Meet Steph Zakas

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Steph Zakas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Steph, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

It all boils down to betting on myself and learning to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Confidence is built through an internal drive, I don’t believe that you can get true confidence if you keep relying on external circumstances to affirm your confidence. It truly has to come from a space within and I feel like stretching yourself to do things that are outside of where you feel comfortable is where that happens. I know it sounds cliche as growth comes from getting outside your comfort zone, but if you don’t challenge your own thoughts and perceptions and beliefs as part of that process, you won’t build a confidence in yourself and know yourself. Confidence truly comes from knowing yourself, asking the deep questions, and betting on yourself to make whatever it is you’re shying away from because you don’t feel ”good enough” happen. Once you know you’re good enough because enough doesn’t even exist, then it’s easier to bet on yourself and feel that inner personal power, which is what I equate to the feeling of confidence.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a place-based experience creator at the end of the day. I pair my skills of being an accredited Master Coach, Hypnotherapist, Artist, Location Scout, and Wayfinder to help others to navigate their own uncommon path. I do this through place-based experiences such as transformational retreats centered around locations here in Iceland, helping others produce their own productions or retreats here in Iceland as well, private coaching and advisory, and networking groups. I feel it’s special because it is kind of like a cauldron of my magic I can create in for others that lends my strong connection to Iceland’s wilderness with my skills as a coach which is unique, I’m the only person in the country doing what I do and I love it. I hand-craft private retreats for individuals or teams/ groups and I also host a group retreat where individuals can grab their spot in called The Wandering that is paired with a bespoke coaching journey throughout the year for them, it’s really the ultimate support of having me for the year plus meeting in person for such a potent, 3-day transformational experience. I am also a photographer so I blend that into everything that I do. I do a lot haha Such is life as an ADHDer.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Resilience, Persistence, and Adaptation. My advice would be to hone in on those 3 skills because when you first start out, you really need all 3 in order to keep moving forward. If you’re in the beginning of any journey you have a lot to figure out and experience before you truly land on what works for you and what you deep down want to do. It takes time and energy and failure and learnings. If you don’t have those 3 things then it’s easy to see that what you’re doing might *look like* it’s not working, which then causes discouragement, which then totally changes your perception and actions. However, if you have those 3 skills you’ll see that it is working, you are exactly where you need to be, and you need to wind yourself through the dark forest to come out on the other side. It can’t be skipped. So you need resilience to keep going, persistence to keep trying and experimenting on what works best for you, and adaptation to the circumstances that come your way. If I didn’t have those I wouldn’t have made it and wouldn’t have seen, looking back, that what felt like failure was actually just learning to get me to where I want to be.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes, I would love that! I am looking for people to partner with who are interested in collaborating with their own place-based experiences where I can help them make that happen, such as a retreat or event/ experience here in Iceland and I am their local connection/ fixer/ producer. I also am looking for folks in the film industry who are interested in collaborating on any projects and would like me to help them with location and coaching (weird, I know, doesn’t exist yet, but I do have a background in film production and can see it working). I also would love to collaborate or partner with people who maybe see possibility in all the wild things I do and have an idea I haven’t even thought of yet. They can connect with me by just emailing me to get the conversation going [email protected]

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stephzakas.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stephzakas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-zakas-2408a8239/
• Other: I have just started my Substack and am really leaning into this moving forward as I feel it’s the place for creatives over any other platform. 🙂
  Keep Your Shift Together™- https://stephzakas.substack.com/I am also launching a new podcast under the same name and will be recording guests on it, anyone can email me if they’re interested in sharing their stories about important shifts they’ve made in their careers, mindset, and businesses toward their success.

Image Credits

All were taken by me except the one selfie of me and a retreat client, credit @ Nikita Pere with permission to use.