Christiana Maxion is the Dubai Matchmaker. A New York Native, Christiana and I both were friends about five years ago when we were teachers in Abu Dhabi. Since then, Christiana and I have both gone on to build businesses, quit our jobs, and become female entrepreneurs. Christiana is the Dubai Matchmaker - and she credits becoming sober to her booming business in the past two months. Tune into this episode to hear how sobriety has helped her build her empire and skyrocket her business. As well, Christiana gives some advice for sober dating and sober life in general.
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If you're interested in learning more about Christiana's work, find out more about what she offers here: https://christianamaxion.com/. Follow me on Instagram @alexmcrobs and check out my offerings in yoga, meditation and coaching at http://themindfullifepractice.com/.
Transcript
hi friend this is alex mcrobbs founder of the mind for life practice and you're listening to the sober yoga girl podcast. I'm a canadian who moved across the world to the middle east at age 23 and i never went back i got sober in 2019 and i now live full-time in bali indonesia. I've made it my mission to help other women around the world stop drinking start yoga and change their lives through my online sober girls yoga community. You're not alone and a sober life can be fun and fulfilling let me show you how
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hello hello everyone welcome back to another episode of sober yoga girl i am really excited to have christiana maxin sitting with me today and christiana and i go way back um we actually became friends like probably around five years ago when we both were teachers in abu dhabi and um now we've both gone on a journey where we're no longer teachers we both run our own businesses and i actually got an opportunity to be a guest on christiana's podcast like maybe six months ago when i was in dubai which was amazing so i'm really excited to have her here and she's recently she's had a sober curious journey over the years but she's recently been sober for now about seven weeks and what really made me want to have her on the show was she did this post on facebook about how her business has just skyrocketed in a month sober and i just thought that was such an amazing and inspiring story and so i'm i'm just really excited to hear more so welcome christiana how are you hi alex thank you so much for having me you know what's funny is when you brought up abu dhabi and teaching is this is even before i had my matchmaking business i was going to set you up with a guy that i knew and i'm not going to say his name on the pod but i think you know who it is i don't know right yeah you do we'll talk we'll talk after that is so funny oh my goodness well i remember i feel like i used to run into you all the time at like starbucks in the morning before work started yes and i feel like we would always just be like oh like this teacher life
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and look at this this is pretty amazing i know and when i had you on the pod too we were just talking about entrepreneurship running our own things and yeah i mean a lot a lot has happened since then so i'm excited to chat on that today so tell me a bit about your story like your life journey before let's tell me about before you got to abu dhabi how did you end up there as a teacher oh gosh so i actually i was in a relationship there was this guy that uh i was dating we were in a relationship he had been in been to new york on a business trip i'm a native new yorker we had met um he was leaving the next day he worked in abu dhabi and then we had this whirlwind romance where he came back 10 days later then we spent a whole six weeks together we did long distance for a year then i ended up in abu dhabi but i made sure that i had had a job and i was teaching at the time so i started that and that's how i got there but i mean i have such a different life and lifestyle now in dubai as the dubai matchmaker yeah so then so you taught for in abu dhabi for a period of time and then you taught in dubai for a little bit and then tell me about that transition from teacher to matchmaker like how did you make that move yes so i actually so i was teaching in new york that i was teaching in abu dhabi and i was in a new curriculum the ib i've always been like a lifelong learner and and also like if i wanted to do something and i put my mind to it i went like a hundred thousand percent so within like the first was it ten months that i was teaching in a new curriculum i was then promoted to a curriculum leader i then got out of the classroom and i was doing more leadership and training teach like training mentoring teachers i was a pyp coordinator here in dubai and it's actually it's an interesting story i don't think i can talk about it legally but i'll just say that i ended up leaving um my last my last position uh in person like i really didn't have a pursuit of what i wanted to do and having that time open to think and kind of like sit in my feelings a bit i was drinking a lot more then i went sober for a little bit and i had more clarity and i decided um to start a business it was a different business before but i always loved the business of love because i started an instagram account called dating in dubai documenting my dating escapades here people really were attracted to my empower dating standpoint and that's really where it all stemmed from people asking me for advice uh relationship advice dating advice and then i decided to invest in mentors education program certifications now i am a professional matchmaker here in dubai wow and i totally forgot about that actually i forgot about when you were doing that instagram just before you started matchmaking and you would talk about your dates and i loved it i was like living vicariously through you because i was like wasn't dating it all at the time so i was like we'll just listen to christiana's face yeah i mean people loved it i think that um that got me in a little bit of trouble in the education space maybe it didn't match the ethos so
but without dating in dubai that instagram account i wouldn't have what i have now so honestly like i think about my journey my transition and people always say like sometimes when you're in a certain situation where you think gosh this is like the worst thing that could happen to me or what the hell am i going to do next those are those are spaces for creation and spaces to pivot so it really became that for me and without um leaving or having to leave that job i wouldn't have what i have now wow and isn't that such a it's it's such an inspiring story because i think when we get in these positions of you know um we're just like what do we do next or we're lost or we're like looking for the next step it's often like you have to like kind of go through the mud to get to the surface yes for sure and and that whole thing that you point out too about i i feel sometimes like teachers are held to this like higher standard than people in other careers you know what i mean like there's this idea that we can't um and i see it all the time in my in my sober world with me sharing openly about my sobriety and being a teacher i was afraid all the time that i was gonna get fired i was afraid the wrong parent would come across my content and fire me even though everything i was sharing was like in line with the values of the country you know i was sharing about sobriety i still had this fear and i hear it from my clients all the time people that work in education feel like they can't be authentically themselves because there's some idea that teachers are not supposed to have a life beyond the classroom which i think
restricts a lot of people from following their dreams and their passion projects i i completely agree with you alex and i remember when i was going through that period and they and like the whole thing that ended up happening was yeah they felt like it didn't match uh the ethos of the school and that's completely fine i get that but one of the things that was brought to the table was okay um i said i was like well the level of my work has nothing to do with what happens outside of these doors and no but they were like well it's a representation and this is the decision and yeah there you go but honestly like and i actually saw so funny i saw one of the persons who was involved in that whole situation and she tried to ignore me i saw her at a restaurant and i was like oh hi and she was oh oh hi and i was like and the thing is like now i'm in so much media whether that's television radio in publications online and i'm sure she's heard and seen everything i'm doing so i actually thank that situation and those people who were involved who at that time it felt like a low but now it's the high for sure yeah okay and so all that those publications that media like so that is what stuck out to me so you did a post probably about a month ago and you said that you had been like a month sober and in that month you listed like you know since you got sober you're in like a million i mean you could tell you could describe more about just a bunch of obligations a bunch of like interviews and so tell us more about that like how did that all come to fruition oh gosh so it's interesting because um i so i have reached a point in my business where gosh i had an amazing q1 and i decided to hire a pr team this was like probably in may i decided so after first q1 was great then i had some thought about it and i decided to hire them now what's very interesting is that i made the decision to go sober um i didn't have a timeline on it yet the catalyst to that to that was i kind of had a fallout in a relationship and this person uh was tied to binge drinking and
it's so it sounds so silly but i was watching bling empire 2 on netflix and one of the main characters on it he goes to his sponsor's house and he says wow is this what six years sober gets you and this was right after i had the fallout with a friend and i was like oh my goodness i was like you know what i'm not going to drink right now next day my pr the president of the pr firm that i work with she posted or reposted it said you will accomplish more in one year sober than you will 10 years drunk and i was like okay just putting that nail like further into the coffin and then it was a monday so that was friday so thursday friday saturday then a monday comes i have lunch with one of my friends who's now almost uh a year sober he was talking about all the benefits of it oh my gosh clarity you save your energy this you see so much you don't waste your time you don't waste effort uh not one minute in your day is wasted so i was like okay a little bit further now this is the craziest part and i think i think you know this guy so i'll mention him i was on my way to a breakfast with my pr firm and i i'm in the car i'm parking it it's in such a random random parking spot and the car pulls out right next to me and i was like why is this guy parking so close to me what a weirdo anyway though get out of my car get on the left he gets in the lift with me he's like hey are you going to so and so like oh yeah i can help you i'm going there whatever gets in and he's like oh um the friend i worked with is tisha she's like oh are you going to the tish tash breakfast too and i was like yeah i am so i figured he worked with them like in
some capacity i was like oh what's your title there oh no i'm a client of theirs and i was like oh what do you do i'm a sober coach i was like and i feel like i'm gonna cry right now but seriously like all of these things and like he calls them wings from god i was like oh my god and then we sat next to one another i told him like my story my experiences and for me like i'm a binge drinker so like i buy i can't just have one i need to have several and then it got to some points and we can go into detail later if you want of like the binging becoming more frequent and also crazy story so all like i told you it happened thursday friday saturday monday tuesday now my press release went out on a wednesday and this was like right before like right before i was making the decision to go sober and then as soon as i made that decision i said i'm gonna go six months sober the whole world opened up for me i think it was like god was listening the universe was listening and i got all these emails from my pr team you got this you got that you got this you got that and i was like whoa
so weird well great aligned wow i love that expression winks from god i've never heard that before yes yes i got it from the sober coach it was author winks from god amazing i actually i don't know who you're talking about um but david a guy named david is it sober coach dubai is that his instagram yes okay yes recently i think i found him someone maybe it was you someone shared something i think it was you and i didn't know that there i was i didn't know there were any other sober coaches in dubai i mean i'm not really there anymore i'm kind of like all over yeah um but i i think i fall i think i maybe followed him and messaged him was like oh my god you're a summer coaches you are so oh that's so cool amazing yes so you mentioned that you were a binge drinker tell me about not okay can i be honest on this show or i have to keep it dr dubai rated no you can be honest okay so um like i mentioned i so i actually went through periods of time where i would not drink for four weeks i i explored it last year in 2021 2021 i had something happen so i ended up going four weeks over and yep so i did four weeks sober and then i explored sobriety again november december when i was like gosh i need to focus on my business and really like not drink focus on
this and then this is when i kind of um met and i mentioned to you that relationship before that fell out and she was person who but oh come on let's drink there's no way that that you can't drink and then that's when i started drinking again that's when like the binge drinking started coming into place i'm not blaming her i'm just saying it was a lifestyle that i felt like i like i matched a lot not i felt like i had to but i matched a lot and listen those are all my decisions that i made on my own and um yeah no but there would i would go periods right where i would drink for three days straight just because i was like oh well i already started so might as well keep it going you know wake up at 9 a.m have a drink why not because we're still on party mode and
then it started getting to the point where i would go to the liquor store and i would buy two bottles of wine because one bottle didn't get me drunk and i would drink in my home talk on the phone to people and one bottle doesn't get me drunk one and a half does a full bottle of wine and then in the morning it'd be 10 in the morning and i'd be like well i have to finish the other bottle it's going to go bad and then it would just start this other cycle with it so i mean when i first said this out loud to david i was like oh my gosh is this my life because you know you don't really i i guess it hits home more when you say it out loud the things that you do
because you always make excuses for yourself in the moment or you don't try to realize what's happening in the moment and as an entrepreneur having your own business where everything is so reliant on you nobody else is making you money but yourself and yeah i mean it's it's insane like i when i decided to go sober and gosh when was my date i think it's may 14th i started to go alcohol free may 14th like if i add up the success and if i'm just talking about success in terms of profit and sales i'm well into six figures like it's insane just from that date may 14th wow that's incredible yeah that's so incredible and you know what i mean it's yeah no you guys no i was just gonna say that this uh this is good timing because tomorrow i leave for london and mykonos and i bowed to myself i said i'm not going to drink i said i'm going to go six months alcohol free and it's hard because you know when you get on a flight especially if like you're flying like business or first you're like it's free you have to have it but i'm like no i'm gonna be good so yeah let's see
but not let's see yes i will be good how has it been so far in terms of like have you found it easy to stay committed challenging i'm i'm a person when i say i'm gonna do something i do it so i don't find it difficult i was at a birthday party last night where it was flowing champagne flowing back around this russian place and i don't even feel the need to have anything and i think it's mainly because i made this promise and i know it's a promise to myself but i mean i also feel like it's a promise to god as well that um and because i've had so much success and so so many great things happened to me ever since i made the decision i feel like i might be punished if i do and i know it's like that catholic guilt but um yeah and maybe i shouldn't think about it that way but it is something that i have in the back of my mind but i have i don't feel tempted i would say that the only thing and also because i've seen the physical benefits of it that i'm like i'm not even tempted to have anything so i don't feel bloated i feel good about my body um i would say sometimes i just miss the taste of a beer but i know that there's so many non-alcoholic options for it so but i still haven't had any non-alcoholic yet so i'm pretty good yeah oh that's amazing do you find um like what are you going to be
doing as a strategy to help you stay sober when you're on vacation have you thought about that i have so everybody knows not well the main people that i'm going with know that i'm alcohol-free so they know that and i feel like i mean maybe some people who don't know might be oh why aren't you drinking and even though like i'm probably the most successful now if we think of like financially and other things in my life uh i'm also now that like i'm making my own money i look at every dollar i spend so i'm gonna be like really well aware of how much money i'm not spending from not buying bottles of champagne from not buying bottles of belvedere like i'm gonna be really conscious of that so when the bill comes and it's like a hundred euro everybody else is 500 euro i'm gonna so that's like my main thing especially in mykonos that's like the way i'm thinking about it it's such a motivation when you think about how much you've saved in comparison to all
the people it's not only the alcohol it's like the taxis it's like the hangover food it's like the covers to get into clubs like it really really adds up and like i'm super conscious of my body as well i've always been that way but like now seeing the benefits of not drinking and obviously gonna have to be in a bikini i'm gonna be like no i'm okay i don't need that so tell me about okay the other thing i've seen you you've been doing is these drink dry um sober yeah i'm so jealous of those by the way i see them happening it it makes me want to move back to dubai please come tell me about that like what has that been like oh gosh so uh erica from drink drive reached out to me so she's also a tishtash brand reached out to me and said uh because she saw my post as well about i'm gonna go six months over this and that and she's like and this was at the same breakfast she goes why didn't we sit next to each other at breakfast yesterday and then she was like let's have a call i want to collaborate so we were talking about things but mostly about being alcohol free and then it got brought up we're talking about dating uh while sober and i said well i have an idea why don't i why
don't we do a single mingle but have it be a sober single mingle and yeah so we decided to do that we partnered up with one of the restaurants that she works with and it was a really cool experience because not only was it a way to get to know other people but also get to know them without the liquid courage And then you actually remember the night right i mean listen people carried on to drink and that's their progress i wasn't saying i wasn't pushing like alcohol free sober life it was just a different thing to bring into the mix and also maybe open up the door for a lot of islamic clients so the way yeah the way that it happened was so we put it out there and then every applicant or anybody who was interested had to apply now they went through the application process i vetted each applicant and i met i had 20 guys and 20 girls i want to make sure it was an even number because sometimes you go to a singles event and it's mainly girls not right you guys so i made sure that there were equal number same caliber people but also i did like a pseudo match like i don't
really know that deeply about many of the people that came but i did a pseudo match according to hobby's habits interests maybe age ranges looks wise a little bit what they were looking for an ideal partner so i made sure that everybody had an opportunity to actually meet somebody that would be well qualified for them i did have rules of the night though and the rules were that you couldn't ask anybody's age you couldn't ask anybody's job you could ask anybody's nationality because i said i was like let's keep it strictly to like the mingling activities that we are going on but also kind of like clear of that judgment too yeah that's so interesting the job thing sorry that just reminds me of because i feel like we like the reason why we would not ask people's jobs i was having this conversation with someone in in denver a couple weeks ago was that you know when you ask people jobs it's kind of like almost like judging them on like how much money they make or um kind of like where they fit into but it's so funny because for me i now want to talk about my job and i don't know if you feel the same way but like i'm so passionate about my business that i want to talk about it because i love it you know and it's different than like when i was a teacher like if you would ask me
what my job was when i was a teacher i i would be like okay well i'm a teacher full-time but like my passion is yoga you know what i mean and you know i approach that question so differently now that i actually do what i'm passionate about um yes but i i get how like the majority of or not the majority of people but a lot of people are working jobs that are not a perfect reflection of like who they are and what they love to do and so i can see why that question would be wanted to be left out yeah and also i i didn't want the same questions that people get asked on a date or dating i wanted it to be something new funky different and we had such amazing positive feedback from the event they were like wow that was so cool it was so uh unique and people reached out to me and said hey can i get that person's number can you ask them what their interest is and then people swap stuff afterwards i know definitely have at least a handful of dates happen between or after that event yeah and uh we're probably probably going to work on another one coming up but um actually we're part or i was asked to be a part of this initiative and that we're creating at the moment i don't
want to say the name yet because we haven't trademarked it yet but we're going to be a part of this um initiative that's about um sober curiosity basically and i wanted to talk to you about if we'll talk about it offline because um i mentioned you and maybe that's why maybe david reach out to you as well so yeah we'll talk about that oh that's amazing that's fantastic i'm excited to hear more so tell me about okay so so we talk about sobriety and dating what do you think is happening in the dating world in terms of like is there like i feel like there's a revolution happening right now around sobriety do you find that way like you have clients that are so curious do people that are sober and like what's that dating world like for sober people now do you know what's so interesting so and we'll talk about this later too about the other opportunities that have come my way in term and especially about going global but my ideal clients that come to me or like the people that actually invest in the program and go through it with the matchmaking most of them aren't drinkers because um a lot of them are like super successful mainly entrepreneurs actually some do have
corporate jobs like lawyers uh finance things like that but a lot of entrepreneurs that don't see apple as a benefit to their life which is interesting and they come to me too because let's say they're on the dating apps and they say like on their profile maybe it says like i don't never drinks or doesn't drink or whatever it says on it they say that they don't get lots of matches and i said well then i mean if that person's not a match for you then if it's a problem if you're not a drinker that i i get a lot of that which is interesting and how do you what advice would you give to people when going into dates sober
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Um i mean it's i think it's really interesting when you're dating as a sober person and the other person doesn't respect that space but if this is a part like if this is you're going through my matchmaking process i always talk about this with clients and members that go on dates i say is this a deal breaker for you is it something that you're interested in would this be a problem for you and i know that i'm only going to match people that have similar lifestyles are or are okay with the other person's lifestyle and i i know i mentioned to you the birthday party i went to last night at birthday dinner and the waiter which i found like obviously i'm not on a date or anything i'm just in a group of people and i said okay can you take away the wine glasses and the vodka glasses whatever he's like oh you're not drinking tonight oh no i don't drink oh come on just one and i was like what i don't drink it was an interesting experience because i hadn't had that in a while because usually the people i go out with i know them so like they respect any decision that i make but yeah i was like
from the waiter really i was like okay whatever i guess it's like just normalized social life in dubai right so like it's unusual to come across someone that's not drinking oh my gosh my girlfriend the one who was it was her birthday she sent me a real and i'll try and find it from her and i'll send it to you this guy was speaking and he says the only drug that people ask you that you're not doing did i send this to you no but i've heard it before okay yeah it's alcohol it's the only drug that people are like why aren't you doing it mm-hmm it's the only drug that you have to explain not using yes this is it yes that's it yeah it's just so normalized it's so ingrained in our culture yes for sure so tell me about or tell everyone about what services do you offer and how can people find you and work with you yes oh my goodness so another great thing that has happened is so um i match make here in dubai but after being sober and a lot of other things happening i was reached out to by millionaires club which is if anybody has seen the show millionaire matchmaker on bravo in the 2000s yes it's patty sanger's company she has her business over 30 years they reach out to me and they want to partner up and i'll be heading their middle east division incredible so yeah so now we offer unlimited matchmaking on different timelines just depends on which contract you choose unlimited matches uh globally so you can literally date in any corner of the world from australia to zurich vienna to vancouver dubai
to dallas literally anywhere and we're like a boutique service that works with you um and also there are dubai only packages and if you are interested what you can do is go to my website www.christianaction.com and yeah you can read through how we work it's a really clear process they're just revamping the website now to have that out by next week and yeah just booking in my calendar for a consultation we'll see if we're the right fit for one another that's incredible oh that's so amazing i want to do your dating services yes well women are complementary men are the ones that seek the matchmaking services so i will send you the link to the global database anybody can join in any city of the world so yeah i'll send you the link because i know that you travel a lot too and we have clients all over the world even especially us canada and you're in canada aren't you i'm in canada right now yeah just for a couple more weeks yeah okay yeah i've actually said it on my um my vision board well something that i've been talking about with um what i was speaking about with my clients is that on my vision board everything is always career oriented right it's like do a ted talk be on four podcasts um get my book out you know get content done for my yoga teacher trainings like everything is about my career and i realized recently that nothing is about my my life outside of my career basically and so i was like okay if i want to be on four podcasts a month then i also want to i said four podcasts four dates a month and then four hikes a month and i still haven't done any of my dates or hikes this month so you gotta set me up with four people i know well it's funny because um so i've had like many successful relationships in my life and right now though like somebody asked me like oh well then are you dating somebody and i said you know what i'm not dating somebody i'm dating multiple people and those multiple people are my clients i'm dating my business right now it's a lot of like work and energy that goes into it and i don't want to shut the door on it right now i'm meaning in terms of love but i'm definitely just like you said like i'm focused on that but it is smart to have a balance so maybe i just touched on my vision board too i can so relate to that though dating your business that's exactly what i people ask me people say to me like do you have like a solid group of friends in bali and i'm like my friends are like you know my clients and then also my my colleagues like you you know like other entrepreneurs are my friends because i'm that's like kind of the head space that i'm in yeah and the relatability familiar art familiarity with people that you know that that get
the past gets get what it takes and the effort time everything that goes into it totally yeah all right i have one more question for you to wrap us up so go for it if you had any advice for someone that is sober curious or starting a sober journey what advice would you give them i would say if you are super curious be curious try it out and i would have somebody who holds you accountable whether that's somebody formally like a sober coach or you know somebody else who wants to do the path with you as well and really schedule in so maybe your calendar schedule looked like um going out for drinks uh in dubai we have as you know like bottomless brunches don't tempt yourself by keeping those things in your calendar replace it with something that betters you whether that's expanding your knowledge in something through reading podcasts going on a walk going on a hike something that elevates your consciousness which i think is a much better thing and
that can even be hanging out with friends but in a different setting right where you don't have that temptation but definitely give yourself a goal don't just say okay i'm not gonna drink okay but what's your goal is it gonna be for 30 days 31 days two months have that because when you're reaching or like when you have that set time then it gives you more of i think focus and direction right amazing well thank you so much this was so fun to chat with you and see you and um i will be coming through dubai i think soon so i hope to catch up with you then and
alex
yeah and i'll pop the link in the episode description so if anyone wants to check out christiana's offerings um you can find her in the description perfect thank you alex thank you audience hope to see you soon
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