Held at Gunpoint. Never Surrendered. with Regina Huber | Ship's Log #28

"Uncertainty and chaos aren't something to avoid — It's where freedom lives, and possibilities multiply." 

— Regina Huber 

Episode Summary 

Regina Huber has lived and worked across five continents — Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, the US, and France — picking up languages, partner dances, and hard-won leadership lessons along the way. In this episode, she sits down with Jeanne Andersen to talk about what it really means to make a bold move, why "reinventing yourself" is a myth, and why your next chapter is already inside you. 

 Regina talks about leaving a BCG career to open a bed and breakfast in Buenos Aires when the whole city was moving in the other direction, how embodiment and dance have shaped her approach to leadership and presence, and the blind spots she sees again and again in even the most successful leaders. She also makes the case that uncertainty isn't a threat to manage — it's where freedom actually lives. 

And then there's the game. Two Truths and a Lie brings three wild headlines from Regina's life: a teenage hitchhiking trip from Bavaria to Amsterdam, a gun pressed to her head in Rio de Janeiro, and years of marathon training cut short just one week before race day. Only two of them happened. Listen to find out which one didn't. 

 Guest Bio 

Regina Huber is a transformational leadership coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who has built her life and career across five continents. She's the founder of Transform Your Performance and creator of the T.H.R.I.V.I.N.G. Leader Formula™, helping leaders and entrepreneurs lead with courage, authenticity, and freedom. 

 Guest Links 

Website:  https://www.transformyourperformance.com 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginahuber/ 

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@reginahuber 

Linktree:  https://transformyourperformance.com/sociallinks 

Guest CTA 

Ready to ditch outdated leadership paradigms? With my free guide Lead With Edge, you will discover how to shift to making bold moves. The T.H.R.I.V.I.N.G. Leader Formula™ helps you lead with freedom and authenticity, as a thriving leader with a thriving team, so you can stop playing small, break free from unnecessary stress, and create lasting results — without sacrificing your well-being or your team's trust. 

 CTA Link:  https://transformyourperformance.com/leadwithedge 

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Transcript

– Introduction

Regina Huber 0:03

Uncertainty and chaos aren't something to avoid. It's where freedom lives and possibilities multiply. I believe that certainty is limitation. It doesn't

– Intro

Regina Huber 0:15

really exist anyway. It's just an illusion, but it keeps us within that limitation and uncertainty holds unlimited possibilities. So uncertainty unlimited possibilities.

Jeanne 0:26

Hello and welcome to Project Candor. Today we welcome Regina Huber. Regina Huber is a transformational leadership coach, international speaker, and author who has lived and worked across multiple continents. She's the founder of Transform Your Performance, where she helps leaders and entrepreneurs elevate their confidence, execute presence, and global impact. Regina blends business strategy with embodiment and movement, integrating leadership development with cross-cultural intelligence and even dance. Having navigated corporate leadership, international relocations, entrepreneurship, and bold reinventions of her own, Regina guides others to lead with courage, clarity, and authenticity, especially during times of change. Regina, welcome aboard Project Candor.

– Regina's resilience begins before the interview

Regina Huber 1:16

I am so delighted to be here, Jeanne. I am looking forward to this conversation.

Jeanne 1:21

Oh, that's so wonderful. Before we get started, I'll just say I usually go into questions and you know, just try to get to know you a little bit. And then I'll uh as you already know, we've talked about this. We have our two truths in a lie. But I'm gonna interject something in here because I I just want to say something about your integrity this morning. They would never know this unless I tell them. You and I were supposed to record on Friday last week. And then you had a bike accident. Somebody hit you?

Regina Huber 1:55

Yeah, somebody literally rode into me on his bike. And it was so last minute. I was so surprised I could not avoid him. There was no space to avoid him either, but it was so quick. Like he literally just moved over to my lane and and it was frontal, so it was far too quick. And yeah, we both to the floor, but I was the one who was hurt.

Jeanne 2:17

Oh my gosh, were you on a bike or were you in a car walking?

Regina Huber 2:22

And I fell on my left elbow, and that's why I had to have elbow surgery on Monday eventually. Oh my gosh.

Jeanne 2:31

Well, and the reason why I wanted to call this out is because I can't even believe you bothered to send me a note that you had an accident, so you I wouldn't be waiting here for our recording. That was so nice of you. I mean, here you are in pain and you're reaching out to me. That's a lot of integrity. Thank you so much.

Regina Huber 2:52

Well, you know, it just felt normal to me. I mean, I I I didn't faint, so I wasn't on I could do this. It would have been harder years ago, right? Without a smartphone or a mobile phone, but now it's become easier. So yeah.

Jeanne 3:09

Yeah, I would have just sat here and probably waited, wondered, and then reached out to you later or recorded some other clips or something I wanted to do. But I really appreciated that. That was so sweet. And I that speaks to your character a lot.

Regina Huber 3:24

And thanks for your flexibility also.

Jeanne 3:26

Oh, that's not a problem. You know, so I'll start my questions. Uh, you've lived and worked across multiple countries and cultures. How has navigating different environments shaped your leadership philosophy?

– Leadership lessons from living around the world

Regina Huber 3:40

Well, so I think it's had a pretty big impact, you know, because I have seen leadership in different cultures, in different countries, different language zones, and I have realized that a lot of things are actually the same. Now it's it's a lot about uh you mentioned one thing already, right? Integrity, uh also trust building, transparency, really coming from that pure intention to lead from a place of wanting to do our best for whoever we lead or whoever we want to inspire. Sometimes it's through inspiration that we lead. We don't necessarily need a team to be able to lead, right? We could be a speaker, we could be in many different capacities. And I have found that, you know, yes, there are certain skills that we need, communication is definitely one of them. But in the end, it's also about who we are as leaders. And I think that's the most important thing. And of course, then the second thing is about self-leadership. If somebody doesn't know how to lead themselves, then I would not want to be led by that person. These people are in leadership positions.

Jeanne 5:00

Absolutely. Yeah, so I think that the gold here is that um, you know, you have done so much and been to so many countries. Can you tell us all the countries you've been to?

Regina Huber 5:10

Oops. I made a list once, and of course, you know, to some countries I've been to to travel for for fun, for vacation, and to other countries I've gone both for work and fun, and then in some other countries I've lived. So the countries I've lived in, I'm maybe that's the easier part, first of all, are of course Germany. I was born in Germany. I lived in Germany until I was 26, and later I was back for a couple of years at some point, then I lived in Spain for seven years, then I did a lot of work in Portugal out of Spain. So I traveled to Portugal weekly for quite a while. That's when I had the chance to learn Portuguese, gladly, and then I lived in Brazil a couple of times, in Argentina a couple of times, and in the US also a couple of times. So in Argentina and Brazil together, probably a total of nine years, and in the US more than that, but in two different occasions. Right now I split my time between the US and France.

Jeanne 6:14

Oh now France. We didn't have that one in there until the end.

Regina Huber 6:19

And I just came back from Ivory Coast, by the way. I love to travel, you know. I used to travel a lot more in Latin America years back, and now recently I've traveled more in Africa. So Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa a few times, spent several months there, in a month in Uganda, a month in Rwanda, a month in Zanzibar also. And just recently I had the pleasure to get to know a little piece of Ivory Coast.

Jeanne 6:45

Oh, very nice. So do you still speak Portuguese fluently?

Regina Huber 6:49

Yeah, Portuguese I do speak fluently. I my Portuguese is better than my definitely better than my than my French. So in Spanish, uh definitely better than my French. And then, you know, I learned Portuguese the European version first, and it's really very different from the Brazilian version of Portuguese, so that was a big change. And now it's mostly Brazilian, but like this weird combination sometimes. Where both you know, that's what happens when you mix up accents, but uh yeah.

Jeanne 7:26

Yeah, that's very cool. I in high school we had an exchange student come and live with our family, and she was from Natal, Brazil.

Regina Huber 7:34

Yeah.

Jeanne 7:34

And her family was in the government doing I forgot, I used to know the title of her dad. But she came over on this program and didn't know any English at all. So they kind of glued her to me in school and everything. So she learned English with my accent, and the whole time, and she still probably did afterwards, she called blue jeans Jeanies because that's my name, Jeannie. So she would always go, I need to buy a pair of blue genies. And we so everything I said she imitated, but she was super intelligent, and we still have kept in touch over the years, all these years. It's so fun.

Regina Huber 8:17

Yeah, Natal is a really beautiful place. They have the sand dunes. I've been there. Oh, you have been there? Yeah.

Jeanne 8:23

Yeah. She would always talk about wanting to go to Rio, you know, want to go to Rio for a carnival. Yeah. And I'm in a little small town. My dad's a minister, right? And so her family's sending her all these magazines from Carnival with these ladies wearing it next to nothing. And they're like, What are you getting, preacher? It's hilarious because they their culture is so different, but such lovely people, her family, and and her daughter actually connected us back. She kept looking for me on Facebook and stuff, so I love them.

Regina Huber 8:55

Yeah, I lived in Rio de Janeiro three and a half years. I lived in Sao Paulo too, but yeah, Rio de Janeiro was three and a half years before New York.

Jeanne 9:03

Yeah, is it as um you know, festival like uh I know they say carnival, but is it such a happy place? Because she kept talking about how much fun it was.

Regina Huber 9:13

It is a lot of fun because there are actually like parties in all the parts of town, like in uh basically for months, right? It starts in November, and uh we have all those parties uh with with life bands, small, big. So there's Lapa, for example, that's the uh the nightlife area, and there's like those big parties, and then there are of course the official the official events at the San Bodromo, which you know I've only been for the rehearsals actually. Oh well to those, but I'm I've been to all the other stuff, which is much more fun for me than to just sit there for hours to watch this. But rehearsals are fun too, because you see the same thing, you don't pay. I was invited to come in, and it's not as crowded, you know. So yeah.

Jeanne 10:01

Very nice. Well, so we're getting a big picture of you that you do know a lot about different cultures, that you do know uh different languages. That's just not your ordinary person.

Regina Huber 10:12

Yeah, I used to dance a lot of the Brazilian dances. I mean, I do the samba, but then also sambarigafiera, all the partner dances they do, and samba was one of my favorite partner dances. It's very intricate, it's the hardest of all that I've ever learned in terms of partner dance, but it was so much fun. Yeah, absolutely.

Jeanne 10:31

Oh, okay. Well, I that's the kind of um place that the forbidden dance comes with it from you know the one that's all hip together as a partner dance. Yep. They have such happiness though. I when all the pictures she used to show me, it was just so like the spirit was really happy and the people were very positive. Well, anyway, just speaking of that, uh you speak about bold moves, and you've made some bold moves. So, what defines a bold move in your life, and how do you know when it's time to make one?

Regina Huber 11:03

Yeah,

– Making bold moves and embracing uncertainty

Regina Huber 11:04

I think one of them was definitely to move to Spain when I just learned Spanish. And it just was an opportunity that crossed my path. I've never had planned to move to Spain in my life before. I've never been to Spain. But a colleague told me about this opportunity, and I was actually looking for a different type of transfer somewhere else, but then that wasn't happening right away, so I said, Well, why not? And then my colleague said, Well, I said to my colleague, this is how it worked, right? I said to my colleague, well, I don't speak Spanish. And then at the time, you know, the whole mindset around learning languages was different still. You didn't just learn the language, right? You know, you just either studied a language at school, uh They had all the verb tenses, all that. Yeah, but that's not really true. You can actually learn a language pretty fast. So he said, Well, you can learn that. And I said, You know what? That's true. And that's when they started. So I was at BCG at the time, and they started paying for my classes. I went uh for an interview in English, and they said, Okay, if you come back, or if you if we have uh another interview in three months uh in in in Spanish on the phone, then you can come. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna do that. So that's what happened, and that was one of them. And then later, also, you know, many years later, I I uh I left my again. BCG had hired me back by then, right? I spent many years with them in different locations, but so I I had left the company after some point that they hired me back for the San Francisco office. And after three and a half years in San Francisco, I said, you know what, it's it's just time for a move. And sometimes we just have this feeling, right? We know it's time. And I just left everything behind and I packed up and I grabbed my money and I went to Argentina to open a bed and breakfast.

Jeanne 13:00

Wow. That is a bold move.

Regina Huber 13:03

Yeah, everybody was saying, Are you crazy? It's just when it was just like when all those kidnappings happened in Argentina, a lot of a lot of rich people were moving away from Argentina. And I remember clearly one of the partners who was from Buenos Aires, he had just moved to Miami, and he he said to me, Well, everybody's moving up here, and you're moving down there. And I said, Well, uh I mean, I I wasn't even thinking of kidnappings or whatever. Although a friend of mine actually had been in one too, in the city of Buenos Aires. But you know, you I mean things can happen anywhere. Like you see it, I was just a few miles, like two or three miles from home when this uh bike accident happened. My dad had a m I had a fatal accident, uh also like three uh two miles from home or whatever it was, right? So you never know. You never know. You know, I love adventure. I just came back from my trip in Abery Coast, I was in Abijah, I was in uh Grand Bassam, and I just figured out somehow we can we can do it.

Jeanne 14:09

Yeah, but you're enjoying life, that's great. And you're doing lots of things that are so interesting. You could do a whole show on just when you rent ran a bed and breakfast. I mean, that's gotta be stories. They make big shut TV shows out of that and all the murders that happen. I like all these crazy murder mysteries and British TV. So we'll have to talk about that another time. So many people hesitate when change feels risky. And what helped you develop the courage to reinvent yourself more than once?

– Why every new chapter builds on the last

Regina Huber 14:40

Well, I think it's actually rather than a reinvention, sometimes it's a figuring out what's next for us and and who we really are. It's like more like a next chapter because we will not lose what we had before, right? It's not like we are becoming a new person. We're becoming maybe more of who we already were because of those experiences. And hopefully we use those experiences for our growth and not just to look back and regret, because that's not what they're for. And yes, sometimes, you know, not everything is pleasant in life. I also wrote my book, Living My Freaking Amazing Life, not just about the pleasant things, right? It's about, yes, lots of amazing adventures, but also some pretty painful experiences. And um, as long as we can look at them and and really just like this now, this accident. I mean, there's something in it for me. Something there must be, I'm still searching for it. You know, and I'm I'm asking this question every day, and I've discovered a few little things, but I think there's something else that I've still not discovered. So I will ask this question every single day until I find it. And I think because in a way, I co-created the situation, right? It yes, we say, Oh, it happened to me, but it actually, you know, we have a role in it, whether we want that or not. And I think when we when we see it in that way, we can step out of the victim role and into a more self-empowering mindset and actually do something with that situation, right? Whilst we're in it or right at the moment of the accident, well, it's not that easy to see that right away.

Jeanne 16:29

Right. Well, I get where you're going with that, but I would say you were I say your role in that was you were innocently rough riding down the road. That was your role. Um, and you were there to allow this guy to hit you. I don't know. I can't find a really thing that you did wrong there, or what your role is here.

Regina Huber 16:47

Yeah, it's not on this on a conscious level, right? Uh, but something must have played in my subconscious that uh that's how I see it, right? Oh, okay. I know different people have different perspectives and it's all it's all fine.

Jeanne 17:04

Yeah, and you also said something that was very, very interesting there. And you said it's not really reinventing yourself. I go through this question with myself all the time when I take on something new that I'm doing and I have a lot on my plate already, but I keep taking on something new. I think it's just an extension of yourself, it's not really uh reinventing or trying to change your life. Because you're right, it's just you know, you don't lose what you know. So if I know how to play the piano and I keep playing the piano, and then I go on and play another instrument, the scales are still the same. And uh, you know, the chords are different because you've got four strings or you've got a huge piano harp. Uh so it's the same, but you just you know extend yourself to something new or out reach out to something new. So I love the way you put that. That's great.

Regina Huber 17:56

Yeah, and I also really, really like this example, uh, the the the instrument, the musical instrument analogy a lot, because the same applies to dance, and I love to dance.

Jeanne 18:08

And that was my that's my next question. I want to know, because you integrate embodiment and even dance into your leadership work. So, how does movement influence presence and confidence?

– How dance shapes leadership, presence, and confidence

Regina Huber 18:20

Yeah, it's the movement, but it's not just the movement, it's the posture, it's how you use your energy. You know, we talk so little about energy. Of course, when we think about presence, we do think about posture, about body language, right? But what flows into all of this is our energy. And in dance, what we use a lot and a lot more consciously than usually when we go about our life is our energy. Even though we might not be aware of it, even in though, you know, we might not think of it in that way, we're still using our energy in in a more conscious way than if we don't dance, for example. Because why? Because, for example, in partner dance, right? If I cannot read the energy of the other person, then I cannot follow that person. If I cannot read the intention in a dance that's this fast as sambadi gaffira, it's it's I mean, there are slow sambadigafira rhythms too, there are depending on on the on the music, right? But but it can be so fast that you cannot just you can think about it, right? Also in the other dances, by the way, but that's one of the more extreme examples. So if I cannot read that energy, then I will not be able to if I cannot be present with that energy of my partner, I cannot follow them. And if they cannot be present as a leader of my follower energy, then they cannot lead me because we don't give instructions verbally when we dance together, right? That doesn't work. So it's all about intention, about energy. Yes, it's also about the body, of course, the body movement, the steps, but it's actually the least about the steps. You can move with your entire body, you can dance with your entire body without making a single step with a partner, right? So, and then of course, in when you dance by yourself also, you need to know how to use your energy. I do also now I a few a couple uh years back, I started sabbar dancing, that's a Senegalese dance, that's very much jumping and joy in the air. Well, you need to sometimes know how to how to use your energy to actually get it right. You know, it's not just about the body itself, about the limbs or whatever. And the same also for Dombolo, this is one one of my favorite dances, Congolese and Dongbolo, it's related to the Congolese or rumba. So these are dances that are very intricate, also when you dance by yourself, right? And if you don't use your energy properly, then you get it it first of all, you get exhausted faster, and then you can hurt yourself more easily, and all these things. So I think it teaches us so dance teaches me so much about so many things. It's about energy, about nonverbal communication, about teamwork. You know, we we talk about dance ensembles, groups that dance together. Ensemble in French means together, right? So we're really dancing together. I've also done aerial movements. If you don't trust that person, you cannot do it, you know. And though it's also about trust, it's about a thousand things. And I've written a few articles about this because yeah, and then of course, yes, it is about presence and especially about leader presence because you need to build that trust that you need to build in dance, you need to be able to read energy, and you need to be able to manage your own energy and to opt. Optimize your energy so that you can create trust.

Jeanne 22:03

Nice. I'm sitting here thinking about people, children now in elementary school all the way up through high school, they don't get a lot of dance. They're just not dance taught, you know, but they do. I guess you could be a cheerleader. That's got a lot of that movement and energy that you need, but not the same. Wonder why people don't see the value in this focus and this movement and this interpersonal connectivity that you need to have with people, and you can get that through learning dance. I don't know.

Regina Huber 22:36

Yes, I've always wondered about this because I would have loved to have it myself, you know. And actually, when I lived in Harlem, and and I still am there often, there are some schools where because I know this because I was in those schools because I took some like West African dance classes or such, you know, in the neighborhood, and there were actually dance and theater classes in those places. I saw the posters, I saw those activities, right? But we did not have that. I've also written articles, by the way, about what we should add to education, what should be different. So I have very strong opinions about these topics, and I appreciate those questions, uh, Jean, because they are very important questions. So why is this not part of most curricula, right? It should be it could be optional. I don't think we need to force children to do activities they don't want to do. You know, if they don't want to dance, well, they can do something else for movement, right? Also, we could offer yoga, we could offer uh Tai Chi. I mean, there's so many great options that we don't get. Instead, everything at school is just competitive because we're being prepared for the system and to compete in the system instead of really focusing on what's special about us, and nobody's special in that sense, but unique, right? In the in a sense of unique. What's unique about us and what should be promoted in ourselves, what's our essence, what is our what are our unique talents and skills? That is not really promoted or you know, or asked for. It's always like repeat what we're saying, do this, do that, you don't have a choice, right? So I think a lot would need to be changed, but it tells you a lot that the school system hasn't really changed much in many, many decades of what the intention of it is, frankly. So we don't need to go into those details.

Jeanne 24:37

But yeah, exactly. We could talk about got a lot of conversations. We could come back when you come back to the show. Like really, but I I do want to say this. I know my husband is um I say this on almost all my shows because I love him to death. I keep throwing him into the conversation. But he's from Sweden, born and raised, but he's a Danish citizen. But he told me that when they were in school, if they wanted to take guitar, they could. I was like, what? Nobody would let us do that. It's parents going to uh try to find somebody to teach you these dance or music or whatever. I mean, you could be in the band, of course, that's good. And I was in that. And you could be in the chorus, you could sing, but they didn't have a lot of those things, extra things. The other things you would do in school would be um sports like track or you know, just a competitive sport. Like you said, all competition. Even band was competition. You had to go in and um audition for your chair. Like if you had learned and practiced more, you could be first chair versus out the door.

Regina Huber 25:42

Right. And I actually, you know, I'm so much about movement teen. And I hated sports class because I was not good at the stuff we had to do. You know, I wasn't I would have liked ball games actually, but because it was competitive and I wasn't good at it, I also didn't like being picked last for a ball game, you know? And that's how we learn rejection and fear of rejection, actually. So it's definitely something to think about.

Jeanne 26:09

Yeah, absolutely. And that works us to our next question. Like you work with high-level leaders and entrepreneurs. So what is one blind spot you see consistently even among successful people?

– The blind spot successful leaders often overlook

Regina Huber 26:21

To not take enough care of themselves and to not honor themselves enough, I would say, you know, because I mean, you know, some people are into fitness and all that, that's all great, but that's not everything. Also, healthy nutrition is important, but that's not everything. I think, especially as an entrepreneur, what we forget about sometimes is we take all those strategies and we are also coached, right? And I've paid a lot of money for coaching that hasn't really worked for me because I didn't always honor who I really was in the whole game. And that's how I spent a lot of dollars on coaching that really did nothing for me. And it wasn't because necessarily it was bad or because the strategy wouldn't work for others, it was just not right for me. And I think that's really important to notice that we find the right people to work with and that they ask us, you know, that we ask a lot of questions, but then also pay attention to the questions we are asked. So to see whether that's really a good fit. But that's just an example, right? So I think honoring yourself in in leadership, first of all, has to do a lot with authenticity, and there's a lot of talk about authenticity all the time. So, you know, what is that really? Are you honoring yourself? And then also not forgetting about the rest of your life because life is a holistic phenomenon. You might have built a great career, uh beautiful, you know, whatever, or even a great business. But if the rest is not aligned with what you really desire, then something's off.

Jeanne 28:05

That's absolutely true. And I think about all the people that have these careers, they're focused, focus, focus on the career. There's a lot of education involved, like say, for instance, a doctor. But that person is just multidimensional, um, but they get burned out because they have so many things to have to think about and focus on. They may not honor themselves, like you said. They don't go back and say, How do I re-energize myself? I think that's where you might be going to. How do you re-energize yourself and how do you honor yourself? Because you're all about energy and movement. So if it just felt like you were going there.

Regina Huber 28:44

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, uh, Jean, with that, because I actually I talk about this also. I created a brand new page, uh, which is you know, my my website is transformeperformance.com. So that new page is transformeperformance.com forward slash success. Now what? Uh because I have seen that a lot in the people I've worked with. And it's exactly that what you just said, like re-energize. And you can do that in so in in different ways. It's re-energizing isn't always about fitness, it's about many things, many different ways. And for everybody, it's different. And I wanted to offer something that is a little bit more focused on this area.

Jeanne 29:23

Yeah. Yeah, that would be great to help people to learn how to do that. I mean, I had a traumatic experience in the past few weeks, so I don't want to go into that here, but um I've learned to take that time and breathe. And right now, and I mentioned this on my last recording because I guess because I'm in that mode right now, but I'm re-energizing myself by watching this crazy monkey on YouTube called Punch in a Japanese. Um his name is Punchy Con or whatever in a Japanese zoo over there, because he was a rejected little monkey, and then he's bounced back, and the everybody's like helping him. But I re-energize myself by looking at other inspirational things around me, and especially I gravitate toward animals, pets. You know, I have have another channel I watch of just little pets like chickens, hens, rabbits, uh, roosters, uh cats, dogs, all hanging out together and sleeping together and having kittens.

Regina Huber 30:26

Yeah. I grew up on a farm gene. Oh, really? Uh really it's really beautiful, you know, to grow up around animals.

Jeanne 30:35

Well, I've always had pets in my life, but I and I was in a farm community, but I I didn't live on a farm. I visited a lot of farms, but yeah, I don't know. That's how I re-energize myself. It's kind of silly. I tell my husband what I'm watching, he says, like, what are you 12? But uh I don't know. It takes me back, and then I just want to just feel that love of these the animals show no animosity, so I just re-energize myself by watching how loving they are to each other and caring for each other.

Regina Huber 31:07

So yeah, whatever works first of all, and then you know what? Uh yeah, dogs and cats and they they sense everything. I was taking care of uh of a neighbor's dog for a while, and I was injured at the time too, actually. And he's so caring, this dog. I mean, he would sleep by my side, he would wake me up in the morning, you know, just see if I was alright. And they're so sensitive.

Jeanne 31:33

They are definitely. Yeah, my sister, I had a dog, he's passed away, but um my sister had a lot of issues during COVID that she was dealing with, and um, she came to visit me, and when she walked in the door, she was just exhausted and she looked like she needed to sleep for a week. And so my dog just went with her. And when she left, she was in love with that dog, and she said, This dog re-energized me, and you know, I feel like this was the right place for me to be. That's really off topic, but no, it's very true.

Regina Huber 32:10

It's so important to it's I I don't think it's off topic, actually, because it's uh it's another way of taking care for yourself.

Jeanne 32:17

Yeah. And every time she came back to visit me after that, this dog would leap in the air that she came. Like he would show her how much he really appreciated her, and then she would just cry. It was like, oh, I love this dog. So it's really sweet. But I hope people can learn and maybe connect with you and learn how to re-energize themselves. I had one more question, and then we want to go to our Two Truths and a Lie. So during your biggest transitions, what grounded you? And if someone listening knows they may need to make a bold move but feels the fear of it, what's your first step you would advise them to take?

– Finding inner power during life's biggest transitions

Regina Huber 32:55

I mean, apart from dancing. Yeah, I would you mentioned breathing already, and everybody knows we we should be doing it, right? And then we don't do it. But it's also for me, it's also sitting with myself and connecting with my inner power. And uh I have a specific method that I like for that, just really closing my eyes, inhaling deeply and exhaling deeply, so deep inhales and exhales, and then just really focusing on my solar plexus area. And that's where I can most easily connect with that inner power. Maybe for other people is different in a different place, but for me it's there. Sometimes I place a hand on it, and I just really remind myself that we are all full of limitless power. So we we're, you know, we're not really limited, and then really feel into that power and know this. So it's that knowingness. But it takes a little time sometimes or a few seconds to really get to that point, right? And that's when we can it's not so much about gr I don't know if it's grounding, but it's really more like okay, this uh coming back to what and who we really are, which is that essence that we all have, which is really consciousness, and consciousness is unlimited.

Jeanne 34:24

Yeah, that's true. That's something I uh you put that into words in a way that I hadn't thought about before. It is unlimited. I don't know, your mind can take you anywhere you want to go. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what other things would you like to say before we transition to two truths and a lie?

Regina Huber 34:43

Well, what else would I like to share? One one thing that I like to say a lot is no one can empower you but yourself. You're always the one that needs to empower yourself because this myth about empowering other people that uh doesn't really work. And then, you know, I don't know if I I know you had mentioned something about a quote. Is that also what I'm sharing?

Jeanne 35:10

Oh, yeah, yeah. We'll get we can get to that quote a little later, but you can share it now if you'd want to.

Regina Huber 35:16

Oh, we can do that later. I was just not because we haven't really talked about any of the other questions, but we I know I remember that you said something about a quote, so that's why I yeah, yeah, that's true.

Jeanne 35:27

So um you're talking about you need to empower yourself. I I used to laugh at with my kids and say, you know, people talk about this all the time. I I know there's some famous quotes about it and everything, but I used to tell them, you know, you can't get away from yourself, you better like yourself because they were always so upset with how they performed in school or what they look like or whatever. I'm like, hey, you better love yourself because it's only you. You can't get away from you, no matter what you do. Yeah. So let's transition to two truths and a lie. So for those listening in, Regina has provided me with three headlines, and then we're gonna share those three headlines from her life. Uh, two

– Two Truths and a Lie: adventure, danger, or deception?

Jeanne 36:10

are true, one is not, and I'm gonna try to guess which one is the lie, but we won't tell you. We want her to walk us through those stories, and then at the end she'll reveal it to us. So play along with us. This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts. Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, Life can be different. Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story. And now, as we open the door to our second sponsor, we're stepping into the world of tech. Simple socket print, the lightweight blazing, fast label print solution designed for those who need reliability without the blue. With version 1.5, you get instant printing in milliseconds, fully maintained print sequence, and automatic base 64 decoding all without needing print driver installed. If you're running SQL Server 2016 or newer, SimpleSocket Print 1.5 drops right in and gets to work. Keep your workflow simple, keep your label printing fast with SimpleSocket Print. Thank you to our sponsors. So, Regina, here's your three headlines. At 16, Regina hitchhiked from her home in Bavaria to Amsterdam with a friend. Number two, Regina once had a gun pressed to her head and still walked away with cash in her pockets. Headline number two. Number three, after training weeks, months, and years for a marathon, Regina quit a week before her target race day. Those are all really wild headlines. Uh, I'm gonna guess that you uh hopefully number two is a lie, but don't tell me yet because you're gonna go through these stories, because I would hate to think that you had a gun pressed to your head. So starting with number one, hitchhiking. That's also a no-no for parents. So how old are you? And what oh, 16 it says. Oh, so what happened?

Regina Huber 38:29

Yeah, so it was during spring break, and my 18-year-old friend that I was with, who was also pregnant at the time, and I decided we wanted to hitchhike from our town and ferry all the way to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. So we packed our backpacks and we set out on a rainy day in the middle of nowhere, just standing next to the road. And our first milestone was really to get to near the near the autobahn, the highway, right? So there we we would have several stops at once on the highway, we'd we'd have several stops at motorway service areas where we sometimes needed to change vehicles as nobody would go directly to Amsterdam. We didn't have like you know uh one through. So we mostly at the time traveled on trucks, and uh in one of them we also slept as it got late that day. You know, we didn't always get away right away, so sometimes we were standing there for a while, and eventually we arrived in Amsterdam the next day in the morning. We had about five or six days total for this trip, and we we spent about half of that on the road. No mobile phones at the time, of course. You know, it was a while ago, so we needed to exchange money to call home from a public phone booth and let our parents know that we had arrived. And uh yeah, so we visited some parts of Amsterdam, a few museums, of art museums and whatnot, and then eventually headed back home in the same way.

Jeanne 40:09

Oh wow. How do you go to the Audubon and hitchhike? I mean, these people are zooming by. That's the fastest highway in the world, I think. Yeah, and what are you doing? Like, you can't even stick your hand out, they're gone already.

Regina Huber 40:25

So we had to get near first, like to the entry, right? Or exit while usually one of the exits, okay. And then we like just before you go in, somebody had to stop for you, and then uh at the uh service stations, you can then look for the next person to go with. You know, we were we were would walk along the tracks and see who would go in that direction. Just ask.

Jeanne 40:52

Oh, and your pregnant friend, she didn't have the baby on the trip, right? Okay, very good. Uh, all right, so I don't know, that might be a lie, but I'm not sure. You know a lot about it. So, what about number two in the gun?

Regina Huber 41:07

Yeah. So this was while I was living in Mario de Janeiro, right? So I was pretty well adapted to myself, like I'd had some interesting experiences, but I was doing my best to always keep a low profile whenever moving money around in the city, like when withdrawing money from ATM or exchanging money, whatever. And I was always taking precautions, and I knew very well how to move around in some parts of the city, certainly not all, but you know, I'd been to Favelas, I'd been to the northern part of the city, like for dance nights out, coming back on my own, on a van, those privately owned minibuses that complement the service of the larger buses in Rio. And that alone was actually quite an adventure, always like at 3 a.m. in the morning. But anyway, in this occasion, here I was. I was with a friend visiting from Germany, and she had brought all that money for her vacation in cash. So we needed to get those Euros exchanged. Was it even Euros at the time? Yes, it was already Euros. And there was no bank uh nearby that would do that. I lived in Flamengo, uh near Flamengo Beach at the time, so we took a bus over to Botafogo Beach, which seemed to be the closest for this purpose. And there was a big bank there that that did exchanges. I think it was uh Banco do Brasil. I think it was. So we went in. You have to hand your passport over to them to make a copy, right, so that they exchange the money, blah, blah, blah. And that part took us suspiciously long already. Anyway, on our way out, we were gonna go to a restaurant, nearby restaurant with a garden where we wanted to have lunch. And my friend really liked that place. We had just walked by before, so that was our next destination. And as we were leaving the bank, I told my friend to pass me half the money. So we had about, I don't know, 2,500 euros, whatever. So I grabbed half of that and uh put it in my jeans pockets, and I and she put the rest in her crossover back, right? So I told her that we should not take a cab just outside the bank because that was risky. So we started walking on the sidewalk. Also, the restaurant was nearby, so I suggested we just walk into a building, into the building of the restaurant right away, because the restaurant was literally on the other side of a building.

Jeanne 43:34

Okay.

Regina Huber 43:35

And but my friend said, No, no, no, no, I want to walk around. I want to walk in through the garden. I said, Okay, you're the tourist, I'm gonna, you know, it's your money. So we walked around the block to the other side of the building, said and done. We were just about to walk into the garden area, and my friend had just stepped in, she was already inside when two guys on a motorcycle came rushing. It was so fast, I hadn't even noticed them. And one of them just And held a gun to my head, and he said, Give me the money now. Now, and I gladly that very day, and look, I never did this in RIA, always used crossover back. That very day, I was using a clutch back for a change. Never did that usually. So all I did, I just I just threw that back. I can't do it with my left arm, can do that today with my but I I threw that the bag at him basically. Well, yes, it had my keys, about 50 reais at the time, which was about $40 or whatever. A book and my phone. Okay. It wasn't like a smartphone yet, it was like, you know, whatever. But so all the other money was in my jeans pockets.

Jeanne 44:42

Oh, that's good.

Regina Huber 44:44

So I did not give him that money, and uh, because I had that clutch back on me, I it was just a reflex, and I really could do this without thinking about it. And all of that happened where while there was an orange guard standing literally in front of us inside, just a few feet away on the other side of the garden, he did nothing. So either he was afraid or he was in on it. I don't know. Two this day. Did you ever get your clutch bag back with any of your stuff in it? No, no, no, no, no. Oh my gosh. We went to the police station, we reported everything. That alone was a very interesting experience with the officer like taking like 30 minutes to type five lines. I mean, we were in there for hours and nothing came from it.

Jeanne 45:25

He wasn't trying to type it in another language, was he?

Regina Huber 45:29

Yeah. And uh I think frankly, after I after reflecting on it, they were all somehow in on it. But anyway, we both came out alive and with the money still in our pockets. A few thousand euros, and you know, there was security at my building, so

Jeanne 45:44

But your keys are gone. Your phone was gone.

Regina Huber 45:47

I know, I had to re I had to make copies, but there gladly there was a security booth at my building, you know? So and plus that my address was not in my in my bag.

Jeanne 46:00

Oh, that's good, that's good.

Regina Huber 46:01

I could get copies of the keys. My friend paid for my new phone for my because it was she said, no, I I didn't want to walk through the building, you were right.

Jeanne 46:11

Yeah, that she probably regretted that. What about the uh training for a marathon, and then you quit?

Regina Huber 46:19

So yeah, as I said, you know, in school I hated sports class, but then I said, well, I wanted to, you know, just do it because of that at some point in my life. So I started training, although running was never my thing. I started training for a marathon, and I did quit uh a week before race day, or was it a week? Uh yeah, it was uh it was about a week, you know, maybe not exactly seven days, but anyway. So the funny part is it didn't even start in a dramatic way. So I it wasn't that I had some emotional breakthrough or whatever to do this, or to even quit at the time. So I don't I don't even know what happened in my mind. So I just saw something online back then, and it was in a group that I participated in for another event, and I probably saw it late at night, even and I just went, huh? That could be me. Why not, right? Just let's just do it. So I just registered. And maybe I had a glass of wine before. I don't know. I don't know why I even did this. Okay. So next thing I know, I'm signed up, and just out of the blue and a little overconfident, I started training. And I was pretty fit at the time because I I'd done lots of high-energy dance classes, really, you know, lots of cardio, lots of walking, some yoga along the way. And running had never really been my thing, but I said, okay, with a little bit of extra motivation, I can do this, right? And I thought also that this might finally get me into running in Central Park on a regular basis, because I literally lived next to Central Park at the time, and I had tried a couple of times, but without having like some type of a motivator, I didn't really care, right? So when I started training this time at the beginning, it actually felt kind of good because I had that motivation rush and I had the team, so I was talking to the team, and suddenly I almost also was somebody who runs, right? It was like something I bought a running outfit, great shoes, blah blah blah. And um, I would say these things like, Oh, I can't stay out too late.

Jeanne 48:37

Yeah, gotta be cute when you're running.

Regina Huber 48:39

Right, exactly. And then I would say these things like, Oh, I can't stay out too late. I have to run tomorrow. You were cool. Yeah, and I, you know, now I can hear how ridiculous that sounded. But but you know, after a few weeks, the the reality hit. Actually, not a few weeks, it was months, right? And I wasn't really enjoying this, and my brain was going like, okay, why am I doing this again? So the race week shows up, and suddenly people start asking about it. What time is the race? Where is it? Should we come to watch? And that's when it really hit me. Up until then, I I just I was just this future, you know. It was this future thing out there, this thing I was training toward, but now it was the reality. And I thought, do I really want to do this, right? Do I really want to show up and do the whole thing? Why am I doing this to to to prove what to who? And I suddenly realized that I wasn't excited anymore at all. It was just not for me. I wasn't into this marathon thing, and uh I wasn't even behind the whole philosophy of it. Um I wasn't even into running, right? And so that's when I decided to quit because it no longer felt true to myself, and it didn't feel authentic. So yeah, that was it about running for me and for the rest of my life, I guess.

Jeanne 50:09

Yeah, I think I think that's a good story because a lot of people would think, oh, I can't quit. I have to do it because now I signed up, and but I just really hate it and it wasn't for me, and it was like on a could have been on a day or could have been a drink, you know. You didn't know exactly why you signed up. So it's good to know when to cut your losses and say, Yeah, I could do it if I wanted to, but it's not what I want to do, and then move on. So that's cool. All right, so I guess number two. So are you gonna reveal which one it was? Number three is a lie. Ah that was such a good story, though. I mean, you gave us so many good details. Oh, good job. Good job. Because I yeah, I thought you really did that.

Regina Huber 50:54

The reason why I came up with this idea was really because I helped out at a marathon one.

Jeanne 51:00

Oh, gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Well, hey, Regina, it's been so wonderful to have you on the show. I know people really want to know how to get in touch with you, so I'm gonna share my screen again and then let them know how they can contact you. And here's where your quote is.

Regina Huber 51:16

Yeah,

– Regina's philosophy on uncertainty, chaos, and possibility

Regina Huber 51:17

uncertainty and chaos aren't something to avoid. It's where freedom lives and possibilities multiply. Well, yes, I believe that certainty is limitation, it doesn't really exist anyway, it's just an illusion, but it keeps us within that limitation, and uncertainty holds unlimited possibilities. So uncertainty, unlimited possibilities. So, yeah, and and structure and order are limiting too. They have their place, they have their function for sure, but they're also limiting in their own way, and it's in chaos that options arise. Chaos is full of options, I believe. And you know, we don't want that chaos all the time, but there's a place and a timing for it. It's sometimes when we want to go, we were talking about next chapters or different chapters in life and reinventing before, right? And as part of that process, we need that chaotic phase where we are a little bit confused because we need that phase to open up possibilities for ourselves. And then once we have figured out which of the possibilities we want to go for, and once we've picked our options, then we can go back to greater structure and really line the options up and gain clarity, right? But chaos is really often the first phase toward a new chapter in your life.

Jeanne 52:39

Nice. Well, being a project manager kind of discipline in my past, uh, it's a little hard for me to say uncertainty and chaos because we want to lock everything down. But I'll think about this and chew on it a little bit. We do actually come up with some good solutions when everything's failing and then you're in chaos. So I like this. Well, here's your other links here, and you have a link tree which has everything. Um, but I put all the other ones in here, and then these notes and everything will be in the show notes and transcripts for people to be able to reach out and contact you. You also had a call to action for people uh ready to ditch outdated leadership paradigms.

Regina Huber 53:20

Yes, I have quite a few call to actions. Actually, because of though what what we've talked today about, uh there might be even another one. But this is a good one to get started with this topic. So, yes, it's transformyourperformance.com forward slash lead with edge. If you're more focused on the leadership topic itself, and if you want to focus on other parts of your life right now, then I could just add on if somebody wants to write that down. I also have a template to create your freaking amazing life. And it's just literally transformyperformance.com. That's the same forward slash freaking amazing life and freaking without the G at the end. I want to add that on because of the conversation we've had. I know usually I only like to offer one, but there might be people who like that.

Jeanne 54:11

Yeah, that'll be great. If you send it to me in email or something, I can just add it into the show notes. That'll be wonderful. Well, thank you for being on. You've been a spectacular guest. You've given us a lot of things to think about. Uh, for anyone listening, please reach out to Regina and get in touch with her if anything has resonated with you and what she said. And for everyone listening, uh, from your Admiral of the Unexpected, I'm Jeanne, and I wish you all smooth sailing until the next episode.

Regina Huber 54:42

Bye. Thank you again.

Jeanne 54:44

Thanks

– Closing remarks and smooth sailing until next time

Jeanne 54:45

for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real. If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew. Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck. I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected. See you on the next Voyage.