Jo Fuller: [00:00:00] Hey,

Nicola: welcome to the female leaders via podcast. I’m your host. I’m Nikki Buckley, the coach working with women at the top of organizations, helping them to find that. That passion, that purpose and that excitement to have more impact and more influence drive, positive change. So just a quick introduction today.

Cause I have an incredible guest with me today. This is a lady that I followed online for a little while now and a lady that is very warm, very real, very true, very honest. And I just love that she’s authentic and I love that. She talks about really. Challenging topics that are really needed to be talked about

Jo Fuller: and needs to be normalized.

Nicola: So I’ve got the brilliant Joe Fuller with me today, and Joe is going to be talking all about the menopause, but how the menopause can actually empower women and how it can have a [00:01:00] really positive impact. It’s a really different way of looking at it. And Joe works with organizations now, and she’s one of the UKs leading menopause experts, but the way that she discussed that and the way that she shared.

A different perspective on it, I think is really, really impactful. And this conversation for me on a personal level, as someone who wants a family and is currently

Jo Fuller: dry, it was really insightful

Nicola: just to start to understand the changes that my body is starting to go through. Um, the things that I can do to support myself even now, and just taking away that scare factor, that it’s a change in your life that is going to be negatively impactful.

Whereas actually it can be. Empowering some of your life. And that just how organizations support, support employees that are going through this and understand that it’s hugely impactful, but actually out of this can come an, even more on fire employee. That’s more impactful. It’s more on purpose. That’s more implementing.[00:02:00]

But that needs some setting up needs, some consideration. It needs that normalizing of language and that

Jo Fuller: understanding of something that can seem

Nicola: externally quite scary. So this is a brilliant conversation you might want to listen to a couple of times, if you’re a woman that is going through some of these changes, you might well want to grab a notebook, can make sense.

And Jo Jo is all in and she’s absolutely brilliant. So yeah. So enjoy today’s episode. If you’ve got any feedback, drop me a message or my contact details in the show notes. Enjoy the show. Bye. Hello and welcome back to the female leaders on fire podcast. And I am your host I’m Nicola Buckley, and I help women at the very top of organizations at that very senior level.

I help them to find their fire. So really reconnect to that passion, that purpose, Sonic excitement, so that they can have more impact, more influence and income as a result, but also be a real force for good driving change across [00:03:00] organizations where it’s really, really needed. So today this is a subject that I think is really, really.

Uh, this is a subject that I think is starting to really just this change being made around this, which is really what he needed. And today I’m really, really delighted because we got Joe Fuller his day and Joe is going to be talking about just how to recognize, but how to support within organizations and women going through the menopause.

So just to introduce Joe before she introduced herself. So she’s a menopause and menstruation coach and educator, the founder of the Mary menopause. And I love that. Um, which is an online community and a host of the Mary menopause, but club podcasts. There’s quite a lot to say all at once. I love that idea of just having books that you love and just going through them and really have focused on awareness and improvement of perimenopausal symptoms for coaching and education.

And. Break free of a passive relationship. We were bought and start to understand these [00:04:00] powerful changes and limitless possibilities that your menopause brings, which I think is actually often really, really misunderstood. So I’m hoping Jade’s day can help us create some real clarity. And if you are in this chapter of your life, and I think I’m, I’m starting to pick up in that chapter.

I think Joe’s going to have some really great help and support for you today. So welcome today,

Jo Fuller: Jay. Thank you for having me. Oh, you’re

Nicola: so welcome. I say to delight, I’ve probably have to go is nudging you a couple of times, um, just to get you on. Cause I I’d had, uh, quite a few people recommended you to come on and talk about this is where my subjects, I was really keen to get someone on to talk about.

Cause I think it’s something that’s quite misunderstood and that can create quite a lot of fear sometimes and quite a lot of misunderstanding and not wanting to talk about things. So I’m really hoping you can create some clarity. But how did you just, if you could share a little bit, cause similar to me, we was chatting before you came on and you’ve got this a corporate background, but how did you come to be doing all this work now?

Just so focused on, um, [00:05:00]

Jo Fuller: menopause. Well, Mary menopause came out of my menopause. So in my early forties I noticed big changes tomorrow. Physical and psychological being. I noticed, uh, my mood drops. My skin became itchy. My sleep became disturbed and I started to have anxiety and I’d never suffered before from anxiety.

And I was kind of what the hell’s going on. I really thought that there was. There was something wrong with me. And I’d never had a conversation before about menopause. You know, my mom and I had never spoken about it when I was in puberty. She was, you know, at the end of her hormonal journey in perimenopause of our relationship was so fractious.

And how do we have a conversation about hormones? Been so healing for us. And my mom was a nurse. It was just something that wasn’t talked about. So my generation really have come into this chapter of our lives, completely unaware. So when I did my research is that what’s what’s happening. [00:06:00] And I found the word peri-menopause and I had never heard this word report before.

And to me, menopause happened in my fifties and it was possible. You’re going to help. You know, that is, that was the extent of my knowledge in my early forties little did I know that I was already in my peri-menopause and for a lot of women, it starts in their late thirties to early forties, crosses over with postpartum.

It also comes into a time of our lives. When we have got teenage children, we’re on a career draw, you know, on a career projectory, we may be caring for elderly parents and our hormones that we’re so used to having that stability in that support. Uh, suddenly declining and for some women that can decline quite rapidly and some women it’s a slow decline.

And that brings on many, many symptoms. And if you don’t know what’s going on, it’s really frightening thought, why don’t we know this? Why isn’t this on the curriculum at school? Why aren’t we taught this as young women? Why is this not part of the general. Y [00:07:00] GP so informed. Why are women being wrongly treated wrongly prescribed having surgeries and being given in a first line response it’s normally antidepressants.

So there’s this massive gap in female health, almost like a, I believe a women’s rights issue. When you look back over cases of people, people that have been mistreated and misadvised. And so I start at the moment. And I started it because I want younger women to have a clear understanding of this natural, normal hormone, hormonal transition that you cannot cure.

It cannot be avoided. It’s going to happen. Your variant function is going to decline the donors. Stop releasing the age. It’s going to stop populating. You’re going to stop having periods. You’re going to fertile years. You’re going to end. And that last third of our lives, really, for most women, it happens around your loss period, happens around the age of 51.

You’ve then got another 30 years to live. You’ve got 30 years. You know, with a long-term hormone deficiency, how do you prepare for that? And how do you [00:08:00] manage it? So you can still live a full life, you know, your next 30 years, how can you have a Merry menopause? And that’s, that’s what I want is to help women to have a Mary menopause, to give them the education, which then empowers them to make the choices they need.

And then they can carry on living a great life and not press the stop. You know, so many women press the stop button because they just think it’s all over. It’s not it’s the start. It’s the beginning. I believe it’s.

Nicola: I love that. I remember, I remember a couple of things growing up, but I think you’re right.

I don’t, I think, I think there’s more education now and I think it’s, it’s definitely started to change. Seeing some of the big companies put that into like a menopause policy in place is brilliant. I remember. My mum going through a lot of hot flushes probably a few years ago. Now. I always remember when my, my mum explained it through saying it was the change.

And I was like, oh, I don’t know what that means. It’s just, you’re just saying it’s a change. And I remember those sorts of things, but you’re right. I think at school we’re taught from a very [00:09:00] biological perspective, but we’re not taught about, we’re not really taught about the emotional impact or the physical, the physical symptoms that come out of there.

And you’d kind of just left. And if you don’t know, you’ve got nothing to compare. We’ve got nothing to chat, like a checker gangs. You’ve got no way of understanding that this, oh my God, am I the only one going through this? Which we know, you know, from my work I do with women at the very top, like so many of them might I, am I the only one to think this or to feel this?

And it almost feels like we’ve created something similar with the menopause as well, almost like making it, so this kind of dark secret of, is it what you think that comes from? Is that like to set a shame around getting older or.

Jo Fuller: That last one, like historic it’s it’s. I mean, it goes back to the patriarchy.

It goes back to burning us, which is, you know, in the menstrual cycle. No women’s menstrual cycle. So my big, the biggest tool that I use in my coaching and all my education is the menstrual cycle. Incredible tool that we have in built in us, you know, and more women know more about the [00:10:00] cycle on their washing machine than they do about their, their own cycle.

So much information on their, you know, mental, physical well-being. And you go back hundreds of years to when paganism ended and the church came to the UK, they were scared. They were scared of the power of. The powerful older woman, they were scared of period. They were scared of the intuition that women have, the strength that they had, their resilience, that they had their health.

And they then started to cautious. And the menstrual cycle became something to be ashamed of. Women were bad. Women were turned against each other. So there’s, you know, there’s a theory that. Women can, um, it’d be quite bitchy towards each other. They could be quite competitive. They can count on each other.

They do reckon that goes back to the time of the, which is when, you know, people, women were having to turn in their sisters and their mothers to save themselves that, you know, it was encouraged for women to turn on each other. And it’s so deep rooted in, in our culture. So it’s definitely a patriarchal thing.

The fact that we [00:11:00] are on a, um, you know, women are similar. Yeah. Our day is, is linear. Men are linear, you know, they wake up and go to Russia, testosterone, buy, buy, sell, sell what? W w w what come home flop on the sofa women. Aren’t like. With secure, we work on a 24 hour clock, a 28 day cycle. So everything has been quashed into, into the patriarchy and it’s, you know, women were encouraged, you know, look at films back in the eighties, working or women were encouraged to do.

Delete that periods and carry on a period was deemed a handicap. It was something that made you emotionally unstable or incapable of doing your work and capable of doing your job. So women deleted it and they just pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. And I think now there is much more awareness and jive of women’s hormonal health.

How important is. Gift is what strength is. And, you know, there’s a bigger whitening around it, about how important it is. And you know, young girls now are much more interested in asking about what does the pill do? You know, if you, [00:12:00] if you like every month you produce a bank of hormones that goes into a health bank account for when you get past menopause bank, if you don’t often relate, if you, if, if you’re just on the pony, you don’t often, like you don’t produce.

And it’s such a biological hormone. We need each and progesterone and testosterone for a longterm house. It’s so important that we offer education around the pill needs to be bigger, broad. And why do you need to talk about the long-term effects of being unconscious perception and the benefits of having a natural cycle?

I love so much. That’s a very, long-winded answer to

Nicola: so passionate about it.

Jo Fuller: You know, if your periods are painful and happy, there’s a reason there’s something going on our bodies. Talk to us all the time that, you know, and they talk to us. Perimenopause for many women is our body’s really shouty to make lifestyle changes, especially when it comes to stress management and for a lot of women painful, heavy periods.

There was a deep rooted cause as either something going on that needs treated or is a lifestyle change up. And many, if the [00:13:00] lifestyle changes, what you’re eating is what you’re not exercising. It’s what you’re not saying. It’s stress of a job or a relationship is about making change. And that, you know, it’s a clear today conversation of, well, just trying to help.

Yeah. And a lot of women ignore it and we need to educate ourselves and melts with more bees signs. Yeah.

Nicola: So I, I work with a lot of women on how they feel about themselves. And we, I talk a lot about like warning lights on the dashboard. It feels like this is a very similar thing of, you know, we don’t emotionally, when I worked with women, it’s like, I don’t want to face into that.

That’s really painful. That’s really difficult. That feels really heavy to think about. But actually near the release of that, we lean into it and the release of it, that license that it’s almost like if you don’t, if you sort of tried suppress the emotion, it’s going to pop up somewhere else. And it’s like a forest fire, like it’s going to keep coming back and it feels like quite a similar thing of.

Is that demand to be heard. And it, I know emotionally women get into more. You can get really get into much darker place over time if they’re not leaning [00:14:00] into it and seeing what’s there and shining light on it, if you’re just suppressing the emotions, you suppress all emotions, you can’t just say, oh, I don’t, I don’t want those.

I don’t want the ones that make me feel sad or make me feel low. I just want to feel the good ones. It doesn’t work like that. So this.

Jo Fuller: You can’t be happy all the time. And I think there is this social pressure to be happy all the time. And when you look at a cycle, like if you look at it tastes, but 28 day cycle, that the week that you have your period, the week of that bleed, you’re tired.

You’re exhausted. It takes a lot of energy for the body to be. It’s just completed a full cycle and it needs to rest. So it can fuel to, to complete another cycle again, because we are designed to have children and, you know, we don’t have children. We, you know, we have a bleed, but our body is every month trying to prepare us to be as healthy and energized as possible so we can conceive.

So one of the clearest and earliest ways that our body talks to us is when we have a bleed and we’re exhausted [00:15:00] and we’re talking. And it’s like, listen to that, because that really is your body saying, we need to stop. We’ve got to do all this again. And then, you know, from new bleed, your estrogen rises, you come into that.

That’s that second week of your cycle preparing you that last push before ovulation, where you are normally at your best. I mean, don’t get on with too much estrogen when they overlap. But the majority of women, when they opulate in that middle week of their cycle, life is. We’re looking good with feeling good.

You know, we can feel company the opposite to how we felt two weeks earlier. And then when that comes around again, a lot of women then think there’s something wrong. Two weeks ago, I was really happy. I was really energized demon. I did everything where I didn’t upset anybody. I had great conversations. My communication was brilliant.

I brought a new business, you know, whatever I got promotionals for res. And then now it’s like, like Richard for my inner critic showing up, uh, my skin feels dreadful. My energy is down. I’m crying, everything, communicate with anyone. I’m upsetting [00:16:00] everybody that is normal. Not usual hormonal cycle. And once you can understand that it can be so much more kind and compassionate to yourself and also plan your mum around those emotional highs and lows.

And it’s the most powerful, powerful tool that we’ve got yet. It’s, it’s been ignored so much is being ignored. And when we come into perimenopause, if we’re cycle tracking, if we’re looking at our cycle is what are the clear indications that our hormones are shift? You’ll be able to clearly see that things are, things are right.

And with that awareness and that knowledge you’ll be able to manage it and make the changes that you need to have a Mary menopause intake, where we start listening to ourselves more and stop putting, stop putting all our agency over into the hands of other people with. It’s there intrinsically get FEMA, let’s be witches again.

Let’s tap into that female intuition. Nobody’s going to burn this anymore. We’re still living in that [00:17:00] fear, you know, and that will be in us, probably for generations to come that it’s okay to be you. And it’s okay to feel you. And it’s okay to have this myriad of emotions of emotions because that’s what makes you.

Yeah.

Nicola: Oh my gosh. I love, I love so much that I did. Um, I don’t think it was slash I’m confused here. So I’m still don’t think I’m in 2022. We definitely are. But the April four last night I did, um, a program that was quite a very deep, quite emotional kind of healing program. And we, we did a particular focus on the, which.

Which wound and like, so how generation is women? We carry that generational kind of trauma of what all, what previous generations went through that we are still carrying now that actually influences our behavior. And that’s almost like a genetic level. And then out to that group, You create your framework beliefs when you’re very young, up until at six year old and then a kind of a teenage years.

So those two combined can [00:18:00] essentially shapes how you experience life and how you’ve show up in life. And it’s just really interesting to hear you talking about it in relation to this, because I think I’m, I’m quite weary. I’m quite spiritual, but I, I just, I let that. The level of spirituality, I talk about probably be a bit dependent on my clients.

Cause for some of them they’re like, oh my God, I love that. Or I already do that. Or I had a reading or some of them are just like, eh, bit uncomfortable that, but I’ll give it a try. And some of them are like, Nope, not for me and whatever. Wherever they are on the scale, it’s better richer. That’s our choice.

And that’s absolutely fine. And I’ll just nudge them a little bit just to just share some ideas, which you could support them with where they are now. So how that relates to it and that talking about the which wound. I think it’s just almost links back to that women in leadership that, and why we there’s two parts, the women empowering themselves, but also how the structure has been and how we’re still in that same patriarchal structure.

And this isn’t about. [00:19:00] Whenever I talk about, it’s not about men versus women or towards it’s the position that we’re in and how do we change it altogether for the benefit of everyone, you know, minorities and the majority, and just collectively, and there’s two parts that I’d really love just you to share about.

And I would love just to talk a little bit about if, for women at the woman at the top now, and just imagine this sort of woman is, might well be some of the women you work with a very top of an organization. They fought really hard to get where they are. Um, some days are feeling brilliant. Some days they’re feeling awful.

They go through kind of like probably their own cycle related to their work, as well as the monthly cycle. What, what can you kind of help them with just to start recognizing they might be already in that chapter of their life for the menopause.

Jo Fuller: Well first it would be, it would be to start checking their cycle.

Um, so I mean, it it’s invaluable and you know, I do have two minds, you know, in really senior positions in companies and tracking their cycle has been transformative, especially when it [00:20:00] comes to meetings, organizational presentations, all that kind of thing, just knowing, and it’s actually opening up a conversation within their organizations around.

X has got her period. And it’s like, it’s been transformative for so many people and it’s spilling down now her PA that, you know, so checking your cycle is huge. If you are on hormonal contraception, you’re not having a natural cycle. I. I’m not a doctor. I’m not getting advice. I would really think about why you are on that hormonal contraception.

Is there something else you can use cycle tracking is actually more effective if you take the temperature than any form of contraception and there’s no side effects and any synthetic hormone contraception that you’ll take it, there’s going to be side effects. So I would really. So we are of an age now where yeah, it’s take our agency, understand why you’re on that contraception.

Is it just a habit? Do you really need to be on it? And what side effects? You know, a lot of the anxiety, anxiety and depression is linked to the pill because you’re not [00:21:00] producing PR for gesturing. So if that’s something you’re suffering from fatigue, weight gain, things like that, it can all be attributed to being on the pill.

So. I have a look at why you’re on the pill. If you’re not in the pill cycle, tracking this amazing, you will be able to look at your productivity and your energy levels. You know? So it’s, it’s, it’s an amazing management tool. I can, you know, any bit of a sounding board about it, they can contact me boundaries.

Again, checking your cycle really helps you to put in boundaries and say no. So if you love that, yeah. And you know that you’re going to have a bleed and somebody wants you to, you know, people are getting back to traveling for work. Now that you know, that is a thing that’s happening and people are booking and things for the rest of the year.

So again, it’s not forward planning. It’s actually, no, that’s not going to work. Because I’m going to have my period that day. Can I do it a week later? Can I do it the week before? You know, just little things about being able to manage your energy and saying no around your cycle, hugely important. And that then helps to manage your stress, which is on the biggest triggers of the symptoms of perimenopause is stress related.

So it’s stressed at [00:22:00] work. It’s stress outside of work. It’s what you’re eating. It’s what, you’re not exercising. It’s drinking too much caffeine. It’s having too much alcohol. All comes into that. And LinkedIn to that big enough, which draw a diagram, everything really would come back to stress. And what is so important is that stress has such an impact on our adrenals, these little glands that sit above our kidneys, they’re tiny and they produce the fight or flight hormones, the cortisol and adrenaline.

And we need those. You know, they, again are intrinsic to us. They go back to, you know, when we’re in living in the cave and we needed fight and fight, but there’s no tigers behind us anymore. There’s men coming to burn us anymore. You know, really, we don’t have an awful lot to be scared. Thankfully in this day and age, but we still, you know, genetically it keeps in all the time and too much of those fight or flight hormones will exhaust your adrenals.

And when our ovaries stop producing the sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, our adrenals give us a backup. They are so important as we age to have the supply bones. And there’s only little spots that we get, [00:23:00] but it’s enough. You know, mother nature is really clever and she’s already, you know, one step ahead of us all the time.

So it’s so important that we look after our adrenal health, all stages of our life. So yeah, managing. Putting in boundaries being conscious of being compassionate. It’s okay to say the successful woman in Sinai. And I mentioned the most successful women that we know that are in the media are probably very good at saying no.

Yeah.

Nicola: Perhaps it is something, I work a lot with my clients on just add some of them. It starts to literally standing in front of her and learning, saying, yeah, Cause they’re so used to say the word they get almost quite stuck and it’s meant to be a known. It comes out as a yes. It’s kind of, you know, um, what about symptoms?

So how would someone, how would a woman recognize that they’re in that perimenopause chapter? It gets

Jo Fuller: a three most common symptoms of perimenopause are psychological. So the symptoms are a mix of psych psychological physical symptoms, but the three most common and the three that me. Completely unaware [00:24:00] where brain fog, anxiety, low mood depression, they’re the three most common.

And they’re the ones that you generally start to experience early on. And they are frightening. They, they really like what’s happening. I’ve gone from being, you know, high functioning, quite normal mental capability to fuck me. I can’t string a word together. I keep forgetting everything and I. Get out of this, this Mo this low mood.

So a lot of them will go to the doctor and they’ll be given antidepressant. It’s actually the start of your promo, the pause and it’s to do with your estrogen, your testosterone levels dropping and your annual progesterone. So awareness, knowing that that’s what it is. I mean, HRT. Now becoming much more popular, it’s got a huge amount of advocates around it.

Isn’t very high-profile advocates around it. I am not anti hate HLT at all. I’m not on it. It is something I am considering because my brain fog is becoming crippling at times. And you can start taking HR team. I think the thing to remember is your menopause starts before your periods. [00:25:00] And I think so many women think something that happens in the fifties and they don’t realize it happens on so early on in their life.

So I think it’s the recognition of that. And if your symptoms become debilitating and there are all sorts of 34 symptoms listed on the nice guidelines on the NHS website, but the menopause compensation, you know, it’s kind of gone mainstream over the past year. There are so many more than 34. You know, things like allergies that become very common in later life because he shouldn’t, it affects our gut microbiome and allergies generally tend to start like that.

So, you know, a lot of allergies on the decrease in hormones, each is anxiety driving in a painful sex jock in the beads, you know, a bunch of atrophy or these things linked to Aisha being a mood Preqin and an anti-inflammatory, there are so many, so I would just say. Symptom track I’ve got online. If you go to my website, there’s a free download there for symptom tracker, start tracking symptoms, start making a note of it.

And when they start to [00:26:00] clock up, most women really experience between five and seven symptoms. Each 80% of women experienced symptoms, 20%. And that’s the other thing I think with so much talk about menopause. A lot of women are dredging it and thinking, oh my God, I’m going into the spice of my life. It’s just going to be a bit of a call crash.

Not at all, go into it, prepared, go into it, knowing, go into bed, being prepared to make changes, to improve your health and wellbeing. And it can be an incredible phase of your. Like I said, you know, I’m very medicals up, put what business, you know, through my menopause. And it’s, you know, it’s the case for so many women.

It doesn’t have to be this the end of your life. As you know, it really is the start of a new phase, but you’ve got to be resilient and you’ve got a, you’ve gotta be aware of it. And you’ve got to be. To accept the change, embrace the change and go with the change and not fight it. Yeah. I love so much of that.

And

Nicola: what about in organizations? So obviously we both work with organizations. Say, how can. How can organization, [00:27:00] obviously there’s the policy part that is also an awareness part. There’s also a support part. So how can organizations start really support women to help them recognize it, but also when they’re going through it, how to give them support that they might need?

Jo Fuller: Yeah. Oh, it depends. I mean, it’s all depends on the organization. Whether or not, you know, I’ve watched a big supermarket chain. You’ve got people in head office. They’ve got people working actually on shop floors. I’ve got people working distribution. Yeah. So, you know, for, um, it depends on the organization, how you make those reasonable adjustments to somebodies working knife, but just making it an open conversation, you know, it’s, it needs to start at the top.

My advice is to always have a champion, have, have, have a senior champion, have somebody who’s really championing the cause. Educate your library. You know, if you’ve got a 23 year old line manager and he’s managing a group of women who are in their late forties, early fifties, he needs to know, you know, like nobody’s going to have a mom or an old assistant, you know, he’s going to, it’s important that line managers or whatever age they are are quit.

They know what the policy is. They know, you know, [00:28:00] what the, what the boundaries are, how they can manage sickness and absence, what they can give, can they enough working? Can they give some companies in now giving menopause stage there extra days that if you, um, you know, if you’ve had a jet for night’s sleep or very symptomatic, you can have a, you know, a couple of extra days in the year dotted around.

So educate your line managers, let them know where the policy is at. In the know what’s in the policy, make them fully equipped and then open, then open up the conversation to have. Got it all prepared in the background and then open up the conversation to everybody. So I’ve done lots of metaphors awareness.

It’s kind of lunch and learn did them in person before lockdown. I’d be doing them over zoom during lockdown, and that just then opens up the conversation and those workshops are open to. All ages, all genders it’s for everybody. It’s not just for the women to come, everybody coming onto those that Ben’s dots, the conversation and energy like this limitation.

So a lot of companies have slack or what fat groups that women have owned themselves, or do facilitation [00:29:00] in those, which again is great. So they can touch it, chat, chat, chat, and then once a month they’ll come in and do like a Q and a answering questions, you know, give them any support they need. And then once.

And also, and also group coaching is great. If you’ve got, you know, some pairs, uh, senior female peers and, and senior in English at same, and it’s companies want to see more parity in their senior leadership. If we want to see more parity in senior leadership, we won’t know senior women in politics. If we want more senior leaders in the world heading out Khan, Hong company start their own companies, we have to educate on female hormonal health and we have to support.

And it’s like, if you’ve got, you know, bright, young thing in her thirties, you know, support her all the way through her hormonal journey, her postpartum, her eternity, everything, you know, be there for her all the way. And we will produce some amazing female leaders, but so many of them just crush them burn when they get to the mid fifties, because they’ve had enough and they go unsupported.

Understood. And it’s like, we need to keep [00:30:00] these women in work and they want to work. They just feel so debilitated half the time and just not.

Nicola: And I will say for many of them, that’s, you know, that’s the top of their experience. That’s when they’re going to be at their best. If we can support them with managing how they’re feeling and the physical symptoms they’ve got experience, and they’ve got, you know, they’ve been for those really hard yards, the younger generation is still going through to get to that point and their role model.

So it’s, you know, so important that they have that support. Because that is role modeling across an organization that someone can have that journey of, you know, 10 years in a company, 15, 20 years. That’s that’s unusual now,

Jo Fuller: women over 50, the fastest growing workforce. Oh, I’d love that. So, um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, we, we are fools.

We are really powerful. So we have a huge, you know, if you look back to the old structure of, you know, the, the, the grandma, you know, in, in the family was the one that read the stories and handed down the [00:31:00] information that talks to the grandchildren. She was the. And it’s like it’s time for us to be the WISEWOMEN again, that the negative narrative about aging is it’s time for it to stop.

And it’s time to recognize how much value we have as older women in all areas of our lives, in all aspects of it’s business, or whether it’s in families or relationships. We are the wise women. Listen to us. We’re coming for you.

It’s the rise of the feminine neck. I think we are sick of being roomed by, you know, the white male who is screwing up left right. And center. You know, I don’t want to get political, but it’s like, you see it globally. It’s like wherever the problems what’s, what’s the cause it’s, you know, it’s generally the white male, sorry, white males.

I know the majority of you are lovely, but you know, there is massive gap in the market and we are coming to Philly. Yeah, and we need to start preparing as younger women, giving them, preparing them, you know, to, to, to take on the [00:32:00] mantle and do massive change. I think we’re only going to see massive change and we’re seeing more women up that

And until that happens, I don’t think we can see that. I, I I’ve

Nicola: had, uh, this has been a brilliant day for the podcast say, cause we’ve quoted four great episodes and nothing. Everyone has in their own way. A very similar message. And it was really brilliant to have so many women that were such brilliant bios as well, what they’ve done and what they’re doing now and have a real Coles that’s for in that heart.

And also a driving such brilliant much needed change. And organizations because it is needed because what has worked before is not going to work now. And we went from no one thought two years ago that the entire world could work from home for like the best part of two years. And I’ve got some clients that have they’ve, you know, they’re in senior leadership team, they put into place hybrid work and policy.

And most of the teams are adhering to that. But then the B a B a, a [00:33:00] particular leader that is just like, I just don’t want to do that. And it’s like, well, that’s, that’s not crazy imperative. Everyone has that policy, but your you’re making it different. And you’ll make you want to eyeball your team every day.

You’re taking away that freedom. How’s that working? That’s just, you know, how, how we, how we’ve lived in how we are isn’t and how we’ve been. Isn’t how we should be. Because everything, it feels like everything’s been thrown up in the air and it’s coming down in such a way that we need to be open to just things being different.

And I think women at the top is no longer a nice to have. It’s not a lip service. It’s not tokenism. It can’t be. Because what has been before isn’t working and actually there’s so much proof and stats that women at the top means there’s more, there’s more equality, there’s fresh ideas, there’s more innovation, there’s more loyalty.

And if you want to get, you know, go to the bottom line, is there those companies more profitable? So, you know, this is, this makes so much sense if [00:34:00] everything, and even if it flattens, it exists in hierarchy may maybe that needs to evolve as world’s evolving. So damn quickly. So I’m going to get off my soapbox now.

Um, I have two final questions for you. One being, do you have a final message for today? I think we’ve kind of captured it in, in that, to

Jo Fuller: be honest, my final message. So my two sort of little slogans I have, I’ll be prepared. So, you know, your menopause is a natural hormonal transition. You know, we start our periods in our teams and we end up here with know in midlife and it’s like, can’t avoid it, but work with it, you know, manage it, understand it, and really harness the power.

It’s powerful. It’s the time for a lot of women, it’s surfaces and awful lot of emotions. It’s stuff that we’ve suppressed down, you know, once. We lose those hormones. An awful lot comes up an awful lot of women and it’s like work with it, deal with it, move into post-menopause moving to those 30 years.

Post-menopause healthy, physically and mentally. [00:35:00] So be prepared, not scared and educate before you medicate. So again, not anti contraception or HRT, but understand what it is you’re being given and why you’re being given and questions. So if you’re on, if you go to your doctor and you’ve got something and you’re given something in your own, but it doesn’t feel right.

Question it, we are allowed to question. We have agency over what we put in our bodies. So, yeah, educate before you medicate. So just understand what your body’s doing. Understand your hormones. You don’t need a medical degree to understand your hormones. There’s so much information out there. There’s books, there’s authors, there’s podcasts.

There’s YouTube. Learn about your body. Amazing. You and you are amazing. And when you start learning about your body, you realize how amazing you are as a woman and it’s, um, guests, don’t making choices based on that. Love that.

Nicola: Thank you and Mike people in our audience today, find out more about the work

Jo Fuller: that you do.

Oh, I have a website to the very menopause.com. I’m on Instagram at the moment. A pause. If on your [00:36:00] LinkedIn, Joe Fuller. Yeah. I’m kind of. I’m trying to, I mean, too many cases

with, so

Nicola: thank you so much for today, Joe. I think this is really, really important once a day. Um, and I just think it’s going to help so many women snow it’s, you know, it’s okay to have a conversation. It’s okay to just really get super aware of what’s going on and what’s different. What’s changing for you.

And also just ask for that help and understanding. And if it’s not there, then it’s highlighting a gap that should be there. So, yeah. Thank you so much for today. That’s it for today on the podcast, I’ve just absolutely loved today’s episode. If you’re looking for helping your organization with, or women that are at the top or the aspiring leaders drop me a message.

All the contact details are in the show notes, or if you’re looking for a one-to-one coach to work with, just to really have that more impact and [00:37:00] influence as a female leader. Okay. And just drop me a message in the show notes, and I will see you on the next show. Thanks so much. Bye

If what I took about really resonates with you and you love what I have to say, and you have moments and flashes of inspiration from the podcast. I would invite you to get in touch, to find out how I can help you. So individually, that can be through my coaching focus program for my VIP program, depending on how you like to learn and what will suit you, or I can help you in your organization to really help the women that you work with across the organization at all different levels.

And at that very senior level to really feel empowered and to know that they can reach the very, the most senior levels in that organization and to give them the. In who they are and the clarity and what they want to be able to get there. And we do that through workshops, [00:38:00] do that through leadership programs, and we can do that.

Free consulting work. If you are looking for help with any of that, drop me an email nycla@nicholasschoolco.com, the spelling, not the easiest. So all the details are in the show notes results I get for clients. Clients have been promoted twice in the six months we’ve worked together. They’d been invited to join the board.

They’ve gone from redundancy to being offered three dreams. They’ve gone from being pushed out of an organization to going into bigger organization and a bigger role with a bigger pay rise and just a quote from a client that particular. I’ve gone from the pit of despair. When I started working with Nick to just being really happy and she is an incredibly empowered leader.

Now, if you’re not quite ready for that, you can download my overwhelmed on fire guide the details that are in the show notes, but that really helps you everyday to stay in your fire. So it helps you to clear your head, helps you to come back to what’s important to you, and it helps us have that most impact and influence every single day.

It’s a little Quip sheet that you can just go through and tick. So go and download [00:39:00] that. Or you can subscribe to my newsletter, which comes out every Friday, which is a Roundup of the week. Really? So what’s going on in my world. What’s the blog for that week, a quick video, that’s going to help your particular subject.

And it’s all about helping female leaders to find their fire and also stats and any research from the industry as well. And things that I’m reading the. Um, recommendations that we’re making. So go and subscribe to that. And finally, for the podcast, if you haven’t done so already, I would love you to go and leave us a review and subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

And you’re always going to have the one that release and doing that as well. Not only helps you, but it also means that we’re going to reach more women and we’re going to be able to start that revolution to helping female leaders to keep that. Find their fire and keep it. So keep that passion, that purpose side excitement.

So if you haven’t done that already, please go and do that. Thank

Jo Fuller: you.[00:40:00] .