No matter where we go in life, healing and wellness matter. How could we discover the inspiring parts of entrepreneurship while taking care of ourselves? Meg O’Neill discusses powerful insights with Hayley Foster about intuitive coaching and energy healing and how we could train our minds to take the steps to success. As entrepreneurs, we open ourselves up constantly to educating ourselves, learning every day, and striving to grow personally and professionally. In this episode, Meg shares incredible experiences throughout her journey and the importance of empowering women to embrace life’s uncertainties and changes to succeed. We have what it takes to unleash our skills and develop an entrepreneurial mindset to drive change in this world. Tune into this episode to learn more and be the best you could be!
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Meg O'Neill On Healing And Wellness With Intention
We are here with Meg O'Neill. She is going to share tons of great insights with us, talk about her journey as an entrepreneur, which is a new thing for her, which I'm super excited to get into you. We're going to hopefully inspire you during our show. I'm going to hand it over to Meg for an introduction and then we are going to jump right in.
I'm excited to be here. I'm passionate that you've started a community to talk about the inspiring parts of entrepreneurship. Thank you so much for having me.
It's my pleasure. I love meeting other women entrepreneurs. It's my jam. It's what I love to do. I'm excited that you're here. You and I had this conversation but we're going to have it for everyone else that's reading. Tell me a little bit about your journey.
I am an intuitive business coach. I started the journey of coaching women for years. I came out of college and started working at a homeless shelter for pregnant women. My job there was in a volunteer position with the Augustinian Volunteers and organization that was under AmeriCorps at the time. I would sit, listen, and help guide. I was nowhere near having kids. I found it to be an incredible experience to create that support system for women. I went on to then be the Dean of students at an all-boys school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where I worked with the parents of these students to apply to high school and college. It was another coaching role, learning a whole world that I didn't know anything about and then coaching them. Most of them were English as a second language type of learners. It was a cool experience.
After that, I went on to start a pre and postnatal wellness facility in North Andover, Massachusetts. There I helped women even before they got pregnant on their fertility journey all the way through, up to about nine months after they had their kids. I was a breastfeeding counselor, a childbirth educator, and a doula. Those are all at the thread of everything that I've done, that aspect of supporting and coaching. I have three kids my own. My oldest is on the autism spectrum. At a certain time, I was working about 30 hours a week outside of the home. I had to start taking him to different therapies and I was like, “I can't do this. I have to be home.” I loved working. I truly did. I liked being out, meeting people, and connecting.
I came back home. I was a stay-at-home mom for a year and that didn't last too long. I have two siblings that are entrepreneurs themselves. One is a hairdresser and my brother owns a bunch of bars and restaurants. I saw the incredible opportunities that they had, the money that they were making, and the flexibility that they had with their own schedule. It inspired me. I took a trauma informed coaching training and did some energy work. I became a Reiki master. I started my own business in January of 2020, before the pandemic. I stepped into the role in September of 2020. That was a windy road.
2020 was a windy road for everybody. Is one of your parents entrepreneurial? I feel like it's genetic.
My dad is a lawyer in Manhattan but when we were growing up, he owns his own law firm. Even though he's in that corporate world, I did get to see that growing up as well.
My brother and I are both entrepreneurs. I was in a call and somebody said, “Entrepreneurs are built.” I was like, “I feel like we are genetically coded to have the certain attributes that entrepreneurs have.” We have a different drive and mentality. You can teach the entrepreneurial mindset but I've been coaching or consulting for years. I know within fifteen minutes meeting somebody that is looking to start an entrepreneurial journey, whether or not they have what it takes. There are certain things you can check off the box.
I feel like the entrepreneurs that find themselves successful are the ones that don't need to ask somebody else to solve a problem for them. We are innate problem-solvers. If something isn't working, we know how to pivot. We can be agile. There are so many things. Even from some of the women I've coached, I love them all but you can tell which are the ones that are going to take a little longer to nurture to get there versus the ones that's off the bat. You’re like, “She's got what it takes. She's going to make it happen and hit her goals.” You just know.
It's an interesting part of what I do with the energy piece, too. I feel like what you're saying is not everybody in the entrepreneurial world sees it this way but you also have a strong sense of intuition. That might not be something that everybody needs but hearing you talk about it like your experience. You don't only know that from your experience but you let your gut probably guide some of that, too and you could read their energy. That's where people don't realize how much the intuition has pulled into business, too. I've read different quotes like with Elon Musk. There are other men that have done well in the business world. When you talk to them, they will say they went on their gut. I don't think it's as accepted for women to say that but it is proof that you have to have that intuition, that trust in yourself to make decisions, pivot, make the right partnerships, all those things in order to be successful.
You're the second intuitive coach that I've had on this show. My friend, Tina Conroy, is before you. It's coopetition. There's no competition. We had this similar conversation that it is about trusting your gut. I have a whole chapter in my book about it. One of the things I didn't talk to her about, which I'll share in this episode. They're different is that in my book, I talked about how you also need to trust your ovaries. You brought up an important point, which is women are not necessarily allowed to say so much that they trust their gut.
I had an editor that was editing my book. I don't know if it was a man or woman because I used an outsource company to do it. She or he said, “I don't know if you want to put this in here.” I was saying that, even if you trust your gut, there are certain times of the month where we as women have other things going on in our bodies where we are fueled by our hormones, which makes us more emotional and less patient. There are so many things that go along with that. Knowing when to listen to your body, even if you're amazing at trusting your gut, knowing where you are in that space is so critical.
I used to have business partners in my previous business that were husband and wife. I knew when she was getting her period and he had no clue. I would be like, "Get the app on your phone. There are apps for this. Why do I know not to push her buttons during this time? You live with her and you are still unaware.” You had to change the way that you deal with certain people during certain times of the month. As much as she was his wife because we had been together before they were together, I knew her inside and out literally. It was funny for me to be like, “You're such a bozo. You need to know when to not push the buttons.”
This is one of my most favorite topics, too. We're not taught that. I had a conversation with a client about this, how her daughter's approaching the teen years and how she's tuning back into her cycle because she thinks it's such a service to her daughter. Imagine if we went through high school knowing this information. We were not taught that. I followed Kate Northrup’s work, some different authors that have put things out to talk about business, sinking your cycle, learning your patterning, and using apps like Flo.
I've been doing it for a few years. I noticed at day eight, before my period, all the time, my anxiety was so ramped up. It got to the point where then when I would be anxious, my husband would say, "Is it day eight?” We would look at the app and it was always day eight. It's informing the people that are around you. Taking the shame and the stigma out of something that's innately part of us can only help you thrive.
I have a funny similarity. Every month, I think I have a migraine or a brain tumor. It almost took me 24 hours to realize after doing it so many times in a row. My husband jokes around and be like, “Where are you in the cycle?” He knows. Anytime I'm like, “My head is killing me,” he's like, “Where are you at?” Now he knows the triggers. It's so important to get your family involved in. Not that this should be a period conversation on the show but it is so important.
Similarly, I do that with my daughter. She has her period. She'll come home and start ranting about this one did this and this one did that. She's taking it. I'm looking at her like, "Are we having this conversation? Is this that big of a deal?” I'll be like, “Honey, where are you?” She has Flo, which is great. She is monitoring it and I'm like, “You should keep the notes in your app so that you know where you're at. If you're feeling amped up about something, take a pause, look at your app and know where you're at because this is what happens.” I've been talking hormones to my kids for years because jokingly, I'd be like, “I'm not going to let you turn crazy when you have your period.” I've used that lingo with them. I've seen my friends, their kids, their daughters and I was like, “Really?” They'll be like, “She has her period.” I'm like, “Not okay.”
It's also empowering them with the tools, too. We're in such a hostile culture of keep pushing through. If men were bleeding for days upon time, they'd have a week off from work. We're learning to do your projecting, too around when you are ovulating, being more creative. Teaching people that is such gold. It allows us to also give ourselves permission to rest and take care of ourselves so that we can come forward.
Talk a little bit about the intuitive work that you do with your clients because I'm so intrigued by it.
I have always been a highly intuitive person. I could read energy. Not in the complete woo-woo sense. When I walked into a room, I knew who you should connect with. I knew the people who were sad. I could tell. In some situations, it's been a coping mechanism and other situations it's been my superpower. I grew up on Long Island like yourself, in a Catholic home. I went to Catholic school my entire life. My mom is a highly intuitive person. She's also religious. I was talking to somebody on Long Island, a psychic, about how Long Island seems to be this energy vortex. There are lots of psychics. We grew up with a very good friend that was a priest who was best friends with a famous psychic on Long Island. It was always part of our life. It wasn't bad or good. It was just part.
I took the typical preppy Long Islander going to college and that didn't seem to fit with the identity of also listening to your intuition, tapping into doing energy work, and things like that. I had my son, my oldest, who's on the spectrum. We learned that we have to live life the way that is best for our family. That led me to start being more comfortable in using the gifts that I have. I dipped my toe. When I started coaching, I was doing regular coaching. I got inspired enough to offer some one-off sessions on intuitive coaching. I offered ten in a week and they all went in two days. It gave me the confidence to say like, “People want this. I am good at this. I can hold people in this space.” I'm tapping into intuitive gifts. The more that you practice it, the stronger that it gets to.
I do also have a background in strategy and marketing in social media. That's what I did for the pre and postnatal wellness facility. I like being able to combine the two and teach people that marketing doesn't have to be dry, sleazy, slimy sales. You can mix it with your intuition, these innate feminine abilities, and do something that feels so aligned and exciting. You can do magnetic marketing. You can start to learn how to control your energy so that people are then attracted to you. That's what I'm passionate about, teaching people how to do.
Do you have any programs coming up that you want to share?
I have a free manifestation and mindset workshop that's happening in my Facebook group called the Aligned Woman with Meg O'Neill. It will be live and stored in there so people could go back and watch the videos. On June 6th, 2021, I'm going to be kicking off a manifestation six-week program. What I like to say that I'm able to teach people is manifestation for the typical person. I'm not completely like, “Think of the dots and you're going to get all of your desires.” That's spiritual bypassing. There are actual ways that you could teach people to have the human experience and also learn to manifest the career and the money that they want. It's an exciting topic for me. I'm excited to bring it to people.
We will put it out to all the Foster Women. It's a great thing for people go through. I did a manifesting challenge at the beginning of 2020, funny enough. I felt like it did make such an impact on me. I ran into the brick wall like the rest of us. Similar to you, I have this intuitive nature to me. I've always felt like I'm connected to my girls in that way where I'll be thinking something and they'll say something or ask something in terms of this telepathic energy between us. I've got it with my mom and she had it with her mom. There's a genetic side to it for sure.
I love this whole thing and I decided to jump in. I'm not like a woo-woo, manifestation, spirit junkie kind of person at all but my friend talked me into doing the same with her and I did it. She dropped out. I did it to the end. I was like, "Come on, it was only 28 days.” I don't even know when she dropped out but I ended up going through to the end. I loved it. I loved thinking about my business and what I wanted on a different level than what I normally think about things on. It's good for everybody to go through that education process. It may not be for you and that is the beauty. As an entrepreneur, we open ourselves up to constantly educating ourselves, striving to grow in one way or another, or challenging ourselves. I would put the challenge out there to all the Foster Women to jump into this screening.
The thing is that there's also neuroscience behind it, too. There's a great book called The Source. It talks all about the neuroscience behind manifestation. I don't need the science. I did listen to that book and it was amazing. We have so much power in retraining our brain and creating new neuro pathways. If anything you look at manifestation as a way of seeing more positivity in your life and being more grateful, what a win that would be? You're going to get more of it. You're going to attract more like when you want a black Range Rover. All you see on the road is black Range Rover keeps popping up. We're choosing to see that. Once they realize that, they're like, "There are ways.” I've manifested so many things in my life and so have other people but they don't realize that it's manifestation. They just think that was a coincidence. They don't understand the power behind their thoughts.
My story was, change your words, change your mindset. I wrote, “Are you a believer that words can change your mind?” Everybody wrote, “Yes.” I don't even know how many people responded but every single response was yes. There is so much power in changing your words in order to change your life. It does change our mind and it's a lesson. It's something that you have to learn how to do it. I was looking for a new SUV and then every single car on the road that I saw was a white SUV. I was like, “I don't like it.” Same thing, it's so funny when you put something into your mind like that and then it keeps popping up for you.
We live in a world that leads us to not trust ourselves. All the marketing on TV, the commercials, everything that we're programmed to believe is like, “Do we have to look outside of ourselves?” When you start realizing how much power you do have, your life shifts no matter what. You can control more of what you see and feel by the words that you use with yourself. There are even the scientific experiments that have been done with water. Speaking to water with negative words, speaking with positive words, how they were able to measure the shifting and the rearranging of the atoms, and how that they completely changed their patterns with positive words. There are so many cool things out there that prove it. It's not a typical conversation that we all have.
I've seen that with an apple. My kids did it. My kids learned it in school. My daughter's like, “Could we put an apple in the other room?” Every day she would yell at the apple in one room and the same day, she would be nice to the apple in the other room. She wanted to see which apple would get crusty first, have brown spots, bruises, or whatever it was. One apple changed its complexion. It was so crazy. I was like, “That's insane. I don't even understand. It's already fallen off the tree. How does that work?”
It's energy. Words have power.
I try to do it as much as possible in terms of having these conversations with my girls. My stepson also because he used to call my food, fake food, which is real food. I'm like, "You are eating the fake food. Let's call my food, is that healthy and organic? Instead of, is it fake? You're saying fake and it's making you feel like it's gross but if you were to say, ‘Is that the healthy, organic version of the mac and cheese versus the other version?’” He's like, “Why can't you buy Kraft? Why do you have to buy the fake one?” I'm like, “It's not fake. It's organic and healthy. If you change your words around how you're labeling the food, you're going to change your mind about how you feel about it.”
“If you start calling something healthy and good for you, you're going to feel differently about putting it into your body.” I explained to him what Kraft cheese is. I went to supermarket. I got him ham and he's like, “Did you get real cheese?” I was like, “No, there's still Kraft cheese in the fridge.” He's like, “I'm not eating that stuff.” I'm winning. It's a parent winning moment when your kid finally figures out that the fake food is the real food. It's power to the words. This was awesome. I feel like we should do this on Instagram Live. Let’s do that. Let's schedule an Instagram Live. That would be super fun.
I can't wait to tell my network about the Foster Women network, too. I love anything where people come together in a true way of supporting each other and the community over competition.
If you are around on June 15, 2021, we're doing an in-person event in Port Washington. I know it's not too far from you. I'm also a wine consultant in my spare time. We're doing a beauty wine charity event for breast cancer. It's going to be the Foster Women event. I'm inviting all the women from the network. If you're up for it, mark your calendar. Let's continue to do this. You're now an affiliate of Foster Women. You need to go sign up to get your affiliate link and then you share it with people. You get affiliate commission on it.
I will do that.
This was super fun, Meg. It's so nice to see you face-to-face and meet you. Thank you for joining this community. I'm so excited to have you onboard.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Thanks, everyone. Bye.
Important Links:
Tina Conroy - Previous episode
Aligned Woman with Meg O'Neill - Facebook
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