You are listening to an NLP podcast brought to you by Next Level Pro Institute. I am Pollyanna Chavez. Daniela. Pollyanna. Good to see you. Okay, I'm so happy you're here. Um, I know Daniela that you have told me that you've tried nearly every sport on the planet. And now you're training the mind of athletes. So tell me, which one was harder to train and master a new sport or to master your own mind? That's a good question, actually. It's both fun, actually. It's both a lot of fun because I personally I try a lot of new things and I love trying a lot of new things. And on the other hand, I love working with people and I love helping them to perform to their best. And getting in touch with a different sport that way, that's also very exciting. And I would say now I know what I do better. When I work with people, no matter what sport they do, because I know that I'm working with their mind, and their mind tends to be, you know, working in kind of similar but yet different ways. So probably I'm more comfortable now working with people from different sports. But I'm still staying curious, no matter what. I think you are one of the most inquisitive persons that I've met in my short life. And I want to get to the butterfly circle because I see that you have here your little lapel and how you work. And before we do that, though, I would love it if we could get to know you a little better. And so I want other people and audiences to meet you. And I would like you to tell me. Maybe tell me about the first time or the first moment when you realize that the mind is something that decides whether one of the athletes the athletes win or lose. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. So hi, I'm Daniela Snyders. I'm from Germany actually. I'm living close to Munich. And I work as a neuroperformance coach, a neuroperformance and identity coach now. And I haven't been that my whole life, actually, right? So I kind of started my career in a more conventional way, I'd say. So I studied business economics actually. And I worked for 14 years. I worked in the co in a corporate environment. I always felt a little bit different, I would say. I worked as a project manager, right? And uh for my whole life, I I started off as a kid with sports already. I started off with dancing ballet in kind of a I was dancing for the Stuttgart ballet, and uh we trained like three times a week. So that was already like Turning into some kind of elite sport, if you would say that. We trained very hard. And I got a pretty good feeling of what it what it's like to ask a lot from your body and also how to use the body, how to address different muscles and stuff. And I loved that actually, body control, body and mind control. And so that was as a kid. And I continued on later on I continued with yoga. So I always stayed close to. Working with the body, also with the mind. So while I was um doing professionally like project management, I I would always look at how to prevent and how to keep my health, actually, how to stay healthy. So I was interested in movement, in nutrition, and supplementation my whole career. And it turned out that people kept asking me at work what to do and And and slowly but surely I became a feel-good manager at work because I would always organize, you know, mindfulness seminars, I would meditate with people at work, I would do qigong at lunch break, and I would do challenges with the people of like you know, step challenges. They had to collect their steps for a hundred days. And that kept them moving, that kept them like leaving their screen at lunch break, going for a walk. Everybody who was walking with me and going back to the office, and we worked at the fourth floor was always it was forbidden to take the elevator. So so when people worked with me, they were also moving a lot, right? Which we know now, as we are sitting a lot, that moving is always healthy, right? So I was always attached to health, movement, how to use your body and your mind. So when I quit my my corporate job, and that was several years ago now. I was thinking, okay, how how do I want to work and uh how do I want to live actually, right? And and it turned out that there there's another fascination in my life. It's for people. It's for people, it's for faces because I do also face reading. And that um kind of uh followed me my whole life. And I turned into coaching because I noticed that it's a lot of fun for me helping people and I always wanted to tell people what they are good at and how they can get better at what they do and how they can feel better. That was a natural for me. I it was like a natural need for me to help these people and people turned to me also for help. It kind of was a natural next step to get involved into how to because I I was I was drawing actually faces my whole life and I'm always in I was always interested in the details and I studied face reading actually. I became a face reading coach. I also studied the whole body because I always say our whole body is like our business card. So our body tells other people who we are inside. So it sounds a little bit different, but I also studied toe reading. So I can tell by the face, the hands actually, and the toes, what energy you have, what personality you are, what talents you have. This is very helpful now in coaching. Um I also I also turned to energy work. And last but not least, because this is like what this podcast is also about, I discovered on my journey NLP. And I work with NLP and hypnosis. So This is actually a very unique and very nice combination. I love it. Um, to work now with people and especially now that you mentioned it in the beginning, especially now with athletes, elite athletes, working on the mind, working on how the body can perform better and how the mind can be more balanced, and how the mind actually can be your advantage in sport, and how this can be. That you know, that little thingy that makes you the champion. And uh I started doing interviews with Olympic champions, Olympic athletes, and also elite athletes. Not everyone competed in the Olympics, but a lot of them did. And um, this has been very interesting so far because I'm doing these interviews right now to find out how they Do mental training and actually if they do already mental training, and it turned out that a lot of them don't really do that yet. So That's so fascinating because that matches you so much, right? Like being able to be like this reporter asking questions. And and I love that you had your research question at the beginning, right? Like you you wanted to know how they are doing mental training, right? And and I think that I would like to know, you know, what is it that started you uh this um interviewing to What is it that uh you know made you start interviewing? And is that the precursor to the butterfly circle? Is that what it started with? Yes, actually actually it is. Well w the butterfly is actually originating because it's my company logo. And um it started because I was listening actually to what was on the media and and watching from the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games and the last Summer Olympic Games. And there was a lot of athletes saying that they did not receive enough support with mental health. Mental training, they would mention it's still a stigma if people are turning to psychologists or other coaches, mental coaches, to get actually help. And it's especially actually male athletes would state that, but also female. And it got me curious because I thought, you know, guys, this conversation starts too late because. Out of my experience now, working one-on-one with people, working one-on-one with athletes, was and also no, working with you guys on NLP and training that m was you can train your mind like you can train your muscle at the gym. And the sooner you start that, the better, actually. I mean, I would love that if they started uh teaching kids already, right? And uh what I found out was that it's not starting early at all for most of the athletes. They're getting better, but most like most of the athletes I talked to were like, Daniela, we need more support with mental training. And that's why I came up with a method of how to train mental strength as an elite athlete and how to start and how. You can implement it actually in your daily training schedule and uh how to use it not only for sports performance, which of course, this is for an athlete, that's the most important thing, but probably not, because I always said, even at work, it's the whole human being that comes to work. It's the whole human being that does a sport. So it's not only about the performance. In the sport, it's about what happens in your private life, it's about what what um what bothers you, what motivates you, uh what throws you off. So it's all included in how to deal with your emotions, how to deal with your thoughts, and how you can direct your brain in the right direction that you do what you do in this moment to the best ability you're actually you actually can, right? So So those conversations got me very interested. And then I thought, okay, if I want to help those athletes, I need to talk to a lot of those athletes and ask them for their experiences. That's why I started the interviews. And then the idea was born to create a butterfly circle, as I call it. It's like a community, bringing those athletes together in a community. Have them also exchange their experience like experienced athletes versus younger athletes who are striving now to go to LA twenty twenty eight. Because my definite goal is that in the Olympics twenty twenty eight there is athletes wearing that butterfly and promoting really mental health as a skill. Because I think mental health is a skill, what you can train. And not everybody thinks that way, right? Like not everybody thinks that mental coaching has a place here. I remember you mentioning how one coach told you that he likes to keep his athletes away from mental work because if they were to reflect, they might quit. So what do you answer to that when someone like that comes and tells you that? Mm-hmm. Well, it's interesting, yes, what people believe. So I always identify that as certain beliefs, right? What people have and and also what they picture in their mind, what mental training is, right? So I would always say, listen, you can always direct your brain in the right direction, and you can always elicit the good reason for the people and help them have a, as we call it, big shiny image that pulls them forward and that they go towards to, right? And um and have that motivation that they do that sport, being that a good one, a good purpose why they do that. And do it in a healthy way, of course, right? Um I mean elite sport is always hard on the body, but there is ways on how to keep it in a way where you keep everything in level kind of. Sometimes not, maybe, but most of the time, right? So the purpose is directing your brain in a good direction and treating your body that way that it stays strong. So I would say we work on that belief then. It's true. And beliefs are so important because beliefs are the ones that fuel the behaviors and the actions that we take, right? And so I one thing that you were mentioning, you know, you've been acquiring all this information, interviewing all these, all these uh athletes, and then you've had the chance to work with some of them, you know, and maybe you can give us a little bit of a a little peek inside one of these sessions. that you're having with athletes. Um, you know, without giving specifics of course, but you know, can you walk us through how do you approach a session with athletes? Yeah. Yeah. Well yeah, that there have been like interesting uh stories, also interesting sessions with athletes, because we always work when people don't really know what how you work with NLP, for example, and and I mix it of course with other tools, but there you always work with pictures, sounds and feelings, right? So it's very important that people come up with their own pictures and you ask them what kind of sounds they hear and you You don't give them the the idea, they just tell you how they do it, right? So sometimes they come up with really interesting pictures in their head, right? What helps them and what pulls them forward. I mean, I probably I can start with my own picture in my head, since you already also asked me before, and I didn't answer that, what my experience was, how you control your mind, right? So there was one time I was in Sweden, I was kayaking with a friend, and we're both Girls and there was a strong wind. Like whoever has been in a kayak in Sweden on a lake, it's like being on a sea. So it was so strong, it it blew us away from shore, and we really had to peddle very hard to get back to shore. So she even needed some other guys to help her and tow her back, and there was no room left for my kayak. So I really had to had to generate some power. To be able to paddle, I was not trained at all, right? To paddle back to shore. And what came to my mind was I imagined a million of dragonflies that were connected with strings to my kayak and they pulled me forward. That was the picture I held up in my head, and that helped me immensely. It was unbelievable. It was like a trance. em And I saw all those beautiful colors and all those. There was a sound, as you hear, there was a sound connected to it, right? And so this distracted me actually from the from the burning muscles and it pulled me forward. And I made it all by myself back to shore. So this was interesting since one of my athletes, she was in a sport where you have to be very fast, right? So actually, this athlete imagined to be pulled by a bee. I could have never come up with I would never get the idea. I mean, I would probably I mean now I since I imagined the dragonflies, at least I imagined a million or whatever, or a thousand. She just imagined one bee and she's being pulled by that. But that gave her strength. For some reason she likes bees. And this is surprising me with actually every session that I have, because what people come up with, what they what pictures they carry in their mind. And what helps them and what their connection is is so unique. And actually, people don't even have to tell me what they're thinking of. But in this case, she told me, right? And I was amazed that it was something like that. And I guess this is what what a lot of people underestimate what effect it has, what you what picture you carry in your mind before a competition or during a competition. Like another athlete, imagine the competitors being taller than the person itself, right? So when the person looked around in in their imagination, the other athletes um appeared taller and we just made them the same height. And all of a sudden the own perception of the own body and the like their own capabilities became like, I'm stronger now. I feel strong. I be I feel more more um confident now. So this is amazing uh when you work that way, how you can change those inner feelings, those inner pictures and uh also the beliefs. And you can change it. I what I love about my job is it's all connected also to joy and fun. Because and those sessions turn out always to be joyful and fun, because we're always driving to Towards a big shiny image. And we're also having fun in the session because when we laugh, we talk about good break juice, right? And change happens so much faster. So who doesn't like a job where you laugh a lot? I l I Yeah, and and it's so funny because I know your company carries the word serious. a name. It does. uh It has a specific meaning for you, so I would like it to explain it. Uh it does start with serious, but it ends with dreams. So it's called serious dreams because I think you need to take your dreams really seriously and follow your dreams. So that's why the word serious is in my company name. And other than that, I'm totally up for enjoy what you do and have fun. And of everything you've been sharing, uh, one thing that I really love hearing is how you did not impose your ideas or your images, that your drug your dragonfly. You just are listening to what your client is telling you or you elicit it, you make them search for something that has a meaning for them, right? At the same way that your name has a the serious you know, name, you know, serious dreams has a meaning for you. Everything that they do, right? They are imagining that has a powerful meaning for them and and I love it when you work with them to guide them to something better. And I you know, I think this is one of the greatest game changers having the people develop on like guiding the people, developing their own beliefs and ideas and pictures because they are the most powerful ones. I mean, it can be powerful if a coach or someone is giving you some inspiration, but the most Powerful pictures are the one you come up with yourself. And it it is a craft. It is something you practice to take yourself back and just ask questions. I had to learn that. Yeah. And so now tell me, I want you to tell us more of I know you've started telling us about the butterfly circle, right? And and but I really want you to tell us more of your actual goal with the butterfly circle. You you said that you want to go there, but tell us how is it going, the butterfly circle? I know it's a community. How big is it? Uh I love that you're building a community around this about mental health, right? And and just tell me more about it. Like I want to hear more. Yeah. All right. So it's it's in the process of developing. It's quite new. It just started. And uh what it's like right now, it's a community of athletes, right? But I also talked to coaches. So coaches are a part of that as well. And since I I told you right now that I developed a a mental strength training method. So the goal is actually to have coaches coming in. have athletes being a part of, maybe at some point also having uh companies being a part of it. And um also uh providing maybe coaches the the possibility to get trained in that method and to be able to train that themselves with the athletes. Because I know coaches are more like in in their first job kind of goal. They're focused on the physical approach and also on how and on the techniques. And of course, they do have experience also with, you know, some psychological aspects of the sport, of course. Yet we know there is some special tricks and there is some special things that that we know how we can support people and how we can promote actually performance. That is very interesting to a lot of coaches. So I would love to provide them the possibility to learn that as well and bringing that forward to their athletes they're working with. So it's supposed to grow. The community is supposed to grow. I talked to, I did 30 interviews with athletes so far. Most of them were Olympians, actually. I'm looking actually now for athletes that are. aiming for LA 2028. So the ones who are still active. I'm also looking for coaches who are interested in learning those techniques. And I just would love to have, you know, an open community, an open exchange also what they, you know, wish to learn, what they actually need in their daily practice and and developing that further together with those people who actually need it. So it's like an active community I would say, and it's still developing. That's beautiful because that's what it is, you know. I love the butterfly imagery of having a cocoon, it's developing, it's gonna be blossoming out of that cocoon. And so if someone wants to follow you or they want to work with you, where should they go? How can they find you? So at the moment I'm most active on LinkedIn actually. Of course I do have a web page. This is not really on the sports um angle yet. So on LinkedIn there is actually also portraits already about some of the athletes that I talk to. So this is very interesting. And if you want to connect or write me a message, you can totally go on LinkedIn and connect with me. I do have an Instagram account as well, which is m not really on the athletes yet. So the most recent and the most up to date one at the moment is LinkedIn actually. And we'll put that on the comments and we'll make it available. Thank you so much. But I want to ask you one last thing, you know. So maybe there is an athlete that's listening right now, who feels that maybe they are not enough without the medal. So what is the one thing that you would tell them? Oh. You know, there is there is a fun story actually about it has nothing to do with sports. It actually it's about Picasso. So there was a lady sitting at a cafe and Picasso was sitting next to her and he was drawing on a napkin, a little picture, and she was like, that's so beautiful. Can I buy it? And she and he was like, su sure you can. And she was like, How much is it? And he said, A million dollars. dollars or a million francs or whatever. And she said, Why so much? You it only took you five minutes to draw that picture. And he said, But it took a lifetime to learn how to draw. And I would say that actually to those athletes, it's only a teeny tiny percentage of people who win actually a medal at the end. And of course it's a goal you work towards too and of course it's prestige and it's what you aim for. Yet if you become, if you come in fourth or on the like fifth, sixth, whatever, all of these athletes worked their whole life to become an elite athlete. And I would say your self-worth is not bound to a medal. It is maybe the icing and the cherry on the icing on the cake when you get that medal. But still, if you get your self-worth out of showing up every day, working hard for your spot, having fun and enjoy your daily practice, because it's always the way to the goal, which is the most important thing, because that's the most time we spent with, right? And then if you if you get that success, that's amazing, right? And you can celebrate. If you come in forth, you worked as hard as the other ones and you can still be proud of yourself. So take your self worth out of your daily practice and how how you show up every day, actually. That's what I learned from the athletes. Thank you, Daniela. This was wonderful. You are the sum of all your experiences of every sport that you've practiced, every activity that you engage, every session, every athlete that you have listened to. And, you know, I want to thank you for being here. It has been an honor to have you in the show. Thank you. Thank you, Poliana, for having me. It was really a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for listening to an NLP podcast, brought to you by NextLevel Pro Institute. See you on the next one.