Episode 1216: Invest in Yourself - Interview with Maggie Perotin coach using the Dream-Plan-Do Model – Part 1

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,206 teaming of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Maggie Perotin: I'm Maggie Perton. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to dream plan and do is key.

[00:00:24] And one way to be inspired to do that is listen to this. They inspired stewardship podcast with my friends coordinator.

[00:00:33] I look at it as a skill and as a muscle and that you can learn it and you can grow it. And that it never actually like growing. It never stops because you can be confident in one thing and not necessarily confident in the other thing.

[00:00:51] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:57] If you truly desire to become the person who [00:01:00] God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:18] In today's interview with Maggie Perton. I asked Maggie to share with you her journey from Poland to Canada. Maggie also shares how her journey from living under a communist regime to living in Canada has changed her and Maggie shares with you. How this led her to working with others on their confidence.

[00:01:37] One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible.

[00:01:58] Go to inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.

[00:02:26] Maggie Perton lives in Canada, in the Toronto area with her blended family and four kids. She is a self-development geek, loves nature, traveling and good food. She holds an executive MBA from Jack Welch management Institute and has over 14 years of experience in various corporate leadership positions as an international business and leadership coach, Maggie helps service based entrepreneurs make the income they want in their business and become outstanding leaders in the process.

[00:02:55] Through her dream plan, do coaching model. She supports her clients [00:03:00] in becoming confident CEOs by aligning their mindset, business skills and high performance habits. This allows them to transform their business from an unreliable source of income to a client attracting diamond. Welcome to the show,

[00:03:14] Maggie Perotin: Maggie.

[00:03:15] Thank you. Thank you, Scott, for having me I'm happy to be here.

[00:03:19] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. As we get started, one of the things that I mentioned in the intro is you're living in Toronto, Canada now, but you have a little bit of an interesting journey that, that brought you there. Would you mind sharing a little bit about the journey from living and growing up in Poland to now?

[00:03:39] What brought you over to Canada?

[00:03:41] Maggie Perotin: Yeah. Yeah. So I do live in Canada and I am dual citizen by now PO Polish Canadian. But I was born and raised in Poland and I'm probably like the last generation that actually remembers anything from communist regime, because even my sister who is five years younger, she [00:04:00] was too young to remember anything.

[00:04:02] So yes, I grew up in Poland. I was, I think, 11, 11 when the communist regime collapse. And what brought me to Canada is so when the communist regime collapsed, of course, Poland started going through a lot of changes in the economy and so on. And when I finished my university, I did a master's degree in international relations and a little bit of European union.

[00:04:27] But at that. Time, Poland wasn't even in the European union yet. And I started working and I had this dream of traveling and having a home or buying a house and so on. And I started working and I was making like $300 a month. working very hard and Poland is not that much cheaper than north America.

[00:04:47] And I was. Lack and blessed that I actually had jobs because at that time the unemployment was about 20%. I was in a big city. I spoke English, I spoke [00:05:00] French. Educated. So I had a job, but I started thinking like, oh my God, like when I just make enough money to pay the bills and eat well, my dreams are not gonna happen.

[00:05:14] Scott Maderer: travel's a little hard on 300

[00:05:16] Maggie Perotin: a month. So around that time, I was still doing a postgraduate. Degree in translation and interpreting Polish English, Polish. Okay. And I started to just, I don't know, it was fun. And I wanted to deepen my English, not necessarily to become a translator or sworn and translator interpreter, but it's just something I wanted to do.

[00:05:39] And one of my friends there mentioned we had a conversation. We probably went on. Tangent about how much, how little money we make and how it's hard and so on. And she told me, you know what? You speak English, you speak French. And Canada has this great immigration program for skilled [00:06:00] workers.

[00:06:00] So it's structured. It's not like in us when it's a lottery, it's actually a point system that you go on the website and you check if you have enough points to apply. And if you do, based on your whatever experience. And education knowledge of languages you can apply to become a permanent resident.

[00:06:20] So that got me thinking and my partner at a time had some family in Canada. Okay. So

[00:06:27] Scott Maderer: let me stop for a sec. Yeah. What made your friend share? How did, why did they know that?

[00:06:33] Maggie Perotin: I dunno. I actually dunno. It was so long ago.

[00:06:37] Scott Maderer: cause that's kinda random it was random and maybe she was thinking about immigrating maybe she was kind.

[00:06:45] Maggie Perotin: Going through her options and thinking, so she had done some research and yeah. Yeah. Maybe she's done some research. I have no idea. And maybe she told me, I just don't remember. I just remember she telling me that it was something that I haven't even considered before. [00:07:00] That I was this like moment oh, Yeah, I guess I could

[00:07:03] Scott Maderer: look into it.

[00:07:05] And yet your partner had relatives in Canada, so there was actually even a better connection.

[00:07:09] Maggie Perotin: Exactly. And then it turned out that, yeah, he had some relatives in Canada and we talked to them and and they were based here in Torontos and they were like, yeah here is what you can actually accomplish.

[00:07:22] If you work hard and you find jobs and they are really welcoming in a sense that we. We don't have a lot of family here, so it would be great if you guys come right and have that connection. So they were willing to help us out in the beginning, so that I guess gave us. Enough confidence to even start the process to say, Hey, like we'll know somebody, we're not because I've never been to north America before.

[00:07:48] I've never flew a plane before. So just even when I moved, that was my first plane. Actually when I moved to Canada. So that gave us biggest enough [00:08:00] confidence to say, okay Go through the process and see what happens type of thing. And when you are young, you have no mortgage, no kids, nothing other than family, your roots and friends.

[00:08:10] Holding you and then you have an opportunity to move legally because legally that's a whole different story. But legally to a country, then you're like worst case scenario, you can always come back. So that was the thought process. So I applied as the main applicant because one person applies and then you can bring your family together.

[00:08:31] Yeah. Together. Yeah. So I apply as a main applicant and. Year and a half later, cuz you know, bureaucracy takes time. Some people go through it's like longer than that, but for me it was like year and a half. We received a permanent residency and then you have six months to move. They're like, great.

[00:08:49] Here's your card. You have six months. I gotta okay.

[00:08:52] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Yeah. So it's, they give you a timeline and once you're approved, you gotta get over relatively quickly because six months is not that long. [00:09:00] Really?

[00:09:00] Maggie Perotin: No, it's not. No, it's not. And you, and it's in a sense, you never know exactly when you will get it.

[00:09:06] Because like, when I talk to some other immigrants, some people, it takes them three years, some people too, so yeah. You know that most likely you'll get it, but you still live your life. You don't really have. Yeah. But you don't know exactly when. Yeah. So it's kinda like you can't just. I'm gonna quit my job and wait, cuz yeah, you gotta, you still gotta eat.

[00:09:24] Scott Maderer: You still gotta pay the bills while you're there and you dunno how long it's gonna take. Yeah. So how many languages do you end up? Have you ended up collecting

[00:09:32] Maggie Perotin: so fluently three Polish, English and French. Now I did start learning Russian actually in primary school because that's was mandatory under the commons regime.

[00:09:44] I still understand it a little bit because the spoken Russian is somewhat close. It's like Spanish and French once French, you can understand some Spanish, similar roots to many the words. Yeah. Yeah. So same. So I still understand a little bit, but I [00:10:00] barely speak it. Reading is very different, right?

[00:10:02] It's a different alphabet. And the same with German. I learned it a bit. I traveled to Germany a bunch of times. My father actually. Fluent in German. So it's the same, but I can carry on the go it's just a little bit.

[00:10:17] Scott Maderer: Yeah. And again you would probably be able to pick up more of it because you had it as a child if you needed to at this point.

[00:10:24] Yeah. But it would be, but you're not using it every day, so you're definitely not gonna, yeah. Yeah. So I, is there a fairly significant. Polish immigrant community in Canada or is

[00:10:36] Maggie Perotin: it yeah, there is. And especially in Toronto, like I don't necessarily live in there. there is a lot of Polish immigrants, but yeah, there is a significant population in there's a couple of areas in greater Toronto area where.

[00:10:51] Polish immigrants were there. I always say like where there aren't Polish people, Polish forever.

[00:10:58] Scott Maderer: well I I live in south [00:11:00] Texas. And so actually if you drive around in south Texas, you come across communities with rather interesting names and more often than not it's either they were Polish immigrants, check I immigrants or German immigrants.

[00:11:10] That fell the community. Yeah, so it's funny because even Ontario, there's this little town war, so which is our capital city. So I could go to war so probably very small.

[00:11:21] So yeah, I, I would, again, I'm in Texas and so we have Paris, we have Rome, we have you can take an international trip and never leave the state.

[00:11:29] We have that too. As long as you creative, how you determine where you went. And again, one of my reasons for asking about the community is cuz you know, in San Antonio I'm close to San Antonio. I don't live in San Antonio, but I'm close to there. And there are several immigrant communities that have it just beca it's, it does seem like if people, legally immigrant, then it becomes oftentimes there's a significant community that grows up around that.

[00:11:57] If that makes

[00:11:59] Maggie Perotin: sense. Yeah. [00:12:00] And there is in Canada too. Definitely. Polish people are against one of them, not the largest, but like significant communities in bigger cities, for sure.

[00:12:11] Scott Maderer: Sure. So there's yeah, not a, yeah. And again that's part of that.

[00:12:17] When you do immigrate, do you have a community that you can plug into at some level becomes important part of the consideration as well? Yeah. So yeah, you mentioned at the beginning you remember growing up a little bit under the communist regime and probably that last generation that, that change over, what was it like to live grow up under, under that kind of.

[00:12:44] I

[00:12:44] Maggie Perotin: have to say interesting now, of course, I a child too. So you got sure. Yeah, I was a child, so of course I haven't experienced myself more of the oppression that was especially more present right after the [00:13:00] world in the fifties and sixties. Or I didn't necessarily fear for my safety for speaking.

[00:13:07] My truth or whatever, but I still remember some fun facts that now are funny, but maybe weren't so much so funny then. And especially for my parents. So for example, I will just share a couple stories. So for example I still remember meat being, so every family would get like. Coupon in thing every month with certain amount of meat per family or per person, then when you go to the store, they would like, cut it out, saying that you use that.

[00:13:37] And then on top of it's coupon, it's yeah. And on top of it, it's not like those stores were full of meat. There's usually empty tea and they would have just delivery sometimes. So I would remember seeing, or even like being in the line. 6:00 AM in the morning. 5:00 AM the store opens at nine.

[00:13:57] People were already queuing [00:14:00] trying to get something for that because you couldn't even get, unless you had family. Who were farmers and who could deliver like a pig or whatever meat or you had, you knew somebody who worked in the store. That was a great connection to have. It was very hard

[00:14:21] Scott Maderer: to get you be friends with the butcher that worked at the

[00:14:23] Maggie Perotin: yeah.

[00:14:23] Yes. It was very hard to. Get like decent pieces of meat that you could feed your family. So I have to say my mom was like a magician making great meals out of not so great meat, quality And so that's one. And then another one was coffee that also wasn't. Something anything exported right from the west, like any fruits and so on that weren't homegrown as one was, they were rare, but coffee was also ration and they would give like one small pack per family member.

[00:14:56] So sometimes I would cute and pretend to [00:15:00] be like my neighbors. So they can get more coffee

[00:15:05] Scott Maderer: because, but would, you would figure out who in the neighborhood didn't drink coffee. Yeah, pretty much like people helped each other that way. Or sometimes you would buy, you had two of these and you didn't need it.

[00:15:15] Maggie Perotin: And you would trade with. Something, because it wasn't like, okay, the next delivery of coffee, it would be right at the cusp of fuel running out of your first thing. No, like it would go without coffee for a while. But so those, that definitely

[00:15:31] Scott Maderer: caused me to look. For a place to immigrate to

[00:15:34] I think , I'm a bit, I'm a bit of a coffee addict, so

[00:15:38] Maggie Perotin: but, and so fun fact, so that's, that will lead us to the third story. So it actually wasn't that easy to immigrate because the commons regime didn't want people to get passports to travel to Western Europe or outside of the common regime sphere, or because people would never come.

[00:15:55] They would just stay, they would go to visit somebody and stay. And that was [00:16:00] very hard. So we got actually like a passport to travel to Western Europe, just because my aunt immigrated to France. That's how I learned French. And she married a French guy and we were going for her wedding. So I was little.

[00:16:16] So with my parents, my grandparents were driving. So I still remember when we were crossing the border Eastern Germany to Western Germany. We got searched like crazy. That was actually one scary moment that remember we were asked to get out of the car. They pulled the backseats. Like they truly.

[00:16:36] Looked because people were smuggling people, right? Eastern Germans were trying to escape to Western Germany. So it was pretty intense, like the way they searched

[00:16:47] Scott Maderer: you. Do you happen to remember what year about that was.

[00:16:51] Maggie Perotin: I don't, but it would've been like, I guess if I'm nine. Okay. I'm gonna review my date.

[00:16:57] I was born in . I was born [00:17:00] in 1978, so I would've been like at least seven. So 86, 85,

[00:17:07] Scott Maderer: 86, 85, 87, 7 somewhere. Yeah. Okay. Somewhere there. So before the wall had fallen yeah, before that was even a consideration. Yeah. That wasn't even really on the roadmap or radar at that point in terms of think,

[00:17:20] Maggie Perotin: but I guess there were tensions, because it didn't happen from year to year. So it was already must have intentions that I don't remember, but yeah. Yeah. Mid

[00:17:28] Scott Maderer: eighties. And I'm old enough that I can remember I can remember talking about it at school kind of thing. And re seeing it in the news. Cause I would've been in high school.

[00:17:41] At that point and there, it was a lot of tension in yeah. In, in the east to west around, especially around Germany at that period. Yeah. So yeah, that would've been that's why I was asking what years I was curious. It was like, if that was in the eighties that was probably, yeah. I can imagine [00:18:00] that they really searched your car.

[00:18:01] Cause I can remember things like people. People getting caught or shot or I can remember hearing stories of that in that time. So yeah. So now living in Canada and obviously you immigrated when you were older than 11, but yes, both. How did it change after.

[00:18:23] The communist regime what was the same and what was different. And then what's different now that you're in Canada,

[00:18:30] Maggie Perotin: what was I guess the same, how it changed it quickly, like everything became available. But then Poland went into that spiral of high inflation. The currency went lost a lot of its values.

[00:18:44] We went through like big reforms because a lot of stuff was owned by the state and it had to be privatized. And we were behind in our like development. So there were some changes that definitely, you know, a lot of people. Felt [00:19:00] hardship of that, to get the economy on the right track, to be able to then join your opinion and down the line.

[00:19:07] But the again, like for me, the good thing was, yeah, everything was available. You could work and travel and say what you thought. And it was a democracy and all that, and the world. Opened for people. And it's funny, I was thinking about it. Not that long ago that under comedy regime, everything felt gray because like even the clothes weren't good.

[00:19:29] Like you were like in this gray period. Whereas once we. Entered more of a normal world than the collars pop up and so on. If that makes any sense. And then coming to Canada definitely a lot changes. I love Canada even now. Sorry, in Poland, like a lot of changed after your opinion, we entered it definitely had a huge positive bank impact from Poland, but for me, I didn't live that [00:20:00] because by then you'd already gone.

[00:20:01] I, I moved to Canada. There is a few things like I love Canada for it's diversity and open mindedness and really that acceptance. And yes, we're not perfect. Don't get me wrong. We have our own problems. No's perfect. nobody. No, country's perfect. But. You truly feel welcome here, no matter where you come from whether you have an accent or not, whether nobody cares and it's funny because even I would go to friends.

[00:20:33] On a regular basis as a teenager. And even through high school, worked a bit to get some money to buy my first computer, things like that. And I remember my aunt has been there and she was a nurse. So she had a private practice and how people and so on. And her French was fluent, but she had a bit of an accent and people will used to point it out in a sense, and not in a curious sense, but in a sense like, oh, you don't belong here.

[00:20:59] [00:21:00] Type of sense. And I picked up on it even as a child. Where is that in Canada? That doesn't really happen. If people ask, it's more of a curious Hey, where are I from everywhere? So I just wanna know

[00:21:10] Scott Maderer: where you're from. Where does that accent come from? As opposed to, why do you have an accent

[00:21:16] Maggie Perotin: kind?

[00:21:16] Yeah. Yeah. Like like you don't belong here. how are you? So I love that. And of course much more developed country and the standard living is so much better and in a way where, yeah, if you have a job or whatever, you start a business, you have that ability to. Realize your dreams, buy a house and travel and have a little bit more than just bills and food.

[00:21:42] Right. so

[00:21:44] Scott Maderer: right. And and again I think know, going back to the, no, country's perfect. I I'm a firm believer in that. Almost everything. If there's a strength, there's a weakness that if there's a weakness, there's a strength. Yeah. know, Agreed agree. There's no, no system of government, no [00:22:00] country, no person, no organization they're all human made.

[00:22:04] And therefore they all have faults and strengths and weaknesses. How so to be clear, I'm not having this conversation. And I know you aren't either to to, to beat up on the communist regime or to point it out but it is interesting how. To hear that origin story and talking about what you do today and working as a coach and working with entrepreneurs and all of this.

[00:22:31] How as a mom as somebody I know you worked in the corporate world for a while. Now you're an entrepreneur and have your own business. How do you kind. Balance all of those roles and responsibilities and still perform at a level that you consider the level you should perform at.

[00:22:52] If that makes sense.

[00:22:53] Maggie Perotin: A lot of it is so there's you have different [00:23:00] roles, so there's two things I wanna touch. So there's two things like, yes, you have a different roles, but the way I look at it, You're a leader anyways. So whether you lead your family, whether you leader or yourself, like you have a business employees and so on, you always start with.

[00:23:19] So if you can lead yourself and if you can grow yourself and manage your brain and all those things, you can lead other things. And when you come from that sort of self concept, then it's not about balancing it's. Yeah. We all have different roles in our lives, we're wives and husbands and parents and aunts and whatever.

[00:23:38] We have different roles, but. Being able to being intentional in what you focus on in your life, and then having tools and certain good habits. And I call them high performance habits that allow you to really live intentional life. And [00:24:00] not waste a bunch of time or things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

[00:24:05] If you think about 15 years from now who cares about this or that, right? That you are not. That you don't feel like the time is slipping through your fingers? Because I always say you know what? Life is too short and it can change like this, like living through the communis regime, it was horrible.

[00:24:23] And people didn't think that they could ever look better and then it changed. But it can go the other way too. You can have an amazing life and you never know it can change. Living to the fullest and being intentional, that what allows me to do all those things that I wanna do.

[00:24:39] Scott Maderer: And we'll talk some about some of those high performance yeah. Habits it probably next week, but is as you've talked about all of this the feeling or the emotion that comes to mind is one of. Of confidence of having a belief in yourself is confidence [00:25:00] something that you can teach to someone or is it something they just have or what, how do you look at confidence?

[00:25:07] Maggie Perotin: I look at it as a skill. And as a muscle and that you can learn it and you can grow it. And that it never actually like growing, it never stops because you can be confident in one thing and not necessarily confident in the other thing. And the way I sometimes say it to my client is think about biking.

[00:25:28] You're confident in biking, you're bike in Sowan. But then you wanna learn snowboarding and you never snowboarded. You're not gonna be confident in the beginning, right? You're like, yeah, biking I haven't done this before. I'm not confident, but what you can do is borrow the confidence from, Hey, if I learned how to bike.

[00:25:47] I can probably figure out snowboarding. Yeah. Maybe I need some lessons. Maybe I need somebody to help me, but with enough support and determination, I can do it. And then as you do it, and [00:26:00] as you become better, it's just that reinforcing circle where that confidence grows. And it's really a simple example, but that's how it works.

[00:26:09] And you can get there in anything you do or want to do in your life. So I truly believe confidence is built. It's a skill and just like language, you gotta practice it over and over because otherwise you can lose it. And for me for example when I came to Canada, I wasn't as confident because.

[00:26:33] Yes. I spoke English and I was advanced. Don't get me wrong. I was advanced. So that was a good thing for me, but I wasn't fluent. And by fluent I couldn't express my personality in it. I couldn't joke. I couldn't be me fully me. And when you can't be fully, you, your confidence goes down. Also being in a new country new, even continent, everything is different.

[00:26:57] You feel uneasy, right? Like your [00:27:00] foundation is a little bit, you ripped your foundation out of the country that you knew and the culture you knew, you're putting yourself there. And I wanted it and I was excited about it, but still that confidence was a bit wobbly, but then. I when I got my first job the manager, the lady that hired me, she was confident enough to hire.

[00:27:21] So sometimes borrowing confidence from somebody else. And I think Muhammad Ali talks about that too, in, in his story that sometimes when you're not confident in yourself in the beginning, having just this one person who believes in you strong enough and borrowing their confidence in the beginning to say Hey, if they think I can do it, that must.

[00:27:41] Or at least I don't wanna disappoint them. So I will just keep going until you grow enough of it just by seeing the results of your work, whatever you're doing to have it in you. So

[00:27:53] Scott Maderer: Yeah, that makes sense. And it's that idea of borrowing [00:28:00] confidence, that idea. Does does belief in yourself come first or does others belief in you come first?

[00:28:07] And the answer is probably yes. it's

[00:28:09] Maggie Perotin: kinda, and sometimes it's both. Yes. Yeah.

[00:28:11] Scott Maderer: Cause I think a lot of times we try to look at it's I talk about the same thing with action and belief does action create belief or does belief create action? The answer is yes. It's a feedback loop.

[00:28:22] It exactly, it's a circle. So you can start anywhere on the circle. Yes. Depending on your situation and what's

[00:28:29] Maggie Perotin: going on. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:28:33] Scott Maderer: You can follow Maggie on Twitter as stairway underscore the number two, the numeral two. She's also on LinkedIn as Maggie. Perton spelled P E R O T I N. Of course you can find out more about Maggie and her coaching over@stairwaytoleadership.com. Maggie, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:28:56] Maggie Perotin: I wanna. Reach out. Let's [00:29:00] have a conversation. I love to if there is anything that spoke to you over the last four episodes that you just wanna chat about, not even become my clients, just reach out. You can find me on all those social media or on my website survey to leadership.com.

[00:29:15] I would love to have a chat.

[00:29:18] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:29:46] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out [00:30:00] in your feed until next time invest your. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.