Becoming Still and Trusting the Timeline with Hannah Abad
This Episode’s Guest, Hannah Abad, with her beautiful family
Hannah is head coach and founder of Prime Collaborative
Episode Description
While all of our experiences with motherhood and entrepreneurship can look quite different, we can all benefit from taking a breath, a pause to get really clear on what it is we truly need.
For many of us – including today’s guest, Hannah Abad, head coach and founder of Prime Collaborative – it’s one of the hardest things to do, but it’s also one of the most necessary.
Hannah is a wife, mama of two boys, and a former workaholic and perfectionist who helps high achievers break through roadblocks and launch themselves into the lives they always dreamed of through a signature 3-step process that we’ll dive into today.
Her own story of resilience from a bad car accident to a high complication pregnancy gives me goosebumps and I have a feeling it will resonate with so many of us out there.
Become still, and all will become clear
Early in her career, Hannah was a self-proclaimed “workaholic” and “perfectionist,” but her mindset pivoted radically when she was in a bad car accident with a drunk driver. All of a sudden, her “go-go-go” mantra was no longer an option.
But it was the birth of her first son that catapulted her approach to her work. The pregnancy itself was a surprise – due to severe health issues, she’d been told she might not even be able to become pregnant – and the birth was traumatic, leaving her physically depleted. Making this experience even more complex: at the same time, she was trying to launch her company, Prime Collaborative.
Due to lack of experience and naivety, Hannah says she made assumptions about how soon she could go back to work and what she could do by herself. “I believed my worth as a wife, a mom, a business owner, completely relies on me being able to handle it all. I was crushed under the weight of it,” she says.
What’s more, the experience of becoming a mom left her feeling uncertain.
“When I was in survival mode, if somebody asked me, ‘what do you want?’ I literally couldn’t answer them. My brain couldn’t even go there,” Hannah says.
One of the hardest things she ever had to do was stop moving and let everything get quiet. She remembers walking into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror, and thinking, ‘I am not okay.’ But she didn’t know why.
It was at her six-week follow-up appointment with her OBGYN that she realized the process of birth triggered sexual abuse from her past, which she thought she’d dealt with but hadn’t.
Getting through this realization and finding passion again took time, but as Hannah reminds us, it was supposed to take time. When you take the patient, slow-but-steady approach, the tide will turn allowing for momentum to pick up and eventually snowball.
If you rush the process, you’re guaranteed to land yourself in the same space again at some point down the road, so perhaps we trust ourselves this time around and allow ourselves the path to clarity on where to go next and how to get there.
Outsourcing is okay – and often necessary
It wasn’t until her son was a year old that Hannah was able to define what she needed in order to thrive again. For her, it was pursuing her company. It was what she loved, believed in, and what gave her purpose. But now that she had clarity on WHAT she wanted, she had to get clear on HOW to get there. She realized she needed to outsource.
“The most valuable way for me to spend my time is doing my work, not cleaning my house. So I am now unashamed and unapologetic that I do not clean my house. I pay somebody to do that,” she says. “I have zero issues setting boundaries. I have zero issues saying, ‘I’m going to outsource. This is the kind of childcare I need. I don’t care what it costs.’”
Once we can shed light on what we want and remove the shame, the stigma of asking for help so we can get there, our opportunities are endless. So as you’re reading or listening to this episode, I urge you to take note. What comes to mind? Is there anything in your life that you should consider outsourcing? What could lift some of the weight off your shoulders? Let me remind you: you are already worthy of the support so if it could be simple, what would you do?
Shifting your mindset
Hannah’s coaching approach is threefold and mimics the process she went through to find fulfillment again.
(1) Get into a state of calm so you can function in a healthy manner without burnout or anxiety.
(2) Define what it is you’re aligned with and passionate about.
(3) Create a long-term sustainable strategy to execute on.
Most of all, Hannah reminds us that it’s important to acknowledge that what you’re doing is really, really hard. Trying to forget the reality of your situation takes mental and emotional energy. Instead, imagine if we asked ourselves:
How is this hardship part of my story, part of my journey?
How can I embrace that fact and use it to find clarity and direction?
“That created a massive mindset shift, in saying, that wasn’t an obstacle in my way; it actually served me in moving forward, because now I am more passionate and more focused than I’ve ever been in my work,” Hannah says. “Instead of just surviving it and getting through it, I’m going to learn from it and never make those mistakes again. There was that deep knowledge of, I have to deliver this to my clients because this changed everything for me.”
Notable Quotes from Hannah Abad
“I believed my worth as a wife, a mom, a business owner, completely relies on me being able to handle it all. I was crushed under the weight of it.” (14:25)
Resources & Links
Learn more about Project: Mom and follow us on Instagram at @projectmompodcast.
Do you want to share your motherhood journey on the podcast? Email me at projectmompod@gmail.com.
Visit Hannah’s website, primecollaborative.com, or email her at hannah@primecollaborative.com and learn about her individualized coaching that helps clients overcome obstacles preventing them from achieving fulfillment.
Follow @primecollaborative on Instagram.