Speaker 1 (00:00):

[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (00:11):

Hello and welcome to the female leaders on fire podcast, episode number 16, and I am your host. I am Nicola Buckley, and I’m the coach helping women at the top of the corporate world find their fires. So helping them to refine that passion, that excitement and that purpose so that they can have more impact and influence and a result more income, but also be a real force for good in the corporate world. Today. I’m super excited because I have an amazing guest I’m joined by Mikayla Leyland and McKayla is a performance and mindset coach, a speaker, and an offer of bounce back from burnout and also her children’s book and mean little cow. And I’ve worked with McKayla, I think on and off probably for a couple of years now. And her absent magic hand, her gift is that she helps you to not only create your vision, but also honor it in your day to day.

Speaker 2 (01:03):

So part of my find your fire process is helping women at the very top to find that vision. So Makeda’s helped support has really helped me at times when I lost, like we all do in the days they lost track of my vision helped me to come back to it, but also to help me honor it in the steps that I’m taking towards it day-to-day and put myself first more and more. So she’s someone that I loved working with and I thought it’d be brilliant to get on today. And really we’re going to be talking about how to keep your energy as a woman at the top, so that you can keep holding that vision so that it’s not just about having some impact and influence, but it’s really about fulfilling all your potential so that you can make a real difference in the corporate world. So, hi McKayla.

Speaker 3 (01:42):

Hello, Nick. I’m so excited to be with you today.

Speaker 2 (01:46):

I love all conversations. It always, it can go a bit random, but in an absolutely brilliant way. So I’m super excited that you’re one of my very early guests. So welcome. So just to start off with, can you just tell us a little bit about how you came to be doing all the brilliant stuff that you’re doing now?

Speaker 3 (02:01):

So I started out my career is a as a teacher, but very quickly burnt myself out just by having great success in that area. My mean little cowboy voice, I, the inner critic voice, you know, and helped me not believing that anything I was doing was good enough. And you know, that hyper achiever, the people pleased saboteurs that I talk about a lot. They were just running the show. And so even when I got second in department, I did not see how good I was in the second year of me teaching. You know, it was a pretty big promotion for somebody who was just starting out and then went and left teaching because I really was quite poorly at the end. And we decided to teach him wasn’t for me, it actually wasn’t as much teaching wasn’t for me. But again, I hadn’t, I didn’t know enough about myself.

Speaker 3 (02:45):

I hadn’t got the self awareness to stop these patterns of behavior. Um, so moved into the, into the charity third sector and had an absolutely fantastic time working up into senior leader roles where I was eventually managing a lovely charity, but unfortunately we had all our core funding was, was pulled. And so hat to mergers to save everybody’s jobs and this big glossary project that I was running and save all of that. We had to go into a larger organization and it was when I got there, I got to think it was really interesting when, you know, the whole concept of find your fire, because what happened to me there was, you know, the organization, they were lovely. There’s so many wonderful people in that, that work they were doing was fantastic. But as I got into that role in that organization, I was actually on a trajectory of burnout, not because of overwhelm, which is what often you feel like the burnout is going to come from that.

Speaker 3 (03:34):

And I’m talking genuine, you know, medical burnout here, and it’s not, you know, sometimes it’s used this quite flippantly that term, I really mean medical burnout, but I could feel myself going on that trajectory again, because I was so wonder WellMed, you know, I’d made my way to the top of that management ladder. And, you know, it was all about auditing and targets and I was not the uplifting delivery focused work and the coaching training, you know, the teacher in me effectively that teacher had to come out, has to come out somehow in what I’m doing. It has to, because it’s who I am is fundamentally who I am. And that’s what lights me up and lifts me up. So that happened. And then I decided to go self-employed. And as the same, my first few years, vision was a part of what I’ve always been a part of what I do, but with the pandemic, I could really see some of the amazing purpose driven women in business, around me finding it very, very difficult to stay with the vision. And so I decided actually I need to put more focus on that and show people how to come back to their vision as a tool to maintain great energy management, which is again effectively what I’ve been doing to help people with their performance over the last six years. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (04:47):

Absolutely. No, I absolutely love it. So would you say when you’re in that moment, when you, when you got to the top and you were feeling what I, so the language that I hear women come to me with is I feel lost. I feel stuck. I feel like I’m a robot. I don’t know who I am anymore. And it’s almost gone beyond the apathy of giving so much. It’s gone into almost feeling resentment for giving so much that, is it at that point that you kind of almost lose your vision?

Speaker 3 (05:14):

I think so. I think again, because the cause obviously, I mean every role I’ve ever had contributions, if you’re huge value for me. And I know you do a lot of work with people with values as well, you know, contribution is, is a hugely important value to me and I, even though I was contributing to the organization, I absolutely was, but I didn’t feel like I was because I was doing work. That just isn’t my zone of genius at all, you know, and, you know, pouring over financials and, you know, ticking boxes for audit trails, et cetera, monitoring and reviewing that. It’s just not, it didn’t give me anything, even though I was contributing to the organization. So I was, it had really created a misalignment. The whole focus of the organization was absolutely part of what could be my vision, but I wasn’t doing the work within that organization that was allowing me to feel like I was fulfilling my vision of supporting vulnerable adults.

Speaker 3 (06:13):

You’re honorable young people, et cetera, et cetera. So it’s, I think that’s a really important part of getting clarity around your values is a big part of creating a vision that’s going to work for you. But then it’s also recognizing how those values are playing out in the day to day. And we often find that we lose, that’s why we’re feeling lost. And we’re starting to feel because actually the mental, emotional energy of resisting and pushing against that is exhausting. And so that’s when we ended up on that energetic, downward spiral where the mean little Cowboys and all their supporters can start running away.

Speaker 2 (06:49):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We’ll come back to values, um, in a minute. Cause I, you know, I can talk about that all day long. It’s one of my absolute passions in what I do and what I teach and coach, but if we strip it back to the very beginning, so the women at the very top, how would you define vision for them? What’s, what’s the definition that they can hold onto and kind of understand if it’s something they baby not fought about for a while, if they’re quite busy in their day to day and delivering on their objectives and managing their team. And obviously with everything that’s looked down as ball, what does, what does vision, what would it mean for women at the top?

Speaker 3 (07:24):

So I think again, I mean, if you look at it in an organizational letter level, it is basically having clarity on where you want to move forward to in the future and the aspiration that you have as an organization. So I’ll give you an example of a charity that I love, you know what they’re saying? It’s basically, it’s, Alzheimer’s society says a world without dementia. It’s really simple, but you can absolutely see clearly what they’re aiming for. Now. They then have a mission statement, which then goes into detail about how that plays out on a day to day. But the overarching vision is that. And again, if you think about your business vision, for example, because again, when I work with people, particularly when I’m doing my be clear and rise, vision board workshops, we look at both life ambition because that’s another thing, you know, let’s, let’s face it in the world of work.

Speaker 3 (08:08):

And I would say it happens for both, for any gender, you know, regardless of your gender or non-gender, it happens for everybody, but you know, work in some, particularly if you’re working for somebody else, young, you know, you, there is a assumption that almost, you know, you get to work as if you haven’t got a life and then you go into live as if you have, you know, the aim is that you would then not work, you know, not take your work home with you and live at home. And the reality is the energy of both leads into the other. It’s impossible because we are human, not tick. And so for me, again, that’s why it’s important to look at our life vision and our business vision together and have an aspiration and desire for what we want that to look like in the future, because then we can really clearly see if you’re going to choose a business model that is going to have you work in, you know, 17 hour days, or choose a role that’s going to have you work in 17 hour days, but your biggest value is freedom.

Speaker 3 (09:03):

Then ultimately that vision isn’t going to work for you in terms of how it’s going to make you enjoy the process and enjoy the day to day. So for vision, for me, it is about the future. It is about where we want to, you know, what we want something to be like moving forward. But one of the things that, again, a principle that I think is maybe a little bit different in the way that I come at visions and other people is that I truly believe we can, we can live a lot of that energetically in the day to day. And in fact, that’s the only way that that vision is truly going to be realized in a way that’s going to feel fulfilling, because if we’re always striving just for this thing, that’s out here in the future and not actually enjoying the fruits of that on a regular basis. Again, this is where the avoidance of the term and the procrastinator can start really chipping in because ultimately it’s too far in the future for us to enjoy any of the rewards. And that’s why, again, you know, sometimes we have to look at the way that we’re goal setting and creating steps that actually feel that you are able to, you know, you re you’re actually able to have some of them wards a bit as you get otherwise again, as humans, it just can feel too hard if we’re constantly waiting for that to happen.

Speaker 2 (10:23):

That’s nearly as she was speaking there. And I was thinking about something that I see a lot of my clients with and women at that very senior level struggle with is the, I’ll be happy when mentality. So almost like an external reference for your happiness. Yeah. When I get to this, when I get my board director role, when I get this next qualification, when I get my next promotion, when I get, when I get to here, I have this house and it’s, it’s actually, it really frustrates me because it’s, it’s placing happiness on that external reference point, but we all know happiness also is completely from within it’s completely an inside job. And I love what I love about the way that you talk about visions is the it’s in the small things day-to-day as well. So for me, that would be actually I get time.

Speaker 2 (11:06):

I get an hour at lunch day in between podcasts and fees. I get an hour to go and walk my dogs, or I get to go and have a great lunch. Or I know at the end of my day, I just get to spend time with my fiance. And it’s so small little bits. And that for me, those are like you said, one of my values is freedom and those are my elements of freedom or knowing today’s quite a long day, but then tomorrow I don’t really need, I’ve got a couple of calls, but I don’t, I don’t need to do anything particularly. And it’s that balance. And for me, that’s really energized if I could just share a quick story. So I, before I met you and I was, I called it my magic day. So I had this magic day process that I use with clients. I did it for myself as well, which is my best ever Groundhog day. So day that I could have over and over again. And I would just love it and it’d be my life and my work and all the details of it and what it means, and then start moving towards it. So actually back then, I didn’t have much of my magic day. So I ha is when I have my gym business. So I’ll be up at 6:00 AM. I’d be finishing like seven or eight o’clock in between them. [inaudible]

Speaker 2 (12:05):

all of those parts. We thought we might have dogs in at some point as part of my magic day. So I didn’t have a lot of it at all at that point. So it was this beautiful house. It was a family, it was children, it was a partner. There was dogs doing work. That was more the coaching work that I do now. So how did this whole, whole dream kind of mapped out on my magic day? So I didn’t have any of that. And it felt like you said, quite far away and it kind of lost power and, and kind of resonance and reliability for me. But the first part of it that I actually could have was my, my dog, Sam say my dog, Sam was a rescue dog. And I only went to go and look, never go and look, because that doesn’t work. You’ve got to be ready.

Speaker 3 (12:48):

That’s why I’ve got Charlie.

Speaker 2 (12:51):

And Sam was the first part of my magic day because suddenly I had this lovely little dog. Yes. He had came with troubles and worries, and anxieties cause he was a rescue dog, but over time we’ve just formed the relationship. And I just, it was unconditional love. It was partly wanted. It made me go out, made me walk in this relationship that grew over time to absolutely became, you know, the center each of as well. But that was the one element that in that moment that I could have, and that I could create and that I had, I had influence and control over. So I love, I love how powerful this work is. So we’ve kind of given a great description. So for women at the top, what do you think is the power of the vision? So if I think back to that and Sam was, my little dog was the first part of that vision that gave me almost that hope and that trust and that faith, that, that vision would become my life. And it is more than ever now. So what is that power revision, do you think for women

Speaker 3 (13:44):

That’s the whole point, isn’t it? So the vision basically has to be said, it’s that future focus? I think there’s several things that I sort of teach within the context of energy management to help us to work towards it in a way that allows us to stay focused when things don’t go to plan because things will, you know, there will be ways that this doesn’t go to plan. And also because, you know, we’ll put timeframes on it and again, you know, timeframe time is a human construct, isn’t it, it’s just something that we have created to give parameters and a sense of perspective to a given day. And so again, we will, we will create those promises and also because sometimes we need it as human beings. We need that. Like, you know, if you put a set of date for a goal, so that actually there’s a level of urgency, which actually then will help you to work through that.

Speaker 3 (14:31):

But for me, when I’m, when I’m talking about the energy management side, a bit, one of the key things is reflexivity. What I mean by that is it’s being able to recognize the amount of discretion that we have and our ability to change anything in a given situation. So if you’re thinking about your vision and you know, there may be aspects of it that look so, you know, completely out of your realm of possibilities right now, but it’s what you’ve dreamed of. It’s what you want. It’s what you desire. You absolutely put those on your board. You put those on your, in your vision and your plan and your, you know, the world’s without dementia, you know, at the moment that feels like impossible. Doesn’t it? You know, when we know that we haven’t got those educations yet, but it’s the aspiration towards it. And then what we do is we work on what we have got control of what we have got discretion over.

Speaker 3 (15:20):

And so that’s when we have to work with our minds because our minds will then go off on the flights of fancy of, you know, it’s not possible. And all the conditioning that we’ve had from childhood that maybe says that a person like you can’t have that, or a woman of your age, isn’t able to do that. Or, you know, all of the limits and beliefs that can come flying at you. And again, this is why the saboteurs are really interesting because they can bring their very own narrative with it, you know, um, you know, it might be if you’ve got, um, if you’ve got children, for example, you know, you can’t possibly, I was working with somebody recently. It was like, you know, you can’t possibly run a business with that level of income coming in and still be there for your kids. You know, when actually there may be business models and ways of working that absolutely do before that to happen.

Speaker 3 (16:05):

Or, um, it might be that, for example, you, maybe you are in a very male and just, you know, very male led industry and, you know, the, all of the, all of the signs, all of the external messages that you’re getting is that a woman like you can’t be in that top echelon without X, Y, and Z is happening. You know, whether that be losing friendships or, you know, getting, um, not being able to have a family or whatever it might be, that’s coming into your brain again, it’s about having the power on a mental level to then manage. What is those that thought process in a way that allows you then to accept, you know, again, acceptance is a really important part of it. You know, there are some things that we have no control of, and therefore there’s no point sort of, you know, pushing against that.

Speaker 3 (16:55):

Now that again, that’s not to say that we resign ourselves to anything it’s not about quitting or giving it it’s about saying, okay, I accept this part of it, but I’ve got control of this part of it. And that is what I’m going to focus on. That’s how I’m going to be, you know, move that forward. And I think, you know, particularly in the last 18 months, a big part of, you know, we’ve, we’ve we have in a way, you know, what’s felt what has felt very strange. I think for everybody is that there’s been this real, very real feeling of being out of control, lots of uncertainty, et cetera, et cetera. But the reality is life’s always been like that, but you can’t live in that feeling of everything being controlling and sensitive is again, the Magdalene cannot cope with that level of trigger.

Speaker 3 (17:38):

And therefore, again, it’s about being able to then manage that those messages, these external energies and external messages that are coming at us in a way allows us to see what personal power we do have on where we can make things different or where we can change our outlook. Even sometimes it’s just, you know, can make all the difference to whether or not we feel like we are living our best, you know, the, the, the, our vision in real time. And just took a very quick, you know, I mean, again, I’ve talked about this publicly quite a lot, but when my dad paralyzed himself, he literally walked into the back garden and broke his neck, bringing in the washing and then subsequently had time in hospital. And then, uh, beyond that I’ve got throat cancer and passed away. Unfortunately, one of the big things for me having a vision board that included my life and business was that I never felt like I was off track in that period, even though some of my business vision goals have to be, oh, it didn’t have to be, I chose.

Speaker 3 (18:37):

And I got to be able to just shelf them in particular way when I was focusing on my family and my relationship with my dad, which, you know, I will never get that time back. I would never be able to reconnect with them in a way that we did. I would never be able to have, you know, those hours of being able to check in with my parents and make sure both of them are more mom and dad were okay during all of that. I’d never be able to get that back. I can always make money. You know, that this is just, that’s just something that’s going to be able to happen in any time. So I don’t regret it. And at the center of my vision board was family comes first. That’s at the core. So, you know, again, it’s really important for us to find what our vision looks like as a whole, you know, not just in terms of our business and our lives, because again, there are so many out, in so many ways in a day that you can be living your vision. Now, even if some of your bigger goals, haven’t, you know, you’re not quite there with them yet. And that is what is going to make it feel so satisfying. And so rewarding is because actually, you know, you’re, you’re living it now, not in the future.

Speaker 2 (19:46):

Yeah. If I, if I look at my, my vision boards, um, that we create, I think it was back in January, so they need a bit of a refresh, but my, my vision board was qualify as an ICF coach. It was to have a podcast tech. It was to live on a beach, we’re moving back in six weeks. It was almost like, oh my gosh, when I look at it, I know that there’s a bit of work to do to update it, but I will say actually, there’s a lot of what I wanted I already have. And it’s, it’s another level of appreciation and gratitude for them because it’s like, wow, I, I set out to create those things in my life and I actually have them.

Speaker 3 (20:21):

And that in itself was

Speaker 2 (20:23):

Energizing.

Speaker 3 (20:25):

Yeah. And again, it just creates momentum, doesn’t it? You know, and I think one of the things for me, as well as that, you know, again, you, you know, because of the work that we do together and the way that I work, my vision in action board workshops, that’s one thing I call them vision and action boards, because I don’t want them just to be pretty, Fitch’s stuck on a board and left it. You know, you can use this as a tool to maintain good energy management on daily. So on a weekly basis, you can use your vision boards, vision, and action boards to actually focus on what you want to focus your time on. The other thing is, well, you know, when you’re working with corporate leaders, the polls on people’s time and the different priorities they’ve got in their lives are massive. The pandemic, again, that has had a massive impact on women in terms of the, you know, we’ve all, again, there is a generalization here, but it is, uh, all I know is that in terms of the hundreds of women I’ve worked with over the years, this is very common is that they carry the mental load of the family.

Speaker 3 (21:20):

Now, again, not in all partnerships and not in all situations, but for the majority of them that, you know, that has being carried. And therefore, again, that overload can really then shrink your, you know, how you’re feeling about your vision and being able to be guided towards it. So again, using that vision board on a weekly basis to plan out what you’re going to say no in yesterday. And again, I know when you’re working with clients, you know, you’re the same with me. We both work a lot on how to create good boundaries that feel good and quiet, and the people pleasing, sabotage. So all of that is really important work to be doing, but using the board as your point of reference, it’s your destination point is how you want to show up energetically on a daily basis. And then again, you can use it on a daily basis. So like, if you’ve had a bad morning, you know, something didn’t go well, or, you know, you’ve not slept well, or you’re not feeling well or whatever it might be. Again, you can use your board to then visualize how you want to manage those, uh, those challenges and difficult situations. So again, I don’t do visualization of everything’s perfect cause who lives in a perfect world. And that’s the problem. Again, people get really disappointed in their vision boards cause they’ve created perfect. Well, who lives in perfect.

Speaker 2 (22:35):

Yeah. We’re messy. We feeling people in a messy world is outlined. I love Glennon, Doyle his take on it. I’m not, I’m not a disaster person. I’m not, you know, I’m not a failure. I’m just a deeply feeling person living in a very messy world.

Speaker 3 (22:49):

Exactly. And so, you know, when for me, it’s like, okay, let’s look at our boards. We have what, you know, the ideal would be like, you just beautifully painted your ideal picture, but the reality is there are aspects of that that maybe haven’t been realized yet, or even in the middle of realizing them that, you know, when we’re stretching ourselves and we’re taking bold action. Sometimes I was really uncomfortable and you know, there’ll be doors slammed in your face or the, and there’ll be rejection that you have to manage or you’ll have people who don’t like you because you had to, you know, assert yourself in a particular way, in a, particularly in the, you know, in the corporate world. And so it’s, you know, for those things have to be managed. And so again, your vision, your visualizations can entail you managing those challenges in a really positive way. And that’s visionary.

Speaker 2 (23:37):

So I know when I talk about, I love how you talk about visual, I can feel your passion so much. I absolutely love it. When I talk about vision, I talk about, it’s a difference between if you don’t have a vision and you’re not creating that, you’re not giving it time. You’ve just lost sense of it. It’s almost like you’re a feather on your very, you kind of drift along on that through external references. What other people want from you? You know what your boss is crashing your diary that day, and you become almost like a feather on the wind, kind of just drifting along. Whereas if you, if when you have that vision, it’s almost like an anchor and you ground yourself in who you are and you ground yourself in what’s important to you. And that’s what you stand proud and tool behind. And it’s that difference between that feather like existence and that anchor grounded. This is who I am existence and this very different energy that goes along with it.

Speaker 3 (24:23):

And it is. And I think again, you know, it allows you to feel more confident. Cause again, when I talk about performance, you know, I talk about performance and mindset coach. So performance for me is feeling engaged. So that’s the first thing I think it, you know, a vision allows you to really engage consciously in how you want to show up in the world and how you want things to play out. The second thing is confidence. So again, it’s having the confidence when things don’t go to plan as well as when they do and being able to exactly, as you said, stand up for yourself. You know, so people talk about self care, you know, massively in our industry. But big part for me is being able to say no when an opportunity isn’t aligned to my vision or being able to work my day on an energetic level, the way that I would like it to be.

Speaker 3 (25:10):

Now, again, you know, I’ve got a family, I’ve got teenage girls who there sometimes their day dictates my day and I have to manage my energy around that. Um, you know, again, I’m not living in a perfect scenario, but what I do know is that again, when I manage my energy for productivity in terms of my day plays out in a way that I can, I know where my energy high spots and low spots are, and I can then work in a way that’s going to allow me to put perform at my sweetest point. You know, we have an energy sweet spot that allows us to perform our best. Again, that is more, that is going to be more helpful to you and allow that vision to be realized. And then equally that increases your pro your profitability or your ability to, you know, gain promotions that feel good because, you know, you’re going to be able to manage yourself within the context of those changes that, and, um, the levels of responsibility that you’re going to be given, et cetera, et cetera. So efficient literally has the power to impact your performance, your productivity, your profitability, in so many ways. And I love that analogy, you know, because I think absolutely without it, that is exactly what we do. We just drifting. Um, and again, you know, for some people that might be fine, but if you’re a transformational leader and you want to, you know, allow yourself to live your vision every single day, then you need the clarity of it to start you off. That’s the first thing is like, what is your clarity of vision?

Speaker 2 (26:37):

So we mentioned about energy briefly, and I could, I think we could talk about, we could have a whole different episode on energy, but if we think about the context of where we are right now and kind of coming out or lock down, but I think we’re all in different ways, feeling a bit depleted, there’s been so much constant change that we’re kind of carrying what I call kind of like the hangover of that. And just keep adapting, especially as leaders that have given so much to keep businesses going to help people through being on Tanya and coming back into work or hybrid working and balancing that day-to-day kind of management with the strategy stuff. What are some quick top tips to really help our visionary leaders that are listening to manage that energy, to keep that vision and to keep that focus on it.

Speaker 3 (27:18):

Yeah. So start with the vision. Okay. So look at, you know, think about how you want your week to play out. So if you’re planning your week, again, really look at what, you know, what have you got on your plate? What’s actually priority stop the shirts. So hashtag sub the sheds is my hashtag. And it, what I mean by that is there will be a million things on that to-do list that will be there, but are they yours? Are they things you actually get to do and want to do? Or are they just things that you feel like you should do? So get a big fat red marker. And the first thing is just get rid of all of the actual shirts, you know, things that aren’t really important to you in a, not in line with your vision. The next thing I think, as well as again, what I’ve just mentioned is finding the right spaces to do your high impact work. So when you’re in your best energy and you know, you’re in your best energy, do that work in that space and then other tasks can be really, you can really support yourself by doing those in the lower energy or the medium energy that you might have later in the day. Again, I’m saying later in the day, some people, I mean, I have an energy burst between half seven and half 10 at night. I’m like the juror cell bunny and the rest of my family are all sweat lettuces. So

Speaker 3 (28:31):

That’s why I do a lot of my coaching trainings and those sorts of things and interviews and things in the evening because actually I just have this great big surge of energy and I’ve got nothing to do with it. Yeah. So it’s how we all work differently. Isn’t it? And that’s why it is it’s about self-awareness and knowing ourselves. So those are the main things. The other thing as well is, you know, daily just show some appreciation to yourself for how you’ve managed that day in whatever way that happened and really, really let it lounge with you. You know, what good things you’ve done in a day. One of the things I think the pandemic, again, like I said, it just, is that feeling being out control and actually find things where you can take control the Afghans Afghanistan, a situation recently, really just, again, I’m empathetic.

Speaker 3 (29:19):

It really, really affected me. I’m not going to change the political situation, but I can collect clothes and send them to the refugees. Um, last year when the pandemic was, you know, at its height in the second lockdown, I organized a local scarecrow festival around my village. Um, we raised money for the food bank. You know, there are small things and big things that we can be doing that allow us to feel in our visionary energy and allow us to feel like we’ve got some control over situations that feel very much out control and can be affecting our energy. So your visionary energy can be created in lots of different ways, not just in terms of, you know, what you’re doing on a day to day in the working world.

Speaker 2 (29:58):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said, I think we can have a whole different episode on, in

Speaker 3 (30:05):

Fast. I apologize if I was too fast, I was trying to get along in a short space.

Speaker 2 (30:10):

So just to finish off with, I like to ask my guests three questions. So the first one being, just share a leader that you found really inspirational.

Speaker 3 (30:19):

What’d, you know what I was thinking, there’s limits of some famous as laboratories, but I’m going to, I’m going to say my boss, Jack. Yes. And fields who I had when I was, when I moved to partnership team, which was the charity we out to close down in the end. And she was such a transformational leader because she really helped me to understand what resetting your energy during the working day. She used to take us off for like walking meetings where we’d just brainstorm and get ideas. And it really helped to generate that, sort of get all the endorphins go in. And she was just fantastic at that. And she also taught me about creating your own rules in business and empowering your team members and really allowing them to shine. Because again, I think sometimes as female leaders, particularly if got a strong controller saboteur or a stickler saboteur, we can find it hard to delegate and let people do their things that they’re good at. So again, that was a really big lesson for me. So she, yeah. Jeff Jack, yes. And field she’s now retired, but she was an amazing lady. And I’ve had actually, I’ve had so many amazing female leaders in, in our, all the roles that I’ve had right through for teaching. And they’ve all taught me something different. So I’ve been very fortunate like that.

Speaker 2 (31:26):

Oh, brilliant. Thank you for sharing that. And a book that’s changed your life.

Speaker 3 (31:31):

Okay. So I’ve mentioned the saboteurs various times during this and that whole frame of work and reference is from positive intelligence by shares are charming. And I was lucky enough to train with him last year to further my knowledge and understanding of their positive intelligence framework and the five Sage powers. And I used that with my clients. I’ve been using it for many, several years now, um, with my clients. And I always reference him because, you know, he created the system and the, the, on the framework. And I just think it’s such a powerful framework. You know, I bought, I’ve always, since I started my personal development journey, I obviously started to understand that inner critic voice, and, you know, I gave it my own name, which has been little cow, which is what the children’s books about is teaching children to understand their mean look out.

Speaker 3 (32:15):

Cause I didn’t have a clue until I was into my thirties that I even had one, I have no idea. Right. And so, you know, that I’ve sort of, I’ve found shows I’d probably, I don’t know, maybe about four years ago or so three years ago. And again, it just consolidated all of the learning and all the understanding I’d had around that. And so I love using it with my clients because I think it’s a really powerful, again, it’s back to that personal power and allowing us to understand how we can use our brains to the best advantage, to really help us to empower us even more.

Speaker 2 (32:51):

Finally, what does find your fire mean to

Speaker 3 (32:53):

You? If, for me, it’s, it’s what lifts you up? What engages you? You know what I talked about being engaged, confident and happy as you know, in terms of your performance. So for me, it’s that it’s that fire in your belly wanting to do things, but again, it’s, it’s, it’s the whole thing of creating a vision that is aligned to your values and your purpose allows you then to tap into that fire, to tap into that energy. And like I gave the example, you know, when I was underwhelmed, you know, it was literally, it was almost like, you know, somebody poured water on the fire. So I think, and which was a shame because like I said, it was in an environment where actually you would think that would be in an environment that would allow me to play my vision out. But no, because the work that I was doing, wasn’t allowing me to feel engaged, happy, and confident. So it’s finding that, you know, that the day-to-day activity that is going to keep that fire burning is really important to me. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (33:51):

Absolutely. Um, and finally, where can people

Speaker 3 (33:54):

Find, find you? Okay. So on Facebook, I’m at wood for the trees coaching. So it’s facebook.com/wood for the trees coaching on Instagram and Twitter at w F T T coaching. And my website is what for the trees, coaching.co.uk.

Speaker 2 (34:14):

Thank you so much for today. That’s just been, I definitely feel reconnected to my vision again and just yeah. Goosebumps today. So thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (34:22):

Oh, thank you very much for having me Nick and carry on doing the amazing work that you’re doing, helping those fantastic female leaders find the fire

Speaker 1 (34:32):

[inaudible].