WORDS: SUZANA MIHAJLOVIC, FOUNDER YOUR2MINDS PTY LTD
WWW.YOUR2MINDS.COM
PHOTOS: JACQUELINE MENCONI
MAKEUP: ANABELLE LAGUARDIA
HAIR: MIRJANA CURUVIJA JANECIC
“SUZANA IS ONE OF MY TOP PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.”
BOB PROCTOR
Suzana is a highly sought out professional in the field of mindset, success and human potential. She has led major public speaking events and has also shared the stage with the world’s greatest leader in human potential, Bob Proctor himself.
Suzana Mihajlovic has had a wide calibre of experience and expertise all of which distinguish her from the ordinary. She has been referred to by her clients as the “missing link between success and failure”.
Suzana has applied the principles that she teaches to her own life and has during this time, expanded her client base to all over the world. Her international success coaching company, Your2Minds has clients from every continent (except Anartica).
Suzana has had twenty five years in leadership – leading teams of up to one hundred and fifty people, which has expanded to a global company.
Suzana holds a number of Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates from various Universities. These include a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) from Deakin University, Post Graduate studies in Health Counselling and Business. She has also completed shorter courses at Ashridge University, United Kingdom and was one of a small number of international students from Hiroshima City University, Japan.
WOULD YOU BE SO KIND TO TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROOTS AND LIFE IN AUSTRALIA?
I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia by Serbian parents. My parents and brother migrated to Australia from a village called Djindjusa, which is close to Leskovac in Southern Serbia. My uncle, or ‘Stric’, was the first in our family to come to Australia. He then brought my father and their parents as well as my mother and brother.
My heart breaks when I think of how much my parents sacrificed in their decision to move to Australia. They gave up on being with their extended family, their roots, the freedom and community that the Serbian ‘selo’ and way of life provided, and mostly they gave up their homeland. As a young child, I felt my parents’ grief and the yearning to be back in their homeland with their extended family.
We grew up speaking Serbian. In fact, when I started school at the age of five, I did not know English. I only spoke Serbian. My parents taught us about their homeland and we always had a deep and strong connection with our grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins and Kumovi back in Serbia.
In Australia, we created our own extended family. We were prominent in the Melbourne-Serbian community. Our Godparents and family friends became our extended family here. We attended Serbian community functions and I danced folklore at the Serbian church. Our connection to Serbia was deep within us. I felt and still feel like I am a Serb. Australia is my heart and my home whilst Serbia will always be my Soul. I cannot separate myself from either our homeland of Serbia and the country I was born in that gave me my life experience and opportunities for education, travel and career success – Australia.
Life was not easy for us growing up, and particularly for my parents. A story that breaks my heart was of my mother, having arrived in Melbourne, being sent to work the day after her arrival. She did not know the language or how to get to work and back home. She was in tears on her walk home. She got lost, not knowing her way back home and not knowing a single word of English to ask for directions from these strange people in a strange land so different to her safe haven of Djindjusa and neighbouring village Pridvorica where she grew up. Fortunately, my grandmother noticed she was late and started to roam the streets to find her home, and luckily she did. My parents sacrificed so much so that we could be educated and so that they could have the freedom and life that Australia offered.
Like many children’s experience, there were occasions of bullying. Although children bully from a place of hurt and vulnerability themselves, these scars do appear in adulthood. I am grateful for this experience as it has taught me a lot and possibly also helped me understand the human experience and trauma more as an adult. True freedom is understanding why you are the way you are and then releasing it to discover and freely express your authentic self. This can be a lifetime process of peeling the layers off to a more beautiful and authentic truth of who you are without fear but love and acceptance.
I was blessed to be given my father. His dream for me to become a doctor, taught me at a young age to dream big. There was only one person in our entire family lineage that had completed higher education – he was a cousin of my father’s who became a very prominent gynecologist in Belgrade. Our ‘Cica Vlado’, or Dr. Vlado still lives in Belgrade with his wife.
This awakened imagination that connected with my true souls’s desires and led me to the freedom and gift of education, travelling and working around the world, having the wonderful career I have had – and also working with the legend Bob Proctor. All of these things were once ‘impossible dreams’ but because my father created a ‘dreamer’ in his daughter, I paved my own path…and fulfilling one dream at a time. I learnt that there is absolutely nothing that is impossible when you dare to dream the so called “impossible” dream. This is true freedom. And in this case, true freedom is the full expression of the soul. It is dreaming bigger and becoming better than your limits – whether they are self imposed limits or limits that have been passed onto the self.
True freedom is breaking free from the shackles of what your old paradigms dictated who you were and opening up to the incredible, marvelous, magical being that you truly are. An expression of your authenticity and following your heart without fear but with courage to step forward and BE WHO YOU AUTHENTICALLY ARE – this is freedom. And what a wonderful way to live your life.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR GRANDMOTHER, WHO HAS THE GREATEST INVISIBLE INFLUENCE ON YOU?
My Baba Nada was definitely the greatest influence in my life. My Baba was a tiny ‘pocket rocket’ yet wise beyond her years. Although her poor upbringing did not grant her an education, she was truly the most gifted person and leader that you could ever meet. She had a way with people. Very few people were born with such a gift in relating to people. She was able to connect and also strongly negotiate with people without even knowing how to speak their language, her ability to connect was way beyond words.
My Baba Nada had suffered a lot in her life but her suffering never made her bitter. She lived from her heart and her heart shone a light upon the people who were fortunate to know her. I remember a Macedonian man who worked in her neighbourhood and would visit Baba Nada anytime he needed to chat and find refuge from the world. He said to me after she died “When your Baba died, the lights went out in Collingwood.” (Collingwood being the suburb in which she lived).
Baba Nada did not know English yet she connected with every human being – both young and old. She spoke a language that was stronger than words. Her language was the language of the heart. She was miraculously able to connect with any person – young, old and particularly those who were suffering. She was able to soothe, to heal and to bring a peace of mind. Her energy was strong and her laughter so joyous and loud. It raised you from your misery.
Baba Nada was authentic, she was generous and she was always so grateful. Even with her basic pension, she always had money to give and when people asked to borrow money or another commodity from her, you could guarantee that they would return it. She lived in abundance even though a person looking externally into her life would say she did not have much. Every time you saw her she would be thanking God for her Blessings, even though she was in a loveless marriage and had problems of her own.
Baba Nada’s ability to live from her heart, from a place of love, understanding, and compassion gave her a sense of connection and a freedom from her worries and difficulties. It gave her the freedom to be who she authentically was and a feeling of expansion and connection to a deeper sense of love. What more is freedom than the ability to connect through love in your authenticity.
WHAT DID YOU DREAM ABOUT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG, CONSIDERING YOU FELT MUCH MORE THAN THE OTHERS?
I was a unique child. Being an empath, I was able to feel other people’s pain so deeply. I was the child that everyone, no matter what age wanted to be around. They all wanted to come to see Suzana – the young and the old. I loved people. All people. All ages.
I had something in me that would draw people to me. Although I do not know for certain what that was, I believe it might have been my ability to understand them on a deep level. I somehow felt and understood them, their emotional blocks or fears or inauthenticity. It was an unspoken deep soul connection. I believe that this is my gift and my purpose. I guess that is why I am passionate about my work. I have an ability to tap into where people are at and I can also sense where they can be to when they let go of their blocks. I find it difficult to describe in words but it is what it is.
WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER THE PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE?
I have always known my purpose. I knew my purpose during my earliest childhood memory. My parents were not religious, we maintained the Serbian traditional religious holidays and Saint days but they never preached praying or religion to us. Nevertheless, I remember times when I would go and pray alone under the icon in the kitchen of Jesus and Archangel Michael (our family patron Saint – or Slava), and praying alone.
It might be something that every child feels, I do not know, but I certainly did have a deep connection to Source.
I knew that one day I would become a teacher and a leader. As I grew, I knew that my purpose would be to be a global teacher helping people to connect to their full potential and to spirit. I have always been fascinated by the enormous potential within us. I have always passionately dedicated to breaking through more of my own potential as well as helping others. I am living this dream now through my company Your2Minds. I am proud to say since its inception back in 2017, we have served many people from every continent, except Antartica.
HOW DO YOU WORK WITH YOUR CLIENTS AND WHO ARE THEY?
My company mission is to change the lives of individuals and to transform business beyond what was thought possible prior to working with Your2Minds.
My clients are generally professionals who are ready to achieve greater goals; successful professionals who are ready to leave their job to start a new business, or business owners (either new or established) that are ready to achieve that big goal and/or dream. This is my main clientele. However, I have also worked with people that wanted to find their soul mate or change their personal lives rather than their professional lives.
I have had clients who have shared that the work I do with them has transformed their whole family. They often report that they see their children’s behaviour and self confidence and results at school change due to the work I do with them. Children are watching and listening all of the time and when a parent works on themselves the entire family benefits. It is wonderful to see.
Success means something different to each of us. I basically help individuals and teams to understand themselves and to breakthrough to greater levels of success. I use a range of different techniques and methods depending on the program. I mostly work in groups via zoom which is great because it does not matter where in the world you reside, you can jump onto a weekly session. I do have some exclusive individual clients. The individual sessions are all different according to the individual goals, blocks, vision and need.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT PLAGUE PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD?
I really love this question. I have travelled the world and I have met so many people in my lifetime. I have also been blessed to work with thousands of people. I think there are many common problems and challenges that people face, the most common including money, love, health and generally the feeling of “not enough”.
However, I believe that these general and common issues stem from the deeper issue of “not BEING enough”. The subconscious is plagued with messages coming back to the thought or belief pattern that “I am not worthy” or “I am not enough.”. I have met and worked with many great people whom I admire yet almost everyone has this message going on underneath all of their issues.
We now know that deep ancestral paradigms as well as childhood conditioning and/or trauma leads to the incessant and often subconscious internal battle. Once they realize who they truly are, the potential within them and how to unlock that potential, you start to see real changes in them. This is why I believe spirituality and personal growth must go hand in hand. Although mindset work is vital and powerful, there is something much deeper than just mindset. When people understand who they are on that deeper level, they understand how marvelous, powerful and unlimited they really are.
COULD YOU SHARE WITH US YOUR MORNING ROUTINE? WHICH TECHNIQUES DO YOU USE TO IMPROVE YOURSELF?
My morning routine is simple yet very effective. I start my morning with a glass of water (and I add celtic sea salt, cayenne pepper and lemon) and then movement – I either walk along the beach and/or do a personal training session with Emma Ferris via zoom.
After my workout, I go to my office and read out my company vision mission and purpose. I write out my big goal three times and read it. I then sit in complete stillness and breathe. My breathing technique is simple. I breathe in on the count of four, hold and then breathe out on the count of eight whilst I feel gratitude and connection to spirit.
I write out and feel my gratitude and then I write out my five goal achieving activities for the day. Most days I pray – my prayers are either a letter, reciting a statement over again (for example, “I let go and let God” or “I am a child of God”) or I recite the Lord’s prayer. I am getting better at becoming consistent in this practice.
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO AN INDIVIDUAL’S FUTURE?
Personal transformation in a person’s life is only as important as their willingness to change and to have something bigger and better. Most people live in quiet desperation thinking that they are unlucky or victims. Although we all have our trials and tribulations, staying a victim is a personal choice.
Therefore, we must continue to KNOW OURSELVES. The deeper we get to know ourselves, although not easy, the better life becomes. The journey of self discovery is truly the most fulfilling reward you could ever give yourself; it is the path to inner freedom.
WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO WAKE UP THE SLEEPING MAN?
I do not believe anybody has the ‘right’ nor the ability to wake another person up. Nobody can change another person, they must change themselves. I think as individuals we have our own life and soul purpose.
Many people live a life of quiet desperation. This really saddens me because the wonder of life starts to open when you take that risk to step out and see yourself, your potential and life as it could be – not from your programming, your fears or what it ‘should’ be. However, we do not have the right to try and change another in anyway nor do we have the power to do that. We can inspire, show, and teach others only when they are ready. 0So the best thing we can do is to live our own lives according to our own dreams and purpose.
We can aim to be that little bit better every day. And in the pursuit of becoming better, we will inspire others to be better and wake up if they are willing or ready. Not everyone will and that is ok. True freedom means making your own choices. True freedom means taking responsibility for our own lives. True freedom means living by your own terms and quietening the voices from other people, society and media. The sad thing is many of us ask others for how we should live and what we should do. However, others can only advise us from their own paradigms and self imposed limits. So always be very careful who you ask advice from; are they the people that are living the way you would like to live?
TOPIC FOR THE OCTOBER EDITION OF RYL MAGAZINE IS „FREEDOM“. WHAT IS FREEDOM TO YOU AND ARE YOU LIVING IT ON YOUR BEST POSSIBLE WAY?
Freedom to me means to be able to live under my own terms – doing what I want to do when I would like to do it. A deeper sense of freedom comes from peeling off the layers of fear and opening up more and more to my true authentic self. If I want to be free I must be who I truly am without the noise and opinions of other people. I do love my life and who I am. However, I think in life there is always room for improvement. The new goal, new stretch and new possibility is what makes life exciting. Self discovery and authenticity is freedom.
