Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Serbus.
Hi Maria, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I built a life that made sense on paper — and it was slowly costing me everything underneath.
Eight years in healthcare. A business I scaled fast. Every milestone hit right on schedule. From the outside, I had it figured out.
Inside, I was performing. Achieving. Completely disconnected from why I’d started any of it. And underneath all of it, something kept whispering — a calling I couldn’t explain, couldn’t justify, and kept pushing down because it didn’t make sense.
So I chose to stop.
Not because I had a plan. Because I was soul-tired of living a life that looked right but didn’t feel true. I chose to trust what was already inside me over what looked responsible on the outside — and then I had to choose it again. And again. Every time a launch felt slow, every time people didn’t get it, every time hustle would have been easier than purpose.
That’s the part no one tells you: living on purpose isn’t a leap you take once. It’s a decision you make daily, whether or not it makes sense to anyone watching.
Now I lead from soul, not fear. From conviction, not performance. I’m an occupational therapist turned leadership coach, consultant and spiritual mentor helping other women & founders trust themselves and tune into their intuition to make their next legacy move.
This is soul on fire living. And every woman I work with gets the same invitation I finally gave myself:
Stop performing. Start living on purpose — even when it doesn’t make sense. Choose it anyway.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The hardest part for a founder is trusting yourself. Not just when everyone’s watching, not as a performance, but actually holding yourself to your highest standard and your mission even when it doesn’t make sense on paper.
You will have your wobbles when your pursuing your dreams, but there is a difference between a wobble in conviction vs. fully abandoning yourself and your mission and take the easy route.
The challenge has been staying true to myself. Leaving full time salaried employment. And then also walking away from a successful business model that was no longer working for me.
To navigating full time work and being a new mom & holding myself through the hard months while still showing up for my work and my business.
Motherhood and entrepreneurship were my biggest initiations but it all helped me rise as a leader.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work lives at the interaction of: identity work + leadership + living in purpose/on purpose.
With a background in healthcare/occupational therapy & mental health field – I specialize in nervous system regulation & resilience & I combine that with pursuing your big dreams and purpose.
What often gets missed in leadership/entrepreneurship – is the deep inner work it takes to hold yourself through the fire and staying true to your mission.
I’m not a business coach in the sense of strategy – but I am known for helping founders, entrepreneurs and CEOs in facing their fear/doubt head on, shifting through it using nervous system somatic work & subconscious mindset shifts so that they can do their biggest purposeful work.
I also support female founders moving through a spiritual journey – wanting to go deeper into their soul purpose & mastering her intuition – because again having that next level of conviction will deeply support her leadership in her business.
I’m known in helping women through these inner leadership expansion so she can scale a highly successful business without burning out.
What makes you happy?
I love working with founders and helping people live in their purpose.
Too often people sit in the “some day, one day” and they aren’t pursuing their dreams, or they aren’t finding their own passions & joy in life – too stuck in the “day to day busy” and “work grind”.
I realized you could have all the money, salaried position & benefits – but if a person is disconnected from their true purpose or lacks passion/hobbies – life isn’t that full for them. It often leads to chronic health conditions or mental health difficulties.
So I love working with purpose driven people – because they’ve already said YES to their dreams and then I love helping eliminate the blocks of fear & doubt so they can truly achieve and sustain their big dreams & also stay true to their own passion & joy.
This work IS ONE of my hobbies because it doesnt feel like work!! 🙂
My other hobbies/passion: yoga, meditation, deep conversations with soul friends (I hate surface level convos), being outside/in nature, travel, pilates, reading a good book (Dan Brown or whimsical fantasy), listening to a new podcast
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mariaserbus.com
- Instagram: @iammariacrystene
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maria.serbus/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-serbus-69612022a/
