The One Problem Interview: Maura Lustig, Transformational Coach

The Main ThingMaura Lustig talks about how to keep the main thing the main thing.

Hello, my name is Avil Beckford, and this is my latest episode of The One Problem. There are tons of problems in the world, but my guests are going to choose one problem, they're going to present it to us, and then they'll present their solution. This is a way for us to learn from each other.

Today, my special guest is Maura Lustig. I met her on LinkedIn, and she is a transformational coach, a speaker, artist, and retreat organizer. Now Maura, I'm going to turn it over to you.

Maura Lustig

Thank you very much. Oh, this is so much fun. And, so I'm going to lead into my topic with a conundrum that we all face in business. And that is keeping the main thing, the main thing, especially as we go through multiple careers, and we keep fine tuning it right down to finding the zone where we function best. How do we keep the main thing always first and foremost in our minds, in our lives and our businesses, especially these days when so many people are now working from home?

They need to adapt to change and working online in a virtual world, networking in very different ways, learning new software, and media platforms and connecting it in new ways. And learning how to share their message and what they offer in a highly competitive market where sometimes nobody seems to be listening at all. It's like, how do you stand out within that world and how do you stay excited about what you do when there's no water cooler to gather around? When there's no networking event to go to?

The One Problem Interview with Maura Lustig

Well, first, it's about taking care of yourself. Now, as a coach, I mean, it would be so cliche for me to just say that take care of yourself and everything falls into place. But no, there's a strategy. There's a system that has to be in place. And when you learn how to implement strategies that keep you focused on what you want to achieve with performance indicators as far as your business goes. And apply that to yourself as well, look at managing your time and energy.

Maura Lustig

You're wonderful at sharing about reading and the importance of reading, and that is something that I too am passionate about. So I'm going to give an example of that. But I want you to know that this is tying in all aspects to the person who is in business and wanting to grow, wanting to be their very best. They are purpose driven, they want to make a difference, they want to feel seen and heard. And they want to find joy every day, be able to handle what life throws at them. And juggle all the different priorities, as well as setting boundaries and raising their standards because they know there's more.

They know they're capable of more. And how do they find that? Let's talk about readers. Readers are leaders and we are what we consume. That's not just food. That's also what we're putting in our brains on a consistent basis. And in terms of keeping it the main thing, what you should be looking at, what you're reading, it's how can you leverage what you're reading? Is it strategic? And is it purposeful?

Does it tie in with improving your life physically, emotionally or spiritually? And when you know what that is, then start looking at when do you read? How do you manage your time and energy around that so that the reading time is most productive? You're locking in the learning and maybe you do in combination with other things so that you actually get the time in to read and time in for self care. Maybe you're combining it with walking instead of just sitting in a nook reading a book.

Maura Lustig

It used to be that people would go to coffee shops all the time and get the reading in there because they want to be surrounded by background noise and somehow that accesses white noise and they can tune it out and feel comfortable by being connected, but not having to engage with other people. Well, that's changed, right? So maybe you read, you walk now. How do I decide what I'm going to read? Well, whether it's on leadership, whether it's on personal development, whether it's on business management, I look for the threads that start to intertwine between different writers.

I'm looking for where I see messages that are repeated. And what I love about this is I'll hear them over and over in different voices. And each time it'll sink in more deeply in my mind. And I will now have my own version of that same truth, because there are truths when you hear them enough times from enough different voices. And the more you read in a certain genre, the more you stay laser focused on what's important to you. The more you will hear these different authors, writers, speakers, mentors referencing each other because what goes around comes around and they are sharing that mindset and they are building upon each other's thought process.

Maura Lustig

There's this collective intelligence that is going on, this collective movement that's happening around thought leadership in the world today. And so that's just one thing about reading. If you think about James Clear and habit stacking and combine your reasoning with something else, start with an audible version. Go on to YouTube. Listen, before you decide to pick up a book, look at the reviews, scan the front and the back of it. Know whether it's really worth your time to read.

It just seemed like a good idea. If you're going to read just for fun, make that decision that you're going to do that. But don't let it be that you fall into that habit. It's going to be a deliberate choice so that you get the most out of every book you read and you know whether you can just put a book away and choose not to finish it. That's okay too, because you're sifting and sorting and you're reading intentionally looking for something in particular.

Every time you do, you are building something when you are reading in business. Does that give you an idea? And I would pass it back to you for a second? What else would you think of in that?

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Avil Beckford

I like what you say. Mortimer Adler, who wrote the book, How to Read a Book says there are three reasons for reading, for entertainment, information, and to further your knowledge on a topic. And I always say to my clients to make sure you have a purpose for reading and it doesn't matter if it's entertainment.

But you know why you're reading and that helps you to guide what you read? I would add, so you look at the reviews and all those things, I tend not to look at reviews most times because a lot of times the reviews, especially on Amazon, sometimes they're criticizing things that are personal and have nothing to do with the book. But what I do is to read a book summary and see if it's worth my time and effort.

Maura Lustig

So, yeah, yeah, I do both of those things. I don't let a review make a decision for me, but I'm looking for what the different reviews are and I'm keeping it in the back of my mind, still making my own decision whether to read or not. And the other thing too is around in this highly competitive world where we're needing to adapt to change. It's really getting clear on what it is that you do, that you can communicate effectively to others in a very short manner and then being able to explain why that's so important now for them, why now and then?

Thirdly, why you, supporting it with credibility but never leading with here's how great I am. No, no. And in fact, even as a coach or anyone else in business who's really on their mark, is there going to lead with the questions, looking for the things that the other person is excited about or challenged by that would make a difference to that person if they could move that boulder, if they could improve in that area and then their content, their urgency and their positioning will be in response to that.

Avil Beckford

Thank you so much. This has been great!

Maura Lustig

You're welcome.
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