Mindset: Stop Hiding Behind Not Ready

You know what you're here to do. You've known for a while. And you're still not fully out there yet.

Teresa Thomas knows that feeling. And she also knows the moment that made it impossible to stay hidden any longer.

In this episode of She Coaches Coaches, Candy Motzek sits down with Teresa Thomas - Canadian author, speaker, environmental health educator, and spiritual connection mentor. She Coaches Coaches reaches listeners in more than 127 countries, and this conversation holds something for every coach who is sitting on a message they haven't fully shared.

Teresa recovered from environmental illness herself. Her upcoming book, From Toxic to Green: The New Parenting Guide for Maximum Family Health, is due out in the fall. And the moment that launched her entire mission happened in a boardroom in Halifax, Nova Scotia - when she overheard four words that she's never forgotten.

The Boardroom Moment That Changed Everything

Eight hundred workers at a Halifax hospital had gotten sick. Nurses couldn't return to work. The culprit was fragrance products in the environment - cleaning products, personal care items, the air itself. A grassroots campaign started. Fifteen community groups, no funding, no organization, just people who were scared and motivated, started making their own posters and putting them everywhere.

The campaign was called No Scents is Good Scents.

It worked. The sale of fragrance products across the Maritimes shifted. And the Fragrance Toiletry and Cosmetics Foundation of Canada sent representatives to Halifax to find out who was behind it.

Teresa was in that meeting.

And when one of the executives sat down next to his colleague, he leaned over and said: "We'll have to start advertising to the children."

That was the moment. Not a slow awakening. One sentence. And Teresa knew this was her work to do.

The people who got sick were overwhelmingly women - nurses, support staff - who spent full days in that environment. The male physicians came in, did their procedures, and left. The women stayed. And for a long time, they were dismissed. Told they were just menopausal. Told it was stress.

Teresa's whole practice exists because of that dismissal. And because of that boardroom.

The Coaching Mindset Truth About Visibility

Here's the other side of Teresa's story. And it's the part that coaches need to hear.

Even after that moment - even with that clarity, that conviction, that reason - it took years before Teresa fully stepped out.

She describes herself as a little shy. Reticent. She had a message she believed in deeply. And she hid.

In 2020 she made her first recording for a course. She heard herself back and thought: who is that? It was uncomfortable. She got over it.

Last month she gave her first in-person talk. There were mistakes. She relaxed anyway. She was herself. And the audience loved it.

This is the coaching business mindset insight most coaches skip: you don't become confident before you show up. You become confident by showing up. The visible version of you - imperfect, warm, real - is the version that creates connection. The polished, perfect version is the version nobody can relate to.

Teresa puts it simply: when you're extra nervous and trying to be perfect, you're not even yourself. And nobody can connect with someone who isn't there.

If you're ready to stop hiding and start building something visible, start here: https://candymotzek.lpages.co/vfo/

What Teresa Is Building - And the Dream Behind It

Teresa now runs a group for women who are navigating major life transitions - health challenges, divorce, career crossroads - and doing it while also cleaning up their home environments. It's an unusual blend and that's exactly the point.

The inner work and the outer environment are connected. What's around you affects how you feel. How you feel affects what you can do. Teresa brings both together.

Her goal is to help 100,000 people. Not as a vanity metric - as a mission marker. She wants the information about environmental health to spread person to person, home to home, street to street.

That last part is literal. Teresa has a dream called Green Street. A block of homes commits to going fragrance-free and pesticide-free together. They put up a sign. Other streets see it. The hashtag Green Street starts to travel.

It's the same grassroots energy that worked in Halifax - the same poster-making, community-building, neighbor-talking energy - applied now, everywhere.

For a look at what coaches across industries are building right now, download the free Coaching Business Insights Report 2026: https://candymotzek.lpages.co/business-growth-survey/

Build a Business Your Way - With Your Authentic Voice

Teresa's final message to every listener is this: be your authentic self. Be relatable.

Not because it sounds nice. Because it's the only thing that actually works.

When you're trying to be perfect, you disappear. When you're willing to make mistakes and stay present anyway, people find you. They say: we need this message. And when you hear that a thousand times, you have to believe it.

Teresa has been hearing it for years now. She's still stepping into it. That's the work. You don't arrive at authenticity once and then you're done. You practice it every time you show up.

The coaches who build practices that last are the ones who stop waiting to feel fully ready and start letting people see the real version of what they know.

Ready to build a coaching business that's fully yours? Book a free 30-minute call with Candy: https://stepintosuccessnow.com/

Key Takeaways

• One overheard sentence in a boardroom can be enough to launch a lifetime of mission-driven work. Pay attention to those moments.
• Visibility feels vulnerable. Do it anyway. The imperfect, real version of you is more relatable than the polished version.
• When you try to be perfect, you disappear. Authenticity is what creates connection.
• The inner work and the outer environment are connected. What surrounds you affects what you can do and who you become.
• You don't become confident before you show up. You become confident by showing up.

Conclusion

Teresa Thomas spent years knowing her purpose and not fully acting on it. Then she got out there. Made mistakes. Stayed herself. And found out that people had been waiting for exactly what she had.

Your message is needed. The world doesn't need the perfect version of you. It needs the real one.

Find out more about Teresa's work and grab her free sleep resource at https://fromtoxictogreen.com/

About Teresa Thomas:

Teresa Thomas is a Canadian author, speaker, environmental health educator, and spiritual connection mentor. Drawing on her own recovery from environmental illness, she empowers women to create healthier homes, reconnect with their innate gifts, and navigate life transitions with greater harmony, resilience, purpose, and joy. Her upcoming book, From Toxic to Green: The New Parenting Guide for Maximum Family Health, shares how to build and protect your immune system for maximum health.

Web: https://fromtoxictogreen.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-thomas-from-toxic-to-green/

Free Gift: https://fromtoxictogreen.com/ (Kids Sleep Smart System