Living 'Better than Busy': Embracing Purpose, Adaptability, and Women Empowerment with Maureen Fawley

Ever felt like your days are busy yet unproductive? Maureen Favley, a dynamic coach, joins us to discuss her philosophy of living 'better than busy'. She introduces us to the power of a purpose statement and a unique planning approach, focusing on adaptability rather than a rigid schedule. Listen as she decodes the art of balancing life's unpredictability while staying true to your 'why', and shares her mission of uncovering inspiring stories of resilience from women in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Take a deep dive into the world of women empowerment as you navigate the second half of our conversation. Maureen unravels her efforts in fostering spaces for women, devoid of negativity, and encourages us to acknowledge personal values for mindful decision-making. Moving further, we explore Free Time Solutions, a company aimed at restoring time freedom for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. As we wrap up this enlightening episode, brace yourself for a sneak peek into our riveting line-up of upcoming weekly readings on Sunday Mindset Monday and special guest hosts on Fridays.

At The Table With

Maureen Falvey

CPC, ELI-MP

Lead Coach // Trainer

(917) 753-2160

She/her

STRONG  ///  TRAINING AND COACHING

Site / LinkedIn / FB

Transcript

Heather Ross: 0:01

Welcome to At the Table where we are connecting entrepreneurs, discovering missions and building communities with purpose body, soul, mind and business. With Charlie and Heather, with free time solutions.

Charlie Hoffman: 0:18

Welcome to the Table. I'm Charlie, your host, and it's me today, with no co-host, which is fine and new and fun. But I have a wonderful member of the community here to meet you today, maureen Fawley, who is a coach of varying sorts and she works with a coaching company. So I'd love for you to meet Maureen, and at this time I'm just going to have her introduce herself to you.

Maureen Falvey: 0:48

Yeah, wonderful, Charlie. I'm so happy to be here. I love that introduction because it's right on. I'm a coach of many things, following a long career in advertising and marketing, Now a coach and a trainer and a speaker and a podcast guest with wonderful people like yourself. But they tell you in coaching school to pick a niche, and I never did, and the reason for that is that what I'm doing in these coaching partnerships is relevant, whether I'm doing career coaching, leadership coaching, team coaching is that I'm helping individuals and teams live and work on purpose instead of by accident, To be something that is better than busy, and so, whatever that thing is, it's not really a niche.

Maureen Falvey: 1:33

It's more of a purpose statement so that at the end of the week or month or year you don't look back and say what just happened? I wanted to happen with intention. I wanted to design it so that you can have all the goodies and you can have the wonderful experience I have now, which is living and working according to your why. Why are you here? Set that intention, put the plan together. You do it. It was like a million bucks.

Charlie Hoffman: 2:00

That's really amazing. I love working with coaches that can look at things from a different point of view, from a different perspective and really get you thinking in a different way.

Maureen Falvey: 2:17

Yeah yeah, so that's, that's it. I want people to be better than busy, and I you know, in the coaching, the wonderful intimacy there and also just watching people race through life. I don't want busy for us. I want us to sometimes be settled. Or if you are busy, it's with intention, right, you know exactly why. If you have to, if you have to race through your day, you said that in the morning when you woke up. That's what I need to do today. That's fine, but I feel that it gets in the way of so much. We're just cramming it in the 24 hours and work is expanding and the joy with that expands. The joy kind of goes the other way. So, yeah, so I want us to be busy, interrupt some of that and put some plans together.

Charlie Hoffman: 3:07

I like the idea of not being busy but living your life with an intention, right, living it each day with intention, because things happen, things come up, chaos happens, you know, schedules have to change and shift and all these things depending on what we're doing. So having a strict schedule every day, I know, doesn't work for me, right? Sometimes I work earlier in the morning and sometimes I work later in the evening. It kind of depends on on the day and how that's structured. So I really like the idea of not just being busy but being intentional with your time, and this is kind of a season that I'm growing into. As we get busier with our business, I have to be more intentional about where I spend my time, how I spend my time and how I spend my time with my family as well.

Maureen Falvey: 4:11

Yeah, yeah, if I asked you. I'm just so curious, charlie, as you talk about that, and I like the way you do your life. You don't want all the constraints, you're sort of riding a wave and the confidence with which you say that is that when things change up or if I want to do the day a little differently, I got this. So I think that's amazing. If I may ask, when you started, you and your partner, this podcast, what did you want to do? What change did you?

Charlie Hoffman: 4:39

want. The mission of the podcast was to, you know, especially post COVID. So that's when we started was to find out what our ladies are up to Find out, because there was such a big shift in what everybody was doing and how everybody was doing it because of COVID, in response to COVID, and I found that a lot of people stepped up and a lot like kind of stayed stagnant or even sunk down, depending on where they were at in their lives and how the stress and the overwhelm of that whole situation affected everybody. Because I know, as a woman and a mother, that when all the kids were at home for a year and a half, you know, guess who was at home with them, homeschooling them. You know, because every parent was a homeschool parent during COVID. Yes, and that's the way it had to be. So then I know my business changed because I used to teach yoga and then we I really wanted to get to the heart and soul of what women were up to after COVID and really share that with the world.

Maureen Falvey: 6:00

Yeah, yeah. So I hear in that curiosity tremendous compassion and empathy. So just in saying that, if someone came to and they said I want to be on your podcast and I want to talk about women really working on being perfect and setting higher standards for themselves and getting more done, you would say you know you're not got it right, but you're probably not the ideal guest for this podcast. Our audience is looking for something different. The point of that is because you hear you know what to say yes and no to. If we don't know what we're doing and we don't have a plan, then the time thieves can take your entire day.

Maureen Falvey: 6:42

Oh yeah, people on your podcast that don't fit with your why and what's in your heart. So we have to. We get to do the good work that says why am I here? What do I want to do? But change do I want to make so that we know what to say no to, where to focus, where to even you know, last time you had a bad day. I won't take you to that dark place, but last time you had one, I would argue that you were disconnected from your why or that values that are important to you weren't being honored.

Maureen Falvey: 7:14

And so doing this good work of being intentional also helps us understand it's just a bad day. I need to come back to center around what's most important. I need to double down on my values. I need to think about what I'm saying yes to and what my 12, 16, 18 hours the day time has spent. So it just it's a. You can almost imagine that if life can be heavy, it's just each time that we stay intentional around our purpose and our values. Just because a little lighter and that wonderful experience of knowing that you're right where you're supposed to be.

Charlie Hoffman: 7:47

Yes, I actually recently had an experience where I was invited to be part of the networking group and it was a women's networking group and I am part of other women's networking groups that are fabulous, but the, unfortunately, the leadership in this particular one let the negativity just happen without saying anything about it. Right? So there were. It was a little quicky, a little. You know you would hear chatter, you know people talking about you behind your back or whatever that looks like, or you know the judging and things like that, and I was like you know, I went to a couple, couple meetings and stuff and I was like you know what? This just doesn't fit with my energy, this doesn't fit with where I want to be and how I want to present myself to the world. So I'm okay with not being part of this networking group, even though it could tremendously financially benefit me. Right?

Maureen Falvey: 8:58

Yes, I love what you just said and let me share why. It isn't always clear or easy to honor the thing that's important when we have different. So you have a value around income, so let's say or you and your listeners, right, you have a value on that. But I also have a value around being around women who empower and lift one another up. Sometimes they can be in conflict, so you get to.

Maureen Falvey: 9:22

What being a grown up is about is choose the one. That is most important. Right now our values can change. Right, someone is a new parent, you have a new job. They might shift a little bit. I have a really strong value around spending time with my girlfriend seven nights a week, but if I've just had a baby, I may need to relook at that, because I have a new value called consistent love and defection for my child. Raising this child because you're okay. So it's okay if they're in conflict. But that, but knowing that you're just going to choose one, I'm fine, you're just going to choose one.

Maureen Falvey: 9:56

This was pre pandemic, but I started a mom's group in my community. I was new and I didn't know anyone and I have strong value around friends, so I started a group called no Drama Mamas, so that we could get together and they understood just inherent in the name. We don't talk about people here. We're never going to leave this space, in this place, whether we're painting mugs or whatever we're doing, with heaviness in our heart, there will be lightness and a sense of connection in community, and so I love that you walked away from that one because it didn't serve them. Probably isn't serving them either, but they don't know that yet.

Charlie Hoffman: 10:28

I love that you started that women's group as creating a safe container for women to come together, talk about real life stuff, be moms. They can be vulnerable in this space because the expectation has already been set. We're not connecting the drama. You're not going to go and tell somebody else my story without my permission or you know, understanding my struggle in a different kind of way. It's a very caring place to be able to create that safe container for women to express who they are and really hold each other accountable and hold each other up.

Maureen Falvey: 11:19

Yeah, you know, and when you mentioned in that group as well, I think this could be relevant to people. When negativity starts, it can be really addictive, you know, and so it's so easy to jump on the bandwagon, whether it's planning or making excuses or finger pointing or gossip or all these other things. But to be brave and interrupt that, not by making people wrong, but by being the light, it will attract some people not everyone, we're not all in the same journey but the people that are ready for the light and the love and the heart and the positivity will come In that. No drama, mama's.

Maureen Falvey: 11:56

It was an evening where we all went out and it was exactly the environment that you said to, or coming to share and be who we are, and everyone knew sort of the rules of engagement, which is a place to be positive and real, and I have a value run inclusiveness. So I invited someone for the first time and that was not her MO and she was at the end of the table and she started talking about people and tons of negative energy and complaining about the school and the kids and this other kid at school and whatever, and I watched everyone's chairs shift away from her. They weren't mean, but it was like I don't, I don't want that. It was like they went from nuts on woohoo, but like from darkness to light, and so she self corrected her own behavior without anyone saying a word, and so I think we can be a gift one other to interrupt the negativity as well, without making anybody wrong. It's easier to complain, but change happens when we start to go the other way, when we listen to understand.

Charlie Hoffman: 12:54

Right, yeah, right, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, yeah, we talk. One thing that keeps coming back up for me is this back to school thing, and there's always Issues around back to school and what teachers are doing what and how the school is handling things. And as long as you remember, for me it's I follow the 4 agreements. You know be impeccable with your word, don't make assumptions, always do your best and don't take things personally. So as long as I'm looking at things through that lens, it's a lot easier to stay in the positive light because you on it's listening to understand. It's a different skill than just listening to respond.

Maureen Falvey: 13:50

Yeah, can you see the 4 of those again? I live by this as well. I reread the 4 agreements.

Charlie Hoffman: 13:55

Don't take anything personally, always do your best, don't make assumptions and be impeccable with your word.

Maureen Falvey: 14:03

Be impeccable with your word, yeah, yeah, can I add a fifth for women? Sure, I'll just say 4 agreement we can make with ourselves is to practice self compassion. We are so hard on ourselves I don't know where the brief that came from. That said, we need to be perfect. To wrap that up, you mentioned the pandemic. I did a lot of free trainings for working moms at the time because we were trying to keep the same standard that we had before during sheer and utter chaos. I see you have a parent now. I have a drawer full of candy and when my daughter creeps in behind and I'm trying to get work done because I also need to bring some income in, I say go to the drawer underneath the candy. Would I have done that before? No, my standards different now. Let yourself write and also ask for help.

Maureen Falvey: 14:49

But the self compassion piece is just have a mad love affair with yourself. If the voice in your head is saying your garbage or you didn't do it well enough, right, you could just a few during the volume down, guess who's in charge you are. If you can't do that, can you at least make yourself the promise that says I'm going to spend an equal amount of time reflecting on what I did well today, my work, my contribution. It is so silly, but I was. I went to a training recently and the receptionist we just had this like thing is vibe. And she said what is it about you? And I said I just practice self love, self compassion. And I said my mom taught us this song when we were little four girls in our family and it was about loving yourself. And it was so silly. And I and she said, will you sing it for me? And I said, sure, after I train I'll come back in a break. And she was. We started talking about the Miley Cyrus song of like I can bring myself flowers. But it is that bring yourself flowers.

Maureen Falvey: 15:49

Take a picture of yourself when you were three or four or five, put it on the vanity, the mirror, somewhere you see at least once a day, and fall in love with that child because you are taller. But you still love me, deserve all of the love that people gave to you when you were young. You just got taller. So so I think it's an agreement we can make with ourselves. You are enough, stop with the more. You're enough. And your progress? Yeah, you're enough. You're enough, you're perfect. You and I are rewriting the book.

Charlie Hoffman: 16:26

I love Don Miguel Ruiz's teachings and his books and things like that, and we're actually just finishing up the Voice of Knowledge in our weekly reading, so I just every time I read or reread his works, it just inspires me even more. So if you have not gone and gotten yourself a copy of the poor agreements, I highly recommend it. Still trying to think has been to read it, but you know he's working on it right now. He's reading some meditations on stoicism, and I forget the author right now.

Maureen Falvey: 17:03

Ceruleus. No, that's a good one too, yeah, marcus.

Charlie Hoffman: 17:06

Ceruleus. Yeah, he's working on it.

Maureen Falvey: 17:10

It's a little coaching tip and you know this because I'm hearing you using coach language but is to say, for agreements sometimes sounds like a lot. I'm so curious to know if you hear what you think of the first one. So you break it down into micro steps, just say I'm so curious to hear what you think of the first one. And then, of course, when you do the first one, you want two, three and four Makes you hungry for more.

Charlie Hoffman: 17:28

Yeah, and it's interesting how your perspective and how you talk about things shift when you're following the right, which is super, super cool. But what is also really really cool about how you're talking and how you coach people and women is from this place of uplifting and joy and love and not from those icky places that we don't like anyway guilt, shame, blame, things like that Because we do enough of that to ourselves. We don't need to do that. Sorry, they bark at bunnies. I have wild bunnies all over. Oh wonderful, it's just been such a joy and a pleasure just spending time with you today. Marine, I fully appreciate everything you are doing. Can you take a minute and share a little bit more about your business and how people might be able to get in contact with you?

Maureen Falvey: 18:44

Yeah, absolutely so.

Maureen Falvey: 18:47

I'm the lead coaching trainer at Strong Training and Coaching, and we have this amazing team of coaches dear friends, I'll have to call them as well and we all have had 20 plus years of leadership experience.

Maureen Falvey: 19:02

We are trainers as well, so when we work with people, we can pull that best tool and practice off the shelf and accelerate the growth and change even faster.

Maureen Falvey: 19:12

And we all you know everything we do at Strong Training and Coaching so I'm so happy to meet you today comes from love, and I know you come from the heart as well, and so what would leadership look like if it came from that place, a place of compassion, a place of empathy, and so that is the good work that we all get to do every day as coaches and trainers and speakers, and we love the opportunity to do more of this good work. So if any of that is of interest, of course we would be thrilled for you to reach out to Strong Training and Coaching. And, yeah, I will just say that I'm so glad we had this time together today. And I know, charlie, you and I hold all these wonderful leaders and women in our hearts as they practice that compassion and their agreements with themselves and their choice, because that's all it is to live and work and love on purpose instead of by accident, so that the good stuff can come in.

Charlie Hoffman: 20:07

Mmm, so good, so good. Again, maureen, you are amazing. I hope to see you again soon and welcome to the table. Thank you for pulling up a seat and thank you, listeners, for pulling up a seat at the table, where everybody has a place at the table. Thank you and we will see you next time. Namaste, my pleasure.

Maureen Falvey: 20:30

Charlie, have a great day. Namaste Bye.

Heather Ross: 20:37

As entrepreneurs, we have a unique opportunity to make a positive impact in the world around us. In a time when the world is shifting towards supporting local businesses and embracing community-driven initiatives, it becomes even more important for us to give where our heart leads us At the table. We believe in the power of giving back, and that's why we have our cause of the quarter. This quarter, we are proud to support Perfect Pals, a local organization dedicated to rescuing and providing care for stray cats in our community. By supporting local causes like Perfect Pals, we not only make a difference in the lives of those in need, but we also contribute to the growth and well-being of our local community. We believe in small acts of kindness, and they can create a ripple effect of positivity, inspiring others to do the same. As we shift our focus solely from supporting large corporations to championing local businesses and giving back, we not only strengthen our community, but we also foster a sense of connection and unity. Together, we can create a thriving ecosystem where everyone can flourish. So let's follow our hearts and give where they, where it truly matters. Join in supporting Perfect Pals and making a difference in the lives of these furry companions. Together, we can make our community a better place, one act of kindness at a time. Thank you for being part of our journey and for embracing the spirit of giving. Together, let's create a brighter future for all.

Heather Ross: 22:23

Are you tired of juggling endless tasks, struggling to find time for what truly matters? We have the solution for you Introducing free time solutions, your ultimate partner in reclaiming your time and maximizing your potential. At free time solutions, we specialize in helping businesses like yours thrive in a digital world. From social media management to website optimization and branding, we have the expertise to elevate your online presence and streamline your operations. Imagine having time to focus on what you love to do, what we take care of your business With our dedicated team of experts and innovative solutions. We leave you free to pursue your passions and achieve your goals.

Heather Ross: 23:14

Whether you are a small business owner, entrepreneur, freelancer, we offer comprehensive services tailored to your needs. Our goal is simple to give you back time freedom to do what you do best, while we handle the rest. So join us at the table and let free time solution empower you to take control of your time and unlock your full potential. Visit our website at wwwyourfreetimebackcom that's wwwyourfreetimebackcom to learn more and schedule your consultation today. Free time solutions, your partner and success. Let's make the most of your free time together. Thank you for joining us at the table. Stay tuned for weekly readings on Sunday Mindset Monday discussing our weekly readings on Monday and on Friday, our interview and, potentially, guest host. Stay tuned.

Charlie Hoffman: 24:21

Thank you for joining in on the fun. Be sure to like and subscribe for more.