Mihaela Jekic – Turning Humiliation into Transformation
Founder of Money For Meaning
Entrepreneur. Mom. Badass.
Mihaela’s engineering Ph.D. candidacy exam was one of the most humiliating experiences of her life. She froze up and couldn’t even remember the most basic information – the opposite of flow. Her advisor later shared that she only passed because of the strength of her written answers. As a result of this embarrassing experience, Mihaela formed limiting beliefs about her public speaking capabilities and flexibility. But this limiting belief was preventing her from pursuing her dream, so she took action and aimed to conquer her fear by joining an improv class. Eighteen months later, she found herself on a TedX stage performing with her improv troupe in front of hundreds of people.
When we adopt a fixed mindset of what we’re good at or not good at – and avoid stepping out of that zone so we don’t “embarrass” ourselves – we experience fear. Fear is the enemy of flow! When we focus on core values that are stronger than fear such as personal growth, creativity and connection, we’re able to experience extraordinary breakthroughs.
Mihaela is a speaker, author, life coach and entrepreneur. She fled to Canada as a non-English speaking refugee during the Bosnian civil war with no home or possessions. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Ohio State University while fencing for the Canadian national team. After several years in this field, she felt a deeper calling to support young professionals, college students and aspiring entrepreneurs to ditch their debt and build financial freedom to pursue their dreams through her own company, Money for Meaning.
