Your Greatest Gifts: Discover and Own Your Superpowers

Makena: Hello and welcome back. 

Gigi: Hello, everyone. We’re here in San Diego. It’s so beautiful, and the temperatures are amazing. 

Makena: Gigi’s visiting along with the whole family. A couple of people aren’t here, but it’s been a really fun family vacation week. We’re really enjoying it. 

So, Gigi, tell us a little bit about what we’re going to talk about today.

Gigi: Yeah, so this episode is going to be a little bit more about open dialogue on a topic we’ve been discussing recently, which is this idea that your greatest gifts often seem like no big deal to you.

Makena: Absolutely. We see this with people a lot. 

They think, “Well, I don’t know what my gifts are,” or they point to things that maybe they say, “Well, that’s not a big deal.” We point out their gifts when we coach them. 

Sometimes we need that outside perspective to realize, “Oh, wait, this is actually something special. This is actually something unique.” 

How do you see that when you’re working with people? 

Gigi: The funniest example you can think of, like someone who just organized an amazing party, and everybody felt really welcome.

You work with them the next day, and they say, “I’m still really trying to figure out what I’m really good at.” 

And then you go, “I had this experience of being at your party, and it was exceptional, and it was so unique, and I felt so comfortable, and everybody really connected.” I think that’s one of your gifts: organizing and really creating the space for people to connect deeply. 

People will have this “aha” moment, where they say, “Everyone does that,” and you’re like, “I can’t do that.” So, we reject what we do and what is easy for us, thinking it’s something that anybody can do.

Makena: Yes, and often people come to us trying to find out what their gifts are or what they want to do next. A lot of times, knowing what those unique gifts are is a really key piece of the puzzle. 

It helps you see, “Oh, if I have these different unique gifts, then how do I want to put those together to design a life or sometimes to design a career that I really, really love that fits for me?”

Gigi: Right.

Makena: Yeah, so we want to share some stories and examples today. Of course, we’ll share through our own stories as we usually do. 

At this point, I just want to say we both, Gigi and I, have a lot of awareness around some of our gifts, but that wasn’t always the case. It took us time to see what these were. 

We want you to be able to reflect as you’re listening and ask, “Do any of our gifts resonate with you?” You might think, “Oh, that might be one of mine,” or it might spark something for you. 

Then we’ll share how you can start to think about this for yourself as well.

So let’s start, Gigi, with a couple of yours. What would you say are some of your natural gifts or the gifts you’ve developed?

Gigi: Yeah, I think one of mine is taking risks and having the courage to take risks. 

I’ve had that feedback from people many times in my life. For example, I just moved to Houston, and I’ve been looking for a while to see if maybe it would be Nashville or Houston. I finally just decided, and I got up and went. I’ve had a couple of people say to me, “How do you do that?” 

Also, when I moved to Amsterdam, I really wanted to live there after my kids were grown. I decided to do it, got support from a Dutch friend who found me a place, and I moved there. I have this ability to just go for something when I see that I want it.

Makena: I so admire that about you because it’s, as we’ve talked about before, not something that comes very naturally to me. It is something I’ve developed as more of a skill. I think that’s an important distinction. 

There are natural gifts, which of course, we can continue to develop, and then there are skills we can also develop, but they may not be your more natural way. 

For you, I think taking risks is something that’s always kind of come naturally.

Gigi: Yes, absolutely. Since I was young.

Makena: Can you think of an example from when you were young? What kinds of things did you do that you might not have thought of as a gift at the time, but you now look back and realize were early signs of your gift of taking risks?

Gigi: I would just do things. I didn’t question myself. 

With my friends and everything, I was the one who always had the ideas to go to this place or do this thing, like go to concerts. Some of my friends were more hesitant, but I always just saw a way to do things and went after it and did it.

Makena: Yes, and you can see that so much in our lives and the lifestyles we’ve lived, that we’ve talked about in other episodes too—just traveling the world and doing these different things. You just went for it.

Gigi: Yeah, I just thought, if I want to do that, there’s got to be a way to do it. So, why not?

Makena: Some of you may resonate and relate to that, and some of you may think, “That is definitely not my natural gift, but I might like to develop a little bit more of that.” 

What’s another one for you, Gigi?

Gigi: Seeing into people. I have this gift, and that’s, again, always been there. Of course, it was really developed out of the work I do, but I think the ability to have this gift early on is what brought me to my work. 

I was so curious about people, and I developed the gift of seeing into them and who they really are. I also saw what was stopping them and who they would be when they stepped out and really, really stepped into who they truly are. 

That’s been such an amazing gift to hone and to work with because that’s been my business and my life, and I do it everywhere, and I love it. It’s where I walk in anywhere, and I naturally just can have a very short conversation with somebody, and I can see this. It’s amazing.

Makena: Yes, it often happens with grocery store clerks, waiters, or anyone we meet along the way. It’s another example of one that I’ve really developed as a skill. You’ve really taught me and trained me on this, and I think I have some natural ability with it as well, but much… I think it’s… well, you’ve been honing it a lot longer than I have. 

Maybe we both have it as a gift, but yours has been honed to a different degree. It’s a great one to have as a coach.

Gigi: Yes, absolutely.

What about you? What are some of yours?

Makena: Well, we were talking about this a little bit before we recorded, and you had mentioned self-expression, which I definitely think is very much a gift. 

At first, I was like, “Well, I don’t know if I was always that way,” because there was definitely a big part of my life where I wasn’t super self-expressed. 

But you reminded me that when I was a little girl, you always tell me when I was two years old, I said all I wanted for Christmas was all the makeup in the world, and I used to walk around the house in your red high heels and red lipstick that I insisted on putting on myself. 

There was this thing in me from a really young age about clothing, and I loved being on camera. The modeling piece that I love now, I think, was really natural and inherent for me. 

I didn’t think of myself that way for a very long time because, we all go through kind of the forgetting process that we’ve talked about in some of the other episodes. We often go away from our natural selves, and so I became very serious and a lot less self-expressed, let’s put it that way. 

But as I’ve gotten older and the more I’ve gone into personal growth and healing and becoming more aligned with my authentic self—and you’ve supported me so much in that—this has really reemerged to where it’s like, “Oh, I love all this stuff.” 

It’s so fun for me, and self-expression takes a lot of different forms. It can be the modeling and the clothing, and now I’m playing more with hair and makeup. I’m not someone who is naturally really good at those things, but I feel like it’s becoming more and more fun and more natural. 

It’s so funny to have people coming to me for these things now, being like, “Oh, can you help me go through my closet?” or “Can you support me with this thing?” Just friends of mine. 

And I’m like, “Wow, I never thought I would be that person, but I love doing it because it’s one of my highest values—helping people feel self-expressed.”

Gigi: Yeah, it’s a great one. Really, really nice. And it’s been wonderful to watch you grow into that and really open up your creativity around it. I think it’s really into the creative part of yourself, which you thought you didn’t even have four years ago or whatever.

Makena: Absolutely, yeah. A lot of this came, like so many things, through watching you—watching you with your clothing and self-expression over the years, and how you’d bring modeling into the workshops. 

Self-expression really… I was raised with a lot of self-expression, which was just such a gift. But it really, I think, is something also for my soul that is a piece of what I came here to do. 

And that’s so much of the time our gifts, I think, are somehow connected to—they’re like the expression of our soul in some way.

Gigi: Yeah, I think you’re right about that.

What’s another one of yours?

Makena: Oh, well, we’ve talked a lot about how I’m a very systematic thinker. 

I think in systems and structures. It’s not even just in business or something like that. I really can look at people’s lives, kind of like you talk about seeing into people. That’s a different skill, but I can look at someone’s life or business and see the systems that they need to be effective. 

It’s almost… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s almost like when people talk, a map develops in my brain, or a puzzle, and I see all the different pieces. 

Then I can go, “Okay, here’s what’s working, here’s what’s not working, here’s where we need to adjust this or that.” It’s like a puzzle to me. When I’m talking to people, they often go, “Oh my gosh, these things that felt so complicated suddenly feel really simple.” 

And that’s how it is for me when I’m working with other people. There’s this systematic way that I see that really supports people. I can also take that to the level of systems in terms of organizing their business or their life or seeing, again, where there may be areas that need more support and what systems can support them there.

Yeah. What do you see with that one? Because it’s hard to sometimes describe your own gifts.

Gigi: Well, I think it’s everything you said—being able to really look into someone, and when they’re talking and speaking, you’ve developed this. To see where things are out and where, if they make these little tweaks, organize this piece, and focus more on this piece, everything would fall into place. 

I see that often with you when you coach people—you really start to eliminate the unproductive things that they’re doing and focus them in the direction of where they’re going to be the most effective and also where they really want to go. 

So, they also tap more into their aliveness, and they kind of start to organize their life in such a way where… and the systems in their business, to where they’re focusing on the right things. I think that’s a lot of it.

Makena: Yeah, their career or their business. It’s often, “What is your next step?” People get overwhelmed and confused by that, but when we sort of lay it all out, to me, it’s very clear. And to them, it becomes very clear by talking to me: “Oh, wait, this is the priority,” or “This is the next step. It’s not actually as overwhelming as they thought.” 

You have a very systematic way in your work with people too, I would say, Gigi, and for you, it’s often around these pieces, but I think also around relationships or around the people side of things. Wouldn’t you say?

Gigi: Yeah, I really see what people should do—how they are connecting with each other and what they could do to eliminate conflict and create more harmony. 

Same thing as you, I see it like this… almost… what’s that show about the chess… the lady… what’s her… what’s the show?

Makena: Oh, I love that show, “The Queen’s Gambit.”

Gigi: Yeah. You know how when they show her seeing the chess pieces? I often feel that’s the way I see when I see people’s lives.

Makena: That’s a cool way of putting it.

I would have to agree. In a different way than you, I think we’re in different areas of people’s lives, but it is like the map of the chessboard she has in her brain, and she’s doing all the different pieces. 

It’s a really cool way of thinking about it. I love that.

I think another one for you, Gigi, is about beauty. Not the beauty we were talking about before with makeup and all that, but more so making your environment beautiful. 

This is something I really want to learn more from you. Can you talk a little bit about that one?

Gigi: It’s one of those things how when we go anywhere, we go into a restaurant and start redesigning…

Makena: This is Gigi’s favorite thing to do! I think we have to break this down for people so they can understand this unique quirk of Gigi Sage.

Gigi: It’s the only way I can start using my brain. I can go into somebody’s home, and if there are some things that just don’t feel like they flow, I immediately start thinking, “How could you arrange this to where there’d be more flow, there’d be more ease?” I do this all the time. I’m always thinking about how to make spaces like that, and it’s almost like a great pastime. It’s almost like a hobby or something.

Makena: She does it literally in her own environment, but she does it in her brain in restaurants and other people’s homes. 

What’s unique about it is it’s not just design or something like that. I don’t think it’s design necessarily, although there’s a component of that. 

But it’s really like you’re saying—the way that energy flows through the space. You have this unique way of making an environment not just beautiful, but making people feel really good when they’re in that environment. I don’t know how to describe that.

Gigi: Yeah, no, it’s true. I feel the invisible energy of it. Some people… I’m not a feng shui consultant or something, but I feel the way energy flows and also the comfort level. For me, comfort is huge in an environment. It’s absolutely the first priority.

Makena: You’ve used this over the years in your own home and everything, in our homes, but also in workshops, right? And retreats, in creating… and you’ve taught me a lot of this, but I have to say this is one of the harder ones for me. 

It does not come naturally. I’m like, “Order. Do the things match? Are they next to each other in a straight line?” If so, then that’s good, right? 

And you’re like, “No, there’s this flow.”

Gigi: You can change an angle to that. You come into my place, and there’s color everywhere to an extreme. Some people are like, “Oh my gosh, it’s too much,” right? 

But for me, I see it as creating an environment where… I think when you open up, you relax. Creativity… there’s a feeling. I can create environments where people walk in. They don’t know it, but there’s this feeling of harmony, relaxation, and clarity that they get. That’s the result that happens in the environment. 

It’s almost like this beautiful… I see it as when I really create space and I’ve got it all set up, it’s almost like it has sparkles on it, right? And you walk in… It just feels like it sparkles and it flows, and there’s this peaceful feeling about it.

Makena: I can definitely attest to the feeling, like the peaceful feeling of just an exhale.

What I think is cool about some of these examples we’re giving is that they’re not necessarily what most people would probably think of when they ask, “What are my gifts?” They might say, “Oh, I’m organized,” or “I’m creative,” or something like that. 

But we’re really giving you examples here to help you go a level deeper and go, “Hmm, what are the qualities? What are the feelings? What are some characteristics?” And they might be applied in all different parts of your life. 

Or you might have forgotten that you had this gift when you were younger, this natural way with something that you never really cultivated very much, and you want to go back to it. So, it’s to start to spark for you some ideas of what this might be for you.

Gigi: As I shared early on when we first started, it’s hard for us often to see our gifts. It’s so difficult because we do these things, and we think they’re not special. But for others, they’re amazed at how we can do it. 

So, the other thing to pay attention to is where people really share with you and say, “Wow, this was incredible that you did this,” or “I love it when you do this,” or “This makes me feel so special.” 

We’re in a place right now, an environment at home, and the same thing. They definitely have a certain knack where the place is comfortable, it’s beautiful, it has this feeling of being kind of beachy, and it’s really set up to work. It functions really, really well. 

So, again, that’s a special gift or quality that either the woman or the man—I don’t know who has that here, but I think it might be the woman—has. And so, it creates a special kind of environment.

Makena: Yeah, and if you’re having a hard time coming up with these on your own, another thing that can be really helpful is to do quizzes or assessments that help give you a jumping-off point. 

We’ve talked before about the World Changer Quiz, our free quiz. I think you should definitely go check it out if you haven’t taken it yet. It’s www.WorldChangerQuiz.com. 

That will tell you what we call your number one talent and your success motivator. 

In the talents, Gigi is a visionary, and if you look at it, a lot of her gifts touch on this visionary quality. Wouldn’t you say, Gigi?

Gigi: Yeah. I think it’s being able to see the bigger picture of people, see the vision of a space. So, it’s absolutely visionary.

Makena: Mine is a connector. One of the gifts that come up again and again for me is around communication. This comes up in our quiz. It has also come up in the StrengthsFinder, which is another great quiz that’s out there that you can take. 

Communication is always my number one strength, again and again, even though many of my other strengths over the years have gone up or down in the order of things. Communication, again and again, is my number one strength. 

That could be spoken communication, written communication, and really speaking or writing or communicating in a way that lets people feel and sense something or feel and sense themselves in it in some way. 

When I took the World Changer Quiz, I was like, “Oh, this makes so much sense that this is a part of my gift,” and how I could really—the quiz really helped me see when Gigi first taught me that framework—how I could really utilize that in business and career and also in my life more so. 

Definitely, if you want to go to www.WorldChangerQuiz.com, take that. We’ve heard from a lot of people who’ve taken that quiz that it’s helped give them just, again, an outside perspective, a jumping-off point where they go, “Oh, okay, I can see that in myself,” and it might spark some more ideas for you.

Gigi: Your communication gift—you’ve been able to develop that as well into even doing the meditations you have. A lot of times, when you do those in the workshops, or you’ve created these meditations, women will come back to you and tell you that they really had a pivotal moment of seeing something that was something they then went out and did or added to their life or their business. 

So, as you said, your ability with the spoken word and the written word also sparks something in people. I think it’s a catalyst for the spark in people.

Makena: And I think that is maybe the key distinction here that we’re making between a gift and something that is just a skill. 

We discuss this in our certification program, Aliveness Mastery, where we certify coaches or people in a coaching methodology that Gigi has developed over the last 38 years. 

We talk about this distinction of a skill versus a gift. A gift is really that—it’s something that is probably a natural, inherent quality, but it also brings you alive in some way.

I would say a gift, if it’s truly a gift, then there’s some kind of energy or vitality, or it conducts in some way. Whereas you could learn skills— all of you who are listening right now could think back through your education or different times in your life when you’ve learned skills—but they don’t light you up at all. You really don’t think it’s a natural gift of yours at all. It doesn’t conduct energy in the same way where maybe it touches something in other people and sparks something for them. 

What you’re speaking to there, Gigi is that all of these things we’ve been talking about for us—and whatever our listeners are identifying for them—they’re gifts because, I mean, if you think about just the word “gift,” it is a gift to you and a gift to others in some way.

Gigi: Yeah. That’s beautiful. I love that.

Makena: There we go. I’m using words right there. I’m like, “Let’s think about the words and the power of the words,” but truly, it is. 

That’s a good reason people might be listening, going, “Why does it really matter for me to be thinking about these gifts or spending time diving into what my gifts are?” 

It is because it will be a gift to you and a gift to others. 

The more you identify these, hone them, spend time on them, prioritize them—you never know where that’s going to lead. 

We have many other gifts that we’d love to share with you all, and we’ll continue sharing through this podcast. But Gigi, thank you for just paving the way with this. I think something I’m recognizing in recording this episode is that many of the gifts in me, of course, were natural to me, but a lot of them have been inspired by you. 

So, thank you for sharing them with me and with so many other people, and being a part of this episode today.

Gigi: Oh, thank you so, so much. Just to go back and share one more time, really get out there and observe what people compliment you on or tell you you’re really great at, and start to pay attention to that. 

Really, when people say, “You’re amazing at this,” don’t say, “Oh, anybody could do that.” 

Say, “Hmm, that might be part of my gift,” and start tracking and writing those things down and taking credit for them. Really look at how to hone them and use them in your life and business.

Makena: That’s a really great point—not to downplay them. I think that’s something we’re speaking to today: we make them not a big deal, but they are a big deal.

Absolutely.

So take that in when people compliment you. You could even create a little note in your phone or something where you make note of those things when people share or acknowledge something in you or compliment you. 

Write it down in a “My Gifts” note. Or when you take the World Changer Quiz, or you take different assessments, start to find those little bits and pieces, and those are like we’ve talked about before—paint strokes on the masterpiece of your life.

Gigi: Thank you so much, Makena. Thank you, everyone.

Makena: Thank you. See you next time. Bye-bye.