How to Make Responsibility Sexy (And Let It Double Your Life)

On Personal Power, Chaos, Archetypes and other Venus in Capricorn things with Desirée Pais

So two Venus in Capricorn walk into a bar and sit down to talk about well basically everything to the point that we forgot we were recording a podcast. Desiree Pais is the founder of Benshen: a community, course, and movement that started with six women on a yoga mat in a Williamsburg living room while she kicked her ex-boyfriend out every Saturday morning. This vision grew to 30 women, then 40, then the pandemic hit and 500 people signed up overnight, and she's here to spill the whole tea on Benshen's origin story and how thoughts TRULY turn into things. She's truly one of the most grounded-yet-wildly-alive women I've had the pleasure of talking to and this convo really deserves you to make a bevy grab a cig and sit down for it. In this episode we go into: 🍑 How Benshen started with 6 women in Desi’s apartment/How expansion started with 5 women on zoom (yep the parallel lives are eerie in this episode) 🍑 The Mykonos files, the Berlin files (you'll understand when you hear it) 🍑 Why chaos is feminine and containers are masculine, and why you need both (Hi Birjiwan♡) 🍑 The urgency addiction: getting addicted to rock bottom as your fuel source (and how to stop that!) 🍑 How to call your power back, but also how to HOLD it when it comes 🍑 Descartes, philosophy, the mind-body split, and how it explains basically everything wrong with the world 🍑 Priestess archetypes hidden in plain sight: Persephone, the divine feminine, and reclaiming power 🍑 Feminine rage as a force for building, not destroying 🍑 Astrology, Venus in Capricorn, and why two psychopaths built their businesses exactly like this The line from this episode that lives in my head: "The fastest way to become powerful is to keep your word. The fastest way to lose power is to not do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it." About Desiree: * Instagram: @desireepais * Benshen: bensh [http://benshin.co]en.co [http://en.co]  * Benshen membership [https://themembership.substack.com/]  Referenced in this episode: * Becoming Supernatural — Joe Dispenza * Women Who Run with the Wolves — Clarissa Pinkola Estés * When God Was a Woman — Merlin Stone * Mary Magdalene Revealed — Meggan Watterson * The Magdalen Manuscript * Dr. Carla Ionescu — history podcast * Birjiwan — our mutual connection ❤️ Also since we are here, you already know: Expansion Vol. 7 (my 4-month deep business and growth mastermind, starting in September) is launching next week. Applications open June 2nd, 5pm Europe / 11am New York Make sure to join the waitlist right here [http://www.expansion.squarespace.com] if you're coming. All rounds have sold out in a few hours.

When Your Work Hits Deep But Your Messaging Doesn't

Okay hold my cigarette: you do deep, transformational work. Your know your shit. You know your body of work motherfucking changes and transforms people. But every time you sit down to write your landing page — or someone asks "so what do you do?" — you freeze. Because what you actually help people with isn't a three-month result. It's a seed. An identity. A becoming that takes time to fully bloom. And your marketing brain keeps asking: how do I sell that? This week inside Expansion, a marketing strategist came to the hot seat with exactly this question. And what cracked open is what this whole episode is about. In this episode we go into: 🍑 Why you're not selling results, you're selling a seed (and how to actually say that) 🍑 The one step ahead reframe, why thinking that you need to be an "expert" is holding you back from meeting your most aligned clients  🍑 How your biggest mess-ups make you more qualified, not less (my $25k fee LLC tea) 🍑 The identity shift: selling the becoming, not the deliverables 🍑 The testimonial prompt that writes your copy for you 🍑 Your unique sauce: why the HOW is what makes you irreplaceable 🍑 Why your most human moments are your best marketing assets, always Journal prompt from this episode: Who do your clients become after working with you? Not what results they get. Not how much money they make. Who are they becoming? If you don't know yet: go ask them. Their words are your marketing copy. Referenced in this episode: * Ep. 02 — Embodied Marketing: Becoming the Invitation [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tEW6KJg8ekdMQb5p6BOwc?si=f38e011421fa46c5] * Capacity Over Currency [https://maiabenaim.substack.com/p/capacity-over-currency-my-two-six] — the essay * Expansion Vol. 7 [https://expansion.squarespace.com/]— applications open June 2nd, 5pm Europe / 11am New York  Want to ask a question for a future In the Room episode? DM me intheroom on IG for the chatbox! Love ya!!

Deep Work, Deep Rest: My Energy Management System (ibiza vlog)

A fun one. Your time scarcity is keeping you out of the life you desire. Stop saying "when I have time" You have time. In this episode, you’ll see me work 3h weeks during my busiest season all year, and manage my ENERGY instead. If I gave you infinite time right now, you still wouldn't do the million things you say you'd do with it. Because the problem was never time. It was always energy. In this episode I recorded on the go (airport, Ibiza, in between) I walk you through the reframe that completely changed how I run my business while traveling, and the simple framework I use to stay in the game without draining myself. In this episode we go into: 🍑 Why time management is the wrong game entirely 🍑 An honest (and chaotic) BTS of a 3h week during my busiest season 🍑 Energy as your real currency: where it leaks and how to get it back 🍑 The generate/respond framework: the simplest way to stay productive on the go (FIRST TIME OUTSIDE OF EXPANSION!!) 🍑 How to work from your phone without guilt (destigmatizing it, for real) 🍑 Deep work deep rest, how to truly enjoy a vacation Journal prompt from this episode: Where is your energy leaking right now? Not your time. Your energy. Name three things: tasks, relationships, habits, open loops, whatever it is that is draining you every day. Then ask: what's one thing I can stop, delegate, or automate this week to get that energy back? Referenced in this episode: * Episode 01 — How to Make Responsibility Sexy (and Double Your Life With It) [https://open.spotify.com/episode/14Gjav5OZl4vLFFHQ9oZcf?si=374b3c9129ca4038] * My VISION workshop (Free) [https://maiabenaim.myflodesk.com/visionworkshop] * Expansion Mastermind (I’m opening the doors soooooooon just sayen) [https://expansion.squarespace.com/] Want to ask a question for a future In the Room episode? DM me intheroom all together for the questionbox ♡ DO WE LIKE THIS FORMAT??? let me know in the comments!

Embodied Marketing: Becoming the Invitation

What if your marketing had nothing to do with what you post or sell — and everything to do with who you are? Most people think their marketing problem is a content problem (ie wrong niche, wrong hooks, wrong posting schedule). I hear this all the time. But embodied marketing is built on a different premise: people don't buy your offer, they buy you.  More specifically, they buy the transformation you've already lived.  When your nervous system, your lifestyle, your story, and your message are all saying the same thing, that's when marketing stops feeling like work and starts feeling like showing up as YOU. easy peasy. Becoming the Invitation is what happens when embodiment meets visibility. It's the moment your content stops being a strategy and starts being evidence: proof that the life you're selling is actually possible, because you're already living it. This is the only marketing philosophy taught inside Expansion, and this episode breaks down exactly what it looks and feels like in practice. For coaches, service providers, creators, and anyone who has ever wondered why their marketing feels flat even when the strategy is right, this episode is for ya. In this episode we go into: 🍑 Why most people aren't failing at marketing — they're failing at being 🍑 What embodiment actually means (it's not a vibe, an aesthetic, or a matcha latte) 🍑 The difference between content and evidence — and why your Instagram should be documentation, not performance 🍑 Why you can sell shit on a cracker if you're embodied 🍑 What Becoming the Invitation actually looks like in practice 🍑 Why good marketing repels — and why that's the whole point 🍑 The “daddy essay” concept and why long-form is your best marketing asset 🍑 The hidden block keeping you from showing up — and why waiting until you're “ready” is the problem Journal prompt from this episode: Where in your life and work are you already living the transformation you teach — but not showing it? Warmup prompts to get you there (grab your journal, set a timer for 10 minutes, write without stopping): 1. What are the things I could talk about forever? 2. What are the questions I get asked about the most? 3. My transformation in a nutshell — hi, I'm [name], I went from ___ to ___ 4. What gets me fired up? 5. What has created resonance in the past — the things I talked about that I thought were “off brand” and people went crazy about? 6. When I write, what do I write about the most? 7. What do I read and research the most? Be brutally honest with yourself. Peel back the layers until you get to the root of why your work matters — and why it needs visibility instead of you needing the visibility. Referenced in this episode: * Episode 01 [https://open.spotify.com/episode/14Gjav5OZl4vLFFHQ9oZcf?si=52a4852a328f49c6]— How to Make Responsibility Sexy (and Double Your Life With It)  * Capacity Over Currency [https://maiabenaim.substack.com/p/capacity-over-currency-my-two-six]— the Substack essay  * Expansion Mastermind  [https://expansion.squarespace.com/] * Sovereign [https://www.instagram.com/inestielas/] by Ines  Want to ask a question for a future In the Room episode? DM me intheroom on IG (: (@maiaben)

How to Make Responsibility Sexy (And Let It Double Your Life)

NEW SERIES HELLO WE ARE SO BACK?! What comes to body when you hear the word responsibility? For most of us, it's not good. It's heavy. It's more money, more responsibility said like a warning. It's the nervous system bracing for something it doesn't think it can hold. In this first episode of In the Room (a new series where I bring the juiciest conversations from my coaching practice into this room) we crack open one of the most quietly life-changing reframes I've ever sat with: what if responsibility wasn't a burden, but a doorway? a doorway to MORE! We go into: 🍑 Why "fear of commitment" is usually fear of responsibility in disguise 🍑 The etymology that changed everything — response + ability (ty Ximena) 🍑 Why freedom without responsibility is just escapism (and the Swami in the Himalayas who told me so) 🍑 Hidden agendas — the emotional need you've secretly attached to your money goal, and why it will sabotage you every time 🍑 Why you can't grow what you can't track — and you can't deepen what you can't respond to 🍑 A journaling prompt to find exactly where you've been avoiding your own life Journal prompt from this episode: What would my life look like if I accepted responsibility for the areas I've been avoiding? 🍑 Divide your life into areas — finances, love, body, business, relationships, creativity — and rate yourself 0–10 on how willing you are to respond to each one right now. Referenced in this episode: * Ximena's course I'm taking — Rooted Impact [https://www.arootedimpact.com/] (say hi for meee) * Episode: Why More Wealth Isn't a Full Body Yes  [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bXm2bIRajbeJj30Zo21C7?si=57fce3f576a54ce1] * Free Vision Workshop [https://maiabenaim.myflodesk.com/visionworkshop]  Want to ask a question for a future In the Room episode? DM me (@maiaben) the word intheroom (altogether) and I'll send you the question box!  And as always: * If you want to be in the room, but like IN THE ROOM FOR REAL, I'll leave you the Expansion Mastermind waitlist right here [https://expansion.squarespace.com/] (every cohort has sold out in a couple of hours, so def be on the waitlist if you're thinking of joining)