Paola Royal, Mindset Mentor & Nutritional Therapist, lives in the beautiful town of Budleigh Salterton in Devon, UK with her husband, dog and cat. She worked in the medical sector from the age of eighteen. Her fascination with the human being and the interconnectedness of body / mind and the universe led her to the work she is doing today.
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your corporate journey/venture/initiative.
I am the youngest of 3. We are all women. My sister Anja is two years older and Petra is 6 years older than me.
I had a nice childhood. I had very caring parents. Saying that, I always fall out with my dad when he sits down with me helping me with my math homework.
He had this thing about writing the numbers down in the right order and I couldn’t see why it mattered. I was very stubborn. Being the youngest having two very intelligent sisters I felt never heard or taken seriously when we had discussions about politics in our family.
Both my sisters were better in school. I was not bad, but just not as good as them. As you can hear I did compare myself with them, which I took with me for a long time throughout my life.
I kept comparing myself constantly with the people around me and of course I fell short.
I did one exam and course after the other, which wasn’t a bad thing of course but it still didn’t help me to feel any better. There was a lot of self-judgement.
But don’t get me wrong, my life wasn’t miserable, the opposite, I had a lot of fun! I had a lot of friends, I loved playing outside on the street and climbing in the trees or riding my bike, going swimming in the lakes of Germany in the summer or playing tennis. We never went on summer holidays but in winter the whole family went skiing, which was so much fun. My mum learned skiing when she was 6 years old and wanted to pass that on to us. We all loved it and still do.
My room was covered with pictures from athletes, like Bjorn Borg, my then tennis idol and Eric Heiden an American speed skater. I loved watching him speed over the ice. It really fascinated me.
When my mum asked me what I wanted to do work wise, I said: “If I have to do that 8 hours a day, I want to have fun. I want to do something with sport and people”. And that is when I did work experience in a Physiotherapy practice.
I loved it so much that I trained as a physiotherapist when I was just turning 18 years old. It was tuff training but I loved every minute of it. My clients did take me to what I am doing today. I was always keen to give them the best I could and so my journey took me to look at the whole person, in a more holistic way in cooperating mind, body and spirit. We are amazing beings, constantly healing mentally and physically. but what is it that is innocently holding us back to live the life we want to live?
Was there any turning point in your life that changed your journey? If so, what was it? Please tell us the backstory behind it.
I was already in my late 40s when I came to the pre-existing Logic of the Three Principle as a new paradigm. I was always soul searching. I had a time where I was blaming my mum for the way I was, blaming my upbringing to feel the way I was feeling. I think when we grow up we compare ourselves with our parents, and as loving as they may be, we definitely don’t want to be like them.
I was quietly impassioned, had a lot of frustration and lack of self-confidence looking back today. I would have never done any public speaking. Now I published a book, have two podcasts out there and just started as a presenter having my own radio show.
So what changed, you wonder: Hearing that we all live in our own thoughts creates reality for me. I am not what I believed to be me. It is not other people, circumstances or events that create the reality we all live in but “Thought” does. We are human beings and as such we have the capacity to think of ourselves separate from the oneness of life and knowing that we do so. Seeing that insightfully is very powerful and leaves you to start to be more loving and kind with yourself, more understanding, less self-judgemental and of course this has a knock on effect on your life and your relationships to other fellow human beings.
Every industry that is now a large-scale, top-notch business once started as a small idea in the minds of entrepreneurs. What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business /initiative? What motivated you within to say “YES, go for it!”*
First of all I didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore I wanted to do my own thing, being my own boss running my practice how I saw it right with no one behind me telling me what to do. The time was right and things fell into place. Since then, which was in 2006, I never worked again for anyone else anymore and I love it.
I love supporting my clients and seeing them thrive.
Everyone has their own set of challenges when starting an entrepreneurial journey. Still, the most essential part for others to learn is how you deal with those. Would you like to share with us your challenges and your coping mechanisms?
The biggest challenge for me is marketing. I am a coach, mentor, therapist, I never had to do marketing or learned it. I had to teach myself, get myself out there and promote my business.
Like I said before, I had a lot of frustration.
The best advice I ever got was “You can set stuff into motion, but detach yourself from the outcome as it is out of your control.“
Life sometimes has other plans, but I can trust that the universe will always look out for me in one way or another. The more I am stressing about it, the more thinking I am having on my mind, as less I will be creative.
There are things in life you can change, change them and others we just have to accept. Maybe the time is not now but next month, next year. Never give up your dream! Someone said to me just yesterday, it is like planting a seed, the resistance in the beginning is big till the little plant is able to come out and flower.
While the global pandemic of COVID-19 is associated primarily with adversities, it has also brought about a true boom in startups, with successful entrepreneurship in many countries. The pandemic has impacted all of us in one way or another. Would you like to share your experience on a personal and professional level?
I was lucky, firstly I live in the countryside so I was still able to go outside for lovely walks. I loved the stillness in the beginning. I am a very private person anyway, as long as I can go into nature, I am fine.
For my business it was what I wanted to do anyway. I was working on zoom far before the lockdown hit, and at that time I was in the process of taking my entire business online to create an international business, communicating with people around the globe and because everybody started to work online it was easy.
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
We are at the moment worldwide in a big mess. Pollution is getting a bigger problem by the day, politics, war, racism, where are we heading to?
What I see as the problem is that people are more and more disconnected from the oneness we are part of. We are part of nature, we are all part of the same energy but we spend so much time being busy with ourselves, spending time in our cloud of thought that we can not see what is right in front of us.
If we would all understand that deeply insightfully, our planet would be a different place. We wouldn’t just throw our plastic bottles on the street, treat our neighbors with disrespect, we would look out for one another no matter what race, color, or background. But it does start with us, with respect for ourselves. People, circumstances and events are not responsible for the way we experience life, but THOUGHT you having is giving you your own individual experience. THOUGHT is taking you away from this moment into the past, into the future. I don’t know about you, but for me, I like to spend more time here at this moment. Being present, listening to my loved ones, seeing the beauty around me, taking in all the senses. Of course I cannot always do that as Thought sometimes takes me away, but when I can see it for what it is, THOUGHT, it is ok.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your personal life and professional journey? What is your personal motto in life?
I live in my own thoughts and create reality.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. There are cracks in glass ceilings everywhere, with many women breaking through to carve out a space right at the top of the pyramid. What are your thoughts about women’s leadership today?
I do celebrate that we women have come so far, and there is still a long way in front of us. But also I have to say only because it is not said that she is a better leader. I don’t like to differentiate between women and men but let us all have equal rights. Let us stop living in a still existing patriarchal world.
With your grit and determination, you are making a considerable impact, breaking through, and serving as role models for many budding entrepreneurs. What would you want to say to our young women leaders/audience reading this?
What is it you want to do? Don’t listen to the things you “should ” or “have to do apparently. That is other people’s opinion, right? Life is about you! Nobody else can live your life. Looking first of all after you has nothing to do with being egoistic. When you are happy, you have far more energy to give to others.
