About Malina Poshtova Delamere: Malina Poshtova Delamere is the Founder and President of Vida Rose Coaching Solutions, a leading executive coaching practice for women whose business, career, and life are in growth mode. Trained and certified by the Center for Executive Coaching and the Fowler International Academy of Professional Coaching, Malina is a Certified Executive Coach, Certified Professional Coach, and Certified Disaster Recovery Coach. She is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School and a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). A former Fulbright Scholar, Malina holds Master of Arts degrees from New York University (Journalism) and St. Kliment Ohridsky University of Sofia, Bulgaria (English Philology). Malina’s coaching practice helps people – leaders, entrepreneurs, team builders – to achieve goals, accelerate growth, solve problems, move forward, and drive change.Malina is a lifelong learner. She is fluent in English, Bulgarian, and Russian and nearly fluent in French. In 2019, Malina learned to sail; Vida Rose is the name of her yacht. Sailing has taught Malina much about leadership, teamwork, trust, resilience, and creative problem-solving. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Malina.
In this episode, Nancy and Malina discuss the following:
- Malina’s position in coaching primarily women
- The difference in coaching a woman versus a man
- Why Adventure Makes People Better Leaders
- Malina’s belief that opportunities often come in disguise
- Success is an attitude
- How sailing and the sales world are connected
Key Takeaways:
- Women tend to be more creative but slightly hindered by limiting beliefs.
- You’re not just a woman leader; you’re a leader! Period!
- You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from.
- You can overcome your biggest fears with the right team in the right circumstances.
- When you meet someone, listening to their story and looking for connecting points is important.
“ My dream job is to coach women. And here’s why. Obviously, as a woman myself, I have been there. I have experienced the challenges of professional women, be they business owners, be they on the corporate career track, or entrepreneurs; I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I’ve felt it, I’ve learned a lot of lessons that I love to share with my clients to help them succeed. As a woman, I am deeply invested in women’s success. And I’ve also had a lot of practice in my 20 years of corporate experience and corporate leadership experience. I coached a lot of men. So I also have the other side’s view, if you will. And that is a very helpful perspective.” – MALINA
“Growth mode is my way of saying you are ambitious, you have goals, and perhaps you need a little bit of help to get you there, or you need an accountability partner or a sounding board to check your decisions. But you are a woman on a mission who wants to succeed, whether in private practice, a corporate career, or as a business owner, and you have very specific goals. At least I can help you clarify and get those goals. So it’s not just I want to start a business and grow it; it’s more you know I want to start it within the next three, six, 12, 18 months. My goal is to achieve X in my first year and Y in the second year. X and Y could be monetary targets, revenue targets, the size of your team, and how many employees you want to have. I wanna grow my business to where I get to sell it to a larger corporation Top of FormBottom of Form.” – MALINA
“My unique idea is that adventure makes people better leaders. When you put someone very comfortably and safely out of their comfort zone. For example, I own a small yacht and take my clients sailing. It’s not about the sailing. It’s about being out on the water, making fast decisions, being aware of the situation, being in a small space with other people, and learning how to communicate with them clearly and impactfully set a strategy, for example, going back to the sailing. Depending on which way the wind blows, it may take you a longer time to get to your destination or a longer time to get back. And it would help if you kept that in mind when planning. Where are you going? Do you have enough time to get there? Do you have enough time to get back? What if changes or the current? What if there’s other shipping traffic all around you? On my boat, which is fantastic, I have two helms and two wheels to drive the boat side by side. So, I like to put clients on one side. It’s perfectly safe because a qualified captain is holding the other wheel or is standing by at the other wheel. But you put someone who wants to be a leader on a boat with six other people and tell them, hey, you’ve never driven a boat before; six other people’s lives depend on you, drive. Yes, exactly. It’s a very safe and controlled environment. But on the other hand, it puts you out of your comfort zone, and it challenges you to make fast decisions, to look all around, to be aware of what’s going on.” – MALINA
Connect with Malina Poshtova Delamere:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malinaposhtovadelamere/
- Vida Rose Coaching Solutions:https://www.vidarosecoaching.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter:https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website:https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi everyone, it’s Nancy Calabrese and it’s time again for Conversational Selling, the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today and it always starts with a human conversation. Today we’re speaking with Malina Poshtova Delamere, an executive coach, business consultant, and high-performing team facilitator. She is the founder and president of Vita Rose Coaching Solutions, a leading executive coaching practice for women whose business, career, and life are in growth mode. Malina has over 20 years of business leadership and helps women leaders, entrepreneurs, and teen builders communicate confidently, build their brands, and confidently embrace their leadership style. Her clients value her as a trusted advisor and sounding board who helps them gain clarity, overcome limitations, and make sound business decisions. I am so happy to have you on the show today, Malina! Welcome!
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Thank you, Nancy. It is such a pleasure to be here. [1:24]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh, my goodness. So, the first thing that jumps out to me is why do you only coach women?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: I do not only coach women, but I coach primarily women. And my dream job is to coach women. And here’s why. Obviously, as a woman myself, I have been there, I have experienced the challenges of professional women, be they business owners, be they on the corporate career track, be they, entrepreneurs, I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I’ve felt it, I’ve learned a lot of lessons that I love to share with my clients to help them succeed. As a woman, I am deeply invested in the success of women. And I’ve also had a lot of practice in my 20 years of corporate experience, corporate leadership experience. I coached a lot of men. So, I also have the view of the other side, if you will. And that is a very helpful perspective. [2:28]
Nancy Calabrese: Sure. Is it different coaching a woman versus a man?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: It is. Women tend to be more creative. They tend to be also a little bit more hindered by limiting beliefs. It is a well-known statistic that, for example, when applying for a job, especially one that is a bit of a stretch assignment. Men will apply for that job with 60 to 65 percent of the qualifications if they feel like they meet 60 to 65 percent of the requirements, they feel they’re qualified, and they will apply for these jobs. Women, on the other hand, need to have 90 to 95 percent of the qualifications and need to feel that they have those qualifications before they dare to apply. And so, it’s very different when it comes to confidence when it comes to overcoming objections, a completely different ballgame. [3:33]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow, you know, that surprises me. I just don’t get it. Why should it be different?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Um, you, you know, you tell me, it’s kind of funny. I consider myself a business leader. I also consider myself a sailor and that’s a whole other side to my story, which I hope we’ll touch upon. But you know, every time I work with someone, or I qualify myself as something, there’s always this woman, a business leader, woman sailor woman journalist, woman executive. And it shouldn’t have to be this way. So hopefully my work does a little bit of a contribution to, you know, if you’re an executive, you’re an executive. If you’re good at your job, you’re good at your job. You’re not just the woman leader, you’re a leader period. [4:27]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. So, you said that you like to work with women in growth mode. What do you mean by growth mode?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Growth mode is my way of saying you are ambitious, you have goals, and perhaps you need a little bit of help to get you there, or you need an accountability partner, or you need a sounding board to check your decisions. But you are a woman on a mission who wants to succeed, whether it is in private practice or a corporate career or as a business owner and you have very specific goals or at least I can help you clarify and get those goals. So, it’s not just I want to start a business and grow my business, it’s more you know I want to start this business within the next three, six, 12, 18 months. My goal is in my first year to achieve X, in the second year to achieve Y. And X and Y could be monetary targets, revenue targets, the size of your team, how many employees you want to have, could be, I want to grow my business to where I get to sell it to a larger corporation. [5:48]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. Wow. Share with us the unique idea that is different and sets you apart as a business coach.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: My unique idea is that adventure makes people better leaders. When you put someone very comfortably and safely out of their comfort zone. For example, I own a small yacht and I take my clients sailing. It’s not about the sailing. It’s about being out on the water, making fast decisions, being aware of the situation, being in a small space with other people, and learning how to communicate with them, impactfully to set a strategy, for example, going back to the sailing. It is, depending on which way the wind blows, it may take you a longer time to get to your destination or a longer time to get back. And you need to keep that in mind when you’re planning, you’re, where are you going? Do you have enough time to get there? Do you have enough time to get back? What if changes or the current, what if there’s other shipping traffic all around you? On my boat, which is fantastic, I have two helms, and two wheels to drive the boat side by side. So, I like to put clients on one side. It’s perfectly safe because a qualified captain is holding the other wheel or is standing by at the other wheel. But you put someone who wants to be a leader on a boat with six other people and tell them, hey, you’ve never driven a boat before, six other people’s lives depend on you. [7:36]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, drive safely, right?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Yes, exactly. It’s a very safe and controlled environment. But on the other hand, it puts you out of your comfort zone and it challenges you to make fast decisions, to look all around, to be aware of what’s going on. Who’s doing what? Are they safe? Is everybody wearing their life vest or whatever the case may be? It’s a fantastic way, adventure is a fantastic way to build leadership skills and especially who can be more timid. [8:12]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. Well, you know, I’ve read, I don’t know if I saw this on your website or when we spoke earlier, you state that life is an adventure and opportunities often come in disguise. What do you mean by that? We know life is an adventure, but what about the opportunities?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: You never know where your next opportunity is going to come from. And it could come from in the form of meeting someone, a business partner, for example, as it happened to me, on a vacation. I do retreats for women all over the world. And I met my business partner while I was on a retreat in South Africa a few years ago. And together now, back then, I was of eight of us from different corners of the world, met in Cape Town and proceeded to have this fantastic two weeks together. I was the only person in that group with a corporate job. And therefore, the only one who at the end of the two weeks had to rush back and be back in the office on Monday morning. Everyone else? Decided they loved it so much. They stayed, they explored different corners of the continent and so forth. But through this, I kept in touch with some of them. And I certainly kept in touch with the leader who, you know, is now a business partner of mine. And we hadn’t spoken to each other for several years. Here I am now with my own executive coaching practice. I practice what I coach. I go on adventures myself. [9:54]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. Yeah.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: And I value meeting people. It’s important when you meet someone to listen to their story and look for connecting points. And that’s where these opportunities come in this guy, someone that you think you have absolutely nothing in common with turns out, you know, five years down the line, your business partners. [10:16]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, you know, I love that you also state success is an attitude. I think that’s so true. Why is it true?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: It is because if you believe that you can succeed, there is really nothing that can stop you. And that is the attitude. Will there be pitfalls along the way? Absolutely. You may need to course correct. Again, my sailing metaphors come here. It’s just your sails to the wind. It doesn’t, it’s not like you sometimes you must take a zigzag line to achieve your goal. But if you have that attitude that I am here today. I have this goal that I want to achieve with the right attitude, you can get there. It may take a while, take a few detours, or you may even discover along the way that your initial goal is ultimately not your final destination. And that’s okay. [11:10]
Nancy Calabrese: It’s all mindset, all mindsets. They, you know, for many years I’ve been coach, you get rid of the head trash. And if you approach things optimistically and you do the right activities, the rest will come, right? Yeah. All right, we need to talk about your sailing story, please. Let the world know.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. All right, we need to talk about your sailing story, please. Let the world know. Why sailing? How’d you get there?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Um, that is a fun story. That absolutely is a fun story. So, sailing has been a lifelong dream of mine, a childhood dream of mine. You know, other kids may dream of being astronauts and going to the moon or Mars these days for me. It was sailing, crossing oceans, exploring the world. Uh, but I never lived anywhere near water. I never had an opportunity to sail. And I, you know, once I was an adult and career woman and a mother and a family woman, it kind of became more and more remote of a dream. Other things took priority. Until one day, my son was 12 years old. He got invited to sailing camp. And watching him learn to sail, he invited me to sail in his little boat with him. At the end of camp, I had an opportunity to be sailed by my 12-year-old kid. That inspired me to investigate it again and to find out that yes, there are classes that you can sign up for. You can learn to sail at any point in life. And as I was taking my first sailing class, I also discovered this race around the world takes about a year for amateur sailors for people like me, people with very little or no sailing experience. They take you; they train you, and then you can do either one leg, or you can go several legs or around complete the full circumnavigation. I signed up for it at the drop of a hat. And what I learned, again, going back to opportunities come in this guise, this was about five years ago, the year before COVID. So, you know, everything’s happening with a little bit of a delay and a pandemic thrown in the middle. What I discovered is that when they take you into those trains, they throw you into this massive 70-foot stripped-down racing yacht, very little comfort, and a group of, you know, 10 to 15 mostly middle-aged adults’ people who have achieved success in their lives and are now looking for this extra adventure. Big egos, a lot of them are leaders in their businesses, in their industries. And within a week, living in significant discomfort, there are no luxuries on these boats. You form a team, and the leaders emerge, and the team players emerge and the, you know, non-collaborators emerge in the process. And it’s an incredible experience. So, as I was training for this race, the idea occurred to me, hey, I am buying a boat. I now feel five years after I learned to sail, I’m buying a boat, a brand-new boat, and this has been a leadership experience of my own. I will take this concept and apply it to my clients. And use that to use sailing as a metaphor for trust building, strategic thinking, impactful, clear, very clear communication. And yeah, my opportunity is guys. [15:12]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. Were you frightened at all during that time? Yeah.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Many times, absolutely many times, but I will tell you with the right team in the right circumstances, you can overcome your biggest fears. I have had a lifelong fear of heights. Absolutely, I have a fear of heights. I freeze. I just completely freeze. With the encouragement, this summer with this team.
Nancy Calabrese: Right. Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: on this roof that I was in, I went up the mast, you know, held by two basically ropes in a little harness. They hoisted me up and I didn’t dare go all the way up. Maybe next time I will. But even just going up about a third of the way is something that I never would have done before. And that’s the sort of attitude and mindset and…
Nancy Calabrese: Great. Oh my goodness.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: desire for success and ability to overcome fears that I try to help my clients with. [16:21]
Nancy Calabrese: Well, that’s amazing, but I got to tell you, I can’t even go on adult rides in an amusement park, okay? And it brings me back to, I was in the kiddie section on a carousel, and we were at the top and I was like bone white. So, unlike you, I don’t ever have to get over that fear. That’s it, I’m just not going to do heights anymore. So funny.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: I’m going to go ahead and close the video. Yep, and I was there myself, but you know, I decided, you know what, this is one thing I need to conquer, especially having my own boat. Sometimes things happen out at sea, you must do it. And I wanted to see what it’s like and in a safe environment surrounded by people who are supportive, who know what they’re doing. It was easy. Now I regret not going any higher. I look back and I say, hey, I should have just paused to regroup myself and tell them keep going. [17:21]
Nancy Calabrese: Great. So, you’ll do it next time.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: I sure hope so. I hope to have the opportunity or create the opportunity for myself.
Nancy Calabrese: Yes, you will. No, you will. Not sure, you will. Last couple of questions. Tell me something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Huh, that’s a very, very good question. Something that’s true that nobody, almost nobody agrees with me on. It’s not that they don’t agree, but I think in the world today, in the discourse today, common sense is not very common. We get wrapped up around big ideas or big buzzwords, we get wrapped up in taking sides or deciding that there’s only one way that something can be done. And common sense is rare. So yeah, I don’t know that people necessarily, nobody would disagree that common sense is valuable. And yet I feel that a lot of people today It is lost to them. [18:38]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow, I think that’s a great observation. I’ve never thought of it that way. Finally, what is one takeaway you’d like to leave the audience with?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Believe in yourself. Dare to be different.
Nancy Calabrese: I love it. Dare to be different. Everybody listens to that. Dare to be different. How can my people find you?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: They can certainly find me on LinkedIn. They can find me on my website, which is www.vidarose.com. Vida Rose, by the way, is the name of my boat. You can also find me on YouTube. If you do a search on Malina and Vida Rose, the makers of my boat had so much fun selling the boat to me and the whole journey was so fantastic. Another opportunity, I made friends for life in the process, and they did a video, here I am in midlife, finding myself sort of the star of a commercial for a boat, something I never could have imagined. [19:56]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. Listen, I think if nothing else, get in touch with this wonderful lady. You might be able to go sailing with her. Who knows where, right?
Malina Poshtova Delamere: I know where, sailing to success. That’s exactly where I will take you. I can’t tell you what body of water we’ll be on, but I will definitely take you sailing to success. [20:17]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for being on the show and for sharing your story. You’re very inspiring. And I really encourage everyone out there to say hello to Malina. Your story is really heartwarming. So, I hope you’ll come back to the show sometime.
Malina Poshtova Delamere: Thanks, Nancy. It was a pleasure to be here today and I’d love to be back sometime. Bigger and better, right? Always.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, you come back when you get your next boat. How’s that? Bigger and better. All right, everyone, make it a great sales day and we’ll see you next time. [20:56]
