Bella is a mum of two girls, has an incredible work ethic and a passion for helping others. She discovered potential new opportunities for passive income and aligned herself with a company that values leadership, sustainability and community and built her own business. It turned out to be a tremendous decision and Bella has never looked back.
Get ready to be inspired…..5-4-3-2-1.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Bella Freeman:
LinkedIn
Email: bella150@hotmail.com
Connect with Vicki Main - Podcast Host & Co-Author of The Momentum Mindset Book:
LinkedIn Profile
VLM Instagram
VLM Facebook
Website
Click here to purchase a copy of The Momentum Mindset Book by Vicki Main and Jonathan S.Bean.
Bella is a mum of two girls, has an incredible work ethic and a passion for helping others. She discovered potential new opportunities for passive income and aligned herself with a company that values leadership, sustainability and community and built her own business. It turned out to be a tremendous decision and Bella has never looked back.
Get ready to be inspired…..5-4-3-2-1.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Bella Freeman:
LinkedIn
Email: bella150@hotmail.com
Connect with Vicki Main - Podcast Host & Co-Author of The Momentum Mindset Book:
LinkedIn Profile
VLM Instagram
VLM Facebook
Website
Click here to purchase a copy of The Momentum Mindset Book by Vicki Main and Jonathan S.Bean.
The biggest thing you can do is ask someone questions and a lot of the time they come to the solution themselves, because if we're just telling someone what we think, we're actually not going to get the full picture because they're going to be thinking in their mind, that's not what I'm thinking, that's not what happened because we were not in their shoes. We don't know. Welcome to the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity podcast brought to you by VLM training and coaching specialists across the UK and Australia. Hosted by me, Vicky Maine. Are you a business owner, leader, or executive? Have you ever felt stuck or disappointed where your life or business is heading? Do you ever feel overwhelmed, compare yourself to others or feel like you're swimming in treacle at times? This podcast is here to help you get unstuck fast from viscosity to achieving escape velocity and expanding your knowledge. Our guests on the show will share practical tips and real life. Experience about how they got out of negative situations or circumstances to live their best life on their terms. We will be sharing real life stories from real people, doing some incredible things. Stay tuned for our next guest. Welcome to season three, episode 10 of the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity podcast. I'm your host, Vicki Maine, and today we have Bella Freeman on the shore. Welcome, Bella. It's great to have you on the shore today. Hi, Vicky. Thank you so much for having me. This is an incredible moment. So thank you. Total pleasure. Bella, I'm so excited to hear about what you've been doing and I see all your social media posts and you travel around the world and do some really exciting things and Go on lovely holidays. And yeah, it looks like you're having a great time and you live in Perth, Western Australia, which is where we met originally, , in business and a business networking event and yeah. Can you tell our listeners about your career journey and what you're doing now? Absolutely. And yeah, I often think back to that moment. It was a real pinnacle moment when I met you, you've taught me so much, , from what I've done so far and leading up to this as well. So. I guess my journey started when I was younger, like I always wanted to be an actress and ever since I was a little girl, that was my dream. And my mum used to say to me, Bella, that's amazing and I really want that for you, but it's going to be a challenge. It's going to be really hard to make that dream come true. So what I would suggest is that you have something that you can always fall back on. And do you know what? She was so right. At the time, I thought that's really negative, but she was, it's always good to have a plan B if your plan A doesn't go the way you want it to, or it just takes you on a different path. After I finished school, I went to a college in England. I'm originally from Surrey in England, and I took a secretarial course. And that's what I did. And my first job was actually for Columbia TriStar in London. Absolutely loved it. I was in the world that I wanted to be in and it was really interesting. I'd been there probably two years and my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, he wanted to go traveling and I really wanted to go traveling. And I had one of those sliding door moments was do I stay where I am? Because if I stayed at that company, there was actually a job opening up in marketing that I actually had such a yearning for travel. And we decided to go backpacking and landed in Perth, traveled all the way around Australia, fell in love with the country, came back to England for a couple of years and moved out here. And when I was arriving in Australia, I thought, this is it. What can I do now? To make a difference for myself and to make a change. So I did what I always knew. I was a secretary, but when I became a mom, I actually, that was the moment I thought I don't want to go back to work. And I looked at going back to work and I realized that if I did, I'd be 20 a week better off. After putting both my girls in daycare, I've got two daughters, so I was looking for something else, but I didn't think it would be in the network marketing realm. I thought that is so not for me. I'm not into sales, but let's face it. We sell ourselves every single day. We're at work or if we're a mom, we're always selling ourselves. And so I was introduced to the company Arbonne, which is an amazing health and wellness company. I'd had a lot of skin issues and it was a product that worked for me. And I thought, why not? We were struggling financially. My husband was looking at doing FIFO. So being away three, four weeks at a time. And at that time our girls were so young and I just didn't want that for our life. I thought I did not move. To a country with no family nearby to have my husband work away. So took a leap of faith 11 years ago, and I've never looked back. I love it more than I ever have since beginning. That's fantastic. It sounds like you've had such a journey to get to where you are now, but what I love about what you said is that you made the decision to. Essentially be a stay at home mom, and I know I've been a stay at home mom for a period of about eight months, and then I did go back and retrain to become a lecturer or teacher., but I think that decision is not an easy decision. Looking after children day in, day out, , it's actually, I think it's the hardest job in the world, but one of the most rewarding jobs. And I think being away from your family, that must have been as you said, Earning 20 extra a week to go and work in an office or whatever it is. That must have been. A no brainer for you to just say, you know what, , I'm having this time with my children. Good on you for doing that. I think there's a lot of pressure on women and parents to go back to work immediately because of bills, et cetera, but good on you for doing that. Tell us a bit more about your journey working in this space, in the health and beauty space. So has it been quite a, has it been quite a straightforward journey or have there been challenges along the way? Thank 100 percent there's been challenges and I look back and I'm really not the same person as I was 11 years ago. So many people say to me, but I couldn't do what you do. And I just remind them that I was a beginner once. Like, I had no confidence apart from my inner circle of friends. I really wasn't outgoing and. What I love about what I do is I show people that you can become anything that you want to, and it's about persevering. And I think in the corporate world, and Vicky, you make a really good point, there is such pressure on mums to have it all. No one questions, even now, no one really questions dads that work. 9 to 5 and come home, but they question months are you leaving your kids in a daycare? Okay. Yeah. for you for following your corporate dream. And we'll always be to feel guilty. And I think that needs to change because we deserve just as much success in any areas of our lives as men do. I'm really passionate about changing that and showing that women can be empowered. Whether that, if you love your job, amazing, do it to the best of your Have that career. If you want to be a stay at home mom, do that. If you want a bit of both, do that. It's all about, I used to think, oh my gosh, I need balance. But it's actually about boundaries, having the right boundaries. And it's something that I have struggled with. If I'm with my family, spending time with my family. If I'm working on my business, spending time on my business. I guess one of the things that really got me involved in this space, because I was never really into health and wellness. Because I don't really understand it, but I educated myself and 1 thing I did a real about this actually the other day and the response I got was incredible. I was talking about animal rendering plants and I don't know if you know about animal animal rendering plants, but they're basically where leftover carcass roadkill pets have been put down at the vets. They get sent to this animal rendering plant. There's 1. South of Perth, they boil everything off and there's a great big fat that rises. The biggest buyer of that fat is skincare and cosmetic companies. And the reason they do that is because it's cheap and it fills their bottles. And that's what I'm passionate about changing that because. All of these big companies, they care more about profit than they do about people. And when I was younger, I was never educated about looking after my skin, giving myself good nutrition. I suffered for my skin all the time because of what I was consuming. So what I love now is that I can educate people and share with them that actually you have a choice and I can help you create healthy habits to have a healthier lifestyle. Feel good, feel your best self by feeling your body the right way, whether that's on the outside with skincare on the inside with nutrition. And we're not educated on that. We're not told things like that in school. And that's something that I'm so passionate about. Yeah, you've just blown me away there about. What you've said about the animal rendering products. I had, I actually had no idea. I didn't know. And I love my animals as you have dogs and I do. And I, yeah, I'm pretty shocked at that, but not too shocked because these facts have got to come from somewhere, but I'm shocked at what you've said there because I had no idea. And I think the education piece is so important. So I like what you're doing and the products you're selling align with your values. I think that's super important as well. I'm curious, would you go or have you done, you mentioned as a kid, you wanted to be an actor. And have you actually done any of this part time gone back into theater or done sort of amateur dramatics or anything like that as a hobby? Yeah, at school, I was always in the plays and when I moved to London, I moved in with my best friend when I got that first job and I did amateur theater there. I've been, I think I was on a show years ago. I was like an extra. I live next door to a radio DJ and he got me on this as an extra. And it was just so much fun. And I, it's funny you mentioned that, Vicky, because it's, For the last year or so, I've thought, Oh, I wouldn't mind just seeing what there is here. Cause I'd love to do that again. I'm so passionate about, and I guess that's why I do reels. It's like my little acting moments because yeah, I love it. Something I didn't know about you, Bella, that I've seen your reels and they're actually quite funny and I know you mime and stuff and do all that too. Yeah, too. Sort of stuff that goes popular on Instagram. And it does make me smile because you just look like you're living your best life. And I guess the reason I asked you that question was as a kid, I wanted to be a DJ and a teacher and an entrepreneur. And it took me till I think 38 to do all three. And as I set up a DJ business and I did that, but it was purely around my childhood dream and a passion to do that. And I reckon. Get yourself into , some volunteering and do something like that. Cause I reckon it would be something that you'd absolutely thrive at. You'd love it. I'm not sure if anybody's listened to the show, who is based in Australia, who can help Bella with this dream. But yeah, if you do know, reach out to her for sure. So Bella, tell us about a typical day doing what you do and also about what you love about working in this space, in the health and beauty space. Yes, and I talk a little bit later about how I start my morning, but my typical day is basically I love that I get to work from home. Sometimes I like to get out and about because you can feel cooped up a lot, but there are so many things that I love. For instance, I love it when On a daily basis, I'm always trying to help my clients become the best self, whether it's through the products or the income opportunity. And I have clients that come to me because they have a problem with whatever it is that I can help with. So I love nothing more. Then being the solution and when my clients message me to say that they finally kick their coffee habit or they've been able to lose those pesky kilos they've been wanting to lose for years or just feel like they did 10 years ago. It just brings me so much joy. And then on the flip side, I am consistently helping people in my team. I have the pleasure of mentoring so many incredible women. When a stay at home mom finally has the extras she's been wanting just to treat herself and not feel guilty or to be able to contribute to the monthly bills, or maybe it's someone that their income from their business has enabled them to walk away from the corporate world and to be more present with their family. There's a place for everyone. It's such an incredible feeling. I used to be in an environment, as I mentioned before, I worked for companies that cared more about money than they did about People, it didn't align with my values. I felt like a number I never felt worthy. And the women I get to work with now, either directly or indirectly empower me to become a better version of myself, to think bigger and to make a difference in the world. And to set a really good example for my children. And that's so important to me. I might be catching up with clients one on one. I do most of my business online now, but I'll have phone calls, Zoom calls. I love to help. I think accountability when you're on a health journey is really important. So I take pride in making sure that I'm doing my bit for my clients, checking in on them. Have you got any challenges right now? Especially weekends are always that time that we fall off the wagon. Or if it's with my team, how can I serve you? What can I do to help you build your business even better than it is already? And then in the evening we do, I do weekly trainings or that sort of stuff. And then I try and do my bit on social media. It's always a work in progress and I'm certainly not a wizard, but I have fun with it and I think that's the idea as long as you're enjoying yourself and it helps others, whether it's educational or entertainment, then that's a win for me. Yeah, wonderful. Clearly you sound passionate about what you do and it sounds like you really enjoy it as well. So long may that continue. Let's talk about mindset. Now, first of all, I want to ask you, are you fearful of anything? Oh, , that's a question and a half, isn't it? Do you know what? For a long time, I was fearful of rejection. My limiting belief, I was a people pleaser. It kept me stuck for such a long time. I didn't want to upset anyone. I didn't want to seem pushy. But by working on myself through mindset, I've realized that my job is to offer solutions to other people's problems. It's not about me. So whether they say yes or no, that's okay. I've done my job, but I think everyone is different. They're fearful. Some people are fearful of failure. Some people are fearful of success. That's never been something that's. been massive for me. It was the fear of rejection of not doing the right thing by someone and worried about what people would think. And I think that's really normal when you start a business like this and it's your own business, you take. Everything so personally, but I've learned through personal development that's not the case and we don't know what's happening in someone else's life. So I've stopped making assumptions and I've started to think that's okay. It's not about me. It's just not the great best time for them or whatever their reason is. I assume best intentions and that's all I can do. That's great advice. And I know once My mentor years ago when I was teaching said to me, walk in their shoes. And that was the best piece of advice or one of the best pieces I've ever had, where it's not necessarily, it's about thinking about them. And in your case, what is the problem that, how can you help them solve that problem? And if they are having a bad day, it's not necessarily about you. It's walking in their shoes going, what is it? What's really going on for them when I think when you provide the training and support and guidance and go back to them, I think that's really good. I've seen you in action. I've seen how focused you are on customer care, and there's no surprise you've been in this industry for 11 years because you're absolutely smashing it on your goals and what you're doing, because I think it's when you care. And I think that makes a huge difference. You can see when someone just is in it for the cash on money, it's a lifestyle choice for you. And I think you really look after your people so I can, I would expect you to get a lot of repeat business as well from people who've worked with you for a while. Yes, I'm very blessed. I have the most amazing clients I have to say, and , it's something that I do not take for granted. So I do take the customer and I've learned more about giving someone a really good customer experience. So just taking it that next level from customer service to customer experience. And just like you said, Vicky, make them feel valued. And not a dollar sign. What I do every now and then, if I see someone on Facebook and they're a client of mine or friend or, but if it's a client of mine and I haven't spoken to them for a little while, but I see them struggling, I'll just send them a little note. Like it goes so far knowing that you can just help someone's day, put a smile on their face. Like that's free. It doesn't cost anything. And it's all about building that trust and building that relationship that they. Know that you're valuable to them and you want them to succeed in life, whatever it is for them. Absolutely. And I know you're going to talk a bit about your daily routines and your strategies. You have a mate, as I've written a book with Jonathan Bean about mindset, the momentum mindset, and From what I've seen, you have an incredibly resilient mindset and just this propensity to cheer people up when you meet with you. And I guess you have to drill down in your own toolbox, mindset toolbox, and look at strategies of how. To be the best version of yourself so you can help other people, as do I. I'm, when I coach and train people, I have to really get myself into the zone and be able to have these, this mindset, because I wouldn't want to tell someone or give someone advice of something that I wouldn't do myself. So I'm wondering, you've read my book with Jonathan Nye and you also were the emcee at my Part E in Australia, which was incredible. You're an amazing MC and there's no surprise with your acting past history that you were great at what you did. I'm interested to know, can you share some tips about dealing with setbacks, not giving up and resilience around mindset? I know you've read my book, but what's your personal tips , on this subject? Absolutely. And I loved your book and I'm just so proud of you, Vicky. I think everyone needs to read that. So yeah, like setbacks are going to happen. And what I've realized doing my business, because that's when I started my personal development journey, it wasn't until then, like no one said to me before, Oh, you need to go and build your self belief because that just wasn't a thing in the corporate world. But what I've come to realize is that setbacks are meant to happen. If life was one straight line up, we would never. Become who we're meant to be, and it's in adversity that we discover grit and resilience, and we learn the most through our challenges. And there's part of your book where it talks about how we feel when someone upsets us. And this really resonated with me because. I used to be so sensitive. I worried about what other people would think of me. Someone didn't like me or someone would upset me. I would feel it was an attack on me personally. But as I mentioned before, by working on my mindset, I've realized that it's not about me and to be compassionate and what is going on in someone else's life. And the book also made me realize that I need to give myself grace and not to be so hard on myself when life doesn't go as planned. Not that I'm a perfectionist, but. I always want everything to go like I think it should because I did this. So that should happen. And life's always going to throw curveballs at us. And this is, these are designed to really grow us as individually. So it's, yeah, really important to me to have that resilience and grit. Yeah, absolutely. And in the book, we talk about overcoming your own inertia and achieving an incredible life. Now, the whole premise of the book is around everybody. Can have that incredible life, but it's different for every person. We all have different. Beliefs, values, expectations, and an incredible life to you, for example, have you had to overcome your own inertia or overcome things to, get to where you are? And you mentioned, I love that where you said in adversity, we discover grit and overcome challenges. But have you had to overcome some inertia to live your best life now? Like on the daily, I think we're always going to have inertia, but what I have found was the biggest thing for me is believing that I can achieve massive success in my business. I grew up in a world where no one. Did anything like this, really people that we knew it was you go to school, you get good grades, you get a good job or go to college. You work for 40 hours a week for 40 years and you retire on a pension that doesn't cut it anymore. Like millionaires have an average of 7 streams of income. We should be looking lots of different ways. To add an income stream to our lives. So I'm a massive believer in what we think about. We bring about, as I said, I was never taught this when I was younger, and it really wasn't until I started my business about personal development, learning about mindset and how. Powerful our inner thoughts are. So one thing that I do now is I'm constantly listening to something. I'm constantly reading something. There's a wealth of free podcasts like this one that continuously helped me to keep moving and not be paralyzed in fear of what might not work to how amazing life will be. If I just keep moving and so many people, they don't even get off. The start gate. They just think that'll never happen to me. And I've been trying to talk to my kids recently about, you need to figure out what you're passionate about and take that first stop, first step. Don't think I can't do that because that's not available in Perth. I said, that doesn't matter. We find a way. If it's important to us, we find a way. If it's not, we find an excuse. So it's about really just taking that step forward to whatever that is for you and what you want to do or become. Yeah, I love that way. You say, if it's important, you find a way. If it's not important, you find an excuse. I think that's such a good example. Yeah, I can really resonate with that. I love what you said there about how very successful people in business, they have millionaires described. They have on average, seven revenues through income streams coming in and you. I think it's actually not a bad thing to diversify your income stream. So when I was living in Perth full time, as I had a DJ business, I also had, I was running a company. I had other stuff that I was doing as well as that. And., I'm intrigued by investing and I guess making my money work for me. And at the time, I think probably about three years ago, I started doing, got involved in cryptocurrency. And at the time it was probably, I could have done it five years earlier, but I then did it then. And I got really obsessed with cryptocurrency. I'm not joking. Every day I'd get up and when the stock markets, different time zones, I'd get up and I'd start analyzing how crypto was doing. And I think at one point I had 16 different cryptos and I did actually, I did sell, I traded them in the end and I did make a profit from it, but I guess. I was curious to see what was out there and then I read more about the ethics around it and stuff and it didn't necessarily resonate with me, but I totally believe that you should have different income streams coming in. It's especially as we know, we've gone through that pandemic and. I know my DJ business flatlined at that time, and I was doing a lot of online training and that scaled, but I think it is important. What do you think about the viewpoint where people say, but you should only focus on one thing and do it really well? What are your thoughts on that compared to having various different income streams? I'm curious. I think I'm a massive advocate on multiple income streams. I also have a part time job at Cram, which I love. I was spending all my time in my office and really not being as productive as I should. And it was something, I heard it recently, I think it was CNN News said recently that what is happening right now are losing their jobs. Google are laying people off, Amazon are laying people off, Zoom are laying people off. And if these people haven't been diversifying their income, that is scary. That could be the difference between losing a house or not. So I think when you focus on one thing, absolutely focus on one thing well, but don't shut yourself off to focusing on other things as well. We should all be looking. At what we can do to improve our future wealth, the next generation is going to be probably not in the best shape. I like who can get into real estate market. If you're in your twenties, unless you have very wealthy parents, it's going to be really tough. So I think you just need to be smart and look at ways. And I've dabbled in crypto as well. And. I know what you mean. You're in the morning, you just check, Oh, how are we doing? But it's a good thing. It's a healthy thing to have these multiple streams. So yes, I get the whole part of if you do one thing, do it well, but focus on say for an hour, that's what you're going to be doing a hundred percent. Then you're going to be moving on to something else. So it's about fitting it in at the right times and making it work for you. Yeah. I'm curious because obviously you're working with a lot of. Clients or customers, and you're doing all these things, having different revenue streams. Do you have really good systems and processes in place to help you manage your time? That is probably my weakest, not my weakest, but time management, in fact, for the last year, I've been on time for everything I would say, maybe not everything, but I used to be late all the time. And then I suddenly realized you're actually being really rude to the person that you're going to be late for. So I've switched my mindset and I'm much better at that. But if I'm at home and I don't have a structure for my day, the day runs me. So over the last couple of weeks, I've been using, I use Google calendar that, that actually saves me the last two years. I've been using that for the last few weeks. I've been using an app called Trello, which has been incredible for my time management, and it's something I've got good at. More recently than not, but at the beginning of the year, it was something that I'd find myself at the end of the weekend. Oh, well, that was fun. But what did I get done? So I've tricked myself because we have to hold ourselves accountable. No one's coming to make us do things. If we want something to change in life. We have to change our habits on a daily basis. You'd smile if you saw my Google calendar. I color coordinate everything and I put time slots in for certain tasks. And then I've always had this notion that I do the top three things, first of all, that need to be done that day, first thing in the morning. And then I feel like I'm smashing my day and the days that I don't do those things and the days my habits slip are the days that I just, my day runs me. And, but my, I do have systems and processes because I'm working with clients in Australia and I'll start my day from anything from 5 a. m. in the morning, sometimes earlier, and I'll then work with clients in Europe from about, say, 11 o'clock onwards, but normally the southern hemisphere I work in the morning and then go from there. I have systems and processes in place and it's very rare that I actually relax. I don't relax too much. So what do you do outside of work to relax yourself? What's your go to thing, what you do to chill? Travel is my number one passion. If I don't have a trip planned, something's not right in my diary. I also, I love the movies. Just to be able to go and spend a couple of hours and immerse yourself in a story and just, it just fuels me. And I play poker. I absolutely love it. And won a competition recently, which was fun. Spend time with my family. I don't have any crazy activities like, I don't know, surfing, if that's a crazy activity. I don't have anything crazy that I do. Just quality time, family movies, travel , that sort of thing. I love it. Oh, lovely. No, that's fantastic. So I want to talk about your team that you work with and leadership. So you strike me as someone who has very much self discipline and good, solid leadership values. What would you say is the biggest challenge that leaders have in terms of supporting and growing their teams and also challenges that managers may have? What would you say from your experience that you've seen where the challenges are? I've come to realize that there's a big difference between managers and leaders, like managers tell you what to do and leaders show you what to do. And. I try my best to be a leader every single day for my team, and I'm so grateful for them. But one thing I have always struggled with is having the tough love conversations. So many team members. Come into their business, like everybody with jacked up mindset, bringing their limiting beliefs with them. They've never been challenged on them to realize that they're just stories. These red light stories that we tell ourselves that most of the time are not true. So it's my job to really stretch them out of their comfort zone. Because once they do, they really see the magic in working on themselves and they realize that they deserve to have a happy, fulfilling life and to create so much more for themselves and their families. So I'm growing every day and this is something I work on. Every single day, as one of my limiting beliefs, as I mentioned, I needed to be liked by others, right? And I've realized that I don't, I just need to be true to myself. So it's when I'm helping them and they're helping me. I love that, being true to yourself part. I think that's so true for sure. I've been doing some research on conflict recently in the workplace, and I'm curious how you handle conflict situations and what tends to trigger you. Like. What are your hot buttons that might fuel conflict? So, for example, someone might get really upset if someone was micromanaging, that could be a hot button for them. But I'm just curious what you think about how you deal with conflict, what triggers you and any advice for listeners who are going through this themselves. I think it's just really important to, as you mentioned before, Vicky, to put yourself in their shoes. We are all so different. We all have different personalities. I have a really good friend who is an a type person. So she's a straight shooter. What is what you get? But that's how she is. Whereas I'm a bit softer and that's how I am. So I think the key to resolving conflicting issues is to have. Ask questions. The biggest thing you can do is ask someone questions. And a lot of the time they come to solution themselves, because if we're just telling someone what we think, we're actually not going to get the full picture because they're going to be thinking in their mind, that's not what I'm thinking, that's not what happened because we were not in their shoes. We don't know. So it's about understanding. There's some great books, , about understanding different personality types. understanding what's happening and see it from every single point of view. And that can be really tough because we all have our own opinions of what should happen and what shouldn't happen, but it's just about being compassionate and not jumping to conclusions. That's great advice there. I think it's fantastic. Thank you. So what would you say on the top? Soft skills that you need as a leader to be able to work with your team. What are the things that employers and for you in your business, what is it that you think of? So I heard this quote just in the last couple of days, and it was like, so powerful, it takes leaders with vision. To help people with big dreams. So everyone has a dream, right? Whether it's to be the best mom, to have the best career, to be in the best health, or just to be happy. So, I think it's really important for leaders to see something others don't. To cast a vision for other people, so they can see what they can become. And I think when a leader has a massive vision for themselves, It can include everybody's dream that they have in their team. Another trait I think is really important is communication. It's about really understanding where people are coming from. It's something I do in my team. If I'm having one of those tough love conversations, I like to acknowledge, relate, and share. So I like to compliment someone, maybe starting their business, but they're not taking the steps that I'm suggesting. Because they're fearful because they've never done it before. So I like to just remind them of how far they've already come in their business, even if it's just a few days, remind them why they started what they're building this business for and then build on their belief on what they can achieve by taking the required steps because being in this. Business 11 years. I don't have the fears that someone brand new does. So I have to go back to that place, put myself in their position and think, okay, how am I going to handle this and just remind them that it's okay. Take one step. And when you step outside of your comfort zone, yes, it's scary, but it's been courageous and you're going to have the things that you've always wanted in life. Wonderful. Great advice there. So what is the bravest or scariest thing you've ever done? So I shared on Facebook just a couple of days ago, it was World Mental Health Day. So this, it wasn't to do with my business, but it has helped me in so many ways. Three years ago, my eldest daughter was diagnosed with an eating disorder and It completely rocked our world. It came out of nowhere. There had been signs if I'd been looking for them, but I wasn't it. I was just yeah, it was just such a surprise and we tried to deal with it at home and I had to deal with it every single day and she had to deal with it every single day. And I just felt so helpless because it is such. An awful disease, there really needs to be more funding. It is just ridiculous what the stories that I hear of children and probably adults as well, not getting the help that they need. And we tried to deal with it at home. Unfortunately, that didn't work. And six months later, I was admitting my daughter into a hospital here to get the help she needed because otherwise it was absolutely unthinkable. And I look back and that was. The scariest I've been so blessed in my life, and this was the biggest curveball, the biggest obstacle that I'd ever had to deal with that. She'd ever had to deal with that. My husband and my other daughter had and we had to come together as a family and take day by day as it came. And I'm so happy to say that she is thriving. It has given her so much more strength and resilience. And I look back and I got through some of the darkest days. Because of the personal development that I did, so I guess for anyone listening, don't wait for life to throw crazy curveballs at you because until you start working on your mindset, this is something that can help you in so many areas of your life. But sometimes we don't even think about it because we're so busy just getting through the day. But I look back and that was the bravest thing that Maddie ever did. And it was. The scariest thing for all of us, but I'm so proud of her and on what she's achieved and I asked her a pin because it was not opinion. I asked her permission. I think it was Monday. That was mental health day. And I said, is it okay if I shared been 3 years and she was never in a position. She never felt that she wanted anyone to know. And she said, yes, and I just thought that is such growth in you and the comments people have put has been amazing that it's helped them and they know other people. And I think we just need to talk about this silent mental health is something that we really need to talk about more often because it really is so important and it's okay not to be okay, but it is vital to get help as soon as you can. Thank you for sharing something so personal as a family, , and the journey. And if anybody is listening to this and it's, they need some extra support in this space, there will be some links to some helplines and some websites that you can have a look at as well at the end of the podcast notes. So feel free to have a look at those to get some extra support as well. We'll add them in there., Yeah, Bella, what an incredibly brave journey you've been through with your family , and what's happened. And yeah, one of the final questions I have for you was tips for staying positive and optimistic during the downtimes and how important is it, , is mindset. But I guess you've already answered part of that, but I'm curious, any more tips for people for staying positive? Is it? Could it be one of the answers is looking after your good health and actually looking, supporting yourself from the inside out? Is that what the answer is? One of them, a hundred percent, there's such a correlation between the gut and the brain and when we're not feeling our best, it's generally because our gut isn't happy. And for so long, I never knew about this and I used to have terrible skin and it wasn't until someone said to me, what's your diet like? What are you feeding yourself? And it wasn't great. And the minute I changed that, the minute so many of us are so busy and we've just find that we don't have time to look after ourselves health wise. Yeah. But Vicki, if we don't have a health, what do we have? People are quite quick to drop money every weekend, going out, having a great time, but they don't make their health a priority, which amazes me. Even if it's just one thing in the nutrition world that you can do for yourself every single day. I have a drink every single day. It's a non negotiable is called my glow drink. And it just helps me with my gut health, helps me with my skin, helps me having my Fruit and veg in there as well. And it sets me up for the day. My girls have it as well. And it's just, I am setting that example that you need to look after yourself. It's not selfish, it's self care and it starts you off with that positive mindset. I also music is a massive thing for me over the years. I've gone through so many every month. There's always something that is an obstacle, a challenge for me. And the 1st thing I do is I put on some music. It lifts your energy vibration straight away every morning. I'll get up and I'll do my reading. I'll take my dogs for a walk. I'll listen to a podcast. I will journal. I will set myself up for the day. Set me up for the rest of the day, because I heard something the other day. If you get out of bed and you step your toe, that sets you up for the day. If that puts you in a bad mood, everything else is going to put you in a bad mood. So keep thinking to yourself, today's going to be amazing. I used to think affirmations were rude, but now I talk to myself, because you raise that vibration. It's not rude. Not if it's going to put you in the best state and help you to be productive, help other people be productive. I love thinking, who could I help today? And it's something that. Has changed my life immensely. Just how you start your day is everything. And I think that shows with the way having known you personally, I think that really shows in the way you come across to other people, because you can walk into a room and you just have this persona of. Real bright and light energy. You're not, you don't bring people down. You light people up. And I think that's really important, but clearly the key is working on yourself, which is super important. I am curious if you are around people who are negative all the time, is that one of your hot buttons? Or do you make it your challenge to help them and support them and navigate through the tough times? Constantly, I come up against conversations that I find really interesting and when I share with certain people what I do and their comment isn't what I expect it to be, and it's negative that it that actually triggered me the other day. And afterwards, I thought. Why did that trigger me? Why did I get so upset about that? And then I it's not about me. It's about them. But I had to do some really inner work and sit and think, why did that upset me? And it's something that I'm constantly working on because when you surround yourself with the right people, your energy vibration rises. If you're constantly surrounding yourself with negative, that's how you're going to stay. So it's about putting yourself with And sometimes I'm not talking about myself, but sometimes it's family members that are negative and you can't switch off from them, but it's about protecting yourself and that's why I say to my team, it's so important. You listen to podcasts, you read things because most people don't do what we do. So they don't understand what we do or why we're doing it. So it's really important to protect your energy. So yeah, that was a trigger for me. Interesting. found this too, is that as I've gone on my own personal development journey, and a few years back, I spent thousands on self development for myself. And then going into the space where I coach and mentor others, I don't necessarily thigh slap my way through life every day. There are days where. Recently I've had, I've got wisdom tooth surgery coming up and I've been in physical pain, but I acknowledge that. And I know that it's something that's not going to last for longer, but it doesn't help when the pain is like this chronic pain that I might have. And I'm very aware that how I show up to others, it does impact the mood. If I was to turn up for a coaching session and go on about my tooth surgery, it's not helping them at all. So I think there is part of it where you have to get yourself into a zone and show up and be the best version of yourself as best you can. But there are days where everybody has down days, but I guess it's if those down days become more frequent and then become down days every day that you might want to seek help or if there's a listener out there who's not feeling great at the moment and they, as you said, the mental health week was this week or mental health, was it a day or week this week? It's World Mental Health Month, but there was a specific day. I did see some stuff online about it, but I think, yeah, I think if people are not feeling great, talking to someone is one of the things that they can do to ask for help or get some support and maybe just share that they're not feeling great for sure. And we've all gone through stages in our life. Like you've mentioned with yourself and your daughter and what happened. And I too have had my own challenges in life, but these things. It's about looking at your resilience and being able to move forward in a way that you can learn from those experiences as well and help others. After you come out of them, out of the dark times, it's helping others go through those, which is really important too. That would be my view on that. So, who inspires you? At the moment, you listen to a lot of podcasts, you're reading a lot, and you're hanging out with some amazing people who actually inspires you. Funny answer, but my kids, my girls inspire me. They inspire me to push myself every day to never give up. I want to be the best example. On top of that, there are a lot of leaders in my company. That are absolutely incredible that I aspire to be every single day and I look and I think, wow, and we're very vulnerable in our company., we share all of our stories and it just makes us realize that if certain people can do certain things, anything is possible. No. One person inspires me because I listened to so many, there's lots of things on lots of people, but it's really my kids. I have to say, Vicky, I look at them every day and I just, I want to create something for them to be proud of. And I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to in life. And to never give up and to show that anything is possible. They're always inspiring me. That's wonderful. And I'm sure they'll listen to this and smile in the future. Any final tips on helping people if they're feeling stuck at the moment and they want to get out of negative situations and live life in their terms. Have you got any final tips for listeners? Maybe something that you haven't mentioned. I know you've given us a lot of advice based on your knowledge and experience, but any final tips for people who are feeling stuck and want to get out of negativity? I think the biggest thing, depending on what the situation is. So if it's someone who is running a business and things aren't going so well is to remember why they started because if you lose that, you lose your motivation. If it's someone where life. Is just not what they want it to be. It's just journaling., when I journal and I empty my thoughts, it's a, like a weight has been lifted. It's so powerful, but a lot of us just don't do it because we have better things to do, we think we have better things to do, talk to someone. Find someone just to have a conversation with and share how you're feeling. Don't suffer alone. And it could be a colleague. It could be a friend. Listen to things that will take you the next step. I've been through so many dips in my business and it is, it's a constant challenge when you're in one of those dips, but if you're just moving forward in some positive way. It will make a bigger difference. Oh, and another thing that I would love to do when I'm not having the best day, I'll put on a good comedy. Because really laughter is the best medicine favorite show in the world is friends. Of course that endlessly, I really think it's important to, to laugh, to smile, to get together with a friend, call someone, be grateful. Every day I write to my gratitude journal. When you're feeling grateful, it comes back to you. All of those things, hopefully one of those that the listener can take and utilize. Wonderful. Thank you. One final question. I know we were going to go with that one, but what does success look like for you in the future? And where can people contact you? So I used to change titles and promotions and that's all great. I'm a big advocate for recognition. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I've come to realize that it's about the person I become in the process. It's been having a result. By having time freedom to be able to take a week off here and there that to me is success to be happy, to be healthy for my family, to be happy and healthy and not to worry about the things that I used to worry about. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. Bella Freeman VP is my Instagram handle. Come on over. I'd love for you to follow me. I'd love for you to connect. If I can help in any way, that would be. Amazing. I'm always looking to serve. And if any of my wheels entertain you, then that's a bonus. Thank you, Bella. Lovely to chat with you and looking forward to seeing you rise continuously in the future. And I wish you all the best in what you're doing. I think you're off to Thailand soon, aren't you, with your company? Yes, in a month's time. Cannot wait. It's going to be amazing taking the whole family. Sounds beautiful. Have a gorgeous time and thank you for sharing your insights with us and look forward to seeing you very soon the next time I'm in Perth. Thank you so much, Vicky. Take care.