Busy, Capable, and Still Stuck? Let’s Talk Confidence

You can be busy, capable, and doing all the “right” things—and still feel stuck.

If you’ve ever wondered why your results don’t match your potential, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, Penny sits down with Nada Lena Nasserdeen, founder of Rise Up For You, international speaker, and author. Nada has worked with Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs around the world, helping people build confidence, communicate more effectively, and step into leadership. But what makes her work so powerful is that she’s lived the confidence gaps she now teaches others how to close.

This episode isn’t about fixing yourself—it’s about understanding how confidence actually works, why it doesn’t grow by accident, and how busyness can quietly keep you playing small.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why self-confidence isn’t a personality trait—it’s a skill
• How capable women get in their own way without realizing it
• The sneaky role busyness plays in avoiding growth
• Why boundaries are essential to confidence (not selfish)
• How beliefs quietly shape behaviors and results
• The importance of surrounding yourself with the right people
• Why personal growth requires intention, not motivation

If you’re craving clarity, momentum, and a little permission to stop carrying everything alone, this conversation will feel like a deep exhale.

🔗 Learn more about Nada and her work: https://riseupforyou.com
📲 Follow her on social: @NadaLenaNasserdeen

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Transcript

Busy, Capable, and Still Stuck? Let’s Talk Confidence

​[00:00:00] 

Today I am chatting with Ned Sardine, and if you've ever felt like you know you're capable of more, but something keeps holding you back, this episode is for you. Netta works with leaders and organizations all over the world Helping people build confidence, communicate better and step into their potential.

But what really stood out to me is her own story and how much of this work she's lived herself. We talk about self-confidence, [00:01:00] mindset, leadership, and the very real ways we get in our own way. We also talk about busyness boundaries. Surrounding yourself with the right people and why personal growth doesn't happen by accident.

This is one of those conversations that feels encouraging, honest, and grounding all at once. Here is Ned Nasser.



Penny Fitzgerald: it's great to meet you. Thank you. You too. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Thank 

Penny Fitzgerald: you. Wonderful. would you, tell us a little bit about you, give us your name and what you do and we'll go from there. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely. So my name is Nada Netta, like feta cheese, even though it's spelled like Nada, Nada Lena Nasserdeen.

And I would say, I guess now Ada, 'cause I just got married, so I have another. Oh, congratulations. Um, and I like to say that I'm a potential seeker. Really everything that I do, uh, my goal is to help pull out the performance and potential in organizations and in individuals. So I run a company, I'm the owner of a company called Rise Up for You, and [00:02:00] that's what we do.

We work with Fortune five companies all the way from Google down to local entrepreneurs, and we help them become the top 10% in performance and their potential by teaching the skills that no one ever teaches us that make up most of our success. And that's the soft skills. 

Penny Fitzgerald: So when, um, when you work with someone, is it, um, is it someone who recognizes that they need soft skills or how do you find people.

Nada Nasserdeen: No. So, um, usually from a corporate perspective, it's companies that are struggling with communication, um, leadership that's not coaching and mentoring, right? Lack of leadership, lack, lack of pipeline development. Uh, the performance of the team could be better. So they're doing great as a company, but they're just, they could be better, they could be closing more, they can be generating more clients.

All that comes down to soft skills, not more knowledge, right? Mm-hmm. It's our job to kind of educate a company on that. Um, but it's a lot easier for a company to [00:03:00] see than it is for an individual. Mm-hmm. Usually individuals will come to us when they feel stuck, when they know that they're leaving opportunity on the table because of lack of self-confidence.

They're constantly getting in their own way. Or we get individuals that just wanna push their performance. Maybe they're a leader in their company and they wanna be a better leader. They wanna get promoted, they wanna be seen, be heard, and be relevant, and they don't know how to do that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: how do you make, a CEO or manager or someone who is in the, um, decision making place, how do you make them aware of the problem and you know, kind of guide them to being, okay, this is a soft skill, a communication problem that we wanna work on? How do you, how do you determine that?

Nada Nasserdeen: That's a really great question. My um, my. Fifth book is coming out in a couple weeks on influential communication, and I talk about this 

Penny Fitzgerald: in 

Nada Nasserdeen: the 

Penny Fitzgerald: box. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Nice. Yeah. I'll say this. Oftentimes when I'm in a meeting with the CEO, they already know there's a problem, that that's why they're in the meeting. Mm-hmm.

They showed up. Mm-hmm. They're like, okay, there's a challenge. It's [00:04:00] my goal. Um, and it's my responsibility not to convince them, but to help them digest what they think the problem is. Mm-hmm. And then present. Possible solutions that they potentially haven't thought about. So whenever I'm in a meeting, for example, and let's say I'm, I'm wanting to get a client, or I'm hoping that we can make an impact in the organization through our work.

I do a lot of listening and a lot of asking questions. Right. So what's the biggest challenge that you have today? What have you done so far to mitigate that challenge? Why do you think it's not working? You know, what do you truly think is at the core of the, like, I, I just ask a ton of questions and then based off of that response, then from there I can say, here's the things that we've done in the past with clients similar to you.

Right? Some creating relatability. Here's what we've done, but more importantly, here's the outcome because especially with, um, decision makers and CEOs and business owners, they need outcomes. They need to understand, if I'm gonna [00:05:00] invest six figures in training and development, what am I gonna get back? It can't be zero.

Right? There's gotta be some kind of ROI and if we can show to the CEO or the business owner that the ROI is gonna be three times, four times, five times what they invested mm-hmm. The chances of them saying yes is very high. Mm-hmm. And that's really the goal. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's great. Yeah. A lot of times I feel like this, when you're working on soft skills, it's not necessarily an immediate return on investment.

It feels like it's more of a cultural shift that happens first. Right. 

Nada Nasserdeen: It's a little bit of both. Mm-hmm. It, it always has to start with the individual in order to make a cultural shift. Mm-hmm. And so we always say that we have to create the handshake. If an organization invests in their people, but they don't invest in their leadership, it doesn't work.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Right. And 

Nada Nasserdeen: we've had those companies where we're like, okay, well let's let the middle management get the training and the coaching, but we as executive team [00:06:00] are fine. No, it bombed. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Nada Nasserdeen: And actually today, uh, we don't allow it to happen. When we work with companies, if the executive team is like, Hey, we're not, we are like, Nope.

Can't, it won't be successful, or we give them a very strong warning. Mm-hmm. Very strong warning that if you also don't have some level of development, the chances of transformation are gonna be difficult because your people are gonna outgrow your soft skills, they're gonna outgrow their leadership team, and then they end up turning over.

Right? Mm-hmm. Now, the same is true for an organization. We've had organizations that really believe in growth and development. They are willing to invest in their people. But they have some people on the team that just, they don't wanna grow. They just wanna show up to work and make a paycheck. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.

Nada Nasserdeen: Right? They don't believe in individual contribution. They're just like, Hey, just let me do my job and leave me alone. And there's companies that also don't want that, right? They want people that wanna be high performing, that wanna have a growth mindset, that wanna [00:07:00] continue to learn and grow. And unfortunately, in those situations, those individuals end up getting pushed out or fired.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Yeah, that's, that's tough. 'cause Yeah, I've seen it on both, both sides really. The executive teams, um, think they might have a handle on what the problem is, but really not. No, because you're in that grove of trees every day. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And, and again, that's kind of our job is to help influence and show them the possibility of what the training can do.

Mm-hmm. I mean. Research shows that the majority of CEOs understand that soft skills are the number one skills that they need. In fact, most CEOs would say that emotional intelligence is the tough skill, but only 27% actually invest in it. So that you see there's a disconnect there. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. And 

Nada Nasserdeen: so it's our job to help create that connection again and help them recognize that when you invest in it, your investment most of the time will five times the [00:08:00] investment if it's done right.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. I believe it. When everyone's on board and pushing in the same direction or, or working together to go in the same direction that I think you could probably create some really good, 

Nada Nasserdeen: absolutely good 

Penny Fitzgerald: outcomes. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we've seen it. We have a 95% repeat client rate. Oh, nice. Um, and it's only because.

Part of these skills is the delivery of them too. So it's not just teaching content, but it's understanding how to teach the content in a certain order with a certain amount of deliverability and diversity and with 

Penny Fitzgerald: experience, 

Nada Nasserdeen: like all these elements have to come into play and order to truly create transformation and coaching, training, leadership, retreats, whatever it is that you're doing.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. The implementation of what you've just learned, it has to happen or it doesn't stick. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Has to, and it has to happen during the learning process. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I always use, um, I always compare soft [00:09:00] skills to the fitness industry because it's just the most simplified comparison. If I go to a, to the gym and I go to the gym for eight hours in one day, I would've earned the day.

I would've been like, oh my gosh, that was the most exhausting day. I earned it. I made it through eight hours. I'm sweating. You know, like, I feel amazing. And then that's it. It's gonna last that day and you might be sore for a day or two after that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh, that's optimistic, 

Nada Nasserdeen: right? The shift, like the, the consequence or the result of that eight hour day is like maybe two, three days.

Okay? But it doesn't stick. You don't lose weight. You don't see muscles all of a sudden appear because you weren't consistent. You just did one shot and one shot's stopped enough. And it's the same with soft skills. So you gotta keep going to the gym at least three to four times a week. You gotta use the muscles, exercise the muscles.

You can't just watch the trainer. If I had a fitness trainer and they demonstrated a pushup, and I said, yep, [00:10:00] awesome. I totally get it. I get, and it's not gonna do anything for me. I'm not gonna all of a sudden build these muscles. I have to get down on the floor, I have to watch the posture, implement the pushup, and then God knows if you could even do a pushup.

So then it might six months to like build the muscle to do the pushup. You know, and that's really the process that soft skills goes through as well. And that takes repetition, consistency, open mindset, takes all of that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Consistency for sure,

Okay. Nata, you mentioned books.

Nada Nasserdeen: Yes. You 

Penny Fitzgerald: mentioned, uh, your, your fifth is coming out soon. Yes. Tell us about the other four. Can you, can you give us an overview or, um, yeah, 

Nada Nasserdeen: absolutely. I have the US, three of them behind me. I have them behind me. So, uh, the first book I ever wrote was called Rise Up for You, closing the Gap Between You and Your Potential.

And it really came outta my own personal story and my own personal, um, I would say tragedy that became triumph. So everything that I talk about today and all the skills that my [00:11:00] team and I teach and train on, I used on myself, so. Before I built Rise Up for You, I was a performer. I used to tour the world internationally as a singer and a dancer, and quickly after being a performer, I was, I performed for about eight or nine years.

I moved on to becoming an executive for an education corporation, and in the evening I was a professor. At a community college and in every industry that I've ever been a part of, I saw that the biggest gap was with people. So a lot of my time, a lot of my energy was spent on solving people problems. So lack of communication, poor leadership, uh, ineffective self-management.

Even with the students at the college, they would rather take an F than raise their hand and ask a question because they didn't wanna look dumb. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

Nada Nasserdeen: So this is where I really started to see the gap, but I didn't do much about it. I only just contributed in my own way. So as an executive, I would try to coach and lead.

As a professor, I created a life skills course that didn't exist at the college. I went to the dean, I was like, we have [00:12:00] got to, we've gotta help this because this is a problem. And year after year I would see it. Mm-hmm. And then I went through my own personal tragedy and you know, they say that when it rains, it pours.

So I decided to resign from the company, uh, after five years of being an executive. And I moved outta the country for an opportunity called marriage. And Yeah. And on the first day of our honeymoon, my husband said he wanted a divorce, and so I went from a six Figure what? Yeah. Six figure executive house on the lake, brand new luxury car.

All this. All these things we think are success to a hundred dollars. That was it. And two luggage and a broken heart and so much confusion and devastation. And I had, I literally thought I was in a movie. I had no idea what just happened. I thought I, oh 

Penny Fitzgerald: my God, 

Nada Nasserdeen: I thought I was pranked. So I get back, I get back on a plane and I'm crying and bawling, and my father comes to me in my dream.

My dad died when I was 27, so he wasn't around for this situation and he said, Nada, everything you need is [00:13:00] already inside of you. You just have to rise up for you. So that's when I got back to California and I just started the company rise up for you. I knew nothing about it. I didn't know anything about entrepreneurship.

I knew nothing about business, but. Just believed in my ability to build. It's like, okay, what a build rise up for you. Three months later, my mother, my second parent was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He died nine months later. So I, 

Penny Fitzgerald: oh my gosh. 

Nada Nasserdeen: At the time I was 31, turning 32, I was going through a divorce just bearing my second parent, and I was buying my groceries at the 99 cents store.

Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Now, the reason why I share all of that is because, again, the skills that we teach today are the skills that I used on myself. To write the book. So that's where the book came from, the first book. It's basically that journey and that story, and then the skills I used to overcome it, to write the book, and then to continue to grow the company.

Today we're in over 50 countries with our presence and our message, and I have a team throughout North America, both in Canada and in [00:14:00] the us and we're going in and we're, you know, making an impact through these skills. And so the other three books are our methods. So the four books are basically our method.

Penny. Okay. We've built a proprietary framework called the Rise Power Up Method, and these are the four skills that through our experience, through our research, that we find create the biggest shift in impact in every person and organization. So the first pillar is self confidence. So the, the book that you see behind me is all on self-confidence.

Okay? The second pillar is in emotional and social intelligence. The third pillar is transformational leadership, and then the final pillar is influential communication. Mm-hmm. At each one of those pillars, we build our own curriculum, our own strategies, and our own content that really move the needle and in that order, because the first thing we need is self-confidence, and the highest level of a soft skill is influence.[00:15:00] 

Penny Fitzgerald: Right. You know the women that I coach, mostly entrepreneurs. Yep. They're, they wanna scale their business. They wanna create an impact for people, but they're, they've got something that's holding them back and they need that confidence to confidence. To push through it. Yeah. You can give them all the technology, all the tools, all the systems in the world.

Exactly. Yeah. If you're, if you're not prepared or willing to hundred percent push yourself or to, you know, get beyond that uncom, that comfort zone, that barrier. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely. Yeah. And most people don't know that 83% of professionals say their number one challenge is self-confidence. 83%. Mm-hmm. So that's only 17.

And that's why I wrote my first book, closing the Gap Between You and Your Potential, because I thought if I can do this, and I am like I'm at the bottom. Anybody can do it. Mm-hmm. But not anybody does it because they get in their own way and they allow their beliefs to dig their behaviors. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: [00:16:00] And I always say that your thought could be just that.

It could be just the thought. It doesn't have to be your truth, which then becomes your reality. Doesn't have to be. And there's so many amazing entrepreneurs. We have a lot of clients that are entrepreneurs as well, that do amazing work. Mm-hmm. I mean, they multimillion dollar companies, but they're not, they're only a hundred thousand dollars company because of what they've chosen to believe out of their mind.

And I look at them and I'm like, wow. Like you really can be something great, but you gotta believe it now. It's not enough for me to tell you. You gotta actually start taking. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Rewrite the narrative that you have in your mind so that you can continue to take steps forward because your beliefs will always dictate your behaviors.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. I'm passionate. This is the topic that just like 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, me too. Me too. 'cause yeah, it's just, it's hard to watch someone else when you know that they, the potential that they have, but they don't see it for themselves. Absolutely. And bringing that [00:17:00] out in them and seeing it, it's, yeah, it's really rewarding to see them, you know, blossom and transform.

Yeah. But like for you, going back to your transformation that you, you know, you believed in yourself, you had to, right. I mean, you, you kind of were at a, it feels to me from the outside looking in that you were at a point where if I don't make this happen, it's not gonna happen for me, or no one's gonna come and save me.

I have to do it. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Correct. And a lot of it was already built in me when I was a child. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. And that's 

Nada Nasserdeen: really important I think, that I want listeners to understand, because there's a lot of listeners that are parents, and I recently became a parent as well. When I got married, I became a mom. I have, you know, three amazing step kids, which I don't consider my step kids, but I have three amazing kids.

And you know, I realize that when you teach self-confidence and when you build self-confidence, when you are at your bottom. You, it's not impossible for you to get back up because [00:18:00] you believe in yourself and you recognize that, that your circumstance is, doesn't have to be your future. Mm-hmm. And so I always say like, I could have easily just went and applied for another job and then just, you know, fell into the like, you know, the normal trap of like, okay, well I lost everything.

Let me just go get a job. Let me just go apply for another job. Let me just go do this. But no, I decided to take. A really difficult path of entrepreneurship, which anyone that's not entrepreneur, you know, is like not easy. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's right. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Right. It's, you know, you work a hundred hours, you know, in a day sometimes, even though there's only 24 hours.

Penny Fitzgerald: Feels like it for sure. Right. 

Nada Nasserdeen: And so, and, and it was because of my self-confidence. Like, I remember being at my absolute lowest and thinking and coaching myself and saying like, nea, you are enough. Like you, everything that you just went through is not who you are. It's not your identity. It does not mean that you're worthless, like.

You. You have the ability to learn. You have the ability to get back up, like let's [00:19:00] make it happen. And that is really, really important for anybody because the reality is like, God forbid I could lose everything tomorrow and I have to believe in my ability to build it all again. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. Yeah. Your, you know, circumstances can change, your life can shift and you might lose a job.

You might, you know, go through some tragedy, but nothing can be taken away from you. Your experience, the, the knowledge that you have, your attitudes, your mindset, all of that, not none of that is taken away. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you, and that's why the foundation is so important. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. How do you keep that up day after day, like when you're in the thick of it and you're growing and trying to, you know, do all the things.

As an entrepreneur, it's really hard some days, and it could be multiple days in a row that are hard. How do you as an individual, um, psych yourself up and talk your, you know, give yourself that self-talk, that coaching that you need to stay positive. 

Nada Nasserdeen: [00:20:00] First thing is I surround myself with amazing people because you know, Jim Rohn said it.

This isn't my quote. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. 

Nada Nasserdeen: And so if you're surrounded by confidence suckers, people that suck the confidence out of you, that don't believe in you. That have poor, you know, poor belief system, you will start to fall into that trap. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.

Nada Nasserdeen: And so I don't believe in canceling people out. Like I don't believe in cancel culture and canceling people outta your life. But I do believe in really strong boundaries. And so I have a lot of really amazing people that are in my circle that we constantly cheer each other on. We call each other the fabulous four.

We have like this one, four of us in there. I 

Penny Fitzgerald: love it. 

Nada Nasserdeen: And morning, every morning it's like, Hey, I finished my workout. I'm about to do this. I'm about to hit the day, and like just every morning we text and we're, we're very like, positive. And if there's something that does go wrong, then we, we are able to coach each other and we also coach ourselves.

Like I coach myself when I, I have a lot of negative thoughts. We all do. It would be [00:21:00] silly for me to say that I don't have self-doubt. Like that's just not true. And if anyone said that, they would've self doubt. Eh, that's not true. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Right. 

Nada Nasserdeen: But I've learned how to coach myself through that. Mm-hmm. And I have a lot of conversations with myself.

So if I have a negative thought, I'm like, NEDA, what is this thought? Like, why do you have this thought? Where is it coming from and how is it serving you? And I actually say it out loud to myself as if I'm sitting in front of a person. Mm-hmm. Because 

Penny Fitzgerald: there's 

Nada Nasserdeen: no power in saying it out loud and there's power and like getting it outta your system and then talking through it as if there's Annette sitting across from me.

That helps. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I work out. I do things. My body, you know, that kind of thing. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. It's so important. Your brain doesn't know the difference between 

Nada Nasserdeen: No. 

Penny Fitzgerald: You know, the words that you think and, yeah, absolutely. Well, and it's, you have your hype girls and they're also your accountability buddies, right?

Nada Nasserdeen: Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's great. That's really important. And [00:22:00] I think that, oh, for sure. I think people underestimate the power of having a strong circle, because I'm telling you, your circle couldn't, they can sink you faster than anything if you don't have the right people in it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And they can raise you up.

Nada Nasserdeen: That's right. 

Penny Fitzgerald: They're the right ones. Yeah. It's so important to have your, your girlfriends, especially the, the older we get, the more important it becomes. I, I read a study recently that, um, having girlfriends around you as you age is as important to your health as quitting smoking. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I believe it. I believe it.

Mm-hmm. You know, especially because as you get older, uh, you get busier, right? You do. It's 

Penny Fitzgerald: weird. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Right? Right. You get more abundant. I always laugh when like the 20 year old's like, I'm so busy. I'm like, oh, just wait until you and you have kids. It's like, but because it's a mindset, right? And so, mm-hmm. I find that as you get older, finding the right circle that also has.

A similar mindset [00:23:00] around life. Like I believe that, uh, busyness is a, is a mindset, right? And busy blocks blessings. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. So 

Nada Nasserdeen: finding a circle that also has a similar belief where it's like, yeah, like you could be a mom and you could be a great wife and you could be an entrepreneur and you can make great money and you could take care of your body and be a good citizen and be a philanthropist and you could do it all.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Is it easy? No. But you can have it all. Wow. And, uh, I think it's important to find people that have tho those similar beliefs. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. You know, I, a lot of the women I coach also have, have that busyness. They, they have to do it all. They have, they feel like they have to take on all these things and it's just a tool, it's a mechanism that keeps them small.

Yeah. Because then they don't have to get uncomfortable and go do the thing that they really, really, their soul is urging them to go do. Yes. They're still, they're too busy. I'm too busy. I'll get to it when, you know, when things calm down. Right. When the kids graduate, when the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Nada Nasserdeen: Right, right. Never comes. [00:24:00] Absolutely. And that's translation for, it's not a priority for me. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Right. I'm not a priority for me. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Exactly. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, that's, so, that's really sad to watch that. Um, but it happens all the time. I mean, women are so busy putting one foot in front of the other Yep. Going to work, doing all the things, keeping the kids going, bringing, you know, taking 'em to their activities and then they're outta the house and you're still too busy.

To 

Nada Nasserdeen: do 

Penny Fitzgerald: the thing. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Right. Right. And it, and again, that's why I say it's a mindset. 'cause it never, it doesn't change until you do. And I always say like, you just gotta have a system. You know, like the, the most successful companies in the world have a well oiled machined system to run the business. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Why don't we have one for our own personal life.

You know, like we're so quick to put meetings on the books for a business, right? Like, oh, I have a meeting, I have this, I have that. Well, why don't you do it for your life? And then you'd be surprised how much you actually went in, right? Mm-hmm. I always, whenever I [00:25:00] do my keynote and I talk about self-confidence, I talk about, um, like making time for yourself, right?

And committing to yourself. And I always say there's 168 hours in a week. Okay. 168. Now, if you slept eight hours a day, which most, most people don't I mm-hmm. But if you slept eight hours a day, eight times seven is 150 is 56 hours, right? 56 hours. Mm-hmm. So 56 minus 168 hours, you're at 112 hours. So we got 112 hours left.

Now if I were to work, let's just say 60 hours a week, right? What's 60 minus 112? Now I'm down to about 52 hours if I did the math right, 52. So, okay. I work 60 hours, I sleep eight hours a day, and I still have 52 hours left. Where's my, where's it going? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Uh, Instagram. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Instagram loling, you know, like walking around and then realizing that you don't know what you did [00:26:00] sitting on the couch.

I mean, whatever it is, there's no judgment, but there are 52 hours left where you can probably take 15 of them and write the book that you always wanted to write. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Or take or take even four of them and work out because you don't need to work out more than 30 to 45 minutes a day. Four hours a week to spend on your body and your mind.

And but the challenge is, is that most people don't create a system for their life. And so they go through the whole week and they're like, what did I get done? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Right? How many times have we been there where the week goes by and you're like, I have no idea what I did. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. I mean, you felt very busy.

You did all the laundry, you did dishes, you all those things, but what moved the needle? Exactly. A lot of people don't even remember what the needle was, what was the thing that I wanted to do? 

Nada Nasserdeen: I'm trying. That's so true. Yeah, it's very true. Mm-hmm. So I think that, um, all that to say that anybody [00:27:00] can truly build a life that they're proud of, they just gotta set themselves up for success.

And it's really not rocket science. The most successful people in the world are all doing the same thing. All we need to do is just follow, but you gotta follow it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Well find. Find the one that feels good. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Find a coach. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Find a coach. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Find a system. Talk to your 

Nada Nasserdeen: girls. I'm a firm believer in finding a coach.

I mean, we do coaching and I have two coaches. Mm-hmm. Because no matter how great you are in something. You still cannot see outside of yourself. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Exactly. And you might have a handle on what you think it is that's holding you back, but you, you know, until you have some outside eyes, some, someone who's brilliant, someone who's 10% ahead of you, you know, looking back at, you know what you're doing.

They can see, oh, have you tried this? You know, they can ask the right questions so that you start understanding what's happening. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Percent. Yep. I agree with that [00:28:00] completely. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Okay. What, what have I not asked you that you would love to share? 

Nada Nasserdeen: Um, I don't know. I'm an open book. Whatever calls to you, whatever comes.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, I feel we have so much in common. I feel like we're very much in sync with the way that things that we believe and the the impact that we want to have. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. I can tell from the photos in your background. I was gonna tell you when I first jumped on the podcast, I like the photos in the background because that tells me that you're very connected to family.

And I could see that some of them are. Um, more old. They're older in their look. I have, yeah. Similar ones as well, so I, I appreciate that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Um, in the very back, that's my dad, his 16-year-old, um, yeah, he was, uh, catechism, uh, graduation. Love that. Yeah. He was, um, born in 1916. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Wow. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And I had him until he was three weeks shy of 103.[00:29:00] 

Nada Nasserdeen: Whoa. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I know. I was so lucky. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah. Super fun. Yeah. I, um, learned a lot from him and, well, mom too, but 

Nada Nasserdeen: No, I believe it. Yeah. Well, uh, fathers and daughters always have a. Different relationship, I think. Yeah. Mom and daughters, like I, um, my parents were amazing. They both contributed highly to who I am today.

They, they left the best of them with my brothers and I, but oftentimes when I think about certain things, my dad pops up. Like it, it is things that, you know, I had with my dad, ironically. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And, and he, you lost him young, right? He was, you were 26. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I was 27. Uhhuh. I was 20, 27. I lost him and I was 31, just turned 32 when I lost mine.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. That's tough. Yeah, because you know, as an adult that's when you realize, oh, I should have asked them this. You know, when you don't think of that when you're younger, 

Nada Nasserdeen: that, and that's also when you realize how [00:30:00] amazing of a job they did, like, 

Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

Nada Nasserdeen: That's when when I was in my late twenties, I started to realize, oh, I don't think everybody had similar parents.

You don't know. You don't know until you get older. And then you see your friends and you see the decisions they made, and then you see what's happening and you're like. Oh, you didn't learn this. Your parents, like your parents teach you how to love yourself. You realize that like that is not common. So it really wasn't until my late twenties that I realized that my, my parents were special people and I was very, I I say that a God blessed me that the second I was born with the parents that he gave me.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. That's amazing. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. They were 

Penny Fitzgerald: awesome. 

Nada Nasserdeen: They were, 

Penny Fitzgerald: I don't think you realize either. I didn't realize until I was older what great humans they were. That's exactly, you know, you just think of 'em as mom and dad, but you know, their lives before kids was pretty remarkable. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah, that's [00:31:00] exactly right. And that's what made them great parents.

You know, I, I was listening to. A podcast about parenting because I often reflect on like who I am today and what was the contribution of it. And one of the podcasts, somebody is a parenting expert and they said the best parents are the ones that are just really great teachers. Like they just believe in.

Hmm. They just believe in teaching and teaching. You know, what's good for you and good for humanity and good for the world. And my parents were like that. They were, mm-hmm. They were just great teachers. You know, even if I. Did one thing. They'd be like, why? Tell me why you did that. What was the thought process about?

Even when I'm like 10, you know, why, why did you make that decision? You know? And, and they really got me to critically think, but they were also just, they were just great teachers. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. That's amazing. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: So great. You grew up in California. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I grew predominantly in California. Okay. I was born in Pennsylvania over by the Quakers knee deep in Pennsylvania.

And then when I was five [00:32:00] we moved to California. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Aw, that's neat. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. Yeah. And then I landed, now today I land in, uh, Las Vegas and Edmonton, Canada, actually, Edmonton, Alberta. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, nice. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Back and forth. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. I am back and forth. I'm in Sarasota right now, Sarasota, Florida, and, uh, part-time in Iowa, Eastern Iowa, a little farm community.

Nada Nasserdeen: I could see that. Yeah. Iowa is, especially during COVID expanded a lot. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It was. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I said Iowa and during COVID expanded a lot. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Really? I didn't even know that 

Nada Nasserdeen: there was a lot of people there was in housing and buying properties specifically in Iowa. 

Penny Fitzgerald: No kidding. I didn't even know that 

Nada Nasserdeen: I was 

Penny Fitzgerald: stuck in my, in my bubble.

Oh, wow. Okay. Can I shift gears on you? 

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So at the end of my conversations, I love to ask my guests, what's your favorite cocktail or glass of wine? Do you have a favorite? 

Nada Nasserdeen: So I'll be transparent. I don't [00:33:00] really drink. I drink maybe like once a year during New Year's or maybe at a wedding, Uhhuh, and I'm a reasoning girl, like I or Moscato.

I like the really sweet wine. That's all I can handle. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. I 

Nada Nasserdeen: what it's called, I think it's called Barefoot. It's the, it's, yeah. SCA with the two little feet? Is that what it Yes, 

Penny Fitzgerald: that's barefoot 

Nada Nasserdeen: Uhhuh. If I drink anything, like I said, maybe once or twice a year, it's that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. That's funny. Um, okay, so I used to be a wine judge too.

It's COVID kind of put an end to a lot of the judging competitions that I did, but there was, um, one, and they're all blind. You don't know what you're tasting, but, um, barefoot Moscato was. An award winner across the board. 

Nada Nasserdeen: It's so good. And it's so cheap. It's like $8. It's not very expensive. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I know. It's just, yeah, it's kind of crazy.

Um, I'm a bit of a wine snob. Yeah. Yeah. I like the drier, drier ones, but, yeah. Well, and now mocktails are really having a moment. They're really [00:34:00] popular. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. Festive. Yeah. Yeah. When I go to networking events and stuff, and they, uh, I usually get like a mocktail or something, something non-alcoholic. Uh, I didn't even know that's what it was called.

I, I actually, it was like a month ago. I was like, what's a mocktail? They said, non-alcoholic. I said, I'll take it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: So, yeah. And it's still, you know, it's a very festive, fun, fizzy something. Yeah. You know, they put together, so, yeah. Mm-hmm. It's always cool. Mm-hmm. Very cool. Okay, so what's a, what's a fa favorite memory with girlfriends or family?

Like, you know, either on vacation or just. Anytime. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah, I would say, well, a recent memory, my, my Fab four girls and I, yes, we, uh, we just recently went to the Tony Robbins conference in California, which we cool. Before, I've never experienced Tony Robbins in person. Um, we spoke at a virtual conference together, you know, during COVID Uhhuh, but I've never seen him in action.

And I just thought it would be a shame if I didn't see him before this life was over. Right? Mm-hmm. [00:35:00] Especially as he starts to build his succession plan, because he is already building that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. With 

Nada Nasserdeen: tolerances. So myself and four of, you know, uh, three of the, my girlfriends, we went and we experienced the ultimate, um, what's it called again?

His big conference. I can't remember what it's, yeah. But, uh, it was awesome and that, that was for sure a great experience. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, that's neat. One of my best girlfriends went to see his, um, his experience I think about a year, year and a half ago, and I think it was in Texas. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, she, it transformed her business and her way of thinking about things.

And did you experience that too? Was it transformational for you? 

Nada Nasserdeen: I had moments. I wouldn't say that all. I wouldn't say that the whole time was because a lot of the work, right, that he does, we also align with, and so there's certain things that, you know, I've been practicing for a long time, just the nature of our company.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Nada Nasserdeen: But the thing that I really learned from him is his ability to influence on another [00:36:00] level. Mm-hmm. I mean, he said things. I'll give you an example. He said things that my team, and I often say the same concept, but he says it in a way that is so much more relatable and connected and simplified. And I remember for the conference thinking, wow, like we teach that concept, but.

We don't teach it like that. And that is more transformative than like this way. So I really, I really understood, um, you know, again, as I'm writing the book, influential Communication, a different style of influence and that, that is very, that was very inspiring to see. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Yeah. That would be, um, you know, so, so often, uh, back in the day when I was, uh, I had a team of.

600 and some, um, wine guides. I used to do wine tastings too and have a team and, um, in doing the same thing. And you would coach and train? Yeah. [00:37:00] And. I would say one thing like this is, this is a great thing to do. This is a great way to do it, and nothing would happen. And then another leader would come in and say exactly the same thing, 

Nada Nasserdeen: and they were like, right.

Yeah. Well, 

Penny Fitzgerald: sometimes you just have to hear it from a different. Perspective or from a different voice to even have, well, and sometimes from the same voice six or seven times before it registers. I think we're all, you know, we're putting one foot in front of the other again and just doing the things.

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely. So, so that was, that was a great experience. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I bet. Amazing. Did you do the fire walk thing? 

Nada Nasserdeen: I sure did. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, tell me about that. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I wasn't like, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't afraid to do the fire work of the fire walk Uhhuh. I was just so tired. I wanted to get it done with Oh, because I don't be, because people don't realize that, uh, when you go to Tony Robbin conference, he, he works on his own time.

Like there's no deadline. It's [00:38:00] not, you know, 10 to nine. It's 10 to 20. Robbins is done talking. Oh. So by the time we got to the FI it was like 1:00 AM and I literally was like, I don't, um, I have no fear around the fire. I just wanna walk on it. So. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I just wanna walk on it, so I can go home. That's a long day. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah, and we did, we literally, my, like my girlfriends and I, we had our backpacks and we ran to the fires to get there first because there was 15,000 people there. Right. Yeah. There's people at the conference, so we were running at like 1230 at night. Right. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh. 

Nada Nasserdeen: To get mine to get in line Uhhuh and then just like, we literally were like, here, hold my backpack, and we walked across the, we're like, let's go home.

Let's go. That's literally what happened. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. Did you have to be there the next day or was that the culmination of the event? Oh 

Nada Nasserdeen: no, that was only day two and it was, yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my God. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Exhausting, exhilarating. But he [00:39:00] does it on purpose because he is basically showing you what you can do.

It's like I, oh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: wow. 

Nada Nasserdeen: I could push you to the end. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Right. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Uhhuh getting from nine to 1:00 AM it's like you, you can do this. You can be in a room all day, learning, transforming, taking action, and then at the very end of the night, still walk on fire. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Dang. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Right. Like he's very strategic in his process. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.

Wow. It sounds very fun though. Very, um, rewarding. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Yeah, it was awesome. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's cool. Yeah. Okay. Netta, how do we find your books? Are they on Amazon? 

Nada Nasserdeen: They are. You can find 'em on Amazon. You can also just go to our website, rise up for you.com. Um, the books are there. All of our services are there.

Of course, you can find them on Amazon as well. And then you can also connect with us at Rise Up For you. We're all over social media. We have a ton of free content. And then feel free to also connect with me. Nada Lena Nasserdeen, I do my own Instagram and my own LinkedIn, so if you, uh, connect with me on my personal page, I'll be the one answering you.[00:40:00] 

Penny Fitzgerald: Awesome. I will, I'll put those links in my show notes too for people so they can find 'em easily. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Thank you. Thank you. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. This has been delightful, Nada. Thank you so much. 

Nada Nasserdeen: Absolutely, Penny. Thank you so much for having me on the show today. 

Penny Fitzgerald: ​