Ep #105 - Who Are You Beneath the Mask? with Sarah Bartlett

In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Bartlett for a really honest conversation about self-awareness, psychometrics, masking, ADHD, and what it actually looks like to build a life and business that fits who you really are.

We talk about how tools like psychometrics can help you understand your default patterns, strengths and needs more clearly — not so you can put yourself in a box, but so you can meet yourself with more compassion and make choices that work better for you. Sarah also shares her experience of being late-diagnosed with ADHD, the impact of spending years being who she thought other people wanted her to be, and how understanding herself more deeply has helped her begin to take the mask off. 

We also get into the messy reality of self-employment, especially when structure both helps and frustrates you, the guilt that can come from not working in a “normal” way, and why knowing yourself better can help you build more support, accountability and connection into your life. 

It’s a thoughtful, unfiltered conversation about identity, strengths, self-trust and giving yourself permission to do things differently.

In this episode, we cover:

• how psychometrics can support self-awareness
• late-diagnosed ADHD and masking
• why focusing only on weaknesses doesn’t work
• building a business around your strengths
• the challenge of structure, freedom and accountability
• understanding yourself with more compassion 

Sarah joins me for a warm and honest conversation. If you’ve ever felt like you’re trying to do life in a way that doesn’t quite fit, this episode will really speak to you.

Sarah's links:
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/lifewithsarahelizabeth
Linked In - www.linkedin.com/in/sarahelizabethconsulting
Website - https://www.seconsulting.uk/
Debt story - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/lifestyle/article-12669891/I-racked-12-000-debt-buying-new-clothes-meals-create-Instagrammable-image.html
Square Pegs Blog sign up - https://www.seconsulting.uk/blog
Youtube - @Lifewithsarahelizabeth

You can also watch this episode on YouTube with Captions - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWorkingWomensLifeCoach

If you'd like to have a chat about how I can help you further, please don't hesitate to click here & book a time with me, I'd love to meet you.

You can also follow me on IG @NickyBevan_LifeCoach

Transcript

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Welcome, welcome everybody to this week's podcast, and I have Sarah joining me today. Um, Sarah is a fellow coach, only she has a number of other, like, bits to her bow that I don't necessarily have yet. So, we are, as always, having a very unstructured conversation. We're not quite sure the direction that it's gonna go, but Sarah, do you want to start by… Introducing yourself and telling us a bit about you.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, of course. So, hi everyone, I'm Sarah. Um, yeah, as Nikki said, I am a coach, but, um, I do have a couple of other strings to my bow, so I'm a learning and development consultant,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Please.

[Sarah Elizabeth] As well as a trainer and facilitator, and I specialize a lot in psychometrics, so I'm trained in Clifton Strengths and MBTI, so I have a real passion for understanding people, and they're sort of uniqueness, but yeah, that's me.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, love it. I haven't really done much. I've read a few bits, like, um… Have you heard of… oh, Shazaz? What's his surname? I can't remember his surname, but he talks about positive psychology, so it's… he has, like, seven different personality types. I mean, there's loads of different ones out there, isn't there? Like, the reds and the blues and the discs and the…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Exactly.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] all of that kind of stuff. So, what got you into psychometrics in the first place?

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. Yeah, great question, because they're all just frameworks of something to essentially help you understand yourself a bit better.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] What got me into it was probably being completely honest, a lack of understanding who I was. I think, um, I've mentioned to you before, so I'm late-diagnosed ADHD.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah…

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I've probably spent my entire life being a version of myself that I think other people want to see. So, finding psychometrics and finding a way to… I suppose authentically code. who I am as a person has kind of helped me start to understand who it is, who I am behind my mask, behind that kind of facade that I put on for people.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Mmm. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] So, it was really a personal insight that got me into it. I was fortunate enough to be using it at work as well. Um… And loved seeing the… Transformation's a big word, so maybe the realization that people have. So, when I would start talking about it and explaining it and… kind of sharing the terms. I would get so many people going, oh, well, that's why I do that, and oh, that's why me and my partner have arguments, or that's why things happen.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And just that… igniting that insight in someone, and myself, That is just so powerful, it gets me super excited.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, and it is really interesting, isn't it, to know, like, what your… kind of default response is going to be. Once you're aware of that, And I was just coaching someone on this earlier, actually. It's not that then we're going to necessarily be able to stop that. default, but with compassion, we can, I think, reduce the length of time we're in it. And so, our goal is never to be, like, this perfectly composed human all the time, because that's just…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yes.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] fucking impossible.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yes.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Um, but with that awareness, I think then comes a huge amount of control.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, and for me, it's all about the positive spin on it. So, in a… for a lot of, like, learning and development, um, historically has all been about, what are your weaknesses, and how do we improve them?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And for me, that never felt right. For me, it's about…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah…

[Sarah Elizabeth] What are the great, unique… strengths that you have, And how do we use them more? How do we maybe use them in different situations? How do you, yeah, just try something different using a strength that you know you're good at.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] in a different environment, a different situation, see what happens. Like, it's all about… play, I guess, to an extent, experiment with it. Once you've… once you know about it, and you've got your framework, Play with it, and see how it works.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, so interesting. It's so interesting, isn't it? So, tell us… Tell us a little bit about your, kind of, background, your history. I mean, we do only have, like, less than an hour. As soon as they're like, well, when I was five! But tell us kind of a little bit about your background, and how you got to this point today, because you're in a transition, aren't you, now, going from corporate into self-employment.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yes, yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] As a coach, psychometric and learning and development expert. So tell us a little bit about your journey to get here.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, it's a funny journey, actually. So, I'll go… I'll start at university. I feel like that's far enough back. Um, I've got a degree in musical theater, um, which is great, and I had the most amazing 3 years at university. Um, but a career in musical theater is a incredibly hard and challenging to get into. You've got to be super talented.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yes!

[Sarah Elizabeth] I'm talented, but I'm not super talented. And it's also financially tricky, right? You're always auditioning, trying to get stuff, and… I really wanted something a little bit more… uh, consistent, I suppose, in terms of getting paid. So I fell, after university, I fell into HR.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Okay.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, I was working for… I was doing front of house, actually, at a hotel. And, um… just, they needed a trainer, someone to train the other receptionists, and turned out I was good at it, and I think the skill… the musical theater skills helped, because I was not afraid to stand up in front of a room of people and… talk at them. Um… And found I was pretty good at it. Um, so it's one of those careers where I didn't anticipate that I would do HR, and I would do learning and development, but… it just kind of happened. I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and I kept going, so… Fast forward, I suppose, 10… 10 years of doing various different HR roles for different companies, I started working at my previous employer, which was Olo Energy in Bristol. Amazing company to work for. I was looking at that point in my career for a company that cared about its people. Um, and it ticked all the boxes, and the people I'd met and worked with have been amazing. But I started there in my HR. field. So, I was a HR business partner, I was doing all the disciplinaries, I was supporting the managers, dealing with absence. All of that great stuff. And when COVID hit, Um, it gave me an opportunity to take a pause and really think about what I was doing. you know, everything up until that point, I've just fallen into, and I've just done, but actually, when I stopped and paused and thought, well, what do I enjoy about HR? What do I actually like about it? it really brought me back to. It's the… Adding value to people. And a secondment came up in the learning team, and I just thought, why not? It's the perfect kind of thing to do. Um, and yeah, so I worked as a people development partner for the last 5 years, I think? Um… And through that, lots of leadership development, lots of really exciting projects to kind of try my hand at, designing e-learning, which is something I'd never done before. I actually learned a little bit about how to code. Because of using the platform, so that was, um, an exciting skill to add to my string set.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, but through all of that, I realized coaching was where my true passion lied. Um, and I was fortunate enough to be able to train to become an accredited coach alongside the full-time job. And… really, really enjoyed that. Loved the training. As part of the training, as you know, you do so many hours of coaching, and I just loved the range of it. I really enjoyed talking to people, hearing their stories. And I think my curiosity for understanding people Um, and kind of the transformation I went through in terms of that self-awareness, I think, really… made me really excited about it, and um… bringing us up to, kind of, to date where I am now. Last year, um, OVA was going through some organisational change, and redundancy came knocking on my door. And I thought, you know what? now seems a good time. why not take the redundancy, And take all of the skills and knowledge that I've gained through all of my career, And do something for myself, and start working for myself. So… Big Leap. I had lots of people say to me, gosh, you're brave. Um, and I wasn't sure how to take that. Am I taking that in a… Amazing, well done, you're brave. Or am I taking that as a, hmm, why do you think you can do this? Um, but… It is a brave thing to do, it is a scary thing to do. I'm 4 months in to not having that regular paycheck, which is probably the scariest part of it.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yep.

[Sarah Elizabeth] But I'm loving it so far.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] That's so incredible. And it is amazing, isn't it? And I don't think many people… talk about that sort of messy middle bit between that moment that you leave, having the fear of not actually knowing how your bills are going to be paid next month.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Leaning into faith that something will happen, releasing that, I don't know how or what.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] It's… it is… it requires a lot of courage, and I think we hear a lot of stories from people who have made it, and they're looking back and telling us how they got there, which is great,

[Sarah Elizabeth] Mm-hmm.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] But I think once someone's… made it, you'd kind of lose a… Disconnect from them, almost. And… It would be lovely to hear more people talking about The fear and the… for me, and um… I mean, I can't really speak for my husband, but… Uh, because he's… he… we're recently going through something similar. We don't have a steady…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Mm-hmm.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] income now, and… the shame that comes up, the self-doubt that comes up. I mean, it's huge, and I'm so grateful to have the coaching skills. that I've got, that's enabled us to navigate those. emotions. And knowing that that is part of the journey, and that's kind of what you're signing up for, but I don't think… You actually really know what it's going to be like until you're in it and living it.

[Sarah Elizabeth] 100%, yeah. I had my expectations, I had some preconceived ideas of what it would be like, and I'd already twigged that it was… the transition was going to be hard, so I work with a coach myself, and a lot of our sessions were focused around that. But you're right.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Until you're in it. It's really difficult to plan.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Because you can't really plan. Um, and yeah, the fear… is one thing, but the other emotion that comes up for me is feeling lonely in it, because you're actually…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] my family are all… corporate jobs.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, you know, my parents were job-for-life people, Um, And, you know, the majority of my friends are… employed. Um, and so there is that loneliness element

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] as well, that comes with it, and… But finding other people like yourself, and like other people I've connected with, finding other kind of solo entrepreneurs,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] that is the thing that kind of helps you push through that, because otherwise it can be quite… Yeah, quite a lonely space to be in when you're thinking, you know, where's my next… mortgage payment gonna come from?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and the answer is, I don't know yet. But, um, having other people around you that have experienced that, and maybe they are coming out of the other end, or they're able to kind of share

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I've had a few people sort of say to me, you need to give it a good year before you

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] panic and give up, and… there's been times, it's only been 4 months for me, but I would say maybe two or three times a month, I'm sort of going, hmm, should I just get a job?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I don't know if I can make this work. Um, but yeah, for me, finding a community of other people that have experienced that transition,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] has helped me with that kind of feeling of being alone and sort of not knowing who to talk to about it.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I didn't… actually consider that I would miss having work colleagues. I mean, I know you see clients, but it's completely a different relationship, but…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I actually… and I was surprised that I miss… Going into an office and going, oh, how was your weekend, and chatting to

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] So-and-so in the kitchen, and… Not that you ever necessarily best mates, but Just having that frequency of… connection with familiar people. I actually miss that, and I was surprised I didn't think… That was not even a consideration when I left my, kind of, corporate… job.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Interesting you say that, because that was the biggest consideration for me.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Was it? Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, yeah. And I think, again, that comes through, like, going back to the psychometrics things. My strengths are in building relationships, chatting to people, understanding individuals. I'm very much on the extroverted scale of things. I enjoy being around people.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I knew, or anticipated that would be one of the…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] things that I needed to build up quickly is a…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] replication community of work colleagues, all just really leaning into friends and family. Making sure I'm getting that connection.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yeah. Which is, I mean, that's one of the bonuses of knowing yourself so deeply, isn't it? Having the…

[Sarah Elizabeth] time.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] you know, the psychometrics done, and knowing your personality types, and…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, you can see that ahead of time. I've never… I hadn't done anything like that in a previous role. So it wasn't until, sort of, I left and started exploring coaching that… I've done a couple of bits, but nothing… nothing's… like, seriously around. Around that. Tell me, then, what it's like with having your late ADHD diagnosis.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Hmm…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] How does that… effect, or how do you use that awareness? so that you're able to go, right, okay, this is what I'm gonna get done. Do you find it more challenging and, like, squirrel-like? Like, tell me more about what it's like to be

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] a self-employed working woman with ADHD.

[Sarah Elizabeth] You know, they don't see, um, hard.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, yeah, really hard work, actually. Um… Going from having a structure, So having a 9-5, having team meetings on set days, and this is the… here's the goal that's been dictated from

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] whoever down to me, and this is what I need to deliver. Going from having that structure, which… is a funny thing for people with ADHD, because I'm talking about myself here, but I've heard generalized Typically, structure is good for us.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] It helps us focus, it helps our brain, because that's something we struggle with, but also, we hate it.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, I, in particular, hate structure. I hate consistency. I like things to be different and… changing. So, one of the pulls towards being self-employed is that it gives me that.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Because I could be working with multiple different clients, I could be… Um, yeah, working on different things. One day, I could be doing a psychometrics, the next day, it's a one-to-one coaching, the next day I'm consulting with a business on their learning needs, like, it really does give me that range, and I'm also meeting lots of different people.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, so I see it playing into that strength. The flip side is… I've lost accountability in terms of… I no longer have a manager who's checking up to see if I've done what I've said I'm gonna do. I now have to rely on myself for that. Um, and so that's definitely been… difficult. The freedom and flexibility of working when I want and how I want. I'm leaning into it. Because as part of the late diagnosis, I'm wanting to try and take my mask down, And be more authentically me, and I know that I'm more creative in the evenings. I know that… I am not a person that can be sat at a desk at 9 o'clock and be working. Um, I know that's the way I work better, but what I found really interesting is the guilt that I'm feeling for not being sat at my desk at 9 o'clock.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Interesting…

[Sarah Elizabeth] has actually, particularly in the last, sort of, couple of months, I've really, really noticed that. And I just… it's an odd one, because I could be sat here coaching myself, and saying, well, you know that your brain really starts firing on all cylinders about 11am. that's kind of your peak time. I know that in practice, I know that. Logically, in my head.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] But I still feel guilty for not being sat at the computer at 9 o'clock, and it's…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Such an ingrained habit. that it's really tricky.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] And by 9 o'clock, you mean 9am rather than 9pm, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I am. I do mean that I am. Yes.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Just checking. Yeah, and it is interesting, isn't it? Like, getting out of that… kind of conditioning that we should be, like, 9 to 5… um, you know, Monday to Friday, And actually, one of the things that I… have worked on is being okay, maybe not working at all on a Thursday, But then I might do something on a Saturday morning. Or, you know, actually, if I'm inspired on a Sunday afternoon, I'll sit down and do something, and that is… kind of the flexibility of having a choice. Once you've got Once you've overcome that condition, which I think does get quiet. I mean, well, it's got quieter for me, anyway.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. That's lovely to hear.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Because now… Yeah, now where my brain's like, it's 9 o'clock, we should be working, I'm like, oh, I could go for a swim in the river and start at 12, let's… let's…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Because we do get to create a life we want once we're aware of how to… have that conversation with ourselves.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, exactly. And I definitely do see it as being a transition. I likened it, so in a coaching session I had, I likened it to another transition, which was going from HR, business partnering, into L&D.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] moving away from, sort of, firefighting type of role. Where things come in and you deal with them straight away, into a role that allows you more, Freedom and time to do more thinking, and really kind of get into a project, and really think about a project before delivering on it. I struggled with that transition. So, kind of knowing that about myself, I know that the transition is hard, but I know I can get through them, because I did do that transition, and…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] That's another lovely thing about coaching, isn't it? To kind of, like,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] You're facing a challenge or a problem, But actually, when have you had something similar, and how did you overcome it? What can you learn from that to kind of help?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] So I'm putting all of those things in place to try and, um, yeah, overcome it. I've started talking about it as well. I did a post the other day on LinkedIn just saying, about the fact that I feel guilty that I'm not at my desk at 9am. Um, because actually just saying it out loud,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] In itself, I think is therapeutic.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yes, yeah, 100%. And it is interesting, isn't it? I've had people… and you don't necessarily need to change anything then. Once it is vocalized,

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] It seems to ease… Naturally. I mean, it's quite magical, really, isn't it, when you think of the simplicity of it. Really?

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. You're essentially giving yourself permission, and by saying it out loud, and, like, also for me, that accountability piece, like, posting it somewhere on LinkedIn, It's like, well, I've shared that with the world, it's out there now.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And that's how I feel, it's true to me, and it's okay. And I do feel… In the last week, sort of, since posting that. there is less… guilt about not being there at 9, because actually,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I need to… So what I've started doing is reframing the way I define success. Success is no longer working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, which is what

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] it kind of was in corporate world. Success is now… reframed on the great conversations I'm having, the clients that I'm talking to, the…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Proposals I'm putting out there.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, showing up on networking events, or on LinkedIn, those kind of things, and really just reframing. that is kind of helping… tip me away from guilt and shame.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And also, I think… The reframe is brilliant, and when we can find a reframe that actually feels true, that's very helpful. And you can just be okay feeling guilty. Because I really think that guilt is…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yes.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] is like a moral compass, and when you are at work, that kept you Like, Gil keeps as part of the tribe, right? But you don't need to be part of that tribe anymore, and so it takes a while for us to realize that, oh, okay, I'm only feeling guilty because I really think I should be sat in my desk, but that's not true at 9 o'clock, but that's not true anymore, so…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Actually, I'm just gonna be okay feeling guilty, because it's not a factual… It's not based on factual evidence in the world, like, it's not an accurate predictor Of the truth, the guilt. And so, actually… sorry, yeah, you were gonna say…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. Yeah. Um… Nope, you go.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I was just gonna say that when… when we realized that Our emotions are harmless, and that guilt uncomfortable, but actually doesn't… us no harm. We can then just be okay feeling guilty.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Mm, yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] And I think there's quite a power to that sometimes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, and I also think there's… there's something underlying the guilt that is driving that. And when I think about that in this situation, I think the underlying thing is, I want my business to succeed. I want it to be a success.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And therefore, I know I need to put hours in, I need to do the work, I need to… and so it's not necessarily… the 9-5 guilt. There's actually, underneath that, I think it's more about making sure that I'm… yeah, making a success of the business. And what success used to mean in corporate world was working 9 to 5, because that's how you get paid.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] But now the success is different, and it's just gonna take time to… Yeah, change, like, change the way I think about that success.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. One of the things that I actually do still struggle with a little bit

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] You said earlier, like, thinking time. When you did your transition, from HR to L&D, that was… you had thinking time. That's something that my step… part of my brain is still convinced is completely loose… useless. So it's like, no, no, no, going back to the hours, the hours look like being sat at my laptop. Well, I could be sat at my laptop and achieving absolutely nothing.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Or, I could go out for a walk, And in that time, my brain's whirring, and I'll come up with some amazing ideas, and that time is so much more productive. And yet, the thought of giving myself time to… whatever that looks like for somebody, right? For me, it's going for a walk, but… It can be whatever for people. But giving yourself time to like, think.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] is really valuable to your business, but it doesn't look like being sat at a desk at a laptop. Which is completely different to what an office

[Sarah Elizabeth] No.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] corporate-based job would teach you.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. Yeah, it's really fascinating. I mean, I was incredibly lucky at Ovo. I had a very supportive, uh, team.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And they…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] understood the ADHD creativity could take hold at random times.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And so I was incredibly lucky that if, for example, my brain just wasn't working, and it was the middle of the day, I could just you know, if I didn't have a meeting, sort of say, I just need to do something else.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] to try and get the dopamine flowing and stuff. And I would regularly work

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yep.

[Sarah Elizabeth] In the evenings, not because I was working overtime, but because that was the right time for me to be working.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And you just take the flexibility and kind of balance it, and…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I do feel a lot more workplaces are becoming more open to that kind of thing.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, but yeah, so it's just… so I found it super surprising that then… now that I work for myself, I get a bit funny about working in the evenings. It's like, that's really odd, because… You used to do that.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] It's, uh, it's all a learning curve.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, it really is. Why would you set your business up? Like, if you literally didn't have to… if we didn't have to deal with that negative bullshit that we all have to deal with, right? How would you set your business up?

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] what would it look like?

[Sarah Elizabeth] I would probably… I would probably work afternoons.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Mmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I would be, um… I'm not really… I don't really eat breakfast, so I'd have a nice brunch. Have a lovely walk in the morning. And then I probably…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] start working after lunch. work through until… I think I would work through until my brain says, enough.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, rather than saying, I will work from 12 till 5, or, like, whatever the hours would be. I think I would kind of…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] go with the flow of where my creativity is, and really lean into that. I did recently start looking into menstrual cycles as well.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] In terms of, um… kind of going with your energy, and I've now… for the first time in my life, now have a tracking app on my phone.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, but it's interesting to kind of look at that alongside the ADHD, because there's a lot of hormones kind of going on and doing weird and wonderful things, and there'll be days wherein it's just like, today is just not going to work for you.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And unless you do have a client or a piece of work that… a deadline or whatever,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I'd like to start leaning more into that. and going more with the energy flow, because I'm going to produce better work,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] like, when I'm in that kind of mindset. So…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] it, you know, you said earlier about sitting at the desk and you just stare at the laptop, and you're not really doing anything. Like, I'd love to get out of that.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And just, yeah, feel confident to be like, well, now's not a good time, just walk away from it.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] come back when you are in flow.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, and it is… it makes sense to… doesn't it? And I don't think women talk about this I brought this up in our networking. session, actually, a couple of weeks ago. Um, I don't think women talk about this as much. How… how… Our menstrual cycle and the different hormones play different games, right? So, estrogen, she's the party girl, she wants to go out and… you know, be everybody's mate, and then progesterone's high, and all progesterone wants to do is sit on the sofa and… cuddle. And so, we've got these… and then testosterone sort of weaves in and out.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] When you consider If we had absolute freedom, I would love to be able to set my business up, but I did And where I have a choice, I do set my business up in the sense that, right, if I'm gonna make some… if I need to make really bold decisions, or I need to do something really courageous, I do try and do that within the first two weeks of my month, or my cycle, rather than the last two weeks, because I know the last two weeks, I'm just… if I have to do… like a presentation, or put myself out there, or I'm doing whatever, and of course, clients, my regular clients are always in. But I just know that if… if…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I have to do a big event. in that time, it is just going to be slightly more challenging for my body, because my energy just isn't.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] And it amazes me, like, one minute, or one day, I could hold the plank for a minute, and the next day, I can't even hold it for 10 seconds. Like, it's that… Is that of… is that dramatic in… in energies? And…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I think, as working women, it's… It's part of our biology. We can either work with it and learn to work with it, just like A neurodiverse diagnosis, right? We can learn to work with it, or we can try and fight against it, which is actually just going to make us so much more exhausted.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. Yeah, 100%. And I think… I think the awareness of it as well, like, the fact that I now have this app, and I can kind of track it, is really helpful.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And, um, I've noticed a couple of times, like, um… Where it's been a day where I'm like, I'm super productive today, so do you know what, I keep going.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I'm gonna think about what could I do today, being in this mindset, that's going to help me next week when I'm not in that mindset?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And start thinking about what does future Sarah need?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And that, you know, recently, I had a day where I was just… my creativity was firing on all cylinders, so it was like, right, okay, I'm gonna write a month's worth of… um, posts, right?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, brilliant.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And yeah, maybe I might look at them on the day I'm going to post them and tweak them a little bit, but I've done the heavy lifting, because my mind was in that space.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes. Yes!

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I think, yeah, as you say, when the freedom allows it, and we're not working with clients,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, that's something I'd love to do more of.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, I'm working with it. I think, is so much more powerful than… than trying to work against it.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. The only downside, the niggle that niggles at me, is the not knowing where the next paycheck comes from.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and that, I just think, is an underlying bit of pressure. That just kind of seeps alongside everything, and is probably where this… the guilt feeling comes from.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Do you, um…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Do you have a relationship with God? Do you believe in the universe? Like, do you… are you spiritual in any way?

[Sarah Elizabeth] I definitely believe in some sort of greater power, I've not decided on what that is, but I'm very much a things happen for a reason.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, what… Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] things will come to you. And interestingly that you brought that up, because I was chatting to someone the other day, And I was saying, there's been so many times where I've just thought, I just need to get a job, I can't do this. And then something has been sent to me.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes, yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I just think the timing of those things, there's definitely something in that.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes. Now, I agree 100%. So, I… I personally, I don't…

[Sarah Elizabeth] No.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] choose a religion. I'm not religious in the traditional sense. Um, but 100%, I believe there's a higher force at play. I choose to see that as the universe. Um, source… Um, but… so that's where my spirituality comes in. And the… the times that… because exactly like you, Well, actually, two and a half weeks ago, my husband was… we were sat down going, we don't actually know how we're going to pay marches. bills. Like, how are we gonna do this? And then two and a half weeks later, my business has got it covered because of things that have come in. I had no idea that that was going to come in, so… what… what brings me a lot of comfort is leaning into that faith. Whatever terminology, whatever words, Whether it's God, universe, spirits, aliens, unseen support angels, like, whatever! There's loads of different terminologies out there, but I think it's totally irrelevant. It's… Being willing to do your part, so you… we have to show up, right? We have to add value into the world, we have to take some form of action, Fueled by a passion. And then we get to co-create, and… The universe then brings things to us.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] That then make it happen. And I think that's when courage comes in. The courage to to do what you can, and then release the rest to the universe, that takes a lot of faith.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] a lot of faith. And I think, um… It's interesting. I've… I've lent heavily on that faith. And we'll continue to lean heavily on that faith.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Um, my husband's still not quite there with it, so then he has a lot more attention, because He isn't quite willing yet to release. But yeah, things do always… something happens, something always happens, whether that's… You end up getting a job or an opportunity comes in, or a client signs up, or…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Someone goes, oh, hey, I'll give you some money. Like, I don't know, random shit happens when you're willing to… connect to and release to that higher power.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, and let it happen. It's, um, it takes me back to… so about 4 years ago, I was in a lot of debt.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and it takes me back to that time, and actually, Um, I was sharing my story on TikTok. I mean, I am… I'm 4… like, 40 in about 6 months, so me being on TikTok is a little bit much, but, um, I wanted somewhere where… my friends and family wouldn't find me, and that was TikTok.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, where's everyone not? TikTok! I used to love TikTok during COVID.

[Sarah Elizabeth] That's…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I don't do it so much now, but yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. And, um, I set up a channel, just kind of as an accountability thing, just try and help me pay off the debt, and I would just post videos of, like, ooh, This week, I've managed to put X amount on the credit card to pay that off, and all this kind of stuff, and… Um, what you were saying about the universe providing, I built up such a lovely community, and I did have people get in touch with me saying, I'd love to support you on your jet journey, how can I send you some money? It was bizarre, and I was so grateful, and then one of the things that I did after I became debt-free Was I then started saving money, because I wanted to pay that forward.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and I was able to support someone else with their, um, debt journey as well.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And so, yeah, I definitely do… have that faith that things happen for a reason, and what you put out there will reap…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] rewards for you.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and yeah, it definitely has been really interesting over the past 4 months. Every single time that I've thought, should I just… jack this in. a day or two days later, something… it may not be something paying, it, you know, it's not… maybe not a client, but something has come that's made me go, yeah, I can do this, I can make this work.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And it's just… it kind of feels like there's a force pushing me to keep going.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. I've got to a saying up on my wall, down in my kitchen, and it is…

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Oh, hang on, is it going to be able to come to me? I look at it every day. It's something along the lines of, and this is really funny, when you see everything of something every day, you forget that you… But it's something along the lines of, when you show up and act with purpose and passion, The universe will bring opportunities to you. And so that just reminds me that I have to show up. Like, I don't… I don't buy into, like, the law of attraction, where you just sit and do nothing.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I'm like, no, you can't just sit on the sofa, And this business is going to magically appear around you. No, no, no, I have to take action. But when that action is fueled with passion and purpose, I really do then believe the universe

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] creates opportunities for you. Because why wouldn't it?

[Sarah Elizabeth] I think I need them. I think I need a new quote, so mine says… I have to be successful, Because I like expensive things.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Would that… well, yes, I mean, if you want expensive things, you have to… you do have to earn money. Well, it depends if you're fiery, doesn't it? If you're fuji, then brilliant, but if it doesn't, then it's not gonna… it's not gonna work.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] So, I'm curious, if you don't mind sharing a bit more about your debt journey. What What was the turning point, and how quickly did you get out of debt once you decided to do so?

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, so the turning point was the realisation that I was having to pay for my weekly food shopping on a credit card. That was the kind of wake-up call. Um, and… At that point, it was also then, I kind of… it's the first time I sat down and actually looked at what I'd been spending. Um, I'd sort of got into this routine of… I get paid, the bills go out, and then I just… spend whatever I need to do whatever I want to do, and when it runs out, I put it on a credit card.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I just got into that habit. And… but it got to a point, and when I looked at… I had 8 credit cards at one point. When I looked at the total amount, and I just went… If you keep doing this… things are gonna get bad, and… you know, dreams at the time of buying a bigger property and all that kind of stuff. It's like, none of those things that you want to do are gonna happen if you keep spending money the way you're spending it. So, that was the turning point. Um, it was about just under 13,000 pounds of debt. Um, all on credit cards that I'd, um, managed to get myself into. Um, and it was just after COVID. COVID definitely exacerbated it, and I think the ADHD played into that. The impulse spending, and the… Again, I lived by myself in a studio flat during COVID, so… The only excitement I had was when a parcel arrived at my doorstep, so there was a lot of online shopping happening. Um, so it took… from the moment that I said, I'm gonna stop spending and I'm gonna take control, it took me 22 months to pay it off.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, which was a lot of… cutting back, looking actually at what my budget is. working out where are the bills, where am I spending? Um, and thinking, do I need to be spending on certain things? There were certain things I needed to keep. monthly nail appointment had to stay.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes, as we were talking about before, we pressed record, yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, exactly. Um, but there were… I was definitely eating out way too much. I was… I was spending on luxury items that I didn't really need.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, so yeah, the budget was the kind of the first thing, and… Um, that process… As someone who hates consistency, Um, and hate structure. The process of budgeting is something that has stuck with me.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] And I do think that that is helping in the current transition. Because… I'm able to really… each month, I still pay myself a salary, even though that's being paid from savings. But I'm sticking to that budget. And so, actually, it's helpful in a way that I can kind of financially forecast when the savings are going to run out based upon

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] the needs that I have each month. Um, so yeah, that kind of, uh, discipline, I suppose, that I started when I was trying to pay the debt down, has stuck with me, and has definitely been, like, a massive… support. Um, and there's… there's a couple of people I was chatting to at… Um, our networking. And I sort of asked them, like, how do you manage that? And a lot of them say the same. They still pay themselves a monthly set salary. Um, and that kind of helps stay in control and understand what's going on.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Hmm.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] And so I'm curious… Your relationship with you, which I consider to always be the most important relationship we have in our life,

[Sarah Elizabeth] Mm-hmm.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Having gone through that process now, paid off your debt and come out the other side, because I think there's a lot of… A lot of us that… And I know I fell… fell into this category for a while, We beat ourselves up for getting there in the first place, and we're like, we shouldn't have done that, and we… we, like, belittle ourselves and ourselves, and we fucking mean, actually.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] So, having… had the maturity to go, actually, this now needs to change.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Mm-hmm.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I need to get… I see it as a financial maturity.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] And… and come out the other side. What is your relationship like now with you to… now that you've taken yourself through that.

[Sarah Elizabeth] There's definitely a lot of pride that I have in myself, having gone through that. And, um… through the journey as well. Like, I was picked up in some, like, press and all sorts of stuff, and… It was also around the time I was thinking about coaching, And it was… it all just kind of happened at the same time, and kind of led me to now what I do, which is I want to support other people. And I think all of what I've been through in the ADHD diagnosis, the debt, like, all of those different things. make me the person I am. And the person I am… as a coach is going to be a super supportive coach to the people that are the right clients for me.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] So I definitely believe… I definitely have, like, a lot of pride in it. Um, I think it has very much led me to where I am now. Um, and potentially if that hadn't have happened, would I… be sat here. I don't know if I would be.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, because I'd probably still be living paycheck to paycheck, and not be in the fortunate position I am now to have savings in order to Set up this business, so… Yeah, it's going back to that everything happens for a reason.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] that needed to happen in order to get me to here.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, it's really powerful, isn't it, when we look at it that way, I think.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] So, who… do you have an ideal client, then? This… if… if someone's listening to this, Um, interview, and they're like, oh, I really like the idea of Sarah. Who does she work with? Who are you looking for?

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah. So I work with the square pegs that are tired of squeezing into round holes. Um, I basically work with anyone who… Has that kind of nagging feeling in the back of their mind that something's not right? they're not being true to themselves, they don't fit in. Um, I see it a lot in… Um, people in the workplace who are maybe being pushed to certain roles. who maybe don't want that.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I have clients who struggle with their company culture, and they want to find an authentic way of being able to fit into the culture without letting go of who they are as a person. Um, I do get a lot of the neurodiverse community as well, because I think a lot of us

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] uh… really, that visualization of being a square peg in a round hole, I think, really kind of speaks to a lot of this.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, so yeah, that's kind of… kind of the ideal client for me, I think. Just someone who…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, wants to explore that self-awareness, wants to get a deeper connection to themselves, and wants to be more… Led by their values and more purpose-led in life. But at the moment, they feel like they're performing, and they're doing what they…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] you know,

[Sarah Elizabeth] due to get by? Does that make sense?

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, yeah, yeah, perfect. So, we will put all of the links in the show notes, so that people can follow you and connect with you. Where is your favourite place to hang out?

[Sarah Elizabeth] But do you know what? It is LinkedIn.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] It is, yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] I've become a bit of a fan of LinkedIn these days. I never thought I would, but I spend a way too much of my time on there.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, I like LinkedIn.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, and then Instagram is the other place where people see me, yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Brilliant. So we will link those. And do we ever get to see you performing on stage on either of those platforms?

[Sarah Elizabeth] definitely the Instagram. The Instagram is a lot more of my personal life, so you will meet Bruno and Emmy, who are my two beautiful cats. Um, you…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes. I'm surprised they haven't… who's the one that appeared?

[Sarah Elizabeth] I mean…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] They usually… one of them usually appears on a screen.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Yeah, and she… and she also does high fives on demand, so if she had have come up, we could have had a high-fiving cat.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Aww, that would have been ace!

[Sarah Elizabeth] I've got… I've got no idea where they are.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] The time that we want them to show up!

[Sarah Elizabeth] Exactly. Yeah, Instagram, I post a lot more of my life, so yeah, you'll see the cats, you'll see renovations, so I'm in a bungalow that is…

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] They don't.

[Sarah Elizabeth] lost in the 60s that needs a lot of renovation, You'll see all the theater, dancing, that kind of stuff. So yeah, if you want more… Sarah the person, go to Instagram. If you want Sarah the L&D consultant professional, LinkedIn.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah. Yes, LinkedIn, yes. Nice! Another thing that we haven't spoke about that you wanted to… address, Sarah?

[Sarah Elizabeth] No, I think we've covered a lot of the pain points that I'm feeling in that kind of transition. I think… anyone listening that's going through this, or is maybe thinking about wanting to do it, Um, I would definitely say… Build up your self-awareness before you do it. I think the best thing that I did. was have that awareness, and I was thinking about, okay, so what do I need to put in place in order to make this a success? Because the more proactive you can be,

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah.

[Sarah Elizabeth] the less pain points. You're still going to get pain points.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yes.

[Sarah Elizabeth] Um, you're still going to have those days of, oh my god, if I made the wrong decision. Um… But if you can go into it with your eyes wide open, and, like, a real deep understanding of who you are as a person and what you need, That's… yeah, that's gonna be really good, and that has definitely helped me. with where I am today. Yeah.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Yeah, that's so good. Thank you for that. Well, it's been delightful to chat with you. Thank you so much. For your time today.

[Sarah Elizabeth] You're very welcome.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] Like I said, we will put all of your, um… links in the show notes so people can catch up with you. And yeah, thank you so, so much!

[Sarah Elizabeth] Awesome, thanks.

[Nicky Bevan, The Working Womens Life Coach] I was… I will speak to everybody else next week. Bye! caught and stopped. Thank you!