Embracing Authenticity and Freedom with Malitta Seamon - Highlight Reel

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I'm Malita Seaman, and I am a lot of things, but mostly I am a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur,

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a former CEO.

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I have a lot of titles that come behind that.

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Mostly what I'm doing today is leading inbound leadership, which is an organization to inspire

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individuals to live more authentically, but mostly lead authentically.

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I also just recently wrote a book, Mindset Freedom with My Husband, and it's being released

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on May 17th.

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We're very excited about that.

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But Mindset Freedom tells about our journey of having to go inside to live better.

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The business we were in, something neither of us studied for, knew anything about, but

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it was a pathway for us to create a lifestyle that we wanted.

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And so I would say we pretended to love it.

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What we really loved was the money that it generated, the fact that it gave us security,

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but in terms of any other fulfillment, it just wasn't there.

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So after Brad left the business, I continued the business for about three or so years without

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him, and I'm kind of foreshadowing the book.

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But he eventually returned to the business, and together we decided to abandon it.

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It was not what we wanted.

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And that was a very difficult decision because our life, our home, everything was built around

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it for over two decades.

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What we were able to do after that was to pivot more into what was more authentic for

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us, what felt right for us.

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I came up and I was raised in a very traditional family.

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We were all expected to go through school, graduate from college, get a good job, get

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on our feet.

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And that's all I thought about, get married, have children.

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And so I went through the motions without ever asking myself, is this really what I

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want?

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Am I happy?

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Do I feel comfortable with what I'm doing?

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And I continued that right through my marriage with Brad, right through building the business

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until our crises hit.

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And what I realized looking back was all of those microcontortions were developing, they

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were creating unhappiness and resentments within me.

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But I couldn't put my finger on it and I watched so many people talk about, I want to be happy.

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And I was one that would always say, life just isn't happy, life just isn't designed

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to be happy when in fact we portray ourselves so many times and even coming close to being

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able to achieve it because we're so busy marching down the path that we think we're supposed

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to go down.

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And really, when Brad left the business, there was a point when I said, why am I doing this?

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Why on earth am I continuing this business when I'm unhappy?

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It's creating havoc in my life.

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And then the box was, well, how do I get out of it?

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I've created this reputation, I have this title, I have expectations, how do I just

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turn around and walk away?

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Our business model does not work unless individuals have really made the decision and the commitment

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that they want to make a shift because it's not the easiest thing to do.

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Once we start to come up from the iceberg sort of existence where we let the world see

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10% of who we really are and submerge the rest because it doesn't fit or we're afraid

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or once we make that commitment to say, OK, I'm OK with opening the kimono, I'm OK with

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coming out of the water, we're vulnerable.

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There are a lot of things about ourselves that we keep to ourselves or only to the people

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who are very close to us that we're not willing to let the rest of the world see.

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But I tell you that you can't really live until you're willing to allow that to happen.

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I was at the height of pity and very low and alone and I was angry and I was crying out

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to God, the universe trying to make sense of everything that had happened to me or was

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happening to me and I remember saying, I really just want to be happy.

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I don't need a complicated life and I don't need all the things, the extra things that

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I have in life, I just want to be happy.

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That's what I've been broken down to, what I want to be happy and the words that I heard

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about were proof.

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And it was an interesting moment and as I started to journal because I was a big journaler,

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I started to write down what was going on with me and the proof it became from pain

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to presence, from resistance to release, from obstacles to observation, from victimhood

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to valor, from ego imbalance to ego consciousness, from inner peace, I'm sorry, from insecurity

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to inner peace, and from tip of the iceberg to top the mountain and really created the

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chapters for the book.

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And that is the process I had to go through to get to the level of contentment that I'm

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happy that I reached.

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And for all of your listeners, what I found is with the people that I work with and everyone

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I speak to, proof it is a methodology that can help you no matter where you are in life.

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Because when we make the choice to really look at ourselves and to love ourselves and

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to go inside of ourselves to listen specifically to the voice that we typically push out, you

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know, the one that is telling us softly, not the not the loud chatter, the one that's

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panicky and worried, but the one that calm, the one that's loving, the one that nudges

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us when we're willing to go in and really listen and pay attention to that voice.

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That's where a lot of the answers are.

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And so we first have to make the commitment to go inside and to block out the external

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and to give priority to what is being, what is going on and what is felt inside.

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Excavating allows us to come out more authentically and say, this is who I am.

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You know, I've gotten rid of all of this other stuff where I've taken a look at all of this

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other stuff and uncovered what had what caused me to betray myself or what caused me to not

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fully live as myself.

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And now that I have gotten rid of that, I'm, I'm, I'm ready to live.

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I want to live now as myself, authentically as myself.

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And it's not a perfect science, but it certainly is better than trying to

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gloss over, go around, work around and pretend that something is not there.

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I was on the phone with my oldest son, who has a two year old, soon to be three.

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And she's a handful.

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And so we were talking about her and he was expressing, you know, his concern.

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You know, my parenting, her rate and, you know, and I told him that the best thing

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that he can do for her is to really be present.

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And it, and it sounds, you know, that doesn't sound very concrete.

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But what I'm saying to him and what I said to him is when she's speaking to you, stop

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and really listen and today it's really hard if you have our phones in our hands

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and they're just little ones, they don't understand.

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But when you stop and you look into their eyes and you really listen

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and you connect, you know, and it can only, it can take just 30 seconds, 60 seconds.

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But it means the world to them, you know, and so I would encourage everyone, even

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for us as adults, adults to adults, you know, you know, partner to partner.

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If we can just stop and really listen and be present, you know, and just let the other

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person know you matter to me.

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I hear you, I see you, I understand.

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Okay, you really want this doll right now, you know, let me stop and understand why

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you want me to play pretend right now.

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Let me pause for and, you know, it's making the decision that I am going to try

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and be as present as I can, as often as I can.

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This is not a perfect science again, but trying as much as we can to be present

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in this fast paced, crazy world we're here in right now that's grabbing our

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attention every minute it can get when the priority really is with the people

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that we share our most intimate moments with.

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I convinced myself that the discomfort I was living in was not only something

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that I needed to do, but I had to do long after I did not have to do it.

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And unfortunately for me, I stayed there until my situation became a crisis.

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And I would encourage everyone listening to begin to make changes, small changes.

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As you're listening to the inner voice, as you're listening to your intuition

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gut about things that feel right and the things that don't until the things

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that don't feel right, create a problem.

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Because eventually, you know, you run into a collision.

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There's the collision of what's inside and the collision of what's happening

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outside and if it's no more than being angry with your partner or being angry

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with your boss, discontent in your job, it just continues to grow.

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And so what, you know, I encourage individuals to do is not to ignore it.

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You don't have to make a change overnight.

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But ignoring it can create a crisis that can create pain, that can create suffering.

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What you want to do is to avoid the suffering or avoid the turbulence or

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and avoid the tsunami that can come because you did not follow what was really inside.

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The thing that maybe even sometimes it's saying something that you're in comfortable setting.

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Everyone has a way of doing dishes, right?

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We have our own system or whatever.

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So my husband will stack dishes on and he likes to do them in the morning.

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I'm a person.

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I like dishes done right away, but even if they're not done, I like to soak them

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because I want to make sure there's nothing that's going to stick to the dishes

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that maybe won't come off in the dishwasher.

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So we have this discussion yesterday because he continues to stack

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the dishes up and I just couldn't take it anymore.

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I'm like, why do you continue to do this?

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Can you just at least soak the dishes and then get to them in the morning?

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But once upon a time, and that's a small example, once upon a time, I think

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I would not have said anything and it would just have continued to annoy me.

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And so not only would the dishes annoy me, but the other little thing that he does

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would annoy me on top of the dishes, which would annoy on top of the other thing.

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And guess what would happen?

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We'd have an unnecessary argument about something that was not even important.

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If someone wants to work with you, what would they expect?

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There are three primary areas that we focus on.

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One, we're launching a series of retreats, offsite retreats in 2026.

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Those will be announced, but we're taking a handful of CEOs

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in an immersive kind of environment and taking them through some experiences

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that we are hoping will impact their ability to be more vulnerable,

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more authentic and more self-aware, because that that that's what's critical.

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So that's one area.

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The other is that we do offer workshops for teams.

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So we go into organizations and we help teams learn how to communicate

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and be more authentic and collaborative and self-aware.

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And we do some one-on-one coaching.

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That, again, really comes down to working with individuals

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who want to go deep within to excavate, is what I'll say,

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excavate what's inside and really willing almost to face

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whether or not they are in the right seat.

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Brad and I laugh about this because we call it the school of life.

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Quick, you know, we literally, I'm sure I've taken, you know,

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Harvard executive courses, I've done all of that.

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And, you know, but nothing compares to living through it.

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And we, you know, Brad and I have dedicated the last seven years

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of our lives to really honing in on what has been really important.

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What are the lessons we've really learned?

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And what we have to offer the world is to open ourselves up

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and to be very transparent.

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A practice that I don't compromise on is every morning when I get up.

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I created a quiet room for myself.

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It's a room that used to be full of junk that I cleared.

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And it's my space to start my day because I have to center myself

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through meditation and calm to remind myself who I am,

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who I choose to be, what I choose to achieve in that one day.

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I can't think about the next 10 days.

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I can't think about too much yesterday, but I can center myself

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for the present day because I know once I leave my quiet room,

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the world is waiting for me and I have to be rooted in myself

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and committed to myself and journal with myself about what that day means to me.

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Because every day is precious.

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I start counting my summers and it's like, you know what?

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I have a limited number of summers left, so every day matters to me, you know?

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And so I want to spend every day wisely.

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And I just encourage every listener to do the same.

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And at the end of the day, you know, I find that I am much happier

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and much more content with how I spent my day.

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And I know the days I've missed a couple of days.

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And I tell you it's a catastrophe because I'm all over the place.

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Everyone has a piece of my mind.

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Everyone has a piece of my soul.

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But when I start my day centered with the knowing of who I choose to be,

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I am I'm destined for a good day or a better day.

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Mindset freedom was written to encourage and support individuals

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in finding that place of peace.

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You know, life can be very challenging, very demanding, especially in these times,

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you know, have us kind of split and divided in so many ways.

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And what we really want, most of us, is really just a sense of peace and belonging.

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You know, it's we think often that that's going to come via wealth.

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That's going to come via certain levels of success, but it comes from the inside.

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You know, the external can create happy moments, but happiness comes from the inside.

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That's where it's it's created.

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That's where it's interpreted.

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And so mindset freedom is really designed to help us tap into that well of happiness,

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that place that we can create from.

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And that's why it's called mindset freedom.

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When we release ourselves from these imaginary jails, imaginary

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mind jails that we put ourselves in that create boxes that have us living lives

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that we're not necessarily happy with.

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So we're hoping that through the journey, taking our journey with us through the book,

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that others will be encouraged and supported in finding their own happiness and peace.