Your Dream Business

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Phil King who is a freelance voice actor, supporting actor, photographer, and audio engineer.

A little bit about Phil’s amazing business…

Phil is primarily a voice actor but over the last 12 months, Phil has had to extend his business due to the current situation so has been helping creatives with their podcasts and actually edits this podcast too!

What one marketing thing made a difference to their business? 

Found a course by Jonathan Tilley who helps creatives get online – the course was to build your email list. He then spend time researching people who may need a voice actor and personally reached out to them to introduce himself and get to know them better. The important thing about the emails Phil sent is that they were all personalised with the research he had done.

Phil also created a side hustle – The Podcast Assistant which was for a separate target market to what he was previously doing. Phil then decided to do my Build Your List course and created tailored lead magnets to get his new list started.

What difference did it make to them and their business? 

It was a hard slog and a long time on the internet every day but it worked – it gave Phil the client base he has today who often return for repeat business.

Where you can find Phil

Website: www.kingsvoice.co.uk www.mypodcastassistant.com

Instagram: @philipbrettking @podcast_assist

In today’s episode of the podcast, we are talking all about the latest social media platform, Clubhouse. I explain what the platform is, how to get started and whether you should be using it for your business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

·     Clubhouse is an audio-only app.

·     You can follow people on Clubhouse and people can follow you.

·     The content you post and consume is all audio and live.

·     You have to be invited to Clubhouse by an existing member.

·     Clubhouse is currently only available to iPhone users.

·     You can link your Instagram to your Clubhouse profile.

·     The bio section on Clubhouse is quite long – put your most important information in the first 3 lines.

·     The confetti canon emoji means you are new and stays for 7 days.

·     Clubhouse consists of lots of rooms with talks happening – a bit like a conference or online event.

·     The feed is like a corridor – showing you all the rooms going on at that point.

·     Each room has a stage with speakers (microphone emoji) and a moderator (green star emoji). Then you can see all the people who are listening.

·     If you are not on stage, you just listen.

·     Clubhouse can play whilst you are in other apps.

·     To leave the room, click “leave quietly”.

·     There is an option to raise your hand when you are in a room which means you can speak and join the stage.

·     Clubhouse is a very relaxed way of speaking on stage.

·     If you are nervous to speak on screen, Clubhouse is a great way to get started as you don’t have to show your face.

·     There are lots of big experts in Clubhouse and you could get an opportunity to speak with them.

·     Clubhouse is designed to create conversation and ask questions.

·     Clubhouse is a good way to get in front of other people’s audiences and collaborate.

·     You cannot save the content on Clubhouse – no replays or editing.

·     There is no other way to engage with someone apart from going into rooms.

·     You don’t have to be doing everything – spend as much or as little time you can in there, and don’t feel like you have to be on it.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Give Clubhouse a try, but don’t feel like you should be spending a huge amount of time on it if you don’t have that time available.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

·     What is Clubhouse? 5:00

·     How to get started on Clubhouse 6:13

·     What can we use Clubhouse for? 11:59

·     The quirks of Clubhouse 14:29

·     Should I be using Clubhouse? 18:54

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Get on the waitlist for my “Build my List” course

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Jennifer who is an author and advocate for domestic abuse.

Jennifer’s book is all about emotional abuse and cohesive control, after experiencing this first hand. Jennifer also runs a small business networking membership called Latte and Live.

The group now has 4.5k members (3.5k active). From the community that had been built, Jennifer formed a membership and got 50 members in the first month. 99.5% of the founding members are still with them today and it has continued to grow.

Book: Isolation Junction

Website: www.latteandlive.com

Facebook: @latteandlive

Instagram: @latteandlive

This episode of the podcast is an interview with the lovely Phylecia Jones who is a speaking expert. We talk all about speaking during the current climate and how the industry may look post-pandemic, finding your audience through speaking and the importance of being a speaker in your industry.

• Speaking is the best way to show authority inside your business – you are the instant expert.
• Speaking allows you to go from 1:1 conversations to 1 to many.
• Speaking gives you credibility and you can show off your speaking gigs on your website.
• You can learn to become a better speaker, but speaking on stage is not meant for everyone.
• Full-time speakers had to pivot when the pandemic hit when they could no longer speak on stage.
• Speaking online is not the same as speaking at real-life events – you have to adapt.
• If you pre-record a talk for an online event – repurpose that content and create a new online course.
• Now is still a good time to get into speaking – there are plenty of opportunities out there.
• Keep applying for events – they may switch in-person events to hybrid or online.
• Even in the current climate, there is a lot of opportunities for us as speakers to market our business.
• Switch your mindset – frame it as a webinar and present it differently.
• 2021 is the year to get everything together – update your equipment, revamp your topics (make them relevant), update your website.
• Now is the time to refresh – next year there will be companies with budgets and a lot of people wanting the in-person experience.
• Right now, you have to be flexible as we don’t know if events will go ahead/be taken online.
• The turnaround for speakers is also a lot shorter in the current climate – be fast and be ready.
• You have to make pitching a priority this year.
• Add photos of you speaking online and your equipment to your speaking page.
• Showcase you are available for virtual speaking and training.

• An introduction to Phylecia – 06:15
• The importance of speaking for marketing your business – 08:15
• Is speaking open to everyone? – 09:47
• Being a speaker during the pandemic – 12:25
• Speaking online – 16:19
• Is now a terrible time to think about being a speaker? 26:01
• Applying for speaking in the current climate – 33:49
• Updating your speaking page for online – 37:02
• Clubhouse for speakers 45:25

Check out Phylecia

Want the transcript-click here!

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Jan Park from Blue Florist.

Blue Florist is a flower shop based in Shifnal who sell beautiful bouquets and house plants.

Jan has such a great response and then made more! The video was really relatable to people at the time as everyone was in their house and couldn’t really do anything. It kept Jan in front of her audience even when she couldn’t open her physical shop and meant she could keep putting content out during lockdown.

Website: http://www.blue-shifnal.co.uk/

Facebook: @janparkblue

Instagram: @blueflorist

Hello and a very warm welcome to this Thursday’s episode of the Small Business Superstar. As always I am here with another amazing small business owner and this one is awesome. You’re going to love it. So welcome to the podcast, Jan Park.

How are you doing Jan?

Jan: Oh, I’m great. Thank you.

Teresa: Good. Good. I am so excited to have Jan here. Jan is actually a member of the Academy, but Jan’s story is so good. You’re going to love it and such great results. Honestly, Jan was like my poster girl throughout the whole of the summer. So where, so this is brilliant.

I’m so glad that you’re on still got as, but Jan explained to my lovely audience who you are and how you got to do what you’re doing today?

Jan: Well goes back quite a long way. Um, so when I was at school, I wanted to study art. I was told art can’t possibly make your living. So go away and be a nurse or go in the army or

Teresa: Something more sensible.

Jan: Yeah. Typical careers advice. Um, I very fortunately got married when I was 18 and I’m still married to the same person. Um, so that kind of changed my direction a bit. So I had my children and then I had a huge operation that went very wrong and they told my husband I wouldn’t leave. And, um, obviously I did, but that really was a huge wake up call for me.

Um, I was 28. I had two little children and I came out of that and I thought, “Cool. That was a bit close.” Um, I’m going to follow my dreams.

Teresa: Wow.

Jan: So I started my training then having left school at 15 and gone into retail, which I absolutely loved. Um, but I was always making, I was making my own clothes from the age of 11, um, and creating pieces of artwork and people were buying them when I was a kid, you know?

Teresa: Amazing!

Jan: Um, yeah. So it’s been an arty sort of life, which has taken me in various directions, but ultimately I did a textile, um, design qualification, which took four years. And then I did my art degree. So anything, although I’m now a florist, mainly anything that’s kind of art based or design based or style based, I find relatively easy to achieve good result.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Lovely. And how, like, imagine. If you hadn’t have had that operation and it had gone wrong, like, there’s this, there’s this saying that I hear a lot and sometimes I totally am on board it. And sometimes I think, well, it’s not always that clear cut, but it’s, it talks about you are 100% responsible of what happens to you and everything happens for a reason.

And if you hadn’t have gone through that though, at the time that was looking scary. You wouldn’t be where you are today, if that hadn’t have happened. So that was a really good thing that that happened.

Jan: Also since then, I’ve really taken responsibility for what has happened to me in my working life and my career.

Um, so I I’ve made some tough decisions. I’ve turned down some really big money-making opportunities to be able to do the things that I love. Because the money actually doesn’t matter. As long as you’ve got enough to put food on the table, what’s more important is that you, you know, you’re seeing from your heart and you can be happy in yourself.

Teresa: Yeah, absolutely. And, and the truth is Jan, you and I are both very similar. The fact that we do do things we love and it’s evident, it’s evident that we can see it. Like, you know, when people see you and hear you talk about what you do. It’s evident that, that isn’t just something you’re doing to earn money.

That isn’t just something you’re doing to keep yourself busy. That’s that’s in you. It’s built in you.

Jan: Yeah. And believe me, you don’t go into risk to out money, you know, you can make a living, but you’re not going to make mega bucks.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah.

Jan: But I just love, I do love retail and I love the combination of art and design and retail and although I’m technically a florist now, um, my art comes into everything that I do.

Teresa: Yeah, and it’s still, that’s a very creative thing to do. Isn’t it? Very creative. Yeah. So, Jan, obviously you have a florist and COVID hits. And you joined the Academy. Was it just before?

Jan: No, it was during COVID.

Teresa: Which surprised me that so many people had been joined at that point, because that would be the point where everybody go, “Oh no, we need to start pulling in a bit.” Well go on.

Jan: Well, I, I think, um, so COVID hit and not for the first time in my life. I wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t going out every day. So I was just at home and I was thinking “Oh, this is a bit weird.” Because I’m so used to, you know, my day starts at half past four in the morning when I’m ordering flowers from Holland on the market.

Um, and then I start my day. I do a full day, then I’ll go home, you know, so I have very, very full days, but of course I always do a business plan each year. And, um, so I thought, well, this is a good time to review that and have a look where I’m going, what I’m going to do next. I was thinking that lockdown would last maybe a month, you know naively.

Um, So I started looking at what my business was doing, where I was going to go with it, what I wanted it to do, because I think you have to know what you wanted to do to make it happen. And I just thought, where am I failings? And my failings are marketing. And obviously I knew you from years ago. And I just thought, I just looked you up and found the Academy. And I just thought, well, I’m going to say, “Now’s the time to invest in this.”

Teresa: Which is amazing.

Jan: And is the main thing it’s been a really worthwhile investment already.

Teresa: And, and what’s so amazing is one of those first calls you came onto. I remember you saying to me, well, one in those early calls, we did, we did extra calls at that time because it was like, “How, can I help everybody at this point?”

And it was very much about, “How, can you tweak? How, can you change? What can you do?” And from your point of view, Jan, at that point, they literally, from the florist point of view, there was nothing you could do. There was you, you couldn’t get the flowers, you couldn’t sell the flowers, you couldn’t open sell the flowers.

So, you know, we were limited. As to your moneymaking opportunities at that point with the florist. So then, and I remember you saying to me, like, “Do you think anybody’s going to want to have flowers again? Do you think this is ever going to come back?” Because literally at that point we had no idea and everything was falling apart.

Uh, so we talked about what you could do. So tell people what you did during that time and what happens.

Jan: So I did two things. One, I did a competition for people to win some, um, a box full of nice houseplants.

Teresa: Yeah.

Jan: That went down really well. But the best thing that I did was a video. Um, I’ve never done a live. I don’t do TikTok or any of that. I mean, who wants to see me leaping around, you know.

Teresa: I think we’d pay good money for that Jan.

Jan: Oh, I hadn’t ever done a video. I don’t like having my photograph taken. I used to lecture in the university and I was absolutely fine with that because I knew my subject. I could stand and talk to a two or 300 people without a problem.

But in terms of being videoed and recording that, nothing like that, I had it done before. And so I thought, what can I do? And I decided that I would do how to look after your house plants. And I did the first one just straight off. I didn’t faff about, I just thought I’m just going to do it and put it out there.

I’ve just got to bite the bullet. And, um, it was amazing. I mean, I had such a great response to it and so I kept those up. Yeah. And that was, that was really the biggest thing that I did.

Teresa: So could I tell you, there’s a couple of things that really interesting about Jan story. One, we talked about where are your customers right now and what do they need help with?

So that was why we looked at the house planting. Wasn’t it? Because I said to you, I think that I just bought some house plants and how everyone was doing stuff in their houses, because we couldn’t go anywhere and do anything. So, you know, Jan obviously knows exactly what she’s talking about. And then, so that was brilliant because it was like something that people could relate to that point.

But the other thing was like, considering you hadn’t done this before. One, some of the very first videos you did, people were writing, I’ve missed your face, Jan, like, and that’s the truth. Like that was the most loveliest thing about it. People who would have come into this job all the time, If you hadn’t have done that you’d have disappeared off their radar.

Like, um, and then you would have had to work super hard the other end, to go “Look, look, we’re here. We’re back.” Where, you know, and all those things. So people loved seeing it. Like you were so natural on camera, which I think is amazing and wonderful, but the truth is it’s even more amazing because you were not comfortable necessarily initially doing it where you, I guess you,

Jan: yeah.

Teresa: You just went for it, which is the best thing.

Jan: I mean, I just went for it and I was kind of propping up the iPad and saying, Oh no, that’s just looking at my nose. You know, angle doesn’t work. Um, I remember doing one outside in the garden and um, Oh my God, I looked absolutely terrible. I had, I think, I dunno what I was thinking of.

I just was having a really awful day. And I did this video and I just thought, “Oh my God.” But I put it out anyway. And I got a response to it.

Teresa: They loved it. Right? So they, people love seeing what you had say you were giving them really good advice. I learned things like plants and some of mine are not dead, which is really helpful because I do like the kilogram.

I know I’m doing an amazing job. Oh, I say, I am, I think it is my husband, but like, you know, when you had your plants there and you bought the many, you talked about them and it was, it was just brilliant. And then what was ACE? And I remember saying to the calls like Jan do gave them like, there’s one video where you walk into shots like, “Oh God my God Jan, this is amazing.”

Like, you know, that’s it. Now we’re going to see a whole another song.

Jan: I bet it’s like John Park TV. Well, that was when I got the, um, so I got to stand to put the iPad on. Yeah, there’s more developments that I can do there. I just, we reopened, of course then I got too busy to do it again. So I need to revisit all of that.

Teresa: But the thing is, I think what’s great about this is, one, it gave you the confidence that you can do it. And actually and you saw an immediate result. Like literally. The video went out and it’s like, look at all these people watching this video, look at the comments on it. Look at, you know, because you didn’t have any content to post cause your content, which you’re still doing, but your content was, the flowers was, the plants was the, this has just come in.

We’ve just made this. This is as we’re recording this now. So it won’t come out for a little while, but as a recording, it’s running up to Christmas and at the moment, Jan is posting the most beautiful pictures of lovely reads, you know, but you couldn’t do all that. So it was giving you something. So although it’s great to continue it.

It’s understandable that now you’re, you’re not going to do that as often, but if you have to, or you want to, then, you know, you can, because you’ve done that. Yeah. So then tell us, tell us what happened from a sales point. I said the whole initial ideal wasn’t for sales, the whole initial idea wasn’t it was just to make sure you’re out there, but it did have a knock on effect.

Jan: Well, it did because, um, when lockdown first happened, we had to close and then of course I’m out of the floristry forums and in touch with people in Holland and so on. And, um, so I was hearing that florists were able to actually open, but behind closed doors. So you could, um, You could do a few rolls and, um, you could deliver, so like deliveries were going ahead from the big boys.

Um, so I looked into it and got in touch with trading standards. And after about seven or eight weeks, Um, I just came into the shop and told people I’m not open, but you can actually click and collect where you can phone and collect. And so I had a barrier at the front door and people used to knock the door.

I take their order to the door and the orders just, I was thinking I’ll just go in each day for an hour. Cause I’d get the order bouquet order or whatever. I’d come in some days and I’d be here for five hours making bouquets, selling plants, all being collected at the door, or they’re not closed, go off and do the deliveries.

And it was just amazing. So I unfollowed me and, you know, the stuff stayed furloughed. So yet it was really an eye-opener. Big eye opener.

Teresa: You know, the one you were worried that people would forget and, and get out the habit, maybe a bit like going out for dinner, you know? Cause I think people have got out of the habit of going out for dinner or going out for drinks or whatever, because you’ve actually cook from home and some people are like, “God, I can’t wait.”

And some people are like, “Actually this is all right.” You know? So. There was always that worry again with things like nails and treatments. And I haven’t, you know, you haven’t had them for months and months on it. And so there was that worry, which was one thing, but also the business shifted a little bit in terms of the plant thing, then became more of a thing.

Didn’t it? In terms of your sales and, and conversations and things.

Jan: Yes, well, we’d, uh, over a year, well, probably 18 months before lockdown, we had really increased the amount of plants that we sell and the gorgeous pots and vases and things like that. Um, so we’d already got a big stock. And, um, I obviously, when lockdown happened, I just drove rounds, shift mill. Giving people plants, because I thought they’re just going to die in the shop.

I drove and give them away, which is what I did. So then when I decided to make discovered that we could reopen behind closed doors, I just ordered a few flowers and a load of plants. And some, I just worked my way through with them.

Teresa: Yeah.

Jan: And I come in the shop and obviously there was no traffic. There was nothing happening outside and I’d come in the shop to this shop full of plants.

And all I got to do was make a few bouquets, put a few plants orders aside and then tend to the plants. And it was like being in a peaceful greenhouse. You know, it was really a lovely experience as well. And of course it was giving me a break from being at home all of the time, which is not bad.

Teresa: And again, even things like, I remember one of your first photos you put for view, and as Jan, Jan’s alluded to, you know, she’s a little bit older than me and we could, and we could argue that this kind of thing.

This kind of stuff is not necessarily your bag. You’re, you’re very good. And you do do lots of stuff, but, but you took this selfie of you in a mirror, which I just thought this is brilliant with your bag and your shoes and that you’re fully dressed. Cause it’s like, “I’m going out the house. I’m going to the shop.”

And I am so excited about this. But this is, this was not so lovely because then it was like, And I think, and you might have noticed this, um, cause we do have quite a few people in our local area who in the Academy and I’ve bought off lots of small businesses this year. And I was looking at the reef. In fact, we just thrown our fake horrible one out, uh, the other day.

And I was looking at yours and think, “Oh, I need to get on an order one.” But I feel like we’ve worked even harder to support local businesses, which because during this time you worked hard to go “Look, I’m here and I could do this and I can help. And I know what I’m talking about.” And, and you turned up in front of people’s faces, which was lovely.

And then when, when you opened people then rewarded you by going, “Right. I want to come and buy from you, Jan.”, or I want to, you know.

Jan: I’m not opening now. We’ve just come out of the second lockdown and we have got lots of people coming and saying, you know, we’re buying all our Christmas gifts here. They see a or only shopping local, obviously Amazon unfortunately is just going to take an absolute fortune aren’t they?

Teresa: Yeah, of course.

Jan: But there are a lot of people that are conscious of trying to do the right thing and support small businesses. Which would be great, you know, because the potential for our high street to be absolutely gone is real.

Teresa: Yeah. It’s worrying. And, and I think this is where you, you are a perfect example of the difference you can make for yourself.

Like the very beginning. That really was the worry as with some of the other people that have done amazing things through COVID that I’ve already interviewed that this could be it, you know, and you’ve been in business a long time. And you’ve you, you know, you said to me right at the beginning, you know, you, aren’t getting to an age where, you know, you’re thinking about when can I put my feet up and when can I pass this on and when can I settle or when can I, you know, what is going to happen?

And this was the last thing you needed because you’d spent all these years, building it up to the point of then what happens next and potentially that could have ruined you overnight or ruin your future overnight by, by doing that. But because you showed up because you, you put yourself out there even though that wasn’t necessarily your first thought or something that you were comfortable with, but you got so comfortable with it. And you honestly, I want you to all go and see Jan’s Instagram account on Facebook and go and check it all out cause she killed it absolutely killed. And just shows that, you know, this is not, this is not about stupid dances on TikTok. TikTok all the time is that this is about kind of showing up and doing your thing and you did, and it was...

This episode of the podcast is all about why you need an email list for your business. I talk you through the 5 main reasons why they are so important.

·     The first reason you need an email list is to connect with your audience.

·     Email marketing is another route to your customers that you don’t want to miss.

·     When you email your audience, it feels very personal.

·     Email marketing is a two-way connection – your audience can reply to you and connect.

·     You do not own your social media followings – so we can’t rely on them.

·     Social media platforms are constantly changing in terms of the amount of people seeing our posts, so we need to have a backup.

·     Email marketing can drive traffic to your website which helps your ranking on google.

·     If people are being driven to your website, they are looking at your stuff and finding out more.

·     You can encourage your audience to click links via email to take them back to your website.

·     Denise Duffield-Thomas – her sales are only ever around 1% of her email list. So her objective is to increase her list – the bigger her list, the more sales.

·     When someone joins your email list, you can really nurture them – giving them value, letting them get to know you better and build that trust.

·     There is more chance of your audience seeing your content if they are on your email list, as well as following on social media.

·     Email marketing allows you to tag your customers so you can build a profile of what they have previously bought, opted into or engaged with.

·     Tags are a great way to segment your audience which you can’t do on social media.

·     People like to know you know a bit about them – more tailored content.

·     Different email systems differ in cost and ability.

·     Reflecting on my ‘build my list’ course – 01:55

·     Connecting with your audience – 06:21

·     You can’t rely only on social media – 09:03

·     Email can increase your web traffic – 12:03

·     Email marketing = more sales – 13:24

·     Segmenting your audience – 17:30

Join the build my list course waiting list

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Alice Jennings who is a small business consultant.

Alice helps small business owners to find the right systems and structures, to make running their business easy and give them more time.

Extra cash to have gone on holiday with. Not all the panic buttons got used but people seemed to like that they had them. It also opened Alice up to a world of people who may have then used her other services.

Website: www.alicejennings.co.uk

Facebook Group: @Sortedsystems

Facebook: @alicejennings.co.uk

In this episode of the podcast, I have the amazing Jane Travis who used to be a councillor and now helps other counsellors with their marketing. Jane is a very good friend who has really supported me through some really difficult times and I knew she would be the perfect person to bring on and talk about this topic. Today we talk all about mental health and my own struggles I have experienced and hidden up until now.

• I have suffered with anxiety for around 14 years now.
• When you are a perfectionist, anxiety can be triggered when something happens that is out of your control.
• Many people may experience mental health problems and you would never know from looking at them or talking to them.
• If everyone keeps their struggles to themselves, this can lead to isolation and feeling embarrassed/ashamed of this.
• We have to find a way to keep going but we also have to be able to say “I need some time off” – you can give yourself permission to stop if you need to.
• Anxiety is very common – it affects us all in different ways.
• Sometimes when we get angry, it’s an accumulation of everything else that has gone on.
• Anxiety and anger are really closely related – the feelings we have are similar.
• Instead of judging yourself when you react to something, turn it on its head and question why you may have reacted like that.
• If you take medication, attach it to something you do every single day without fail and you won’t miss a day.
• Self-care is something we can do every day that can really help.
• Don’t judge yourself and be so hard on yourself.
• Personal development can be really key in how you feel in yourself.
• You learn right up until the day you die. There are always so many new things to learn.
• Mindfulness is doing activities that take you out of your normal headspace – takes your brain from thinking about everything that’s going on.
• We all show our highlights – very little of us show the bad days.
• Just because people show up in a certain way, doesn’t mean we have it all sussed.
• If you haven’t suffered with some sort of mental health, it’s hard to understand why someone can’t just do that thing.
• People only judge because they can’t understand how difficult it can be.
• There are always going to be people who have a critical view of things, what is important is that you look after yourself and get the help you need so you can get on with your life.
• You don’t have to struggle with anxiety for the rest of your life – you can get help.
• Counselling is looking at the reasons you are anxious in the first place – once you have worked that out, you can move forward in a different way.
• “This is a process, I will come out of it”.
• Counselling is the best self-care EVER.

• An Introduction to Jane – 02:28
• Opening up about mental health – 04:53
• Taking time off work due to mental health – 12:03
• Anxiety – 17:25
• Medication – 27:40
• Self-care – 31:44
• Mindfulness – 35:37
• We are all in this together – 38:57
• Judgement – 45:13
• Getting help – 46:58

 Jane’s Membership Group

Say hi to Jane on Instagram

Jane’s podcast

Want the full transcript−click here!

This week’s Small Business Superstars is Dr Sarah Goulding who is a GP and a coach for doctors specialising in career change and wellbeing.

Alongside being a GP, Sarah mentors and supports GPs, is an appraiser and also teaches GPs on their training scheme.

The videos attracted a lot of attention from people who could also relate and then people started to ask Sarah to do talks. The videos have really helped Sarah’s audience to get to know her better and realise she is a human just like them too!

Website: www.drsarahgoulding.com

Instagram: @drsarahgoulding

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with the lovely Roger Cruickshank who was in the Royal Air Force alongside my husband as a fighter pilot. Roger also skied in the REF ski team and went on to actually ski in the winter Olympics! We talk all about mental health, the importance of speaking about it and raising awareness, and combating the stigma attached to mental health.

·     Everything happens for a reason, you just have to let it go and accept it.

·     Acceptance is part of healing.

·     If you don’t really feel it, you will never accept it.

·     We learn more from storytelling and remember information better.

·     Having a clear vision of where you are going and what you are doing, keeps your mind focused on the end goal.

·     We need to set our goals and visions to know where we’re going, otherwise we’re just going to flounder.

·     The mind is very fragile and we have to work hard to understand it.

·     It is so important to normalise conversations surrounding mental health and the way we feel.

·     Creating an environment for everyone where people can speak openly and honestly about their feelings and emotions is so important.

·     We need to speak about mental illness in the same way we talk about physical illness.

·     We all have mental health issues – it is on a sliding Grey scale, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

·     Mental health changes on a daily/hourly rate, the same as our physical health.

·     We need to get better at the language surrounding mental health.

·     You can still hold your own, but tell someone if you are having a bad day and the reasons for that.

·     Need help? Text SHOUT to 85258 for immediate support or give Samaritans a call.

·     Roger’s journey so far 05:11

·     Resilience – getting back up when you get knocked down 12:40

·     Being Recognised for an award 29:32

·     The stigma of mental health 33:47

·     Losing a loved one to suicide 41:05

·     Acceptance with mental health 42:39

·     Raising awareness for mental health 44:37

·     The importance of setting goals 47:42

·     Speaking out about mental health 48:52

·     Supporting mental health 1:03:08

Speed of sound, sound of mind book

Headfit.org

Heads Together

Mind

SAMh

Help for Heroes

Samaritans

CALM

Roger’s Facebook Page

Want the full transcript? click here!