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Untethered with Jen Liss
Are you ready to break free from the ordinary and start living a magical, fulfilling life? Join speaker, coach, and certified breathworker Jen Liss on Untethered, the podcast for ambitious dreamers, fearless entrepreneurs, and anyone ready to embrace their inner brilliance.
Each week, Jen interviews inspiring guests who are boldly living their most abundant and authentic lives—following their passions, sharing their gifts, and creating extraordinary success in non-traditional ways. Whether you're ready to pivot careers, launch a business, increase your income, or manifest your dream life, this podcast will motivate and empower you to take the leap.
Don’t miss your free mini meditation and breathwork session every Thursday to help you recharge and realign with your purpose. Subscribe now to Untethered with Jen Liss on your favorite podcast platform, and follow Jen on Instagram @UntetheredJen for daily inspiration and updates.
Untethered with Jen Liss
How trusting my intuition transformed my health, career, and life abroad - with Maya Lombarts
What’s on your mind, unicorn? 🦄 Send me a text!
What if listening to your inner voice could be the one bold move that changes everything? Maya Lombarts knows firsthand how powerful intuition can be.
After struggling with chronic illness for years and finding no lasting relief from conventional medicine, she decided to take control of her health. Through functional medicine, deep self-exploration, and a leap of faith, she not only healed but also transformed her entire life.
Her journey led her from Belgium to Cusco, Peru, where she embraced a vibrant, spontaneous way of living that contrasted sharply with the structured, fast-paced lifestyle she left behind. Now, she blends her analytical expertise with creative passion, working as a "left-brain sidekick" for creative entrepreneurs—helping them streamline their businesses while maintaining artistic freedom.
In this episode, we explore how trusting your gut can unlock new possibilities in both health and career. You’ll learn:
- How Maya overcame chronic illness by addressing root causes through functional medicine and holistic healing
- The impact of environment on well-being—comparing structured Western lifestyles with the rich, community-driven culture of Cusco, Peru
- How she built a fulfilling, location-independent career that merges strategic thinking with creativity
- The rewards and challenges of moving abroad and embracing a completely new way of life
- Why prioritizing joy, presence, and intuition leads to greater health, success, and abundance
As the co-owner of Crew Volunteer, Maya balances online work with meaningful in-person experiences, combining purpose with flexibility. From salsa dancing to connecting with a tight-knit expat and local community, she shares how her move to Peru sparked a profound shift in her personal and professional life.
Whether you’re seeking better health, a career change, or the courage to embrace the unknown, this conversation will inspire you to trust your inner voice and step into what’s truly possible.
Tune in now to hear Maya's incredible journey and discover what listening to your intuition could unlock for you.
MEET MAYA
Hey there! My name's Maya, I’m from Belgium, and I’ve been living in Cusco, Peru for the past seven years while building my business online.
I struggled with chronic disease in Belgium when I was only 15 (CFS and Fibromyalgia). Doctors told me: "You just have a small energy bucket and you need to learn how to live with it." I refused to accept this and started looking for my own solutions, which I found in the Peruvian Lifestyle and Functional Medicine.
Using my Belgian structured side and my Peruvian flexible side, I'm a Left-Brained Sidekick for Creative Entrepreneurs. Together, we can find a way to maintain your creative flow while managing the operational aspects of your business
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Music created and produced by Matt Bollenbach
I am welcome to Untethered with Jen Liss, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about how listening to your inner voice will show you what is possible. Let's dive in. Hey there, unicorn, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast. This is an episode for all those with wanderlust, the travelers in the room, the people who have ever dreamed of living somewhere other than the place where you were born, and for the person who could listen to their inner voice a little bit more deeply, or maybe the person who has been listening to your inner voice. Maybe you just need somebody to support you in remembering that it is worth it to trust it, even if the path does not feel easy.
Speaker 1:On today's podcast, we have Maya Lombards. She lives in Cusco, peru, but she was born and raised in Belgium, and she struggled with a chronic disease that, basically, her doctors had told her you're just going to have to walk with a cane for the rest of your life. You're just going to have to manage your energy, you're just going to have to live this way. And Maya didn't believe that that was true. She had a different voice in her head that said something different. She has completely structured a new life around herself and what is possible for her she is what she calls a left brain sidekick for creative entrepreneurs. She helps people to maintain their creative flow in their business while managing their operational aspects of their business. So she has a strong creative side and also a lot of that get it done mentality that is so supportive to entrepreneurs, and we talk about all of that in this conversation.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, welcoming to the podcast Maya Lombards. Hi Maya, hey Jen, so happy to be here, genuinely thrilled to have you on the podcast, because this podcast and what I'm fascinated with and what so many of my listeners are fascinated with is this idea of living a life that is fully true to us. And when I saw that you're from Belgium but you're living in Peru, first of all I've been to Peru and holy baloney, so freaking magical.
Speaker 2:It is the energies are strong here, yeah. It's hard not to follow your intuition here.
Speaker 1:I could totally, after having been there, I can totally see it, because my husband and I are always talking about we need to find a way to go back to Peru. All that aside, but not aside, I think that we look at somebody like you and say how did she do that? How is she living that life that she is living? So really excited to have you here to talk about that today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess you found a reason to come back to Peru. I'm riding Cusco, right when the Machu Picchu is. You probably saw the Machu Picchu when you came here, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, we spent a couple of days in Cusco as well, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that's where I'm living, really close to the city center, and if you spend a couple of days here, you must have felt just the energy, and just walking around the city center calms you down. I can be working really hard the whole day on my computer, but then I go outside and I'm in the mountains and I feel the sun and it just relaxes me.
Speaker 1:Just seeing rogue alpacas out there walking around. Living their life. It's amazing what a magical life here in Oregon. I go to the alpaca farm to go and see the alpacas.
Speaker 2:They're not just out there roaming around. Yeah, also in Europe it's become a thing. You know, people going to the alpaca farms.
Speaker 1:They're so sweet, they're just the cutest. They don't really care about us, but we care about them. It's like I just want to like squeeze their little faces. They're so cute. Well, how is it that you ended up where you are? Because your story from what I know about your story and what you can hopefully share here with the audience is that nobody would have expected you to be venturing out that far from home and really crafting the life that you are and being an entrepreneur, which is always a challenging journey, Like what got you to where you are today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you said, no one really expected because I did struggle with chronic disease ever since I was 15. So they told me I had chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. So mainly I was super exhausted all the time. I would sleep for 12 hours and then still feel like I had gone partying the whole night. So my energy levels did not increase after resting, it was just always depleted. I had random muscle aches. I was walking with a cane, I was going to school part-time. So from my 15 to my 19, I don't feel like I had a normal teenage life.
Speaker 1:Did it start in your teen years, or did it start earlier than that in your teen years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it did. When I was 15, it started 16, 17,. They said, oh, you know, it's a chronic disease, there's nothing you can do about it, you just have to learn how to live with it. And you just have a smaller energy bucket than other people and that's that. And I said there's got to be more than that. I don't know, it was just some voice inside of me saying no, just feeling really stubborn like no, this can be it. There must be a solution. There must be.
Speaker 2:I don't know if healthcare is advanced enough yet or what's happening, but I feel that something's happening in my body and there must be an answer, right? So I think then I already started not conforming to what doctors or specialists were telling me, because in the beginning you think, oh, this is a doctor, this is a person who knows they're going to tell me exactly what's going on in my body. There's going to be a simple magic pill that will make this all go away, and that will be the truth. But at that moment, so many people were asking me what's happening, what's wrong in your body? Why are you walking with a cane? Why can't you go upstairs? And so I got so tired from explaining all all these things to people, that I started writing a blog back then. That was in Dutch and I would just write it all out and that was my way of processing and people started reading it, understanding better. If anyone was like, so what's happening? I'm like, just just read the first blog post that explains it all, like I don't feel like going into that again, right. And then the seo did its thing all of a sudden. Um, people found my blog by googling fibromyalgia in dutch. Then, so pretty niche.
Speaker 2:And I had all these reactions from people saying, oh, I have the same diagnosis, but, um, I'm getting hormones that I need to take, or I'm on a magnesium IV every now and then, or I'm taking antibiotics a year long because they believe it's a bacteria that needs to be killed. So I saw all these and antidepressants and I said they're all. They have the same, let's say, disease, but they get all these different treatments. And I really felt like people were just experimenting on them. You know, like doctors were just, oh, let's try this, or oh, I think it's that they all had their own truth.
Speaker 2:But like, oh, we have the big truth now of where fibromyalgia comes from, right, and so that's when I already started doubting and questioning the system and said you know what? I know my body, I know that more is going on. I'm going to reject, I don't want to use any medications and I'm just going to find a natural way. So I started reading about mindfulness, meditation, healthy lifestyle, all of it. You know, I was 15, 16 with my nose in those books self-development, health, all this that was my hobby. But it was also a thing of survival, right? Just finding all the things that would make me feel better. So I had a really strict schedule. I had I was always going to sleep like.
Speaker 2:I was really strict with the things I read in books, so very self-disciplined, because I just had to. I had to find a solution and so things did get a little bit better. I was able to go full-time to university, but still not actually full-time. I divided my three years over four years so I made it a bit lighter on myself. I took the elevator, I had an electric bike so I could go to bars with friends from now and then, and it seems like you never gave in to it at all.
Speaker 1:Even at that point, you're still finding like, okay, what's the solution that's going to help me have the best time in this lifetime?
Speaker 2:Yeah, very solution focused, and I think I had my mom has been a great support always, and even when I was like, no, I'm tired, I need to rest, she'd be like you're young, go out. You know, even if it's just for an hour, just go have fun. I'm like no, people are gonna question they're gonna give me those weird faces tomorrow. They see that I just go to school part time and then they see me in a bar the night before, right. So there's also a lot of judgment from people and I was like no, I better not go. And she was like go, you know, like live.
Speaker 2:So even then, just always finding solutions and walking with that cane and an electric bike and scheduling a lot of scheduling and that's when I got really good at scheduling empty spaces first right In my calendar. That's why I help people with that too On my Healthy High Achievers podcast. That's what it's about right, it's scheduling those empty spaces and listening to your body. I had to become really good friends with a body that was really acting out Like it didn't feel like a friend at first. It felt like an enemy, because my mind wanted to do all these things and I also wanted to start dating boys. Or I also wanted to experiment with makeup, right, but I couldn't. I had to. My mind was filled with how can I walk without feeling pain?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what happened at this point? You're at that in college and you've gone through all of this and you've been so focused on self-development and you've been making your way through, using some of the techniques that you've found, creating space for yourself. What really instigated even more change? Did you actually have change in your physical health, or is this something that you're still moving through even today, at this point?
Speaker 2:The big change happened when I moved to Cusco, so I had always wanted to go to South America. When I was 14, I told my mom mom, I'm going to move to South America when I'm older. I was studying Spanish. That was my hobby ever since I was 14, I told my mom mom, I'm going to move to South America when I'm older. I was studying Spanish. That was my hobby ever since I was 14. My favorite movie was Dirty Dancing 2, and they're dancing salsa in Cuba.
Speaker 1:I just went salsa dancing for the first time the other night.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice, I love salsa.
Speaker 1:Took my first lesson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been dancing salsa now for the past seven years and it's such a great relief and a communication, it's a language with another body, you know just nonverbal Love it. So I said I want to go to South America. And then I thought maybe I can do an exchange like a year abroad. But then this thing with my health. I was like, hmm, maybe I should aim lower, maybe I could do an internship there just three months. And then the moment came where at university the last year, we could do an internship either in Belgium or abroad. So I was like, okay, what's there in South America?
Speaker 2:And I saw this collaboration with an NGO here, a non-profit, by a Belgian guy. My boss was Belgian, so he had the collaboration with my university in Belgium and I saw that it was a project where they would teach single mothers here in Peru to become Spanish teachers and teach Spanish to tourists, so in order to give them a job opportunity. And then there would be a daycare with volunteers to take care of those moms' kids and this whole system to be able to give single moms a job. And I would work there as an office manager and I'm like, all right, this sounds like a really great job experience and having an impact while managing the place you know. But then I was scared. I said what, if like, will my body be able to? Also, cusco, you know, is at a very high altitude, I know. In meters it's like 3,400 meters In feet, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I was training for a marathon when we were there and I attempted to run six miles one morning and it was. I ended up walking most of it. It's high altitude.
Speaker 2:It is very high altitude and I was like what, how is my body going to react to that, you know? And then it was my mom who said you know what? Just go, just go, and if it doesn't work out, you come back. It's as simple as that. You can do a different internship in Belgium than the next year and finish your studies. That's that.
Speaker 1:What an amazing support for you that she was there to say that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely In the end. It's that simple. You just go, feel into it, see how your body reacts. Doesn't work, you come back Period. And so I did, and I was supposed to stay for three months, and now I've been here for eight years, so ever since Because after three months, the amazing thing that happened is I arrived here after my first week of working. First of all, I never thought I'd be able to work full time again. I said, you know, that's just not for me with my chronic fatigue. Probably part time I was working full time. After working full time, I would go to the salsa school and stay there for hours and hours. There was like a fixed monthly price, and so I took all the classes they had for that month for the same price, right. So I just spent every day after work dancing salsa. I could run up the stairs here. I mean, everyone's out of breath, right, when they're walking up in Cusco. So I didn't really stand out. Everyone's like waiting a moment, taking a break before they continue.
Speaker 1:You had some relief of judgment. Nobody's judging, because everybody's feeling the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Because everyone's a bit more exhausted here, right. And then, I don't know, the pain just went away. I didn't have any pains anymore in my muscles and I said what's happening? Why do I feel so much better here, right?
Speaker 2:And I looked for years for those answers. That's how I bumped into functional medicine online and I heard an interview about fibromyalgia saying you know, it's just a name for a group of symptoms. It literally just means pain in your muscles, but it doesn't say anything about where it's coming from. Why are your muscles hurting or why are you extremely fatigued? Where is that energy going instead in your body, right? What's your body trying to heal or where is it wasting its energy on? That makes you feel so exhausted. And so I said, wait a minute, no one's ever searched for my root cause. They did a sleep exam because I was extremely tired, right. They did a heart exam because my heart was pounding. I was so exhausted all the time. They didn't find anything. They did a muscle exam and my muscles looked perfect. They did a scan of my bowels, but my bowels looked perfect, even though I had a pain attack every week of just, yeah, these belly aches. And so I said no one ever really investigated how my body's working or functioning you know, how is my digestion, how is my liver doing my hormone balance, like the body systems. No one's ever tested that, so maybe there's something there.
Speaker 2:So after three years in Peru, I thought, okay, probably I'm feeling better because of the health. Well, the dry climate, because in dry climate you have less bacteria and stuff traveling through the air, so it's more. The air is more thin, let's say, and pure. So I said probably the altitude is doing something good. Here I'm mainly eating foods from the market. I'm not even going to the supermarket here, so there must be something in the food. My life is super spontaneous here because people don't have a schedule Apart from their work schedule. They don't have a free time schedule because they're like, why would you schedule your free time?
Speaker 2:you know, so social life is obsessed with scheduling our free time here in the us right and your hobbies and your oh, I can go to a restaurant in three weeks on a Friday right, whereas in Peru that sounds absurd. People just, you know, work. And then after work they're like, hmm, do I feel like seeing people or do I feel like hanging on the couch? Hmm, I think I want to stay in today. And then, even if they made plans, they will flake. They will just not show up maybe or tell people, hey, let's do it another day.
Speaker 2:And that was very. I think it gave me that permission to fully, extremely listen to my body and be in my body and live in the present moment without chasing that schedule and thinking, oh no, I promised this friend, like three weeks ago, that we would meet today, so I can't cancel this. You know, everyone's canceling all the time. Sometimes you're double booked and then none of those two plans actually happen. They both get canceled. And then a third thing pops up that's completely spontaneous and that's the thing you're doing that night yeah, so is that not normal in Europe either, and where you grew?
Speaker 2:up. No, belgians are very, very scheduled. Everything is planned out. If you want to have a social life. It's literally asking people today hey, do you want to go to a restaurant in three to four weeks? And then people put in their calendar and that's what's going to. And then they feel bad for canceling, right, because they feel that pressure of, oh, we've been trying to see each other, we've been trying to schedule something for so long, I shouldn't cancel now. And so it's a lot of living in their schedules and not really in their bodies, you know, because sometimes they're exhausted but they go anyway. Just push through. We just push through.
Speaker 2:Like you said, that high achiever mode especially, I think it's stress. But I was a really optimistic and pretty chill person. It's not, it's not a consequence of burnout, it's not because I pushed too much, it's not because I was depressed or very negative in life, not at all. So that's why it didn't make sense to me. That's why I said what's happening, because this is not. When they said, oh, it's all in your head, I'm like no, my head, we all have things to work on. But I was like my head's pretty, pretty fine.
Speaker 1:Like I'm physically feeling it in my body, so it's not all in my head. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly, and so stress can be a part of that. Of course, many people, when they start pushing too much and you see a lot of burnout, right, and that is really a physical manifestation of just the mental pushing, pushing, pushing. But that wasn't my root cause. But after three years in peru I was like, okay, let me go to belgium and go to a functional medicine practitioner and see, maybe they can find something. See what, what has been happening, yeah, and what they found at first it's like the layers of an onion. So they found the outer layer first, and so they saw some imbalance in my digestive system.
Speaker 2:Then I had some reactions to some certain foods, but that's not really a root cause, that's more a consequence of deeper causes. So you go layer by layer, you go layer by layer, you go deeper and deeper and in the end what they found is one of my main root causes was my liver was filled with plastic, rubber and gasoline. So my river, my, my liver just exploded and I didn't have the right enzymes to detoxify because those enzymes were depleted, because I'm pretty sure mold had to do with that as well. I had some mold in my bedroom in Belgium at that age, and so mold and toxins were what caused all of these symptoms, but no one ever thought of that, or no doctor was like oh, let's see if it's mold, let's see if it's your liver, because when you have muscle aches and extreme fatigue, no one's going to think it's your liver causing muscle aches, right?
Speaker 1:each part is separate from the other parts, and what we're all coming to realize now, and what you realize, that it sounds like in your body and what you do in your work now, is looking at the holistic, because it's not like your liver is separate from everything else. Exactly, maybe it's a piece, but all of these things are working together all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I did change my diet a lot like left out sugar and all the chemical stuff, like go as natural as I can. And then you know just the daily habits and working on yourself and, um, while living at this high altitude, like that's why this altitude and this dry air is so good for me, because mold barely grows here so it wasn't feeding the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I go to a more humid place right now, like two years ago, I went to Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands, and that's pretty humid, and I was there and I immediately felt those pains in my muscles again in my legs, and I felt so extremely tired and I was like whoa, this is like fibromyalgia all over again and I realized, well, it's just too moldy and humid here for me. I need to go to dry places. And it was a confirmation that my body's just instantly reacting to that.
Speaker 1:Wow. So where has this journey taken you since then? You made it to Belgium and they identified all of this and you got healthy and made some changes to your diet. It sounds like that perhaps transformed your health. You ended up back in Peru.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was. I wanted to stay in Belgium. My idea was oh, I had my three years in Peru, I had my fun, but now I'll start the serious life in Belgium and life is better in Europe and Peru is a third world country. So I had all the mental, rational reasons, right?
Speaker 1:A lot of what I would call tethers that are like pulling on you, like, oh no, this makes sense. It does not make sense for you to do that. It makes sense for you to do this do this Exactly so.
Speaker 2:I was doing what I thought I should do, so very centered to my culture and to probably what my parents were also expecting of me. My mom kept saying have your fun in Peru, but come back you know A little bit of an ultimatum there.
Speaker 1:A little bit of an ultimatum there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I did. I did go back, but then I would see someone on the street that I barely recognized but somehow did, maybe from primary school or whatever and my reaction would be like, hey, you know, I recognize you, let's hug and say hi, because that's very much Peruvian culture, just, they're always happy to see each other. And another person would look at me like what I barely know this girl. Why is she saying hi to me? You know, just leave me alone.
Speaker 2:So my Peruvian enthusiasm, that did not find its place in Belgium at all. So I was a bit disappointed by social life. I worked at a very Belgian company, not a lot of diversity, and I was so used to being around people from all around the world here in Cusco, because it's very touristic, but also a lot of foreigners living here. I have my Peruvian friends and then I also love surrounding myself with just people from all around the world. So it got a little bit better when I moved to Brussels, because Brussels is also very international. So I did have friends from all over.
Speaker 2:But still, the climate though, it's like six months a year of gray, really gray, and I was like, oh, I need the mountains, I need the sun the whole year through. I need the dry air because I also felt like I had less energy there. I need the lifestyle and the spontaneity and people being so curious about meeting new people. They're like, oh, you know, they're genuinely interested in Wow, here's a new person, I'm curious. You know what, what they do, how they think, how they are. You know new friends and they get really happy about that. But in Belgium, everyone has their own little circle of friends that they've had since forever and that's where they stay and it's really hard to enter a new circle, you know. So I was like you know what? Maybe I can move back to Cusco, but maybe I can build my online business so I can have enough of an income. So I can move back to Cusco, but maybe I can build my online business so I can have enough of an income so I can still see my family every year, because with a Peruvian salary, it's impossible to travel back to Europe every year.
Speaker 2:So I had a local salary here, used my savings to see my family twice in those three years and that was that. You know, savings gone. So once I found the answers in Belgium, I did start studying at the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy because I was so passionate about what I had just discovered and look at this, more people need to know this. You know I can help people who also have fibromyalgia. And so I went in it a whole year, just studied everything that I had been studying naturally already for the past 10 years, but now officially, you know, with a certification. I was like, look at all these positive psychology things and stuff. You know it's the things I've been reading for 10 years. Yeah, you're able to turn around and help people with it.
Speaker 1:That's I am. One of my mentors yesterday shared something on Instagram that said something to the effect of if you're wondering what your purpose is in life, heal yourself and then turn around and use what you've done to heal yourself to teach others how to do it for themselves too. Yeah, too, and you are the epitome of that that. This entire story is that I knew that there was something. You listened to your intuition. You knew that there was something different than what you had been told, so you were listening to yourself. You went down that journey and now you're able to finance your dreams, this life that you want to live, by doing this job. That is helping people with the same thing. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was coaching for a while and then I started incorporating my management background just some online entrepreneurs who needed help with their online business.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, when you're building your online business, you help people with podcasts as well, because you have the experience and it's fun to help others with that. So I started doing the same with business as well. I'm have the experience and it's fun to help others with that, so I started doing the same with business as well. I'm like you know, I built my website and I did all the business coaching courses and learned everything there was to learn to build my presence, right. And I'm like, okay, let me help others and I'm pretty tech savvy, so I would just help them with all the things that were too techie for them. And then I was like what am I doing the things that were too techie for them? And then I was like, what am I doing? You know I'm coaching, health coaching, but then I'm also sort of a virtual assistant, but also not like what am I? What title do I put on all the lovely things I'm doing for people? And then I came to the conclusion that you know what I'm going to call myself the creative entrepreneur's sidekick Because my coaching clients started asking for websites. And then my VA clients. They started asking for coaching because they needed more balance in their life. You know, I have Holistic Imagine this. Extremely holistic, right, so it was like whoa 360. What do I call myself now? Extremely holistic, right, so it was like whoa 360. What do I call myself now? And I was like you know what? I'm just helping them. You know, if I'm helping them balance their life and structure their business and I'm just I'm their sidekick, you know. So now it does mostly lean into the business side of things.
Speaker 2:But then I have business clients who one of my clients has ADHD and early Parkinson's and so she's really struggling with her body's new limits and how to adjust, adapt her online business to that diagnosis and the pain she sometimes feels in her hands. And and I'm like, well, this is my jam, you know, this is just me reminding her to be gentle to herself, telling her we can shape this online business any way you want that fills your soul but also respects what your body needs. Right now, we deleted all of the extremely structured things that her previous assistants had created. Just a simple example like in her Google Drive, there were like folders within folders within folders, like sub, sub, sub, sub, sub folders, right, and in the end she couldn't find anything.
Speaker 2:It was too much clicking and searching and creative minds cannot do those extremely linear things, right. So I'm like let's delete all those folders, you know, and let's just make it more visual or with more colors or more present or, you know, just let's adapt it to you. So yeah, using my coaching experience and my own health experience and my management background to just really tailor it to the person, their bodies, the way their minds work and just what works for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what's so cool about your story that I would just love to underline for everybody who's listening is that all of these skills all might be true, but maybe it's not what other skills do you already have that you could be applying or how can it supplement? We often don't. We treat all things in life because that's the systems and the structures that we've been raised in to look at the liver as just the liver and this skill as just this skill. And you're a beautiful example of somebody who's seeing that full picture scope of what you can bring to a client. When they come to you Like you're their perfect sidekick because you've got all of this and I have to believe I don't know how spiritual you are, but your clients, the right clients, are coming to you. That client came to you because you have exactly what can support them and help them through whatever it is that they're needing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'd say it's those experiences that then feel drawn to you, or people that feel drawn to you, and then maybe in the beginning you don't realize that, oh, this is for me, because you know you haven't analyzed that thing.
Speaker 2:But that comes after, because in the beginning I did have creative minds who were clients and I had also nonprofit and more and more like more serious I wanted to say serious businesses. Every business is serious, but you know more the linear things around, like I don't, and I found it so boring. I was like, okay there. Then there comes a moment when you declutter, when you're like, okay, what feels super aligned, what feels really good to me, what do these things have in common and how can I fine-tune it even more. So there did. There was a moment where I stopped working with certain clients because I said let me really focus on just the creative people, because I feel like that's my jam, but it's, it's a trial and error, it's it's experiences and then seeing what's for you, what's not always coming back to that of decluttering, and I think, yeah, that self-analysis or self-observation was just okay what feels good and what's working here and how can I do more of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what's feeling really good to you right now? What's working? What do you want to do more of? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:I love the techie stuff. It's strange, but it's true. But in terms of, I want to hone in on the kind of things I do for people and I'm just when I'm learning a new software or setting it up for people or their website tweaks or their CRM, I get into this space where I forget about time. So even someone's QuickBooks, someone's accountancy, somehow it's like a meditation for me to play with their expenses and their invoices, and I've been like that since I was a kid, you know. And it sounds so strange to many of my creative clients. They're like, oh my God, that's what drains me, you know. I'm like, okay, let's match that up, because that's something. The thing is, I don't see myself doing the same thing the whole day through. I need variety. That's why I love the fact that I'm doing a million different things. But if I can kind of categorize and hone in a bit more and have more of those, let's say, techie stuff, I feel like those are the kinds of things I can do, even when I feel sick. So even when I'm in on the couch or I'm in bed and I'm feeling sick, I can still do someone's expenses. Yeah, because I love it. So that feels aligned right now.
Speaker 2:And also, I became the co-owner now of crew volunteer, which is an organization that brings tourists, people, here, and instead of only visiting Machu Picchu, you're also volunteering, you know, in projects with kids or with dogs, and you're also taking some Spanish classes. So those are the people, the tourists, who stay for a couple of months mostly, and I used to work there before I moved back to Belgium. Right, that was my first official job as a volunteer coordinator, so I was the one picking them up from the airport, bringing them to their project, you know, organizing everything from the moment they arrive in Peru. And now, seven years later, it came full circle where the owner was like hey, maya, you know I'm so tired after the pandemic and after this political situation in Peru and I had to send everyone home and refund everyone and I've lost the energy and he's also having health issues. So he's like I don't have the energy right now.
Speaker 2:He said do you want to step in? So he's like I don't have the energy right now. He said do you want to step in? And I said, well, it sounds like a nice variety again with my online work and then having an in-person project and giving back to the community here, right, so that feels very aligned too to have most of my clients online. But then in the evening I go to a pub quiz with my volunteers and we have a lot of fun and I have that in-person contact. So that feels very aligned too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, congratulations, that's really exciting and you're doing a really great job of selling Peru. I just got to say you're doing your job right here on the podcast of getting people wanting to go to Peru and go visit and not just have the expected tourist experience but also go and do the other things. I remember Joey and I that's my husband we went and had dinner with a family. We sat down with a family and there was a translator, because we don't speak Spanish, but we had a translator who was there and they cooked us dinner and just everything that you're saying about the people there so friendly, so warm and inviting and genuinely this is what stuck with me. They cared what we had to say and I could see it and I could feel it.
Speaker 1:What you said about curious, the curiosity, and they were delighted to hear what we had to say. I'm like nobody has ever cared so much about what I had to say at this dinner and it wasn't like they didn't care about what I said about the food. They weren't like looking for my compliments. They wanted to know about us. Is that reflected in the culture?
Speaker 2:I'm so curious, absolutely, it's so genuine. I guess it's such a group culture, you know, because we come from very individual cultures, you know, and it's the focus is on me, I, we're all. When I go to Belgium, I feel like I'm locked up in my own home, because life in Peru is more outside, it's coming together, it's joining each other. In a bar. People never, ever, talk about work. When they join, when they go to a bar, you know they're like let's leave work at work and let's just, you know, talk about our lives. So with a Peruvian person, within five minutes you're talking about life, you know about the meaning of life, even and deeper things, and within five minutes you're going to hear someone say, ah, that's life, you know. So it's an honest, genuine, true conversation, because people love connecting with each other. People love it's weird here to be by yourself. So sometimes I do need to go to my own cocoon and just withdraw and be with myself, right, but for Peruvians that's not very normal. For Peruvians, the normal is being together and it's true that there's a genuine curiosity.
Speaker 2:So in Belgium I've always felt a bit out of place, even as a kid, even as a teenager. I would always think, you know, do people not care about who I am? Like there's no curiosity. I'm such a curious person to meet new people and to know what drives them or the way they think and feel. I love discovering that. But then, when I didn't see that reflecting in other people towards me, I was like am I, am I not interesting? Like as a person, or people do not see me. I felt, yeah, I felt like people didn't see me in Belgium, even as a kid, and then something inside of me said there must be a place for me out there. I always had had that thought and I'm guessing that's Cusco now.
Speaker 1:Thank you for quite a few things in this conversation, but one of them is really confirming what's possible for us Not listening to what we're hearing on the outside. That doesn't feel true to us. Such a powerful thing that you really listened to yourself and you pursued that and you made your own dream possible and you're making it happen, and you're actively making it happen right now. And also that permission to untether because even though your mom wanted you to stay there and she wanted you to live there and there's probably parts of you that wanted to stay there and wanted to be with your mother was so supportive and just like your family and your friends, and you want to be there and you know that there's something else for you. And the way in which you are serving people now in this space because you stepped out of that. You are serving people now in this space because you stepped out of that. It's really powerful. Is there anything else about your story that we haven't covered that you're like. I just really want.
Speaker 2:I feel like people need to know this. Yeah, there's something that I do felt like highlighting is that one don't think that it's easy. It's not an easy thing. I do miss my family like crazy, but it's just that when there's that voice inside, sometimes the mind does protest and like, hey, do we really want to do? We really want to change this whole thing? Or we were just comfortable, right, do we really? But when that voice inside is strong enough, you, just when you listen to that, it does feel more freeing.
Speaker 2:And when everyone was saying, oh so you're moving back to Peru, is your, are you gonna stay there forever? You know, is this definite? Like that's your, that's where you're gonna live, and I was like, what is what is forever? Any? I mean, I don't know, I don't. I'm turning 30 in a couple months. I'm like I don't know what I'm gonna feel, what I want to do when I'm 35, when I'm 40, 45, 50. Every phase in your life you just need something different.
Speaker 2:And I just gave myself permission as well to change my mind, to realize, okay, I thought I wanted to move back to Belgium, but it was just for a reason I had to learn something, I had to go there for functional medicine and for my health and to come back to Cusco stronger. Now I'm in Cusco. I don't know if the intention or the purpose or the meaning is that I stay here forever. Maybe I changed my mind in five years and it's just like my mom said back then right, just go and you can come back whenever. So even now I'm still like if I miss Belgium too much, I can go there for six months, for a year, whatever, and feel into it.
Speaker 2:Maybe I need more time there, maybe I miss Cusco and I come back. I can change flights, even if I have a plan of I'll go for a year. I can change flights and come back after six months, you know, and come back after six months, you know. So just that permission of going with those faces in your life, making those big changes that, in the end, are they that big, though? It's just a different country, you know. I have a comfortable couch here too and I'm just hanging on it like watching series. Sometimes I mean, I'm doing the same thing, the same things I might be doing in Belgium, right? So is it that different though?
Speaker 1:You can always change when you feel it and change your mind, change it back if it's not for you anymore. Things are permanent for security. It makes us feel secure if we know. We really want to know as human beings. The truth is that we don't know. Anything could happen. An asteroid could hit this planet tomorrow.
Speaker 1:I hate to tell y'all, it's the truth. We don't know, and giving yourself permission to change is really shaking up that tether a little bit. And yeah, you're going to keep grappling. We're always grappling for safety. We're always trying to find ways to feel safe, for we're always grappling for safety, we're always trying to find ways to feel safe. But that is one of those, one of those tethers that I think really holds us in places that you know, in a fear of shame if we do change. I am, I felt that shake up when I also moved, when I moved away from home. It's like, oh, it's actually not shameful to go back home, or if I wanted to move away from here. But we think, oh, that decision's got to be permanent. My goodness, if you're going to move that far away, it better be permanent. Is that true? Is that true? We can question that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can, and it's not about making very sudden decisions and being very wishy-washy. But you can sit with it, feel into it and then just do what really inside feels right, and then it's okay to change your mind. Yeah, I mean any friendship, any relationship, any country where you're living, any job. It's not like we have to change every month, but just knowing that they're all here for a certain period of time. You never know how long in advance. You never know. Maybe some of them are going to be permanent, maybe a certain country or a certain business, or they could be permanent. But you also have permission to close your business and start something else or go back to a corporate job or even if you felt years ago that starting your own business was the thing, right, I know people who go back to corporate and then are happy and that's totally fine and it's all good. You have permission to do that.
Speaker 1:You have such a beautiful grounded energy that I'm certain has supported you through your years and all of these changes and just that listening that you have done to yourself so powerful. Thank you for coming and sharing that gift with us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Even that last little thing where I've been giving myself permission to let it go, was that big thing that I thought would be my big purpose now because it comes from my health, and that was health coaching, right. So I said, said this is my purpose because it comes from my own healing and I'm I invested in this certification right in functional medicine, and I want to help people. And then when I started feeling a shift, when I was really enjoying the business side of things, like helping the creative entrepreneurs in their business but it always involves some coaching because we're adapting the business to them, right but I was like, oh no, I don't like health coaching anymore. What do I do now?
Speaker 2:You know, I built this business and I invested in the certification and this was my thing. I need to help people with fibromyalgia, right? Or chronic disease, and I just had to be like you know what, or chronic disease, and I just had to be like you know what. Maybe it was just for my own journey, maybe it has served its purpose and even that it's okay to let that go now, to let go of one of those offerings that you thought was your big purpose, right.
Speaker 1:And it's still serving people because you have that client who you're able to support with. So we just never know Way to follow the nudges and way to encourage every listener and myself to follow our own nudges as well. I have one last question for you, Maya, that I ask everybody who comes on the podcast when do you see the magic in the world?
Speaker 2:I see the magic in the world in our senses. So I'm a Taurus, very connected to my senses, and I'm a musician, a singer, and I just love. For me, the magic is in going to a bar and enjoying live music and that's just a simple thing. But I did ayahuasca last Friday. Actually it's for people who don't know, it's quite a strong plant medicine from here, from Peru, and I was like ayahuasca was my purpose, you know, tell me.
Speaker 2:Tell me plant medicine, all knowing, yeah, and she was like just this, you know, just listen to the music, hear what you can hear, touch what you can touch. I had a soft blanket. I was like, ah, you know, and just taste, see the beautiful things. I think it's the beauty in the moment and in nature and when you go on walks, and in the end, our purpose is just that, just to be and be here now, and that's where the magic is.
Speaker 1:Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing that and for all you shared today. Where can people connect with you?
Speaker 2:Oh, they can follow me on Instagram If you want to see some of Peru. Sometimes I just film where I'm walking and people always love that. These little streets in Cusco. It's at Maya Lombards. I'm sure you'll put that in the show notes, but it's M-A-Y-A-L-O-M-B-A-R-T-S, and my website is the same thing it's mayalombardscom. So there you can find out more about me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and a lot of creative entrepreneurs listen to this podcast, so might even look into Maya and being somebody who can help you with all those files like I have. I'm looking at my desktop going oh my gosh, I could use Maya.
Speaker 2:The magic is also in decluttering.
Speaker 1:So true, but not in the doing it for me, for having somebody else do it, which is why you have such a beautiful gift. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Maya.
Speaker 2:Thank you, this was so lovely.
Speaker 1:I just know you probably fell in love with Maya as much as I did. I was like you're one of those people who I genuinely want to be best friends with and I want to go to Cusco and I want to go hang out with you for two weeks or two months and be friends and have you show me all the ropes. If you don't want to go to Peru after this conversation, then I don't know. I don't even know. She makes it sound so wonderful. So thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you pulled out something really powerful for yourself, whether in terms of listening to your own intuition and really listening to that voice, saying yes to it, giving yourself permission to change.
Speaker 1:In Thursday's episode, I'm going to pull a little thread out of this episode and go a little bit deeper, so stay tuned for that. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. It means the world to me that you would listen. If you enjoyed it, if you got something out of it for yourself. I encourage you to share it with a friend who might need to hear it too. Maybe they need to be encouraged to follow their voice or to follow the path, even if it doesn't feel like the path that's outlined for them. You can also share it with all of your friends by taking a screenshot of the episode. Put it on social media, put it on Instagram, tag me, tag Maya. Our links are in the show notes. I'm untethered, jen, on Instagram. Thanks again for listening. You just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.
