What’s Your Mask? Watch “The UnMasked Effect” Web Series and Get Your FREE “UnMasked Challenge”

by | Faith & Purpose, Our Media, Tools

We’ve officially launched our web series “The UnMasked Effect” where (8) influential women courageously share their fears, the real price of success, the good and the bad of their journey to womanhood and so much more. They laugh, cry and break through walls in hopes of inspiring you to do the same. We learn about beauty, confidence, vulnerability, self-worth, purpose, wholeness, legacy and even the origin of the word “ratchet.”

These women beautifully speak their truths and share their stories. In spite of what others may think, they bravely remove their masks of perceived beauty and having it all together, all of the time. They encourage us to be ourselves, be whole and embrace our truths. Truth is that there is a process to achieving your legacy and the first is to “unmask.”

When you “unmask” you are learning who you really are, honoring your truth, embracing wholeness and shedding of any guilt, shame, fear, rejection, doubt or insecurities that may have held you back. Before you begin to do what you’ve been called to do, you have to become the person you were called to become. When you “unmask,” you are becoming!

We created this series in hopes to spark the conversation in girlfriend circles around the world; our hope is that women have this very conversation with themselves and develop the courage to live free and “unmask.”

With that being said, we decided to create “The UnMasked Challenge” to give you the opportunity to “unmask” and work on who you’re becoming so you can triumphantly do what you’ve been called to do. We want you to look in the mirror, embrace who you really are and if there is something you do not like, then this is your chance to work on that.

The challenge is broken down into (4) different segments, each corresponding with the theme of the episode airing that week. Each week you’ll get to partake in exercises that are designed to help you grow in character, defeat obstacles and discover your truth. Use this as your guide to “unmasking.” Here are the themes per each episode:

Week 1: Who They Are/Embracing Beauty & Confidence
Week 2: Facing Fears & Vulnerabilities 
Week 3: You ARE Worth It!
Week 4: Legacies Unveiled

We hope you take this challenge seriously and feel free to interact with us on Facebook & Twitter and join in on the conversation! As always, it’ my honor to serve you! Download the FREE challenge below!

About The UnMasked Effect Web Series
In response to recent media targeting women, founder and CEO of Embrace Her Legacy, Maria I. Melendez has executive produced and launched a noteworthy web-series in response to the repeated images of women who are either engaging in cat fights over non-sense, negatively judging each other’s level of success, or who have glamorized their self-worth by the cars they drive, designer bags they’ve purchase or who they’ve slept with.

Truth is that we as women have come such a long way and are seriously kicking ass in our careers while balancing the hats of wife, mom, friend, aunt or neighbor. We are praised for our successes daily with the repeated likes, follows, retweets and “You better go girl” comments on social media. But what happens when your ambition is really a cover-up for lack of self worth? Or when you seemingly have it “all together” but truth is you’re scared to pieces of pursuing your true passion because of your fear of rejection? Or when you are told you look beautiful and cannot accept the compliment because you are too focused on your flaws? Or the classic one of secretly being jealous of “her” because “she” has what you want? These are those deep-down, in the gut feelings that we carry with us EVERY day, while we continue to put on our masks of perceived success, joy, and wholeness because we dare not admit and embrace our truths because otherwise we are “weak.”

The deception has gone on far too long and Embrace Her Legacy is doing something about it. Embrace Her Legacy has taken the matter into our own hands and we’re talking about it in an honest, unprecedented, inspirational and impactful conversation. We hand-selected a group of (8) respected, professional women to discuss their journey of success and the price that they have had to pay in order to achieve their success. “The UnMasked Effect” is a sincere and thought-provoking discussion proctored by leadership and empowerment advocate, Cordelia Abrokwah, where women discuss the implied “masks” that they have worn while hiding truths about their character, insecurities or personal hardships due to fear, lack of self-worth, guilt, shame or embarrassment. Throughout the conversation, our cast of women learn the wisdom and motivation needed to remove any unnecessary masks and triumph over fears, doubts or insecurities that may have hindered them on their journey.

The climax of the series is when each woman partakes in an innovative yet effective exercise where they remove their implied masks. What happens next is the confrontation and honesty with oneself that leads each woman to share her truth, remove her mask and give someone else the courage to the same.

We like to call it “The UnMasked Effect.”

Watch the entire series on our YouTube Channel – Take a sneak peek of the series trailer below!

How to Triumph Over Your Circumstances

by | Classes, Faith & Purpose, Tools

Before we get into this week’s message, I want to remind you of how major next week is for Embrace Her Legacy! Next Wed. March 26th at 8pm is the official premiere of our web series “The UnMasked Effect” on our YouTube Channel. If you’ve ever dealt with fears of failure or success, struggled with your definition of beauty or felt inadequate in pursing goals, had an attitude problem or you’ve had to overcome any shame of your past mistakes, then you’ll love to watch how these women have dealt with the very same issues and triumphed over them.We’ll be premiering the first (2) episodes of the series for the premiere and as a special treat, I’m personally posting a teaser of one of the episodes “Embracing Beauty & Confidence” which you can watch NOW.  I’m excited for your support in our web series because this is the beginning to our UnMasking special. I will send you personalized details about that too!

Now, let’s get to chatting about something that not only have I dealt with but something I see many of us dealing with…uncomfortable circumstances.

So you’ve made the courageous decision to pursue your life passion and now you’re focused. You’re actively working hard towards your goals, remaining consistent and embracing discipline. You are working your tail off, putting in hours of sweat and tears to make your dreams a reality but nothing is happening yet or it’s not happening a fast as you thought it would. Your courage is starting to dwindle and you’re beginning to miss the comfort of a consistent paycheck, clients and a “normal” life. And now doubt sets in…

Thoughts like “Am I doing something wrong?” or “Maybe I should stop for now” are re-running through your mind. I know I’m not alone here.

Well, here’s the deal. Just because your’e not in the place you’d thought you’d be does not mean you’re not where you’re supposed to be. One of the main reasons people do not pursue their life’s passion is fear of the unknown or fear of the uncomfortable times. So you should be giving yourself credit because you have bravely made the choice to pursue your dreams in a culture where that is considered abnormal and enduring a life and job that makes you miserable just to pay the bills is considered normal.

Second, God’s main goal in life is to have you become the person you need to be BEFORE you can do what He has already ordained for you to do. He already gave your life’s purpose and the gifts you’ll use to achieve it. Nevertheless, your character has to be prepared to receive all that greatness. God ways are higher than our ways and thoughts are higher than our thoughts so He knows what we need way more than we do. So when those tough circumstances come, He is more than likely perfecting your character and bringing you closer to Him. Oftentimes people will shoot to success overnight, get (15) minutes of fame and then the downfall comes because their talent (or lack thereof nowadays) has catapulted them somewhere that their character could not sustain them. Do you want (15) minutes or do you want a lifetime?

Finally, I want you to do me a favor. Please think of one kick-ass visionary you know of whose journey to success did not include a period of intense hardship? I’ll wait while the Jeopardy music plays…

I do not know of one person.

When you think about people who have slept in their cars, were homeless, were fired from the company they help create or spent 27 years in prison all while on the very same journey that you are on; they were on the journey to giving birth to their vision. Those hardships they’ve endured are what gravitates us towards them. It’s what makes their victory so special, they are our inspiration!

So maybe it’s time to change your thinking. Instead of beating yourself up, perhaps you should think that these very same circumstances you’re experiencing will part of the story you tell to help inspire millions of others to follow. You will be able to say “I’ve been there before,” while they look to YOU for motivation and encouragement. You have the power to choose right now how the rest of your story goes. Do you choose courage or do you choose comfort? You must choose one, you cannot have both.

I’m right here with you and we have to support one another in those tough times. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to encourage one another as we continue the path to success and keep our eyes focused ahead towards our reward. Just because you’re not where you want to be, doesn’t mean you’re not where you need to be. You are more than your circumstances 🙂

Your Number 1 Investment Should Be…

by | Faith & Purpose, Tools

Do you have a pet peeve? Well, let me tell you one that I struggled with. When I first started this journey and I explained what I did, I would always get the response “So you’re a coach?”

In all transparency, I could not stand when that would happen because I felt like every other person was calling themselves a life coach. This is nothing shady against coaches as I have met some incredible coaches who truly have a fantastic gift but I never felt that I would ever be a “coach.” Part of me felt slightly inadequate to be and the other felt that I was more than another “coach.” It’s funny how we may think we know it all and then life shows us differently.

And then this happened…

I knew I had a gift of inspiring others to live purposefully, but I never knew exactly how I would translate that into all the millions of ideas in my head of how to do so into one solid platform. My first instinct is to pray on it. I’m telling God “Hey, you started this journey so you show me how to use my gifts to create solid platforms to add value to the lives of others because I’m a little lost here.”

On one of the last days of the year in 2013, I went out to dinner with friends who always tell me that I should coach. I sat on the thought, went home, opened my Facebook timeline and there was a teleclass from a powerhouse entrepreneur I admire, Sandi Krakowski, on “Starting Your Own Coaching Business.” Coincidence? I think not. I know God enough to know He doesn’t repeat Himself for no reason.  I signed up for the class with no expectations, still claiming to not be a coach, and I told myself that I would just check the class out to see what all this “coaching”‘ business is about. I’m thinking that I’m more of a midwife and not a coach (I’ll explain more later).

I take the course and after (2) long hours and four pages of notes, to my surprise I realized that I indeed am a coach. Honestly, I did not want to be because I did not know what would make me different from all the other self-made coaches out there and I didn’t think people would actually pay for what I had to offer. I realized it was more of a fear of rejection I was dealing with. This is me being completely transparent with you. On that call and after months of research into coaching, I learned what a coach actually is.

A coach does NOT tell you what to do. A coach is to help you lead your own life and draw out the gifts that God has already given you. Circle back to me being a “midwife” to your legacy. I call myself that because I believe my gifts are to help birth and draw out the gifts, talents and abilities that have already been placed there by God which is exactly what a coach does.

On top of that, God strategically aligned me getting a coach of my own and that changed the game! But I noticed that I had to be willing to speak my truth with my coach, I couldn’t tell her half of my truth and expect her to help my vision forth. I spoke candidly about where I was which is something that I would have never done a year ago out of fear of being judged. When I spoke my truth about my business, my intention and most importantly my story, she elegantly pieced together a vital piece to the Embrace Her Legacy puzzle that was missing. All of this is an hour! (I will share more on this soon.)

So why am I telling you all of this?

Count how many times I’ve referred to truth in this message. I’m purposefully using phrases like honestly, in all transparency and truth is. That is all intentional. If I had not been willing to embrace how I really felt then I would not have gotten to this point of clarity where I’m comfortable and proud to be considered a coach. Even though, I like to call it  “Midwife to Your Legacy.” If I wasn’t comfortable in allowing someone to see inside of me and my business, I would have missed out on a great opportunity to not only be coached but have my vision go from regular to fantastically fantastic and clear! Be willing to honor your truth and accept where you are in life.

Furthermore, I want to encourage you to make room for newness on your journey. You may start out thinking that you’re one thing but you may blossom into another along the way and that is fine!

Having a coach is about taking your life from where it is now to the optimal place and empowering you to lead and direct your own life. Perhaps you need clarity for your vision or career-life balance or better dating skills, there is much breakthrough in investing into yourself with a coach.

We spend money on eating out, happy hours, clothes, vacations but yet fail to invest into ourselves. I’m not telling you to get a coach, but I am encouraging you to invest into your optimal life.

Whether it be a coach, session with a therapist (and there is nothing wrong with that), registering for a conference in your desired field, what is it that you can do to take your life to the OPTIMAL place? What investment can you make into yourself within the next (30) days to propel into your optimal life where you are beautifully leading your life to the place you want it to be? Don’t listen to the fear that holds you back. Fear is the second most powerful human emotion and love is the first. Love will drive you to be fearless, love your self and your life enough to start investing into YOU. If you don’t, who else will?

Think about that and let’s all get to it!