Dare To Be Brave with Joy Foster

How to find yourself again after motherhood, overcome a motherhood identity crisis, and rebuild confidence after having kids is the focus of Dare To Be Brave Podcast Episode 289.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, "I don't recognise myself anymore?" Have you lost yourself after having kids? Do you feel stuck between being a great mum and wanting something more for yourself?

If you're struggling with mom guilt, feeling lost as a mom, or wondering how to find yourself again after motherhood, you're not alone.

In Dare To Be Brave Podcast Episode 289, Joy Foster, founder of TechPixies, helping women build digital skills and confidence, explores why so many women experience a motherhood identity crisis and what you can do to reconnect with the person you are beyond motherhood.

Motherhood changes everything. Your priorities shift. Your routines change. Your identity evolves. But many women discover that somewhere between school runs, family responsibilities, and caring for everyone else, they've lost touch with themselves.

Joy also shares inspiring stories of women who rebuilt their lives after major transitions, including divorce, breast cancer, career changes, and rediscovering purpose later in life.

In this episode:

★ Have you lost yourself after having kids?

★ The motherhood identity crisis nobody talks about

★ Why feeling lost as a mom is more common than you think

★ The danger of comparing yourself to your pre-baby self

★ What Jessica Ennis-Hill learned about confidence after motherhood

★ How to reclaim your identity one small step at a time

★ Why self-care is not selfish

★ How to find yourself again after motherhood

Timestamps:

00:00 You are more than a mum
01:14 The hidden identity shift of motherhood
02:12 Why motherhood changes who you are
03:22 Mom guilt and the pressure to be everything
04:02 Bonita's story of rebuilding her life
04:30 Stop comparing yourself to your old self
05:33 The strengths motherhood has given you
06:07 Reclaiming your identity after motherhood
07:01 Giving yourself permission to dream again
07:30 Finding purpose after major life changes
08:07 Your Dare To Be Brave challenge
08:20 Why reclaiming yourself matters
08:39 Design Your Dream Life Challenge

Resources:

★ Design Your Dream Life Challenge: https://techpixies.com/dlc12 

★ TechPixies: https://techpixies.com

★ Quantum Leap Accelerator: https://luminosity-leadership.com

★ Social Media Mastery Program: https://techpixies.com/socialmediamasterclass

★ Business Mastery Program: https://techpixies.com/businessmasterclass

★ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techpixies/

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

Have you ever looked around and felt like everyone else has figured it out except you?

If you’ve struggled with self-doubt, felt left behind by technology, questioned your abilities, or wondered whether you’ve missed your chance, this episode is for you.

In this episode of the Dare to Be Brave Podcast, Joy Foster explores the science of self-belief, why confidence often dips in midlife, and the daily habits that can help you rebuild confidence at any age.

Drawing on neuroscience, personal experience, and practical coaching tools, Joy shares the strategies that helped her rebuild her confidence during one of the most challenging periods of her entrepreneurial journey.

You’ll discover why self-belief isn’t something you’re born with—it’s a skill you can develop and strengthen over time.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why confidence often declines in your 40s and 50s
• The impact of negative thinking on your brain
• How neuroplasticity allows you to rewire self-doubt
• The connection between daily habits and confidence
• How gratitude and vision can transform your mindset
• Why journaling your wins builds self-belief
• How your self-talk shapes your future
• Why doing hard things increases confidence
• The importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in you

The 5 Daily Habits That Build Self-Belief

1. Start and end your day with gratitude and vision
2. Journal your wins
3. Talk to yourself like you would your best friend
4. Do one hard thing every day
5. Spend more time with people who believe in you

Key Takeaway

Self-belief isn’t a personality trait.

It’s a muscle.

And like any muscle, it grows stronger when you use it.

Every brave action, every positive thought, every small step outside your comfort zone creates evidence that you are capable of more than you think.

Brave Dare of the Week

Choose one of the five habits from this episode and commit to practising it every day for the next seven days.

Notice what changes.

Resources Mentioned

• 21-Day Social Media Confidence Challenge
• TechPixies Training Programmes
• Dare to Be Brave Podcast

Connect with Joy Foster

Joy Foster is the founder of TechPixies, a multi-award-winning training company that has helped thousands of women gain digital skills, return to work, change careers, and start businesses. She is also the creator of the Quantum Leap Accelerator, helping ambitious women create success without sacrificing their health, happiness, or relationships.

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

How to get unstuck in life, build self confidence, and break negative thinking patterns is the focus of Dare To Be Brave Podcast Episode 287. If you’ve been feeling lost, emotionally flat, or stuck on autopilot, this conversation will help you understand why.

In this episode, Joy Foster, founder of TechPixies, helping women build digital skills and confidence, explores the hidden signs that life has quietly become predictable, disconnected, and unfulfilling. Sometimes the hardest part is recognising that nothing is technically “wrong”, but deep down you know something has to change.

Joy breaks down why your brain resists change, how negative thought patterns become automatic, and why so many women stay trapped in lives they’ve outgrown. She also shares practical neuroscience-backed strategies to help you stop waiting for permission, challenge the stories keeping you stuck, and start moving forward again.

If you’ve been struggling with low self esteem, fear of change, or wondering how to rebuild confidence in midlife, this episode will give you practical ways to take the first step.

In this episode:

 ★ The hidden signs you’re emotionally stuck
 ★ Why being “busy” can still feel empty
 ★ How your brain keeps repeating old patterns
 ★ The neuroscience behind fear of change
 ★ Why small actions create massive momentum
 ★ The questions that keep you trapped
 ★ How to challenge the stories you tell yourself
 ★ A simple process to start moving forward today

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

How to build confidence when self-belief feels out of reach is something a lot of people quietly struggle with. In Dare To Be Brave Podcast Episode 286, Joy Foster breaks down why confidence isn’t something you magically find, it’s something you build through action, clarity, and growth. 

A lot of women spend years waiting to feel ready before making changes in their career, relationships, health, or personal growth. But the truth is, confidence rarely comes first. It usually shows up after you’ve done the thing that scared you. 

In this episode, Joy Foster, founder of TechPixies helping women build digital skills and confidence, shares 5 practical ways to rebuild confidence, stop drifting through life on autopilot, and start creating a future that actually feels aligned with who you are becoming. From learning new skills and joining supportive communities to creating a vision for your life and taking brave action, this conversation is full of grounded confidence tips you can start using immediately. 

If you’ve been feeling stuck, disconnected from yourself, or unsure about your next step, this episode will help you reconnect with what matters and move forward with more clarity and courage. 

In this episode: 

• Why confidence grows after action: not before 
• The hidden reason so many women stay stuck
• How learning something new rewires self belief 
• Why isolation destroys confidence faster than failure 
• The difference between living by design or by default 
• The 5 questions that help you create a powerful vision 
• Why making decisions builds confidence quickly 
• A simple 5-minute exercise to take brave action today

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

Turning 40 can feel daunting - but what if the real challenge isn’t ageing… it’s the lack of information?

In this episode, I share my personal journey from feeling fearful about turning 40 to navigating early menopause symptoms at 41 - despite being fit, healthy, and running marathons.

From being dismissed by doctors to finally advocating for myself and getting the support I needed, this is an honest and empowering conversation about what really happens in your 40s - and what you can do about it.

If you’ve ever felt “off” and not been taken seriously… this episode is for you.

What We Cover

• Why turning 40 felt more emotional than expected
• The confidence patterns I saw in women in their 40s
• Early menopause symptoms (and how they can be misdiagnosed)
• My experience with injury, osteoarthritis, and hidden hormonal changes
• Being told I was “too young” for HRT
• The importance of self-advocacy in healthcare
• Why antidepressants are often prescribed instead of treating the root cause
• How education can completely change your experience

Key Takeaways

• You are not “too young” to experience menopause symptoms
• Symptoms can show up in unexpected ways (not just hot flushes)
• You must advocate for yourself - not all doctors will listen
• Education is your most powerful tool
• Ignoring symptoms won’t make them go away

Resources Mentioned

• Dr. Mary Claire Haver – The New Menopause
• Dr. Lisa Mosconi – The Menopause Brain
• Davina McCall – Menopausing
• Laura Lamb – non-HRT support programmes

Your Brave Dare This Week

If you’re in (or approaching) your 40s:

1. Educate yourself about menopause
2. Speak to female relatives about their experience
3. Write down your symptoms
4. Advocate for yourself at the doctor
5. If you’re not heard - find a new doctor

Want to transform your life? TechPixies has helped more than 16,000 women return to work, change careers or start a business through its award-winning social media training and life coaching.

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge. 

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

I Was Perfectly Safe, So Why Did My Brain React Like I Wasn’t?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were completely safe and yet your nervous system behaved as if you weren’t?

Your heart is racing. Your thoughts are scattered. For a split second, you freeze.

What’s really happening here?

According to neuroscience, your brain has been flooded with fight-or-flight chemicals in equal measure, which is why you freeze even though you aren’t in danger.

Chances are, when this happens, you’re on the verge of doing something expansive, stepping into a bigger version of yourself and your biology has interpreted that growth as a threat.

I see this every single week inside TechPixies.

Brilliant, experienced, capable midlife women interpret a nervous system response as a confidence problem.

It isn’t.

It’s growth.

For over a decade, through TechPixies and now the Quantum Leap Accelerator, I’ve worked with thousands of women who want more: more impact, more leadership, more alignment between who they are and how they show up professionally.

And almost all of them say some version of the same thing:

“I’m not enough.”

Yet these are women who have:

• Raised families and managed households
• Led teams and delivered major projects
• Navigated redundancy, illness, divorce, and reinvention
• Kept going when life required resilience

The issue isn’t capability. It’s perception.

We’ve been taught that bravery means fearlessness. That confidence must come first. That leadership requires certainty.

But neuroscience tells us something different.

Your brain is wired to prefer the familiar. So when you update your CV after ten years out of the workforce, launch your first digital business at 50, or post your thought leadership on LinkedIn for the first time, your nervous system flares.

That reaction does not mean “stop.”

It means “new.”

And new is where transformation lives.

Ready to stop interpreting growth as danger?

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

If you feel like you pick up every cold going, regularly get a poor night’s sleep, or experience constant brain fog, you’ll know how much of an energy sap they can be.

But what if the secret to no longer feeling like you’re running on empty lies in breast milk? 

In this episode of Career Interrupted, Joy Foster chats to Stephanie Drax, founder of Leapfrog Remedies, to uncover the story behind the UK’s first dedicated Lactoferrin wellness brand.

From a career that began in acting and journalism, you’ll hear how Stephanie leapfrogged a failing business to tap into the science behind this ‘miracle molecule’ and how a psychic predicted it all. 

[00:45] What lactoferrin actually is.
[03:06] How to deal with a pinball career.
[05:54] What do you do when you can’t scale your business? 
[12:20] The unexpected (and slightly spooky) psychic prediction that shaped Stephanie’s future.
[17:00} Why you’re more capable than you think – especially when everything falls apart.
[20:26] The importance of finding mentors you trust. 

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or simply curious about the power of tenacity and resilience, this episode is packed with insights and motivation to spur you on your own business journey.  

Love our podcast? Leave a review and get hold of our Quick Start Podcast Guide.

For links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit TechPixies.com

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

Imagine standing at the threshold of your home, bailiffs hammering at the door, knowing that once you step outside you'll be homeless. On top of that, your husband has just been diagnosed with an incurable neurodegenerative disease. 

In one single moment, you’re forced to wave goodbye to a life you spent 20 years building while also losing hope for everything that might have come next. 

For Raynor Winn, it was in this moment of complete despair and panic, that an idea formed after she glanced down and saw a book among the packing boxes. It was about a man who had walked the South West Coast Path with his dog: 

"We could just fill a rucksack, follow a line on a map and just walk," Raynor thought.

So, with nothing but two rucksacks on their back, a tent, and the South West Coast Path as their compass, Raynor and her husband Moth began walking.

630 miles…

Navigating a path with an ascent equivalent to climbing Everest nearly four times.
It’s a story so extraordinary, Penguin snapped it up. And it’s since become a best-selling book and, more recently, a feature film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. 

Why you should tune in
We all have moments when life derails our plans, when everything feels broken and our dreams seem lost to time and circumstance. But as Raynor’s story shows us, sometimes, rock bottom isn’t the end. And a long-held dream can become a reality in the most unexpected of ways. 

Here’s what to listen out for:

[00:58] The childhood dream.

[05:07] When life becomes impossible to juggle.

[08:06] Building life on your own terms.

[10:21] "This is as bad as life can get."

[16:04] The moment everything changed: "We could just walk".

[19:58] From self-doubt to bestselling author.

[23:48] How material possessions can trap us.

Press play now! 

👉 And if you want to hear more from Raynor…

Don’t miss TechPixies x NOON’s screening of The Salt Path and our exclusive LIVE Q&A with her on 10 July at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford. Grab your tickets here: TechPixies.com/saltpath

Love our podcast? Leave a review and get hold of our Quick Start Podcast Guide.

For details of additional links mentioned in this episode, visit TechPixies.com

Want to get in touch? We'd love to hear from you.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line at [email protected]

Thanks for listening!

What happens when your carefully built career suddenly... crumbles?

For Susannah De Jager, who was a hedge fund CEO at 32, it was losing her biggest client at work and realising her role was untenable while watching one of her closest friends die of cancer that upended everything. 

For Patsy Day, it was crashing her husband’s car after months of bone-crushing burnout that saw her hit the pause button.

But after resetting the course of their lives, Susannah and Patsy are now collaborating on a podcast designed for those of us who are trying to navigate a path through the wobbly middle of our careers. 

Why you should tune in

Whether you're facing your own career crisis, feeling stuck and asking yourself, ‘Well, what the heck do I do now?’, or just need proof that incredible women can reinvent themselves at any age, this episode is one you’ll want to press play on. 

Here’s what to listen out for:

[00:47] When everything comes crashing down at once.

[03:16] When recruiters dismiss your experience.

[07:14] Grieving an identity you’ve lost. 

[10:53] Bloom where you’re planted.

[12:51] Burning out from a job you used to love.

[16:53] What to do when you don’t know what you want to do?

[20:01] There is so much out there.

[22:10] If you’re stuck, try this Mel Robbins-approved trick.

👉 Tune in now to hear Susannah and Patsy’s full stories and why the “wobbly middle” might just be the beginning of your best chapter yet.

Love our podcast? Leave a review and get hold of our Quick Start Podcast Guide.

For details of links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit TechPixies.com

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening! 

Four years ago, Fern Fuller was juggling it all – a single mum with a full-time job as an Executive Assistant, COVID-induced home-schooling chaos, and the curveball that is perimenopause. 

Cue a moment of complete exhaustion that saw Fern sliding down the wall of her home office thinking, “I just can’t do this anymore.”

Fern knew something had to change... then she found TechPixies.

Why you should tune in

Come and discover how, in just 4 years, Fern has:

⭐ Swapped a full-time salary for an income of £77k working 20-25 hours a week. 
⭐ Worked with 25+ female founders
⭐ Built a client base of companies turning over £250k-£5 million
⭐ Created the work-life balance every parent dreams of.

And Fern has used her TechPixies training to not only launch her dream business but also create a course that helps other women increase their earning power and level up their skillset, whether they’re a VA, PA, freelance admin professional or would love to become one.

Here’s what to listen out for:

[02:02] The moment Fern hit breaking point.

 [05:54] Fern’s greatest fear after leaving her job.  

[08:47] “Imagine if it does all work out”.

[10:13] Why is Fern launching her EA Accelerator? 

[13:45] Why Integrators are leaders. 

So, if you're reading this thinking "I want what Fern has," take a listen and then check out Fern’s website for heaps more resources and start dates of her next course.

Love our podcast? Leave a review and get hold of our Quick Start Podcast Guide.

For details of links and resources mentioned in this episode, visit TechPixies.com

Want to transform your life? 

💪 Discover how to leverage social media with our 21 Day Social Media Confidence Challenge.

🚀 Take your social media to the next level by watching our Social Media Masterclass.

🌈 Enjoy a super quick shift in your mindset with our 12 Day Design Your Dream Life Challenge.

Follow us on social media @techpixies and ping us a DM or drop us a line  at [email protected] 

Thanks for listening!