Overcoming Shyness, Living a Freakin’ Amazing Life, & Listening to the Voice Inside with Regina Huber

“Live YOUR Freakin’ Amazing Life! Don’t live out someone else’s dream. YOUR dream matters!” ~ Regina Huber

Episode Overview:

In this episode of The Remarkable People Podcast, host David Pasqualone welcomes Regina Huber, a global traveler and professional coach hailing from Germany. Regina shares her journey from a shy child growing up in Bavaria to a bold, adventurous woman who has lived and worked in multiple countries, including Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and the US. Regina provides practical insights on overcoming shyness, venturing into new cultures, and navigating complexities in business environments riddled with corruption. She emphasizes the importance of intuition, taking ownership of one’s actions, and living a life true to oneself. Regina’s story exemplifies resilience and adaptability, offering inspiration and actionable advice for listeners seeking to live their most freaking amazing life.

• 00:00 Welcome to The Remarkable People Podcast
• 00:40 Introducing Regina Huber
• 04:06 Regina’s Early Life and Overcoming Shyness
• 10:29 Adventures and Career Growth
• 21:48 Living a Freaking Amazing Life
• 23:49 Challenges and Triumphs in Business
• 32:43 Trust Broken and Business Dismantled
• 33:38 Corruption and Business Challenges in America and Abroad
• 34:34 Facing Threats and Navigating Bureaucracy in Brazil
• 39:19 Lessons in Vetting and Trust
• 46:13 Forgiveness and Self-Reflection
• 48:16 Transition to New York and New Beginnings
• 55:03 Adventures and Challenges in Africa
• 01:00:58 Living Your Most Freakin’ Amazing Life

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Transcript

Overcoming Shyness, Living a Freakin' Amazing Life, & Listening to the Voice Inside with Regina Huber

David Pasqualone: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Remarkable People Podcast. The podcast where we not only share Remarkable and inspiring and motivational stories of our guests lives, but we break it down into the practical steps of how they overcame and how they achieve what they did in life. So you and I can too.

This is a very interesting and entertaining podcast. But it's also hands-on. You can take notes, apply it to your life, reach out to me and the guests if you need help, and hopefully these episodes are a catalyst for greatness to unlock the hero that's inside of you. Today we have Regina Huber. Regina is from Germany.

She's lived all over the world. She worked for small organizations like Boston Consulting Group. That's total sarcasm when you figure out what Boston Consulting Group is. If you're not familiar, she'll talk about in the episode and she talks about [00:01:00] what she's learned about living her best freaking life, about traveling, about vetting business associates, about doing what's right for her and not necessarily living other people's dreams.

So this is a great episode for everybody. It's very practical. Please take notes, apply it, let me know what you think, good, bad, or ugly so we can be better too and share it with your friends and let's all rise together, right? We love you. Enjoy this episode now.

David Pasqualone: Hey Regina, how are you today? 

Regina Huber: Hey David, I'm doing awesome. And how about yourself? 

David Pasqualone: Man, I'm fantastic. I just told our listeners a small bit about your episode and what to expect, but straight from you, straight from the source. We have listeners from all over the world, and time is the most precious commodity.

If they allot this next section, whether it's 30 minutes, [00:02:00] 60 minutes, or two hours, if they take your episode and sit down and listen to it, what do you promise they're gonna be able to get out of it and apply to their life? 

Regina Huber: Well, I wanna talk about how you can live your most freaking amazing life. And you know, David, the bad news is no one can empower you to do that but you, and the good news is you don't depend on anyone else to empower yourself to have that life.

And you don't need to wait on anyone else to reclaim your power or to get permission. 

David Pasqualone: All right. So ladies and gentlemen, you heard it right from Regina. What you can expect plus a whole lot more. We're gonna learn about her background, her life, way more tips than I'm sure she's learned along her journey that we can take and adapt and overcome in our lives too.

So we're gonna take a short affiliate commercial and be back with Regina [00:03:00] Huber.

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David Pasqualone: Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back, Regina. Where did your life begin? What was your upbringing like? Not because we want to dwell in the past, but all of us are who we are because the past, right?

So where were your origins? What was your upbringing like? Good, bad, ugly? Pretty, pretty ugly, and I will go through to today. 

Regina Huber: Well, I'm happy to share that I had a pretty lovely childhood, actually. I grew up on a farm, small farm in a tiny little village in Germany, Bavaria area. Beautiful area near the mountains.

And one thing though that I was struggling with a little bit as a little girl was I was like the shyest kid in, in, in town. So that shyness I took with me for quite a long time throughout teenage years and even later when I moved to Munich and, eventually [00:05:00] though, because I always was really adventurous and I had this, this spirit inside of me that I wanted to see a piece of the world.

I of course had to move through that shyness because I wanted to potentially move abroad. I wanted to travel and all these different things. Plus, as a kid, I did not travel a whole lot because my parents were farmers and so we didn't get to travel, but I always wanted to travel. And so at, at 16, for example, I.

I just took my travel a fate in my own hands and I hitchhiked to Amsterdam with a friend of mine. And it took us a few days to get there. We had five days, we spent about three days on the road. But it was a really cool thing to do. I traveled a lot, backpacking, we took our cars one as soon as we had one, we took our cars with a group of friends to Italy, slept on the floor in the woods.

And this was how I grew up. Right? And it was [00:06:00] quite, you know, we did what we could with our limited budget in terms of adventurism and this adventurism really has followed me through my entire life because I've moved a lot after. 

David Pasqualone: Well, let me ask you a question. As a father in America, hitchhiking is like the last thing you wanna do.

'cause there's so many psychos and murders and rapists. And in your culture at your time, was hitchhiking like safe or was it still risky and your parents were praying for you? 

Regina Huber: It wasn't really safe. I was quite used to it because I lived in a village where there was no bus service. So in the summer it was easy.

I took my bike everywhere I could, but in the winter it wasn't so easy to get around. And yes, my parents were very generous. They picked up us up whenever they could. But of course, you know, as we started going out later at night at age 16, 17, 18, and at 18, I actually got a car. But before [00:07:00] that, this was our only option to get around sometimes.

David Pasqualone: So it was like a, it was like a common thing and relatively safe in your area. 

Regina Huber: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was. I mean, it, there's never a guarantee, of course. You know, I, I, I wouldn't say it was safe. It was just like, okay, maybe we're lucky, you know? Yeah. Yeah, 

David Pasqualone: yeah. Okay. So now you're shy. As a child, did you have any brothers or sisters or were you the only child?

Regina Huber: Yes, I was the oldest of five. 

David Pasqualone: Oldest of five, okay. And when you were shy, was it just around strangers and you were dynamic with your friends and family, or were you shy all the time? 

Regina Huber: Look, I remember that my brother, the one that comes after me and I, we locked ourselves in our room once because we didn't wanna go to kindergarten because we were afraid of the kids in kindergarten, in a neighboring, like a, a larger [00:08:00] village.

And we just really didn't wanna go there. We wanted to stay home, right? And so we locked ourselves in our room. It was just also in my case, for example, there was nobody exactly my age in the village, so I didn't really have that, that exact peer group. Yes, it was at a time, you know, when there were no electronics, no internet, none of that.

So we would play a lot with all all the kids in the village, all ages, you know, however, it was just a different, I don't know it I, I think my mom is actually also shy and maybe I got a piece of it from her, you know? 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. There's nothing wrong with it. I just wanted to know some, there's a little bit of a difference between shyness and introvertness.

Yeah. And introverts just want to be alone and they find comfort in that. But shyness is just like, well, I don't know you, so I'm shy. But with my friends it's like party time. So I just was trying to figure out who you were back then. 'cause now you're on podcasts around the world and you're not shy at all.

Right. [00:09:00] Or at least you don't come across. Not so much. Yeah. Yeah. I 

Regina Huber: think that's also one of the differences between in introversion and shyness. Shyness can be overcome. It also has to do probably for many people, at least with, with a lack of con confidence or, or self-esteem or whatever it is for everybody.

And introversion on the other hand, I think that doesn't really change that much. Right. So I'm actually an ambivert, so I'm sort of in between extrovert and, and introvert. I need a little bit of both. Like for example, if I go to a conference and I'm among people all day, I have a great time doing that.

But there comes a time always at the end of the day, like in the evening for example, when I really wanna withdraw and spend some time with myself. And I think in, when I was younger, I just, it just took me a longer time to get used to people and feel comfortable around the people I was with. And [00:10:00] then that shyness would go away.

David Pasqualone: All right. So I don't want to jump around in your story and you know, get too far ahead. Mm-hmm. But I want to ask you for our listeners, 'cause there's a lot of people who feel shy even today, whether they're 20, 40 or 70, and they haven't been able to overcome it yet. So what were some of the steps, or what were some of the things that happened in your life to help you open up and overcome shyness?

Regina Huber: Well, first of all, I moved to Munich at age 19, and oftentimes I was by myself on the weekends. I had friends I was studying, right, and the friends, my closest friends during those college times were people who would not stay in Munich during the weekend because they, they were also from outside of Munich, and I would stay there sometimes, so I needed to also do things by myself and meet people and, and also moving later on to, [00:11:00] to Spain at, at, at 26 years old and, and then to Brazil.

I've lived in Brazil a couple of times. I've lived in Argentina a couple of times, total of nine years in Latin America. I traveled a lot by myself. All my life. And I've also lived in the, in the US East coast, west coast in Spain. I already said, I think, and, and, you know, and, and then I was also thrown actually into roles where I just could not allow myself to be shy.

I, I was a little bit also thrown into the cold water at 26 when I was offered a leadership role that I did not expect at all at the time. It was a, to, it was a complete surprise.

David Pasqualone: So if I'm hearing you right, you kind of stretch yourself. Mm-hmm. You changed your environment, you kind of pushed through and you had safeguards where it's not like you did things that were foolish and reckless and put yourself in harm's way. I. But at the [00:12:00] same time, you did put yourself where there was almost like, Hey, there's no safety net.

I have to go ahead and I have to, I have to talk, I have to perform. I have to interact. Is that correct? 

Regina Huber: Absolutely. And also oftentimes in a different language, because of course my native language is German. And when I moved to Spain, I had just literally learned Spanish, just studied Spanish before I moved there.

And 10 months later I was offered this, this role. Well, I had to actually I had an interview for it. It was not automatic, right? But I was the one who had zero leadership background, zero skills that you could consider relevant or studies that, that we would usually request for, for a, a position or a role like that, or expertise.

And so I, you know, I just literally started learning Spanish. About a year earlier, and I'd moved to Spain 10 months earlier, and then all of a sudden I was in this situation. [00:13:00] So, yeah, I, I you know, as you said, I stretched myself. I wanted to move. I wanted to see different parts of the world. So in a way, I didn't give myself a choice.

Doesn't mean I didn't have a choice. We always have a choice, but I, I, for me, it was just what I, what I had to do, you know? 

David Pasqualone: Yes. And I know that in my own life, and ladies and gentlemen, I want to make sure, I wanna expound on this a little more, Regina, but I was actually very quiet and shy publicly until I was 17, and then I took a trip from Massachusetts to California and going cross country, being in California, which wasn't my cup of tea, I.

But mm-hmm. Seeing how different the world was outside of my little town that I grew up in for 18 years, it totally was like, dude, this is great. The whole world's different and I [00:14:00] can, I don't, I don't have to worry about it be me. And I just like totally changed and became an extrovert just in that one trip.

So I can see how taking trips and going to different cultures will absolutely unlock your potential, so to speak, and who God made you to be. But for those people who are like, wow, you know, I got kids and I got responsibilities and I can't travel, but I don't want to be shy anymore. What? It comes back to confidence.

I think like I got confident. The whole world wasn't like my hometown, and you got confidence traveling. So I think there's a core to confidence, but what would you say to the person who can't travel, but they want to become more outgoing? 

Regina Huber: Well try things that you've never done. Maybe, you know, maybe you wanna walk just on, on the road, in the street where you live and talk to people that you've never talked to.

That's always a possibility. Give somebody a compliment, you [00:15:00] know? Or just do something that you have never really done before. It doesn't always have to be something super risky. You don't have to repel down a mountain. If, if that's something that's totally outside of your, you know, your mental reach or your, your, I don't wanna call it a comfort zone because that's such an overused word, actually.

But it, I'm not asking people to take a crazy risk. It's just like, do something different and do something different every single day for a while, like for a couple of weeks and see how that what that does. You might be surprised. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I agree. I mean, as long as it's not immoral, I'm all about doing it.

Let's, let's go. So for you, we talked about to, you're 18, 19 years old, you're traveling, you get a car. Where does your life go from there? 

Regina Huber: Well, at 19 I moved to Munich. Right. And then I I studied [00:16:00] English, French. Economics. At the time, I wasn't really sure what possibilities I had because there was not a lot of orientation.

I started working after my study. After I finished my studies, I started working at the Boston Consulting Group by Global Consulting Firm, and I stayed with them for two years in Munich. And then there was an opportunity, so my plan was actually to move to the US at the time. I wanted to, that's what, that was one of the reasons why I started working at that company in the first place, because I wanted to move abroad.

I wanted to live that adventure. And to me, you know, at the time it wasn't like today when you, you see all these people, digital nomads and whatnot on the internet, it was just a completely different time. And I, and I thought I needed a job that would enable me to do that. I also didn't have a, a, a whole load, you know, whole lot of money.

So. [00:17:00] I, I started this job and it didn't work out to move to the US at the time, but there was an opportunity for Spain, for the Spanish office. So a colleague walked up to me and said, Hey, I know that you wanna move, you know what, there's this job that's becoming available in Spain and might not be exactly what you want, but hey, check it out.

And I said, well, Peter, I do not speak Spanish. And again, these were different times. We didn't think we could just, you know, I had that mindset at the time, David, oh, I have to study a language at school to be able, or it takes a long time, you know? And and so, and then he said to me, and, and I will never forget that, because he sometimes just a few words can make a difference in someone's lives.

It's really important to remember he said to me, but you can learn that. That's all he said. And I said, you know what? You are right. I can learn that. And I started studying [00:18:00] Spanish in the evenings. My company also paid for, for classes. And, and I just really made an effort to learn a lot of vocabulary really fast.

I, I spoke French already, so it wasn't too hard. I had also studied Latin, you know, that helped. And I was studying every night. And so, and they, well, I had a first interview in English over the phone, and then they said, well, if you, no, it was actually in English. In person, they invited me to travel to Madrid.

That's right. And then they said, well, if in a few months you speak Spanish, you can come in September. And that was like in April, right. So I said, okay I'm gonna do this. And in September I moved, or it was actually already end of August that I moved. Anyway. So I was there and, and I, I had never before been to Spain except for that very short visit.

I didn't know whether I would like it, but I said, okay, here's my opportunity. Right. I'll take it. [00:19:00] 

David Pasqualone: Nice. Now, when you work for an organization like Boston Consulting Group, right? You go into companies and you're working with executives to grow their firm when you're traveling country to country, as an outsider, do you feel like you gleaned more respect?

Was, did it make your life more difficult? How was that professionally for you? 

Regina Huber: So I was not a consultant actually. I I started out in a, in a, in a, in an executive assistant position, although I was actually overqualified because as I said before, David, I didn't really know what my options were. Didn't know the market enough.

I didn't, you know, my parents didn't really know how to orient me and there were no specific services that could have helped me at the time. And it wasn't the worst choice. I, I moved up really quickly into that other role where all of a sudden I was the leader of. A large team of 25, 5 people, and I was in [00:20:00] charge of an entire office in Madrid.

And soon I was also doing an office build out in Lisbon. Right? So I was, I was entrusted with a lot of responsibility actually very, very quickly. And I believe it was just really also because I showed a very proactive attitude. Also at the same time, because I had studied to be a translator and interpreter, I did a lot of translations as well back then.

And, this is how, how it went. You know, all of a sudden I, I saw myself sitting in this, in my own office and I was responsible for the entire office. I was the go-to person for basically everyone in that office, from the partner group to, to the you know, to everybody in the, what was then called support staff.

And, and it was just a completely different situation from one day to the next. [00:21:00] But I believe that I grew into it because I showed up authentically. I showed up in a way that really had people see that I had good intentions and that I cared for my team and not just for the team I was leading and managing, but also for anyone else in the office.

So my, my peers and the partner group 

David Pasqualone: now. You were rising through the ranks of the organization, which is a huge international organization. Mm-hmm. You were doing well, but would you say at that point you were living your best life and living amazing life? Bring us from that point to today where that's what you're passionate about.

Regina Huber: Right. So when I talk about the freaking amazing life, I actually wrote a book about parts of my, pieces of my life last year, which is called Living My Freaking Amazing Life. That [00:22:00] doesn't mean that everything has always been perfect, okay? That's not what that means. It means that I have lived a life that was perfect for me, and it, I've lived a lot of ups and downs as you know, anyone who picks up the book can, can read for themselves.

I've. I've also lived some crazy adventures, David, so I've taken a ton of risks in my life and some of them worked out and some of them didn't as expected, but they still worked out somehow, right? I mean, it's, it's just what it is. And we do what we can with, with our situations. A lot of them have given me tremendous growth.

So I spent, to come back to your question though, I, I spent about seven years in Spain. I also helped BCG open an office in Lisbon, their first office in Lisbon. So I, it's, at one point I did two office buildouts at the same time. And after that there was an, I [00:23:00] was starting to plan to move back to Germany at the time.

But that plan coincided with BCG opening, the first office in Brazil, in Sao Paulo. And they asked me whether I could help them there with, with that as well. And I did. So I went to Sao Paulo for six months, more or less. Then I went to Argentina for a little bit, Buenos Aires to help the, somebody with, with a relatively new office there.

Well, it was not so new anymore, but I had actually trained that person that was working there in my job. And so basically then I moved back to Germany, had spent two years there in international projects, European projects for B, CG. And then all of a sudden I felt just a, a different need. So I, I left BCG and I joined an A BCG alum in Buenos Aires who had founded a company [00:24:00] similar to eBay.

Which was called. And they asked me to be their training and their training and internal communications manager. And I said, okay, I'm gonna go with a startup. You know, went, I moved to, to Argentina pretty quickly, and then I spent about a year there because what, what happened at the time was this big crisis.

The monetary crisis hit Argentina at the time, and so they couldn't really pay things like training anymore very easily. And so I was, you know that was one of the first things that fell away. I spent a few more months in, in, in, in Sao Paulo helping them out with their office there. And then I went on a trip with my sister and we, we went backpacking my, with my youngest sister.

Who was 11 years younger and had just finished her studies and we went backpacking through Central America for five weeks. So after [00:25:00] that, then I I was actually hired back by BCG into the San Francisco office and this is how I moved to the US for the first time. 

David Pasqualone: Nice. And then when all this is going on, you come back to Boston Consulting Group, would you say, you know, at that point you're living your best life or were you still in search of something more?

Regina Huber: Look, for me, it's not about the search, David, it's about living in the moment. So every moment of my life has, has had the best. What we call best and, and, and some of the worst moments, right? I mean, these are really judgements. I, I sometimes like to move away from those judgements because they were just experiences, they were exciting experiences for sure.

They were experiences. All of those experiences helped me grow tremendously and in different ways. Even just the different cultures. You know, [00:26:00] how we open up our minds and our horizon by living, not just traveling for a short period of time, which is already very valuable, but really living in a place that is quite different to where we grew up.

Right. You said it yourself before David, when you traveled for the first time. So, so that was extremely enriching. It always has been to me. The, so then I, I, I, I was in San Francisco for three and a half years, right. I've always danced a lot. Well, not always, I shouldn't say that. I didn't grow up with dance really, but I love dancing.

So also in the different locations, I picked up different dances along the way, and I had fun in that way. Okay. And with it again, there was this cultural enrichment because dance by itself is, is a piece of culture. And I, I, I love to do the Latin dancing and the, and, and some African influence dancing and [00:27:00] whatnot.

And after three and a half years in San Francisco though, there was a time when I really felt the need to move back to Latin America. And this time I decided to literally just pack up, leave this again, a leadership role behind, and, I pack up everything I had and just move down to Buenos Aires, Argentina again, this time with, with all my belongings and, and open a bed and breakfast out of the blue.

Nice. And it was really, really cool. So I bought a house. It was a very adventurous experience again, because in Argentina you have to, or at least at the time, it was like that I had to pay for the house in cash at a bank. So you, you can imagine it like you're sitting around a, a meeting table. At a bank and you're counting the dollars.

Right. And [00:28:00] that's how that went. And I had to somehow take that money from the place where it was from my bank to the seller's bank. And this is how I carried about two, several hundred thousand. I'm not gonna say exactly how much, but several hundred thousand dollars around Buenos Aires on a hot summer day in my socks from one bank to, to another.

Mm-hmm. And literally one wrong move. And all the money could have been gone. Right. It wasn't really a rec, why did I do that? Well, I should maybe explain, because it wasn't really recommended to hop into a taxi and I didn't have a car. So it wasn't recommended hopp into a taxi straight out of the bank because there was a lot of like stuff going on with, you know, robberies and whatnot.

In that community. So anyway, but, so I bought the house. I had it built out. I had an investor's visa. I did my best to really finish everything within the deadline of that, of those visa stipulations, which was quite [00:29:00] tight. And, and I opened literally just before the deadline and had my first guest.

David Pasqualone: Beautiful. Now, between there and today, do you still own this bed and breakfast? Where, where is it at now? No. Okay. No, I don't. 

Regina Huber: So I, here's the thing, right? I, I loved having it and it was always full. It was, I made friends with other bed and breakfasts, so instead of competing with other people at the time, we had about 44 in Buenos Aires.

I, I made friends with them so that we could collaborate right? And, and send each other guests. It wasn't a huge place, so it ha you know, it wasn't really scalable in that sense, but it was, it was nice. I enjoyed it. And so we helped each other out. Like when we, when I was full, I gave, I sent people their place and, and vice versa.

Now, there was also something that was a bit strenuous though, because I, so you, you need a, a [00:30:00] license to have a bed and breakfast, but, and I had an investor's visa that had an a, a a. A deadline attached to it. I had to open within 12 months, and I had to employ somebody within 12 months and have business within 12 months.

At the same time, the city of Buenos Aires didn't give me that license within that time. So what I found out later is actually that hardly anybody had a license. They were just paying people off. And so, and I did not wanna do that because I don't play that corruption game. So I at one point, the city of Buenos Aires wanted to find me.

I didn't let them into my building because they had no right really to come in. And so I had this lawsuit going on and yeah, and it turned out that I won the lawsuit against the city of Buenos Aires. 

David Pasqualone: And that's hard to do when you're not a national citizen. 

Regina Huber: It is hard to do. It is very hard to do.

Even for, you know, I think hardly anybody would even. Do it or try it. [00:31:00] So anyway, so that, so that was a bit, you know, that was the, the, the not so nice side of it. And then I decided that I wanted to dance more. Somebody gaira and things like that, and Brazilian dances. And then I wanted to now move to Rio de Janeiro, and that's how then I, I sold my place in Buenos Aires and then moved to Rio de Janeiro.

That's definitely one of my favorite places I've ever lived. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Also very difficult though for a small business owner. Again, very complicated bureaucracy especially brick and mortar businesses, right? So that did open a brick and mortar business again. Which was a combination of a dance school and a holistic wellness center.

And for that, I partnered up with somebody and that business partner, although it was actually most of it was my business, but it's, it's a long story. I'm gonna keep it short, [00:32:00] but for part of the business, I was gonna partner with this guy and he, you know, I, I had invested all my money a year's time to build out this beautiful old house.

I've put lots of effort into it, all my money bought equipment, furniture, et cetera. I put my heart into this and I hired and trained a team. I literally put everything I had right. And the, a few days before launching, I discovered my partner was fraudulent. So now the business model hinged on his name, at least for the bigger part of the business.

And without him, it, it was literally doomed almost. And of course, I could no longer work with him because there's no basis of trust. So, and he had defrauded money. He had taken money out of our mutual account. So, but I also knew that it was likely never gonna be profitable. Profitable in this [00:33:00] way. I tried, I tried, I tried, but it, I just had to make the very tough decision at some point to dismantle everything I had just built to sell at a last, to cover months of expenses during the, the drawn out dissolution process, because it took quite a long time to sell, because now there was also a problem with the documentation.

You know how it is sometimes again. Yes, it was a tough time, you know, but in the end, I mean, I'm still here. It did not kill me. And I, I have learned a lot through that experience, and it's also part of my freaking amazing life. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and that's another thing too. Well, you hit on two things I wanna talk about.

Number one, within America, you know, most of our listenership is in America, but we run over a hundred countries a week. So there's people all around the world listening. They know exactly what you're talking about. But within America, you know, we're like ignorant in a lot of ways, or naive. Then in other countries, [00:34:00] corruption is king and you have to bribe people to get things done.

It's just the way the society is. Everybody does it. And the other thing is, if you do get in with a bad business partner and you're not a citizen, they'll just kill you if you come back. I actually know somebody personally in Argentina and they. Had their condo, like they had three condo buildings stolen from them illegally.

And the government said, you're not a citizen. Get out. And then the person who stole 'em said, you come back, we'll just have you killed. It's cheaper. So this is a real threat. And were you actually afraid your business partner was gonna kill you? 

Regina Huber: Look, there was a moment in, in Brazil when I was actually, so he had a pretty prominent car, right?

And I was seeing that car from my window and I was not sure whether it was his car, but it was such a car and there were not many of those cars. And it was on a street behind my apartment building where I was. So I didn't live in the house. [00:35:00] The, the house was for business. I lived in a, in an apartment in a different part of the city.

And and I could see such a car sometimes standing there. So I wasn't sure what was going on. And it was a, it was a street that there, there was not a lot of traffic on the other side of the street. There was a favela. And this, this, I don't know why this street didn't have a lot of traffic actually.

So. Yeah it was weird. It was really weird. And he did at some point also threaten me, like physically a little bit when we were actually discussing stuff early on in the process, but somebody went in between. So I, I didn't get physically hurt at all, but, but also, you know, dissolving a business in Brazil is harder than opening it in terms of the bureaucracy because it's, it's really wild.

And what, what makes it, you know, that, that, that made it even harder? Especially as I didn't really wanna pay anyone off. I never paid anyone off. Just to be clear, David, I never put, I never passed money under the table. I just didn't wanna do it. I don't want to do [00:36:00] this. And I have to also say though, at the same time, because you mentioned, you know, the US America, Europe, I mean, I know I'm at a place where, where I think, you know, all.

All of the world, there's corruption, right? It just takes on different forms. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. Some of it's overt, some of it's covert, but it's there. 

Regina Huber: Exactly. And sometimes in some places, you, you have to, as a business owner, you live it every day and in, and you have to move through it every day. Maybe not every day, but often.

Right. And, and in some other places it's not it doesn't maybe affect you directly all the time or not your business. Now, I have to say though, you know what, David? I, I lived in Miami Beach for a while, and I had bought an apartment and it also felt prey to corruption. Now, I, eventually, we could sell, I also tell that story in the book, but I, I lost a lot of money through that corruption case, and there was no way [00:37:00] even the press would pick it up.

I talk about this. Okay. Because I, I will not shut up. But, but the, I, I, Hey, this is the Remarkable People 

David Pasqualone: Podcast. We love to hear a good story and yeah, we're not worried about being censored. We don't even go on YouTube anymore 'cause they censor everything. So we go straight, our website rumble and, and podcast player.

So you can tell any story you want as long as it's true. 

Regina Huber: Yeah. Right, exactly. So what I cannot do is name specific people, which I won't, but I know, I know who was involved. I just, I documented everything. I, I was observing this building. You know, there were homeless people in it, there were squatters in it all the time, but we, the owners could not get into it.

So it was very strange situation. The building has a prime location. I I had just bought, my, my particular apartment had just, it was a condo, right? Just been built out, fully renovated, fully built out. So I was one of the people who had paid the most, of course, [00:38:00] and, and also had the, had suffered the greatest loss.

And I had literally bought, like, I like about a. Seven months before it was closed down from one day to the next, supposedly because of structural issues. Now, those structural issues had never shown up in my documentation anywhere. Right. That's now possible after six months and, and, and then from one day to the next Friday afternoon, it's all of a sudden closed down.

I had to let my tenant go. I didn't live in the building. And it, it would've been a, an awesome investment, David. It would've gained in one year 30% market value. Okay. Even also the, the, the, the rents went up back then. It was shortly after the lockdowns in New York, so everybody was moving to, to Florida.

So that was that situation. I. You know, objectively speaking, it was the right [00:39:00] investment. But then this happened and it took us 18 months to get basically the, the money back and paying expenses for the building, which we don't even know where they went. So it was a, a big story, you know, big story.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. No, and that's frustrating. It drains your life. Yeah. So let's talk about vetting then. You're in Brazil and you had a partner that ends up being a fraud. Mm-hmm. You end up buying property in Miami, end up being a fraud. Looking back, 'cause this shows about teaching us whether it's a good experience or bad experience.

What did you learn? So we can learn and apply it to our lives? What did you learn about vetting, like obviously it's important to vet the people you're working with mm-hmm. But going back, let's say the Brazilian partnership mm-hmm. What would you have done differently? Looking back to pre-vet and not even get in a partnership with that man.

Regina Huber: Okay. [00:40:00] So first of all, I think sometimes it's about more than that, but I do wanna answer your question about vetting and about doing your due diligence. I did not probably do enough due diligence about the guy in Brazil. He was, you know, I had known him for a while. He was in we were friends and so I thought, right.

But anyway, so and, and then, and I trusted this person, but here's the, I think I did not know enough people who knew him well enough and who had had that, those experience at the time, because I hadn't spent enough time there. Okay. David? Yeah. And can I say one thing too? You just said a 

David Pasqualone: huge point for our listeners around the world, whether you're 20 years old or 80 years old, one of the most painful things is there's good.

I, I don't use the word good, but there's kind people out there with whole intentions and they meet somebody who's nice and friendly and oh, they're the nicest [00:41:00] person. They're always the nicest person till they get your money. So make sure, just because somebody's nice doesn't mean they're trustworthy.

You need to make that distinction in your mind. So, Regina, I didn't want to interrupt your story, but that's such a huge point. I didn't want it to go further. There's a difference between someone being nice and someone being trustworthy. And right now you met this man, he was very nice to you, but he wasn't trustworthy.

So go on with your story please. 

Regina Huber: Right, and, and the thing is, I wanna say something else that I ignored at the time. I, I did not really listen to my intuition. We underrate our intuition and our intuitive voice always knows the truth. It's the true voice. You know, that we, we need to really learn to listen to.

Now it's, I know it's sometimes hard to distinguish for people, you know, what's your, whatever inner critic or whatever other [00:42:00] voices you hear all the time or what's is somebody else's opinion. But I, if I'm totally honest and I think back then I just did not listen enough to my intuition because there was something that said, Hey, you know what, there's some, something might not be right here.

You know, this is too, or almost too easy. I mean, I, I'm not saying when things are easy, they're not right. That's not what I wanna say. Because that's how it actually should ideally be. Right? And some people can make it work that way. But the thing is it wasn't super. It wasn't super obvious, but there was a little nagging voice that said, Hey, you know what don't be so, you know, don't be so I don't wanna say naive, but you know what I mean.

Right. Ingenuous a little bit. And, and, and I did it anyway because I wanted to do it so much. And you know what, David, it was, and I, I now know it because I've [00:43:00] thought about this a thousand times. Right. It, I thought, well, finally there's somebody who knows his way around in this country. I've always done everything by myself.

Now there's finally somebody so I don't have to do everything by myself. And I said, and now I know. I mean, I, I could have saved myself so much money, so much, so much. You know, whatever, frustration, disappointment, if I had actually done it myself, and it would've been less work, you know? But that's, you know, again, it's part of my freaking amazing life.

I'm not being the victim here because that's actually something that very important that I learned there, David, is to create change after, even when you still feel the pain, right? First of all, one thing I learned that it's always almost easier to, to, to forgive the other person than yourself and, and self-forgiveness is very, very important.

And then also that we cannot [00:44:00] create change if you stay in victim mode. And this was so crucial. I could have stayed bitter. I, you know, I, I was definitely. Disappointed at the time, frustrated. I was ashamed, right? Because I let it happen. But also I knew that, okay, if I stayed bitter and ashamed and whatnot, and I, if I reveled in that, then I, I could not be resourceful and I could not change my situation.

And so I reminded myself that when life gives you lemons, what do you do in Brazil? You make a caina, right? 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. 

Regina Huber: And, and to take radical ownership, you know, if I, I had to own my next step, even if the last one felt unfair or, or whatnot, and no one else was gonna rescue me. Then also don't we create our own reality, right?

So I, I also wanted to really take responsibility not to judge [00:45:00] myself. That does not help, not to create more self resentment or more shame. That's not what helps us. But what we can do is say, well, we can learn the practical lesson that you talked about earlier, David, and also that internal, that mindset, you know, what, how, how did I, now how did I bring this about?

And there was clearly something going on in my life that we often call a pattern. I, I, I actually now, now that I've thought about it more, and I've also added on new methods to work with my clients that have been really, really helpful for myself. I call it actually a reflection because it's a reflection of something that's inside of us that we have not.

Not dissolved, not transmuted. And, and most of the time it's actually not just a limiting belief because I've, I've really worked on [00:46:00] thousands of beliefs ever since. I learned how to do that and studied how to do that, but it's actually oftentimes a stuck emotion, and I hadn't really worked so much on the emotional piece.

David Pasqualone: Yeah. And that's really important because having something traumatic happen to you, or very painful, there's different levels of pain, but forgiveness is so important. And what you were saying is, you know, what did you say and how did you phrase it? It's easier to forgive others than yourself. Talk about how you've learned to forgive others and how you've learned to forgive yourself.

Regina Huber: Well, you know, I, I, I realized that I found some, I. I was trying to find some excuses almost for him of why he did this and dah, dah, dah. Well, I, that's probably also normal because I wanted to understand the why, but we can't sometimes really figure out all the [00:47:00] why's and, and not everything always makes sense.

So, so I just had, I, but I also noticed that, you know, resentment was just taking up important real estate in my, on my mind, and, and that didn't really take me anywhere. So, yes, I did sue him. I did take the action. It's not like I was just sitting there saying, yeah, I forgive you, you know, you bastard. No, I was just, I, I said, I, I did these things, but at the same time I said, okay, you know what?

I have to come to peace with it internally, and then I, I, I need to be compassionate with myself because if I allowed this, then I didn't know better at the time. Hindsight. In hindsight, we always know better. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. 

Regina Huber: You know, it's, it's as a, sometimes we judge our parents for something, right. That they did or didn't do, but they also didn't know better, at least in most cases.

[00:48:00] Most cases they don't do it because they, they don't have good intentions. They just know, know better. And it is the same with us. So it was a path. It didn't happen from one day to the next. For sure. You know. 

David Pasqualone: So bring us to today, from that point in your story to today, where have you gone, Regina? I. 

Regina Huber: So eventually I, I was, I again had an investor's visa in, in Brazil, so I had to somehow resolve my situation because without a business they were not gonna renew it.

Although I tried because I said, okay, I can start a different business. But again, I was running up a wall against corrupt authorities and they were losing one piece of my documentation after the other because I didn't pay them off. It was like a stack, like this, you know of an old phone book, basically yellow know pages of, of documentation, which had cost me a lot of money because you have to [00:49:00] actually certify every single piece of paper there.

And 

David Pasqualone: yeah. And just what year was this? Just roughly. 

Regina Huber: Year. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. What year was this?

Regina Huber: Okay. Yeah. So I moved to New York I think end of 2011. So shortly before. 

David Pasqualone: Yeah. The reason why I bring that up for our listeners who weren't familiar with Brazilian government at that time, I'm, I've heard Brazil's a great country.

I actually have several friends from Brazil, but I remember one of my friends kept being like, come on down and visit me. Come on down and visit me. And then I'm like, okay, I'll come. And he's like, Dave, it's so bad right now, don't come. And then the next year he's like, it's so bad, I'm not even going.

'cause he had a host down there, right? And then the third year he's like, yeah, I think I'm gonna go. You want to come with me? And when I looked at the Brazilian government website, it didn't say you might be mugged. It said, you will be mugged. So the country for that period through recently has been extremely dangerous.

And it was like [00:50:00] known the government was corrupt. The citizens were in fear because there was so much crime. And that's the time you were down there. So I can see why this was just a headache and a nightmare. 

Regina Huber: Yeah, I mean I, I always knew Brazil like this actually, it's, I mean cities like, like, and, and it's a beautiful country.

Please don't get me wrong. I love Brazil. I love the culture. The, the nor, I mean, you know, the north northeastern part, it's so freaking beautiful, really. And it's probably one of the most diverse countries in terms of nature that I, that I have seen. Of course, you know, the US is huge also, and then has a lot of, a lot of different nature as well.

It's just different and. Argentina too. It's also a very big country with a lot of different, it's, it's very interesting. But the thing is, I, I, I know how to move around Rio de Janeiro, you know, when I was in Sao Paulo, I, Sao Paulo is one of the biggest [00:51:00] cities on, on this planet. So it, Sao Paulo is, is, is a strenuous city.

Rio is completely different because it's like near the o you know, it's not near the ocean, it's at the ocean, it's on the beach. It, it has beautiful nature. I mean, Rio has everything you can imagine. The, the florea like the, the, the tropical rainforest, the, the beaches, the, the oceans, the tropical climate and vegetation.

You know, it's just so beautiful. And at the same time it's, it's, it's a pretty tough place. Yes, it is. I mean, you need to know how to move around the city if you don't wanna stay in Kapa Cabana all the time. And, and in Kapa Cabana, right? I mean, it's touristy, so it's easy to be a, a, a victim there. But actually also, it's not just for the tourists.

I had a few, you know, I I, I've been dancing a lot in Rio and a few of our friends, they just got murdered in [00:52:00] a, in a, in a van, you know for a few, a few dollars, so to speak. But, and it, yeah, I mean, I, I moved a lot there. I didn't have a car in, in, in Brazil, so I moved a lot on the bus around the city in the, in the small, in the vans, the, the private buses and so on all the time.

There's also a subway, but it doesn't go everywhere, 

David Pasqualone: so, but, so yeah. The reason why I brought that up is 'cause you're navigating. During a very known corrupt time, a very dangerous time. So that's why it's even more Remarkable that you're a single woman doing this all on your own in a foreign country with a guy that could potentially cause you harm.

So, great respect. 

Regina Huber: Well, I've also spent time in Johannesburg on my own a few months and then, and, and other places. And Johannesburg is, is harder for me because I haven't spent enough time there to really move around as, as [00:53:00] confidently, you know? So I am, I, when I go, I, I don't move as freely as in, as in Rio de Janeiro because you, you, you gotta be smart about it too.

It, it kind of just like, okay, I'm gonna walk up this FAA just by myself any day of, any time of the day or night. Right. You just need to know what you do. Yeah. Then, yeah. And then from there I you know, because it was getting difficult with all the, yeah. The visa and everything. I, I, I was planning to split my time between Brazil and New York.

I really didn't wanna leave Rio. I had a great time dancing there and, you know, I just loved the place, but then it was becoming a little hard. I put everything into storage at first. I moved to New York City, started this, my, my current business very slowly. At the beginning. I wasn't really sure what to do at first, and then I had to figure out, you know, how does all this eclectic information, the expertise and, and whatnot, [00:54:00] and, and, and experience fit together into something new that would make sense for myself, but also for for others, for, for potential clients. And that's how transform your performance was slowly born. Again, in the beginning I was going back and forth because I had to clean up the mess still there and with all the bureaucracy and everything.

And then eventually I, I sold everything that was in storage there. I literally sold everything I had or almost everything I had in, in one day. For very little money out of a storage unit. I gave a lot of stuff away. I still had a lot of stuff because I'd taken, you know, I had had a bed and breakfast in Argentina, so.

Anyway, so it was also 35 boxes of books. I had a detach from and my favorite bed from Bali, bamboo bed from Bali. And, you know, all my favorite pieces that I had bought over time. And that's when I, yeah, that's when I detached from that place. And [00:55:00] stayed in New York for quite a long time. While I was in New York.

I started traveling more often to the African continent and speaking at conferences there. Even also co-hosting events and doing things like that. 

David Pasqualone: And then when you're traveling now to these African continents, what is the cultural difference? Like, I mean, I'm sure it's massive, but is it something that you're learning?

Is it something you're engaging in? Is it just interesting? What drew you to that part of the world? 

Regina Huber: Yeah. Again I, I love the, some of the cultural aspects a lot. I do African dancing also. For example, Congolese, I did some West African dances in the past and so on. Some Afrobeat also the modern stuff.

And then now more recently Zabar from Senegal. And and, and, and I had friends from, from Africa. You know, I, I lived in New York City, so even also in, in [00:56:00] San Francisco years before, I had a lot of friends from, from Africa and Latin America and, and everywhere in the world really. I lived in the mission in San Francisco, so it was quite culturally diverse and so on.

So I, and, and in, in New York, for the most part, I, I, I lived in in Harlem, not only, I've also lived in other parts, but mostly in Harlem. I started connecting with people online actually. And then I, you know, I was invited to speak at a conference in South Africa, in Johannesburg. Before that conference I traveled to, to Ghana to participate in a project that was supposed to also be part of an event.

But the event was canceled last minute. But we did the project anyway and we helped young women prepare for job interviews. So I did that. And then I went back to South Africa several times for [00:57:00] several months. And also co-hosted a, a conference in Cameroon, in, in Yondi. I was even on Cameroonian tv.

It was a lot of fun. Went, I was literally invited to be on TV the same day. So in the morning, the, the phone rang at the hotel and said, Hey, can you come to the TV station by 11:00 AM Had to cancel all my meetings and be there by 11:00 AM and it was then on the, on the 12th pm show. Lots of fun. I was also on the radio, a few radio shows and so on.

But anyway, it was a great trip. And yeah, and then I spent also a, a month in Ziba more recently. And where else? A month in, just before the lockdown in 2020. I had just come back from two months in East Africa, in Uganda and Rwanda. 

David Pasqualone: Now what are you doing today? Where are you at, Regina, and where are you headed next?

Regina Huber: Well, I currently split my time [00:58:00] between the east coast of the us. My business is still based in New York City. My residency is based in Florida at this point. And and I'm also spending time, some time of the year in, in France. 

David Pasqualone: Okay. And then for your company, is it just you, do you have a team under you?

What do you do for professionally to help people, listeners might be wanting to connect? 

Regina Huber: Yeah, so I do leaders transformational leadership coaching, and also what I call freedom coaching, which is more related to what we have been talking about today, to really live that life that's right for you and in a way that it also works.

And because of all the experience that I have gathered and the wisdom that I have gained through those experiences and plus the, all the methodologies that I have added on and that I have applied to myself, I'm now in a place where I can really share all of this with my clients. I do leadership coaching as well still of [00:59:00] course, and, and career coaching to a certain extent.

I also provide leadership trainings and conference speaking companies have invited me to speak. I used to do a lot of speaking at banks in New York City, so yeah, I'm always happy to inspire. I have a podcast as well. It's called Rice to Lead with very different perspectives that I like to bring fresh perspectives as well.

My website is transform your performance.com, and that's where you find all the different other links. 

David Pasqualone: Awesome. So before I ask a final question, between your birth and today, Regina, is there anything else you want to cover or anything we miss that's significant in your life story that'll motivate and inspire people?

Regina Huber: I think there are some really beautiful moments where we touch people's lives, even if it's one person. And those moments [01:00:00] I will always remember, right? So for example, the first time I spoke at a conference in South Africa, it was even, everything had been changed. You know, the, the whole schedule had changed.

The, the, the, the format had changed. I had to really adapt last minute to, to, to the new format. But when I, when I finished my talk, one lady stood up in the audience and said, you just said one thing that changed my entire life. Thank you. And I think these are the moments that I really, really love about the work I do.

David Pasqualone: Yeah, and that's true. Anybody who's gone to business conferences or training or continuing education, if you can get one thing out of that meeting or that weekend, it's worth it. 'cause there's very few things, you know, all knowledge comes from God. Nobody's saying anything new. They just may, may be saying away at the right time that connects with you.

So we started [01:01:00] off the show talking about living your freaking amazing life. If you had just the final message of final words, whether it's instructional or just inspiration, what would you like to say to our listeners about living their most freaking amazing life? 

Regina Huber: First of all. Don't feel obliged to live someone else's dream.

Your dreams matter. And it might not all look perfect. It might not all even make sense. Not everything in life makes sense. You know what might, what might not make, make sense to your mind could make sense to your heart. Really listen to your heart, to what you truly, truly desire. And yeah, dare to step into it.

It's your life. No one else's. 

David Pasqualone: Beautiful. Well, Regina, thank you so much for being here today. [01:02:00] Ladies and gentlemen, reach out to Regina as always, whether you're on our website, whether you're watching this through Rumble or another video player, whether you're listening to this through your favorite podcast player around the world, check out the show notes, click her link, reach out to her if you want to continue the conversation.

And most importantly, like our slogan says, don't just listen to great content, but do what you know you need to do. Repeat it each day. Make good habits so you can have a great life in this world. But most importantly, an attorney to come. So Regina, thank you again for being here today. 

Regina Huber: Thank you so much for having me on, David.

David Pasqualone: Oh, it was a true honor. Ladies and gentlemen, we love you and we'll see you in the next episode. Ciao. 

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