Formerly known as Eirian Cohen, Luana Ribeira says she has no regrets. Here she talks about the difficult time in her life when her husband of eight years announced he was transgender. As shocked as she was, she was supportive and they kept the family together, but eventually the marriage split. And then several months later, her ex-husband said he wanted to revert back to presenting as a man. Luana talks about her confusion, the challenges they faced with the media, the trolling, and how she managed to pull through it. And despite the emotional roller coaster, Luana successfully published her book, Passions to Freedom, grew her businesses as a transformative coach, acting academy founder and director, and now she helps entrepreneurs to write books and become bestselling authors.
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If you prefer to read, here’s a transcript of the interview!
Kathy: 00:09 Welcome to The Inspire Cafe podcast, where we bring you conversations and inspirational stories of people overcoming adversity and then how they came out of it transformed with the positive outlook or outcome. People are incredibly resilient and we need to hear more of their stories. This is Kathy De La Torre.
Kathy: 00:39 Welcome to the Inspire Cafe Podcast. Formerly known as Eirian Cohen, Luana Ribeira says she has no regrets here. She talks about the difficult time in her life when her husband of eight years announced he was transgender. As shocked as she was. She was supportive and they kept the family together. Although they remain close friends, the marriage eventually split. Luana talks about her confusion, the challenges they faced with the media, the trolling, and how she managed to pull through it. And despite the emotional rollercoaster, Luana successfully published her book, Passion to Freedom, grew her businesses as a transformative coach, acting academy founder and director, and now she helps entrepreneurs write books and become bestselling authors.
Kathy: 01:17 You can check out our website at theinspirecafe.com for links to Luana’s book, her website, and also for a transcript of this interview. And on our website’s resources and motivational tools pages, you can check out books our guests have authored and a list of inspirational books we recommend. And if you’d like to support our podcast, please subscribe, rate and review. And now you can also find us on Spotify and iHeartRadio. Okay, let’s get back to Luana’s story.
Kathy: 01:52 Luana, I did get an opportunity to read your latest book, Passion to Freedom, and you have an incredible amount of tips and exercises to help people not only find their passion but also steps to help them create it. And you included some very personal experiences of your own. Would you mind sharing that specifically an event that began December 2016?
Luana: 02:19 Uh, December the 13th, 2016 yep that is a night I’ll never forget. Um, so I was married very happily married, got two kids. They were 6 and 8 at the time. And I came home one night and basically my husband looked at me and told me that he’s trans and at this time I don’t know what to think. I’m confused. I just, I just looked at him and I just say, well, what does that mean? Which seems like a bizarre thing to say because of course I knew what it meant, but I guess I just wanted to hear it. Sure. I just wasn’t sure what to expect. And so he explained to me that he felt like he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and the whole thing just blew my mind. I didn’t know… On one hand, I was terrified. Mainly mainly of you know, other people. What are the people we’re going to say, what this meant for our family, for our relationship. I was just so confused with everything. And then on the other hand, I was oh so proud because freedom is my thing. To see somebody’s own who they are and to admit to themselves, their authentic selves. I was just so, so proud that he’d stopped blocking this part. But I will say that since then a lot has changed since I actually wrote the book. A lot has changed since then.
Kathy: 04:13 Right. I was wondering, I was curious, you had mentioned that you felt like he was keeping something inside because you were married for quite a while. Did you suspect that this was it, that you were thinking that he was keeping inside?
Luana: 04:30 I knew that there was something. I always knew that there was something I felt, but I didn’t know what it was. So again, it was a bit, okay, this is it. It was a realization and yeah, so it was, it was kind of like an understanding of maybe looking back and thinking, okay, you know, there was some. Oh, the long it may be that I hadn’t wanted to pick up on.
Kathy: 05:06 I see. And I understand you, you both have two daughters together. Yes. Was that also running through your mind and like how are your kids going to react to this change?
Luana: 05:18 Do you know what? This is a thing that so many people were worried about and I can 100 percent honestly say that say they just sailed through everything as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I guess it’s because we didn’t make a big deal out of it to them, you know, Daddy likes to wear this now you know, hey, Daddy likes to be called this now. We never really. It was never. We never sat them down and said, listen, we’ve got something to talk about. It was just very much, hey, this is happening. So they just accepted it and at that age kids don’t know. They don’t know that it’s out of the ordinary. They haven’t developed. I guess they haven’t been conditioned by society as to what is out of the ordinary or not. So they just kind of accepted it and by now their dad is now presenting as male again.
Kathy: 06:26 Right. I remember reading about that.
Luana: 06:28 Well, this might sound bizarre again because when all of this happened, it was all over. The media was everywhere and we didn’t have time to breathe to think I was, I just launched my coaching business and that was really taking off and you know, we didn’t have time. My, my acting academy is flying. We have first thing was just such a blur. Um, then all very suddenly he told me that he, um, with both moved on by this part, by the way, we had decided to break up but to stay together as a family and I had got together with my new partner and he said to me that he felt that he’d come to the end of this road now and that he was going to present as male again and it confused me so much and I said that I’ve been confused many times, but it really was such a confusing time.
Luana: 07:33 And again I was just in a state of shock, maybe even smaller so that when it happened for the first time and that’s the strange thing because I really didn’t understand what was happening and that was actually when I decided I needed some space. I got on the next plane to Portugal and I signed for a house and yeah, I just, I can’t just thinking about it now. There was all of these things going through my mind, which was why now, why have you changed your mind now that we’ve broken up? Now that your with somebody else, now we’ve changed them. It just. It kind of blew my mind a bit.
Kathy: 08:24 I remember reading that initially when he came out that he wanted to be a woman, that you spent some time thinking it was you that for some reason that it was you creating this problem, but then you realized it had nothing to do with you. It was just him and what he was going through. Now that he wants to revert back to presenting as a man. Did you get angry?
Luana: 08:51 Yeah. I’ve had times where I got angry because I felt…. I don’t mean this in any bad way. I don’t have any negative feelings towards him now. We are the very best of friends, but yeah, I had a lot of emotions at the time. I felt angry because at the time I kind of felt that our marriage had broken up because of all this and that it was almost like it was, okay, how can I put this into words? To me at the time, and I know this isn’t true now, but at the time I was thinking, well you chose this over your marriage, but that now that there’s somebody else in your life, you, you know, you’ve changed your mind and I know that isn’t true now because I’ve spoken to him a lot and I get it now. I get that it was just a side of him that I needed to explore and that he needed.
Luana: 09:57 He needed a big shift in his life and he wasn’t sure what it was, but I will say that through going through the whole process, he is now so much more confident, so much happier. And it’s almost as though some, some thing has really been lifted and I don’t fully understand it. You know, I don’t fully understand that I can only look, but I, you know, person who’s happier and more confident than I’ve ever known him.
Kathy: 10:32 I was really curious about this part. You know, it’s such a personal story for both of you. How did you both come to the decision to make the story public and talk to the media about what was going on in your guys’ lives?
Luana: 10:48 Oh, it was crazy. It really, really was crazy. I was talking to a journalist at the time about a different story because I used to be an actress and it was about one of my films.
Luana: 11:01 I don’t know. I don’t, I’m not even sure how it happened. I just ended up talking about this and the reason why we decided to go for it was because because when I was looking online, I was desperately searching online for other people who were in my situation and all I could see was bitterness and hatred and negativity and a lot of anger and the time, I wasn’t feeling any of that. I just, I was feeling shocked and confused and I was determined that we would stay together as a family and that whatever happened to our relationship that we’d still be the best of friends. And I did, but I didn’t have any bad feeling, you know, I didn’t have any negative feelings. Um, so I was desperately searching online looking for somebody else who had my outlook on it and I just couldn’t find anything.
Luana: 12:06 So we were talking about it and I said, well, you know, if, if I can’t find anybody then surely there are other people who do have a similar outlook to us who are thinking about their whole life is destroyed, you know, because we were very much like, okay, this is happening, let’s make the best of it, you know, when we just kind of got on with it. Um, I just couldn’t find anything. So we were thinking about other people who must be in a similar situation. So that’s why we decided to go for it. And that when we went on live national television, there was only a handful of people before that who, who knew. So I can honestly say it was one of the most terrifying experiences of both of our lives, I think.
Kathy: 13:01 I bet. And how did people respond to that initial public reveal of what was going on?
Luana: 13:11 We had a lot of support. We had, we did have some hates as well, but it was the minority and we had a lot, lot, lot of people reaching out and saying, thank you for sharing your story. Had people saying that they were suicidal and that our story had given them hope and things like that, you know, regardless of everything else that’s gone on, I am still happy with the decision that we did it because of that. If there’s one person came and said, you know, I was feeling suicidal and your story gave me hope then it was worth doing and you know, there was more, there was a lot of people who said similar things.
Kathy: 13:56 So initially a lot of support.
Luana: 13:59 Initially. Yes.
Kathy: 14:01 And then after months had passed and your husband wanted to go back to presenting as a man, it looked like the media went crazy again. But this time not in best way. Can you share what happened?
Luana: 14:18 Yeah. So when, uh, when you went back to presenting as male, we decided that we wanted some time to figure out what was going on and we’d just lay low for awhile. But in doing that, people then decided to make up their own stories about what was going on and this resulted in a big hate campaign. Basically what people were claiming was that we’ve made the whole thing up, which is absolutely bizarre. You know, our marriage broke up. I’m thinking about it, but you know, I’m already broke up and people were thinking that we just made this whole thing up and there was this big hate campaign and it was, it was difficult. It was a difficult time. But like everything else, whenever something happens, I always think, okay, how can I make the best of this situation and I use that as motivation and that’s why we went back to the media.
Luana: 15:29 Then we agreed to speak to them again. Or are you agreed to speak to them again? Because I wanted to explain what had really happened since then to bring a close to the story really so that people weren’t still making up their own minds about what’s happened since we’d gone quiet. But it really, you know, we went quiet because it was a traumatic time. Sure. When we needed our space to figure out our own heads and obviously he was having this identity crisis, but I was also having my own identity crisis and as anybody who’s been through a marriage breakup knows it’s hard and when it’s public, everything is out in the open, you know, when you seeing yourself, on national papers and on and everybody’s making judgments about what’s happened, when all you want to do, when all you feel like doing is hiding. Then it makes, uh, it makes it 10 times harder because then you’ve got to go, okay, well, people obviously need answers. So that’s why I went back to the media the second time. And um, I have no regrets. The story reached people who needed to be reached. It gave people the strength to live authentically and to be free. I’m, that’s what I’m all about. And even though it was hard, I don’t regret it.
Kathy: 17:12 Well, not only did your ex husband help, I would imagine help other people based on his initial experience, but also the courage to experience the second round of going back.
Luana: 17:28 He is incredibly, incredibly brave. And you know, it wasn’t an easy thing to do at all. It really was in and especially the second time round. Sure. It wasn’t easy. But the story needed to come to a close, you know, people needed to know what was going on so that they’d stop making up their own alternative story and also to let people know that if they’ve made the decision and then they’ve changed their minds, that that’s okay. That’s still part of their journey. You know that just because they’ve committed to something, does it mean they absolutely have to do it if they change their mind. That’s part of figuring out your journey and figuring out what your purpose is in this world to do and you’re under no obligation to go through with things just because of the people expect it of you.
Kathy: 18:40 I imagine that this time have been incredibly challenging and rough for you and your family. How did you personally persevere through it? All the media and the trolling. Was there anything that helped you personally?
Luana: 18:56 Yes. Everything that happened, I kept thinking, okay, how can I make the best of this situation? How can I use this to my advantage? How can I use this to help other people? How can I use this to, you know, to, for a positive reason. And I just kept pushing barriers. I kept challenging myself to show up even when I’ve really, really didn’t feel like. I kept journaling and meditating and doing what I needed, you know, looking after myself, knowing that I needed strength before I could help anybody else.
Kathy: 19:43 Luana, where do you get that strength from? Because I imagine a lot of people would just want to crawl under the covers and not want to come out. Where did you get your strength from to keep going?
Luana: 20:00 Where did I get my strength from? Wow, that’s a really hard question because to be completely honest with you, I don’t feel like I’m strong a lot of the time. Clearly, you know, clearly I do keep going. I do keep bouncing back. Where do I get that resilience. Probably from my, my family, probably my parents and my grandparents. You know, I’ve a line of entrepreneurs who have, um, yeah, I guess it’s always been in me that fighting spirit and that persistence. It doesn’t matter what happens, I come back fighting and I come back stronger every time, but some time, you know, there are times where I, I sit in my giraffe onesie all day drinking tea. So when people say, Oh, you’re so strong. Sometimes I think, well, he didn’t see me last Wednesday.
Kathy: 21:00 Do you seriously have a giraffe onesie?
Luana: 21:02 Oh, I have a giraffe onesie. I’ve even been known to turn up to my trainings in my onesie.
Kathy: 21:12 That’s great. Well, in your book, Passion to Freedom, you talk a lot about your support system and choosing your tribe. Why is it important that we choose our tribe?
Luana: 21:23 It is absolutely important that we choose carefully who our tribe is. If we’re around people with negative attitudes who don’t have ambitions, who put other people down. You know who makes snide comments and to create drama. That’s the person that we’re going to become, but if we hang around people who are inspiring and they were making things happen and who believe in us and we’ll lift up, our whole story is going to change. Even the strongest minded people will still absorb so much. From what they see, hear and experience around them. And I protect my space like you wouldn’t believe I only have the people who support me in my space. Um, you know, I just, I, I don’t, I don’t allow negativity into my space. I don’t tolerate it.
Kathy: 22:30 Well that makes a lot of sense. You also talk about in your book, um, something that I was very intrigued about that our fears keep us safe and we are the masters of self protection. Can you explain a little bit about that? What do you mean by we’re our masters of self protection.
Luana: 22:53 Okay. So our brains will do absolutely anything to protect us from the unknown and um, you know, a lot of people will let fear control them, but in fact, fear is, fear is our friend. It’s there to help us, um, to protect us. But we need to make sure that we are the ones that are controlling the fear, not the other way around. So if we utilize fear in the right way, we can turn it into excitement. We can turn that into motivation. But if we let fear get the better of us and we let fear take control, then that results in inaction normally. But fear is absolutely our friend because it’s protecting as so everything we’ve ever seen, heard or experienced is locked in our subconscious mind. It’s all there. It’s all stored. And what the fear is doing is it’s wanting to keep us safe.
Luana: 24:05 It’s, it’s almost like an over protective parents, you know? It’s saying, oh no, don’t try that. Don’t try that. Stay here. Don’t face the unknown because this might happen. This might happen. What if this happens? But it’s there because it wants to keep us safe and our subconscious doesn’t know the difference between a life being in danger and the fear of being laughed at. It’s all the same. It’s the same physical responses that we have. So as soon as we become aware of that and we become aware of that little voice that I like to call the leveling up monkey, the little voice that says, you’re not good enough, what you’re doing that for, everyone’s gonna Laugh at you. We all know that little voice, right? Absolutely. As soon as we know what it is and why it’s there, then we can take our control back can we can say, dude, I’ve got this.
Kathy: 25:08 Well, you know that that was a great analogy. That fear is like an over protective or hovering parent. Don’t do that because you’re going to get hurt.
Luana: 25:18 It’s not because. Not because it wants us to stay stuck. It’s because it’s from a place of love. You know, and it’s just another part of it is, but I like to visualize this cartoon monkey, so whenever my little voice comes up, I just visualize everyone’s going to think I’m mad now. I just visualize this cartoon monkey with a silly voice and as bizarre as it sounds, but it takes away the intensity and then I take action anyway, and that is what it all comes down to. When you can take action, regardless of what that leveling up monkey is telling you, that is when amazing things start to happen.
Kathy: 26:00 That’s a really good idea. Imagine your level up monkey is a cartoon character or something that’s disarming. Did you happen to name your monkey?
Luana: 26:12 I think we should give him a name right now. It’s a good idea. I think we’ll call him Wesley, Wesley, the monkey. I think that’s it.
Kathy: 26:21 Okay, good. Wesley, you’re going to get kicked out of town really quick.
Luana: 26:27 Yeah. Just give him a banana and sending them off.
Kathy: 26:30 Well, you had in your book, you had a lot of good examples of people who were being blocked by their associations, their associated fears that had nothing to do with the present. Can you share one example? Maybe someone being blocked preventing them to fulfill their dreams because of they had some fear, associated fear from way back when.
Luana: 26:59 Yeah. Sure. So you know, the most common one comes down to teachers or parents on it can be just one the comments on the. Often it’s around money. So you know, something that’s just come to mind now is somebody who was walking down the street at a very young age and saw her dad looking at somebody you know, who had a who had a sports car and who was saying that he must be greedy and I’m saying all of this negative of these negative things and that really, really put a block on her because she, I mean she was running her own business, are still is in fact, and is doing very well now, I’m happy to say. She had this really big block and she didn’t know where it was coming from and she was stuck in this cycle and she just didn’t know how to break free of this cycle and we did some NLP and that’s when this memory came back to her. So basically we went to her past in deep relaxation. This memory came back to her and then we reframed it in their mind and since then her action started changing. But yeah, she’d associated being successful with being greedy. And it was as though it was a bad thing.
Kathy: 28:32 That’s interesting. I think I used to have that association I think is so common, but all the people that I’ve talked to you, that money is tied to any evil or being dishonest.
Luana: 28:46 Yeah. Um, you know, things like that they can stay with us forever. Most of our conditioning is done. This is really, really important for parents to know because most of our conditioning is done by the time we’re seven years old and you know, at that time as kids, we don’t know how to make sense of it. So we just take it as fact. But then those beliefs will keep perfecting our actions all through our adult life until we become aware of them and until we deal with them.
Kathy: 29:23 It’s interesting because you did mention in your book that a school teacher told you that you weren’t a very good writer. What terrible thing for a teacher to say.
Luana: 29:35 It broke my heart at the time because I did not like school. I didn’t like anything about it. I was not a perfect student. I just didn’t like it. I wasn’t academic. I was very creative and just, I didn’t like it. But one subject that I did love was English and especially when we wrote stories, I just loved it and you know, I, I’d write and journal and I’d write poems and stories and I was very shy as a child and I didn’t really show anybody but we have this bit of homework and I think I was about maybe 13, 14 and I was so proud of this story. I was in the zone writing it and I was so inspired and I couldn’t wait to give it in. And when I got the feedback I just, I, I was, oh, it just, it really, really knocked me. I had to really low mark. He said my writing wasn’t up to standard and it really got to me because I saw thought that it was the only thing I was good at. And then so for that, and also dancing–that was the other thing. So for that to be taken away I was absolutely gutted. And then I didn’t write. I stopped writing. Every now and again I dry it, but I’d never show any per day. I’d write in my journal and these were never seen.
Luana: 31:13 They will never be seen. And I’ll tell you why. My cat peed on them. and it’s a real shame because I would love to look back now and see what I’d written during those times. I don’t know if there’d be any good or not, but I bet they’re very insightful. I’d may even release them publicly. How exciting would that be? And my cat, who is 16 today, by the way. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.
Kathy: 31:50 Was that the cat that peed on them? It was, yes. Funny. And now look at you now. Now you’re a bestselling author. Who knew, right? That you had it in you?
Luana: 32:04 Yes. Yes. And it took me so long to get over that block because I didn’t even realize I had to. Um, this is a thing that happens is people think they can’t do some things. They barrier into their deep subconscious and every now and again the little voice will come back and they’ll say, hey, what about that thing you’re really wanted to do? And then they will block it out. They will block it out through busyness, through working hard, through exercise, through our addictions, through whatever else it is, Netflix, whatever it is that keeps their brain occupied and to protect them away from this thing that they think they can’t do, so they just convince themselves that they’re not, That bothered about it, but that voice, it will keep coming back until you listen to. That voice isn’t just a voice. Somebody said something to me the other day that really resonated. Lady in the UK, a coach not in the UK, in New York. actually who I, I’m running a program with very soon, Tony Hopson. She said it’s not a voice that’s the soul calling and I thought that really just that comment blew me away. It’s not a voice, that is your soul calling. so we have got to listen to that voice because otherwise we come to the end of our life and we’re going to have regrets and I’m not willing for that to happen and I have no idea if I’ve answered your question or not.
Kathy: 33:44 You did. Well, I mean it’s so interesting because I think we. We do it to ourselves by saying, oh, that’s not like me. I could never do that, or I’m not a writer or I’m terrible at math, or I’m not good at that. It’s not my forte. I’m not going to even bother trying, and I think a lot of people convince themselves that they’re not good at something when really they possibly could.
Luana: 34:10 Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there’s a lot of things that I’m not good at. I’m not going to even get good at because I’m not bothered about it, but writing was something you know, I love to think about this. This is a question. You know what? Who were you before society conditioned you to be a certain way. Now when I think about that, I think, okay. I was naturally a leader. I was naturally. I love selling. I used to go selling door to door. I was naturally a writer, a performer. Over the years these things got conditioned how man? My confidence was slowly or I allowed with my confidence to slowly be taken away until I got to the age of 27 and I realized what was going on and sorted my life out, but it’s very common thing that happens and you know, so often we just convince ourselves that we can’t do something, but really it’s because we’re too scared of taking the chance and I want to challenge absolutely everybody that’s listening to this today, to listen to that voice and just to take the chance because I’ll tell you this, it’s the fear of doing it.
Luana: 35:33 That is well, that’s the part that makes you go aaah… when you actually do it, you just kind of flow through it. It’s the fear of the unknown. If you could just get past the fear of the unknown, then you’ll sail through the rest of it and I can promise you that
Kathy: 35:52 yes, and shoo away that level up cartoon, monkey, whatever you want to name him,
Luana: 35:59 send it on its way.
Kathy: 36:05 well, Luana, for listeners out there and they’re feeling overwhelmed by negativity, perhaps a situation that’s traumatic for them. Maybe something similar that you went through or something that perhaps they’re feeling not good enough or confident enough to carry on. What would you like to say to them?
Luana: 36:28 I would like to say to stay focused on the end goal, but at the same time to just think about what’s the next step is to just take it day by day because it’s very important to know very clearly which road we’re heading on. Um, why? Why is a major thing if we don’t have a strong reason why, then we’re not going to have the persistence it needs to keep going. So it’s very, very important to know where we’re heading and why. And when I say why, I mean the deeper reason why I don’t mean that because I want to buy this or this… I mean the deep reason. And when you find your reason why, it will really hit on a really deep level and you’ll get emotional, that kind of why that is that you need to figure out. But then it’s going back and just figuring out what the next step is.
Luana: 37:31 When you’re in the state of overwhelm or when something traumatic has happened, you, you’ve got to just take it one step at a time, one step at a time, just get through the next step and then the next step after that. And the number one thing is just to take care of yourself. There are questions that I asked myself every day that that question was how do I feel? How do I want to feel, and what can I do today to get me into that state? And then no matter what, I would do those things and sometimes it would take me longer than others. You know, like I said before, I absolutely have spent four days in my onesie drinking tea, crying. I absolutely have. You know, I’m human. I’m not some sort of super human with no emotions. I do get into those states, but through a lot of mindset work, I am able to come out of it a lot quicker than I used to.
Luana: 38:38 Now sometimes things can happen and I can come out with in 10 minutes depending on the severity of it, but everybody’s different as well. So think about what it is that turns your mindset around. Think about for me, it’s going out and being in nature, you know, going on a long bike ride or a long hike, being silly, climbing trees, dancing naked in the woods, going for a swim in the river, just whatever it is that works for you. Music is fantastic. Meditation, journaling, we’re all different but you know, it’s just asking yourself how do, how do I feel, how do I want to feel and what do I need to do to feel that way. And sometimes it’s difficult to get ourselves out of that situation. So sometimes we need to go deeper with it and figure out why we’re not allowing ourselves to come out of these panicky states. And it’s always got something to do around safety. You know, we’re in this state because whether we’re keeping ourselves there because it’s a place of safety, even though it’s not a nice place. The leveling up monkey would prefer to be in this place rather than coming into the unknown and facing the unknown.
Kathy: 40:00 And facing that unknown of facing, facing the fear and using, as you said, a step by step process.
Luana: 40:06 Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.
Kathy: 40:09 Let’s talk about, Luana, What is next for you? You got a couple of great things coming out. You have a new book. I understand. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about that.
Luana: 40:19 So this is a book about acting. It’s called Inside the Actor’s Mind. It’s in the very, very, very early stages. So there’s no release date yet. It’s all about the states of mind that an actor goes through both in with the ups and downs of the industry, but also during roles. So this is something that I’m going to go into in depth in the book. I used to be an actor myself. I run an acting academy, I work with actors every day. So acting is something that changed my life. It’s something I’m very, very passionate about and that’s, that’s my main reason for wanting to write this book and I’m really, really excited. I’m still very much in the planning stage.
Kathy: 41:13 Terrific. Well I’m excited for you and your new book coming out and you have something else upcoming, I believe in June for you. Is that right?
Luana: 41:23 Yes, yes, I will be flying over to Florida, to the Fox studios. I’m doing three appearances there where I’ll be talking about my books and my businesses and I. I’m just so excited. So this as a result of getting my books out there. Honestly, as soon as I got my books out there, the opportunities just opened up for me and this was one of them and I can’t wait. I’ve never been to Florida before. I’ve certainly never been into the Fox studios before. I’m so excited.
Kathy: 42:06 That’s wonderful because you teach people, you teach writers to become bestselling authors.
Luana: 42:15 I do because I just felt such, there was such a drastic change in my life when my book was released. It’s been unreal. There was, you know, oh, it just opened up so many opportunities, but also it was being able to step into my authentic self and getting my story out there.
Luana: 42:36 There’s this huge freeing sensation from doing that and all the fears that I had around it and then when it was released, they have nothing but positive outcomes from it and you know, my business has grown, my audience grew on a massive scale and I was in Forbes as one of the 21 entrepreneurs to watch in 2018 unless I still feel weird saying that because I’m like, really? I find the whole thing just really crazy. But what happened as a result of me getting out of my head, I’m actually finally after all these years getting my books done.
Kathy: 43:21 That’s wonderful. Okay. So something else actually recently changed as well. You had a name change.
Luana: 43:21 I changed my name.
Kathy: 43:31 Can you tell us what your name formerly was and what it is now? And also, uh, what made you decide to do that?
Luana: 43:49 Well, my former name was Eirian Cohen. My new name is Luana Ribeira. There are many reasons why I felt that this year I have come through this massive, massive transformation process and I wanted my name to reflect that. And so that’s what made the idea first came into my head. And then after that I was thinking, well, Cohen is my married name. And of course my marriage has now evolved into friendship. Um, my first name, I’ve never really got on with my former first name. I find it absolutely hilarious, but no one’s ever been able to say it, at least from Wales where I was born, it’s a very common name there. But as soon as I moved from Wales I get called Alien, Ariel and all sorts of funny things. So that was quite amusing.
Kathy: 44:54 Well, it’s a new beginning. This is a new year for you, a new beginning.
Luana: 45:02 A new beginning. People thought I was crazy because I’ve done so much in my name and everyone almost like, well, are you really going to change your name now when you’ve already did this and this. And I was like, well, yeah, it feels right. So why not?
Kathy: 45:20 Why not?
Luana: 45:21 I honestly believe that we should make the choices up. Feel good too. And um, that everything else just falls into place. So if I was too busy thinking about, oh no, what if my business, it’d be too negatively impacted. And had all this, all this fear around it, then that’s what would happen. But I chose not to believe that I chose to believe that I changed my name and then fact it would help my business because I would feel more confident. I do feel more confident and I feel more free as a result of changing my name. You know, the main reason. I didn’t even tell you the main reason. The main reason I changed my name is because I wanted to choose every part of my life. And I choose where I work. I choose what I do with my time. Every day I choose who I hang around with. I choose what I eat, the clothes that I wear, where I live, how much money I make or how I make that money. And I never chose my name, so it was just another step for me. Okay. Well, I’m gonna. I’m gonna do it. I’m going to choose my own name, so I did.
Kathy: 46:33 Wonderful. You’re customizing yourself. Luana
Luana: 46:33 That’s it, yes.
Kathy: 46:45 Luana Ribeira. Author of Passion to Freedom, co-author of She Made it Happen. And your next book, Inside the Actor’s Mind. We’re going to post links to your already published books on our website. If people want to get hold of you, have questions about your services or for find out more about you, how can people get Ahold of you?
Luana: 47:03 The main two ways I would say are through facebook, Luana Ribeira, and to also email. Hello@LuanaRibeira.com.
Kathy: 47:17 And how do you spell your last name?
Luana: 47:24 R i b e i r a. that’s it.
Kathy: 47:25 Okay, wonderful. Luana, thank you so much your time and for sharing your personal story and all the wonderful things that you are involved in now.
Luana: 47:36 Thank you. It’s been really, really awesome catching up with you and thank you for having me on.
Kathy: 47:43 You’ve been listening to The Inspire Cafe podcast. If you don’t want to miss out on upcoming episodes, please subscribe by going to theinspirecafe.com website. And also please feel free to rate, review and share with your friends if you like what you’re hearing. Until our next conversation, thank you for listening!