Becoming Unapologetically Confident with Stephanie Sword-Williams

0:00I don't want people to feel like they're alone and I don't want people to feel we're living these glossy perfect lives when truthfully there's so much that we carry we just don't always talk about it publicly and I understand why it's not right for everyone. Healing in public is really powerful and can help more people than you think and you might need it more than you think. Leaders need to hear this. You can be riding high, riding high, something happens and you get sent down and you go down and you go deep under the ground and you are stuck in mud. and you don't know when you're coming back out.

0:31You'll come out, but you will come out a completely different person. Don't let people's negative views on that topic be the reason that you don't step into the thing you were always meant to do. You don't choose what happens in life, but you can choose how you respond to it. Hello and welcome back to the Courageous Leaders podcast brought to you by The Change Creators, where we strengthen leadership teams, creating environments where people and profits can grow together. I'm your host, Joanna Howes, and on today's episode, we're diving in with someone who isn't afraid to challenge the norm, Stephanie Sword-Williams.

1:10Stephanie is the founder of Fuck Being Humble, a movement consultancy and book that's on a mission to help people own their achievements and ditch the fear of self-promotion. A TEDx speaker and And in the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe, she's worked with global brands and built a loyal community by championing unapologetic confidence at work. So let's get started. Stephanie, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for giving us your time. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about this. I feel like I'm just going to be like a whole education. I'm going to leave here very, very inspired.

1:44So thank you. And I always start with the big question. What's been a most courageous moment for you? I guess starting a business called fuck being humble would probably be a big one in it a big one um it's I think courage is like embedded in my business and in my movement not only in myself but what I teach others yeah and going out into the world starting a side hustle at the time and calling it fuck being humble was definitely the thing that felt brave disruptive unique at the time and still does to be fair I remember I had a few names on the go um I loved Destiny's Child uh I still do and I really like the idea of calling it say my name because I really like this idea of being like yeah say my name when you're in the room but it was between that and and fuck being humble I remember someone I spoke to at the time was like you might get in trouble because of um copyright so you might not be able to use a lyric uh for a name and I was like okay that that makes sense and the alternative wasn't something less provocative in fact it was probably more provocative in that way and I do remember telling a couple of friends and them saying you know it could alienate people and it might not resonate with quieter people you know you might not reach everyone you want to reach and I just remember in my gut thinking well then maybe they're not the people I'm trying to reach you know I think there is a group of people it was born on an insight an insight that we are conditioned to be humble and modest and I think enough people can agree with that statement whether they agree with not being humble as a result is fine but I think when any ideas are born out of an insight it really makes that ability to be courageous more feasible and more realistic and more doable you know as an entrepreneur as a change maker so I think going out to the world seven years ago with that message especially pre-pandemic which was a time where we were really weren't talking about personal branding and self-promotion as much and especially during a time where I think the very notion of self-promotion was was turned like people look down at it yeah they really did look down at it and it's been really fascinating for me to see the complete shift on people's perception on that topic in general but how willing they are to get on board with it now.

4:06I think people want it. Yeah. I think we're all so tired of shrinking ourselves, suppressing ourselves and just, again, find the courage to be who we want to be. And I know a lot of that drive was you wanted to help others. What was the other thing also, the personal drive? What was fuck being humble? What was that going to lead you to? So when I was working full time, I was working in advertising and I'd always wanted to work on purpose-led communications. That was always my goal. I remember writing down three dreams. I read the book called The Dream Manager and it's a really brilliant book. The author talks about the fact that we often don't really ask our employees what their dreams are.

4:40My dreams were public speak to inspire, create world-changing advertising or marketing and to travel. Like if I could reach all three of those that would be top of the list and every advertising agency I worked in I was always trying to get to that company or that position where I got to do some good in the world and the reason I knew I wanted to do this was because when I was in university I started a blog which is hidden in the depths of the internet now because it is so bad but I started a blog where I just documented things I like right our lecturers at the time told us blogging is big and it was really big when we were at university and it could really help to you know transport you into your next career step and so I remember writing a blog it was full of typos there was really no structure I think it was called if it was my way and the whole thing was I would look at campaigns and go well if it was my way I'd have done it differently but what I realized from that journey was I was mainly documenting purpose-led things so it would be something from UNICEF or it'd be a time that Nike collaborated with a charity partner it was always something about doing good I was really fascinated about that world and I ended up doing my dissertation on behavior change and just very very much a present feeling that if I were to go into communications it was about trying to leave the world in a slightly better place so that that was always at the core and then as I moved through the ad industries I could kind of see that that was quite a limited option and then when I moved to London I was just so inspired by everyone I was meeting I was going to networking events every night and I was meeting so many cool people and I was thinking like first of all I'd love to meet more cool people like this like I'd like to build my community my tribe second of all I liked my job in advertising and I got to some cool agencies and I was doing some cool things but I really didn't get the chance to do that public speaking piece as much as I wanted to and I did definitely do pitching and I did presenting but the the public speaking thing was something I'd actually been honing like outside of work so I would go to there's this event series called better culture where it's public speaking and you have less than I think it was like less than five minutes to deliver a presentation or maybe 10 minutes but you're not in control of your slides someone moves them along for you amazing every 10 to 20 seconds someone's moving and I did it once in Nottingham and I did it again in Leeds and then And it was in Manchester where they do a wild card round where you stand up and you don't know the slides behind you.

7:17You've never seen them and you've just got to public speak. So I kind of I knew I really liked doing it. I did it at university. I kept finding these little moments where I could do it outside of work. And I didn't feel like I was getting to utilize them in my actual main career. I'd done a few events and I was quite enjoying that. and towards the end of my career events became a big thing that was clearly a skill of mine that I was really good at bringing people together making them feel seen building community all of those things but I just I was wishing I was doing more of it I'd become a middleman in the ad industry I'd become a firefighter problem solver people manager email pusher you know I'd become all the things that were not in that dream list of skills or daily tasks and I remember just always always being obsessed with ted i've always been obsessed with ted the platform always thinking god i wish i have someone to say one day that would you know put me on that stage and that platform that would really resonate or could help shift the way the world thinks about something and i've always had i always had that vision in my head and there was just this moment where i thought like ted's never going to ring me like i'm never doing i'm not doing anything why would they just pluck me out of this crowd because i'm not putting out anything to the world i don't have a public brand I don't I'm not sharing a world-changing idea like it's that that wake-up call in me which was just we often think if we do good you know we'll just get plucked out of a crowd and be given this life-changing opportunity and unless you are actively putting out then why would you so I had that personal wake-up call that I was like okay well if TED is the goal let's think long term what do you need to be doing and one of them was obviously you know saying something different and unique and disruptive which is probably why I did lean towards the fuck being humble message felt more of a movement and I was really interested in movements and then I also needed to be public speaking and I often joke that I create this saying or I talk about this saying a lot which is don't wait to be invited invite yourself and it was at that moment where I was like people aren't going to book me because they don't know what I've got to say and I've not built up a brand for them to reach out to me yeah so I'm just gonna host my own event and book myself as the lead act and that was the start of fuck being humble so I started as an Instagram and LinkedIn post to get going and then about three months later I hosted my first ever fuck being humble event and I I delivered uh about a 45 minute workshop on self-promotion which to this day is still the most popular talk I deliver it's the exact same materials with a bit more added but is still the most popular talk and I also hosted a panel with some incredible women that I'd met in my network and it was a great success but that all happened because again the courageous step to be like if I want to be seen as a public speaker I need to act as a public speaker and I now teach and coach people on public speaking and when they say okay so how do I go get those gigs I'm like you're not going to like the answer but you've got to host your first event because then you can invite people in and they can experience it and it was from that first event onwards that I was Steph the public speaker I knew I always had it in me and I knew I'd been nurturing that over the years it was just not being utilized in my career and I'm really glad I stepped into that and does it take the action where so you did your first event and then what did the phone start ringing or did you then need to just keep actively showing up calling people I've got this talk I can help your event because I still think some people go or do the event and then oh the phone will start ringing what how much grit and resilience have you had to get on the stages you are today it's really interesting so my my story and journey has definitely been quite unique in this work in this way and I'm always very honest about the starting response because it was positive so I launched it as an Instagram account which to be honest most of my it was just my friends resharing and posting and liking and it was if you go it there's still you can still see all the old posts now that it's it's not my best graphic design it's not my best art direction but if you look at it now it is definitely that was part of the starting point but the other side was linkedin so I wrote a post saying why I'm launching a platform called fuck being humble and in it I talked about the confidence gap how women will more likely underestimate what they can do and men will overestimate and it was just like I'd struck a chord with the LinkedIn community because it really it was the most reach a post had ever got that I'd shared it was LinkedIn viral maybe in my world maybe not today's world but at that time it had a massive reach lots of comments lots of engagement I remember someone from the White House agency had like commented being like we need to get you into the White House and me just thinking that's madness like that that must be like a spoof and And there was just there was this quite fast and quick response on the LinkedIn post alone.

12:18And there was a journalist that reached out and said, hi, I'm writing this article all around self-proach. I saw that you started this thing. I'd love to interview you for it. And interestingly, I think I was just really excited that I got a response. But she didn't have a signature strip and I didn't really vet her as as a proper journalist. I was just like, oh, someone's interested in my idea. but I was very apprehensive because I was thinking well what are you going to interview me on because I've actually not hosted an event yet or I've not launched anything and she just wanted to talk about self-promotion the art of bragging how that was moving in that direction and she asked if I would review her channels first okay and me being me I'm very tough love I'm very direct like I'm I am very much who I am with you now as I am on stage and I met up with her we had the interview and I sort of said you know it's great to meet you in person because online you've not really got a personality but in person you've got loads of personality and I think you need to be pulling that through to your online channels and she opens the Times articles saying you've got no personality says Stephanie Seldwilliams oh wow and honestly I read it and I was like oh my god like my stomach has like dropped there the the article ended up being a double page spread in the times like a huge takeover of this two pages and it obviously then was in um on the online print as well and that interview sparked a lot so off the back of that I had three to four publishers reaching out saying you should write a book and I was like a book I've not I don't have not even delivered anything I don't know what you're talking about so there was the the press in the the times book book features were or book suggestions were being put through and then I went on BBC World News I'd been invited someone had said we've seen this article let's get you on BBC World News and I went on the talking business show with quite an intense interviewer which also sparked quite a lot of interest because the interviewer was like why do you think men are better than women why do you think the US are better than the UK you know it was quite it was a feisty quite intense interview I don't know how I watched the clip back recently I don't know how I kept so calm I went on BBC radio news as well I went on BBC radio Wales so there was actually a lot before I'd even hosted the event and I was actually an imposter syndrome mindset totally freaking out because in my head I was like I don't know what what I'm like I don't know if what I'm about to do like clearly the name resonates but I don't know if the content of what I'm about to share is actually going to resonate so it was both like a blessing and a curse excited but nervous you know it was it was a mixture of feelings and then once I hosted that first event and you know it was only 30 people that came but they all paid tickets and I got really good feedback and it just I felt like I was in my power and I felt like I was really just standing on my own two feet and I had that creative integrity and authority and it was just exciting and I continued to host the events I hosted one event in September that was the first event next one was in October about 60 people came and then by December I hosted my final event before the new oh it was January sorry I hosted an event on negotiating and 180 people came so in the in just three events it went from 30 to 180 so it's kind of wild that that growth it was all organic no paid media no paid advertising literally just through the momentum of word of mouth more than anything and you landed on something I think as you said that people needed and what I was actively doing at the time was everyone who spoke on my panel so I had to have panels at each event they were all young and I actively did that on purpose because there was it felt like there was a barrier to entry which was yeah you might be 23 with two side hustles and totally smashing it but you're not quite a white creative director dude so you're not going to get put on this panel or you're not you've not run a business for 50 years or you didn't go to a privately educated school and you're not some you know trust fund child entrepreneur right and I was like no I want to celebrate under 30s because I was at the time and I want to celebrate these people who was navigating launching their own exhibitions they've never launched an exhibition and I was really keen on celebrating rising talent because I saw myself as rising talent that couldn't get in and couldn't get into those rooms because people didn't really see me of that value until I was managing director level that was my realization when I worked in advertising that whilst I was great at what I did there was always going to be more senior people above me and until I reached that seniority I wasn't going to get that place to speak and I guess I just wasn't willing to wait for that and I guess impatience has both been a positive and a negative in my career but yeah that those that was the early starts of of fuck being humble and it you know to the outside eye you know I think a lot of people like whoa that is nuts how quickly that um grew but but at the same time we didn't go viral you know like when I eventually signed the book deal so that event happened in January it was after that event I stood on the stage and I looked and I thought I think this is bigger than just me I think this has a national reach possible global reach but I was also not in a position to build a team and do all those things but a book would work because it would mean I could reach lots reach lots of people people are asking me to do events across the country you know when are you coming to Leeds when and I was like well I don't think I could feasibly do that but a book could reach the whole of the UK and it's accessible you know a price point of 10 12 pounds that's that's the goal so I called back the publishers there was one agent in particular I really liked when I had a call with her and we went for it I wrote the proposal I remember being in Thailand waiting frantically waiting only to find out the book industry is the slowest industry in the world and we got the deal in in May I think it was and there were four publishers that were interested there was an auction for it and then it was on writing I had eight months to write it alongside my full-time job.

18:34Just a quick reminder, if you haven't already, to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. It's a small action that makes a big difference. You'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you. I'd also love to hear from you. So if you have any thoughts, questions, or ideas, pop them into the comments. And if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team, just drop me a DM and we'll set up a call. Thanks so much. Now, let's get back to the episode. Did you suffer with overwhelm at all?

19:08Or did you have a way of, we just had the ability to just kind of keep working that through? So to cycle back a bit, the business I started this in was a startup. So when I was working, when I moved to London, I moved to work for a startup. It was a two person, it was a three person agency with myself involved. And I had been giving my life and soul to the company and you know not not a bad word to say about them I love the founders they were lovely but when it came to performance reviews I wasn't rewarded in any way because I'd not hit the targets that I'd been set now there's a debate as to whether those targets were realistic doable and I felt this deep pain and upset because it had been the history of the companies I'd worked for where I'd throw myself in I would give it all and then I'd never get that promotion pay rise that they'd promise and then they'd pull it away oh you just need to do a bit longer and then the minute I handed my notice they all threw money at me they all gave me the promotions they are and I was like no this is too late how I want to navigate my career you need to recognize my worth when I'm in the company and if you don't well then you don't get the option to keep me when I'm leaving and it was that was that moment where I finally felt like I was working for a team where we're working towards some good but I just didn't get that moment or that recognize recognition and And, you know, we had chats around it and on a wider scale, it did help to guide them on how to work with talent because actually this was I was their first employee.

20:36So I think it was more about a learning curve with all of that. But the words my sister said to me at the time was pull back. Now, this wasn't quiet quit. This was just stop giving every single minute to the company. Stop working through your lunch break just because you're a small team like you would. I'd grab my lunch. I'd come back. Like I'd eat for 10 minutes and then just sit in the office with them. And like, actually, you know, it's like, no, you get paid to take your hour, take your hour, leave on time. Don't work till every hour of the end of the day just because you're on a small mission and we've got to do it.

21:09You know, all of that. So once I got that permission from my sister, she said that to me. It really was a huge shift in my career trajectory, really. My office was 15 minutes from my house. so I would get home at quarter past six I'd be like I'm bored now what do I do and actually it was it was really that moment of learning not to give my all and understanding where my energy levels were so if I was finishing at quarter past six and getting home by quarter past six honestly and truly trying to write a book after work hard not not that doable but I could absolutely make two or three Instagram posts yeah doable like if you talk to any of my flatmates of that era we would be sat watching Love Island and I would be adding people on LinkedIn I would be posting this I'd be making artwork like they watched that that hustle of sorts whilst it was happening but it didn't feel like a hustle like I was excited to come home to work on it and I think that's a lot of people are excited about something at the beginning can say it doesn't feel exhausting because you if anything you're like where did why didn't I realize I had this energy to start with and so then when it came to the weekend I would spend every Saturday writing my book um it was like guarded time it was very focused every Saturday and I honestly and truly believe that once you if you find something like that you realize how much time you waste on doom scrolling on things that aren't serving you're watching tv all of that like we could all be reading more books or volunteering or whatever if we took out some of those addictive things that we do and I do it stills to this point I know because I there are things that I want to do and I'm like well it's you're too busy watching tv so really it was more I was young uh also you know I don't have child care commitments which is a massive thing and I always want to acknowledge that I was young I was in a new relationship with someone I didn't have those commitments I lived by like with flatmates but you know I wasn't there wasn't household responsibilities shall I always say if anything in a flat share there was very little so I had I had capacity and I had time I did have a high demanding job like in advertising you don't get paid a lot and you work long hours and you have clients texting you 24 hours a day so it wasn't that it was not hard work in my full-time job it was that once I found that thing that lit me up I wanted to find time for it and that was how I managed to do it but I think also I didn't make it harder than it needed to be so like I created my workshop and then it was just really about getting bums on seats you know when I talk to people about events people really make it about this bigger thing than it is and I always say to them 10 of your mates can turn up to this event worst case scenario you've got 10 events 10 people including me that's 11 people that are guaranteed that are coming and if they're not you need to go get some new mates because all of my mates were on the front row for me they were the first few events they were there taking photos pouring drinks they were there and I'm so grateful for them for that so I think we the biggest fear I think with events and doing it is people not turning up and once you get past that and you see like I would once when our capacities weren't full I would just reach out to people on LinkedIn and be like I'd love to send you a complimentary ticket would you come along because for me I was at the point where I wanted the vision to be full so I I think what I've realized so it's such a long answer and you're gonna have this throughout the whole podcast but the doing it alone what I realized was I set the rules so at the beginning I used to be like I'm gonna post five days a week I'm gonna do a blog post every week I'm gonna do it and after two weeks I couldn't do it so once I pulled it back and went no no what's doable and it was like you're posting two or three times a week that's that is doable and you're going to host an event every couple of months that is not that much work if you have an understanding of doing even just once it's that we put pressure on it needing to be the biggest and the best and we have to get goodie bags and we need to get sponsored fancy drinks I mean you don't you actually don't so I think I I realized possibly that the strength of the events was me and I didn't need to have all the Freddy's stuff that being said I did get pizzas and I managed to get Aperol Spritz to sponsor one of the events and I did make it a good experience I know I did I made it good value for money but I didn't do it under the stress of I'm hating this and I speak to a lot of event organizers that are so burnt out before they've even launched the event that they don't enjoy the experience that that wasn't me I was I was scrappy I was rough and ready I would literally walk into buildings in Shoreditch and be like hi I run something called fuck being humble can I use your office as a space uninvited no pre-meeting and I'd get spaces like people would find it funny they'd be like love that you've just walked in off the street like that yeah go on then and I figured out my role as a business director was selling the company and pitching and selling and I knew I was good at sales and people so I knew if I could pitch it to people well yeah then I would be able to get yeses and that process wouldn't be as difficult I think it was as much as having a great idea that made the sell easy at the time and it didn't make it feel as much work if that makes sense it does because I'm sitting here my brain's going nuts listening to you because I'm like so for someone like me and I know there'll be many listeners who are in my camp so I've run three live events now loved it but I definitely over complicated it with branded posters branded pens pads and so it suddenly became so big and actually I went to an event last week and there was none of that and the event was incredible yeah and he didn't I was looking around going there's no tribbings here and it's it's the content and the people that were made it impactful so already I'm like just do less I think it's gonna be my mantra now but what is so important are you saying I just walked into a space and ask can I use your space in my whole body just goes oh my god I couldn't do that oh my god they look look at me like I'm crazy or like am I taking the piss or like my first thing is like I'll pay don't worry so where does that come from in you to just be like do you know I'm just gonna walk in and ask so it's a really interesting question I get asked it a lot we did a lot of projects when I was at university that really helped with this so even little things like um I studied fashion communication and promotion but it was really like three years of the apprentice so every week we'd get like a live brief and it could be come up with a new campaign for boots that targets men and it's all about empowerment we'd have three days to come up with an advert and then we'd be pitching it to the boots head office team they would come in and we would present our ideas so it was that live action stuff continuously for three years so it was great free work you know onboarding and development but one of the projects we had in like our first year was street photography we had to do street style photography and photograph people we had to go up to people and say hi can I take your photo at the age of like 18 and it was of course scary and daunting you're like oh god they're gonna say no but I think moments like that will have added to it I worked in and in shoe shops in bars in restaurants you know like I've done that that front of house job I guess where I don't feel as scared asking people when I was at uni and we used to do presentations everyone would be like I know everyone's hung over everyone like pushed after the front she can flag it like they everyone was petrified and they were like Steph can Steph can wing this don't worry and we would do little prep and so there's definitely something in that kind of um ingrained in me my dad's very influential on me in that way he's a caricature of himself sometimes but he is a storyteller at heart and we love telling stories like he often rings me he's like oh it's great I was in a new room of people and they didn't know my stories you know like he's um he loves being around people and as do I and so I definitely think we have that um kind of infectious excitement that we bring but yeah I think my university degree really set us up we did a semester on self-promotion which was about branding ourselves and putting ourselves out there and I think that helped but also I guess my thing has always been like the worst you can do is get a no and I talk about it a lot I think I'm an eternal optimist and I never think I'm the problem which could also be described as a narcissist but we'll go with it either way I saw a video on TikTok which said like just walk around like everyone's obsessed with you and world is great and I talk about it now a lot because actually it's like wouldn't that just be in a nicer world to be in than assuming that everyone's going to say no and yeah I think like I said like running a business called being humble I kind of have to have that because imagine if I was shy and was coy and was like oh it's never going to work there's no point don't get me wrong there's totally times where I am like that um I went to New York and I wanted to do I bought a red megaphone and I wanted to get people to shout out something they were proud out of the megaphone and I went with my phone I had the megaphone and I just couldn't stop people I felt too nervous and that was only like a year ago I just couldn't do it and I learned a lot from that experience so I'm not this like walking talking confidence maniac of sorts like I definitely you're willing to stretch yourself I'm willing to try and stretch it and I guess for me I just see it as it's a conversation everything's a conversation one of my favorite books is by Robert Poynton called do improvise and he talks about the fact that every conversation we have is ever improvised I don't know what you're about to say to me and you don't know what I'm about to say back but yet we navigate it yeah and that's one of the best things I teach people with public speaking speaking in meetings is you've got this far in life just by improvising yeah so why why wouldn't you trust yourself that you can carry that conversation I think what I have is self-trust that I can navigate a situation I have to to stand on stages and have questions thrown at me that I don't know what I'm about to say you know so I think the self-trust that I will figure it out or I can navigate it in a way that is not going to damage my confidence thank you so inspiring sitting here listening to you I was sitting again I have got to ask a question in a minute I'll just keep listening um so fuck being humble is one part of your story I'd love to know what's coming next what's what where's that next passion that next fire what's coming so there's two parts so I think for me when I started fuck being humble it was really based on the insight that I just didn't want anyone to feel overlooked, undervalued or unappreciated because I'd been there and it's not a nice feeling.

31:45So I really wanted to, you know, light that fire in people's bellies and go get them what they deserve and go do it. And then over the last year or so, whilst, well, it was the last couple of years, what I could see as I was moving into my thirties is a lot of people being like, I'm just not happy in this career that I'm in. Like I'm, I've chased it, I've gone for it, on paper it all looks good but I'm is this it like is this it and it just I kept hearing this conversation and it's hard for me because I found my passion and I found my joy but I kept hearing it in groups and I just wrote this post saying are you having a career come down and I described it as you're doing well you climb the ladder you've got promotions you've got pay rides on paper everything looks good but there's something saying I'm not sure if this is right it's not giving you the get up out of bed energy and all you know is that you can't keep going around on the rat race and the hamster wheel because at some point you're going to keep getting to that top and still ask yourself is this it and I'd pre-scheduled the post to go out in the morning which I didn't normally do and I woke up to hundreds of notifications people were commenting it like oh my god you've named an experience I've not been able to name um I feel like I'm in therapy you've voiced it like like just so much and so many people saved it down so many people have shared it it was crazy and it was also in the summer at the time of year where content can be a bit quiet and people don't respond as much and I just saw it and I was like I actually didn't give a solution so when I post it I just named it I just said let me know if you're feeling this and when I saw it I was like well okay that's a big response and I screenshot it and I sent it to my book agent who has been asking for a second book for a long time and uh she said would you I said sorry does this look like a second book and she was like go write a proposal I think it looks good so I'm very happy to say that the proposal was successful and I finished writing the book now which has been a journey a journey and a half to your earlier questions like yeah I mean the self-belief that I had the first time round whilst I was really scared when it was coming out I remember handing the book over and then that's when I went into imposter syndrome and that's when I went into who do I think I am the world's gonna hate me this is gonna go awful this time round but what I was gonna say on that sorry was I didn't know what was coming so there was an excitement this time round I knew how hard writing a book was it doesn't come naturally to me it's very hard in fact it is a long process and at the same time I've had a lot of personal things happening which were unforeseeable and it was a very difficult time for me to write the book so the book is done and it is coming out in January 26 and it really is for anybody who has gone through their career and it's starting to feel like maybe this doesn't feel right for me but I just don't know what to do next it's that the book is for the people who are unsure of how to move forward not the people who like great I'm just gonna go run a business although people like that might want to read this book as well but it is literally for those people are going I'm stuck like I'm physically stuck in the mud I have no idea which way to turn and it's been life-changing for me writing the book honestly because I do a chapter around tapping out of work being your identity which work has been my identity for so long it was incredible for me to research it reflect on it put what I was saying into practice and change my relationship with work so I think if it has changed my relationship with work I think it's going to help change a lot of people's relationship with work so the book is the first part the second part is that Fuck Being Humble has been a training consultancy mainly developing delivering training for employees in the workplace and definitely freelancers and founders as well but mainly giving inspiring keynotes and training sessions for companies and very much focus on the individual act so very much focusing on how do you as an individual show up for yourself which is needed right but given what we are seeing and watching around the world right now and given my advertising background my movement background everything that I've been working towards was always to work on purpose-led communication and I think that is the area that I still want to try and tackle more of so I'm going to be moving into launching a new studio offering where we look at how businesses brands and individuals can leave a better legacy on the world so very much exploring you know that all of us have impact we have action we have influence we just have to do something about it we have opinions we need to act on them we need to look at how we can contribute back to society because quite honestly you know the world doesn't need more cgi perfume bottles i don't give a shit um whilst it was entertaining also don't care about peppa pig's gender reveal party we are spending as a marketing media advertising industry a silly amount of money on things that are not bettering the communities that we live in and i just really want to look to how we as a platform and a business can help educate and guide businesses on how to do it but also empower individuals within the businesses to do it that is what I've spent years doing is empowering individuals and it's still in that basis like I want to empower CEOs marketing directors all of these people to be like do better with the budgets you've got available look at problems first not your brand first because you've you tackle situations with a problem first and put your brand against it you're more likely to win over those hearts that you're desperately trying to connect with right so for me it's it's looking more about the role I'll be taking as creative storyteller strategist brand advisor and consultant on you've got you want to you say you want to target women and you want to help them with their confidence so why aren't we looking at a campaign that tackles body image amongst teenage teenage girls because we're seeing the suicide rates amongst teenage girls the worst they've ever been you know let's start doing that then putting lip glosses on the back of a phone case and saying that's innovative because it's really not you know and I think what I'm really want to bring into this space is my straight talking no bullshit like very direct like stop patting yourself on the back for creating a viral trend and it going viral because you're literally just copying your competitors and in 10 years time no one is going to care about that you know I think as a small business I have worked on campaigns that have tackled gender equality mental health the employment crisis and if I can do it with no team and no budget then yes the biggest brands in the world can step up and do better and the advertising agencies behind them so I kind of see it as like my duty my authority uh as someone who has a network someone has a mind that wants to do this I've been working with a business coach and she was like you're a system re-thinker and I was like oh god I would I would never call myself that but she's right you know like I was I was rethinking the careers industry when I came into I was I like to rethink how we could look at things so yeah like I really want to step into this change maker person that I am and campaigner at the heart of what I really care about is campaigning for the right thing and I have to be mindful that I have to put my oxygen mask first and make sure I don't spread myself too thin because trust me there is so many problems I'd love to solve but I think I will always want to empower people in their careers and help them do well and help them live and work in a career that they're happy with but I do think we could all be asking ourselves how could we do one percent better to move things forward and how can we use our small influence our small sphere of influence for good or try and contribute back to the world that we're living in it sounds like you're putting a big mirror up to some people that really need to look at themselves and the decision they're making and your care and your passion that is coming through like you can always say this is going to happen yeah yeah this is definitely going to happen and I am just so you mentioned there like you're doing it you're on your own no team like no big budgets and stuff what have you had to put in place you know you've got the fuck being humble you're speaking you're doing trainings you're I think you help people one-to-one as well how have you made sure that you can do this and stay well yeah it's a great question I I experienced something quite traumatic in October 23 and it was um it really changed the way that I function through the world and I well first of all I go to therapy so I do something called somatic therapy if anyone's never heard of it it's extremely powerful it looks at not just the mind and what the mind says because our body is made up as 20 % of our head 80 % of our body but we only really listen to what's going on in the head and we ignore the signals in the body and it has been life-changing and transformative to look at how when I am working on things or when incidents happen in my life listening to the body reaction because that is sending you signals quicker than your brain can compute we're just so used to pushing it down and ignoring it so somatic therapy in my non-negotiable um Fridays have become my well-being day because I have therapy in an afternoon and where possible I will try and do slow mornings um workout it's really interesting I've never been like a gym girly like getting me to the gym was extremely hard I'm definitely made up of 50 % diet coke 50 % crisps like that's my bodily makeup but um as a result of of what I've been through and what I've experienced I I had to put mental health there so it started with as TikTok calls the silly mental health walks which my partner would drag me around and get me going and annoyingly it does work you know it does help you and then I just had a shift in May this year actually where I went on a business trip and there was a gym and I never take gym kit because I hate going to the gym and I was like go on I'll go fine and I set myself the challenge I was like you're not actually doing anything on holiday stuff get to the gym like go every day and I went every day for like six days in a row or five days in a and I was so proud of myself because that was like literally the first time ever and it's just flipped something in me which is if I put my health first and fit work around health what does that look and feel like so I've fallen a little bit off the wagon of late but just to retranscribe but I am excited to get back to the gym and just generally going you know what am I putting in my body you know health wise you know how is my sleep sleep has become a total change for me like in bed half nine ten non-negotiable even if we're watching a series and you're just about to get into that moment I always say to my partner I'm like no it's not that big like we will watch it tomorrow it is not it does not need to be watched right now this minute um and and learning to have that discipline which discipline is not something I would really associate with myself with regards to health health like they say work-wise health well-being uh you know looking after myself was never a disciplined prioritized thing um it was very much how can i how much can i scrape through with a minimum effort and yeah i'm just noticing even like yeah going to the gym more regularly the creative energy it creates the productivity like not not to turn going to the gym into a productivity thing but i said the other day i was like mark like if people want to get people to gyms they should tell workaholics how much it helps gain clarity and make you feel more creative because it really does and it takes the stress away of lots of things that you're carrying so yeah it's more for me looking at how do I put health and well-being first in my day and how do I plan my schedule around that now I know I'm fortunate self-employed I have a unusual work format which is going in and delivering something for a few hours and walk back out again as I said I don't have child care all of those things um but for whilst I can you know choose to prioritize that that is where I'm I'm choosing to do that so are you good at being able to say no to stuff when you can see it's getting a bit packed or absolutely not no that is like how do you do that absolutely working on it's definitely something what I've realized is I don't have the capacity I used to have anymore um and that is hard to stomach and accept but doing three events in a day will knock me out at least for a day or two the next day I will feel so physically exhausted but I used to be able to do it like honestly I don't know where the energy came from well maybe it was neglecting the reality of what I might have been feeling and yeah now it's it is going well actually if I do that it means I'm not going to be present for that or if I do that it's going to have an impact on how I deliver that thing I think something that is you know it really that gut I'm listening to my gut a lot more of going is this the best question I've been asking myself is if one job had to get bumped off the schedule right now which one would it be and it's a really good question to tell you what job you don't want to do so when a job comes in now I look at what I've already got on and I go okay what job would you let go of to put this in if it's so important to do and when I do that I'm like oh no it's actually not that important but I think it's it's you know like many founders and freelancers it's coming from scarcity versus abundance I've spent a lot of years building the financial stability to help with making that decision first of all I think it's important to stay that I know I have some budget available if I have a quiet month and things like that but it's also trusting that more will come yeah and I think that's something that only comes with time and it comes with self-trust is people saying to me you know you've done enough it's okay in between April and May I really struggled to produce anything and I spoke to my therapist about and I was like I'm this is horrible I feel like I'm stuck I can't move I can't think of anything everything feels numb and she just said this isn't your season for creating stuff and oh my god it was horrible to hear it was awful to hear i was like oh but that's what i love and that's what i do and she was like no you've got to sit with this stop forcing it and i did i sat and you know i read and i observed i actually read a brilliant book i'm telling everyone about the moment which is tiny experiment oh i know yeah how to break free from a goal obsessed world and i read that in that thick of it moment and it was so powerful because to your first question on the podcast it tells you to follow your curiosities yeah and I wasn't feeling curious about anything honestly I felt this glaze over me I felt dead behind the eyes like I just it felt this masking that was going on and I had to really start small and be like what am I curious about and I was just listening to someone's conversation I was like oh that's that's nice I had to write it down and and I do I feel like I've come out of that it feels very different to where I was a few months ago but I think that whole process has been yeah just really important for me to go on and to recognize that we can't always produce at the rates we want to be producing we don't need to always be on we don't and we have to give ourselves that grace and that trust and when I have it's like inquiries are still coming in and there are things that I've put into place so I started our Monday motivation email because everyone needs motivation on a Monday let's be honest I need motivation on Monday but I made the email super short it's like one piece of content I've found inspiring and a few words about it and I can pre-schedule about 10 of them in a day because it's an easy format yeah pre-schedule 10 of them that's like three months worth of emails done and it's like you know looking at okay Steph if you really want to not pull back but just shift the way that you are working and how much you're giving and what you're saying yes and no to you want to create more capacity how are you staying present and visible without requiring you to be available 24 hours a day and that's really what I'm trying to look at now is that visibility piece of what does visible being visible look like without compromising your you know downtime and the headspace you need to create the biggest stuff just a quick reminder if you haven't already to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel.

48:38It's a small action that makes a big difference. You'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you. I'd also love to hear from you. So if you have any thoughts, questions or ideas, pop them into the comments. And if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team, just drop me a DM and we'll set up a call. Thanks so much. Now let's get back to the episode it's really interesting just listening to you and starting to see just patterns of how you think and see life in terms of like you think like right from the beginning it's like setting up being humble because you knew you could see you wanted to do the vision talk now asking yourself the question right how do i do this being visible without compromising myself here you seem to have the real strong ability to just know where you want to be and then to be able to work backwards and ask yourself some very great questions to go right then what do i need to put in place to do that it's really interesting just to see that playing out yeah I have to give credit to some people um so Poonam Doofa is the founder of Yes Me and she's a very good friend of mine she is also a somatic coach she's an artist she is just an all-round hero and legend she has been incredible okay at when we meet for lunches being like what's the cost of this stuff good question why are you doing this Steph um there was one there was something where I was like well there was lots there's lots of things there's always lots of things in my brain I need to do this and I need to do this and she was like Steph what's it going to take you away from and she's very good at holding that space for me so I'm very grateful to have her holding that space but also my partner like my partner is incredible uh you know I we joke he does not work for me in any way shape or form but he is my head of well-being he's my creative director he is my like everything um and he's yeah he's very good at reminding me of like not taking on too much slowing down to creating space you know do you need to say yes to this say no to this if they're not paying you your fee you know all of those things so it's uh it's definitely definitely the people around me but truthfully and I don't want to say it like oh yeah I just see 10 steps ahead every time and that's the version I'm planning for it's not it's like well no it's I've been in it I've burnt out and realized I don't want to do that I have been in situations where I've been underpaid undervalued done the job hated every single minute of it right well I'm not going to do that next time so it's not to say that I've had this clearly mapped out at all it's very much been a journey seeing the experience let's figure this out but I think what I am very good at is not accepting things as the norm nice so not saying oh well that it's just how the industry is or that's how I'm like well no it doesn't need to be I'll go to a different industry then I'll find a different client like I don't that is one thing that I in my very very first job I worked for a really toxic horrible boss and he would swear at us he would scream as he said to me you're not worth the air I breathe like he was horrific um he bought he had no HR he brought in a HR specialist and sacked them because he didn't want to hear what the HR had to say it was just anybody that worked there just crumbled and it was the first ever job at university and I was crying every week and the Sunday scaries were beyond belief and it was at that period where you know you kind of told well you don't want to leave a job before a year because it won't look good and I stayed in it and eventually I broke at 11 months and I was like I can't I cannot fathom this I applied for jobs and I got three job offers uh two in Nottingham and one in Manchester and that showed me that if 11 months out of graduating I can get three job offers I'm not going to tolerate situations or environments where they do not serve me so I think I've always been aware of how to select what I do and don't stand for and also just keeping my options open and I put eggs in every basket this is what I always say to people so Fuck Being Humble has always targeted B2C yeah the books the talks the Instagram the LinkedIn but it's also targeted B2B yeah and when we hit the pandemic all the B2B offering went because learning and development budgets got cut yeah so I serviced and served the B2C audience and once the budgets came back up I'm back in the B2B space creating that wealth creating that financial stability to pour back into b2c so i think that's the other thing is that i i look at what's happening for sure i go through the mud i experienced all that mess figure out the playbook but i also know how to keep my options open and to keep putting things out there that make me relevant in spaces and that make me talked about yeah in those rooms that i don't have to do i've never done paid advertising or marketing I do very little of that what I have doing is thought leadership of course content creation hosted events written a book so a lot of what I do to attract thing is is putting out first and then it comes in and again I think that's what a lot of people don't do but I've had to realize I've put so much out I don't have to keep putting out the same amount yeah and I had a reckoning that actually I could get away with posting once on socials every week yeah and that would be enough to keep me top of mind one email a week yeah I could still be talked about and discussed because the resources I have put out to date are enough are enough they have served enough and especially in lockdown you know I got invited to be a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts because of the positive impact that we at Fuck Being Humble had made on helping those who were unemployed through the pandemic and I still have people messaging me five years later going you helped me get a job in the pandemic you helped me keep going when things were rough you helped me with your post you helped me with your but you know all of that and that is that that brand loyalty piece that cannot be replaced really there's no ad campaign I'm going to come up with that is bigger than those moments so in fact I think the fact that inherently the work I do is is built on helping and serving people means that the marketing I have to do is not necessarily about selling yeah it's about reminding yeah and just sharing and giving and supporting yeah which is it's incredible thank you it's really incredible if you're comfortable going there I know you mentioned already that there was a big moment in 2023 that happened to you if you're comfortable going there to just share a bit about what happened because what I'm curious about is how has that changed the way you are looking at the world now or has that has it impacted you and changed some of the decision you're making today yeah absolutely so um just for context for any listeners that might be listening we are about to talk about something that is triggering to some so you might want to pause or just skip on a couple of seconds so I was a victim of a transport attack um I was brutally attacked on a London bus just outside my house and it was completely unprovoked it was eight o 'clock in the morning it was extremely traumatic and what was very upsetting to me was the bus driver sat in his booth and did nothing other than ring the police throughout the entirety of the attack and a passenger who was a male ran off the bus and left me in that moment as well as all of the other passengers that had vacated the bus because they knew something bad was happening so the bystander situation was and still is very difficult for me to process the fact that in that moment I was very much abandoned and you know I definitely with the news that we read have always felt fearful of you know what may happen based on gender violence and things that you know London crime and all these things I never feared the lack of support I would get from the public and I understand people don't want to put themselves at risk we have no idea what you know what that could turn into but what followed them was a 14-month police investigation and court case where my attacker was sentenced to eight years in prison and it was not their first um offenses they'd had 20 offenses 10 convictions it was yeah just a extremely difficult process and all of that was happening whilst running the business alone and writing the second book and yeah just I threw myself into work because I couldn't face processing the severity of what I'd been through whilst also trying to navigate a court case I just didn't go to therapy because I wanted to stay strong for the court case I know the conversation is a lot around leadership and how we show up and a lot of my characteristics are strong bold brave unfazed um hyper independent and that really came through in the processing of this experience because I would be struggling with my mental health crying all day in bed and then I would get ready get dressed and go stand on stage and speak to 300 women and motivate them and I look back now and we're still processing it of what made me feel I had to do that you know of course running a business alone means that if I don't do it especially such a front-facing job like mine like I can't necessarily hire a freelancer and go step in my shoes people are booking me to work with me so I think the the difficulty with running a one-woman show which I always rave about I'm very happy with is is that when times are hard it is extremely difficult to not what to step away and to look after yourself so I think that was the first the the reflections I'm having now was what made me think I needed to keep showing up for everyone in that way why did I feel like I had to keep doing it and I think for anyone who's experienced a trauma there is also something where I didn't want to be the version that was hurting I wanted to be the version that everyone knew me as so it was whilst it was exhausting the masking it was it you know posting a story about you know a post or whatever it separated me from the pain that I needed to feel and that was that avoidance was what got me through last year and I was there was a court case ongoing and it was really it kept getting pushed back and the police system wasn't great and there was just so much stuff that if I'd have actually allowed myself to feel in that process I don't know if I'd have made it to the court case so these these um characteristics of mine were survival mode you know I was I was if you saw me throughout October 23 right through to I mean this year in parts I've been in survival mode literally functioning on the basis of what what can I do just to get through the next hour next to the end of the day you know what how do I keep going um but the big question mark is why did I feel I need I had to work so much and that's something that is definitely been put into this second book of how much value will we place in work on our lives and I pay insurance for this I pay health insurance and work insurance so that if I something happens to me I can take time off and it was just not even up for debate it just was not it was just keep functioning keep going keep pushing through I think the way it's changed me is I have to put my oxygen mask on first before I pour out to others I eventually did share about it online to my Instagram community and and I was just overwhelmed with the amount of messages of people of support and part of that process that was difficult for me was a lot of people were saying don't speak about it publicly you need to process this first and I respect them and I value them for that but I also had this incredible community who were just wanting to support me and influx of messages not just saying I hope you're okay but I just want to let you know how you oh I'm gonna get emotional how you've changed my life yeah the fact that my audience wanted to show up for me in that way showed me the importance of healing in public and why you probably are going to see me cry at events and podcasts over the next year because what I've realized is how many people need have needed to see someone healing in public needed to see that we're not all doing amazingly and behind all of these facades that we have online it's it is real life and it is difficult and we are going through things and I guess part of the reason I wanted to open up about this publicly in certain rooms or situations is because I don't want people to feel like they're alone and I don't want people to feel we're living these glossy perfect lives when truthfully there's so much that we carry we just don't always talk about it publicly and I understand why it's not right for everyone but for me yeah I think putting on my oxygen mask first healing in public is really powerful and can help more people than you think and you might need it more than you think and also just it's forcing me to choose what is really important and it makes that that question you asked me earlier can I say no to jobs now yeah much quicker I can say it much quicker if a job comes in on a Friday it's a no well it's my therapy day I'm not that's non-negotiable you know I'm a lot more selective on how much I cram in and the impact of that cramming but only now and that's why I wanted to say that like that wasn't how I've always been that's something I'm actively working on in the last six months do you think you've got to know yourself better oh god yeah painfully yeah painfully I think you know I've been to therapy before um but that was more to process other things whereas this was about how I deal with what I've been through um I think I've suppressed my emotions in a lot of situations and I've been there for other people um and this was the first time where I had to not only accept like sit with them I had to accept them and I had to grieve things and I had to really process things that have never really been processed this when you experience something like that it's not just about processing that trauma it's anything else that's happened in life will come to the surface because you are literally at full capacity and you are over spilling and everything comes out you know so yeah it massively has but if nothing else it's it's the self-compassion that I'm giving you know it is showing up and being vulnerable in public spaces it is slowing down it's actively choosing things it's and also paying attention to things I spoke at South by Southwest the big conference that's usually in Austin but it's just come to London and I was really nervous emceeing because I'm a great public speaker you put me on stage in front of thousands of people I'm not phased whatsoever but when I'm reading a script of someone else's words it really makes me nervous especially it's reading people's names because I'm really mindful I want to get it right I don't want to make a mistake I know how important that is and the audience main stage 800 people and I was absolutely breaking it like I was so so nervous and the security guard could see um and he was just this nicest guy Ella Fassi was his name and he said to me deep breaths let's do some deep breaths together and he did two calming deep breaths with me and he said you're gonna be amazing he was like your style's amazing you're gonna be amazing and I went on stage and I didn't mess up that next introduction and I came off stage and as I came around he was stood there with two thumbs up he's like yeah you you killed it and we we started chatting and he followed me on fuck being humble and he was like this is so needed and he honestly was like the highlight of the conference me and old me wouldn't have even taken note of that old me would have I don't need to deep breathe I'm fine you know I would have you know I would have smiled or whatever but I wouldn't have taken that moment as seriously as it was and I think what those moments show me which I really need to see is that strangers do want to help and that's not what I experienced in what I experienced so any moments of that that I see is is is healing for the soul so it's it's forcing me to be present way more present with all of those little interactions that I would be too busy scrolling too busy even when I get in Ubers to to event stuff I love talking to tax drivers I love chat I always have to be fair but I put my phone down now and I really want to be present and I think that's what those moments teach you because when you're in a really dark hard place all you want is to feel like yourself again that that that was always my thing and I remember my therapist saying to me you're not going to come out this the way you were and that was one of the hardest things to hear especially when it's an experience that you didn't choose for yourself and I remember crying when she said then she's like you're going to go down she called it the hero's journey and this leaders need to hear this you can be riding high riding high something happens and you get sent down and you go down and you go deep under the ground and you are stuck in mud and you don't know when you're coming back out you'll come out but you will come out a completely different person and like I said when I heard that I cried my eyes I really struggled with hearing that because I was like but I just want to be the old version I was just and I couldn't see how the new version of me would be better and I see it now like I see the the the version of me that is taking count of things and appreciating things more and being grateful and just really creating that space to enjoy the moment more which I know everyone says it but it the older you get the more you realize it really is just that obviously wasn't my choice what I experienced and it was awful and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone but in some worlds it has forced me to completely re-evaluate how I show up professionally personally and in the world and I for that I you know I think it will be the chapter that changes my life so you don't choose what happens in life but you can choose how you respond to it thank you so much for sharing that I can see and I felt it listening to you so I know how much just hearing your story would help others so thank you for choosing to heal in public because I think it's going to help so much and even for me sitting here listening to you it's I've even it's helped me listening to your story so thank you I could carry on forever I'm sure we could We could talk all day, couldn't we?

1:07:50I'd love to know, you know, you've got such a story and it's a beautiful story of highs and lows and challenges and growing yourself. When you go back to your younger self, what's that piece of advice you'd pass on? So I get asked this question a lot and I want to give a different answer today because we briefly spoke about it before we started the show. Don't think that you have to work hard to earn a living. and what I mean by that is I always was told I was great at speaking I was always told oh she could have a chat show one day or you know she's like the next Lorraine Kelly whatever but it was never positioned to me as really an opportunity that I should go for I should do and I think it's because monetizing something you're easy at pisses people off in a way because other people have had to work really hard to get to that point and oh you get to do something you just find easy and you love well that's not fair and actually I now what I've learned is I've I went through all that long and hard path to prove my worth and show my hard worker and to go through the corporate crap and oh show that I'm strong and all of those things only to realize that what I am now selling is me it's my mind it's my voice it's the thing that was always in me but it felt too easy and obvious to package that up and sell it so I guess for me it's like if you feel something innate and in you that you really know is valuable but it feels too obvious or too easy to monetize don't let that be the reason you don't want to do it because if you speak to anybody in their later careers they're looking for an easy life oh yeah an easy life generally means pulling back yeah and stop over delivering one of my favorite books is by tamu thomas um women who work too much another book i'm promoting literally everywhere i go and in it she says you know women are conditioned to be nice so being nice means abandoning our needs and our desires and that means just going along with the flow and doing what we feels right and over giving and over caring and over delivering right and actually the goal really is to do less of but more of what you love so if there is something that you can monetize in yourself already please don't sit on it because there's generations of people that think well you didn't have to work hard for that because in your own world you have worked hard for that yeah you've been courageous you are the person you are you've probably annoyed people you've done things if it's there don't ignore it and and maximize on it because I'm at my happiest and I think I sell myself well and I've been successful I've done that because I'm authentically earning a living based on who I authentically am and I know I do appreciate that's privilege and not everyone gets a chance to do that but don't let people's negative views on that topic be the reason that you don't step into the thing you were always meant to do beautiful on that note we will have to finish thank you so much it's this is one of those episodes I know I'm going to play back not look at myself because I don't look at myself all the time but play back and listen to you because it is just packed with such powerful advice and so inspiring thank you thank you so much for your time today thank you for having me It's been a pleasure.

1:11:21And thank you for everyone who's listening or watching. And we'll see you next week. If you've been enjoying the Courageous Leaders podcast, we'd love it if you'd subscribe to our YouTube channel. Your support helps us keep creating quality content and reaching more leaders like you who are ready to grow and make a real impact. We fund this podcast ourselves so every subscription truly makes a difference and allows us to support courageous leaders like you. Thank you for being part of the journey.