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Series 1 / Episode 1 - Built for other people's systems. Made for her own.
18 Plays9 days ago
Martyna Urban is a coach, consultant, and former corporate TA leader whose career reads like three separate lives that, in retrospect, were always the same life. She arrived in London with almost no English, built a career in one of the world's most demanding corporate environments, and then, at the exact moment everything looked most successful, started hearing the signal she'd been ignoring for many years. She listened. What she built next is the most honest version of who she always was.
She is precise, self-aware, and allergic to comfortable answers. She is also, in the best possible way, still working it out. That combination is rare. It's why she's in this chair.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Carpe Disruption and Series Focus
00:01:20
Jeremy Sholl
Welcome to Carpe Disruption! i am Jeremy Sholl and I'm joined here by our astounding co-host, Alaina Schnipke. We're talking about our first series of Carpe Disruption called Transitioning is a Frame of Mind.
Exploring Real-Life Career Transitions
00:01:34
Jeremy Sholl
Transitioning ah is a frame of mind, isn't a career advice show. Nope. We're not going to give you a five-step framework or for reinvention or tell you that failure is just success in disguise.
00:01:45
Jeremy Sholl
We're going to sit with people, real people, who've actually done it, walked away from careers, lost jobs they thought defined them, kind of like me built something new in a city they barely knew, and then ask them, what did that feel like?
00:02:00
Jeremy Sholl
the real version, Because transition isn't the gap between two jobs, nope. It's the gap between two versions of yourself.
00:02:10
Jeremy Sholl
And nobody gives you a map or an instruction manual for that. The only constant in this world is change. And this series is for the people who are finally getting curious about how to seize it.
Embracing Change and Curiosity
00:02:22
Jeremy Sholl
Alaina before we get into it and bring on our guest, You've been inside the infrastructure side of many organizations like myself. You know what it looks like when somebody leaves, you know, that person who has that long chapter, long history inside the system.
00:02:36
Jeremy Sholl
And then they try to walk away and build something on the other side of it. What do most people underestimate about that transition?
00:02:44
Alaina Schnipke
Oh, so many things. um I mean, it's not linear. It's not time bound. Two steps forward, one step back. I think the the the other piece of that is some of us that transition learn that we actually love it.
00:03:00
Alaina Schnipke
And we do it many times in our career.
00:03:00
Jeremy Sholl
Mm-hmm.
00:03:02
Alaina Schnipke
And we continue to put ourselves through this chaos that I'm currently like in the thick of, as you know. But yeah, I just think there's a there's a lot that people, you can't prepare 100%, you can prepare as much as you think you can, but then something else is gonna happen. but at the end of it, like quite frankly, the transition's beautiful.
00:03:22
Alaina Schnipke
It can be painful. It can be terrifying. It can be incredibly lonely. But I've yet to make a transition that I haven't ultimately loved, or at least learned a significant lesson about myself from. So for me, i mean, just go into it knowing you know nothing, even if you do it 10 times in your career.
00:03:44
Alaina Schnipke
You know nothing. It's going to be great.
00:03:48
Jeremy Sholl
And I think, about it as don't try to overcomplicate it. Don't try to over-understand Just live it. Takes me back to the movie one of my favorite movies, and I'm gonna probably quote it a thousand times. It's called The Way with Martin Sheen and his real son, Emilio Estevez. And he does the carmino Camino, that that beautiful trip along the west coast of Spain.
00:04:08
Jeremy Sholl
And I won't give away the plot, but his dad says in the car ride when he's driving to the airport, you should have chosen a better life. And think he chose the wrong path. goes, you don't choose a life.
00:04:19
Jeremy Sholl
You live a life. And I think that's everything about life is is don't try to over plan it You can plan it, have a plan, it's great. Have a starting point. but But don't try to plan everything. And and sometimes that's a confliction inside. And our guest can really talk a lot about that. And that's the episode.
00:04:36
Jeremy Sholl
And of course, before we get to our guest, one
Internal Signals and Intuition in Career Transitions
00:04:38
Jeremy Sholl
last thing. You know I'm good you know i'm a geologist and I'm also a huge nerd. So I'm always going to connect some sort of geology theme that ties into the podcast as well. Geologists themselves.
00:04:49
Jeremy Sholl
Really, they study rock formations amongts amongst other things. And the the rock formations are always under pressure. And our job is to look for those fault lines, whether it's between one piece of land and another piece of land, but two different plates. Because they're always pushing against each other, as you probably see in California and other parts of the world.
00:05:06
Jeremy Sholl
And the surface can look pretty stable for a while. And even when it does shake, it doesn't look like it moves at all. But the pressure is building the whole time. And then something moves. And that's when the world changes.
00:05:17
Jeremy Sholl
And the interesting thing, when I think about it from a business perspective, a career perspective, in organizations, there's the people inside that pressure zone who often felt that building move long before the surface changed.
00:05:30
Jeremy Sholl
They didn't just have a language for it. They didn't understand it. And I think that comes later. Wouldn't you agree?
00:05:36
Alaina Schnipke
Oh, 100%. I mean, I think, listen, ah everyone that's worked with me in my career knows that I call it spidey senses.
00:05:43
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:05:44
Alaina Schnipke
I know something's coming. I don't know what it is. I don't know what's going to happen. But my gut, that little like tingle in the back of my brain almost has almost always given me advance warning or advance knowledge because it's not always a bad thing, right? Like those fault lines aren't always a bad thing. Like the world we exist on today would not exist without those fault lines.
00:06:07
Jeremy Sholl
Right.
00:06:07
Alaina Schnipke
We have some of the most beautiful geological features on the planet, especially here in the US.
00:06:07
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:06:11
Alaina Schnipke
s if you look at our national parks, I mean, come on, like, Those are all developed by fault lines, by transitions. um But living in it is terrifying. The after, like I said, can be incredibly beautiful and it can also cause incredible grief because you do lose things along the way. So the language always comes later. The way you articulate it comes later. Hindsight's 20-20. What a gift, right? What a gift and a curse hindsight is. But yeah, I think there's, for me, it's the spidey senses.
00:06:40
Alaina Schnipke
And that's the best way I articulate it to people. I know. i know something's happening.
00:06:45
Jeremy Sholl
No, got that gut feeling.
00:06:46
Alaina Schnipke
Yes.
00:06:46
Jeremy Sholl
And I think that's going to separate us from AI. I think that's the thing that separates us.
00:06:48
Alaina Schnipke
Yes.
00:06:50
Jeremy Sholl
That's the the fuel
Martina Urban's Transition Journey
00:06:51
Jeremy Sholl
for AI. And I really think this ties into our guest, Martyna Urban. So excited to talk with her. She is a coach and a former corporate TA a leader whose career reads like multiple lives, separate lives at once.
00:07:04
Jeremy Sholl
She arrived in London with almost no English, built a career in one of the world's most demanding corporate environments, and then at the exact moment everything looked most successful, started hearing signals She'd been ignoring maybe for years or or listened to it, but just didn't act on it.
00:07:21
Jeremy Sholl
So she decided to listen. What she built next is the honest version of who she always was. And I'm excited to hear more about this. She is precise, she's self-aware, she's allergic to comfortable answers, and she is also, in the best possible way, still figuring it out.
00:07:37
Jeremy Sholl
And that's why she is on the mic today. Welcome, Martyna Welcome to Carpe Disruption.
00:07:45
Martyna Urban
Hello, Jeremy hello, Alaina Hi.
00:07:47
Alaina Schnipke
Hello.
00:07:49
Jeremy Sholl
We're so excited to have you. How are you feeling? Excited to be on your first podcast?
00:07:54
Martyna Urban
Yes, I'm excited. Slightly nervous, right? but definitely super excited to talk to you.
00:08:01
Jeremy Sholl
Great, great. and And we're so excited to have you. Thank you for for jumping into the uncomfortable areas and and talking on a podcast. Did I get anything wrong in that intro?
00:08:10
Martyna Urban
No, it actually makes me blush a bit. So many beautiful things you said to me Jeremy. I think in the last sentence that I don't have everything figured out yet at all, but that's also the exciting part, I think.
00:08:26
Jeremy Sholl
And terrifying, right? It's a little terrifying too. it's it's It's that taking a risk and jumping out into it. And and I think that's what we want to hear about. this this whole purpose of this whole series really stems, and honestly, your story is right in the thick of it. Because we want real stories of real people who are going through it, have gone through it, but more importantly, can talk about how it feels.
00:08:45
Jeremy Sholl
Because we all have feelings right now. We're all scared in this world. AI, corporate instability, lots of things happening. Like, no I think no generation has experienced something like this, maybe in different versions of this, but it's like this, no.
00:09:00
Jeremy Sholl
and I think that's a great starting point for us is is that journey. So maybe talk to us a little bit more and about, you know, you arrive in the UK, which has beautiful geological features.
00:09:11
Jeremy Sholl
Let's not just say the US, because I mean, I'm sorry, like the cliffs of this is Dover are, mark I know you are, I know you are.
00:09:14
Alaina Schnipke
I'm a national park nerd though. I love the parks.
00:09:20
Jeremy Sholl
But the coast of Dover, the coast of Moher I'm sorry, like there are very few things more beautiful than those two sets of cliffs. I'm sorry, I'm partial to Ireland, but that's a different story. But you're you arrived in the UK from Poland, lovely, lovely, amazing country. It was zero English.
00:09:39
Martyna Urban
Yes.
00:09:39
Jeremy Sholl
And that's not a footnote of your story. That's kind of the whole story in one sentence before any structure, before any credentials, before any systems were available to you, you built anything significant in in the UK.
00:09:51
Jeremy Sholl
But you built something around a language that wasn't yours, wasn't your native. Talk to us more about that. What does that give you that you can't get anywhere else?
00:10:00
Martyna Urban
I think it's definitely was a challenging time for me to write without the English. I definitely paid some price for it. I think what was the most challenging at first was the fact that I didn't understand what is happening around me.
00:10:10
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:10:14
Martyna Urban
I was actually physically not able to leave to the shop at the beginning because of the language barrier and how isolated it feels when you don't understand people around you or um anything actually.
00:10:29
Martyna Urban
And, you know, overcoming this and step by step learning the language, but also expanding your comfort zone, talking to friends, talking to family, trying to build your flexibility and how you respond to the difficult moment was definitely, you know, taught me a lot about my character as well, i would say.
00:10:50
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:10:51
Martyna Urban
Because my mom wanted me to come back home many times.
00:10:52
Jeremy Sholl
Of course.
00:10:56
Martyna Urban
And I didn't want to, I said to myself always, I would give myself at least a year. Let's give it a go. Let's try because obviously you can't, I would say if you try to commit to something just for a month that might not be enough, right? You can learn a lot about yourself or about the country and what you can do circumstances like this in very short period of time. so
00:11:18
Alaina Schnipke
Martyna how many times you said you want it, you said, I'm going to give it a year. Right. And I think it's important for people to like time bound those, those really tough transitions, right?
00:11:25
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:11:27
Alaina Schnipke
Like I know no one, I don't know the language. I don't know the culture. Like I'm going to give it a year just because I think a lot of people would underestimate this.
00:11:38
Alaina Schnipke
How many times in that year did you come close to going home?
00:11:44
Alaina Schnipke
And like, what's the closest you got? Like, had you started like packing your stuff back up? or like, what was the moment where you were like, you you hit the point, like the breaking point, right? Or the tipping point, if you will. And you were like, I can't do this. I got to go home. Like, how far did you get to like actually going home before you stopped yourself?
00:12:02
Alaina Schnipke
And how did you stop yourself and make yourself stay?
00:12:06
Martyna Urban
I think the closest was probably when I had a conversation with my mom and she actually started maybe not begging it, maybe too much of a word, but she really, really started asking me to come back because I think she really saw that I'm struggling.
00:12:07
Jeremy Sholl
right.
00:12:19
Martyna Urban
And I said to her, well, I was always a very stubborn one, so i um I never actually packed my bags. um I knew I wanted to give up, but something in my character,
00:12:33
Martyna Urban
would always say, not yet, not yet. The year didn't pass. The year didn't pass. And even I would try my eyes out.
00:12:39
Jeremy Sholl
Thank you.
00:12:39
Martyna Urban
And I was with a partner at that time was very supportive. And there were the moments when actually believed in myself for sure.
00:12:50
Martyna Urban
So, and also i would say the year wasn't only bad. You you need these moments when you remind yourself how far you have come. So I think maybe sticking to facts is very helpful.
00:13:00
Martyna Urban
sometimes just to even sit down and write them down or maybe say, okay, so I learned already this few words or I had this conversation in English with these birds and I started doing shopping on my own or like start listing things down.
00:13:12
Jeremy Sholl
Thank you.
00:13:13
Martyna Urban
And i think that's what really helps.
00:13:16
Alaina Schnipke
Is there like a ah distinct memory that you have where you like, to your point, like you started shopping on your own, you had this whole conversation, but is there like one memory that you have that you're like, this was the moment my confidence skewed towards stay? Like this was the moment I knew in my gut I could do this. Like, was there distinct or was it a compounding like daily life that led you to it?
00:13:40
Martyna Urban
actually, this is actually coming from my whole career. But within that first year, someone, a manager really believed in me.
00:13:50
Martyna Urban
And there was a moment I needed to, but they were looking for volunteers for people who will be ah training new people coming to the organization.
00:13:58
Alaina Schnipke
Thank you.
00:13:58
Martyna Urban
And they told me, you are the best to do it, you need to do it. And I could not believe that they are saying that to me because I said my English is not as good and he said that your English is absolutely fine, gonna smash it and I always get emotional and when I think about this because sometimes people do not know how much these words mean
Building New Communities and Support Systems
00:14:19
Martyna Urban
to others and how important words of encouragement are and maybe for him it was a daylight day, maybe he says these words to many people but that definitely stick with me and that was within my first year.
00:14:22
Jeremy Sholl
you
00:14:31
Martyna Urban
So I said to myself that if someone believes in me so much
00:14:31
Alaina Schnipke
yeah
00:14:35
Martyna Urban
I was like, I need to believe in myself at least 20% of it.
00:14:42
Jeremy Sholl
those external affirmations, sometimes just simple ones, can help start building start being the building blocks for your confidence level, no matter what it is, especially when you're up against what you are, because you know we spend so much time in our mind and we're usually our worst critic, right? We're always having a seed of doubt, you know imposter syndrome, whatever may appear in our heads.
00:15:02
Jeremy Sholl
And it's never we're never good enough, or we we are, but it takes that positive affirmation, that little word of encouragement to help you break down the walls that are in front of you.
00:15:15
Alaina Schnipke
um one of the things that i so I've moved physically ah twice in my life now once from the Midwest to the Southeast now I moved within the Southeast again but still another move and I think the second move was a little bit easier because in my brain, I kept telling myself, like, you have two homes.
00:15:43
Jeremy Sholl
Thank
00:15:48
Alaina Schnipke
And I'm curious, like, For me, I don't think I ever realized that I had built a home in South Carolina. I didn't realize like, oh, I actually have like friends here. I have my Pilates studio. Like I built all these little pieces and I don't think I realized what I was building until I was moving again. but I'm curious, like, have you experienced that same sense, right? Like I have a home, I can i can go home to my my family that I was born into, i can also stay here with this like family that I i built.
00:16:18
Alaina Schnipke
And it it's a unique perspective because I think a lot of people never leave or maybe they go away for university, but then they come back. And I don't know that university is enough time to build that home.
00:16:29
Alaina Schnipke
Cause I never really, like I loved university, but I didn't really get the same sense that I do of South Carolina. And I'm curious, you know,
00:16:37
Alaina Schnipke
would you Does that resonate with you? like Do you feel like you have multiple homes? and I look at it as a great thing, right? Yes, I'm always missing someone. I'm always missing a part of my life, but like it's kind of cool to have two pieces of my life that I can miss.
00:16:53
Martyna Urban
Yeah, I definitely can resonate. I actually moved twice as well. Once I moved to Midlands in UK and then second time I have moved to London and I have left great friends and my family in Poland and I also have left friends in Peterborough.
00:17:10
Martyna Urban
and now I'm building my life here. And I definitely agree. I feel I still have the friends there. We still visiting each other very often. We actually have seen each other this weekend. And I'm very, very happy to see and say that you have the skills to build this friendship and start from scratch.
00:17:30
Martyna Urban
And because it's not easy, how often we are hearing people saying that it's so difficult to build friendships.
00:17:34
Jeremy Sholl
you
00:17:36
Martyna Urban
with people, especially when you are getting older, because you will say people are busier and so on. And I think it's so important to see that this is still possible, that you can actually build new connections through your life, even with age and even when people look like they are busier, but also they are more assured of who they are and they are looking for the people who are closer to them and more aligned with them.
00:17:42
Alaina Schnipke
you
00:17:57
Martyna Urban
And I think these friendships are also very strong. So definitely.
00:18:02
Alaina Schnipke
making friends as an adult is hard.
00:18:02
Jeremy Sholl
I think it's, yeah.
00:18:05
Alaina Schnipke
It just requires effort. Like you have to be intentional. but I I've loved it. and it's kind of cool to have friends that have entered my life at different versions of myself.
00:18:20
Martyna Urban
Mm-hmm.
00:18:20
Alaina Schnipke
and the, especially the ones that have stayed through all of the versions, like my friends that I've had since second grade, i will hold onto them with everything I have because like,
00:18:30
Alaina Schnipke
They stayed with me through every version of myself. And I do believe that every time I've moved, every time I've changed or gone through a transition, it is a different version of me, whether it's different by 5% or 95%.
00:18:38
Jeremy Sholl
Thank you.
00:18:41
Alaina Schnipke
There there' there's you know there are people that have stayed with that. And I think the other piece of this, right, is we we've talked about the personal component.
00:18:51
Alaina Schnipke
You touched on the work component. Every time I've moved, it's been for my career. and when you add in transitioning your personal life, everything you know, your favorite grocery store to your friends that you've made, you move to somewhere new, you have to do all of that and you have to learn a whole new ecosystem of work.
00:19:12
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:19:14
Alaina Schnipke
Good grief. that's been That's been the most interesting thing. um I think especially over the past six weeks as I've gone through this move again, but you've done it.
00:19:26
Alaina Schnipke
You've changed careers, you've changed ge geographies.
Choosing Discomfort for Growth
00:19:29
Alaina Schnipke
I'm curious, what's been i think what's been harder, changing geographies or changing careers?
00:19:43
Alaina Schnipke
Because they're two very unique changes, right?
00:19:49
Martyna Urban
I agree. An interesting question actually. I like it. I like it.
00:19:54
Alaina Schnipke
I just thought of it because I was thinking of it myself. I'm like, what's been harder?
00:20:00
Jeremy Sholl
have to some
00:20:00
Martyna Urban
kid
00:20:02
Martyna Urban
For me, definitely the move to UK was the hardest move because I was still very young. First time leaving my parents, first time you know being a full responsible adult.
00:20:13
Martyna Urban
So obviously learning the new language, I think that was probably what helped me grow the most.
00:20:13
Alaina Schnipke
You
00:20:19
Martyna Urban
But then thinking about moving to London, that was easy and I loved it and I was super happy to come here and
00:20:20
Jeremy Sholl
so
00:20:27
Martyna Urban
except the prices, there's not many challenges I experienced. But definitely changing careers for sure, especially moving from operations to a talent acquisition, ah completely different environment, completely different people, completely different way how you work with people, how you lead people. And I needed to learn a lot about these different ways when I moved to talent acquisition because the work, the old ways didn't work as much as I wish.
00:20:53
Martyna Urban
And it's almost like i needed to rewire what kind of leader I am, and especially in terms of vulnerability and how I'm showing up. Yeah, so depends when and which depends which transition.
00:21:32
Martyna Urban
Thank you.
00:21:35
Jeremy Sholl
That's
00:21:36
Alaina Schnipke
And you know i've done i've done it a lot in my my career. i I collect different industries like trading cards. I'm pretty sure at this point, it's it's just a fun thing that I like to do is learn new industries. But I think that's always been one of the hesitations around leaving and making the conscious choice to leave.
00:21:56
Alaina Schnipke
I've been fortunate my career that my transitions have always been my choice. I've always been running towards the next great adventure or towards something different. But there's always been a piece of me as I'm walking away that's like,
00:22:08
Alaina Schnipke
but I could just stay in the comfort. I could stay in the familiar, even though it's not 100% what I want it to be, right? The spidey senses are going off. Something's not 100% connected.
00:22:22
Alaina Schnipke
leading has always been, do I stay in the comfort? And I'd be curious, Martyna and Jeremy, even you, like when you've made that choice to leave, how did you make the choice to leave the comfort?
00:22:29
Jeremy Sholl
Mm-hmm.
00:22:36
Jeremy Sholl
That I can speak to right away and I'll transfer it over to Martyna quick.
00:22:38
Alaina Schnipke
Yes.
00:22:39
Jeremy Sholl
But for me, it was, my God, it was hard. I mean, I switched from geology to recruiting, first of all. mean, it was a moment of a necessity for me for a little bit, but i don't know what I'm doing.
00:22:50
Jeremy Sholl
These people sound like call center agents calling people to get them to send them the CV and I was so confused. But then as I transitioned through the career, i went from company to company to company when you're in staffing and when you start off in your recruiting career,
00:23:04
Jeremy Sholl
it's a little harder to stay with one company a longer time. Plus, honestly, at the time, the West Coast was becoming, I'm really dating myself now, the West Coast was becoming the coolest place to work. you know It's like West Coast, United States, where you have Meta, you have Apple, Google, the commercials about Google and the beanbag chairs. I'm like, I wanted a beanbag chair in my office. It was the greatest idea ever, although probably fall asleep. But is I remember that the choice I made from like when my wife and I'll make it real short, Martyna but we were in Florida and we were actually foster parents at the time.
00:23:38
Jeremy Sholl
And I always believed that things happened for a reason too. I hate that phrase, hate the phrase, but it's 100% true. If it wasn't for the fact that Amazon called when they did, we wouldn't have joined.
00:23:49
Jeremy Sholl
I wouldn't have even entertained the call. I was happy. My my my leader who who I worked with at the time had really taught me core leadership into people development skills. And i'm like, this is comfort.
00:24:00
Jeremy Sholl
This is, I know I can trust him. He's going to direct me the right way. He's already built me up. I have his backing. It's those comfort factors of familiar.
00:24:06
Alaina Schnipke
Thank you.
00:24:10
Jeremy Sholl
And then I thought to myself, well, what do I wanna be remembered for? What do i want want my legacy to be in my career, just being comfortable at the time or going from, you know because i you know when you go in staffing, you go from unst instability, instability,
Living Authentically and Personal Values
00:24:25
Jeremy Sholl
instability. And then when I got to a comfort comfort level, stability level,
00:24:29
Jeremy Sholl
environment, it felt more comfortable. i was like, I don't want to leave this. I've been bouncing around between staffing jobs. I want a comfort environment. So the choice to leave and go and move my whole family and make my wife quit her 20 year career for us to go all the way across to the other side of the United States and join a company that, sorry, it sounded weird, like they're the banana cart. I was like, what is that?
00:24:50
Jeremy Sholl
To join that uncomfortable unknown was terrifying. i don't know if it's somebody in your life or a friend that gives you these footnote elements that become the foundation of who you are. And and I had a couple of people say this to me on random occasions that you always wanna be uncomfortable because you're always learning. And that always stuck with me.
00:25:10
Jeremy Sholl
and for me, it was to your point back around the the stability piece, I knew i had a home to go back to, right?
00:25:16
Alaina Schnipke
Mm-hmm.
00:25:16
Jeremy Sholl
So it's almost like i was using the two-way door concept before I even joined Amazon in the sense I'm like, I can try this out. Let's go to Seattle, see what happens, and then come back. so I was like, that made me feel more comfortable about it, but it's still a risk. you know I don't think it's 100% comfortable. What about you, Martyna?
00:25:32
Martyna Urban
I think for me it's all about living authentically, probably, and authenticity is my first core value. I think generally figuring out your values really helps in life and which direction you then pick and choose and then you decide to follow.
00:25:48
Martyna Urban
And for me, understanding what my core values are helped me the most also understand myself and understand why I'm making certain decisions. so Sometimes I would used to laugh at myself saying you always will make the decisions which make you uncomfortable and make your life difficult. And even my mom would say the same to me, like, why you just not come down, settle and just stop.
00:26:09
Martyna Urban
And I know why, because I can't, it's it's the authenticity is my first value and I have to be choosing life, either is living the careers which are not serving your relationships or moving countries or etc.
00:26:21
Martyna Urban
stopping the medication or even the smaller choices day to day when you have to set boundaries with your friends. um i just can't do it differently. It's not who I am.
00:26:32
Martyna Urban
And when I am not making decisions aligned with who I am, then I can't sleep at night.
00:26:35
Jeremy Sholl
Bye.
00:26:38
Martyna Urban
It's literally that it's it's physical for me almost like I am, i can't rest until I make that decision and the thoughts will be coming back and they will not let me rest.
00:26:50
Martyna Urban
It's almost like, like, This is this annoying voice in your head, which will constantly bring the idea of what you should be doing. And I just can't stop ignoring it. So it's like a natural thing.
00:27:01
Jeremy Sholl
have you Have you always been sure of of those elements of the authenticity?
00:27:07
Martyna Urban
I haven't been always very sure, but I have always been hearing them, but I used to ignore them or react or respond to them much later than I should. I think probably um the last five, six years are the years when I actually started listening to myself more and understanding what it is and why I'm making certain decisions. Probably in the past, I didn't always make these decisions knowing what I'm doing.
00:27:36
Martyna Urban
Sometimes there was a coincidence, sometimes i I knew what I'm doing, but I would like, I would say I always knew and, you know, I was always so close to myself, you know,
00:27:47
Jeremy Sholl
So there's a moment, so you didn't listen to him and now you're now you're listening to him. What was that what was the trigger? what but What was the moment when you were like, i need to start listening to
00:27:56
Martyna Urban
I think the out of the long term relationship and that was probably one of the biggest shift shifts in my life, which shake me with as well and who I am as a person. and is where my self development journey started when I really tried to understand myself and I started listening to all the podcasts, all the books. I probably went away too much, but this is when it all started and That helped me a lot.
00:28:27
Jeremy Sholl
or overcome the doubt, overcome the who am I? Like, what were some of the questions you used to ask yourself?
00:28:30
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:28:34
Martyna Urban
Exactly. Like who am I? What do I really want? What do really like? Sometimes I couldn't even ask simple questions. I couldn't share opinions. Sometimes I didn't know what I even think. How often someone asked me an opinion and I just felt so jealous of people who are so confidently presenting their opinions.
00:28:50
Martyna Urban
And I didn't even know what I think. And I started being concerned with Like, how could you not even know? And then I think it's all about that I didn't have the right boundaries or I didn't even even spend time thinking to understand who I am and what I like.
00:29:06
Martyna Urban
And sometimes you just follow the group or you're just agreeing with people not to upset them. oh And in the end, the moment when you are actually getting closer to yourself and being more authentic, this is when the more shakes come. And this is where you actually start that thing yourself even more because then there is a risk of not being liked and doing things which you know may not.
00:29:29
Martyna Urban
um People may not agree with, but I don't think I have ever felt more alive and close to myself, but I feel now.
00:29:38
Alaina Schnipke
think that I think there's something really almost impossible to articulate to someone that hasn't gotten to that point in their life.
00:29:50
Alaina Schnipke
And i just think it's impossible to articulate. It's like I'm here. like i am who I am supposed to be. i am fulfilling whatever purpose is currently most important to me, whether you know whether that's personal, professional, individual, team-oriented. like And you can have multiple purposes fine at the same time.
00:30:09
Alaina Schnipke
But I think it's a really hard feeling. to articulate, to be like, yeah, I'm i'm good. And like most of the time, that's what I'll tell people. like If they're like, how are you doing? I'm like, honestly, I'm good.
00:30:20
Alaina Schnipke
And I say that authentically, not like, oh, hey, how's your day going? Oh, it's good. like you know very you know We all know those memes. But there's you hit a point in your life where you're like, OK, the decisions I've made have actually worked more in my favor than against me.
00:30:38
Alaina Schnipke
And i don't I don't recall who in my career told me this one time, but I was i was struggling with decision making. i still struggle with decision making to some extent, but I think that's partially due to decision fatigue and because I'm just a natural researcher.
00:30:53
Alaina Schnipke
Like I just want to know everything. But I've gotten better.
00:30:56
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:30:57
Alaina Schnipke
And one of the things that someone told me in my career was like, the first thing you ask yourself is like, well, if I do this, will it fulfill me more than it will deplete me? And if it will deplete me, is it necessary? Is it something that I just have to do in this moment? Is it something you just have to push forward through because it's required of your career or it's required? Like I don't wake up every morning and think to myself, gosh, I can't wait to go run eight miles. But there are times during the week where I'm i'm in a training cycle and I'm like, I need to do these eight miles. And yes, it will be hard.
00:31:30
Alaina Schnipke
Yes, I will feel depleted at the end. I might be a little bit more tired today, but I know the compounding effect. will still, it's necessary. um And so I think I like, I find myself regularly going back to like, if I do this, will it fulfill me more than it will deplete me?
00:31:47
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:31:47
Alaina Schnipke
And if it's going to deplete me more, is it something that I still just have to do?
00:32:21
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
Emotional Experience in Transitions
00:32:24
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting and and this is, I love this. This kind of, i could talk about this stuff for hours and hours. So Martyna like the point that that Alaina made there, when i look when you look back at that moment, that difficult, very ah transitional moment, if I'm gonna coin the phrase, what was the first one or two steps that you took?
00:32:46
Jeremy Sholl
but it's ah it's ah It's a change, huge life event coming out of a long long-term relationship.
00:32:49
Alaina Schnipke
you.
00:32:51
Jeremy Sholl
You know, you you can lose sense of sense of identity, sense of self. Same thing as like a long-term company, 15 years. So what were the first two steps that you felt, that you took, that you felt like you actually were moving forward?
00:33:04
Jeremy Sholl
What were they?
00:33:06
Martyna Urban
So I am someone and this is a good thing and not so good sometimes because I'm someone who loves to fix things. So when i and this is what I see and understand now, but at that point, I really wanted to fix my feelings.
00:33:20
Martyna Urban
And I was doing quite a lot of right things. So I tried to educate myself. i and was reading lots of books and listening to podcasts. And I could really see that I understand myself more and more.
00:33:32
Martyna Urban
However, sometimes I forgot to feel the feelings and what I think I should be doing more sometimes feel the feelings rather than understand all my feelings and understand myself.
00:33:42
Martyna Urban
And I definitely think I'm great at understanding. I still working on feeling the feelings and not to try to fix them. um So definitely before I was quite good at um understanding what is happening. that That's for sure. I am someone who craves and who needs to know the answers um to everything almost. And I can't rest until I know the answers to all my questions in my head.
00:34:09
Martyna Urban
And so that helped, but that also can be an overview.
00:34:14
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah, I mean, that's a complete, that's two two dragons fighting each other at the same time it's inside your head. Like, I need i need this, but I shouldn't need it. Wait, I don't need it. Wait, no, I still need it. You know, it's that back and forth tennis match, right?
00:34:23
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:34:26
Alaina Schnipke
And the irony of three of us sitting on this call, all wanting to know everything and then throwing ourselves into situation after situation where we know nothing. if If anyone listens to us and hears one sentence, it's that we all want to know everything and yet we've pursued opportunities where we know nothing. And good news, we're still here.
00:34:46
Alaina Schnipke
We're still like more sane than insane. And we're still happier than if we wouldn't have done it. But yeah, i think they're where you talked about like Oh, feeling your feelings and letting yourself sit in it versus just like trying to tackle the next problem.
00:35:03
Jeremy Sholl
Thank you.
00:35:03
Alaina Schnipke
Like, okay, this is something I know I can fix. This is something I know I can do. um i am very much the same way. I'm like, it's on, I'm just going to look at my to-do list.
00:35:11
Martyna Urban
and
00:35:13
Alaina Schnipke
I'm just going to go do something to check it off. So that way I feel a little less unanchored or a little less sad, whatever it is. I'm like, I'm just going to do something. gosh, that's a good reminder.
00:35:27
Martyna Urban
I also think that understanding and saying that ah out loud that the emotions will be coming to you while you are transitioning and then it's okay to go through the waves.
00:35:38
Martyna Urban
It's okay to also have different feelings and emotions than everyone else around you. That doesn't mean that you have to go through the same feelings and emotions at the same time. um That for me was also something that I needed to learn, but I definitely think that I am much better at it right now. What I have learned as well that I can go to the positive feelings and emotions quite quick now because I am someone who tends to see a positive things in life and I am a problem solver so as soon as see a problem I'm like okay this is a problem what's next how can I make something positive out of it but not everyone around me sometimes are ready to go with the same speed and how I then bring everyone else on the same journey with me is sometimes a challenge but
00:36:24
Jeremy Sholl
I could follow your Instagram feed all day long. i think should be like a video reel of like just the random pictures of beauty that you take. And it's just like, it gives me, it's just a good reminder of like those little positive affirmations. And I love this. I agree. get your point, Alaina I think we seek out the the things we don't know is because we want to know everything. So we don't know what that is. And we know what column A is. We don't know what column B is.
00:36:45
Jeremy Sholl
So let's go into column b B and see what it's like and what it is.
Martina's Coaching Path and Insights
00:36:48
Jeremy Sholl
And speaking of column B, I think it's a good point where we can really start to dive into column B for you was the coaching piece, the the starting your own business, which two of those statements are both terrifying to a lot of people and can be like, wait, business? I have to, wait huh?
00:37:05
Jeremy Sholl
and then i have to drum up business and and i'm coaching people now and it's it's it can be you know when you just discovered who you know you really kind of did in a self-assessment tell us about how that transition happened because i think that's something a lot of our listeners would love to hear about how did that come about? how did you I know you talked about coaching when we originally met that you have always wanted to coach. It's it's kind of in your soul, but how did that come to come from just a ah temporary side thing to, you know what, I think I'm going to take my career in this direction.
00:37:36
Martyna Urban
Actually, everything started when I was a child. I mean, not necessari necessarily thinking that I love coaching, but I love asking questions. And I was always very curious child. I love to know the answers. that, however, transitions from not wanting to know the answers for my own good to actually wanting to know the answers for the person in front of me good.
00:37:58
Martyna Urban
So they can benefit from my questions rather than I can benefit from my questions.
00:38:02
Jeremy Sholl
It's good connection.
00:38:03
Martyna Urban
So definitely not. Yeah. Definitely love asking questions and then being a people leader in the company. and Taught me a lot as well about how to be a good leader and understanding that you need to understand the person in front of you and need to not get to know them, you need to be a good listener, you need to be very curious about who they are and what they want to actually be a good leader. and help them grow.
00:38:28
Martyna Urban
And especially when I was in talent acquisition, when I had a bigger team and I had very regular one-to-ones, I needed to practice being that person with people constantly.
00:38:40
Martyna Urban
And there was a moment ah around pandemic time, probably a few years ago, when I actually first thought that I would love to be either a psychologist or a coach or someone who actually works with people on a daily basis, also outside work,
00:38:54
Martyna Urban
And mainly for the reasons that I also wanted to touch based on different topics, not only the work topics with people. And yeah, I actually got encouraged by someone I knew, a friend of mine who said that I supposed to do this. My friends always said to me that I would be a great therapist or a lawyer. I don't know why a lawyer, but they did mention that quite a lot.
00:39:17
Martyna Urban
And I really wanted to give it a go and try something different. I also think it's good to have a backup plan. in the world of uncertainty and it's good to have an option and think about what else you could be doing in the world full of change and uncertainty and think of maybe be something else. and And yeah, I did finish um the course which lasts 18 months, maybe.
00:39:44
Martyna Urban
And yeah, had just finished that this year in in January and love working with people.
00:39:51
Jeremy Sholl
Congrats, congrats. Excited to to to watch it unfold and and grow your business. And so looking back, you know that what what was the moment for our listeners where the backup plan became the front plan?
00:40:06
Jeremy Sholl
like what was that trigger what was it something somebody said was it something you read what was it what was the decision moment that you're like you know what i should give this a go and and stop ignoring my friends
00:40:17
Martyna Urban
I think because I have also spent 15 years in the same company, um I really felt um that I would like to also send my energy someone else. Not necessarily mean that only somewhere else but also means that somewhere else.
00:40:34
Martyna Urban
And because I really wanted to start talking and helping people, I i have seen how much coaching and therapy helped me ah in the past. and i really wanted to be able to give a similar support and help to people at the same time and really wanted to give people a similar experience i have seen how that helped me and i wanted to give it um away so probably two three years ago because i am a huge advocate of a therapy and coaching or any sort of help you can get from the conversation with other people
00:41:10
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah, therapy is so impactful. It's just so huge. i Couldn't agree more.
00:41:17
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah. the ah The younger generation doesn't know how lucky they are that therapy is normalized for them.
00:41:24
Jeremy Sholl
It's true.
00:41:25
Alaina Schnipke
um i think we're all of the the era that you you went to therapy because you were quote unquote broken or like it was stigmatized.
00:41:35
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:41:36
Alaina Schnipke
Let's let's just call a spade a spade. Like you didn't go to therapy because you just wanted to go, right?
00:41:37
Martyna Urban
No.
00:41:41
Alaina Schnipke
You went because there was a problem and it was like a a negative connotation, but now it's like, yeah, I'm in therapy and people are like, oh my gosh, do you love your therapist? and it's like, yeah that my therapist is my best friend. like um So I think there's there's that. I think the other piece that um is so important is for people to understand, i think specifically about you, Martyna is like, you're going into this coaching area after having been through significant changes in your life, managing and mentoring for most of your career.
00:42:17
Alaina Schnipke
And it's likely that more of the people you managed and mentored went through significant life changes than not while you were managing and mentoring them. And you cannot teach that experience in a classroom. That is lived experience.
00:42:31
Alaina Schnipke
That is experience that, again, it's really hard to articulate. but without having gone through it, both yourself personally and as a manager mentor of others who are making tough decisions, going through life changes, maybe even just choosing to be stable for a while, right?
00:42:48
Alaina Schnipke
Say it coming to your manager mentor and saying, you know what? Like I actually don't want to get to the next level.
00:42:53
Martyna Urban
Thank you.
00:42:54
Alaina Schnipke
Like i'm I'm thrilled where I'm at. And that lived experience is so impactful. um And having people like yourself that are willing to say like, I'll share my experience, but I'm also going to go do the work to understand how to do it in the best way possible, right? I'm going to take the courses because I know there's a framework that will make me better at this. Like, that's not something you often find, right? There are people that like, oh, I took this course. I'm certified. I can coach you.
00:43:18
Alaina Schnipke
And then there are people that are well, I've just done it my entire life, so I don't need a course. And I think something that is really, again, it's just impactful and it says a lot about who you are,
00:43:29
Alaina Schnipke
is you put both together and you were intentional enough to say, you know what, maybe I do need this course. And maybe it's just because you wanted the answers, right? Like maybe you were like, I just feel like i need more information before I go do this.
00:43:38
Jeremy Sholl
Oh.
00:43:41
Alaina Schnipke
um But I think it's something that's really important and really impactful. What scares?
00:43:46
Martyna Urban
Funny you say that.
00:43:48
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:43:48
Martyna Urban
Funny you say that because i was actually challenged on that by someone who is also a coach and said to me that I don't need a course to be a coach. And they said to me that I coached hundreds of clients without any course.
00:44:03
Martyna Urban
which I totally understand and I agree that was something always non-negotiable for me that I needed to understand the basics and how it's not to harm people. What are my responsibilities? What are the boundaries when I should step away from coaching or say that's not a topic for me to coach?
00:44:18
Martyna Urban
I think it's just making sure that you stay humble within yourself, knowing that you don't know everything. You don't you shouldn't help everyone with everything and also learn how to say it out loud um because I think what could cause some troubles is when we are thinking that we are the only help to people. We also should understand that we don't have to be, and that it's sometimes better to step away or take a step back and say no to a client and know when we should not be helping certain topics. Like coaching is not a therapy and we should not helping people to heal trauma, for example, and we should not even come too close to that. So I think it's important to understand the difference as well.
00:45:01
Jeremy Sholl
I couldn't agree more. That is definitely where I think there's a myth sometimes is there is a boundary there. So don't try to play dual roles because you know you're talking human human emotion human emotion, human psyche, and and it's it's very important to to focus on the right thing. Alaina you had a question.
00:45:19
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah, so I think when you were talking about your career, right, you started in operations, then you moved over to talent acquisition and you had to like learn this world. Do you think you would have become, do you think and at some point there would have been a twist in your life had you not gone into talent acquisition, let's say you stayed in operations, do you think you still would have found coaching eventually? Do you think it's just something innate in you?
00:45:41
Alaina Schnipke
Or do you think being in talent acquisition is what put you on this path?
00:45:47
Martyna Urban
I
00:45:47
Alaina Schnipke
I mean, it's a loaded question, right? We don't know, but I'm curious, like do you think you would have been a coach and made this transition without that connector piece of TA? a
00:45:59
Martyna Urban
really like that question as well. I think honestly talent acquisition helped me massively. don't know if I would become a coach. I'm not saying I wouldn't be helping people in some but I think in talent acquisition, really, it really humbled me as a person
00:46:10
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:46:16
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:46:16
Martyna Urban
I think it helped me being more vulnerable, helped me to communicate with people better, helped to share my intention upfront of every conversation, tell people what I really mean instead of like, you know, starting the conversation without setting and giving people the background of why I'm here, what I'm doing, what's my intention especially.
00:46:37
Martyna Urban
And because I tend to be a quick thinker and a direct person as well, I communicate very fast. that wasn't always working well i'm i'm gonna be honest this i think i learned that in definitely in talent acquisition i'm not saying i i couldn't learn that in operations but i just had to because it's a bit different work environment it's a bit different way how you communicate it's not as fast i needed to slow down everything
00:46:57
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:47:06
Jeremy Sholl
It's amazing how that works.
00:47:06
Alaina Schnipke
I just, I think, a lot of people look at like recruiting and talent acquisition and still don't really understand the complexity of it.
00:47:15
Alaina Schnipke
I mean, we're asking people to give up a career to come do our career. Like it's a big, it's a big deal for a lot of people. um And so I think there's, there's something unique about that experience that it's just like that added layer onto, right? Like you've made these really tough transitions personally, professionally, you've helped other people through these transitions, whether it was like they wanted that job or maybe they didn't. And you were like, no, come do it anyways. Right. Like come take the risk with me.
00:47:43
Alaina Schnipke
And so I think there's just something really compounding about the past 10, 15 years of your life that one, I think like similar to me, you're kind of inherently just like addicted to the transition.
00:47:57
Alaina Schnipke
right like There's something really enticing about the unknown.
00:47:58
Martyna Urban
Hmm.
00:48:04
Alaina Schnipke
and not everyone's like that and that's totally okay. Um, but for those that are out there that are like kind of curious about the unknown, but feel a little bit wonky about being so curious about the unknown, like there are people like you out there. We're here. And the good news is, is there are people that want to like coach you through it, AKA, um,
00:48:22
Alaina Schnipke
you know, Martyna Meanwhile, I'm over here like, yeah, I got to go sort my own life. Like, by all means, please do not come to me for advice. But no.
00:48:30
Martyna Urban
Thank you.
00:48:31
Alaina Schnipke
um So I think there's just like, as I've learned more about, you know, as I've learned kind of how you approached your transitions and how you forced yourself to stay in the uncomfortable and how you've been like just very thoughtful along the way and discovered who you are, right?
Discovering Authentic Self Through Transitions
00:48:47
Alaina Schnipke
Authenticity to your core. It's just really fascinating. um And I think without those tough transitions, I don't know that you would and don't know that you would be as like authentic to yourself as you are today. And I don't know if that's a fair statement.
00:49:01
Alaina Schnipke
Call me out on it if it's not. But I think like i think you found a huge piece of who you are, like those core values, through the transitions.
00:49:09
Jeremy Sholl
through pain, through discomfort.
00:49:10
Martyna Urban
I agree.
00:49:13
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:49:13
Jeremy Sholl
Right.
00:49:14
Martyna Urban
Yeah. But that discomfort brings you exactly closer, that every single time you made that decision, when you feel like you can take the deep breath after it, even if it's difficult, there are moments of doubt 100%.
00:49:28
Martyna Urban
Sometimes I even need to call my friends or family and ask them, can you tell me what I'm doing? Because I forgot for a second. So I think it's also important that you have people in life who can keep you grounded, but also who can support you through this.
00:49:41
Martyna Urban
i'm I'm not saying I'm the one person only and I don't need anyone because I'm so confident.
00:49:45
Jeremy Sholl
I
00:49:46
Martyna Urban
For sure not. I think I'm so lucky that I have the best friends who and the best family who is there for me. So that was a huge help as well.
00:49:57
Jeremy Sholl
think that's great. And I i i echo the sentiments. it's it's It's great to have a guest like yours like you on the podcast for people to hear the story, connect with it, and know that it's okay.
00:50:01
Alaina Schnipke
Yep.
00:50:09
Jeremy Sholl
It's gonna be okay. Going back to your point, Alaina I think it is also, to circle back for a second on recruiting, like i my favorite question wanted to ask, I asked it and it it confused that crap out of a VP. i was like what do you like most about your job? like What do you do every day? And he any he gave me this you know in-depth speech and all this information, really quick though, to the point. I said, what do you think I do?
00:50:32
Jeremy Sholl
And he goes, a i don't know. Why do you? I'm like, exactly. Because most business leaders really don't know why recruiting does what they do every day.
00:50:44
Jeremy Sholl
And and if you actually just remember that and and even ask, it doesn't even have to be recruiting to hiring manager. can be just one of your peers. Why do you do every day? I don't think we ask each other that enough in the business world is, what do you come back every day besides a paycheck?
00:50:57
Jeremy Sholl
Is it just a paycheck? I mean, you know that's fine.
Lightning Round with Martina
00:51:16
Martyna Urban
Yes. yes
00:51:20
Jeremy Sholl
The power of a single question asked at the right moment. So that quote coming from you, I'm go to use it as a transition point to move us into the lightning round to get us super excited with some weird questions, maybe not at the right moment, maybe at the right moment, Because I think it's a good moment to uncover a little bit more, maybe not as as deep and meaningful, but more of just you know surface craziness.
00:51:48
Jeremy Sholl
So if is that okay with you? You okay with we kind of dive into these little crazy nonsense questions?
00:51:55
Martyna Urban
No, yes.
00:51:55
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:51:56
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:51:56
Jeremy Sholl
It's okay, I promise it won't be that bad.
00:51:57
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:52:01
Jeremy Sholl
All right, the lightning round. And how it goes, as we described it before, is it's six questions, and then we're gonna take a hard left turn, and Alaina's gonna take you into the unknown. But these are gonna be straightforward. Don't try to think too much on them. We may ask a follow-up question, we may have a little dialogue on them, because they are kind of fun.
00:52:19
Jeremy Sholl
So are you ready, Martyna for the lightning round? Okay. All right, you can say no, it's okay. Number one. What's your most useless superpower?
00:52:33
Martyna Urban
Oh, so much power. What a great question. My mind went totally blank.
00:52:46
Martyna Urban
I would probably say i am ah i can walk very fast.
00:52:52
Jeremy Sholl
You can walk very fast. That's not useless. Okay. Like if we're, if the if the Metro is not, if the tube's not working, that's a good thing to have.
00:52:56
Martyna Urban
Sometimes can be useless.
00:53:00
Martyna Urban
But it's useless when you want to rest.
00:53:02
Jeremy Sholl
Oh, that's true.
00:53:03
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah.
00:53:03
Alaina Schnipke
Oops.
00:53:03
Martyna Urban
I am a, sometimes a competitor, even when I want to rest and I tend to turn my rest into competition. So that's not a big one.
00:53:13
Jeremy Sholl
I will say you're at least comforting when you're with people walking. Cause when i walked with you in London, you weren't super, weren't one of those people who walks really super fast. I had to keep up with, like, I felt like I have friends like that who like, they want to get from point A to point B and my heart rate is going elevate to whether I like it or not.
00:53:25
Martyna Urban
I used to be a picker.
00:53:27
Jeremy Sholl
And it's like, Oh, come on. Like, we're just walking. Like, why do you got to walk a thousand miles an hour? Come on.
00:53:32
Martyna Urban
Yeah, it's from my time in operations when I need to go very quickly from A point to B and I walk super fast.
00:53:37
Jeremy Sholl
Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, you're in the fulfillment centers? Yeah, you got, yeah, especially especially if it's it's bathroom break.
00:53:41
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:53:43
Jeremy Sholl
Yeah, you got you gotta to run back and forth. Number two, what has been the Amazon habit you had to unlearn the fastest?
00:53:53
Martyna Urban
I would probably say not everything is structured. I think in Amazon, the the definite habit is that we know what is coming. The lot of things is structured. A lot of things is standardized. And the habit is that sometimes you tend to standardize everything and you want to have everything within the frames. And I don't think that always works in the real life.
00:54:14
Martyna Urban
The real life sometimes needs to be adjusted. And I probably, that's what I would say, standardizing everything.
00:54:21
Jeremy Sholl
i I love it. yeah world's messy, but so it's it's it's okay to be unorganized sometimes, even though at Amazon, you know although a lot of things were there, were a little crazy, not always organized, especially especially in the early early days.
00:54:23
Martyna Urban
Oh, what's appliance? Sorry.
00:54:34
Jeremy Sholl
Now AI organizes everything. Okay, number three. If you were an appliance, what would you be and why?
00:54:44
Martyna Urban
what's a planances sorry
00:54:45
Jeremy Sholl
Oh, sorry, like a like a refrigerator, like a a stove. If you were a household item, what would you be in line?
00:54:52
Martyna Urban
Oh, I think I would like to be an oven because you can bake cakes and the smell is great.
00:54:58
Martyna Urban
And I think it just would be so nice to bake amazing things. ah
00:54:58
Alaina Schnipke
you
00:55:03
Jeremy Sholl
I like, I like, all right. I'm no more with that. i hey that's that's the way my wife got me. She got me through baking. Like ah it's a way to, yeah.
00:55:12
Martyna Urban
It reminds me home and makes me feel so safe and comfortable.
00:55:14
Jeremy Sholl
Oh, yes.
00:55:15
Martyna Urban
So yeah.
00:55:16
Jeremy Sholl
Oh, yes. Very, very good. All right. Number four. What is the skill you didn't know you had until you left?
00:55:27
Martyna Urban
I would probably say
00:55:31
Martyna Urban
huge, ands well I don't know if that's a necessary skill, but I would probably say understanding who am i outside of this job and outside of the company.
00:55:43
Martyna Urban
and So kind of like understanding who am i ah without, that's what I would say.
00:55:50
Jeremy Sholl
Okay, I like that, yeah. And that's really ah applicable to your coaching business as well, is being able to break those things down and help people understand who they are outside of the job, right?
00:56:00
Jeremy Sholl
I think that's really, is yeah.
00:56:01
Martyna Urban
and that yes, that we are a whole person um always.
00:56:08
Jeremy Sholl
All right, number five. Two more, two more. You're doing great. Finish this sentence. If I were a mad scientist, my evil invention, evil, evil invention would be what?
00:56:23
Martyna Urban
create, I don't know that, that, that, that won't be that evil actually. AI.
00:56:32
Martyna Urban
I maybe shouldn't say that. It just came to my mind because I'm so like, I wouldn't maybe stop AI, but I, uh, the evil invention would be, and remove all the healthy products, zero products, uh, fat zero products, sugar, low products.
00:56:51
Martyna Urban
don't know if that's evil for people who are into health and maybe sport that could be evil, but I really don't think they should exist.
00:56:58
Jeremy Sholl
Yes.
00:56:58
Martyna Urban
That's but my intention.
00:57:00
Alaina Schnipke
I hate food pretending to be other food.
00:57:03
Jeremy Sholl
yes
00:57:04
Alaina Schnipke
Like cauliflower crust on pizza. No, stop it. We do not need cauliflower crust.
00:57:07
Martyna Urban
No, I mean like we can eat a bit less.
00:57:09
Alaina Schnipke
yeah
00:57:10
Martyna Urban
I get it, but like, I just think we try to replace something what is already very good. And especially these days when we are actually going back to ah roots and we want things from the farms and fresh and
00:57:23
Jeremy Sholl
I couldn't agree more and I'm um'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this, but like soy is amazing. Soy can be used in so many things. Stay out of the bacon market. If you want bacon, eat bacon.
00:57:31
Martyna Urban
yeah yeah
00:57:32
Jeremy Sholl
You don't, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. You just bacon flavored a turd.
00:57:34
Alaina Schnipke
Yeah.
00:57:35
Jeremy Sholl
Like it's just, that's no, no.
00:57:39
Jeremy Sholl
No, no, it's okay. It's, hey, you know what? I just read that Microsoft, I was reading it the other day, the other week. Microsoft has reduced its, and many companies are following this, are reducing access to AI because it's costing them too much.
00:57:51
Jeremy Sholl
Too many people are using it.
00:57:52
Martyna Urban
Oh,
00:57:52
Jeremy Sholl
Too many people are using it or advancing it, so it's costing them too much. So see we'll see how this transitions.
00:57:57
Martyna Urban
that's interesting.
00:57:58
Jeremy Sholl
That's ah a very unknown path forward. All right, last one. Are you ready? It's It's not as crazy, I promise.
00:58:04
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:58:05
Jeremy Sholl
What does building something with no manual actually feel like on a random Wednesday for you?
00:58:13
Martyna Urban
I actually love it. I never use the manual, to be honest. Like I would be excited to do it.
00:58:16
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:58:18
Martyna Urban
As someone who hates manuals, I always try to skip all the manuals obviously that never works out. But I think I'm ah usually a bit more adventurous. So it's like an adventure, trying to identify everything on my own.
00:58:28
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
00:58:31
Martyna Urban
um Definitely frustrating after half an hour. Definitely. Yeah.
00:58:38
Jeremy Sholl
especially with you wanting to have the, you know, I gotta have the answers and oh there's no answers to this.
00:58:42
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:58:43
Jeremy Sholl
Why not? Come on.
00:58:44
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
00:58:45
Jeremy Sholl
Exactly. Well, you did great. Thank you, Martyna You survived the lightning round, but yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, you're not done. We're gonna take, ah we'rere right we're going down the road. We're doing pretty good. A couple of bumps along the way, but now we're gonna take a hard left turn to Alaina and transfer it over to her for her hard left turn question.
00:59:04
Jeremy Sholl
The floor is yours, Alaina
00:59:06
Alaina Schnipke
Okay. And I literally thought of this as we were going through the lightning round. um But if you had, if you had to, like no choice, had to eat at least one bite of a single food every single day for the rest of your life, what would that food be and why?
00:59:26
Martyna Urban
Oh, easy. I kept so many. But I would say peanut butter. would just eat peanut butter every day, forever. it will not make me...
00:59:37
Martyna Urban
Because obviously it's very calorific, but if I could and I had to, yes, always. I just love the texture.
00:59:43
Jeremy Sholl
I'm with you.
00:59:44
Martyna Urban
and also reminds me of a peanut crisps I used to eat as a child and gives me some memories as well, but I just just love it in any shape form.
00:59:56
Alaina Schnipke
I think there's always a memory affiliated. Like when I asked this question or, um you know, some type of version of this question of folks, like, it's like, oh, it's because I love it, but it's also because of this, right? Like, it's like, even when I don't want to eat it even like on the, you know, seventh year of eating a spoonful of peanut butter every single day, I'm going to look at that and be like,
01:00:20
Alaina Schnipke
oh, I remember that time or think about it. So I'm just always curious. And then, you know, like, I'm always curious, like, do people default towards like a sweet or savory?
01:00:30
Alaina Schnipke
Do they default to like a bite of a meal or so a thing that is just a standalone?
01:00:30
Martyna Urban
Hmm. Oh.
01:00:31
Jeremy Sholl
Oh,
01:00:36
Alaina Schnipke
And I think the, you know, all of that, unpacking all of that is always really interesting. um For me, like, quite frankly, I dark chocolate. good dark chocolate every day for the rest. I mean, I think I eat i think i eat it every day anyways, because I love it. But like the dark chocolate Milano cookies, I love them.
01:00:58
Alaina Schnipke
Dark chocolate with sea salt caramel, love it. Just a chunk of dark chocolate.
01:01:01
Jeremy Sholl
Oh, wait, wait, hold on. you're you're add and You're adding too many combinations here.
01:01:03
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
01:01:04
Jeremy Sholl
You're adding sea salt caramel. Like, oh, hold on, hold on.
01:01:06
Alaina Schnipke
Because you can do so much with dark chocolate.
01:01:08
Jeremy Sholl
ah You can, you can, but don't, don't, you said dark chocolate.
01:01:08
Martyna Urban
and the
01:01:10
Alaina Schnipke
And like,
01:01:11
Jeremy Sholl
Stick with that little small tidbit there first. And is that where the question came from? The fact that you realized you were eating this every day and you're like, you know what? A question would be is what, what other craziness does everybody else eat once a day?
01:01:22
Alaina Schnipke
I don't know where this question came from originally. i think we were talking about like food that we love um and like food that we we would never eat. Like we all have, everyone has a food that they hate. Like immediate immediate aversion for my husband, it's dill.
01:01:38
Alaina Schnipke
the season, the herb, then seasoning dill.
01:01:39
Martyna Urban
Oh, that's... I didn't know...
01:01:53
Martyna Urban
well they didn't know
01:01:56
Alaina Schnipke
And I think, you know, there's, there's a lot to unpack behind what could I eat every single day for the rest of my life?
01:02:02
Jeremy Sholl
would be It would be peanut butter. i would i'm on I'm on the Martyna bandwagon on that one because I actually, it's funny, I take it a step further. So when I was dating, in before met my wife, when I was dating in Florida, it was a knockout question.
01:02:16
Jeremy Sholl
are you alleric Are you allergic to peanuts? Because this is not gonna work. I cannot live in, or I'm sorry, you know i feel I feel so bad for people who have that allergy. it's it's you know Any allergy can be difficult to deal with, especially a peanut one, especially with the world the way it is now and food and cooking and everything.
01:02:25
Martyna Urban
yeahy
01:02:31
Jeremy Sholl
But I'm sorry, it was a dating knockout question because so I can't live in a world without peanut butter. It's not gonna work. So I'm sorry, thats that I didn't put it in the online dating forum, but it was more of a, well, we're chatting back and forth.
01:02:38
Martyna Urban
i feel you know yes
01:02:42
Jeremy Sholl
like, so by the way, random question. You're allergic to peanut butter. You are. Yeah. Okay. We're going to to stop this now because that's to work for me.
01:02:48
Alaina Schnipke
Yep.
01:02:49
Jeremy Sholl
That's like one of those things if you want to have kids or not. Yeah. That's right up there with that one. So and I told my wife that and she's like, really? What's wrong with you?
01:02:57
Martyna Urban
oh i used to eat um a lot peanut butter before like i used to eat like three tablespoons a day when i didn't know how much calorie i was like
01:02:58
Jeremy Sholl
And I'm like, I,
01:03:06
Martyna Urban
It's so healthy, what could be wrong with it? And then I realized it wasn't as as good in the moment, but no regrets. ah
01:03:14
Jeremy Sholl
and so It depends where you get the peanut butter from because the U.S. peanut butter is what I grew up on and that's just basically sugar with some peanuts mixed in maybe.
01:03:17
Martyna Urban
Yeah.
01:03:21
Martyna Urban
Oh, I always take no sugar, sugar-free in UK.
01:03:24
Jeremy Sholl
Okay.
01:03:25
Martyna Urban
There's plenty of options, luckily. Okay.
01:03:27
Jeremy Sholl
There is.
01:03:27
Alaina Schnipke
Yep.
01:03:27
Jeremy Sholl
There is. It reminds me of the Ted Lasso show where he like dips his finger in the peanut butter. I'm just like, oh, that's a great idea. I don't have that up here. Anyway, thank you. Thank you, Martyna Thank you for answering the questions and going through it and really breaking things down for
Conclusion and Reflections
01:03:41
Jeremy Sholl
us.
01:03:42
Jeremy Sholl
You really created ah an element of vulnerability for our audience and for us. So thank you for doing that. that That's not easy, especially on your first podcast and and talking to us about some of the things you ever came and really relating them to different topics that people are going through now. I think that is really the most important piece. If there's one thing that stays with you today, anybody listening, is this.
01:04:03
Jeremy Sholl
The structure didn't hold Martyna back, right The structure was kind of the making of who you are and and and building you towards this next path that you're taking. and And I really think it's important for everyone to take a step back and look at that.
01:04:16
Jeremy Sholl
and and really focus back on some of the things that that Martyna discussed today with us. Martyna, again, thank you for the honest version. Thank you for giving us you know the the the honest real you in our conversation today.
01:04:24
Alaina Schnipke
Thank you.
01:04:30
Jeremy Sholl
as ah As we always like to, end our podcast is really giving the floor to our guests. People might who are listening might be interested in learning more. They might want to connect with you. They might want to hear you where you're speaking or where they can listen to your content or read about what you're writing about.
01:04:45
Jeremy Sholl
Where can people find you?
01:04:47
Martyna Urban
Thank you so much, Jeremy. I actually have my own website with coaching and my Instagram. The Instagram is probably best when people can get to know me a bit better because I'm trying to be a bit more personal while also sharing my experience with coaching and and talking to the clients over there.
01:05:06
Martyna Urban
So that could be a great place to find me. um I'm sure you will add some social and yeah.
01:05:11
Jeremy Sholl
ah Yeah, definitely we'll share those out. For anybody listening, we will share out all the links for you. And i know I know they'll be able to connect with you there. Thank you again. And as we always end our podcast and to remind everybody, the only constant in this world is change.
01:05:28
Jeremy Sholl
Be curious about how you can seize it for yourself. Thanks again. This is Carpe Disruption from Jeremy Sholl Alaina Have a great rest of your day and thanks for listening.