quantum leap. I mean, your your results at Amazon within, you know, a few months were more than you ever sold in in just a few months. So tell people the reality of like how you showed up in this new transformed warrior Athena and and why that made you even more successful than the grinding, hustling, chasing Athena.

Yeah. So when I joined AWS, I very quickly realized that I was there to do one thing and it was make money and make money by helping people achieve what they need to achieve, right? And that was it. I did not need to make them like me. I did not need to be their cup of tea. I needed to get really good at understanding how quickly can I understand what problems they have? how quickly can I understand our ecosystem to add the most value as soon as possible so that I can bring money yesterday. I discovered very quickly that that was via enterprise agreements. So I had the blessing of having an incredible onboarding buddy that taught me the way very quickly and I mastered it as soon as I could and I focused on that and I religiously told every single customer that could benefit from an enterprise agreement what it could look like for them. And I, by the way, had my manager telling me that that was not a good idea. I had everybody around me telling me, "How did you do it?" And all I knew is that that was the fastest way to bring money to my table and that was the fastest way to get these customers to really consuming more of AWS, but at a lower cost. So, everybody was happy. And so in this state of clarity and in this state of detachment, I started having these calls letting them know what they did not know cuz a lot of them actually had no idea that this was available to them. And by the time that I was two months into the role after onboarding, I had a pipeline of over 60 million in in enterprise agreements.

"How did you do that?" I figured out what it could look like for them to have it and I scheduled the meeting. I let them know that this was available to them and I walked them through what it could look like to embrace that. I didn't have any attachment to when they were going to do this or not. I didn't care. And like what's really beautiful about Amazon is that there's not a president's club there. Like nobody cares if you're great. Like you can you can reach a new level within the enterprise but at the end of the day it's like we're all builders. We're all here to do what's best for the customer. And so like I think all these things were just like perfectly in alignment for who I what I was becoming and the people that I was around specifically Edward Gorbis who is somebody that really empowered me there and your supporting as my coach like all of these things were like beautiful in beautifully put into place for me to just be like my best self and so I just did that and I did not care about the deal closing. I just cared about the customer knowing the importance of them taking action. I let them know the importance of what happens if they don't take action right now. I educated them. I multi threaded within the account. Let them know what was available basically from a point of view perspective cuz I was a net new advisor to those accounts, right? I had just walked into them. So this was the fastest way to earn trust and help them. And so I got to work. I did that and that turned into 15 million clothes in two months after on boarding.

Pretty incredible. And I think I think you know having watched you, it was this fearless. It was like clarity on what I'm going to do. Here's my plan. And then the the fearless um because you were okay with yourself finally, you could detach and you could focus on the customer and be fearless in doing what was right for them. In which case it was getting them on an agreement that actually helped them save money and also consume more and innovate faster because they weren't having to make purchases every time they wanted to do new projects. So it it it was learning quickly and then executing quickly. Um so but it was did you show up differently with the clients? Do you think the way that you engaged with them from this place? What was the difference between how you gauged from the previous version to how you engaged in this more detached? What did that look like?

If I could put it in simple words like I care about helping you but I don't care if you like me. Okay. Okay. like I'm here to be of service to you because I get to do that, but like my worth is not on the line here, you know? Like there's so much power in the ability that that we have as humans and as sellers to show up like as the expert, letting them know what's available and letting them know how you can help and add value and like let that run its course. Like you know that you'll say it, right? Like it's like outwards outward mindset. It is for them. It is for them. Because it is for them, I'm not thinking about me. But at the same time, it is the best thing for me to let you know about this because it's a win-win for everyone. But it didn't come from that perspective of like commission bre. It came from generally why are you not already doing this? Like this is dumb that you're spending over a million dollars with us and you don't have an enterprise agreement. Like it makes no sense. where else are you going to go in the age of AI, right? So, it was this clarity that I had about the value and and I just became really good really fast at explaining that value and I made sure everybody knew about it and yeah, I honestly I did not care.

Yeah, I think the key takeaway is when you're good with yourself, you can focus on others, you can serve others because you're not needing that validation anymore. you're not needing that sale and then you could actually speak the truth and do what's right without fear of being disliked or being rejected. And I think that that power and that energy is what why I hired you. You left Amazon after closing 15 million with a massive pipeline of another 45. What caused you to to work at Untapped? Why'd you leave corporate sales um and specifically come to work for me in Tanvir?

After I had that moment at the gym when I was lifting, something almost like magical happened. It's like I finally accepted the lesson of my life. Okay, it was kind of like, okay, we've painted it to you in so many different ways. Like if God could be in front of me, he would be like, here's all the different ways in which I tried teaching you this lesson. Now, for the first time, you're actually going to accept the lesson. Okay. So, when that happened, it's like, okay, so what is my superpower? What am I actually here to do? What I what do I really enjoy doing? like I actually started to build from the ground up taking only the things that I really loved and enjoy. I went back to I just really want to be happy and help people. Okay. So, it was almost like as soon as I made that sole decision, I had people reaching out to me to coach them like like five six people reaching out to me to coach them and I was like, you know what? Yeah, I would love to coach you. And so, this turned into some amazing opportunities. And one of those people was again Tambir called me and before he could even get a sentence in I was like are you calling me because he wanted me to work for you because before you say anything the answer is yes when can I start I'm there yesterday I don't need to know how much I can get paid literally that's what I told him and he was like at least I get a war and I was like what is it going to talk about you know [laughter] I was like it was like it was like magic but when they offered me the position which I don't know why he waited so long But when he finally did, I genuinely cried on on that moment because for the first time I was most authentic self saying yes to something that's so authentically means something to me. You know what I mean? This means something to me. Like the reason the reason why I had all those years of hardship as a little girl, why I moved to United States, why I had a career in tech sales, why I went through all that hardship in later years in my early motherhood is so that I could now be in this moment and say I see you. I am you. You can move through this and you can be successful in the most authentic way that works for you. And all of it makes sense. It was like full circle moment for me. I get to be Athena and like I don't want to be anyone else. Everybody else is taken for a reason and like I love myself genuinely for the first time in my life. I love my eyebrows, my eyes, my face, my hair, my heart, my soul, my emotions, my imagination. I love my pain. I love my hard times. I love everything. Everything that I am and I'm not walking away from me. And I think like the best thing is that I look in the mirror and I'm like, "Hey girl, we got like you got it. Look, that's your husband. You did that. Look, that's your kid. You did that. Look, this is your work for Ian Coac. You did that." And so this this level of appreciation and just genuine gratitude to be alive and to have found God and what that's translated to I think it's even more important like I'll I'll propose to me all during first same months right? I'll proposed to me in December after I thought I'd never get married because I went through two divorces as a little girl and I said yes and then I actually decided to get married and get baptized And I had both my dad and my mom walk me down the aisle. The two people that hurt me the most. I was able to look out in their eye and say, "I love you. I'm grateful for what you did. I know you did your best and I'm just so happy that you get to be here with me right now." And I'm the only one of all my siblings that was able to get w to get walked down the aisle by both my parents. And that to me is a win for the next generation to come. And that's all thanks to the work that I've done on TAP and in many ways the work we did together. And all I have to say is thank you.

Well, I um I'm grateful to have you on the team and I'm even more grateful that you found God and you got baptized the same weekend as you got married. Um and and now you know your your life looks very different. So what's what's next for you? What is the next stage of um Athena 3.0?

Athena's just getting started, right? We're exploring like creating our life by design, which looks like remodeling our home, making as much money as we can, being present with our kids, potentially moving to Costa Rica to our dream small town, and working from there because it's just what makes sense for us and and that's what matters is us, nothing else. and talk to me. Um, in closing, what would you say to anybody who's in your situation who who was once going through the pain of not feeling like they're enough or needing to achieve to feel worthy or maybe running so fast that they don't appreciate the life they've already created or the success they've already had? What would you say to them?

The greatest version of you is right behind all that pain. Okay? So, the moment you say yes to walking through those dark valleys, you're going to come out and you're going to see a version of you that you never could have even dreamed of. And everything will make sense. You will literally be able to look back on your life and say, "Each of those moments happened so that I could stand in front of this stranger today and say, you will get through this. I am you and you're worthy of having everything that you desire and more." So the pain and the work, that's the shortcut. Every other way to escape is just a distraction. Do the work, show up, commit to yourself, and evolve to the greatest version of you.

Beautiful. Well, Athena, I want to I want to thank you for just uh showing up for your family, for glorifying God, for how you have transformed and and spoken about your faith publicly and for how you show up and for being on our team and kind of walking and taking that leap of faith. Uh I've always told you this, I'm excited to have you. I believe in you and um the work's never done that work of detaching and fully letting go of needing to perform so you can be of service. Has that shown up for you at all in in this new job? I'm curious. Or have you arrived where you lose sales and you know you're you're fine either way because I know we have a lot of lot of volume. Now that I can see what like expert level energy looks like in Tan Beir, I I generally can say that every moment that I face hardship, I can also see the lesson because he reminds me of it. And you will not be surprised to hear that the lesson is slow down, be present, take a rest in between your meetings, trust yourself. And that's the work the work of my life, right? So yes, it's showing up of course and yeah, there's moments that I'm like, am I doing this all backwards? Like am I good at this? And at the end of the day, like the same work that I had to do at AWS is the work that I'm doing here. And like it's transforming my life in more ways than I can explain.

My biggest takeaway for you, Athena, and for anyone listening is it's not about you. The more we make it about ourselves, the worse we make it for ourselves. The more we make it about serving others and loving others and showing up from a place of worthiness, showing up from a place of self-love, showing up from a place of safety, knowing that we're okay, we can let go and really let God's love, spirit, and gift shine through us onto the people that we're engaging with. And that's how you become the 1% in sales is you completely don't make it about you. You make it about the other person. And you can only do that when you're good with yourself. If you're not good with yourself, other people won't be good with you. And that's work you're going to have to do for probably your whole life because it's the work. And I'm doing that work. It's a little bit different, but I know that work very well. And uh I just want to let you know you're loved. You're enough. You're safe. You're worthy. And you're amazing regardless of what you sell and regardless of how you perform. And I appreciate it. you're going to crush it. But even if you don't, you're amazing. That's the that's the key. It doesn't matter. You addicted to the get addicted to the process of getting becoming your best.

Get addicted to the process of serving from the heart. Get addicted to the process of really being present with other people and being connected in in building that trust with them. And you will be you already are, but you will be even more unstoppable on those sales calls. [music] That's the real coaching I give Athena in real time because these old patterns they never they never die. They never stop. So I'm I'm just grateful to have you. Thank you everyone for listening. Powerful story. Athena. If people [music] want to get a hold of you, what's the best way they can uh reach you?

LinkedIn. Book a sales strategy call.

Book a call with Athena. She can see if it's a fit and we will hopefully get you the same life-changing transformation that she's had with her family, with her results, with her career. and she's just getting started. I will see you guys in [music] the next episode. Appreciate it.