What They're Saying

I reached out to Maria when I became a new leader and I was working so hard with long hours. I needed to work towards a better life-work balance so I would not burn out. I was experiencing anxiety when trying to perform and validate my self-worth. This was also affecting my family life. I was asking myself, how can I be an effective leader and also take care of my mental health?

When I started the program, my greatest problems were:

– self-defeating negative self-talk, wanting to overachieve

– experiencing male co-workers/peers undermining me as a female

– workaholic perception, trying to prove I was worthy, feeling I was not good enough

– being too nice and being there for everyone but not taking care of my own well-being

During the coaching program, I took a deep dive into self-discovery, understanding my behaviors and traits, as well as my strengths and weaknesses. I learned many skills and tools I can use with my employees and team: communication, clarity, organization, and action. I learned to work smarter, not harder and recognize that my work is my craft. I discovered that I have other passions in life and that my current career may not be the final one! I am looking forward to moving into new paths. I have built my confidence as a leader, as a person, realizing that I am enough!

I learned that our mind is very powerful and as I had negative self-talk, I learned to acknowledge those thoughts as they come and go and leave the room for the dreaming, the growth, the confidence. I have the power! I learned skills to reduce anxiety, recognize the behaviors that no longer serve me, and choose differently. I create space and make room for new ideas, growth, and self-care. What I have learned from Maria helps me cope and manage my workday with positivity and confidence, smile and joy! It is continuous work to be mindful and kind to myself. I have acknowledged different areas where I have great passions. I continue to study/practice those skills so I will be ready to manifest them into reality on a full-time basis when the time comes. I have a dream of leading a team of like-minded women, finding opportunities for self-growth, empowerment, and confidence!

I would definitely recommend this coaching program. Maria was right to the point and quick to shift me away from defeating behaviors. She was my cheerleader! A lot of challenges we think we are experiencing really root from our internal struggles. Learning how to manage the emotional aspects will lead to growth and fulfillment, so you can contribute to a better world!

When I started working with Maria, I was hoping to get clarity about my next steps, about my goals, to get some help and advice on what to do and how to do it. I needed someone to give me a feeling of confidence and a kind of validation that what I want and need is the right thing, a so-called reality check.

My greatest problems were:

1. Lack of clarity and focus on my priorities/problems.
2. I felt stuck and couldn’t start doing things that were important because of my overall high level of anxiety and stress.
3. I didn’t know what to do exactly, what would be right or wrong, so I wanted some advice and support. 

What I received from coaching:

1. Clarity on my priorities.
2. I started working on my anxiety and stress and greatly reduced it during the last ~8 months. The result was after a month or two of working in the program, I became much happier 😊.
3. I structured my daily routine (regular sleep time, exercising, journaling, …).
4. I experienced a paradigm shift: before my wellbeing was a lesser priority, now I fully understand that it is a #1 priority and success in other areas depends on it 100%.
5. The level of my confidence improved a lot thanks to receiving great support from Maria.
6. I learned to work proactively on my goals and making sure that my personal and professional goals are my priorities in daily life. Before, my job was a priority which made everything else lagging behind.
7. Thanks to my action log we put during coaching I finally got the position where I wanted to, achieving my goal.
8. Moreover, I started a new project in my life, which I would like to keep in secret for now. 😉
9. Last, but not least, I wasn’t aware before this coaching how important is emotional intelligence. I knew something, but not a lot, and I definitely didn’t know my level of EQ-i, and had no clarity on my strengths and development areas.

Now I see a much clearer way forward for myself and I am excited about my future and much happier😃.

 Most of all I liked the work on my wellbeing that we did. Lesser anxiety made me much happier. And, of course, clear focus on my key goal and final success/achievement of my goal.

 I would recommend your program to any manager (in corporation or personal business), who feels unhappy, tired, stuck, unclear on his/her goals, or to someone who wants to have a better understanding of themselves, his/her EQ strengths, and development areas. Maria’s program is a holistic one, it includes EQ-i comprehensive assessment, a great personal development program, and coaching sessions. All these make this program very effective.

When I started the EQ-I Transformational Leadership Program, I was hoping to increase many things in my life including, my self-confidence, my self-awareness, my vision for my goals and my future, my assertiveness, my success in my personal life and my career. I also wanted to grow in my ability to be successful at work and to understand what my self-limiting behaviors were.

In my coaching experience with you Maria I had an opportunity to take off my backpack of life experiences and take a deeper look at everything in my backpack and how different experiences contributed to my life up to the present. This helped me identify patterns of behaviors that were no longer serving me in my reactions to various situations. This greatly increased my self-awareness.

By increasing my self-awareness, I found myself more confident, more empowered in almost every situation. I really have found my voice in situations where I was not using it, but just going along with things to not disrupt things. As a result, I am feeling much more fulfilled and content with my life.

I also learned some wonderful techniques for gaining such deep peace by practicing different methods of meditation. Amazing results with these practices have allowed me to be present like never before in all situations. I find now that I am “catching” myself when I am stressed or worried to stop and practice one of my mindfulness techniques. I now have a whole toolbox of techniques that work well. I am more balanced in stressful situations, I am experiencing times that were previously stressful for me in a different way because I have shifted my mindset. I have more self-control over my thoughts and my reactions.

Maria, I learned so much in the modules, in the mindfulness practices, and in just talking to you. You have helped me gain a deeper understanding of myself and my behavior. I am beginning to see what is so deeply ingrained in my psyche that are both hindering and enhancing behaviors.

What was also very helpful was to be able to discuss with you difficult situations that I found myself in, both at work and home, that I was not sure how to handle. You provided such great advice on how to handle the situation to move through it in a positive way for myself and the other parties involved. This was very empowering.

I would definitely recommend your coaching program. You have such a depth of knowledge and understanding of human behavior and change that your teachings and guidance are extremely valuable. You also have very high emotional intelligence and are very easy to talk to and you have very rich and grounded guidance to help navigate through challenging and growth situations.

This could help anyone who is looking to make deep personal change in a positive direction to live a fuller, richer, more meaningful life!

When I started the EQ-I Transformational Leadership Program, I was hoping to change my financial and personal situation, start closing more deals and recognize and unblock the areas which were holding me back. One of the most significant problems at that point was the I was working hard trying to close deals, but after almost half a year had only closed $20K, was way behind my goals.

The coaching has benefitted me in many ways, especially recognizing areas of my emotional intelligence where I needed to work on and also my strengths. It helped me to make the necessary changes and learn new skills, which then enabled me connecting with my clients better, close much more deals, and led to the significant increase in my income. It helped to increase my confidence and self-regard, which, in turn, helped me in making better decisions in my personal and professional life. My stress level has significantly reduced during these months. I learned how not to take things personally and how to disconnect difficult situations from my emotions, seeing an opportunity to solve a problem. I have become intentional about my goals and plans.
I love that Maria as a coach is personable and friendly, and I feel comfortable discussing everything with her. She is available and willing to take extra time and interest in helping/solving whenever needed, unlike some other coaches who are available to speak within the time allotted and do not provide the ongoing support. I would absolutely recommend this coaching program because I can see how it helped me and how emotional intelligence can make a difference in professional and personal life.

I joined the EQ-i Transformational Leadership Program hoping to discover work-life balance by learning how to manage my workload. I was working long hours to get all my work done, which was causing burn-out.

I’ve learned that everything I say and do has a purpose behind it, so I’m thinking about what I say or do a lot more before I speak or act. I have more knowledge about how to control my emotions and behaviors now that I understand myself better. I can’t control others, but I can control myself. It’s going to be an ongoing practice.

I was able to challenge myself and my surroundings during the coaching, and I plan to use what I’ve learned to continue to step outside of my comfort zone and do things for myself that align with my values and practice love and kindness.

I am braver than I’ve ever been. Eliminating self-doubt and fear as a result. Moving forward, I will keep my brand image in mind when working with others. If I don’t create my brand image, others will create it for me.

In working with you, liked that you were responsive, you’re very knowledgeable in your field of work, you’re funny and professional.

I certainly would recommend your coaching program to others that are in a professional career, those that seemed to have lost their vision, or anyone that wants to improve their communication skills.

Wow! I am amazed by the type of work I am doing on myself with the first module. Never been there before. Feeling grateful to find the way to you and your coaching experience. I am feeling I now have the right tool to move forward in my professional life as well as the personal one cause I think we cannot separate one from the other.

I was recently promoted to a new leadership position at a large IT company. I became a sales manager for a large area of Southeastern Europe. I oversee 24 countries— each country has its own unique business needs and the area I was put in charge of is very fragmented. Maria offered tremendous and invaluable support throughout this transition.

To succeed in this job, I needed to overcome several personal obstacles:

• I did not have experience managing a large, multinational team
• I did not have experience in international markets
• I entered into this job during a wave of crisis and had to deal with an unstable economic situation
• I was very afraid that my English-speaking ability would prevent me from conducting negotiations with the company’s management

After my first two weeks at this position, I realized the workload was colossal. I was under intense pressure, had a high level of responsibility, and had to master huge amounts of new information of data as quickly as I could. In addition, I had to coordinate remote local sales teams and rapidly develop my direction. Sometimes, things were so difficult that I began to have doubts. Is this what my position will always be like? Will this be too much work?

Thanks to my work with Maria, I successfully passed my trial period, increased sales growth, fulfilled ambitious professional plans, and built a sustainable team structure.

Our work developing mindfulness and emotional intelligence helped me to remain calm and stay balanced during difficult times.

Maria’s sessions are characterized by her friendly and attentive attitude, as well as her ability to create a special atmosphere of “presence” and self-awareness. During Maria’s sessions, I was able to get in touch with myself, my thoughts, and my emotions. She encouraged me to face my fears and move forward. She shows where I have room for improvement, and helps me get to the next level. The combination of her fact-based strategies, reason, and faith in my potential gave me the push I needed.

Maria’s extensive experience as the CEO of a large organization not only helped me achieve my personal goals, but also provided highly-qualified support in complex business projects.

I have been working with Maria for more than a year. The sessions with Maria turned the quality of my life around, brought joy back into my work, and improved my well-being. She has a structured approach, a genuine knowledge of the EQ challenges individuals face, and incredible, tailor-made techniques to tackle them. Maria is an inspiring, extremely intelligent, and knowledgeable coach— she became an enormous source of information, tools, and strategies to tackle complex issues at my work. I am deeply grateful to her for her help in my personal development. I am so lucky to have Maria in my life!

Maria regularly comes to my aid when I’m stuck in challenging situations, both in my personal and professional life. She helped me to build better relationships with my managers and direct reports. When I was in situations where I was not sure what to do, I made a note of it before our next session. Each week we took a closer look at the situations and Maria coached me through them. We went over questions like these: What are your ideas for resolving the situation? What outcome would your ideas create? What are the interests and roles of the other people involved? As a result of Maria’s coaching, I achieved the outcomes I wanted, and the list of notes I brought to her got shorter and shorter. I received valuable skills, experience, and wisdom in a short period of time.

Maria is the person who helped me to take the next step in my career as well as in my personal growth. Our sessions helped me to clarify my vision, aspirations, and desires, which allowed me to develop a concrete plan for their realization. I really liked the atmosphere of the sessions— I felt comfortable and was able to explore questions I had never thought about. This is hard to achieve without an experienced coach.

Maria made it easy to look at myself, see certain aspects that didn’t work anymore (which can be rather unsettling), and start to work on them. This was possible thanks to her support.

In  2015, I was promoted at work. On one hand this was great, and on the other hand, it was very stressful. I needed someone who could teach me how to behave in my new role, manage relationships with the management team, and overcome stress.

Maria helped me add some practical things into my daily routine that helped me. One of her suggestions was to make a detailed list of all my tasks. It was a very simple thing, but  I couldn’t guess myself being under so much stress. When I sat down and described all the tasks I had to complete (including minor ones), I saw the end of work and was able to stop feeling stressed. I have been using this tip in my daily routine since that time and have made a lot of progress. Based on this exercise, I created a matrix of responsibilities that helped me to distribute tasks and responsibility within my team. Maria’s questions during the sessions helped me to review some situations and evaluate them from another point of view.

I definitely can recommend Maria as a professional coach who can help you find answers in your professional life as well as in your personal life. I love her logical and common-sense approach. That was definitely what I needed at that particular moment. Even now, after a few years, I feel that the time I worked with Maria continues to have a positive impact on my current life and my work with my start-up project. To sum up, I would say that sessions with Maria helped me to add more mindfulness in my life. I  still use the meditation practices Maria taught me in the course. They are very helpful when I need to clear my mind and feel better.

“Maria is a gifted, dedicated and uniquely qualified coach. She brings together necessary ingredients: curiosity, energy and wisdom. All of these are infused and supported by a dedicated mindfulness practice, which helps her zoom right into the heart of the matter without getting caught up in trivialities.”

“When I started coaching sessions with Maria several months ago, I had no clue what I wanted to do in life professionally. Today I can say that not only I found a job that is financially enriching, but also a job that is perfectly aligned with my deepest values. I love working with Maria because she is extremely professional and result-oriented, while being very understanding and loving. She is strong, creative, supportive, highly ethical and respectful. She always practices herself what she suggests to her clients and has a great sense of humor. She inspires me to be the best version of myself from inside – out. Coaching with her is truly a life-changing experience.”

“During my work with Maria, I followed a coaching plan related to my career goals with very concrete tasks I needed to accomplish daily. We were tracking it together, adjusting if needed, during the sessions. By the end of the program, I got where I wanted to be on my career path.

Not everything happens overnight, but the right direction is set with a clear understanding of what needs to be done – and now I know how to do it – successfully. It is always better to go through this journey with an experienced coach you can trust, such as Maria. Thanks to her, I was able to open for myself a completely new depth of the world of emotions and understand how they affect my results. On a final note, I think that starting a meditation practice as a part of the program was a very important addition to success. I feel much more focused, concentrated, resourceful and mindful in everyday life.”

“I can unequivocally recommend Maria as a uniquely gifted coach. In her coaching she demonstrates not only an advanced grasp of the coaching core competencies, but a particularly empathetic, insightful, and dynamic style of coaching. She brings a high level of presence to her coaching sessions, knows how to listen deeply, and is able to engender dynamic and insightful coaching conversations. She is especially skilled in co-creating a trusting coaching relationship and zeroing in on underlying issues. Her great depth of sensitivity is supported by a deep resolve and an indomitable spirit. Her intelligent insights reveal her ability to deeply listen to the client. She uses a multi-faceted approach to coaching to help clients move towards empowerment and self actualization. Maria is a credit to the profession, and, above that, a warm and loving human being.”