Meet Martina Meyer

I’ve been an entrepreneur ever since I can remember… From childhood memories of my godfather’s drugstore where I learned math on that old-fashioned manual cash register, or the best Christmas gift “ever” when I was 5 – my very own “store” (complete with merchandise on shelves, cash register and all)– to building and living the “American Dream”, my life has been quite an adventure:

I moved out of my parent’s home at 18, with my last year of school and all my exams for my “Abitur” (“baccalaureate”) still ahead of me. During that time I supported myself by working as a waitress, and, with the support of a friend, teaching “Memory, Creativity and Brain Training” for middle management at companies like Bosch and SEL Alcatel as part of their “Employee Continuing Education Program” (…long story…). After graduation, I applied to universities in Germany for a business degree in tourism – but life kept having other plans for me, so I continued my entrepreneurial journey of “test by trial” – from food service, selling insurance and real estate – to supporting my boyfriend in up-leveling his jewelry business and co-founding a quite unusual publishing company with him, it’s been quite an intense training in the “school of hard knocks”.

 

In 1994 I followed love to America and we married in ’95. In that first year, I supported my husband in his brand new venture of opening a racing engine shop. I still remember looking down from the airplane as we were taking off on our honeymoon, seeing the big truck deliver the high-tech machines into our building… Well, it turned out that my husband’s dream was ahead of its time, and even though we both worked very hard (he had a very successful career in the movie industry at the time, and put every dollar into the shop, while I put in my “sweat equity”, bookkeeping, payroll, inventory, janitorial duties – you name it…) after a year we closed the doors. We sold the machines and the building and were slowly climbing out from a scary mountain of debts, adding up close to $1M…

We were at an automotive swap meet, selling off more “leftovers” from our “shop”, when the idea of selling gloves to the military found us. To make a long story short, I took on that idea while my husband continued his stunt business – and over the next 10 years, I built this idea into a solid 7-figure business and a reputable brand of specialty Military gloves. In 2006 I sold my company to a leading brand – as part of the deal they hired me as a VP for a couple years (my first and only W2-job…), and then I stayed as a consultant to the CEO, who recognized and sponsored my entrepreneurial spirit.

 

In the past, when I told my story, I used to humbly say “I have just been lucky – being at the right place at the right time, meeting the right people who helped me take the next step…” Well – but that’s only part of the story… during my education of becoming a life coach, I had an opportunity to “unpack” all the ingredients of the recipe to my success, so that I am now able to teach them to others: Qualities like resilience, listening deeply to what has not yet been named, identifying “real” needs, maintaining a sense of curiosity, the courage to step way outside of the comfort zone, recognizing opportunities – and taking the small action-steps that actually making them real… and, the toughest lesson of all, learning to really know, understand and trust intuition…

Yes, whether you run a business or the business of your life – the skills are quite similar, and the foundation of it all, the ways in which you relate to yourself, and who you are in the face of all kinds of different experiences.

 

 

As an Advanced Grief Recovery Method™ Specialist I support people who have experienced a significant loss of any kind and want to rediscover themselves: I use proven processes to teach them the tools and action steps to move beyond the pain, isolation and resignation of grief and heartbreak, to complete what’s unfinished in their relationships (past and present), and shift old outdated beliefs so that they can be free to once again create and live a life full of joy & love.

Because of my personal history with the Grief Recovery Method I am very passionate about helping others to learn and use this process: I first engaged in this process to help me get past the shock and all the aftermath of the suicide of my dad in 2000. It not only restored me from that grief, but also from a lifetime of secretly wishing for a different childhood, a healthier and happier dad, etc. I’ve used the GRM again to help me navigate my next big loss, my divorce in 2009: Thanks to these tools I was able to honor my marriage despite the acute pain of its loss, and part with my husband in the most amicable way possible (that was before the “Conscious Uncoupling” program existed, which I now also teach as it complements the Grief Recovery Method very well).

Other major life transitions that I personally honored through the GRM are:

• the rapid growth of my company, and it’s pursuant acquisition by a larger company — which significantly changed my life
• Career changes
• Moving
• The loss of my best friend in 2016 – and supporting his wife through her loss while at the same time grieving my own

Today the Grief Recovery Method has become an organic part of my life that helps me live more wholeheartedly, “complete” and authentic in all my relationships, past and present. And I love teaching this toolkit to my clients, so they can liberate themselves as well. I provide Grief Recovery One-on-One Coaching in person and online, as well as group coaching in Alexandria VA and the DC area.

When I was going through my separation and divorce in 2009, I had no idea what I was in for – how much pain I would feel, how little energy I would have, and sorting out all of the conflicting emotions that hit me all at once. Yet, all this was still doable.

What I wasn’t at all prepared for, was how lost I would feel. I didn’t realize how much of my identity had been organized around our 16-year marriage. I had no idea who I would or could be outside of that, or how scary the question, “What do you want?” could be.

At the time I did not know about Conscious Uncoupling™ (the book was first released in 2015). I did not even know what options I had. Fortunately, our divorce was amicable. I knew, ultimately, we were going to be ok, yet I had no idea how I was going to get there.

We navigated our way through the daunting process, and the divorce was final by April Fool’s day 2011. Ironic, isn’t it?

I had moved out of our marital home that we had built together in Phoenix – all the way to the East Coast. I continued “business as usual” and didn’t really talk about my divorce. In part, it was a relief to have my sense of normalcy in my life, but it was also a very lonely space to be in.

So, I did what a lot of us women do when we experience a major life change or crisis – I got my hair cut, scheduled a mani/pedi, did a little retail therapy, and joined a gym. I tried to “fix up” all the external pieces in an attempt to feel desirable again.

I even hired a personal trainer to assist me, however:

I still felt lonely.

I still felt confused about my future.

I still felt broken inside.

Oh, how I wished there was a personal trainer to guide my emotions through this transition…

New Year’s Eve 2013 is when everything came to a halt for me.

I was ringing in the new year at my sister’s home in Dubai. I reflected on the year and reviewed my fruitless attempts of “moving on” and dating. They resulted in, basically, reliving a version of my marriage, where, in the end, he would choose another woman, and I would be left alone and unwanted: my former husband was engaged to be married, a man I had briefly dated and really liked was now married as well, Facebook was full of people in love… As time ticked closer and closer to midnight, I was forced to face my loneliness head on- everyone celebrating with us that night had someone to kiss at midnight, except me.

Was love not meant for me in this lifetime? Maybe there was something wrong with me, maybe it was true that I was not wanted, not lovable, not enough? How could I be so successful in my business, and such a “failure” in my personal life?

Pity party? Perhaps, but I give myself a pass.

Reality check? Oh yes!

I vowed right then and there that I would not let another year go by doing the same things – expecting different results.

A month later I found Katherine Woodward Thomas and her teachings – her books and online courses. I fell in love with the depth of her teaching and the effectiveness of her transformative process.

Things really started to change once I hired a coach who guided me through the material.

I felt I had found the Personal Trainer for my soul that I was hoping for; a guide who taught me new, healthier ways of moving from my heart, from the inside out, and to also train my “soul muscles” to begin showing up differently in the world.

The two premises that really drew me to the program and made the biggest impact on me were;

1. Life is a creative process and our thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, choices, actions, and words are the tools we use to invent our experiences and our circumstances. When we do this, life no longer happens TO us, but THROUGH us.

2. When we alter our relationship with ourselves, our external world will alter accordingly. Any change we wish in our lives actually starts deep within ourselves…

Because of the guidance my coach has provided me,

I now…

• show up authentically even when it might feel uncomfortable;
• realize that there is strength in being vulnerable – in the right way and place for me, with the right people and circumstances;
• know, trust, and love myself fully;
• am aware of what I need in order to feel safe in a relationship, and how to create that for me;
• respond rather than react to what other people are doing – and that most of what “they” do is not actually personally directed at me.
• realize that any pain or discomfort in life is an opportunity for growth

You know, I went and joined that gym expecting honest effort, sore muscles, and a certain fear of the unknown. I willingly accepted it because I knew that everything I did during my gym time was for my greater good.

I applied this principle when I hired my coach. I really wanted to transform my relationships- relating to myself, to others, to my love life, and to my life as a whole. I couldn’t be more pleased with my new perspective!

TODAY I love who I am and what I do: I am a Life and Relationship Coach, a Yoga Instructor and Personal Trainer. I see myself as a Personal Trainer for your body, mind, heart, and soul, bringing it all together for you so you can live a wholehearted, wholesome life full of joy and passion – just like I do, yet in your way.

I have grown roots in a strong community with people who want to be around me, and who I want to be with. I have found passion in dance, especially Argentine Tango and Viennese Waltz, and also in yoga and coaching. I love my life and I want you to love yours, as well!

I discovered yoga in 1997 thanks to my chiropractor who offered a free class in his office, and motivated by two books that found at the time: “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”, where yoga seemed to be the secret ingredient that kept the author, Richard Carlson “sane” during stressful times; and “The Egoscue Method of Health through Motion” by Pete Egoscue, that taught me the importance of being aligned in the body, with all bones and muscles doing their jobs – in order to lead an active life. Once again, yoga seemed to be the secret sauce that made things work.

I quickly got hooked to that 90-minute retreat from normal life, where I didn’t have to think, and was cued for each move to make along with each in- and exhale. Yoga became a moving meditation that had the power to reboot my mind. Over the next 2 decades I dipped in and out of various yoga phases, and phases where I seemed to “forget” about it. I did notice that I felt better in my body and in my life when yoga or any kind of mindful movement was part of it. Honoring my inner nerd I first engaged in a comprehensive 500-hour Personal Training Certification program in 2012: I learned about anatomy, the science of strength training and nutrition – and how to bring it all together to help myself and others to create functional movement that leads to a healthy, strong and powerful body.

And I also noticed how all the life coaching tools that I learned about included a component of “feeling into the body” that was quite elusive at first – for myself, as well as for many of my clients. So I decided to explore how I might be able to teach this important mind-body connection so that the coaching principles don’t just become yet another theory… and I embarked in yoga teacher training with Faith Hunter in the fall of 2016. Through her complete 500-hour “Spiritually Fly” Yoga Teacher Training she taught me how to awaken my own yoga in my heart, and how to teach what moves me (literally and philosophically) by combining movement, breath, stories and a variety of yoga-related technology.

During my first course from Katherine Woodward-Thomas in 2014, she gave us a dare to do something that was completely outside of our comfort zone, something we weren’t good at, and would do just to do it, for the fun of it. So, I enrolled in a 7-day “Viennese Waltz Bootcamp” – to prove to myself that I had 2 left feet, was un-leadable, and terrified to repeat that awkwardness of wondering if anyone would ask me to dance…
Well – I got hooked. And I guess thanks to my willingness to not excel but to allow myself to be a total beginner and fail at something, I fell in love with dance, and in particular Viennese Waltz and Argentine Tango – two dances that are extremely different from each other.

Over the past 4 years dance has become an important part of my life, and I continue to marvel at the many life lessons I am learning through dance: the joy of focusing on one step at a time, literally – as there is no “arrival” in the journey around the dance floor – it’s about creating a momentary piece of art in motion; the challenge of always getting back to being a beginner, knowing I have a lifetime of exploration and learning ahead of me; the importance of each of us maintaining our own balance, so we can better connect with our partners – it becomes obvious in the tango embrace…; the way lead and follow are really an invitation to a conversation, in which we both feed off each other: it requires both of us to be in the moment, fully open to receiving and responding to the signal from our partner – and together we create moments of bliss, when everything just seems to flow.