Bringing Hope for Those Struggling to Find Health and Happiness: Hope Zvara (USA)

"We all struggle. The key is - Can we learn from those struggles and then turn around and help another?"

Dr. Ramesh meets with Ms. Hope Zvara, who has struggled with multiple addictions and mental demons, yet turned her life around and is now living her dream and passion of helping others live healthier, more fulfilling lives.

CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, Hope is a movement and lifestyle expert and entrepreneur. She  has been working with people in pain, showing them how small, simple changes add up to big results.

Hope's mission is to share her story and everything she has learned to help people thrive. Join Dr. Ramesh  as Hope shares with us candidly her personal journey and tips to a healthy, happy and useful life.

To learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset with Dr. Ramesh, get your copy of The Big Jump into Entrepreneurship 2.0 on Amazon.com or www.Dr-Ramesh.com.

If you're interested in building crisis resilience, Dr. Ramesh will be launching her new book on the crisis ready mindset in the second half of 2023. Make sure you follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn so that you’ll get her new book alert!

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host, Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Founder of Impact Velocity

Guest Speaker: Ms. Hope Zvara, Co-Founder & CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, Creator of STIFF Mother Trucker Pain Relief Cream, Author, Speaker, Board Member of Holistic Health Educators

#EntrepreneurialMindset #Entrepreneur #USA #Wisconsin #MTF #MotherTruckingYoga #HopeZvara #CEO #Founder #Dr.RameshRamachandra #TheBigJumpintoEntrepreneurship2.0 #CrisisReadyMindset #TalentLeadershipCrucible #ImpactVelocity #Thriving #AgeofDisruption #Trucking #DriverFitness #TruckingHealth #TruckingFitness #Yoga #STIFF #PainReliefCream #HolisticHealthEducators 

Transcript

To learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset with Dr. Ramesh, get your copy of The Big Jump into Entrepreneurship 2.0 on Amazon.com or www.Dr-Ramesh.com.

If you're interested in building crisis resilience, Dr. Ramesh will be launching her new book on the crisis ready mindset in the second half of 2023. Make sure you follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn so that you’ll get her new book alert!

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host, Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Founder of Impact Velocity

Guest Speaker: Ms. Hope Zvara, Co-Founder & CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, Creator of STIFF Mother Trucker Pain Relief Cream, Author, Speaker, Board Member of Holistic Health Educators

#EntrepreneurialMindset #Entrepreneur #USA #Wisconsin #MTF #MotherTruckingYoga #HopeZvara #CEO #Founder #Dr.RameshRamachandra #TheBigJumpintoEntrepreneurship2.0 #CrisisReadyMindset #TalentLeadershipCrucible #ImpactVelocity #Thriving #AgeofDisruption #Trucking #DriverFitness #TruckingHealth #TruckingFitness #Yoga #STIFF #PainReliefCream #HolisticHealthEducators 

Ho Lai Yun  00:00

Hello and Welcome to Thriving the in Age of Disruption. 

Today, Dr. Ramesh meets with Ms. Hope Zvara from Wisconsin in the United States of America, who has made it to the Top 10 of LA Weekly’s list of the top female entrepreneurs to watch out for this year in 2023. Hope has taken the male-dominated trucking industry by storm and has been featured in top publications like Forbes, Yahoo News and PBS. 

Hope is a movement and lifestyle expert, author, speaker, CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, and the creator of STIFF Mother Trucker Pain Relief Cream. 

Despite her struggles with multiple addictions and mental demons, Hope has turned her life around, and is now living her dream and passion of helping thousands of others live healthier and more fulfilling lives. For nearly two decades now, Hope has been working with people in pain, showing them how small, simple changes add up to big results.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  01:02

Hope, welcome to the Thriving in the Age of Disruption podcast series. We are really excited to have you here, and especially to have a guest from the USA. I would like to start off by having you introduce yourself to our listeners. 

Hope Zvara  01:14

Yes, thank you so much for having me on. My name is Hope Zvara. And yes, I am from the USA, Wisconsin, so Midwest. In my journey, I've been an entrepreneur for almost 20 years. And in looking at a leadership role, I came across your podcast. I try to listen to as many different people as I can, I have a goal from myself each month to listen to 10 different podcasts. And so, I actually just searched on Google ‘women leadership podcasts’, and you were one of the ones that came up. I wasn't always in a leadership role, though.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  01:45

Well, I’m glad you found our podcast. I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Midwest. It was in 1992. I was an exchange student at NYU, doing my MBA studies. And during the Christmas break, I had headed over to South Dakota to spend time with a friend and her family. it was really surreal because  New York City was all about gunshot sounds and siren noises throughout the day. And here I was in a place which was knee deep in snow and it was really quiet and people didn't bother much about security. In fact, they left their front doors unlocked. The best thing was in the mornings we would get up and walk over to the local cafe and have Tom and Jerry, which incidentally was the traditional Christmas time morning cocktail. It was an eggnog with brandy and rum. I enjoyed the time in Midwest, especially getting to know people who were so warm and so open.

Hope Zvara  

So I'm glad you got to experience that.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra 02:41 

Yes, I've lost touch with Kayleen (Newby) but I hope that through this interview, maybe we will get connected again. 

Hope Zvara  

I love it. The Midwest, its culture all its own. It's one of the best places to raise a family.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  

And how old are your kids? 

Hope Zvara  02:53

My oldest is 14. His name is Harper. He is just such a creator and innovator and I see a lot of myself in him, pushing boundaries, challenging things. My daughter, Meredith, is 12. She's my creative nurturer. We joke that she was born a hippie. She's just kind of this free spirit, free flowing. My youngest, Ivan is 8 and he is just meant for something big. I feel it when I look at him. He's funny. He's super confident, he's willing to put himself out there. I love how I see each of my children so different. And my goal as a mom and I think this is part of my background, is to just nurture those inner qualities like who they are and allow them to lead through their life with those things. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  

That's really great. Could you please share a little bit more on how you got started with your business? 

Hope Zvara  03:42

Twenty years ago, I was struggling trying to get healthy, trying to figure out my life, and I'm a recovering addict. I struggled with anxiety and depression from an eating disorder, alcohol, and everyone just around me was just kind of saying, “I don't know what else we can do for her”. Then one day, I was at work, I was a older teenager at the time, I think someone at work said, “You look like someone that would practice yoga”, and something in me that day tripped. And I went home, and I looked for a yoga class. And the next thing I know, I'm half the age of everybody else in the class. And that Wednesday night yoga class became a weekly ritual of second chances for me. That first day in that yoga class, walking out of the door, I still remember, for the first time I had felt in years, my mind was clear. I wasn't thinking, “Oh, you're dumb, you're stupid. There's nothing good. You'll never become anything.” Like all these things that so many of us think on a daily basis. I wasn't thinking any of that. And eventually, that Wednesday night yoga class turned into me teaching yoga, eventually into me owning a yoga school and a yoga studio. But I always felt like I was meant for more. In that journey of yoga, I did step into recovery. And I was able to get well, I found that other people were equally as struggling as much as I did in different ways. And I was kind of attracting those types of people in my yoga career. 

Hope Zvara  

But as I evolved in the yoga and fitness world, I always felt like there was something more out there. For me about five years ago, I was really getting the itch, “This is all I can do in my hometown, I want to do something more.” And then I was at a little business mixer here in my hometown with my husband. And I started talking to a guy that I had never met. And I was trying to pitch him corporate yoga, which that was part of my business at the time, he looked at me and said, “Do you have anything for truck drivers, like in the cab of the truck?” And I think I'm funny sometimes, I throw up my hands and I said, “Mother Trucker Yoga!” Just trying to get a rise out of this guy. And he looks at me and says, “That's brilliant!” Sticks out his hand and says, “You want to go into business together?” We shook on it. And the next morning, he called me up and said, “Well, are we going to do this?” In four months, we built a business from scratch. And a year later, I bought him out of the business. In the last five years, I've helped thousands of truck drivers change lanes in their health and fitness with small simple changes. For many of those listening today, we all have something that we're trying to improve in our lives. But we feel like we're biting off more than we can chew. We don't know how to get to that place. The reason why many of us struggle with our health struggle with our fitness, even just struggle in different aspects of life is because we're trying to take the big box out of the closet at the perfect and what I learned with getting into recovery was it's about the little steps, the tiny, itty bitty baby steps when implemented correctly, when done consistently we can get wherever it is we're trying to go in life.  

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  06:37 

Hope, I'm really intrigued with the journey that you have taken, from being someone who was lost and looking for something to engage in life with, and that by connecting to yourself through yoga, you healed yourself. And you then started to provide that for other people. So from being a Yoga teacher, you went on to owning a yoga studio and in the last five years, you've wanted to empower more people who had a constraint in their lifestyle where they may end up driving for long hours and could not move much. And so came up with this innovative way in which they could bring health and fitness back to their lives.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  07:17

I define the entrepreneurial mindset is one whereby you're being resourceful, you are someone who knows how to manage uncertainty and to take risks, as well as to create value.

Hope Zvara  07:30

Oh, my gosh, I think for me, I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. I knew in high school, I knew early on that working a traditional job was not for me. I was working at a bookstore, when I would think I was at 19. What I loved about it was that I worked in a space where I could kind of do my own thing. But I learned in that experience, I didn't like someone telling me when I had to work, how I had to do it, how it had to look. And that was kind of like a little tick for me where I was just like, “I need to do my own thing.” And I didn't know what it was in high school, I went to school at time where it was kind of like, take the test and figure out what you're gonna be in this life. And that didn't jive with me. I believe life is always showing you little signs in the direction that you're supposed to go. But it's whether or not we are watching and listening. And I think that that colleague, when I was a teenager, I was a lifeguard at the time. And she just casually said, “You look like someone that would practise yoga.” I think that was my opportunity in life, to say, "Hey, Hope I got a plan for you." But you have to take this card, you have to go and you have to pursue it, you have to make the initiative and go into that first yoga class. For someone that had anxiety, for somebody that really struggled with self-esteem and how I felt looked on the inside and outside, showing up somewhere by myself in an environment where I didn't know anyone was petrifying. But the fact that I showed up, and I had that experience, that was my real first taste that, “I could live a normal life, I could do something.” And then my yoga teacher, I mean, I was going to a gym, it wasn't anything fancy by any means, she looked at me one day and said, "You're really good at this, you should consider teaching yoga." And I just went home and I was like, "I think I want to teach yoga." I was going to college at the time, because that's what you're supposed to do. But I was really just going through the motions. And that yoga training that I took really changed the course of my life, because that training not only gave me hope that I could get into recovery, and that I could live a healthy life, but it also showed me a path of something that I was good at.

Hope Zvara  09:36

For listeners out there, when you're going through life, and you don't know where you belong. And you don't feel like what you're doing is ‘it’, but you don't know what ‘it’ is? My encouragement to you is just keep leaping until you find that, and that's something I feel like as an entrepreneur, the mindset is, “I am all in on trying things and figuring it out later”, like jumping in and seeing if I can swim. 

Where a lot of entrepreneurs, or people that feel like they might be entrepreneurs, it's like they're trying to figure it out before they leap. And I believe the difference between a business owner, someone that is good at something and decides to open a business, and somebody that has a drive, an idea or a passion and becomes an entrepreneur, the difference between those two people is the entrepreneur’s always looking ahead, is always leaping, is always trying to go further, go bigger, help more people. Where a business owner is, "I'm really good at doing hair. So, I'm gonna open a hair salon and I'm gonna cut hair." That's not really an entrepreneur, because they're not inventing themselves. They're not creating, they're not trying to always move the needle forward. They've just created a business around something that they're good at. 

And although I was good at teaching yoga, I always had this vision of, “What can I do more? How can I help more people? Where can I go after this?” My mindset has never been, “Well, this has been really great. I'm gonna stay here every day.” I wake up and I'm thinking, “How can I be bigger, better, stronger? How can I help more people? How can I reach more people? How can I make the biggest difference possible in the world?” To me that is a true entrepreneurial mindset.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  11:16

That's so inspiring, the way you have described it. What has always kept you on that journey? Because I'm sure there were days when things didn't work out.

Hope Zvara  11:29

Oh, absolutely. Every day, I feel that way sometimes, “What am I doing?” I think, for me, what has kept me going is this deep, deep feeling inside that I'm meant to help a lot of people. And I have thought about many times, especially with my yoga studio, and you show up and no one's at class, or you're teaching 18 classes a week, and your instructors are calling in sick last minute or saying they can't come and here, you're trying to find someone to watch your kids or you're sick, and you have to pick up the slack. Even now, in my business with doing what I do with truck drivers, it's a grind. No one gives you a handbook on how to be an entrepreneur. But I think for me, what continually keeps me going is this deep, deep, knowing that I am meant for more than I am meant to help people. And when I say that sometimes I'm always like, "Man, I hope people don't think I sound arrogant", but it's a calling. Some people are meant to be a greeter at Walmart. And I think that that's great. I think my dad would be a great greeter at Walmart because he can talk to anybody. He can make anyone smile, he's hilarious. And that's a calling, there are all different levels of callings. I just feel deep in me, I am meant for something more than even what I'm doing right now. And so that push to keep going really stems for me from that.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  12:44

That's really awesome. Hope, it's really great how you describe your calling because I run a company which does corporate consulting work and a part of the process is for people to discover their personal purpose and a purpose is life, your north star, it guides you. And so when you look back at your life, you can see the consistency in the kinds of things that you've done, the actions and the decisions or the results that you have. It's also that one thing that keeps you grounded. So when you said that your calling is, "I'm meant for something more", I think that's so compelling.

Hope Zvara  13:19

Yeah, but it's interesting, because when I started my yoga studio, I always knew that that was never going to be the end game. For me, there was something in me that I was always this is a stepping-stone. And trucking, I'm not a truck driver. My husband has a CDL commercial driver's license, but he works out in the construction site, so he's not driving an 18-Wheeler. And when my former business partner we met, just randomly. Here's the interesting thing, we were both not supposed to be at that meeting. I didn't want to go, I was like, “I don't need to go, honey”, like my husband. I'm like, “Just you go by yourself.” And I just got back from leading a yoga retreat. And he's like, “No, no, go!” And my former partner wasn't supposed to be there either. 

But he was in town last minute. And his business partner, in another venture, he had encouraged him to come. And so, I have to believe that when we're on the right path, the things that are meant to happen in our life are meant to happen. And like I said, I think an entrepreneur sees the opportunities to leap. And that night, I leapt. I was like, “Here I am asking the universe to give me a sign for what I should be doing next. If I say ‘no’ to this guy, I kind of did it to myself”. And I think this idea of feeling like, “I'm meant for more”, has always been something deep in me. I’m meant to help a lot of people's lives, as many people as possible, live their best life. be healthy. You know, I think about why I survived the things I survived. And I tell people I should have never have been here, I almost lost my life twice due to addiction. And I just think that there's a bigger purpose for me. And that drives me every single day. It's what's driven me when my bank account was at zero. That's what's driven me when nobody's listening to me at a meeting. That's what's driving me when I'm trying to create products. And I feel no one has the answers for me, to keep going to find those answers for myself. Going back to the difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur, that's an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur keeps driving, despite all obstacles, that keeps going for that burning inner desire to reach that next space. And that's something that has always been very true for me, even if I wasn't sure where I was going.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  15:21

And what do you do in your business right now?

Hope Zvara  

Yes. So currently, I help over the road truck drivers who are struggling with their health and wellness, living sedentary lifestyles and struggling with things like back pain mid-drive, brain fog and sleep issues. And my focus is small, simple changes. So, my business has three different avenues. The first avenue is we have an app, I get to work one on one with drivers. They can log on, they can join my community. And we have about 200 plus videos in our platform. They're all five minutes or less, which for me, this is where my background with yoga and just kind of trial and error and recovery came in. I believe we all have the attention span the size of an ant. When things are really long and drawn out, they feel complicated. We feel like we don't have time and we kind of put them in a box in our closet and say, “When the perfect time arrives, then I'll pull the box out.” And my whole premise with Mother Trucker Yoga is really showing people how they can live healthier and be more active. Within the day, within their lives, not like, “Oh, now at 530, I'm gonna go to the gym for 30 minutes.” But then the rest of the day, I'm not going to do anything. And so, truck drivers for me has been kind of this canvas to be able to bring everything I've learned everything that I want to do and kind of add this into their lives. So, I work one-on-one with drivers in my app. Another avenue I do is I work with trucking companies. So, companies that have a fleet of drivers, and I either audit their wellness program that they have, because a lot of trucking companies currently have wellness programs, but they're not run properly. And then my other avenue’s I can help build one with our programming and kind of a collaborative approach. And then the last avenue is I do do speaking, and I do do trainings. And really, I'm an advocate for health and wellness in the trucking world. The biggest feedback I've had from drivers is that what I am teaching them is so easy that the number one thing I hear from my drivers that are older, 45 to 65, they've been driving for a while, is "Why didn't anyone teach me this sooner? Why didn't anyone tell me this?" I think of Cheryl, one of my drivers, and her and her husband are down 100 pounds collectively. I never focus on weight loss. I believe weight loss is a side-effect to healthy choices. They stopped smoking, they're cooking on the truck, they're doing all these great things. And I think the number one thing we can learn from Cheryl and her husband is that just start small, tiny little bite-sized pieces. That's how they started, they started walking, then Cheryl started just like having healthier snacks on the truck, then she decided one day a week she was going to cook a meal, then it became one time a day, she's gonna cook a meal on the truck. And that just slowly blossomed into more and more and more and more. And so, the one thing that I'm feeding drivers consistently is - Everyone else is telling you that in order to be healthy, as a driver, you have to work out and do a ton of push-ups and be the fittest trucker. And I'm telling them that that doesn't matter. My goal is not for you to be the fittest trucker, my goal is for you to be able to start fitting into your everyday life, without pain, without discomfort, without feeling like it's difficult for you to get out of bed or you can't sleep at night. And it's the small simple changes that they can make, implemented correctly, consistently, that are really going to lead them towards a healthier, happier life.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  18:34

I define crisis as a kind of a setback that we experience. And if we don't do anything about it, we're going to soon find ourselves at a turning point where either we're going to die, or we're going to do something about it. And you actually shared about those two critical moments from a health perspective. But if you were to look at crisis broadly, including your business as well as other aspects of your life, what do you see has been the enduring quality that has helped you to actually rise above those setbacks?

Hope Zvara  19:04

Oh, gosh, I think two things. So, first is my experience with my own personal health crisis. I've said to myself a number of times over the last many years, "Hope, you have gotten through the hardest thing that you could have possibly gotten through in your life, everything after that is a piece of cake". A lot of people have had bad things happen to their life. And you know, they're told, or they tell themselves just, “You got to forget about it and move forward.” But I regularly try to look back because it gives me perspective. And so, I think with crisis resilience, the whole resilience part means that you remember the things that you have overcome and endured in order to move forward and be better. And if we forget about the things that we have overcome, how do we even know we're being resilient? How do we even know that we're overcoming and so for me, that's one piece, reminding myself that I have overcome the worst possible things in my life, and I have survived, and I am moving forward. The other part of crisis resilience is, quite honestly, when things go bad when I don't get the response I want, when a company tells me ‘no’, when I feel like I'm not moving forward in my business fast enough, I tell myself, “There's a purpose in this. What do you need to learn right now?” And that has really fostered growth, and also resilience and a resilient mindset, a resilient lifestyle? It's kind of like a learned behavior that when I can stop myself and say, “Okay, Hope. Timeout. Why is this happening? Is this a pattern? Has this happened before? What is going on? What can you learn from this so that you can move forward and you can overcome whatever it is, it's in front of you be resilient in that moment in order to get where you want to go?” 

Hope Zvara  20:55

And so for those of you listening, “You are in the driver's seat. You get to decide.” When you are an entrepreneur, that is one of the biggest benefits of being an entrepreneur, but you got to make sure you look in the rearview mirror, you look in the side mirror and go, “Why do I keep seeing what I'm seeing? And what can I learn from this?” And you will feel and you will see that you can move so much further, faster, and be resilient, despite the crisis that's in front of you. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  21:20

Awesome. Three things that you shared just now - The first was about perspective, I like the way you describe getting perspective by looking back at what has happened, right? Because then you can actually see what you have overcome and what you have endured. And you can see that you’ve grown. And number two, I loved also the second piece, which is how can you reframe a particular situation, which is not going the way you want it? What is the purpose in this, right? Look for that bigger picture, look for something that can urge you forward? And the last thing is that despite what's happening, how am I going to keep going forward? Or what am I learning from this? But the question is, are we actually willing to learn, and sometimes we find ourselves stuck that we don't want to learn because it means that we have to acknowledge that we didn't do what we were supposed to do. And then at that moment, it's about taking personal responsibility for what we have not done or done in that situation.

Hope Zvara  22:23

Oh, my gosh, I agree. Personal responsibility as an entrepreneur or a leader is essential. I think when you work in a corporation, where there's people that are your equals, or someone above or below you, it's really easy to pass the blame. It becomes a comfort thing where it's like, “Okay, that didn't work out. Well, she didn't get me that paper in time, or he was sick for five days. So I couldn't finish my job.” When you're an entrepreneur or you're in a leadership position, it's all on you. And that has been one of the most empowering things for me in my life, is to recognise that I am both the problem, but I am also the solution. And my friend, Stacy says that all the time, “I can either move forward and get clear with what's going on in me or I can blame myself or I can stay stuck, it all bounces back on me.” And at the end of the day, it all is in my seat. But that's the empowering part, you also hold the keys. You might be the problem, but you are also the person that can move you forward. And that to me is the magic of being an entrepreneur. And as what I probably love almost most of all is that it's me, I get to decide, I also get to decide if I want to take a break or I want to give up, it is my choice. And that is so empowering. As a woman, my message for all the women listening is, “You can be anything that you want, you can rise in whatever way that you want.” And there is no mould, there is no right or wrong level to rise to, or place to go. And I have never thought that about myself. I very, very rarely have looked at myself as, “Oh, you're a woman that's a business owner or you're a woman in a leadership role.” I'm working in an industry that's dominated by men. And I love it. I love it because it challenges me but I also love it because I will see the difference in perspective from a woman's role to a man's role. And I also see working with mainly men, about 10% of the industry is females, I do have females that are clients. But again, predominately men is that they are often looking for that nurturing perspective. 

They're looking for that perspective, where it's not how they see things, or they would be where they want and for the women listening right now, “There's a reason why you have the gifts you have. There's a reason why you are in the place that you are in your life. And there's a reason why you're listening to this very podcast right now.” So, the question really becomes, what will you do with the gifts and talents that you've been given? You are meant for more rise, but you have to make that decision to do so. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  24:51

Well said. So, Hope what's your advice for other women leaders and entrepreneurs?  

Hope Zvara  

For women entrepreneurs or women leaders. So, the first advice is you can do anything. That if you have a dream, if you have something inside of you, do not under any circumstances, let someone tell you that you can't. And that has probably been one of my best attributes is when someone tells me ‘No’, I tell them, "Oh, you just watch me!" And that fuels me. We live in a world where everyone has an opinion about everyone's lives. You got to learn to put the blinders on, put the earmuffs on, and just put your head down and keep going. When people ask me, “How are you doing what you're doing?” It's because I stopped watching other people years ago, I don't follow other people in their journey, because that distracts me. And that gives me anxiety that I start comparing myself and thinking, "I'm not doing enough. Oh, my gosh, I'm not doing that. Oh, I need to be better at this". So, I caution you equally as much to be very, very particular with who you surround yourself with. Because they will influence you one of two ways, they will influence you to keep going and encourage you and help you broaden yourself and blossom and move forward. Or they will encourage you to stay where you are. They will encourage you or discourage you, but they think it's encouraging to kind of move backwards, “Who do you think you are? Why would you want to do that? Oh, the world is so this or that.” And so, protect yourself, caution yourself to keep a small bubble. And that is not to stay small. That is so that you can be as big as you're meant to be.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  26:28

Let's talk a little bit about spirituality. What spirituality for you and where are you in your spiritual journey.

Hope Zvara  

I grew up Catholic, I went to a Catholic grade school. And that was always a big thing in my family's life. And like any normal teenager, I was like, “I don't think this is for me.” I don't like all these rules. I don't like all this dogma, like if you're gonna tell me this was healthy… Maybe I knew I was an entrepreneur earlier on. If someone tells me I have to do something, my inner reaction is, “Oh, no, I won't. I'm gonna do the exact opposite.” I think this deep connection with a higher power God, Allah, call it whatever you want, Gandhi, Buddha doesn't matter. Whatever you call it, this deep-rooted faith has always been there for me. And as I've went through recovery, as I've now have a family of three children and built these businesses, for me, spirituality is really my home base. It's my place for me to get clear with myself when I feel disconnected. Here's what I've also learned when things aren't going my way in my business, I know that I have lost touch with my spirituality. And so, the things that bring me back to being whole and grounded are one - Yoga, moving my body. May not be a yoga practice every day, but I try to get on my mat every day and do a little bit because I feel most connected, my mind is most clear. The second thing that I try to do every day is get outside in nature, whether it's to walk my dog, stand outside and ground with my feet barefoot on the earth, go to the park, I need that connection with nature, to the sun and the wind and everything that just helps ground me. And the third thing is I need to be surrounded, I've noticed in my older years, plants are a big thing for me. And so, I have a whole plant room in my house. And I just go in there in the morning, and I talk to them, and I water them and this kind of giving to something and watching it grow. And nurture has been such a great mirror for me on a spiritual level, to nurture something like that. And it's almost like when I need to be nurtured, I'm nurturing those plants, and it like almost fulfills that part of me. And it helps me gain perspective. And so, for me, spirituality is all about getting quiet, getting clear, and moving my body. And if I can do that every single day, I find that I'm more in tune. I'm more creative. I'm more focused, I have more inspiration, and I'm able to be that woman leader, that entrepreneur that I need to be and quite frankly, the mom I need to be.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  28:52

So getting quiet, getting clearer and moving your body. 

Hope Zvara  

I don't like complicated, that didn't work for me in my life. And so, I like breaking things down and finding what the peace inside is really, really important and then focusing on that.  

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  29:12

That’s right.

Do you think that it's possible for us to live a simple life?

Hope Zvara  

That's such an interesting question. Like, what consists a simple life? My husband and I were just talking about minimalism the other day, if it's the opposite of having too many things, like two extremes, right? Why can't we have something in the middle? And I think for me, living a simple life means that you get rid of the clutter, the things that keep you stuck, or hold you back. The things that are just kind of a distraction for you. Living a simple life, to me, means that you're grounded and connected to what's truly important. I see so many people in today's world reaching and I'm a reacher, I'm going to keep going, we've been talking about that this whole podcast. But for me, if I don't have time with my kids at home, if I don't have time to just sit and like last night, I was beading with my daughter, that to me is simple. Just having those moments where you're doing, that for no other reason, that it just feeds your soul. No one's there with the camera, I don't get more likes, if I'm doing stuff with my kids, there's no end game. To me, that's a simple life as I always want to make sure despite the success I have, despite the money I make, where it is I lead people to the simplicity to me starts at home. I want my kids to grow up with a simple life, understanding nature, understanding where their food comes from being respectful of each other, knowing what downtime is, and being able to be okay with doing nothing. Those have always been core values for me as a parent, but also for me as a person. And if I start to get disconnected from those, I noticed that I'm erratic, I'm stressed, I'm anxious, I might be starting to connect with people that I don't want to be there, not people I want to rise to. And so, simplicity really keeps me grounded and focused, and what it is, and who it is, and where it is. And I'm going in this life, I don't think it's just not having a lot of stuff. I think simplicity is being clear on what keeps you whole. And that's something, at least for me, that I've been trying to do my whole life. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  29:59

So it's that inner space, right? And not having to have all that external expression and distraction.

Hope Zvara  

Yes, I see some people in my life that appear to have it all. But it's like they're empty, and you look at their families, and they're disconnected. They never see their kids, or they have a flashy boat, or a plane or a car. And I'm not saying those things are bad, because I know a lot of people that have them, we have lots of different stuff that we love. But when it's at the sacrifice of those core things, those simple things, is that really worth it? That's something that I always try to keep in check. You know, it's telling. I look back, but I also look around me, who do I want to be like and who don't I want to be like? That's really important to recognise those things to kind of keep you grounded and keep you in the simple art of being present. And what's important in life. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  31:56

That's right.

How would you describe thriving, if you had to use two or three words to describe it?

Hope Zvara  

Okay, so thriving, it’s perseverance, overcoming. And clarity in your goals.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  32:10

Nice, so it is clarity in your goals, overcoming and perseverance. 

Hope Zvara  

Yeah. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  32:20

What are your thoughts about sustainability? And how do you see that in your life in your business?

Hope Zvara 

I think there's a lot of different perspectives on sustainability. The one that comes to mind is, “What can I do for the long haul? What can I continue to do in my life that doesn't have an expiration date?” I look at my business, “How can I sustain my business for the long haul? How can I build a business that will sustain itself with or without me?” I see a lot of entrepreneurs get it wrong, they build a business strictly and solely around themselves, where if they don't show up for work, their business collapses, and I made that mistake in the beginning. And so, it's like, “How can I sustain my business long after I'm gone?” I look at sustainability in the things that I love in life, I try to have activities that I can do until 80, yoga, walking, I love to live weights, I love to hike, these are all things that I can do that don't really have an age limit. So those are things that I can sustain. I also look at the types of foods that I eat, what am I putting in my body to sustain energy to sustain my health? I believe a lot of people look at their health in a very, like immediate perspective. I need energy now. I need food now. I need to get calories in me now. And they're not thinking of the sustainability for the long haul, whether that's hours in a day, weeks, months, years, whatever it is. And so, when I'm looking at sustainability, it's what will last quality over quantity, my friends, quality over quantity.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  33:51

It's very similar to how we look at sustainability as well in our consulting practice. We take the definition that it's the ongoing thriving of a living system. 

Hope Zvara 

That’s good. 

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  

It's in the small little details  because everything is interrelated and interconnected. Before we even talk about the bigger issues of the climate crisis, it's just about ourselves as a living system. What are we doing? To sustain it for the long haul. 

Hope Zvara  34:18

I really think what you are doing is fantastic. I do a lot of radio and a lot of podcasts. But your questions were so unique and different and brought so much more perspective to the conversation. You are such a great host, you ask such great questions. I wanted to say I appreciate that as a listener, but also as a guest. And I love the diversity that you are opening the world to. And I think that's really how we make a change as women.

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra  

Wow, thank you so much for that wonderful feedback about the podcast. It was a pleasure having you here.

Hope Zvara 

you're welcome. I am super excited to be able to share this out.

Ho Lai Yun  34:53

Thank you for joining Dr. Ramesh and Hope today. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking for useful advice or simply interested to stay on top of the latest trends in business, listening to successful women like Hope and Dr. Ramesh share their experiences, mindset and strategies can provide you with valuable insights and inspiration for your own business and life.

If you're inspired by Hope’s entrepreneurial experience and interested to learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset, check out Dr. Ramesh's book, "The Big Jump into Entrepreneurship 2.0", simply click on the Amazon link provided in the podcast description. In addition, make sure you follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn so that you’ll get the latest insights from her and our amazing podcast guest speakers.

Next up, Dr. Ramesh focuses on Singapore, where she meets with Samuel Tan, CEO of All Saints Home, a Social Service Agency that provides eldercare services to the aged of all backgrounds, many of whom are from low-income families or destitute. 

Be sure to join us for the next episode with Dr. Ramesh and Samuel Tan, who made the bold career switch to join the Community Care sector, after 30 years in the insurance industry.

Bio: Ms. Hope Zvara
Co-Founder & CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga, Creator of STIFF Mother Trucker Pain Relief Cream, Author, Speaker, Board Member of Holistic Health Educators

It's about the "small simple changes that lead to big results"(TM). Hi there, I'm Hope Zvara and I'm the CEO of Mother Trucker Yoga and the creator of STIFF Mother Trucker pain relief cream. I help truck drivers and trucking companies implement simple health and fitness techniques so they can feel better no matter where they are. If exercise was the answer then 86% of truckers wouldn't be obese. Everyone else is telling these drivers to just exercise, but I'm telling you they are wrong. Through webinars, seminars our membership site, and corporate programming we help companies just like yours and drivers just like you change lanes and see that living healthy over the road is possible.