Stop People-Pleasing and Start Choosing Yourself with Anna Hanael

🎙️ Stop People-Pleasing and Start Choosing Yourself with Anna Hanael

Episode Summary

In this episode of The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast, Tracie sits down with Anna Hanael—speaker, healer, certified hypnotherapist, and pattern-breaking expert—for a powerful conversation about self-trust, people-pleasing, intuition, and personal transformation. Anna shares her remarkable journey from growing up in Communist Poland, where conformity and performance were expected, to building a life and business dedicated to helping others reconnect with their true selves. Through stories of resilience, healing, and bold reinvention, Anna reminds us that we are not meant to abandon ourselves in order to belong—we are meant to choose ourselves first.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How people-pleasing and overachievement often begin in childhood
• Why intuition is a powerful guide for life and business decisions
• The role of hypnotherapy and energy work in creating lasting transformation
• How learning to trust yourself changes everything

Actionable Tips from This Episode

• Pay attention to where you may be abandoning your own needs to please others
• Create moments of stillness to reconnect with your inner guidance
• Take action before you feel completely ready—confidence follows action

Memorable Quote

“Ready is not a feeling.”

Bold Moment of the Episode

At just 26 years old, Anna made a life-changing decision: she sold her successful business, left her home country of Poland, and moved across the ocean to the United States for love. What followed was a challenging period of isolation, emotional abuse, and self-discovery that ultimately led her to reconnect with her intuition, embrace healing work, and step into the calling she now shares with others. That courageous leap became the foundation for the transformational work she does today.

About Anna Hanael

Anna Hanael is a speaker, mentor, coach, healer, certified hypnotherapist, and pattern-breaking expert who helps empaths, intuitives, and entrepreneurs stop people-pleasing, trust themselves, and choose themselves first.

Anna works with clients who are challenged by overgiving, self-sabotage, and people-pleasing patterns that create stress, anxiety, lack of self-trust, and toxic relationship dynamics. Many of her clients have already tried therapy, coaching, mindset work, or self-help, yet still feel stuck, blocked, or unable to move forward on their own.

Through her unique blend of hypnotherapy, energy healing, subconscious reprogramming, and spiritual guidance, Anna helps clients heal at the root level. With over 25 years of experience in energy work and 14 years as a hypnotherapist, she empowers people to build self-worth, confidence, clear communication, and the courage to live and lead from their true power.

Connect with Anna Hanael

• Website: www.annahanael.com
• Free Masterclass: How to Stop Putting Yourself Last and Start Saying No Without Guilt
  • https://annahanael.com/masterclass/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anna.hanael/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annahanael
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-hanael-55a086122/

Join The Gather Community

If you’re ready to take your next bold step, come join us inside The Gather Community—a space for women leaders and entrepreneurs who are building their businesses through connection, collaboration, and courageous action.

🔗 https://www.tracieroot.com/podcast

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Transcript

0:02

Are you ready to take bold action and live a life of brilliance? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, where women leaders share inspiring stories about daring decisions that shape their businesses, their lives, and their careers. Today, I'm with the fabulous and amazing Anna Hanael. Anna is a speaker, mentor, coach, healer, and certified hypnotherapist who helps empaths, intuitives, and entrepreneurs stop people-pleasing, trust themselves, and choose themselves first. With over 25 years of experience in energy work and 14 years as a hypnotherapist, Anna blends subconscious reprogramming, energy healing, and spiritual guidance to help clients break patterns at the root. Her work empowers people to build self-worth, confidence, clear communication, and the courage to live and lead from their true power. As we talk, you'll hear Anna share her journey of entrepreneurship, including one bold decision that created her path of what was next. Her story of resilience, risk-taking, and transformation will inspire, encourage, and support your personal and professional growth. Please join me in welcoming Anna to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast

Tracie Root 1:21

Anna, I am so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

Anna Hanael 1:25

Thank you, Tracie, for inviting me. I am so excited. I love your Gather community, and I'm thankful to be here. Thank

Tracie Root 1:34

you. Wonderful. Well, I am really excited because, you know, we met, I'll say a year and a half ago, I think first, something like that, and I instantly was attracted to your energy, and I love the work that you do. I love... I connect easily with everyone who's doing hypnotherapy, energy work, et cetera, bec- and I think it's because of the energy you put off as a healer in the world that is something that I, you know, like to be around. So I was instantly drawn to you. But we haven't had a chance to really talk about your full story, and I thought what better idea than to bring you on the podcast and share it not only with me, but with the listeners who are listening to the podcast. So I'm excited to dive in. Are you ready?

Anna Hanael 2:19

Yes, I am ready.

Tracie Root 2:21

Fantastic. Okay. So what I would love to start is to get an understanding of kind of your origin story. Like, you know, I know now that you're working in hypnotherapy and energy work and things like that, but we don't often at our ages do the things now that we did long ago. So, like, how did you get here? Tell me a little bit about the journey that brought you from being a young Anna to where you are today.

Anna Hanael 2:52

I am gonna start with saying that I was born and raised in communist system in Poland. Mm. It's massively different. Uh, that was a time when scarcity was the norm, and we were taught to keep quiet. Also, the better you perform, the more rewards the family will get. Oh. So, uh, uh, the responsibility was there, and ironically, the whole system created the need of performing and pleasing and overachieving and doing.

Tracie Root 3:28

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 3:28

Also, uh, I was born very much energetically open, so I have lots of friends around me, invisible ones. And I love to gather rocks. So it's interesting that it is It was different. So every weekend we will go to the forest to pick mushrooms or berries or just to have a picnic. That was our weekend relaxation. And I love to gather rocks, not the pretty crystals we buying today. I would pick up rocks and, uh, felt the need of them being at home. So outside of the whole system in school that you have to be quiet and obey, you cannot speak up and you don't h- you're n- you're supposed to not to have opinion.

Tracie Root 4:19

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 4:19

Uh, also at home I was told that this is weird and negative and bad. Mm. So everything contributing to me shutting down.

Tracie Root 4:29

Yeah, so you had to keep it all inside, not let it be seen. And did you feel then, like if people were telling you you were weird, did you decide that you were also weird? Or did you know that you were just different and, and you just couldn't tell anyone?

Anna Hanael 4:47

I actually felt I'm different, and then they Initially, children don't feel that, so I didn't feel that. But when, when my grandma or my mom were saying, "Whatever you hear, it's evil, it's bad, it's, it's just be careful," or, "The rocks w- you are weird," then we just losing the compass, in- internal compass guiding us, and we just begin to perform to be accepted. So I'm not gonna complain about my childhood, because there was a good things happening there. But I was definitely raised, um, to keep quiet, to forget who you are, and just perform and deliver.

Tracie Root 5:28

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Did you Was it, did you have a big family? Was it, like, would you have siblings or did you have

Anna Hanael 5:36

any- I, I don't have a big family. My parents are gone, so I'm not going back. And my life actually took me out of Poland. So I fell in love and across the ocean, which is United States.

Tracie Root 5:51

Yeah.

Anna Hanael 5:51

And, um, there was no keeping the relation- long distance relationship to the ocean. Mm-hmm. It's nine hours difference. So I move here, but I move as that person who always knows how to run the business, how to perform, how to be successful, completely forgotten who I am inside.

Tracie Root 6:13

What kind of business were you doing in Poland before you came here?

Anna Hanael 6:17

I had a CPA office.

Tracie Root 6:19

Mm. Okay.

Anna Hanael 6:20

And was actually extremely successful because I opened right after the Berlin Wall went down.

Tracie Root 6:27

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 6:27

So yes, I lived through Marshall- A

Tracie Root 6:29

lot of opportunity happening then.

Anna Hanael 6:31

Yes. So my generation, we were quitting the universities and colleges because there were new opportunities opening up, and we can open new companies, leasings, banks, and I had CPA office for new accountings. Mm. So I was teaching people how to open their own business, how to be independent contractor, how to pay taxes for that. And honestly, Tracie, I was very successful.

Tracie Root 6:57

Yeah. I bet. I bet. I can imagine that, I mean, we've heard, uh, here in the States, right, you hear about how the transformation just was, is like a explosion, right? It was so huge. Same thing happened when the USSR fell and, like, same thing in Russia, right? So you know, we've seen it from far away, so I can imagine being in it, it must have been an incredible time. But you ended up leaving. How long after that did you come here to the States, fall in love, and move here?

Anna Hanael 7:31

So I, I was 26 when I moved here. I opened my first company when I was 19, and I was very successful. So from business perspective, I was like, "Why am I moving? Why am I dropping everything?" Yeah. I was number one in my town. Um, everybody knew me. I wasn't married, so that was a problem, because the society was thinking there's something wrong with you. Yeah. Um, and I fell in love and was... If not that feeling, I would probably never leave the country. Mm-hmm. But love can change us and move us and put our life upside down, so I sold the company, I sold everything, and I moved to United States, and that's when my true journey started.

Tracie Root 8:17

Yeah. So tell me more. You moved here. Did... Where did you move to?

Anna Hanael 8:22

Straight to Las Vegas. So

Tracie Root 8:23

after- Okay, which is where you are now. Yeah. So you've, so you've been here the whole time, in Vegas? Yes. Wow, okay. That's unusual, I think, for, for people... Well, did you stay with that person?

Anna Hanael 8:35

No, we are divorced.

Tracie Root 8:36

Okay. Okay. But you were with them for a long time, you got married, et cetera. Yes. So you had anchors and roots in Las Vegas, and then even though the relationship ended, you're, you're there.

Anna Hanael 8:47

So when I moved here, um, that... So this is the different person. Few days ago, my client, uh, text me that she's falling down in anxiety and stress, and she doesn't know which way to go, and she said something very positive about me, and I told her, "I was in your shoes. 20 years ago-" Mm you will never come to me." I was anxious, I was stressed, I was jealous, I was pulled in 10 different directions. Um, I didn't sleep well. I was like, "I was worse than you are right now." And that's why I said when I moved here, that's without me knowing that my transformation was in the making- Mm-hmm because the relationship was extremely abusive.

Tracie Root 9:36

Mm.

Anna Hanael 9:36

Emotionally abusive. Um, I wasn't hurt physically, although there were attempts to hurt me physically, and I found myself... That was the one moment I was sitting in a closet in a corner under my clothes, and I was crying, and I said, "Why am I here? I had such a good life in Poland," at least that's what I thought.

Tracie Root 9:59

Yeah.

Anna Hanael 10:00

Why am I here? Uh, what is my life purpose? What is, what is my path? How can I get up tomorrow? And I remember that evening in a closet because I felt like I have no way out, like I'm cornered. And again, I was a different person. How can I go back to Poland and tell everyone that I failed, that my marriage is a disaster, that, uh, uh, we don't have any money and I sold my business? My mom happily spent everything I left in Poland. I didn't even have money to fly back.

Tracie Root 10:37

Mm.

Anna Hanael 10:38

And in my mind, at the time, I have this pride I don't have today. How can I come to my friends and tell them that I failed at every level? And I cried. And actually, that was the turning point in my life because somehow I activated the heart desire or energy around. And few months after, my Reiki master and my mentor, who was remarkable mentor for me, show up in my house in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving dinner. And I get chills when I say this right now. And all of it started that transformation towards who I am today.

Tracie Root 11:25

Amazing. Amazing. So, I can imagine you sitting in that closet- And like recognizing and, you know, being intuitive, right? Intuiting for yourself like th- this has to change. It's going to change. It's changing already even as I sit here thinking about it. But the process between that point and Thanksgiving was some time, and things kept going. So tell me about some of the steps that you took when that person came to your home and you recognized that that was the, the next step on this transformation that you're, that you were already on. Like, what happened next?

Anna Hanael 12:13

So I actually, when I was so successful, I shut down successfully too my intuition and my hearing. So when I found myself crying, that's when I realized I have to connect to something deeper- Yeah within me, and I start opening. Uh, the, uh, the also interesting part is at that time I didn't speak English, so I couldn't- Okay make even friends here. And I was like, "What am I doing here?" So I started to working on myself to just focus on me. What do I feel every single day? Mm. Uh, what do I like? And was noth- nothing really massively moving forward. When she show up, she came to the house and I felt, because I was asking to connect with myself, I felt that peace from her. Mm. It's like a oasis of peace walking to the house full of people who are constantly talking and who is louder, who is more successful, who is better. And then she walks in without any words, and I got chills. And I was like, I don't know what she does. I wanna do it. And she actually gave me the first books to read, and she started to give me mental exercises.

Tracie Root 13:30

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 13:31

Uh, and says like, "You have to sit down." And the first exercise was sit down for three minutes, three times a day, and just count in your mind with open eyes. That was my first exercise.

Tracie Root 13:45

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 13:46

To just bring myself into peace versus being this bundle of stress and anxiety, and filled with self-doubt-

Tracie Root 13:56

Yeah

Anna Hanael 13:56

and chaos.

Tracie Root 13:57

Yeah. I love that. The, you know, a lot of people who are not, um who have a hard time with that calming and centering will say, like, three minutes seems easy, but it's so hard to... You know, whether it's being quiet or, you know, and people think that meditation means you don't have thoughts and all that. And, you know, there's a lot to talk about related to that. But three minutes, it's only this many, but it feels like a long time when you're constantly in mental chaos, right?

Anna Hanael 14:31

Mm-hmm.

Tracie Root 14:32

I love that, that she saw that you needed to start as small as you could start in order to start.

Anna Hanael 14:39

But three minutes goes faster. So I always tell my clients now, at the time there was no cell phones. Let's, let's remember the time when there was no cell phone. Yeah, I do. Actually, no, there were cell phones, but they were these huge expensive ones. Yep. Um, but there was no email yet. But, uh, she said, "Just put a clock for 3:00." And because you have open eyes and you're counting, and you can count out loud, it actually goes fast.

Tracie Root 15:05

Yeah. Okay. I get that.

Anna Hanael 15:06

So it was a very interesting exercise, um, that start- actually led, for me, it led to, uh, me beginning to sleep, um, better. Mm-hmm.

Tracie Root 15:18

Well, your whole nervous system was a mess before that. Yeah, I can imagine.

Anna Hanael 15:26

That's

Tracie Root 15:26

true. So, okay, so she was the first person to introduce... She was a Reiki master. She's the first person to introduce you to kind of what became your future. So you made this bold decision to talk to her, to engage with what she had to offer, and to move in that direction. So tell us the rest of the story.

Anna Hanael 15:48

You are exactly right. That was the bold decision because at the time, one minute to call to Poland was a dollar and five cents, so it's really horrible to call. Later on, I found the Mexican calling cards. They were cheaper. So yes, she gave me books, and she was giving me exercises, and I always felt more peaceful after her guidance. So she's not only was my Reiki master and teacher, she was one of the best coach I've ever had. She, uh, was a psychiatrist who quit her practice.

Tracie Root 16:23

Mm. So she

Anna Hanael 16:24

has a training in mind, and she was also utilizing hypnosis on me once in a while when we need to really go deeper and heal the guilt and shame and all the, um, hiding elements from childhood. Uh, so I follow her guidance, and, uh, I started to work on myself. She was also She taught me also stop being the victim. Um, anytime I would call her and cry and complain, "Oh my gosh, he called me this name, and he did this," she will say, "Okay, I am so sorry, but you're gonna stop this."

Tracie Root 17:01

Yeah.

Anna Hanael 17:02

Um, you're going to-

Tracie Root 17:03

Both feel your feelings and move on.

Anna Hanael 17:06

Yes. Mm-hmm. She taught me that. I transitioned from her to, uh, courses. I did some courses with Doreen Virtue, Brian Weiss, so I was always interested in it. The thing is, when I finally was able to go back to Poland and train Reiki, I just totally fell in love with this modality. Finally, I felt like I'm home with feeling the energies again. Everything has energy. She also made me aware how important words are. So this was interesting, too. I will... Finally, I got friends, and we will m- meet, and you know, like friends, we like to bitch about things in life. Okay.

Tracie Root 17:46

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 17:46

He said, "You're gonna stop this now. There's no more complaining. When you complain, you attract the same bad thing to yourself and all your friends." So y- when I divorced, my friends were surprised because I used the meeting with them to have fun, to have a different feeling than at home. Yeah. So you

Tracie Root 18:05

didn't complain, so they didn't know how bad it was and that you had that on your future.

Anna Hanael 18:11

Ex- exactly. But I feel that that's, I was functioning, I got the strength here, and I can sustain that. And initially, I wasn't planning that this is gonna end to divorce. Uh, I wanna help my ex-husband and heal him and do lots of things for him, but at the end, it didn't work. Yeah. So the best way was to leave.

Tracie Root 18:31

Yeah, yeah. Well, we can, we, you know, we've all heard the phrases that you can't heal other people. Like, they have to be ready themselves, and he wasn't ready. That's unfortunate.

Anna Hanael 18:41

I tried for six

Tracie Root 18:42

years. But yeah, you can. For six years. Wow. That's a long time to s- to struggle with that duality, for sure. So okay, so now you, you are the, like, exa- you didn't know what she did, but you wanted to do what she does, and now you do what she did.

Anna Hanael 19:02

And even more because I went to... She was using hypnosis, um, only as a help side tool. Okay. I mainly use hypnotherapy in my practice. Okay. Now I'm transferring more and more towards the energy as I'm getting more and more connected. There's, their energies are so beautiful. Some of them have power to remove certain, um, patterns from us almost instantaneously, so I'm continuously asking, "Give us those tools. Give us those tools." Yeah,

Tracie Root 19:32

beautiful.

Anna Hanael 19:32

So, um, yes.

Tracie Root 19:34

So talk about how... So tell us about your, the business part of it. So you're working with who, and how exactly are you serving those clients?

Anna Hanael 19:44

So I am working with intuitives, empaths, and everyone who is energy sensitive.

Tracie Root 19:54

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 19:54

The truth is, I work with everyone I feel I can help them, but this is my ideal client, someone who is already very sensitive, who has the- Mm-hmm nervous system shut down, who can sense the room when they walk into the room, and then they feel like something is wrong with me. No, it's not you just sense the room. Has nothing to do with you. So- Yeah.

Tracie Root 20:16

Or that you sense the misalignment, right? That the room energy is different than your energy. Not better or worse, just different, right?

Anna Hanael 20:23

Yes, exactly. I help entrepreneurs. Very often entrepreneurs are very sensitive to stop people pleasing, over-giving, so they trust themselves and choose themselves first.

Tracie Root 20:35

Yeah.

Anna Hanael 20:36

And time goes fast. This is already 15 years working with subconscious reprogramming and with energy it's 26 year, uh- Wow. Awesome with energy.

Tracie Root 20:50

Yeah. That's a long time. Are, did you... Like, when you were a CPA, would you ever have thought that this is the shift that you would have made for the rest of your life?

Anna Hanael 21:01

Um, no. I never thought that. Um, I was successful CPA, so in my mind there was like, "This is what I'm gonna be doing," and when I wanna go to school in United States, I was looking for CPA trainings.

Tracie Root 21:17

Sure.

Anna Hanael 21:18

Uh, I wasn't able to do it, so I, uh, went to first English classes and hypnotherapy college, and energy work was constantly parallel with it. I love, I love what I do. I, I don't see this as work. I see this as passion, as fulfillment. Seeing someone who feels more empowered to start doing day classes and changing their life, communicate clearly, it's my drug.

Tracie Root 21:49

Yeah. Yeah. I get that. And I'm looking at your sign and it says, "Confidence, soul alignment." And, you know, I'm thinking about the folks that... 'Cause I work with a lot of people who need to grow their confidence and, and not that I do what you do, but in the world of doing events and speaking opportunities, and even with the podcast, bringing people on to tell their story, it builds your confidence, right? But when that's from actions versus, like, something more deep inside, ultimately that alignment is really the base of all of it. If you can decide and realize what's right for you, then the confidence is there.

Anna Hanael 22:33

That's the best gift we can give ourselves. Uh, with every person who comes to me, I'm focusing upon connecting them with their intuitive guidance.

Tracie Root 22:45

Mm-hmm.

Anna Hanael 22:45

And that guidance is good for that one person. Our guidance is not good for our spouse or friend or child. They have their own guidance.

Tracie Root 22:55

Yep.

Anna Hanael 22:56

But trusting that voice that often says something completely opposite than we planned.

Tracie Root 23:02

Right, than we planned, exactly.

Anna Hanael 23:05

Uh- But it always brings us positive result.

Tracie Root 23:08

Yeah, I

Anna Hanael 23:09

believe. Always. Doesn't matter how scary it is. It take... Just, I... Suck it up, move forward because- Be

Tracie Root 23:17

bold

Anna Hanael 23:17

guidance always has your goodness, your happiness, your peace in mind.

Tracie Root 23:23

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that. All right, my friend, I know I have all of your links and your information on how people can reach you. Tell us, like, this is a podcast, so it's gonna be who knows how long out there in the internet, but you're doing hypnotherapy, you're doing energy work. Tell us how, how you, you want people to remember that you can serve them so that they're gonna wanna reach out and contact you. Like, wrap it up for us.

Anna Hanael 23:51

I will say don't wait. Quick story. One client came to me, I took her notes. She decided not to work with me. Two years later, she came back. I'm taking the notes, and I'm realizing she's saying the same things. When I flip the screen and show her- Mm-hmm she right away start working. Don't wait.

Tracie Root 24:11

Don't wait.

Anna Hanael 24:12

Because time is only one thing we cannot regain. If you're suffering, if you're dreaming about something bigger, if you feel overwhelmed, you feel people don't see you, don't hear you, don't respect you, reach out. We can flip this and change this. And now I also have a free masterclass, how to stop putting yourself last and start saying no without guilt, so you can see, uh, how this feels and-

Tracie Root 24:43

Yeah. I love it

Anna Hanael 24:43

then we can progress forward. But don't wait. You are worthy of reaching for your goals, and be happy.

Tracie Root 24:53

My friend, this is, yeah, this is why we are here together. You are- I love how you put everything. It's so beautiful and so passionate and so true. Do not wait. Take action, be bold, and go after your dreams. The end. Like, full stop. Don't wait. Beautiful.

Anna Hanael 25:14

Be bold because ready is not a feeling.

Tracie Root 25:18

Yeah.

Anna Hanael 25:19

If we waiting to be ready, it's never gonna come. It's not gonna come. We're gonna feel ready after we take the action.

Tracie Root 25:24

Yep.

Anna Hanael 25:25

So be bold. And action

Tracie Root 25:26

makes, yeah, action makes you ready, so you have to take action before you're ready, before you feel like you're ready. Yeah, I love it. Anna, I am so thrilled to get to hear your story. Thank you for sharing your whole story. That's I didn't know any of those things, so I'm really glad to have heard it. I know our listeners are glad to have heard it. And just your, the energy that you put out, I get to be looking at your face right now while we're doing this. Anyone who's watching on YouTube or on a video podcast, I guess those are a thing now, um, you know, will get to see your energy visually as well. But I know whoever hears your words is gonna be inspired to, to just recognize that they get to decide what's next for them, and when they need support, to contact you or someone who does your type of thing. Yeah, beautiful.

Anna Hanael 26:17

Exactly. Awesome. Thank you, Tracie, for, uh, having me as a guest. This was wonderful. I love your community. I love your boldness, and thank you, thank you.

Tracie Root 26:26

Same here, my friend. Thank you again, and we will talk to you again super soon. And I will get to see you soon, too.

Anna Hanael 26:32

Thank you.

Tracie Root 26:33

Thanks. Thank you for listening to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast. I'm your host, Tracie Root, and I wanna invite you to check out the show notes, find out where you can connect with our guests, find out more about what I and the Gather community have to offer you, and be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks so much