[00:02]

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of the Unstoppable Success Podcast. I'm your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and in this podcast, we hear from amazing individuals. They get to share their tips, their tricks, their insights, so that you can have unstoppable success. And today I have the absolute pleasure of having Victoria Buckmann as my guest. And let me just tell you, Victoria has started an amazing movement. It's called the Life Academy Movement, where you look inside for everything. I absolutely love that. And actually, she's sitting right here next to me, and we actually just met in person. For the first time, we've actually seen each other from afar. But she is a sales leadership strategist.

[00:45]

She has had a wealth of experience, and she is here to share all of her insights. So again, listeners, you get to have unstoppable success. So welcome, Victoria. Hello, Jaclyn. It's so good to be here with you, especially live and in person. I know. Live and in person. It's so awesome. So, Victoria, you have had an amazing career and a lot of interesting things have happened. So tell us, looking back, what is the one thing that you could share that would help people just keep going?

[01:28]

The one thing. I know. I know. It's probably not just one thing. Okay. If I were to think of the one thing, it would have to be, and I know everybody's heard this before, but everything happens for you, including things that are very challenging. Everything happens for your growth. So for instance, I'll give you a real short version of my husband's story. He was a elite gymnast in his 20s, and he was doing a vault that only three people in the

[02:08]

world were doing. And he took off on the wrong foot, long story short, broke his neck, was paralyzed, was a quadriplegic, and they told him he'd never walk or move again. And he healed himself with visualization, mind over matter. And it wasn't until probably years later that I heard out of his mouth a couple of times, oh, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I'm like, what, I'm breaking your neck and being paralyzed? But it led him down a path. He was a little bit egotistical. He thought quite a bit of himself because he was doing something that only three other people in the world could do.

[02:49]

And I have a very simple- So humbling, humbling. Yes, very humbling. But also who he became afterwards, none of that would have happened had that not happened. Or at least we don't think so, right? You never know. But yeah. And similar with me, I have this lovely story where I had a little hiccup. You had something- Somebody did something not so nice to you? Yes. Right. And had a financial advisor steal all my life savings in a flash, you know, half a million dollars gone in one minute. And I reeled. And I wouldn't be who I am and as dedicated to teaching women about making and saving

[03:37]

and managing and investing money, I wouldn't be the person who teaches women how magnificent they are. Because when that happened to me, I didn't think I was magnificent at all. I thought I was a failure. I thought I would, you know, totally screwed up. But it led me to believe that of who I really am on the inside. You have to look inside for everything because you have not only the things that get in your way inside of you, right, blocks and limiting beliefs, but you have this frigging magnificent potential genius inside of you also that most of us don't own up to.

[04:17]

Right. They don't pull it out. You don't, people don't always know they're inner genius or they, they keep it in, they keep it inside and they don't let it out or they didn't even discover it. Well, and a lot of times I'll talk to a woman and I'll go, wow, look at, look at this thing that you can do. How amazing is that? And what it's, what did they say? Oh, that's nothing. Oh, anyone can do that. That's not true. It's actually, it's not true at all. Right. And so you have to know, you have to know and own your, you know, what you're great at and people and it's, and it's okay to say I'm great at something. Yes, yes. And we are experts at so many things.

[04:58]

And I'm not talking about, you don't need to go around and pound on your chest. It's not like that. But if you are amazing at something and you are an expert at something, I just happened to be an expert at sales. I can't even take credit for it. I was born with it running through my blood, you know, I was selling things at two and three years old. So, but if you don't own that and use that to go help someone else with something, if I have this amazing gift of sales and someone else doesn't, then it's my mission, you know, I don't want to say my prior or my obligation, but

[05:42]

it's, it's a priority to give your gifts that you have to other people because they have other gifts that they're probably going to get, you know, share with you. And that's what makes our whole world a lot better than it is right now. Right. Like go around, right? Right. It's actually really true. So your, your hiccup, what allowed you, like, you know, how did you come back is like one of the things that a lot of people, you know, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're in business or you're in the corporate world, there's always a hiccup. There always are hiccups that come along. I mean, it's like life is not a straight trajectory up.

[06:25]

You know, there's the ebbs and flows. So what helped you go from that low point to come back? People, people that loved me, connection. My, I had a, I have a really good girlfriend who does, she's a therapist. She's, she does energy work. She's got all these great ways or perspectives of seeing something different and she loved on me. And at the same time, she kicked me in the ass. Oh, you know, how did she kick me out? She kicked me in the ass. She said, okay, you've been, you know, pouting around for two weeks now.

[07:06]

Your money is gone. Pouting is not going to bring it back. What are you going to stop? When are you going to stop pouting? And when are you going to do something about it? And what are you going to do about it? And then my, my husband loved me up and, you know, was very kind and said, honey, you know, he showed me my magnificence. He said, honey, you're great at sales. You made that money. If you made it once, you can make it again. You could make it 10 times bigger, you know, now that you know what you know. And I wasn't even sure what I knew at that point, right? But it was like connection with people, your influence, your circle. That's why it's so important. And, you know, you talk about that.

[07:48]

Right. I talk about that all the time. Like, you know, it's, it's surrounding yourself with the, with the right people. And the, and as you just said, the people that are going to love on you, because not everybody is the meant to be your person or people, right? And, and it's knowing who those right people are. And you have, you sometimes you have to weed people in and out. And people come into your life for some reasons and some seasons and that's okay, but, you know, just, but know that you should be able to lean on people and don't, and I think that's another thing too. You weren't afraid to lean on people. No. Well, at first I was, I hid out a little bit because I was, I was filled with shame and blame for myself.

[08:29]

And what happened, I remember the turning point. I was driving to a job in Silicon Valley and designing offices with office furniture and stuff. And I was driving down to San Jose and I had a panic attack while I was driving on the freeway. And I took everything I had to get to the center divider and I got to the center divider and I stopped the car and I was sobbing and I was crying. I couldn't even see to drive. And I had to stop and put my hands on my heart and close my eyes and take some deep breaths and I had to look inside and I had to say, Victoria, you can't do this anymore.

[09:14]

Your money's gone. You need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and then move forward. And that's where the look inside for everything came along. But it was, it was in a challenging panic attack in the midst of chaos trying to drive on a freeway. When I couldn't even see because I was crying so hard that it was like, okay, and, you know, nothing changed in that moment. Other than, you know, I got my breath again. But I drove home deciding I'm going to turn this around. I know how to turn this around.

[09:55]

I don't know how in this moment, but I know that I have enough skills. I have enough people that can reflect who I am to me. I can ask for their help. And that's what I did. That's when I drove straight to my girlfriend's house. And she said, all right, she's going to start kicking you. So you just said, so that's when the life movement came about. So talk a little bit about that. Or that's where the genesis in your brain came from. The life movement was a download that I got when I was at a networking event in Florida when I lived in California. And I woke up in the middle of the night in a time

[10:38]

share where I didn't even wasn't even familiar with the room. And it was dark and it was three o'clock in the morning. And I and I have this strange urge to write something down. And I'm trying not to wake up my husband. And I'm also trying to find a pen and piece of paper in some place that I don't even know where the hell I am. Yes. And they said, all I heard was write down life. L I F E. So I wrote L I F E. And I kept hearing, no, that's wrong. And I'm like, I'm arguing with this voice in my head. I'm like, I know how to spell life. Right. But they said, do it. Instead of horizontal, write it vertical. So L I F E.

[11:21]

And then it came out. Look inside for everything. But it wasn't years late. It wasn't until years later that it all came together. So what do you think made it come together the years later? Me not forgetting about that. Not pursuing it intentionally, but not forgetting about it. And and there was another piece to it that came later. It was instructions for life, look inside for everything. So when I moved from California to Florida, which was just a couple of years ago,

[12:03]

I wasn't very happy because I left my gorgeous mini mansion in California and in my pouting and not being here. I just wrote a check for a house. OK, just wrote a check for a house, no mortgage, no debt, no nothing. And I'm still not happy. And so I had to go back to, OK, Victoria, what do you need to walk your talk? You tell people to look inside what's going on. And it was it was me seeing that. Happiness isn't having a ton of money or writing a check for a house or having, you know, a fabulous marriage or your kids nearby.

[12:44]

Although all that is really great, happiness starts on the inside. And until you decide to be happy and look for all the positive things that are happening in your life, there's always going to be things like you said, there's always hiccups, there's always ups up and down. And there's always someone that's going to make less than you. And there's always going to be someone that makes more than you. And so what? Yeah. But if you can be happy on the inside. Yes. Then that I always say the happiness on the inside comes out and everybody else can see it and you can share that happiness. Yes. But what some what I've never heard anyone say is when you own your genius, when you know what your talents are, when you know what you're good at and when you know what

[13:27]

what things that you need to work on because they aren't your strengths. When you know yourself better, that makes you happy. It does. Yeah, it's it doesn't sound like it goes together. And not too many people talk about it that way, but it really does. Yeah. And yeah. And when you're using all of that to help other people or make the world a better place, that makes you happy. It does. It does make you happy. You know, I always say it's it's when you make connections and you and you connect people together for me, like and you see it's a great connection. And even if it's not, it's like it fills your cup, right? It really fills your cup.

[14:07]

It's like, oh, I got them together and look at how great it is. And it's not just, you know, we're not just talking matchmaking for, you know, for partnerships. It's it's business, it's life. It's, you know, connecting one person to another. It really does fill your cup. So, you know, when you're looking back on that and you think, you know, how. You know, somebody who's younger, how do they look inside? How do they look inside? That's a good question. I was just in an Uber a bit ago and I was talking to the Uber driver about this and we were talking about slowing down.

[14:49]

We were talking about driving in the snow and he says, yeah, the one thing about driving in the snow is you have to slow down and you have to be aware of all other people around you. So if you're young, number one, get off your phone. Sorry, I'm just going to say it. But slow. Did you hear that? Listeners, get off your phone. I'm going to say that again. Get off your phone. Well, I'm going to say that one more time. Get off your phone. Slow down means find a place, whether it's a little sanctuary that you made inside your bedroom or in your house or a little corner at the library

[15:30]

or out in a park somewhere. Find some little spot that you can call yours and sit down and just be with yourself. Practice breathing. Notice your breathing. Notice your heart beating. And I am a queen of asking myself questions. So I'll sit out in nature with my phone in my hands, not looking at my phone, but I'll record Victoria what's important for you to know today. And I'll record it and then I'll get really quiet and then I'll just close my eyes and start talking. And half the time I don't even know what I said.

[16:12]

And then I'll turn off the phone and then I'll wait a day and I'll go back and listen to what I said to myself. Yeah. And it's so funny because I noticed one time that I used words that I don't normally use. I had my voice and my tone sounded different. You know, so it's this internal wisdom. It's, you know, I like to call it your intuition. But we all have this internal genius, wisdom, intelligence that lives within us. But we never slow down and get quite enough to listen to what it has to say. So another really great practice is journaling and not not journaling like how did your day go

[16:57]

when this and that, but I'm a fan of ask yourself a question. You know, if my life was really amazing, how would I start it in the morning or, you know, something like that where you just you're looking inside, you're asking your inside, your heart, your soul, your essence. What is it that you want me to know that I haven't slowed down enough to take a look at? Right. I love that. That's a, you know, and being honest with yourself is so important. Like getting to know yourself and being honest. Yes. You know, with yourself, what, you know, the good, the bad and the not so great. Right. Yeah. You know, to be honest with yourself.

[17:38]

The funny thing is, is if you think about it, number one, OK, we're this little seed that comes onto the planet. OK. Everyone's taking care of us and talking to us and telling us, oh, you're so cute and oh, you're this and oh, you're that. And oh, you're not good at math and oh, you're this. And, you know, oh, you have big feet or whatever. So we come onto this planet, we're given a name. We didn't pick our own name. Right. People are telling us who we are and what to do all our entire lives. So if you finally sit back and look at it and go, you know what? Other people know who we are from our actions more than we know who we are

[18:19]

because we were told who we were, right? And we were conditioned and we were programmed and we were giving, you know, we got these limiting beliefs and we got lots of beliefs that are good for us, but we got lots of them that don't work very well. And I will just say, but one thing is really true. If you have something that you believe and it's not something that you want to believe, stop believing it, meaning like if you say, if you keep telling yourself that you're bad at math, you'll be bad at math. But if you say, I'm great at math, I'm you're going to be great at math. If you tell yourself that I'm a great speller, I'm a great speller. You'll be a great speller. It's what you tell yourself really matters. And and just I had to put that out there because, you know, it's what one of the

[19:00]

things that, you know, if I could tell people right now, it's like, go out and write your mission sentence, right? Because your mission is going to help you believe in what you what you want to do in your life. So anyway, absolutely. Well, I love that because one of the things when I'm working with women, they want to step in, you know, they're successful, but they want to step up to a different level. So the identity that you have today, if it isn't creating the goals and the visions and the stuff that you want, you need to shift your identity. And when I'm not talking about being a different person, I'm talking about, you know, being your genius, being your magnificent self, listening inside more.

[19:43]

But it's in order to shift your identity, you've got to pay attention to what that self-talk is and the self-talk that is not like for the longest time I said I was bad at technology. And guess what? I was always bad at technology. And until I started saying, and I started saying I'm great at technology, that didn't work very good. So I said, I am getting better every day at technology. And sure enough, I can say today, I'm great at technology. Love it. Right, right, right. So it's that self-talk. Yeah, it really matters. That is usually other people's voices of things that you've heard. Yeah, right. That creates the identity or who you want to become.

[20:28]

But if you if you look inside, you will see you're this magnificent, amazing person, every single person on this planet is, and we're all different. And we have different skills and different talents and different genius. But we hardly know ourselves. You know, somebody really close to us knows us better than we know ourselves only because they see our actions. Right, right. So I love that. So how did how did all of this evolve? And then, you know, so now what are you doing with your with your life movement? Like, what is that? Where is that going to go and talk about the greatness of that? Because I think it's amazing. I've always wanted to inspire women.

[21:13]

I mean, I have a husband. I love my husband, but I love women. So and I have a fantastic life. And, you know, but like I said, I went through a lot of stuff to get here. So I'm really on a mission to help women because we've been repressed, depressed, suppressed. Right. All those things. Right. For forever, for, you know, ancient history. And women are really amazing. And when women are stepping into who they are authentically,

[21:54]

they're their greatest self, their highest self, they can make a lot of money and they take that money and they do good things with it. They change the world with it, right? Dolly Parton, we were talking about Dolly Parton a minute ago, how she sent books to all these kids. And she was right. You know, it is. It's, you know, she did great things and each and every one of us can do great things. Exactly. And a great thing doesn't have to be some huge thing that you need millions of dollars. Right. I did a great thing with the Uber driver. I commented on his driving. I gave him a compliment.

[22:35]

I asked him where he came from. We talked about, you know, the Dominican Republic, a tiny bit. When I got out of the car, he was like, I'm having my best day ever. So that was doing a great thing. Just a simple little conversation, acknowledging someone. You know, giving them a compliment that was truly true, right? And that's all it takes. You know, it could be something teeny tiny that makes a huge difference. In someone's day or life. Right. It's it's so true. So how are you helping people do that?

[23:15]

So how are you teaching it to other people? I mean, it's it's we can say it, but is there like a program that people can go through or? Yeah, yeah, that I have a program that I'm currently taking some women through. The first thing I like to do is I have a conversation because our language will tell how they speak and what they say. It shows you very clearly what limiting beliefs someone has. But you can't really it's really hard to do on yourself. But if somebody is catching it, if I'm sitting across from somebody I can catch because of what they said, I kind of know these are the limiting beliefs they have. Well, that's the first thing is I want to clear those out.

[23:55]

And we want to shift their perspective because limiting beliefs are a perspective that they created in the moment some situation happened. Right. A situation happened. It had no meaning at all, but they gave meaning to it. And then it happened over and over again. And now it's a belief. So the very first thing is to clear those out and show them that that perspective you had, we're not saying it was wrong, but it wasn't the truth. Right. And here are all other different ways to look at that same thing. Well, that turns someone's life around in an hour. Right. It's amazing.

[24:36]

Right. It's it's interesting that the word is it true or is it the truth? The truth, the truth with a capital T. Right. Yeah. And then we then we really focus on what is their vision. And I'm I'm really good at I have a great imagination. Let's put it that way. I know how to think really big. So I help them expand their vision, you know, according to what they want. Right. And then we ask and we we work together to say, well, then how would that person make decisions? How would that person talk? How would they dress? How would they act? How who do you need to be?

[25:16]

Not somebody different than you actually are. But who do you need? What do you need to step into that you have inside of you that you haven't owned to actually be the person that has that vision happening in their life right now? And it's a process and we walk them through it and it's it's amazing. And the sad thing is, is everybody wants to get rich, quick, get change things in a minute. It it change doesn't have change can happen instantaneously, but really big change happens with little teeny, tiny steps. I was writing about that this morning.

[25:57]

Small consistent actions will actually create the biggest change. And, you know, I always say to people, you know, it's the hare versus the turtle. Oh my God. I can’t, [unclear]. I was like, right. Yeah. Right. It's the hare versus the turtle. And, you know, because, you know, the, those small consistent steps will always outwin. Do you know why? So one of the things I'm passionate about is the brain. Yeah. I want to know how does the brain work so I can work with the brain the way that it works. So I always say, I do magic. Well, when you work with the brain in the way that it works, it looks

[26:40]

like magic, right, right? It feels like magic. So when we go to take a big step, a big, huge step to do something, our brain kicks into fear mode. It wants to keep us safe, right? But if we take these little tiny little steps, the brain doesn't notice it fully, so it doesn't go into fear mode. And it allows you to take that little baby step. And then another one, and then another one, and then another one. So you actually bypass the whole mechanism that goes on in your brain that kicks on fear, because it's fear that stops us.

[27:21]

It, our brain was built to keep us alive and for us to survive. So, but we've got to find a way to get over that fear. And a lot of people go, well, I don't feel fearful. Well, I agree with you. And I disagree with you because we were all programmed to fear. Right, right. We were all conditioned, you know, what's the very first thing that somebody says when you're a little kid? Oh, don't, don't watch, walk across the street. Watch out for cars. Watch out for this. Don't do that. Do, you know, it's in us. And we don't even realize how much it's in us. And that is what stops us. But Kaizen, it's a Japanese word. You were just, you just gave the definition of it perfectly.

[28:04]

The tiny consistent little steps, bypasses that mechanism. in your brain and allows you to take little steps. And these little steps are kind of like compound interest. I don't know if people know about, you know, in the financial word. It's compound. Right. You know, the great example of the compound interest is if you give somebody a penny every single day, or if you take a check, right, take the penny. Yeah, yeah, because it's going to compound, compounding. But it is, it's, it's the, and there's a, and I quote this book a lot. Darren Hardy wrote the book, wrote the book, The Compound Effect.

[28:44]

Yes. And the, the, the reason why I love this book, and if you haven't read it on listeners, listen to it, but grab the link to it in the show notes. But literally it's, it is, it shows you how those little steps that you can do every single day and the impact that it's going to have, you don't see it. But it's over time, you'll see the impact and you'll see what it does. So think about it from the standpoint of food, right? Right. So you decide, oh, I'm going to, it's okay. I'm going to, I'm going to go grab an extra pumpkin spice latte every single day for the rest of my life. I need to have at least one of those, right?

[29:26]

And you put everything on it and it's got all the whipped cream and whatever, all the extra calories. Those extra calories, you don't see it today. You're not going to see it tomorrow. But over time, those extra calories, they're going to end up on your middle of your waist or someplace else, right? Absolutely. Or it's the, uh, it's, or you think of it the positive way is if you give yourself something positive to listen to every single day, you may not see that change today. You may not see the change tomorrow. But 365 days from now, you are going to be a different person. It's going to happen slowly.

[30:08]

And it might be this underlying shift that happens because it compounds. And so those little actions, so I always say, what are those things that you can do today and every little day to make a little bit of a difference? Yes. Yeah. It's crazy. So that the statistic says that if you change five percent, okay, so 95% you stay in the same five percent, you do something different over, you just said 365 days, you will be 80% different in one year.

[30:49]

In two years, 5% per day, you will be 225% different. So one of my mentors says, if you want to start exercising, get up every day and put on your tennis shoes. Don't do anything else. Don't go walk. Don't get on a treadmill. Put on your tennis shoes. Okay. The next day, what are you going to do? You're going to put on your tennis shoes and you're going to walk to the front door, right? You haven't even gone anywhere. Right. But that's what 5% is, putting on tennis shoes. Right. Walking to the front door. Right. The next day, walk outside the front door and then walk back in, right?

[31:33]

5%, you will be 80% different person in one year and 225% different in two years, which means you'll be a totally different person living a whole totally different life. And what's amazing, and you know this, if you're talking about food or you're talking about exercise and you change those things, guess what? Your relationships are going to change. Your health is going to change. Your money is going to change. Your happiness is going to change. Every, because it's all connected. It's all connected. It's all connected. So if you change one little thing in one area, everything changes. Yes. Everything changes. I love that. Okay. So I think this is actually a really great place to actually listen.

[32:15]

As I want to challenge you right now, what is the one thing that you are going to, what's the 5% thing that you were going to make a change? And I want you to comment and share with us, you know, so we know what you want to change and we want to be here to actually help support you in that change. So share in the comments and then share this episode. Yes. As many people as you possibly can, because this is so powerful. Victoria, I absolutely love having you on the podcast. You are truly inspiring and amazing listeners. You have to connect with her. So share with everybody how they can, Victoria, share with everybody how they can actually connect with you. They can connect with me by going to lifeacademymovement.com or they

[33:02]

can go to Victoria Buckmannn, B-U-C-K-M-A-N-N (two Ns) dot com. Okay. So go to VictoriaBuckmann.com or lifeacademymovement.com. We will put all that in the show notes, everybody. So listeners, again, please do me the favor and hit the plus sign so that you are subscribing and following the show. Make sure that you're connecting with Victoria. And then, again, make sure that you share in the comments what you are going, what's the one little thing that you want to change and that you're going to do to get that 5% and do it 365 days.

[33:43]

So you can be 250% different in two years. All right. This is the Unstoppable Success podcast. I'm your host, Jaclyn Strominger. And our goal is to help you leap to your greatest success. Thank you so much for listening.