Maria Gabriela Biscardi Melendez
Maria Gabriela Biscardi Melendez tells us that, “My family and friends call me Gaby, Magu, or chu. I’m a passionate, purposeful, ethical, and stubborn woman from Venezuela, right now living in Oslo, Norway. My life and professional experiences have given me invaluable skills to manage myself and keep thriving as a professional in what I love to do. I love to accompany professionals, managers, teams, and businesses to engage intentionally, proactively, and effectively with their own lives, careers, roles, teams, and communities. I have more than 12 years of working interculturally with personal, talent, and organizational development as a coach (PCC ICF), facilitator (Experiential learning methodology), speaker, event creator, entrepreneur, psychologist (Organizational), Director, leader, and most importantly, a human being that it is never alone, always surrounded by amazing people in life.”
What were your early years like? Could you share a bit about your life before you began your coaching journey?
Growing up in Venezuela is something I’m very happy with. I grew up surrounded by a caring and huge family of more than 20 uncles and aunts from both mom’s and dad’s families, so you can imagine how many cousins I have and how many birthdays we celebrate. My family taught me values like education, innovation, commitment, responsibility, and service. There are 3 things that nowadays I can recall from my childhood when thinking about the start of my professional journey. The first one is an experience of what today we call bullying when I was around 9 years old, was rejected by some of my classmates, and for a couple of years I felt something was not right with them and somehow with me. As a kid, I coped with it by going into nature and taking walks (I still do that today) and waiting, reflecting on why they were doing that, which I understood a couple of years after. The second was observing and living the consequences of how my family got caught up, negatively, in the political polarization and economic disaster my country is still going through. Seeing how my parents with opposite ideals were not able to find a common ground made me realize who I didn’t want to be and how respect for differences would look to me. Third, I instinctively desire to understand why we do what we do.
Was there any turning point in your life that changed your journey? If so, what was it? Please tell us the backstory behind it.
Yes, my journey has led me to different roles and life experiences. At the end of my university studies, I was also studying Organizational Psychology and had a mentor, who for a few but very intensive months, helped me develop skills and confidence for me to go into the market as a freelance psychologist and facilitator for businesses. 4 years after I was working so many hours, dealing with a lot on my personal life and I was feeling so exhausted; my body reacted and one day woke up without being able to move, I was in so much stress. That day I realized I needed to change my values and the way I was working. I needed to raise “Collaboration and teaming up” as my first values so we could offer more and better services while taking care of our mental health. I turned into an entrepreneur and created my first consultancy firm for businesses. Another turn was studying Business coaching. I wanted to become more effective, accompany leaders, and connect with the international community. Coaching helped me open doors internationally and reach the lifestyle I want to live and that I am still developing. Right now I’m at another turning point, I will tell you later how that goes.
Everyone faces unique challenges when starting an entrepreneurial journey. The most valuable lessons often come from understanding how these challenges are managed. Could you share the difficulties you’ve encountered and the strategies you’ve used to cope with them?
Oh, so many! And so much growth. A lot of people are challenged by the belief that they can not create more, hold more, sustain more work, service more, and build more. For me the challenge was understanding that to hold more you need a team, you need a “we” not just a “me”. Yes, you start with an idea and then you keep evolving to our idea. Entrepreneurs can be a lonely and exhausting journey if you don’t work on this belief, If you don’t work on your skill to collaborate and build a team. So work on it. Another challenge was to understand the status of your idea and the timing of your entrepreneurship. Sometimes I found myself working too much on processes, getting them right, and controlling every detail when pivoting and selling should have been my main focus. Sales skills are huge for an entrepreneur to learn or have a team that can do it with you.
What impact do you feel you have been able to create with your work so far and how would you want to grow in the next few years?
So far, I have been told I have been a guide to navigate the inner worlds of global professionals and business owners when managing big changes, helping them to thrive when the circumstances with their businesses and relationships are not going as expected and to accompany them to stay healthy and serene while achieving their ambitions and becoming leaders who create more leaders. People who are taking risks and creating changes have a great inner force that sometimes can feel overwhelming, especially if they are lacking skills related with self mastery and leadership. I have worked with different industries and cultures and I like to think that my impact goes beyond my square feet. In the next few years, I’m growing as a Business owner with new products and services, accompanying more clients as a Leadership consultant and enjoying loving and healthy relationships.
Would you like to share with our aspiring young women entrepreneurs the changes you would like to see in the world if given the opportunity?
I want to see more women as leaders, especially in the IT businesses. I want to see man assisting therapy to go inward and address what is happening with their identity and role in modern society, I want to see man and woman collaborating as leaders in every area and more businesses taking care of mental health and building leadership in the organizations. I want to see more presidents talking about how they have their own therapists and coaches to become better leaders and negotiators. I want to see more digital influencers owning their roles as social media leaders and using it with purpose, a purpose related to addressing our world’s problems.
Women are increasingly becoming a powerful presence in workplaces worldwide, breaking through glass ceilings and reaching top leadership positions. What are your thoughts on women’s leadership today?
Today, women need to connect with our nurturing nature and use it in every area we get involved with. Business, family, communities, entrepreneurship, education, politics, economics, technology and artificial intelligence. Now that we are leading more and the world is also accepting this movement more, we need to invest in self-mastery, learning leadership skills, negotiation skills, systemic thinking skills, mental health care, and invite men to this movement. We need to make sure that we integrate and not divide. And our femininity is key to this. As leaders we don’t need to become more manly, we need to connect with the power of our femininity, which helps us nurture and integrate. We are smart and divine, and we have to own our emotions and work on our emotional agility to lead.
Your grit and determination are making a significant impact, serving as an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs. What message would you like to share with our young women leaders and audience reading this?
When somebody says “You can’t do it” , don’t believe it. When you are an adult you are the only one responsible for your capacity, so the only one that can say that to yourself is you, and if you find yourself saying it, don’t believe it. There is a way, sometimes you know it, and sometimes others know it, reach out to them, ask for help, and find mentors, and coaches, your job is to keep building your capacity. Be more than the circumstances, choose your indicators of success, and keep building yourself day by day.