She Helps Humans Remember They’re Not Machines

Hi friend,

If you’re new here, welcome to Entrepreneurs Gone Wild. I’m Sue Anderson and I’ve been a copywriter for about 20 years.

For the first 17 of those, I barely went outside. Hustle culture taught me that nature was a luxury. You know, something you earned after you finished your work. Trouble is, the work never ends.

So a few years ago, I decided to rewrite that script. My family and I are now building Wild Woods Retreat, an off-grid retreat center for entrepreneurs on our little farm in Greeneville, Tennessee. You can peek at what we’re up to here: www.wildwoodsretreat.com.

Why? Because outdoors is where the best ideas find us. And let’s be honest… the world could use some great ideas right now.

I started Entrepreneurs Gone Wild to highlight real, live examples of entrepreneurs who’ve realized the same thing: success isn’t built behind a screen. It’s grown outside in the fresh air, in the quiet, in that untamed space where creativity actually breathes.

We’re still in the early “prototype” stage out here at in the Woods… one one ground-level treehouse by the creek, one geodesic dome on the ridge, and thirty acres of forest and dreams. But it’s expanding, one visionary collaborator at a time.

This week’s feature is one of those visionaries.

Meet Maja Hanna.
From the Northern Rivers of Australia, she’s teaching artists and entrepreneurs how to stop performing and start living their work… how to lead, create, and speak from a place of truth instead of polish.

Her story is a stunning reminder that aliveness is the new professionalism.

The Wild Current: How Maja Hanna Helps Humans Remember They’re Not Machines

It started, as most good revolutions do, with a walk.

Not the soul-searching, pack-a-tent-and-find-yourself kind. Just a walk by the ocean in Australia’s Northern Rivers… cliffs, waves, and that sort of cinematic sunlight that makes you remember there’s more to life than pixels.

Somewhere between the salt spray and the sound of her own footsteps, Maja Hanna realized something: humans had become performers in their own lives. Not artists. Not creators. Performers.

And she was done with that.

The Great Unpolishing

Before founding Theatre of the Alive, Maja spent decades in performance and facilitation. She knew how to hold a stage, how to deliver a perfect line, how to perform. But somewhere in that perfection, she found the poison.

Because polish kills presence.

So she built something different. It’s not a course, not a coaching program, more like a rebellion disguised as a creative workshop. Over two and a half months, she helps artists and entrepreneurs unlearn the rules that keep them sounding impressive but empty.

Participants create a 5–10 minute performance piece. But it’s not really about the piece. It’s about what happens before it… the ceremony of reclaiming your voice, the radical act of standing in front of an audience with nothing to prove.

It’s about daring to be seen. Fully, messily, gloriously human.

Authenticity Is the New ROI

Entrepreneurs come to Maja when they’ve hit a strange kind of success: the kind that looks good on paper but feels like cardboard. They’ve built something, sure, but somewhere along the way, their passion went quiet.

She helps them find it again. Not by rebranding or optimizing, but by connecting to what she calls “the living current.”

That’s not a woo-woo term. It’s the thing that happens when you stop managing your energy and start meeting it. When you stop chasing strategies and start listening to what actually wants to move through you.

You can’t spreadsheet that.
But you can feel it.

And when entrepreneurs find it, something changes. Their words stop sounding like copy. Their offers stop feeling like sales. People start listening. Not because of marketing tactics, but because they can feel the truth in what’s being said.

The Artist Hiding in Your Business Plan

Here’s the secret nobody tells you: your artist never died. You just buried it under strategy calls, quarterly goals, and too many webinars on “client avatars.”

Maja’s work isn’t about teaching performance tricks. It’s about bringing your artist back to the surface, the part of you that remembers how to play, how to risk, how to make something without knowing if it’ll work.

Because that’s what your business needs more than another funnel.
A pulse.

She’s seen it happen: facilitators who rediscover joy, leaders who drop their armor, entrepreneurs who suddenly remember they like what they do.

One woman came into Maja’s program after 15 years as a successful coach and realized she could communicate through play and art what used to take weeks to explain. Within months, she was performing at festivals, hosting play-based events, and lighting up crowds of a hundred people.

Turns out, your business doesn’t need a better strategy.
It needs you. Unmuted.

Rebellion, Relationship, and the Work That Breathes

Maja isn’t interested in polish, productivity, or professional distance. She’s interested in relationship. To self. To others. To the current of creation itself.

That’s why she calls Theatre of the Alive “initiation work.” It’s the art of meeting your own aliveness and letting it spill out where people can see it.

And yes. It’s scary. Every participant feels it: that wild mix of excitement and terror before saying yes. Because you can’t hide behind your slides here.

But what’s on the other side? Presence. The kind that sticks. The kind that changes how you speak, sell, create, and lead.

The New Definition of “Professional”

Maja says we’re done with the kind of “professionalism” that keeps people at arm’s length. The world doesn’t need more experts behind glass.

It needs leaders who are alive in their work. People who can hold both courage and curiosity in the same breath. People who sound like people.

She’s building a movement for that, one performance, one breath, one trembling, electric moment of honesty at a time.

And if you feel that tiny, familiar spark in your chest while reading this? That might be your current calling.

You can find Maja Hanna on Instagram. Go see what aliveness looks like when it stops trying to fit in.

You’ll love this interview!

YouTube

Apple

Spotify

If Maja’s message about authentic aliveness hit home, you’ll love what my friend Lucy Dutton is teaching this month.

Lucy helps high-achieving women reclaim their energy by setting boundaries that actually stick. Because most of us don’t actually struggle with time. We struggle with saying yes when our soul is whispering no.

She’s hosting a free online workshop called:

Say “No” Without Guilt: The Boundary Blueprint Every Female Business Owner Needs

October 21st — 10 am PDT | 1 pm EDT | 6 pm BST

In this 60-minute masterclass, you’ll learn:

• The guilt-free “No” script that protects your peace and earns more respect than any color-coded calendar ever will

• How to spot the 3 hidden energy leaks draining your clarity, time, and creative fire

• The one mindset shift that transforms overwhelm into ease without sacrificing your soul

If your calendar’s full but your spirit’s fried, this is your sign.
→ Grab your free seat here

Until next week…

Hope you’ll take some “me” time outdoors every day.