“If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.” ~ Richard Branson

I am feeling truly blessed. I wanted to share a part of my own story as I hope that I can inspire you or your kids to listen to their dreams – as they are magic – like a wand that keeps working.

About 4 years ago my husband, asked me a powerful question that really got me thinking. He asked me:

“If I sold my company what would I do?”

He knows how much I love to work so he was curious about what would my life be like without my work. This is a question I had not given any thought to before. However, without a thought I gave him my answer:

“I would love to coach, write, and be a speaker and presenter”

In typical style with my husband, the conversation then quickly shifted on to cars, and I found myself thinking about what I had just said, repeatedly in my head. I had to ask myself, “Why wait for such a big milestone, such as selling your business, before starting to do what you love to do NOW!”. On that day, I vowed that I would try to bring in as much of what I love most into my life, now, to give me the most meaning, purpose and fulfilment – after all, with my dad and both his parents dying young at 52 – who knows how much time I have left.

With this fresh and vivid dream in my head of “being a coach, writer and speaker” – I believe I must have created an invisible energy that is bringing my dream to me. The same week as setting this new life goal, on two consecutive days, I was introduced to two unconnected people who have taught me so much to help me on this journey – a journey I did not even know I was going on just a week before. One was Linzi Boyd (https://www.brandfamous.com) – who introduced me to the idea of the Guru Brand via her amazing book Brand Famous – Linzi is a unique business coach who I went on to work with, and his helped me understand just how much business leaders have an important role in being the voice for their business – just as Elon Musk and Richard Branson do for their empires, It is fair to say that I had felt the need as the business grew to ensure I was not a bottle neck for growth so kept more behind the scenes. I adored the idea of inhabiting this Guru Brand space.

The next day, I attended a pre-planned training session with Jon Card, a local Brighton based broadsheet and business journalist that shared his insights on the importance of being a voice for your business and taught me lessons on how to achieve this with impact. It seemed that the power of my magic wand, a metaphor for my dreams being unleashed, had come to life, and cast a spell far and wide and things were starting to fall into place.

Feeling blessed,  fast forward 4 years, and this week, I find myself with three speaking and coaching opportunities, all of which came without me taking any proactive actions or solicitation.

I was called over the weekend by BBC Radio 4 to support the creation of a new Click Radio series on Cloud Technology and I was invited to be a guest for one of their episodes for a 30-minute radio interview. I am recording that this Wednesday lunch time. As you can imagine I am super excited about this and still pondering how they got my name.

Following this, I am a guest with an incredibly special friend and local business owner, Alex Bailey who runs a Leadership training business on the topic of, Human Leadership in Action. I am participating in a live stream on LinkedIn for this event – a first for me. I will be sharing my ideas on role modelling as a Human Leader. Find out more here: https://www.baileyandfrench.com/human-leadership-in-action/

On Friday I am supporting in a mentoring capacity with Flexibility Matters at their event Flex Forward in Brighton, where I will be discussing Cloud9 Insight’s recent adoption of the 9-day fortnight and how this has positively impacted our team and the business. Find out more about this event here: https://www.flexibilitymatters.co.uk/flexforward23-breakfast-flexpo

As I write this, my enthusiastic, bright, and happy-go-lucky son is finishing his A-Levels. He is full of ambitious dreams that, at his age, would’ve scared me for sure – except now I know we are all equipped with a magic wand of the power of our mind. I will be cautious to ensure I do not become a voice in his head that extinguishes any of his dreams, for they have the power to make things, as if by magic, happen.

It is said that ‘where focus goes, energy flows’. Sometimes in life the power is in asking ourselves the right questions. What question might you need to ask yourself today to unlock your own destiny and happiness. Do not underestimate the impact you can have on others with great questions and being a sounding board.

To finish with a quote from Oprah Winfrey: “The only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.”

Contact me directly if you have any speaking opportunities or just if you would like a chat. I am always happy to discuss my experience and provide advice and have a great conversation about how we can make our working environments a whole lot better.