CEO at Transeo 🔹 On a mission to close the skills gap by unlocking work-based learning opportunities for all 🔹 Innovative & Entrepreneurial COO (2x Exited) 🔹 Bridging Education to Workforce

I'm Cecilia Retelle Zywicki, the CEO and Co-Founder of LearningSpring.

As an education innovator and a parent myself, I founded LearningSpring to answer the critical question that many families face: How do parents find the right educational fit for their child amidst the complexity and confusion? 

Our North Star is simple: to simplify school choice, so every family can easily discover, compare, and access schools that fit their needs and values.

LearningSpring is an AI-powered platform that’s built by parents for parents. We’ve designed it to empower families with transparent information, personalized guidance, and user-friendly tools. I lead a team committed to accessibility, equity, and practical solutions, bridging the gap between federal/state programs, schools, and real family needs.

My belief in parental empowerment as an essential to student success drives my work. I bring extensive operational and strategic leadership experience from the EdTech and HealthTech sectors, along with a proven ability to scale impact. I hold a JD from the University of Denver and a BS/M.Ed. from the University of Minnesota.

I am passionate about advancing educational opportunity for every child, partnering with states, schools, and families to help them confidently chart a path to a brighter future.

Let's connect to discuss how we can build a compliant, equitable choice infrastructure for your state!

Cecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥

Imagine there was only one national entrée.

Chicken. Everywhere. Forever.

My husband is a great cook, but if he tried to serve our daughters chicken every single night, there would be a revolt by Thursday.

It wouldn’t matter how well seasoned it was. Or how beautifully plated. Or how many times he explained that chicken is healthy and widely approved.

Even worse, what if there WERE other options, but not everyone could get them?

If you happen to live in the right ZIP code, you get a menu. If not, chicken again for you!

We would not accept that in food. We would not accept that anywhere.

And we are beginning to not accept it in education, either: school choice is the strongest it has ever been, with roughly 75% of voters (and even higher shares of school parents) saying families should be able to choose the school that fits their child’s needs.

Parents are signaling that access to a single model is no longer enough. 

A healthy system offers variety. 

We aren’t attacking the default. Chicken is a good thing. We simply recognize that human beings are not identical, and systems built for millions of children should reflect that reality.

Kids are awesome little people. Here's one of my girls with our new Chihuahua... we just got the results of her age test back and she's three & 1/2 years old!

Cecilia Retelle Zywicki, Esq., M.Ed. 💧

CEO & Co-Founder of LearningSpring.com 🔹 School Choice Advocate 🔹 Parent-Driven Leader 🔹 Building Scalable Solutions for Families & Impactful Growth

*** Rewire Your Mind. Build Your Business. Live Your Purpose. *** Founder & CEO B7 Media and Mindset Mastery Tribe | Publisher Development Guru & Success Mindset Coach

“Success is not an option.”That was the mantra drilled into me growing up in a Soviet country. My family immigrated when I was six, and from then on, life was about one thing: survival.The rules were clear... go to college, get a job, stay safe. And for 20 years, I played by those rules. I climbed the corporate ladder, checked the boxes, and “succeeded.”But inside I was suffocating.The turning point came the day my boss fired me.Terrified. Shaken. But also... free.Then COVID happened and I had the luxury of plopping on the couch and watching A LOT of YouTube. I stumbled across stories of ordinary people building businesses they loved. Really?? Just regular people like me? That spark ignited something in me.So I launched my consultancy helping AdTech companies grow through strategic publisher development. At first, I doubted myself. A LOT. But those YouTube videos helped me ignore the doubting voices in my head... and the results started rolling in:✅ Year 1 → Matched my old salary✅ Year 2 → +37% growth✅ Year 3 → First 6-figure monthI was stunned. If someone like me... trained only in “survival mode”... could do this, what else was possible?That question pulled me deep into studying money, success, and mindset. Like DEEP! I invested tens of thousands in personal growth... and it changed my life forever.I was so into this success mindset that I started a little mastermind for my employees and partners at the consultancy. I figured it couldn't hurt. To my surprise, their income soared too!And that’s when I knew: this work wasn’t just business strategy. It was life strategy.That’s why I created Mindset Mastery Tribe... a high-level transformational mastermind where ex-corporate entrepreneurs learn to:→ Replace (and often exceed) their income in under a year→ Build growth plans that don’t burn them out→ Finally feel freeIf you're an ex-corporate business owner and you’re skeptical, I get it. I was too. So start with something easy and free...👉 Free Guide - How To Close At Least 50% of Your Prospects - https://mindsetmasterytribe.com/salesguide

Paulina Tillman

You do not have a money problem. You have a security addiction.

And it is destoying your business.

It is not fear.
It is not strategy.
It is not that the market is hard.

It is this.
If I lose this… I will not be okay.

That sentence is running more of your decisions than you realize.

You're scared to...

Lose money.
Lose time.
Lose approval.
Lose status.
Lose control.

You've heard that you should reach out to 100 people a day to get leads, but you don't want to lose time on all the no's.

So you protect your time

You've heard that people are printing money by running ads, but you don't want to lose money testing

So you protect your money

You've heard speaking in front of a room gets people to buy, but you're scared they won't like you 

So you protect your status

Security itself is not bad.

But if your security depends on things staying predictable…

You will never scale.

Growth always disrupts security.

More money means more responsibility.
More visibility.
More decisions.
More consequence.

The problem is people do not want more money.
They want more money without more discomfort.

That does not exist.

Faith is not believing nothing will go wrong.
Faith is trusting you can respond when it does.

Fear asks, “Can I afford this?”
Faith asks, “Can I handle the expansion?”

If you are constantly searching for the perfect system…
The perfect funnel…
The perfect plan…

You are not looking for leverage.
You are looking for security.

There is no system that will make you feel safe enough.

The approach is you.

If your business feels stuck, look at what you are protecting.

That is the ceiling.
Stay in the vision. Not the circumstance.

------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m Paulina and I help ex-corporate business owners scale fast.
If you’re good at what you do but sales still feels harder than it should, grab my free guide on how to close 50%+ of your prospects:
https://lnkd.in/ehvPeYTp

For ex-corporate business owners ready to scale, I’ll help you replace your income in less than 12 months

No alternative text description for this image

You left corporate and your business is FINALLY looking like a real operation.

And now you're picking fights... procrastinating on follow-ups... or suddenly worried about something that didn't matter last week.

That's not random.
That's your upper limit.

Here's how it works.

Your brain has a thermostat for how much success you can handle.

It was set in childhood based on what you were taught you deserved.

When your results go above that thermostat... your brain freaks out.

So it creates a problem to bring you back down.

This is what self-sabotage actually is.

You close 3 big clients in a week.

Then you:

-Overthink your pricing
-Pick a fight with a team member
-Get "too busy" to follow up with hot leads
-Get sick or exhausted

Nothing was wrong.

But your brain needed a problem... because success felt unfamiliar.

Ex-corporate people get hit with this hard.

In corporate... your ceiling was clear.

You knew your salary range. You knew your title trajectory.

Now you're in business.
There is no ceiling.

And that terrifies a nervous system trained to operate within boundaries.

The upper limit shows up as limiting beliefs.
"I'm fundamentally flawed." "If I succeed too much... I'll lose my family." "More success means more burden."

These aren't conscious thoughts.

They're old programming running in the background.

So what do you do?

-Notice when you're self-sabotaging.
-When everything is going well and you suddenly catastrophize... compare yourself... or create conflict.

That's the upper limit activating.

Don't create the problem your brain is looking for.

Stay in the success. Feel the discomfort. Let yourself have it.

The only limit is the one you accept.

Stop sabotaging when things go well.
Start expanding your capacity to win.
———————
I'm Paulina and I help ex-corporate business owners scale fast. If you left the golden handcuffs and are ready to close more clients start here: https://lnkd.in/ehvPeYTp

You think you have a sales problem. You don't.
You have unconscious psychological needs running in the background that are killing your sales.


Here's what I mean...

☠️ The Need to Take Everything Personally☠️

A prospect says "I need to think about it."
You hear: "I didn't explain it well enough."

So you talk more... discount... weaken your frame.
The sale dies because you made a neutral event about you.

☠️ The Need to Be Right☠️

You want to tell people what to do instead of asking questions.

But people buy for their reasons... not yours.
The moment you need to be right... you lose the ability to guide.

Sales conversations require questions.
Your ego requires answers.

Pick one.

☠️ The Need to Be a Victim ☠️

"The market is bad right now." "People aren't buying." "Ads are too expensive."
You sound reasonable.

But what you're actually doing is handing your power to circumstances.
And the moment you give your power away... you stop closing.

☠️ The Need to Be Liked ☠️

This is the biggest sales killer.

The second you need someone to like you... you stop leading.
You soften your stance. You agree where you shouldn't. You give control of the conversation away.

People don't buy from friends.
They buy from leaders.

☠️ The Need to Be Appreciated ☠️

If you need appreciation... you'll never tell people what they don't want to hear.
You'll protect their feelings instead of their results.

And transformation cannot come from validation.


Here's the thing...

Every single one of these patterns was built in childhood to keep you safe.
But the strategies that kept you emotionally safe will bankrupt your business.

Because money doesn't respond to effort.
Money responds to identity... decisions... and emotional neutrality.

When you collapse these patterns... sales conversations become easy.

You stop managing feelings and start leading.

Pricing becomes easier. Boundaries feel natural. Decisions speed up.

Your business stops depending on you and starts growing because of you.

The question is simple...
Are you working to be right... liked... appreciated... and safe?

Or are you working to close?

———————
I'm Paulina and I help ex-corporate business owners scale fast. If you left the golden handcuffs and are ready to close more clients start here: https://lnkd.in/ehvPeYTp

You’re doing all the right things. Following up with leads. Showing up on sales calls. Posting content.
But nothing’s changing.



Here’s why.

There’s a part of you that’s fighting against every move you make.

And until you understand how it works… you’re always going to be a step behind it.

I’m talking about your old frequency.

Most ex-corporate business owners think they have a lead problem… or a sales problem… or an organization problem.

Wrong.

You have a frequency problem.

Here’s what I mean.

Every time you think “I can’t get enough leads”… you’re feeding it.

Every time you panic on a sales call and discount your price… you’re feeding it.

Every time you say “I need to think about it” when someone asks you to invest in yourself… you’re feeding it.

Your old frequency isn’t a habit.
It’s an intelligent entity that fights for its survival.

And it operates through 4 personalities:

1. SCARED
It projects fear onto any change you try to make.

-Running ads feels terrifying.
-Prospecting 2 hours a day feels overwhelming.
-Being bold on sales calls feels like you’ll get rejected.

The old you is scared to die… so it makes the new you feel scared to live.

2. SADISTIC
It loves your pain and suffering.

“See? You left corporate and now you can’t even get clients. You’re not cut out for this.”

Your negative emotions are glue to your old frequency.

3. NEEDY
It’s desperate for your attention.

You obsess over how there are no leads… no money… no sales.
Where attention goes, energy flows.

Your old frequency knows this… so it keeps you focused on what’s NOT working.

4. REACTIVE
It wants you caught up in chaos so you never become aware of the new reality.
Instead of calmly prospecting… it makes you freak out that you’re losing control of your time.

-Instead of paying for ads… it makes you think you’ll end up in a box.
-Instead of asking for the sale… it makes you think they’ll hate you.

Here’s how you escape this annoying old corporate frequency...

Stop reacting to reality.
Start responding.

Reacting = living from where you are now.
Responding = living from where you’re going.

Ask yourself:
How would the version of me in my desired reality look at this?

How would they feel about this?

How would they think about this?

The universe doesn’t reward good people.

It rewards those who match the frequency of their desired reality.

Your old frequency will fight you.

But the moment you become aware of it… you create a new path.

Default or design.

You pick.

———————
I’m Paulina and I help ex-corporate business owners scale fast. If you left the golden handcuffs and are ready to close more clients start here: https://lnkd.in/ehvPeYTp

taplio

The Battle

Cecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥

Paulina Tillman

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreCecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePaulina Tillman's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Cecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥

Paulina Tillman

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Cecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePaulina Tillman's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreCecilia Retelle Zywicki 🖥's LinkedIn Performance