Transform Your Workplace: From Burnout to Balance with Wellness Coach Sophie Anderson

Thought leaders, are you ready to revolutionize your workplace culture and boost employee wellbeing? In today’s fast-paced world, the success of your organization hinges on the health and happiness of your team. So in this episode of Biz Bites, we’re gonna dive into the transformation of your workplace from burnout to balance with wellness coach Sophie Anderson.

Sophie is an amazing person. She’s got a fantastic story to tell about. How she transitioned from corporate burnout to guiding teams towards balance and purpose. So you’re gonna learn why prioritizing employee wellbeing is not just a nice to have, but a must have for productivity and innovation. So get ready for some actionable insights, transformative strategies that will elevate your leadership and create lasting change.

Stay tuned for this episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Biz Bites, and we’re going to get into a fascinating discussion, I think today about people particularly and the impact of people in our business and the impact on ourselves we have with us today. Sophie, very warm, welcome to you. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me. Now Sophie, I’ve only got to know you very briefly from a discussion we had, and it made me think straight away. We’ve gotta get you on the podcast. So why don’t you introduce yourself to our audience? Thank you so much. I’m a workplace wellness coach. I’m based in Cairnes, but I’m originally from Quebec, so I am French Canadian.

Moved to Australia as a backpacker and basically never left. So this is me and short I worked in the corporate sector for 25 years. So my whole career if you do the maths, and I have been working for big organizations that have the employee assistance program. I had beautiful managers, but I was never satisfied with what they were providing me, and I was always waiting for them to make my life better.

And I was looking at other jobs and then eventually, long story short, I got a coach and she helped me make changes in my personal life. So I realized that all the things I wanted to work. To help me with, I could do it myself. So I was bored. I found hobbies. I was unhealthy. I started, I quit drinking.

I started eating better, started doing yoga. I was really overwhelmed and anxious and I was, back then, I was seeing a therapist and seeing a coach. Help me not only understand that I was anxious, but what to do about it. So ultimately it changed my whole life. I became such a better employee and I decided to bring that back to the workplace.

So I went back to school. I got accredited and certified as a life coach, and now I’m coming back through the back door of the corporate world to coach people. I love it. I think it’s so much more powerful when you’ve got a lived experience that makes you responsive to what you want to do. People talk a lot about finding a purpose and things, and I think it’s it happens through lived experience, doesn’t it?

Absolutely. And when you see something that really works, and I see it from a lot of people in my network as well, they’re like, I’ve got to bring this to the world. And this, the coaching place, coaching as a term is not new. But it’s used as a buzzword unfortunately. And coaching is used to describe training.

To describe mentoring and even some managers and will say that their coaching, their staff, but they’re telling them what to do. So, the space that I want to be is between training and therapy. Where we help people understand who they are and how to change their habits and their behaviors and then we help them have the tools to actually take control and act on what they control and let go of the rest.

So I definitely want to come back to some of these tools and things and talk through that, but I’m really fascinated by what you’ve just said about that blend between the two different areas, because you’re right, coaching can sometimes have a bad rap because people have got this image of what a coach is in their mind, and that can be a good or a bad thing.

But it’s typically not really what the reality is when you get in with people, and there are so many different types of coaches these days as well. So it’s become more of an umbrella idea rather than necessarily what specific. But tell me about working that tightrope between those two different elements.

There’s, and there’s a lot of different roles that people will think when you do workplace wellbeing as well. So there’s, I’ll start with the role as a coach. And this is something I described to my clients as well. I’m not a therapist. I don’t go in the past and try to really, label all the problems that you have.

In fact, I see you as resourceful and already. You don’t need to be fixed. You just need to get out of your own way essentially and stop. We hope you’re enjoying listening to the Biz Buys Podcast. Have you ever thought about having your own podcast, one for your business where your brilliance is exposed to the rest of the world?

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So come talk to us podcast done for you.com au details in the show notes below. Now back to Biz Bites. You don’t need to be fixed, you just need to get out of your own way essentially and stop. Rip off those labels is what I often tell people when they’re saying, oh, but that’s just the way I am. And I look at them and I do this and they know it.

They’re like, oh, I gotta rip off the label. So I am not a therapist. I don’t go into labeling people. I just wanna quickly say though that I’ve had a therapist for years and it’s very valuable and EAPs are valuable, but beyond that, there’s coaching, and also, I’m not a mentor, so I’m not gonna tell you what worked really well for me and what my sister-in-law did was she was in the same situation as you, and that worked really well for her.

I don’t go there either. I don’t train people to become healthier, and I don’t tell them. What to do, essentially. So it’s that beautiful place where I help people just identify what they want. And even if I ask you, Anthony, what do you want in life? It’s a huge question. Absolutely.

Absolutely. It’s a massive question, isn’t it? To, to truly. Ponder you can give the straightforward one word response and say happiness. But that’s not, that’s pretty shallow in many respects. And but it is, it’s a difficult it’s a difficult question and it’s it really cuts into an emotional state if you truly want to answer it, doesn’t it?

It does. And for a lot of people, it’s an uncomfortable place because they say. What do you mean what I want? I’m just getting by. I’m just doing what I have to do. But there’s so many things when you start really looking at and I don’t wanna go too deep in the, like the coaching structure and approach, but when you start really looking at what you value, what you are good at, then you can start designing.

Things that you want. When I want a smaller house, like it can be just random things like that. Like I just want something smaller, so I just want one space in the house that’s dedicated for me. I want to reconnect with this old friend, like I really want this. It’s also, I just want to have more energy.

What is exactly do you want? And all those things. Essentially are your blueprint for happiness. ’cause you’re right, everyone wants to be happy. This is what we want. I just wanna be happy. I just want a great life. I just wanna make the most outta this life. And it takes a lot of courage to do that though too, doesn’t it?

It’s to, if you are looking for that, sometimes pursuing that can mean that you, a realization that you have to make a whole bunch of changes. But not all at the right time, but not at the same time. No. And a lot of people are perfectionist and the danger in being a perfectionist is you only see the end result and everything you do is never good enough.

’cause it’s never, you are never gonna get straight to the end result. That is perfect. And this is a big trap, and it’s the same with. Goals or happiness. People see this big picture I have heaps of money, the kids are gone. Or some people is, I finally have a baby. It’s this big picture and you can’t get it straight away.

And that’s why it’s so important to have someone who goes let’s reverse engineer this happiness piece and what are the first few steps that you can take and to notice. Also when you are progressing instead of always focusing on the end result and being like, I’m still not there. I’m still not there.

It’s amazing what you say there that. That whole focus on the end result. We have that in most businesses would have that all the time because people come to you, whatever product or service that you are selling and they’re focused on the end result. What am I gonna get at the end?

And they forget about the journey and the fact that there’s so many variables that come into the equation. Why get focused on that? I used to do a lot of websites in my business. We still do a few, but the. The most common question that people ask at the beginning is how long will it take?

And they’re, and then they’re imagining their big, beautiful website at the end of it. And they’re going, okay. And if I say, I can pick a number, and anyone that’s ever built any websites will know, you’ll say to them three months and they go, oh that’s quite a long time. And I go. I’m telling you, three months, it’s going to take six to nine months.

What I’m going, because it’s going to take you that long to do the things that you need to do and all of the changes that you need to make. But the journey that happens along the way when you start writing content and realizing changes that you wanna make in the business or the way you wanna speak, all of those things are part of the journey.

Being focused on just on what the end result is of the website is actually a mistake. There’s more to think about, but it’s hard to get that across to people because people come with a very much a focus on, it’s a bit like it’s not quite the same as walking to into a shop and saying, I want that.

And just walking out with that particular object because most of us aren’t selling those kinds of things to people. And so it is really hard for people to have that focus ’cause we are trained. So much for that instant gratification that getting them to focus on the journey and not the end result. That must be a difficult thing to constantly combat in what you do.

Yes and no. I think there’s a parallel, but it’s very different when I work, ’cause I work with people one-on-one and I work with organizations. And organizations are very focused on the return on investment in terms of dollars productivity, engagement. And I think it’s fair enough that they want to start by with that kind of end result.

Like, how is my team gonna be transformed after they’ve worked with you or we’ve worked with you for three months? And to explain the milestones to get there. And it’s the same with a client, whether they get a six. Session package or a three session package, I think it’s fair enough that they go, but am I really gonna be much more transformed by the end of your six session rather than three?

It makes sense ’cause it’s twice the sessions, but it doesn’t to someone who hasn’t done coaching before. So I think. I don’t really mind how people see it, and I never feel like I have to defend coaching ’cause I deeply believe in the process. But I think it’s helpful and maybe if some coaches are listening, it’s really helpful.

To be able to describe their journey. They don’t care about what we’re gonna do. First, I’m gonna establish what your core values are. That’s like really helpful. And then your strengths. You wanna know your strengths. That says nothing to them. But first, I’m gonna look at the main, pains, like the main energy drainer is in your life, and I’m going to help you use your strengths and make it really easy to get let go of them.

Boom. It’s the same thing. It’s the same work. And then I can say, and for this, typically it would take three sessions to really let go of your biggest energy drainers to really understand yourself and to do it so that, that would be the first three sessions. Then it starts making sense a little bit more for people.

And same with teams. If I say. I don’t know if it’s valuable if I draw the parallel, but it’s a similar approach with organizations. I hear you. You want this and you want this tomorrow. This is the initial situation. This is where I can get your team in the first. This is where your team can be in the first session.

Like I can help them to stop asking you, for example, for work life balance and asking for more and more when you feel like you’re already doing a lot. I will help them to reflect on what they can do, and they’ll come with specific solution and ask you, can you do this? Instead of saying, just improve everything for me.

I don’t know if that makes sense. People really start taking more ownership. Yeah. I think what you’re talking about there as well is a much more personable. Approach. It’s not a one size fits all. Let’s grab everyone into, everyone together. And every, no matter which company you’re with, you’re all gonna be on the same journey.

It’s going to be different, isn’t it? Absolutely. I do have a, the program is cookie cutter. Let’s say there’s a workshop, a quarter and a coaching session every month, but the workshop is. Interactive with the participants. So of course in that sense it’s flexible and the coaching sessions one-on-one, they’re adapted to what they need in the moment.

So yes, there’s no one size fit all in terms of content or yeah, in terms of the way that I will interact with people, it’s not like I have one slideshow and script. That I just vomit on all the organizations. ’cause that wouldn’t work. So if you I imagine that it’s such a personal choice when you come to choosing a coach, but also on the flip side, from your point of view, choosing the right businesses that you are going to be able to make an impact on.

There’s a challenge in doing that and making sure that you are going to be the right fit. And I think people forget about that, that it’s a two-sided consideration. Yeah, no, I got you. I got the question. I think it’s how do I make sure that we’re a good match? The client and myself. Yes. Yeah. So in both areas, the one-on-one coaching and the organization I’m looking for people who understand that they have a role to play so similarly to, to your web design as well.

I can’t do the change on my own. I can deliver the workshops. I can coach people but I can’t change the culture of an organization if the leadership team is not on board and I can’t change a person’s. Overall health and wellbeing if they’re only engaged in this session. And then they also don’t do any changes between the sessions and the main the main it’s easy to detect if someone is ready for coaching or not.

It’s either they want things to change or they want to change. Themselves and in an organization that can sound a little bit like, can you straighten them up? Can you just coach them? They’re driving me insane. That kind of approach. I’m not the right person, but I work with people who can certainly help them.

I have a range of associates and I’ll go. Yes, we can help. This is where I bring the we as CAIRs Coaching as a group. Yeah. We can definitely help with human resources challenges. But me as a coach, no, I’m not there. They’re not there yet. But the person who comes to me and say, I’ve tried so many things and they’re still super stressed, they still take their emails on the weekend.

I’m not asking them to, and I organize events. They don’t participate. Everyone’s just so tired. It feels like it’s December already. That’s a business owner. Recently, she said, it’s got that vibe and I don’t know if you’ve observed it. I’ve observed it in myself. Sometimes in people it feels like Christmas break didn’t do the trick this time.

It’s like people are already tired. It’s like end of Q1. What? Hang on. No, it’s Christmas NMA next month, isn’t it? It’s the end of the year. I’m done. So these kind of people who are really aware of their team’s energy and they genuinely wanna help them and they know that they need to help themselves, like they’ve done a lot, but now they realize that it’s time for the employees to look after themselves, but they do it from.

Maybe more of a heartfelt place than the, than they’re the clients who benefit a lot from coaching. How important is it for you to be standing out in your approach? ’cause it is quite a different approach, I think to, to most people that are in your space. I’m not afraid of not being liked. By everyone.

I know this to be true. I coach CEOs. I’ve coached business owners and the way you treat yourself and the goals you set for yourself in the pers in your personal life, your habits, the way you start your day, the last thing you do before you go to sleep. All of this has an impact. On your workplace, and if people think that only the leadership team needs to be developed and it’s all about training and therapy, they will not agree with me, and that’s okay.

But I like to say, and it’s gonna sound pretentious, but I know. I know what I’m talking about. It really works. People start looking after themselves. People start having healthier habits, and they discover why they want to have so much control on everything. Why aren’t they able to delegate? Why aren’t they able to relax?

And then they can make the changes

that is. That is a really, I can totally understand that process because. You are, what you’ve been saying all along is it needs to come from the inside. That it’s not just an in you, you’re not creating this structure. This is not a regimented exercise program where you come in and say if you do these exercises three times a day, seven days a week, you’re gonna get these muscles.

And that’s the end of it because everybody’s different. Absolutely. And I was watching a webinar by a highly regarded HR firm in Australia. And they talk a lot about engagement and they were talking about performance, and they have a beautiful platform and they have, they, they do a lot of their own research and they sound very knowledgeable.

They are very knowledgeable. But all along I was looking at it from the employee’s lens and thinking this is what the leadership. Teams are listening to, to help their staff perform. There’s nothing in there about giving them resources to. Except for therapy, but resources to take control of the toxic relationships they have in their life, their negative self-talk.

’cause you’ll have a beautiful leader who’s gone through the platform who’s doing a performance review, will go, you did so well in that presentation. And the employer will go, he is just saying that to keep me happy and to shut me down and. And even the best leadership team with all the best approaches that, all the bells and whistles in the performance review and the right process, they’re not gonna get a highly productive team if there’s nothing in there about their mindset and their lifestyle outside of work.

It’s not gonna work. And the best. I guess a very powerful example of how this plays out in real life is employees who like me, right? I’m not saying that these people are wrong, like these people just need support. People are in the union waiting for the, they’re asking their employer to change everything and work life balance and give me four days a week and give me more money.

And then they leave because they’re not getting what they want and they either go to another organization or they say stuff that I’m gonna start my own business and I’m finally gonna have that work life balance that I want. All those people I know who’ve done that, they will recreate the same problems in the next organization or in their own business.

They’re gonna be sitting at their desk working. Through the weekend, taking their emails at night. It’s just, it’s something that’s inside us that we carry wherever we go. So what’s the tips on how to change that if you recognize, that’s the first thing is you’ve gotta recognize it of course, in yourself and take a look at how you are operating and whether that’s ideally how you want to be operating.

But what are the tips then to change it? Because recognizing is one thing, changing is another. And bearing in mind that there are. Very poor workplace culture. I’m not talking about this. I’m not challenging the fact that you can’t work well if there’s too much work. If you have zero control the leadership team is super uninspiring, but if there’s nothing overly wrong in the workplace, it takes, to put our ego aside, I think is the first thing, and to go what exactly is.

The challenge for me, and where can I take responsibility? Where can I speak up? What are the little changes I can do? And a very easy thing you can do is to recognize patterns. So patterns in life are created by our habits, our thought patterns, like our habitual thoughts. So if you look at someone who.

I will give a typical example. Someone comes to work and they just, they’ve got so much to do. There’s there’s the emails, there’s, and then people are on holidays or they’ve sacked a whole lot of people they had, so they genuinely do, it’s a real problem and they’re refusing to hire more people.

This is just real problem.

What do they do when that happens? They. Scroll on their phone or they just randomly reply to emails. They chew through their email box. Maybe they talk to people about how much work they have. Look at this. I’ve got so much work. And then what happens? The workload, there’s still more work or if they just like randomly just.

Chip working on a whole lot of stuff throughout the day. They’ll be super activated, super overwhelmed. And then that continues the pattern. Where can you break the pattern? You can break it before or after you notice the workload. You can come to work energized and refreshed. So then that means you work on your sleep.

Hygiene or what you had for breakfast or your relationship with your kids, like mornings with kids, sometimes no fun. No fun at all. You carry that into work, you’re already overwhelmed or you can work on just after that trigger. The trigger is seeing your email per example, so you can break the pattern there.

When I see the workload, I am gonna step away from my computer, take three breaths, and then write my, what do I need to? That’s an as and hour matrix that I work with every day, and I’ve got an erasable pen. This is what I have to do. This is urgent. This is what I have to schedule in my day. This is what I need to delegate to my va, and this is what I need to get rid of.

If people make the time to either work on before the queue to be more prepared to respond to it, or they work on what they’re gonna do when they get triggered, boom. They’ve broken the cycle. They’ve taken control. You just have to recognize where it starts. Where does the cycle start? That is so powerful that simple idea, and it is a simple idea.

It’s committing to that. That’s the probably the first step. But if you can, I can absolutely see how that is, because we all have triggers, don’t we? We all have little things that set us off. I know, for example, that I get, have a tendency. To come in the morning and look at what all of the messages that have come in overnight.

And I get sucked into that vortex of responding to whatever’s been coming in rather than getting on with what actually is the priorities and some of the things that I want to be doing for myself as well in the morning. So you don’t and then it just changes your whole day. Suddenly you are three quarters of the way through the day and you go, I haven’t done any of the things that I wanted to do.

Yeah, that’s such, it’s so powerful and it happens all the time to self-employed people, to people in the workplace, but when people are in the workplace, they tend to blame the employer. When we’re self-employed, we can’t blame anyone else. So absolutely. I recognize, again, I recognize there are some toxic workplaces.

I call them toxic. They’re not toxic. ’cause if toxic is like, it poisons your body and that’s your decision to let it infect you. But for the sake of a conversation, there are toxic workplaces out there, but not always. There’s so much we can do to change ourselves. So just to help you, Anthony, with this, like putting fires out first thing in the morning and responding to people, letting their energy come into you and treating them like something that’s a priority is potentially a habit, which was unconscious and you just do it on autopilot.

Am I correct? Yeah, absolutely. So now that you’ve named it, the good news is it’s not a habit anymore ’cause you’ve brought it to your consciousness and now you can do something about it. And now you know what your trigger is seeing the messages so you can act on not seeing the messages. You can act on the before or you can act on what you’re gonna do once you’ve seen them.

I’m gonna plan an hour at 11 or 12 once I’ve cleared. High value work. This is where you take your power back. Such an important lesson for people who own businesses, but also as you say, employees. So let me ask you this as well, because this is the main focus of what you’re doing is coming into organizations and helping them with their teams, not, it’s not just the business owner.

How do you take that for a team? How do you firstly recognize what is going wrong? Because there’s always something going wrong. That’s probably why they brought you in the first place. They’re recognizing that something’s not right. So how do you, I. Understand what those factors are.

And is it, does it tend to be more of a cultural thing that is similar for, across a team? Or does it tend to be very much an individual based that’s a good question. They do. Most people, most leaders will come to me saying that the employees, they don’t align with what they want. They seem entitled or.

Ungrateful. I’m trying to recognize trends and the people that came to me. I think that the main challenge, and I hope this answers your question but the main challenge is that they communicate in leadership words to people who. They don’t have the same values. They’re not at work for the same reasons. They will get their paycheck in most instances, whether they work hard or they don’t.

So I think the problem is the clashing in values and making people understand why they go to work. ’cause more, most people go to work for the paycheck, to have something to do. So I think that the challenges for everyone,

I’m not sure if I can answer your question clearly, to be honest, but I think that the main clash that I see is the priorities for the leadership team and the priorities for the staff. And then obviously they can’t. They don’t feel like they’re heard on both ways and leadership team is waiting for the employees to do their part.

And the employees and I say that because this is how people see it often, this, there’s the leadership and there’s the employees. And really what I do is I bring them on the same level. This is what we need. This is what we’re here for, and this is what we need and this is what we’re here for. Does that make sense?

Does that help? Absolutely. It’s such a challenging thing, isn’t it? Because you, as you say, many people are showing up to work. It’s not that they don’t enjoy what they do, but at the end of the day, their commitment is to making sure they’re getting a paycheck at the end of it. And they, most people recognize that they can always get another job somewhere else.

So how much are they actually committed to what they’re to what they’re doing? And I think many people. Work on the basis that it’s always about money as well, but it’s not always about money either, is it? It’s, there are other factors that people want for themselves. Whilst money is nice, it’s not the answer to everything.

As they say, money doesn’t necessarily make you happy. No, and the best proof of that is that people are terrified of retirement. ’cause what am I gonna do with my time? And that demonstrates that. People don’t know how to use their time. They don’t know what they value. They don’t know how to have fun.

Like it’s less and less a thing to just enjoy our life. It’s just we’re on autopilot and this is what I have to do and I should be doing, and we’re missing the point missing. We can embed things that we like in work. And beyond work, then we still have those other aspects to look at as well and to prioritize.

Yeah, it’s and I wanna come to that tricky terminology. And I say this because I know when I’ve used it in the past in post that you get. A whole lot of people that say it’s not the right terminology, but I’m gonna use it because you’ve used it. Work, work life balance. Ooh. Say, the reason I say it’s controversial is that a lot of people say it’s not about balancing things, and that’s the wrong way of looking at it.

And so let’s put all of that aside and just say, how do you find what you need to bring from. Your personal life into your work life, and how do you find the right amount to put into each? Because there is a crossover between the two, no matter what you do. 100%. And I actually, one of my presentations and workshops is called Life Balance, and this is how I start.

I’m like, this work-life balance thing doesn’t work, but you can call it whatever you want. The idea of balance is the idea that I feel like I am giving energy to a number of areas in my life and. And this can be done outside of work, and it can be done at work as well with simple things like going for a walk on your lunch break or bringing food that you like to work or calling your, when you have that midday slump calling a friend.

You can bring those other aspects. And when I’m talking about life balance, I’m talking about something that’s very coachy. It’s the Wheel of Life. And the Wheel of Life has several aspects that you can improve in your life. And these are all aspects that can be improved at home and at work as well.

So we’re talking environment. So simple things. Is your desk super messy? And that adds to the overwhelm of, I’ve got so much to do. Look at this pile of crap. Then this is one aspect that you can improve. And it’s part of life balance. It’s just realizing that the small steps matter.

Taking control. You absolutely nailed one of the most important aspects that I say that this show is all about. It’s the small steps. That’s what you know, this whole podcast has been about. Talking to thought leaders like yourself and being able to implement the what little one percenters, those little things that make a difference, that accumulate over a period of time and make a huge difference to the way you’re doing it.

So I, that, that way that you think about things I think is so important. And because it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. If you come in thinking just about the big outcome, then it’s just too hard, it’s too overwhelming. It’s the little things that you can achieve along the way that are gonna make the big difference.

100%. And for your listeners, if they’re so they’re business owners. Potentially looking at, making more money, but also finding life balance in their life. And they’re responsible for it, most of them, right? They don’t have an employer. Their employer is their clients. I would, I’m happy to share the Wheel of Life exercise and they can start to actually design and implement those small steps one segment of their life at a time.

I’m happy to share that with them. Fantastic. And I certainly welcome all the listeners to to jump on and do that. We’ll make sure we’ve got a way of sharing that through the show notes. I appreciate that. We are nearly running outta time, but I wanted to ask you also about terminology that you use health and wellbeing at work and home.

What does that actually mean? Because people often just think health, oh, that just means going and doing a few exercises and eating vegetables. But what, when you start saying health and wellbeing at home and work go how do, what does that actually mean? Absolutely. And thanks for asking the question.

It’s funny ’cause I’ve actually drafted a post about this, like the language I use, the language we use. So health is multidimensional. Your health is what people call holistic. So there’s the physical health, mental health, social health, spiritual health, environmental health. These are all the ways to improve your overall health essentially.

Then wellbeing is your level of life satisfaction, your fulfillment. Some people call it happiness. Happiness. Happiness comes and goes though it’s quite quick. It’s oh, that was fun. That was a fun thing. And these are moments that are really important to grasp. But wellbeing is that place of I, I feel fulfilled.

I feel like I am in the right place at the right time. And what I like to say with wellbeing is you wake up and you’re excited about your day. And when you go to sleep, you’re happy with the day you’ve had. This is wellbeing. And then I also talk about wellness like I’m a wellness coach, and wellness is all the proactive steps that people take to improve their health and their wellbeing.

So how do I take control to improve this? And it’s in the simplest steps. Again, it’s all surrounded by self-care, which means, which is another buzzword, isn’t it? But self-care is just knowing who you are and then honoring what you want, who you are, what you need through daily actions, through wellness, essentially.

So much more that we could explore there, and I know perhaps we’ll do it another time. I’ve got two final questions I wanted to ask you. And the first one is going back to the beginning, ’cause I’m fascinated by this because you’ve made a massive leap in your life to be going from to growing up in another country, to moving, like you can’t move much further away than between Canada and Australia.

It’s a long trip and how’s that journey been for you when you reflect? Back on it and making those changes. ’cause I imagine you came with a backpack, you came on your own. Is your family still on the other side of the world? And how much how hard is that journey and how much has that had an impact on what you are doing today?

Do you know one of my friend is Dr. Nadia Maid, and she’s a supervisor for research papers. They called ethnographic. Research paper. And this blends your story with research facts to explain what happens to people. So you use your personal experience and you write a paper about it, and this is something I want to do.

So your question is highly personal and meaningful to me because I grew up. In a loving family, but a family that pretty much stays small and don’t be too loud and don’t bother people and don’t try new things. ’cause you might fail and you don’t wanna look stupid in front of people. If you trip in front of people, you wanna get up and get out of there.

And I moved here the first time. Because I learned to just avoid pain and avoid things, and I lost my partner overnight in a car accident. He was gone and I felt like I had to go as far as I could and I came here, I escaped and then I went back home, didn’t work, came back and I think I was, when I was here, I kept saying, oh, it’s so much better in Canada.

And then I’d go back to Canada and it’s so much better in Australia. I was never happy. Do you see the patent? Then I had a job and I was like, this is not it. And I get another job. This is not it. And I guess along the time here, and I found a beautiful partner that’s how I got to stay is he wanted to marry me.

And we’re still together. That’s a good decision. Very good decision. Very good decision. But the main thing is I decided that I was not. Was giving up anymore. I was not giving up on myself. I was not giving up on people. I was not giving up on Australia. I was just like, I’m here. This is what I’m working with now.

And noticing the cultural differences, learning a new language. ’cause let’s face it, Australian English is not the English I learned in Canada either, and I was speaking only French there. All of those challenges that I decided to take and then having a kid, it’s just. Made me have that perspective of, um, what’s a small problem, like when things, like I escalate things and I wanna give up, and I just, I can’t face it.

I’m like, is that a real problem or am I just trying to run away and this is what the paper is gonna be about when I write my auto ethnography is just. Just stick with it. Just believe in it. Just keep getting traction into.

Leave, like just, oh, that’s gonna sound super cheesy, but like leaving a legacy, right? Just do something. Just keep growing. It’s fine. There’s no real risk. People are afraid of failure. But when you think about failure, like the worst thing is often just the way you’re gonna feel. So if you know that you’re gonna have your own back, if you do fail, then there’s nothing to fear.

That is so powerful. And I can’t wait to read the paper, so I’m looking forward to that Sure. To hearing about it when it’s done, and and we’ll share it with the audience as well when that happens. One final question and I feel like, wow, we could just sit and talk about that for another couple of hours as well, but, one final question I always like to ask my guests is, what’s the aha moment that people have when they come to work with you that they perhaps didn’t realize they were going to have? I think the biggest aha is how much they’re trying to protect themselves. So people have, people are the people who come to see me, they’re very perfectionist, but they often have a value of financial safety per example.

And ’cause they’re trying to protect themselves and then they do things or they, they jeopardize relationships with their kids or with their partner ’cause they’re trying to protect them from making a mistake or and the big aha moment is they’re the only ones who suffer in that. People around them don’t really, they don’t really see it like that and they don’t need protection.

So that’s, I. Mostly on the one-on-one side and on the business side, the biggest aha is how I think people are. They seem what they’re doing at work seems like they don’t care or they’re doing something wrong. And when I start coaching and I start reporting back with the, not the coaching.

Conversation, obviously that’s confidential, but with the, where the conversation, the themes of the conversation the reasons why they’re doing it self-protection. Ultimately people are just trying to stay safe. They feel like the world is very overwhelming. But this is, they’re shooting themselves in the foot.

That is, so many powerful moments in this discussion. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope the listeners have as well, because there’s a lot of. Amazing insights and simple things that I think you’ve given us that to, to think about and how we can do and how and the approach and your own journey, I think adds to that value as well.

And people can understand how you’ve come to do what you do. And I want to thank you so much for being a part of the Biz Buys program and a reminder to everyone. Of course, we’ll include lots of details in the show notes of how to get in touch and some of the things that we’ve talked about.

But thank you for sharing so openly with everything. Thank you. Thank you for your time and for inviting me. And to everyone listening in, thank you again. And of course, stay tuned for the next episode of Biz Bites. A reminder to subscribe and never miss a thing. Hey, thanks for listening to Biz Bites. We hope you enjoyed the program.

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