Ever questioned whether the career you're in truly reflects who you are or what you're passionate about?
Fiona Moss, director of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust, inspires us with her own story of transformation.
Listen now to discover how Fiona's story is shaping the future of healthcare and paving the way for positive change.
Listen to learn:
- Strategies for creating a career with purpose
- How to turn your experiences into helping others
- The life-saving mission of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust
- Ways to feel empowered to take control of your career
You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
Keep up to date on the latest news from We Are Power : Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook
Sign up to our newsletter.
Ever questioned whether the career you're in truly reflects who you are or what you're passionate about?
Fiona Moss, director of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust, inspires us with her own story of transformation.
Listen now to discover how Fiona's story is shaping the future of healthcare and paving the way for positive change.
Listen to learn:
- Strategies for creating a career with purpose
- How to turn your experiences into helping others
- The life-saving mission of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust
- Ways to feel empowered to take control of your career
You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
Keep up to date on the latest news from We Are Power : Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook
Sign up to our newsletter.
Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast Northern Power Women podcast for your career and your life, no matter what business you're in. Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast, which is all about highlighting brilliant role models, getting some of those top tips from personal and professional stories. And we do like to give you some strategies, advice, guidance, whatever your career, whatever your life story, just to help you on your path. So I'm delighted this week to be joined by the wonderful Fiona Moss who is the director of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust. Fiona, welcome to the pod, Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2:It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I would love you to sort of just take us back to the moment when you realised in your career that you needed that change, because you were on a sort of path in the corporate world into career coach and and being director of a quite clearly phenomenal charity. Can you, can you sort of give us a tour?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, it's been quite a journey. I feel like I've lived about like 12 different lives up until this point. But so, no, you're right, I was in um, in the corporate world. I know that's probably quite vague, but I did the graduate scheme, I climbed the ladder, but I didn't really feel very aligned to what I was doing and I felt like I should be doing it and there was lots of shoulds and I was even told at certain points well, that know, that's just life, you know that's just work. And I felt like that's not enough for me, like this can't be it. I can't be every single day for five days a week and pretty probably more than that, because you know, our jobs leak out into the rest of our lives. I can't feel like this for the majority of my life and for the next however many decades. And then so I felt like this with my work and I kind of just allowed it to to trundle on. And then, unfortunately, um, simultaneously to this, this feeling, my boyfriend also got very, very ill, um, and I was only sort of mid to late 20s and I felt like I really had this wake-up call of like what is, you know, there is no point being in a job where I'm unfulfilled and I'm unhappy, and I have a choice. If I'm in this job, you know, I don't need to be unfulfilled, I don't need to choose to be unhappy by choosing to be in this job. He doesn't have a choice if he's ill.
Speaker 2:So I made the decision to step back, although I had no idea what I was stepping into, which I probably wouldn't advise most people to do. But sometimes you do just have to take that leap of faith. And I went on this big sort of self-exploration about what do I want to do, what matters to me, what aligns to my values, values, and really, really dug deep and I learned so much about myself. I understood what did matter to me. I developed this sort of fierce, resilient, self-confident self-understanding more than anything, and that took me down a few different paths and I think you know you can look back and be like, oh, why did I do that, why did I do this? And you can question those decisions. But ultimately I think I can look back and be like, oh, why did I do that, why did I do this? And you can question those decisions. But ultimately I think I learned so much from doing that as well, and I think so often we're scared of doing that, we're scared of hitting dead ends, we're scared of things not working out, we're scared of things failing, which is why we don't take these big leaps, but I think it's by taking that big leap.
Speaker 2:I, as I said, went down all these different paths and what I became to understand was that what was really important to me was helping people get out of their own way and helping them actually to take the step that I had actually just taken leaving a job that doesn't really fulfill me, stepping into a life that does fulfill them, but doing it in a way that was probably a little bit more efficient than the way that I did it and had a little bit more strategy, let's say, or process around it as well. And so I became a career coach and I helped women to step out of their own way, to leave jobs that were incredibly unfulfilling and to step into careers that was fulfilling and allowed them to be more of themselves and allowed them to start showing up in their own lives as well. You know I talk a lot about living a life by design and not by default, because I think so many of us do we fall into careers. We let life happen for us rather than being proactive and actually then, you know, deciding what we want from our life and being clear about what does matter to me. So I was running a career coaching business.
Speaker 2:I supported women one-to-one through group courses, I had my own podcast, but I was also simultaneously running the Nathalie Kate Moss Trust, and the Nathalie Kate Moss Trust was set up after my sister and the Natalie Kate Moss Trust was set up after my sister, natalie, unfortunately had a brain hemorrhage back in 2011. And we essentially wanted to find some light out of the darkness. So we reached out to Manchester University and asked them is there only one PhD student working on brain hemorrhage research? And so that conversation became a catalyst for more focus to be placed on this area of research and just subsequently, over the last over a decade now, it's just grown and grown as we've grown, as the research team has grown, and it's incredible to see where they're at now. You know they are over 20 strong in the research team. They're developing treatments that have been rolled out into the nhs.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, and it's really, really exciting about where, where it's going, but obviously running a charity alongside my other coaching business just proved a little bit too much as the charity started growing, as it was very small at the beginning. So I think it was 2020 I was in a place where I was stressed with both of them because I was like I can't I feel like I can't fully go into to one of them, um, and it was always only going to be 50. So I made the decision to step into the charity full-time um, knowing that at some point the coaching will will come back and I'm still doing bits, bits of coaching, uh. But I just knew that, in order to push this forward and for the grand scheme of what this is all about, you know, we really needed to place more focus on the charity, and we've we've seen huge progress over the last year, having made that transition, having that full-time attention as well. You know, we've developed partnerships, we've been nominated for a number of charity of the year awards. We're moving things forward financially, we're moving things forward in terms of our campaigns, in terms of our awareness, and that's only within one year. So it's really exciting to see where things are going as well.
Speaker 2:But I think, when I talk through the whole story of how did I move out of these jobs. And how did I make these changes? I think it just comes down to just having sometimes just to take that leap, and it can be incredibly scary, and it can be that you don't always have all the steps in place, and I think so often with all of my clients, we would try and make a process, try and make steps, but sometimes you just have to have enough steps ready but still make that jump at the same time as well.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, as I said, right, it's been quite a journey and I feel like I've many, many, many lives, um, but that's where we're at now and who knows what's next and for someone listening, because that is such a phenomenal kind of experience that you have gone through and and you know we always talk about things not being on any straight path, so there's for me it's a bit like you've created your coaching business for your, for your Fiona Moss of of years back. Right, you created that as a view. But equally, you talk about having some steps ready for someone out there that is thinking what does that look like? What, what? And I'm sure you know it's different steps for everybody, right, but how how can you do that? If you can't see that wood for the trees, how can you get step?
Speaker 2:ready? Yeah, 100%. I think it's a really good question too, because I think I think the problem is that so often people search for the steps without being clear on what they truly want and what really matters to them. So so what I essentially mean by that the way I would work with my clients is essentially, I would say, okay, let's get really like forget about the job, forget about what you're moving into, let's get clear on what matters to you. So we will go deep and I mean we will go back and forwards through them, but go deep into their values and getting really, really clear about what do you value, what's important to you.
Speaker 2:You know how do you want your life to look, what excites you, what interests you, and understand that as a whole. And then we start to kind of piece everything together what are you good at, what do you love, what makes you thrive, like you know, what sort of life do you want to live? Because there's no point going down a path where you think you know I'm really interested in this particular job but that requires me to work six days a week, if actually the life you want to live is that you want to be able to spend more time with your children and therefore you want to create sort of more passive incomes. Or you know, or you're really creative, but that job doesn't allow you to do that. You know, or you really value, value sustainability, but this industry doesn't probably really value that, or gender equality, or whatever it may be. So once you can understand more about who you are and what matters to you because that will be very different to everyone then it's a case of starting to align it to what are your experiences, what are your skill sets, you know, start to then explore different industries. That again then looks like you know, actually going out and spending time in those industries, networking, speaking to people, building up a catalog of information, and then after that again you're right like the process of change might look very different, depending what that is.
Speaker 2:That could be then having to do a course. That could be then starting to build up a side hustle, and what we try and do we try and do with my clients is kind of overlap, that change. So what we're sort of doing is essentially, let's say, take an example of a side hustle starting to build up that side hustle, and I would talk about it in the sense of like an old weight weighing scale, start to build up the side hustle so that it kind of overtakes the current job, and then maybe you reduce your days or your hours or whatever that may be, and start to take that shift or go into a bridging role. You know, maybe your current job is too stressful, taking up too much time, stopping you maybe to step into that new role or step into that new business, going into a bridging role that gives you your financial stability but but maybe gives you more time to set up that, that new change, that new business, whatever that may be, and starting to think of, like, how can I move into that change as well?
Speaker 2:So yeah, as you said before, it is different to everyone. That's why sometimes actually just going through the process with somebody who might have done it before is helpful. But there's always, there's always a way around it. I think too many people think it's either one or the other and it's just this is it and I just have to take that step. And that's not necessarily the case and what works for you.
Speaker 1:How have you managed to sort of build, retain, grow practice? Uh, I say this resilience, um, because you've there's been a number of setbacks along the way. Of course, a setback is a really, it's the wrong word. You know, you lost your sister. You talked about your boyfriend being unwell. Have you personally managed that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know whether like setbacks could be the word At times. It definitely whether like setbacks could be the word At times. It definitely felt like setbacks, I think. Sometimes they feel, you know, I think you've got to take the positives out of them as well, and I don't think I would be doing all of the work that I am doing now without those experiences.
Speaker 2:But I think a big thing comes down to me being brave enough to ask the questions you know about, about myself and what I really want and what is really holding me back, and be resilient, in a sense of setting boundaries, going after the stuff that I want to go, after the life that I want to live. And I think when you go through experiences like that, it actually wakes you up and it gives you the courage that you need to move through them and it gives you the realization that life is really, really short, and so to sit in careers which you're not particularly happy with, to sit in careers that don't really feel like they matter is can make you go like what's the point? I think it's those questions of like, what's the point, um, that encourage you to to make the change, and I think there's a bigger, a bigger picture to that in terms of like, just the shifting of perspective. But I think also, you know, that comes down to just practices that I do either daily or, you know, weekly or monthly or whatever that may be and that could be. For example, I just just spent about a month ago I was on a six-day silent retreat and actually just spending time just to sit in my thoughts can be incredibly confronting but also incredibly awakening as well and to really help you to recognize what does matter. How can I better support myself Doesn't mean I get that right all the time, but I think it keeps allowing you to move forward and by offering yourself those opportunities to go through, practices like that, I think, are really, really powerful.
Speaker 2:I'm a big, big advocate for things meditation, journaling, you know, just going for walks, things like that just allow you time to just process and think as well. I think so often we get lost in the hustle and bustle in Instagram, in emails and work and again, I can be the worst for it as well. But going through having practices, I would call it with my, my client's toolbox, having toolbox to be able to navigate those situations so you know when you're in a certain situation, what tool do I need right now, or what tool do I have available to me to help me navigate this situation as well? And I think ultimately unfortunately that comes with practice too.
Speaker 1:How many things do you think you've got in your travel, in your toolkit? You talked about travel. You talk about sort of the practice. I'm a really big fan of kind of practice. Um, but what is in your toolkit? Because it'll be different for everyone, won't?
Speaker 2:it again. Yeah, and I'm a massive fan of I love exploring different things and seeing what works for me and things have worked. Things haven't worked. You know I I'm a big um fan of things like acupuncture. That's really helped me in the past. Even just sort of simple things like slow yin yoga you know it doesn't have to be anything fancy Going for a walk, meditating but even and if you can get the basic I think so often we try and do too much or go too extreme.
Speaker 2:Sometimes just getting the basics right can be the best tools that you can have getting a good night's sleep, doing some exercise, you know, not drinking alcohol as well. I think that's one of the biggest things that when I've gone through difficult stages and I had a really difficult stage last year not drinking alcohol made a huge difference and I could see that compared to before um, because then it, you know it doesn't affect your sleep. If you get a better night's sleep, you know the rest of your decisions fall into place in a better. You know what you eat, whether you exercise, you know not being anxious, etc. So sometimes just getting those basics right it's really, really helpful. But, as I said before, things like acupuncture has really helped me. Meditating, journaling, um like a big exercise um person. You know that really really helps me too. Um and or breath work, different, different energy practices.
Speaker 2:But again, I think sometimes we can go too wide.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes just getting the basics right um can be can be really important. But also, you know not just what you do but what you don't do. You know um saying no to things that do trigger you. And I'm a and I I'm in two minds sometimes about whether to use that word about triggers, because I had this conversation with someone the other day because sometimes people know that's a trigger to me, I'm going to stay away from it and I think sometimes our triggers are our own responsibility. But when you're going through a difficult time being aware of how things make you feel, I think we we should be able to understand why they make us feel like that, but not putting yourself in situations that you know aren't making you feel good, or being around people who maybe are really negative or consuming negative media or anything like that. It's just really important to be conscious of what's around you, what you're saying yes to and what you're saying no to, and one of the things that sort of drives me about.
Speaker 1:Your experience, your path, your story is the constant want to use your power for good and your platform to drive the change. Whether it's through the charity, whether it's through your, your personal life, whether it's through your career, business, is that something that is really important to you?
Speaker 2:yeah, a hundred percent. I think, um, we we use this term like term in the nathagate most trust called prevent the preventable. That's all around our prevention campaign of how can we prevent more brain hemorrhages from happening through better term in the Nathagate Morse Trust called prevent the preventable. That's all around our prevention campaign of how can we prevent more brain hemorrhages from happening through better understanding blood pressure, because we know that's a leading cause of lifestyle related brain hemorrhages. But that's a term actually that's come from my coaching business and that's a term that before that came from me recognizing what is really really driving me and what is really really driving me and what is my why, if you want to term it like that Because I think there's so much that happens in our lives which we can't prevent.
Speaker 2:We couldn't prevent my sister having her brain hemorrhage. We couldn't prevent my boyfriend getting cancer. We couldn't prevent other things happening. But there's a lot that we can prevent and being in a career that you don't love, you certainly can prevent that and being unfulfilled as unfulfilled as a result. You can prevent that. You know, um, making decisions that are within your control, that are making you unhappy. You can prevent that. You can shift those decisions. It doesn't mean that everything is easy and it doesn't mean that you know the steps and the choices and everything are easy, but what it does allow you to recognize is that you have a choice, and I think if we, the more we can prevent that is causing us anxiety, the more we can prevent things that are making us happy, making us unfulfilled, the better our lives are going to be. And, as I said earlier, our lives are incredibly short and every single day is very, very precious, because you don't know what tomorrow will bring.
Speaker 1:And I think that's the message, ultimately, that I'm trying to convey through pretty much every sort of different career that I seem to go down, and you talked very much, obviously, about your role at the Natalie Kate Moss Trust, which was created to advance research on brain hemorrhages, which you talked about. What is the future? What's your aspiration for the future of the trust?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's many things, um, but brain hemorrhages at the moment are a subject which are largely unspoken about and which is, for me, baffling. When you look at the numbers, you know there's 4.6 million cases of brain hemorrhages every year. That's more than breast cancer and lung cancer combined, and. But we hear about them and it's not about competitions, but it's about awareness, and so the more a particular health crisis has awareness around it, the more funding it's going to get, the more advancements that are going to happen, and that's what we're trying to do at the moment. Of those 4.6 million people who have a brain hemorrhage, only three out of five will survive within one month, and those numbers will then obviously, you know, there'll be people that won't survive six months and a year, and even if they do survive, the level of severity of disability that they will have will be really, really dire, and so what we're trying to do is obviously create more awareness so that we can shift these numbers, develop better treatments, so that we improve the outcomes after somebody has a brain hemorrhage, either through um reducing the level of mortality or um improving the disability that someone is like to have. But I mean, for me, a big thing is, that is, preventing them in the first place. Um, it's one thing to develop a treatment after somebody has a brain image, but what we want to do is prevent them, and that is why I kind of touched like before.
Speaker 2:We developed a um campaign which is very much at the embryonic stages but essentially around, uh, getting people to check their blood pressure. Now, this is not a new campaign. This is not something that no one else has done. The NHS is still pushing it out. But we're trying to drive this message forward even more because we know that high blood pressure is the leading cause of lifestyle related brain hemorrhages. But even more than that. You know high blood pressure is the root cause of 10 million deaths a year. You know it's a. It's a really big problem and a third of people on average in a population will have high blood pressure, but 50% of those people are undiagnosed. So they are walking around with this incredible risk of having a brain hemorrhage, a heart attack, a stroke, you know that many other health complications.
Speaker 2:And it's as simple as just getting people to check their blood pressure and shifting their behavior in a very similar way that Copperfield have done an excellent job in getting women to check their boobs, just checking their blood pressure, because if we can check it then we can do something about it.
Speaker 2:And it's not this extravagant thing that people have to go and do or fill in forms of this, that and the other, but it's shifting our behavior.
Speaker 2:What we want to do at Nathie Kate Moss Trust is to drive this systemic change, and what we're trying to do is actually open the conversation to younger people as well we're talking 16 to 35, because we know that, proportionally to the number of cases of brain hemorrhage within that age group, they have the highest percentage of undiagnosed cases. And so you know and I think for me that's really interesting because we don't hear about that enough you know, it's very much seen as an old person's problem or a problem for people who are unwell or overweight or smoking or stressed, and that's not necessarily true. Yes, they are contributing factors, but you can still have high blood pressure if you're young, fit and well, and so the only way to check is to check. And so for us, over the next few years, a big focus is on driving more funding into the research, but also driving this campaign forward and really, really shifting behaviors in this area.
Speaker 1:That prevent and educate, isn it? It's. It sounds simple, uh, but and actually only last year, I was told I had applied blood pressure. I went out, got, got myself on amazon, other stores available, uh, blood pressure just to keep an eye, because it's easy to ignore, I'll be fine, but you've got to keep an eye and you can't ignore this. So please do check.
Speaker 1:You can find out more information about the natalie Moss Trust on the show notes as well. So please keep educated, please keep passing this knowledge on as well, because we want to stop this dreadful, awful, awful disease. So, fiona, thank you so so much for joining us today. Clearly an inspirational woman, clearly someone who uses their power for good, and I'm so very grateful for you joining us today. Thank you for having me and thank all of you for listening. Please do stay connected, please do stay informed, educated, pass on this information and, as I say, you can find more about the Natalie Kate Moss Trust in the show notes as well. Please stay connected and keep the conversation going on all of our socials. You have been listening to the we are power podcast or what goes on media production.