Seizing Happy with GiGi Diaz
Surely you’ve heard the wise advice “seize the day”, right? Well, in this episode, you’ll discover simple ways to seize your happiness on a daily basis thanks to Marly Q and celebrity guest GiGi Diaz, certified mindset and branding coach, media personality and founder of Seizing Happy. Tune in for a spark of happiness and learn practical tips to expand your capacity to receive kindness from yourself, others and the universe.
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“Seizing happy is our responsibility as human beings on this planet.” ~ GiGi Diaz
Listen to this Episode and discover…
- What does seizing happy mean?
- A refreshing perspective on the word “responsibility”
- The importance of considering your own needs and creating kind habits
- The ONE question to ask yourself every day to seize happy
- It’s actually NOT better to give than to receive
Can you imagine how different your experience of life could be if Seizing Happy was your measure of success, every day? Tune in to this short episode to spark your happiness today!
About Marly Q:
Kindness Influencer, Leadership Trainer, and Community-Builder on a mission to create a kinder world for over two decades. Through her podcast, she invites listeners to make “Time to Be Kind” each week to receive a spark of kindness, connection and community.
Connect with Marly Q:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/MarlyQ
Instagram: https://instagram.com/MarlyQ
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theMarlyQ
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarlyQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarlyQ
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@theMarlyQ
About Our Guest:
GiGi Diaz is a certified mindset and branding coach, media personality and founder of Seizing Happy, a coaching organization focused on nurturing the business and the woman behind the business equally.
Connect with GiGi Diaz:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gigidiazlive
Register for Move, Breathe, Grow Event: https://seizinghappy.com
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Join our Kind QREW Free Private Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/kindqrew
Join our Kind QREW+ Paid Membership: https://marlyq.com/kind-qrew
Programs & Courses: https://marlyq.com/programs
Marly Q Speaking, Training & Retreats: https://sparkcsr.com
Listen to Marly Q TEDx Talk “Kindness is your Superpower”: https://bit.ly/MarlyQTEDxTalk
EP 34: Don’t Quit on YOU
EP 33: Express Lane to Kinder World with Nedal Ahmad
EP 32: Let’s Start with Why (and How)
TRANSCRIPTION:
00:00:00
Marly Q Seize the day they say, right? Well, what if seizing happiness was your daily measure of success? Stay tuned because, in this episode, we’re going to spark your quest to seizing happy, Today.
00:00:28
Marly Q Hello, Parker. And thank you for making time to be kind with Marly Q and our special guest today, GiGi Diaz. Welcome to the show.
00:00:36
GiGi Diaz I’m so excited to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:41
Marly Q Oh, my goodness, PARKers you are in for a treat if you’re brand new to my world. We have to start by defining what a PARKer is, because our special guest today is the embodiment of a Parker.
00:00:53
Marly Q GiGi, What’s a PARKer?
00:00:54
GiGi Diaz Somebody who will always, always have or practice random acts of kindness.
00:01:01
Marly Q Yes, doing.
00:01:04
GiGi Diaz And it is in the hugs. I think one of my favorite ways to park right now is just to hug.
00:01:08
Marly Q Yes. Oh, delicious hugs. Oxytocin all over the place. You could do a self hug right now. A little virtual hug. Thank you for making this time to be kind. Yes. If you are listening and you are parking this time out of your life to be with us, I believe that you are a person that performs acts of random kindness. That is my definition for a Parker. That is what we are and what we’re trying to unite and elevate and bring more of, right? And build more of this worldwide community of people of Parkers that are out there being that spark of change that we wish to see. And GiGi does this day in and day out. Let me tell you a little bit about my friend here. We’ve got a celebrity guest here today, people. Yes. GiGi Diaz is a certified mindset and branding coach. She’s a media personality, and she’s the host of chats with GiGi podcast. Like me, she’s a two- time alum of Florida international university. That’s right. A little shout-out there to FIU panthers. She’s also an entrepreneur with 20 years of experience. Yes, she was a teenager when she founded the successful GiGi’s dance academy in Hayalia. Shout out to our roots here. And she’s also the founder of seizing happy, which is a coaching organization dedicated to nurturing the business and the woman behind the business equally, GiGi has led a successful career in broadcast media for over 20 years as a producer and honor talent for big brands like radio, Disney, Telemundo, iHeartRadio, and more. She is an influencer that has worked with major brands, and she is here with us today to share her light, her spark with all of us. And I want to just kind of dive right in and ask you this question, GiGi. What does seizing happy mean to you?
00:02:51
GiGi Diaz I love this question. I haven’t been asked this question in so long. Seizing happy is our responsibility as human beings on this planet right now is to be in a state of seizing happy. It doesn’t mean that you have to be happy all the time. It doesn’t mean that happiness is a must. Sometimes it’s okay to not feel happy, but you owe it to yourself to when you are not happy, when you are not well, to find the way to seize that happiness again, to look for it, to find it, to discover it, to create it, to make it, to give it to yourself. And so, for me, that’s the concept behind seizing happy. It’s wherever you are in your life, whether you’re feeling good or not so hot, you have a responsibility to yourself to be seizing happy.
00:03:35
Marly Q Yes, I love that. A responsibility to yourself to be in a state of seizing happy. Can we imagine how different life would be like, your experience of life, if your daily quest, your daily measure of success was that I seize happiness today? Did I grab onto it even in the days when they were tough, even in the days where I didn’t feel like it? Even the days where we might be, like, in the dark or facing a challenge or stress at work or in traffic, right? Like, how can we seize that happiness for ourselves? That is a responsibility. I love that. You know, I like wordplay. I like to word like to play with words. And for me, responsibility is the ability to respond, right? And when I say that I am responsible for my own happiness, it means that I am able to respond to absolutely anything that life throws at me. I am able to respond to this and seize my happiness somewhere in there, right? Find the lesson, find the blessing, find the joy, right? Because you get to grab it, but you also have to let it go, right? Like the importance of seizing it and letting it go. Right. Can we speak to that and really with the women in your community and how that shows up for them, right? How do the women in your community seize happy?
00:04:53
GiGi Diaz Well, I think that because in seizing happy, our goal is to be able to nurture the business and the woman behind the business equally. There is a dynamic that I find that is so delicious both to practice and to observe the women in my community practice, which is to be able to seize your happiness as the badass entrepreneur, right? Like when you’re in that beautiful, masculine energy of decision making and strategizing and planning and launching and doing, doing, doing and then seeing the fruits and the results of that and then being able to let go of that. For a second and step back and then go and nurture the woman behind the business and to seize your happiness in the softness of community of women speaking with each other about what we’re going through and where we might need some support. And then the softness of being a mom and being the girlfriend to your husband again and being soft and receiving and loving and intuitive and calm and quiet. And I think that in that letting go and picking up process of being the person for the business and the person that’s just the person just the woman. It’s one of those beautiful examples that I see consistently in my seizing happy community. And that is to be able to seize your happiness in the space where you are the person that runs the business. Then let that go for a moment and seize your happiness in the space where you are just the woman behind the business with all these other beautiful soft characteristics that are just as important. So that’s one example that I can give you that I absolutely love.
00:06:22
Marly Q Yes. And I think that being practical. I love being practical and I’d love to know how kindness shows up, right? Like as a practice, right? On our quest to seize happy every day, how important is making time to be kind to yourself? What does that look like on a daily basis?
00:06:38
GiGi Diaz Yeah, that’s such a good question too. I think that we are especially entrepreneurial, women, driven women, the ones that want to change the world and make all the difference, whether it’s as a mom or in your job or we are so tough on ourselves because we know we’re capable of so much. We know we are so able to do and to be and to create that we end up staying so high on that in that space of productivity and doing and doing that we forget how important it is for us to pause and to refuel, right? And so I think in the daily process of seizing happy, whatever space of life you’re in, whether you are in the space of mommying, which is its own challenge, whether you’re in the space of being the great wife or the great partner or the great caretaker, if you’re taking care of your parents or if you’re in the space of being the baddest entrepreneur, bringing in ten more clients this month every single day, I think pausing to ask yourself whether it’s in the beginning of the day or it’s at the end of the day, depending on how you run. We all are magically different. Asking yourself, what do I need right now? Sometimes this is something that I do in the mornings when I have slow starts to my day, which seems to be happening more often lately. And I will ask myself because it takes me a minute to jump-start, right? And I’m not used to that. So I will ask myself, well, what do I need right now before I go take on the world and all the things I have to do or get to do? What do I need? Sometimes it’s just a pause, sometimes it’s a really good breakfast, sometimes it’s to not start for another, like 20 minutes. Sometimes it’s a nap right after I wake up. It’s like I need to sleep a little longer. Ten more minutes. And sometimes when I jump out of bed because I’m so thrilled to, I’m ready for the day. I’m super energetic. I got all the rest I needed and I’ll just jump into it and I’ll just accomplish and accomplish and do and check off all the boxes and I’m like, yay. And then at the end of the day, I’m like, wait a minute. That was a lot of things. That’s the other space when I will pause and ask myself, what do I need right now? Sometimes it’s a walk. Sometimes it’s to turn off all the screens and just turn off my phone and not care about what’s happening. I am not an emergency respondent, so it doesn’t matter if I turn off my phone for 30 minutes. Everyone’s going to be okay, everyone’s going to be fine. Sometimes it’s that, sometimes it’s sitting outside walking my dog. She loves to walk around the neighborhood and pull me through the neighborhood with her. But I think that one of those key elements, like just stopping and asking yourself at whatever time in your day, it feels good, what do I need right now? And give that to yourself. Whatever it is, give it to yourself because you deserve that. You deserve that kindness from you. You deserve kindness from other people also, but you especially deserve it from yourself.
00:09:22
Marly Q Yes, I am like standing ovation. I’m not going to clap so that I don’t make my audio people crazy, but yes, this key question of considering your own needs. Like, what do I need right now? What do you need right now? Like if it was your kid, right? Your daughter, your son, or your best friend, right? What do you need right now, sweetheart? Like kindness, what do you need? And if what you need is that extra rest, what you need is some space to process or to feel or to just be in silence, that’s what you need. Actually giving it to yourself, asking and receiving kindness from yourself. Are you listening, Parker out there? This is key. And it’s such a simple practice, and it really is a practice, and it has to become a habit, right? Because maybe for you and for me, that question now kind of comes natural. I check in with myself every single day. I have two small babies. When I wake up in the morning, they are immediately needing me for something. And I still good morning. What do you need? I need a breath. I just need a moment. I need to drink some water. I need to use a restroom. Whatever I need, actually give that to myself for a moment, and then you can fill your own cup without sacrificing or leaving anybody else thirsty, right? Like you can do it.
00:10:39
GiGi Diaz And I think it’s so important, too, because if you don’t lead by example in giving yourself the kindness that you need and deserve, I think it becomes more difficult to not only expect but request and receive kindness from other people around you. So it has to start with you. It has to start with you giving yourself that kindness first so that you have the strength to request it from others and so that you have the ability to receive it from others. Because sometimes we’re on such a high drive that it’s like, I’m good, I got it, I can do it, I don’t need that. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. And sometimes most of the time, we’re not. We need a hug. We need some kindness. We need some support.
00:11:19
Marly Q Yes. And even you said something beautiful, right? It’s also about expanding our capacity to receive. US being able to receive our own kindness expands our capacity to receive kindness not just from other people, but get this, friends, from life, from the universe, from the natural flow of energy that we are all like, partaking in that wants to give and receive. One of the myths that I want to just bust right now is that it is not better to give than to receive. And this is a philosophy, a quote, a mantra, something that service-driven people believe, and I used to believe it, too, right? It’s better to give than to receive. Well, maybe it feels better to give than to receive, but it is not better to give than to receive. It is equally important to give and receive. And we can bring this back all the way to, like, biologically, scientifically proven. If I were to ask you right now to just exhale, just give me the longest exhale. You have to give, right? Ready?
00:12:25
GiGi Diaz Give.
00:12:25
Marly Q Because it feels so good to exhale, right?
00:12:27
GiGi Diaz Exhale. Exhale. Exhale.
00:12:29
Marly Q Go ahead, give it to me. Give it. You’re going to have to gasp for air at some point, right? You can’t just give your air. You can’t just exhale because it feels good to sigh and exhale. You have to inhale. You have to receive that breath. The first thing that we did when we entered this life was inhale and receive the breath of life. And the last thing that we’re going to do is give it, right? Give it away. And we kind of live in this disconnection from the natural flow and process of things, where it’s equally important to give and to receive. And when we bring those things into balance first, when you bring your inhale and your exhale into balance, you’re regulating your nervous system, right, and bringing that into balance. But when we learn to give and to receive energy, kindness to one another, you’re, like, enriching your mental health, your wellness, your life, right? In every sense of the word and including your bank account, in my opinion, right? Because if we’re talking about business and entrepreneurship here. You and I have been in business for 20 years. Do you agree that the currency of kindness has driven our business success 100%?
00:13:36
GiGi Diaz Both kindnesses, the giving ,and the receiving kindnesses. Because it is when I am kind to myself and I pause to rest in between my big goals and my big accomplishments and paths that I set out for next levels of success. It is only in that kindness that I can A, rest and replenish that I can refill my cup and B, that I can make space for the creativity and the ideas and the guidance, the intuitive, supreme guidance of maybe what’s next or maybe I’m just going to hang out here for a while. It’s okay if I just stay here for two or three years. I don’t have to necessarily have something next. But it’s in that kindness to myself of pausing that I find what I need next as an entrepreneur. But it’s also in the kindness of giving to others as an entrepreneur, of, hey, I got your back. You know what? That’s something that I can look out for you there. I can support you in that. I can collaborate with you in that this is easy for me. I’ll cover it. And the kindness of being able to receive kindness from others too. When just the other day, and we won’t get into the details, but you and I, when we saw each other recently, you came up to me and you said, hey, I know you have this big event coming up. I got your back if you need anything. And being able to say, yes, I received that. Thank you. If I need your help, I will definitely or to say, you know what? I do need your help. Here’s a list of things. Please pick one. Pick two, Pick three. That kindness as an entrepreneur is also key, has been key to my success, for sure. I agree with you completely.
00:14:57
Marly Q Yes And you and I are both doing the work of showing up in kindness towards ourselves, but also creating spaces and building community for other people. Right? You focus on women entrepreneurs. So tell me, how do you help your women entrepreneurs achieve success with less stress? How do you help these women that wear so many different hats show more kindness to themselves?
00:15:21
GiGi Diaz Yeah. So there’s a couple of different ways that we can do that. And the structures and the programs are the fun stuff. So we can do the one-on-one coaching. We have a group, an online community, all that stuff. But most importantly, the way in which I find that seasoning happy can support these women entrepreneurs to achieve success with less stress is to do a couple of things. The first is to tap into yourself. A lot of the time we see other successful entrepreneurs and we think, man, I want to get to that. And then you want to replicate some form of their method into your business. But the problem is that when you do it that way, you’re giving up the power of your uniqueness and your authenticity because you cannot possibly fit your uniqueness into somebody else’s mold because that mold was especially created for their uniqueness. So teaching women how to discover their zone of genius and entrepreneurship and how to really tap into the natural gifts that make them the unique entrepreneur that they are is one of the first steps that we do. One of the second steps is your definition of success truly yours. This is something that I suffered from, from a really long time, right. My parents definition of success was degrees. So I went and I got two and then a bunch of other certifications. The industry’s definition of success was morning shows and either sports or news and I did all of those things. My definition of success was impacting others and feeling really happy while I teach. That’s my zone of genius. And so being able to tap into that and finding what is your true definition of success? For some people, it is the six figures. But for some people you’d be surprised, it’s not the six figures will naturally come when they’re seeking their true definition of success, whatever that might be. And then the last thing that we focus on is being able to create the custom strategies that you deserve. Right? Like we often get caught up in the business plan. We need to have a funnel and a website and a lead generator and all this other stuff and all that stuff is cool. But do those systems, are they sustainable for you, the lifestyle that you want to lead? A mom of two might want to lead a different lifestyle than a woman with no kids, right? A mom of two with support might want to lead a different lifestyle as an entrepreneur than a mom of two without support. And so it’s being able to customize your business so that it serves you, not so that you have to jump into a pre-built system by somebody else that may be effective but won’t be in the long run. Sustainable for you because it doesn’t match or support the lifestyle that you envisioned when you first said, I’m leading corporate. I want to do this entrepreneurial thing for full time because this is the life I want. Right? So I would say that those are three specific ways in which there are a few others. But those are three very specific ways in which we help to be able to achieve that success with less stress.
00:17:52
Marly Q I think that’s amazing that you’ve created this community and I’ve built this container and space and structure also like a method and like a roadmap, if you will, to support women to make sure that we’re on this quest to seizing happy, right? That we have the space and the reminder to check in and how is this feeling and are we in alignment and are we in flow? Right? Because stress, I always say that stress isn’t the enemy. We’re not trying to conquer stress. Right. So I love how you say it’s with less stress because stress is a natural part of being an entrepreneur. There’s just no detaching from the level of stress that entrepreneurs need to have in their daily experience. However, what is the enemy is lack of awareness to stress. Like, when we are not aware of the fact that we are in a state of stress, like chronically, especially as it relates to our business, it’s a direct reflection of you. Your business is a reflection of you. So if your energy is in this chronic state of stress, your business is as well. And we’re not fueling right, that success. We’re not working to enrich all areas of our lives. So I love that your perspective and your model and your community focuses on the business being healthy, which is important. The woman behind the business all by herself makes sure that she’s healthy too because she’s the one driving the business forward. So important. And, you know, we didn’t mention this until this point, but GiGi here is not alone. She did not come here to make time to be kind on her own. She is currently 30, some weeks pregnant with her first baby boy. And I just feel so happy. I’m seizing the happiness right now in this moment. Right? And that we’re capturing this super special time in your life where we are pausing right. Or maybe right now you’re like, gearing up towards closer to the delivery date and trying to check as many boxes as we can, but being forced by your body to slow down and pause. How are you making time to be kind to yourself and to your business during this super special time?
00:19:54
GiGi Diaz Yes. Thank you for that question because it took some adapting in the beginning, this was an unplanned pregnancy. It totally caught us off guard. And I was actually on an overdrive state where I was like, okay, we’ve got this plan. We’re going to push hard for the next six months to do what we need to do, then we’re going to pause. There was this whole structure to our lifestyle that we were planning, and when we got pregnant, I had to listen to my body. You don’t have a choice. It will be the boss of you. And being able to pause, to connect with myself, and really honor what my body needs and requires to be able to maintain these two lives, because it’s important to remember. And I didn’t realize this at first, even though it’s so obvious my body is keeping me alive the way that it’s always done right, without me asking anything for it to do anything. It’s breathing. It’s pumping all this blood. It’s digesting all my food. It’s moving my legs and my arms and helping my brain think how to answer this question. But now it’s also building a whole another life and nervous system and little toes and organs. And you have to honor the greatness and the magic of the system that we’re in. This bag of bones, right? It’s a brilliant bag of bones that has all of these beautiful abilities and I really had to pause. And the good thing is, and this is why I’m so confident in what we teach, with seizing happy, is that because my systems were already in place in a way that my business works for me, not that I am an employee of my business, because my definition of success is very, very clear, because of the way that I approach. Business is always something that has to feel good for me. It has to feel like it’s in flow. Maybe not necessarily easy, but it does have to feel like it’s in flow. It was a little bit less challenging for me to be able to say I need to pause, I need to restructure and I need to reset what I’m doing, which is one of the things we teach, is the three R system. And I applied that to myself, reevaluate, restructure and reset. And it really helped me to be able to show up on the days when I can. One of those days that I wake up and I’m like, oh, I feel good today. Today we’re going to do all the things and then on those other days when I wake up and I’m like, we’re not getting done today because I’m Sleepy and I just woke up and I’m so tired and I’m just going.To veg out, I’m going to sit outside, I’m going to look at my butterflies. And being able to honor that balance of there’s the business and the woman behind the business, both are equally important. Because if I’m not well, my business can’t be well. And now if I’m not well, my son can’t be well. And so it’s important to be able to just pause and honor that, honor all the parts of you and give yourself what you deserve, what you require.
00:22:22
Marly Q That is kindness. That is the embodiment of kindness. And I know and understand as a high-achieving woman myself, it kind of takes you a little bit off the track. It gives you a little bit of time to get used to. So you’re doing a great job. Very exciting for your next chapter. I am here for all of it and to support you along the way, please tell our Parkers listening or our female Parkers listening in South Florida. Anyway, about this awesome event that you’ve got coming up next week, I will be at it. I can’t wait to be there. Tell us about it.
00:22:56
GiGi Diaz I’m so excited for this event. So this was my baby before the baby came around. I’ve had this event in my heart for so long and finally, it comes to be so I’m pumped. The event is called Move Breathe Grow a 360 Approach to Entrepreneurial Wellness. And this is a half-day retreat style experience for driven women who are seeking sisterhood and support so that they can achieve their big dreams without the burnout. Right? That part’s not necessary. And so we’re going to have three different experience. We’re going to have Move, where we’re going to use movement. We have a ton of father to be able to ground and connect to our inner feminine essence. We’re going to have a second session called Breathe, where we’re going to use our breath to recalibrate our nervous system, to connect with our intuition, to do some visualization, to see what feels good and what’s coming next for us. And then in the third session, which is called Grow, we’re going to have a really interesting networking experience and a speaker panel to talk about business. Because we can do both. We can nurture the body, nurture the mind, and then nurture the business, right? Money is good. We can keep making it. And so lunch is included. It’s going down on Thursday, March 30, from twelve to four in Coral Gables. And you can definitely join us. And I would love to have all of the ladies, all the lady pikers. That are listening right now at this event. It’s going to be so delicious. And all the other info and ticketing stuff is on seizinghappy.com.
00:24:14
Marly Q Thank you. Thank you for sharing. We will definitely include the link to register for Move Breathe Grow on March 30 in our show notes.
00:24:24
GiGi Diaz And we have a special code, right? QREW20 with a dollar discount on admission for everyone that’s listening right now.
00:24:32
Marly Q Yeah, we will make sure to include that code, hook you up with a discount. Ladies, if you’re in South Florida, please join us. I will be there. This is like my Time to be Kind to myself on my calendar. I can’t wait to be there and see and receive the beautiful experience that you’ve created. And I will also be there to give any support that I can while I am there.
OUTRO
Yes. Thank you so much for making this time to be kind with me today. I hope that you will make time to be kind again sometime in the future so that I can interview you as a mom of a boy. We can share mom a boy stories. That would be so fun. I can’t wait. Awesome. See you next time.
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