Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. This is going to be a fantastic conversation. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Cometa Coaching LLC Mariateresa Romeo. How are you?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:00:39] I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:00:43] Well, we are delighted to have you on the show, have been looking so forward to this conversation. And I’d like to jump right in because I know your work, your life is focused on on this topic and helping others with it. I’d love to get your perspective, your definition of success.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:01:04] Yeah. So success means the accomplishment of a name or poor course. Right. Is strictly related to the accomplishment of our main goals. And everyone has its own definition of success, right? For some people, it means attaining wealth or position in society. Other things about being famous or remembered over time, and the other they think they want to just be free and they feel successful because they have the freedom to do whatever they want or whenever they want. So there is not a standard definition of success, but my definition of success is that I think it’s the ability to find our uniqueness. You know, what makes you unique as a human being first and as a professional, and also find a way to share it, bring it in any individual in or in any area of your life, both personal and professional.

Stone Payton: [00:02:05] Well, I think that’s a marvelous definition, because I’ve been asked that question before, and I don’t think I was nearly as eloquent or as articulate about it, because maybe I wasn’t as clear about it for myself. Another reason I’m really looking forward to this to this conversation. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the work, mission and purpose for your coaching practice. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:02:29] Yeah, so I think that the main goal of my coaching practice is helping people to find their weakness in order to find their own purpose, to be especially for for people who work in the corporate environment, in the business environment, become the leader that they want to be put that their uniqueness what what is their story? They source their value, bring everything out together and have an original approach in everything they do. So that means becoming sometimes a better communicator or get clarity of who they are and where they want to go, what they want to be in their professional life, but also building meaningful relationship with others. That is really, really important today. So those are the area where I really love to help people. And and this is the goal as a coach, at least for me.

Stone Payton: [00:03:31] It must be incredibly rewarding work.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:03:37] Yeah, it is rewarding and I can tell you that. I mean, I have accomplishment. I have accomplished many goals in my life and on some of them I’m still working on. But I can tell you that I really think that I found my uniqueness in what I do. My coaching approach is really based on the values, my own values. I believe that everyone has to be responsible of their future and their success. So as a coach, for example, I don’t tell people what to do, but I help them find their own way. You know, I help them build their own future. And at the same time, my coaching practice is based on years and years of studies in the communication field because I’m passionate about communication and human relationships. I have a master’s degree in science of Communication. I have a certified NLP master practitioner, emotional intelligence coach. So I essentially I created my own coaching approach based on different methodology. And I don’t have I don’t think that coaching is a kind of cookie cutter. You have to use the right tool. You have to be responsible of your work. So you have to approach even if you have, for example, sometimes you have two different clients that comes to you with the same type of issue we can think about, I don’t know, time management, for example.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:05:12] Honestly, I can tell you that 100%. I always approach things differently because I start know, working with the person and not working on the topic. I’m working on the client that I have in front of me, and I usually honor, you know, their uniqueness, their story, their value. So what makes me successful is that I have my own coaching approach that probably will be different from any others, and I master it because I own it. It comes from my house and my story, my background. I spent more than 20 years in the corporate environment, so this is another feature that people say that I speak the language because I know exactly what they are going through. I can easily understand the challenges that executives or people in the corporate world may have. So that makes me feel unique. And also, I think that given the client understand that they feel that it’s a process, it’s rewarding for them and they appreciate also my own uniqueness in this process.

Stone Payton: [00:06:21] Well, no doubt you’ve seen a great deal. Have you observed some patterns or habits from leaders that you’ve worked with that tend to make them more successful than others or get better results than others? I bet you have. I bet you’ve seen some habits or patterns or behaviors. A handful of those. Yeah.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:06:46] Yeah, yeah. So I think that first of all, I think that everyone experiences in some way of their professional life the difference between leadership and authority. Right? Sometimes people have the role, have the title, but we don’t see them as a leader. And the the through the things behind it is that the disruptive and authentic leader usually the most successful. And we don’t necessarily have to look at Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos is not the title of the title. The acquisition of the money is the fact that leaders, usually the successful leaders, are fearless in pure thing. They are true. They follow their passions and they generally want to improve their companies, their societies. So most of the time they don’t. I can see I can tell you one of the most common pattern is that they don’t fully align with the standard. They don’t follow predetermined path. And the but for this reason, they are also capable of inspiring and motivating others. People see them as an example to follow because they bring something different. They are unique. So again, the secret of success is find your uniqueness, what makes you unique, what is your passion and do things according to what are your values of who you are. So and I tell you, I always explain this to people when they come to me, because most of the time we have this idea that leadership should be perfect or, you know, everybody should like that.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:08:33] Like them. And this is not. This is not. Some of the attributes of the successful leader, such, for example, being set forward or do not have any use, any kind of filter where they communicate or being perfectionist and focus on the details are not that easy to manage for the people that they have around. So the interesting thing is that, I mean, they might people might not like them, of course, but this doesn’t affect their leadership. Because they understand the people around them understand that they are unique. They have they are making their own way. And another interesting attribute or pattern, how do you want to call it the today leadership is that they are vulnerable because they are authentic. We we finally legitimized the ability as a skill set of strong leaders and around the functional abilities us taking action when there is uncertainty or risk or emotional exposure. So we finally abandoned the idea of a leader as someone who never makes mistake or never show feelings and has empathy and is almost perfect. Now leaders work to create a positive working environment. They are focused on empowering people, helping them find their talents. And also, most importantly, they consider mistakes as opportunity to learn and not to blame.

Stone Payton: [00:10:15] One of the things that I’ve always admired about the coaching profession and I’ve been blessed to have experienced this to some degree on more than one occasion, is achieving a breakthrough of some kind. But I don’t know that I have any process, strategy approach to achieving it. In any advice, counsel on that front, how how can we achieve a breakthrough and or maybe just describe how you help people kind of achieve a breakthrough?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:10:50] Yeah. So I think that the path of successful leadership starts from yourself. Start with you as an individual. So it’s not just the result of your education, the professional experience, your resume is not your company board or others who appoint you as a leader. It’s your own journey. So the way the best way, at least for me to start, is to find your purpose, explore your values, your passions, and ask yourself who you want to be and what legacy you want to build. I usually ask my client in 20 years from now who you want to be or why. You know why people should remember you. How do you want to be remembered? And once you once you answer this question, you develop a different perspective on your professional life. You find you will find yourself sometimes revisiting your goals, your choice, the way you manage your time, and, most importantly, the relationship that you build. So once you have defined who you are, then I usually help. I help you. I can help you help my clients from a communication standpoint, changing the way they communicate with themselves first. So I and when I talk about the inner dialog, I mean all the things that we say to ourselves, our self sabotage, any roadblocks that we might have that comes from the inside.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:12:32] And then we explore the way they communicate with others and build relationships. And usually what is interesting is that people around you will notice if that something is changing because the moment you change your communication approach, they you push them to do the same. So most of my clients, you know, give me this kind of feedback. The moment they start changing the communication approach with the other, they see an overall improvement in their working environment. So it’s not something that it remains with them as a as a leader, but it’s something that is spread around people around them change their approach. So usually I can tell you it’s a journey. It’s not something that you can achieve overnight. My experience is that people take usually six months. There is and there is not a clear hand. I mean, I cannot tell you when this process can end for sure, but usually is when the client realizes that they have a clear idea who they are and what they want out of their life. Sometimes this process leads them to make critical decisions or, for example, change in their career or change in their personal life, or embrace a new venture. And sometimes the journey ends when they feel more confident and in power. Then they have a plan or a mission to accomplish.

Stone Payton: [00:14:12] So I got to know I want to know about your back story. How did you end up doing this kind of work? Tell us a little bit about your background and what compelled you to get into coaching in the first place?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:14:25] Yeah, so I have I mean, as I mentioned before, I have a master’s degree in sense of communication for business and organization. I’m Italian, so I took my degree at the University of Rome. La Sapienza and I work in the corporate environment for more than 20 years as a management consultant. So I supported several leaders, both a European or US based company, and managed strategic initiative for organizational change and operational effectiveness. And I always I was always passionate about communications. So I also took some additional training, even if I had already my good communication background. But again, I certified as an executive coach, emotional intelligence, leadership coach and assessor and NLP master practitioner. And then 2015 I started my coaching practice. So since then I coach clients in various occupation and organizational level, including high potential employee entrepreneurs or executive. So now I’m based in New York. I moved to the United States six years ago, actually, and I work both with Italian and American clients.

Stone Payton: [00:15:48] So was that at all intimidating, a little bit scary for you moving from the corporate world and going out on your own? I would think that could be a little bit scary. The unknown of, you know, now you’re running your own business.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:16:05] Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s scary. But, you know, when you feel that this is what you want and again, you take the best of any experience that you had in your life. And it’s a lot of work. It’s an internal journey. You know, build your own business is not that easy. It requires time, but also it’s required patience with yourself. Your own story and your time. But it’s something that I mean, it’s exciting at the same time. So yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:16:42] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a practitioner? Like like you, like how do you get the new business?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:16:52] Well, I have to tell you a different way, actually, because people knows me as a coach and other knows me as a consultant. Right. But all of them knows that what I can do, how can I help? Especially, you know, the word of mouth is really important and my website is very important where you can find all the articles that I write, the research that I do in terms of communication or even cross-cultural integration. So the website is absolutely one of the main source for me and of course my LinkedIn profile as well.

Stone Payton: [00:17:35] So let’s let’s paint the picture. Let’s, let’s walk through at least the early stages of a coaching client relationship with you. Like what are, what are some of the, like, how does it start?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:17:49] It starts from setting up a goal. So usually people come to me, but I think this is applicable to any coach because they have a chance to make a problem to solve a future state that they want to achieve in their life. So they they initial sessions are usually focused around their son. What is the goal? What is that you want? And this is tricky because the majority of my clients, they come to me and tell me telling what they don’t want. And I use easily ask them What do they want? What is that you want? And sometimes people connect with me because they don’t have a goal. They don’t have a dream in that moment. They don’t have any kind of yeah. Aspirational things that they want to achieve in their life. And coaching can be useful for that because we build a vision. I have them building a vision. So in general, the first sessions are focused on understanding what you want first, and then I help you on how you can achieve them.

Stone Payton: [00:19:05] Now I understand that in other parts of your life you are an art enthusiast and you’re a cellist.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:19:13] Did I read that? Yes. Yes.

Stone Payton: [00:19:16] So tell us about that. Is that one of the places you go to kind of recharge and find your inspiration and express your uniqueness?

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:19:28] All right. So I think that there are two places, actually. One, of course, is my home in Sicily, in Italy. That is my go to place. I think I can describe this, but you have to go there to understand the beauty of the nature, the sea, the cultural, so that we can. I consider myself really lucky because I can enjoy it. Of course, I cannot go there whenever I want because I live in New York City. But I can tell you that New York is a vibrant city, especially from a cultural, artistic standpoint. I mean, there are a lot of things that are always new venture new initiatives. I’m personally I love classical music, so I usually go pretty often to the Carnegie Hall or to the metal listening to concerts. I play myself the cello. So it’s, it’s something that I, I think. Yeah. This is also related to the to what I was saying before about your uniqueness, you know, you know, the suggesting the Russian writer used to say that beauty will save the world. And to me, this is very important, cause this somehow is my motto, because beauty is not just esthetic. Beauty means finding your own true, your own authenticity. So being capable of expressing yourself in any areas of your life is really important. So for me, for example, the classical music is and the cello or art is if one of them the nature enjoying the the sea, the beauty of the nature is another one. So those are the things that I do that to me that may make me happy again.

Stone Payton: [00:21:27] That sounds marvelous. And I think we should have a similar conversation before too long. And I think we should do it in Sicily, because I absolutely love Italy. I’ve not been to Sicily. I think that would be terrific. Let’s leave our listeners with a maybe a couple of pro tips. Maybe they’re listening to this, they’re getting inspired. They’re beginning to challenge their own thinking, and they want to start working on themselves, exploring this idea of uniqueness, revisiting their habits and their patterns. Of course, the number one pro tip is reach out to Maria Teresa. But other than that, you know, maybe something they should be reading or thinking about or maybe there’s some some preparatory work that they could be doing on their own before they even reach out to you. Just a couple of actionable tips maybe.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:22:21] Yeah. I usually suggest my clients to work on their vision. You know, they can also build the kind of vision board and use colors, pictures, whatever they want to express where they want to be. Starting somewhere. This question in three or five years or ten years from now, who you want to be, where, what type of job you want to have, who you want to have around. You start asking yourself this question and and try to put the answer down whenever however you want. You can write it down like a formal diary or you can just drawing whatever. I don’t that’s not necessary. But just express, you know, your your desire and see how that makes you feel. If you feel comfortable with this, right. If you feel that, yeah, I can do it. I have all the skills. I think that is achievable. That’s fine. If you even from an emotional standpoint, how how do you feel? You feel that you feel you deserve it, right? If you feel that there is something, you know, that sounds like off or yeah. At that point I will say maybe you want to work with a coach or maybe you want to reach out to me because I can have.

Stone Payton: [00:23:52] Well, I think that is terrific advice. Okay. If someone wants to reach out, have a conversation with you or someone on your team, or just begin to learn a little bit more about some of these topics, let’s make sure that we leave them with an easy way to do that. Whatever you feel like is appropriate. Website, email, LinkedIn. I just want to I want to make sure that it’s easy for them to connect with you.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:24:15] Yes, sure. So they can talk to me w w w dot com meta coaching dot com or sending an email to hello at meta coaching dot com.

Stone Payton: [00:24:28] Well, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show. Thank you for investing the time to visit with us. I have found this conversation inspiring, informative, and I’ll tell you what’s going on. My vision board is a trip to Sicily.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:24:43] All right. I look forward to meeting you there.

Stone Payton: [00:24:49] Know you’re doing such important work. And we sincerely appreciate you. So. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much.

Mariateresa Romeo: [00:24:56] Thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:24:58] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Maria Teresa Romeo with comedic coaching and everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.