UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
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UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
24 | Balancing Bipolar Disorder and Business Success: Felicity Haylock's Journey to Resilience and Achievement
What does it take to balance personal struggles with professional triumphs? Felicity Haylock, the powerhouse behind Creative Marketing Co., offers a compelling answer in our latest episode. Felicity's raw and gripping narrative takes us through the rollercoaster of living with bipolar disorder, from the unexpected onset during her university years to the life-altering panic attack that led to her diagnosis. This isn't just a story of mental illness; it's a powerful testament to resilience and the relentless pursuit of stability and success.
We journey with Felicity as she recounts the intense highs and lows of bipolar disorder, the struggles with medication, and the transformative power of routine and exercise. Her story doesn't shy away from the tough moments, including the emotional toll and the critical importance of a strong support network. Through candid reflections, Felicity highlights the life-changing impact of motherhood and the disciplined practices that helped her reclaim control over her life. This dialogue not only offers a deep understanding of bipolar disorder but also serves as a beacon of hope for anyone grappling with similar challenges.
But Felicity's tale doesn't end with her personal battle; it extends to her passion for marketing and her rise as a successful small business owner. From effective Instagram strategies to the essential role of brand storytelling, Felicity shares invaluable insights for business owners looking to elevate their marketing game. Her dedication to making marketing accessible and impactful is evident, and her belief in herself is truly inspiring. Felicity's journey from multiple job hustles to securing a future as a potential university lecturer underscores a theme of relentless self-belief and continuous growth. Tune in to experience a multifaceted story of perseverance, creativity, and the unwavering human spirit.
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Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host.
Speaker 2:Leanne Knox.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the next episode of Uplift you, the podcast that helps you create a stronger body and a stronger mind through practical tips, tools and inspiring stories. Our guest today is both a professional and a personal friend of mine, and her journey to where she is today will inspire and move you in more than one way. Felicity Haylock is the owner of the Creative Marketing Co. Felicity is a mother, marketer and writer, a qualified wordy with a passion for content and copywriting. With years of experience in the tourism, hospitality and disability sectors, combined with high-level professional qualifications and creative marketing expertise. Felicity provides services crafted for the digital age that gives businesses powerful exposure and connection. Felicity has a powerful way with words that helps her clients unlock potential in their business so they can focus on what they do best delivering quality products or services to their customers. Felicity, thank you so much for being here today on Uplift you to help our audience navigate the world of social media, marketing and business.
Speaker 2:That's okay. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:So, before we venture into this world that I just described, felicity, there is another side to your journey, which I know has had a massive impact on you, both as a professional and as a person. You describe yourself as a mental illness survivor, where bipolar struck you down at the height of your success. Now, there is no doubt that mental illness is one of our biggest challenges in society today. Your fight with mental illness was, or still is, bipolar disorder, so our audience really has a clear understanding of what this disorder actually is and how it plays out in your life. Could you describe your experience and in describing that, I think that the most powerful way, felicity, is for me to ask this question when did you first become aware of your struggle?
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's rewind a little bit and I'll tell you about bipolar disorder generally. So bipolar disorder is categorised by you've got to have mania to be bipolar. So, and when I say that I'm type one, so I have really really high mania or manic episodes. And it all started unfolding when I was back at uni in my honors year. So I did an undergraduate marketing degree and then I was starting out in my honours year and I had a panic attack on the floor of my Shillam College, where I went to uni, and I thought, oh my God, I'm dying. I had no idea what was happening. So at that point, that was when I knew something was up and interestingly, I was, you know, 20, 22 when that happened.
Speaker 2:It was, and bipolar, you know, you're born with it. So like it seems to me like it goes a long way before you are diagnosed or before symptoms start, you know, intervening that disrupt your life. So yeah, I had this panic attack on the floor of my college and then I flew home to Dubbo to work out what was going on and my doctor told me I had burnout. So he said you've just been doing too much and going too hard for too long. You need to take 12 months off and come home. So I did what I was told and got thrown into my work life with my dad. He owns Uncle Pete's Toys and Dubbo. So I started working with dad and then, about six months into that, I had a huge manic episode and I was taken to the doctor and they diagnosed me with bipolar type 1.
Speaker 1:So that sounds like a time in your life, that moment when you were diagnosed with bipolar. Let's just rewind a little bit there, felicity, and can we delve into the manic episode that you are talking about, because I know there's a lot of our audience would be slightly confused on. What does that actually entail? What does a manic episode look like or feel like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell you about it. So, in mania, it's like you are a superwoman, you are heightened in every sense. So you are euphoric, you are optimistic, you're driven, you're passionate, you're bubbly, you're fun All the things that I am already are intensified to the max. And then the behaviours that you exhibit because of this are out of character. You start skydiving and water rafting, in my case, or you jump off a bridge because it sounds fun. You go for runs in the middle of the night because that sounds fun as well.
Speaker 2:You're pumped, full of adrenaline and everything sounds like a great idea. You're super impulsive and you will have reckless sex and you will, you know, go out and party when you wouldn't normally do. That it's just, it's fueled. Mania is essentially fueled by adrenaline. I've become an adrenaline junkie. I just want to do all the fun things all the time, and everything for me, um, my brain speeds up, so I talk faster, I do things faster, I'm more ambitious, I'm more, uh, spontaneous, because I just act on everything, um, any idea that comes into my mind, I do okay, and that's a heightened sense of self, like I'm, I'm euphoric and I'm I'm. I feel like I'm superwoman, I'm, I'm a god, and when, and this particular episode that you were talking about um before you were admitted.
Speaker 1:Um, was that um? How did that feel at the time was like. I know that you may have been very heightened and doing things you know, at the very height of your impulsiveness At that time, did you think what was going through your head? Did you think I'm just doing this and you weren't looking at it from an outside point of view to have the perspective of what's going on here? Was there any fear associated with that or was? Do you just act on it?
Speaker 2:no, you just act on it, you feel great. Like, honestly, um, even now I have like mania. Mania feels good, it's very, it's a great, great state to be in. It's just also where you do the most damage because you do reckless shit. You know you do impulsive, naughty things, so it feels great. You've never felt like it's the best version of you. You've never felt as good as what you do when you're a medic.
Speaker 1:People from the outside looking in, so your friends and family.
Speaker 2:Oh, they just think I'm actually crazy. Everyone is just like this girl has lost her shit. She's crazy.
Speaker 1:And during that time if we go back to that time did you have friends or family that were asking you questions or saying to you you've lost the plot, like what actually happened then.
Speaker 2:People were like I went running with a girlfriend and we were down in Dubbo, um, down near the river, and I just like, stripped off and jumped in the in the water, like just jumped off the bridge while I was mid-running uh, we were meant to be doing a half marathon and I just stripped down my brown undies and jumped off a bridge, um, and she was like, ah, you've lost it, like you've lost your mind. What, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:and and when, when that happens like I like, I know we're both laughing at it now, but the people that are around you at the time, what is their like reaction to when you're in those manic episodes? Is it fear? Is it like judgment, what? What happens, like what actually happened? Um, how was their reaction the first time that they saw you, um, go through this? Do you remember, recall that time?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. So like the people closest to me, like let's start with mom mom would say like it's like you've been possessed, like you, you've someone's taken over your body. Um, it's not my daughter in there anymore, and that's, that's what she said to me. You know she says, uh, when you're in the height of mania, it's not felicity anymore, it's not my daughter in there anymore, and that's what she said to me. You know she says, when you're in the height of mania, it's not Felicity anymore, it's someone has taken over you. And do you that makes her? You know, it's very scary, it's very scary that I can be so out of character and that I'm still Felicity. I still, you know, I still identify as me. But I'm doing such out of character behaviours that no one can believe what I'm up to so did you at that time, did you once you'd been.
Speaker 1:How long does this episode last? How does it a month?
Speaker 2:months and months until until I got, until I, you know, got medicated to the eyeballs with lithium, zyprexaxa, seroquel, all the drugs and came down off the high. If it wasn't for the medication, I would have been elevated for months.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned that you went through. You know you went through that first, like your first manic episode, and then you were. Did you say you were admitted or you?
Speaker 2:went to the doctor. Yeah, they threatened it. I went to the doctor and they said we're going to organise transportation to Bloomfield, which is the mental ward in Orange, and my mum advocated for me and said I'm not letting her go there. Advocated for me and said I'm not letting her go there, I am going to take Kerry's leave and I will hospitalise her at home. So that's what my mum did for me. She took some, you know, a couple of weeks off work so that she could monitor me. Let's say that. But I would just escape out the window of a night and run because that's what was fun for me. Okay, so even though I was meant to be housebound and my keys got taken off me and I was a hostage, I would just escape and go crazy running all night.
Speaker 1:And so during this time, how old were you when you did you say 22?, yeah, 22, 23. When I got, okay, and when you got diagnosed, what was your reaction to that, did you? How did you react to that? How did that make you feel?
Speaker 2:um. So I couldn't. I couldn't remember the word. I kept saying to mom what do I have again? What's what's the word that they've told me I've got? Because I was so heightened and so manic I couldn't retain any information, so it didn't really register with me. I didn't see it as being a problem. I thought I was fine, I thought I was great. I couldn't see a problem with the way I was behaving. So the initial diagnosis didn't shock me, because I was so far gone into the mania that I don't think I comprehended it properly. It wasn't until they medicated me and I put on 26 kilos in six weeks that I was like oh, I don't like this, I don't like this new diagnosis.
Speaker 1:And how did that change the way that you feel? So the medication for the audience that haven't had much experience with people that have bipolar disorder how does the medication change, biochemically, change what's happening to you?
Speaker 2:So it slows everything down. The majority of the meds I listed were antipsychotics, so they slow the processing down, they slow your brain down and because I was so elevated, it actually it worked too well, they did their job too well, and then I became very depressed and actually catatonic, which meant that I didn't talk and if you know me at all, I'm a big talker. So for me to shut down and not talk was a huge change. And that's where the other side of this illness comes in, and that's why it's called bipolar, because there's two sides. You're either manic or you're depressed, and my depression falls below the threshold where it actually goes into being catatonic so, um, we're moving along from.
Speaker 1:You had your, your manic episode. You got diagnosed. You were in um house under house arrest by your mom, hospitalization by your mom um, yeah, what? What happened over the next? How was your journey? What happened over the next few years? Like, where did you go to from there? Um, because it sounds like back then you were manic episode, depressed, and how did that progress over the next months or years?
Speaker 2:um, so it has. I call it a balancing act. It's really something that I have to monitor every day. And over the next four years it was. That was the worst four years of my life. To be honest, it was probably longer than that. It went for, you know, like I'm 33 now. So it was almost 10 years of being either really really sky high or really really depressed, and there was no in between. I drifted from one state to the other and consequently, like my, my life was was just a write-off for my 20s.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I used to be at uni. I was, I was a distinction average student. I was teaching by the time I was 23 at the uni, in uni in Bathurst, and then my world just came crashing down. Um, everything, everything went wrong. And I, you know, um, I'm from a good family in Dubbo and I was living in housing commissions. At points, I was very nearly homeless. I got my car taken away from me. I had to go back and start working at McDonald's because my brain didn't work to work anywhere else. It was really detrimental, you know, like just the incapacitated.
Speaker 2:I guess I wasn't myself anymore.
Speaker 1:I really, really struggled for a long time and how did that affect your professional development, because I know you said you were. Did you graduate uni before this happened?
Speaker 2:yeah. So, um, when I first came, I came home for the? Um. When I got diagnosed I was at home and then I went back and I finished my honours year. So I graduated my second degree and then I got a lecturing role in Bathurst as a marketer there, yeah, and then from there I went off my meds and I went sky high again. I lost everything my career, my body, my relationship with myself was all altered. Um, and then from there I had to come home once again and rebuild, but this time I didn't have a like. My brain didn't work, um, it was like no one was at home. So I had to go grassroots again. You know, like I like I was pouring coffee and cleaning because I couldn't hold a job.
Speaker 1:Can I ask why in that first, like that first, in that situation did you go off your meds? What made you make that decision?
Speaker 2:So when I was in Bathurst I was lecturing and I went to my GP and my GP didn't believe that I had bipolar. He thought I'd been misdiagnosed. So it wasn't, it was an informed choice. I went to my GP and he said I think you have been misdiagnosed. I think we're going to trial you without meds.
Speaker 1:And then within a couple of months I was manic again but, as I said, it feels so good I didn't go back to the doctor to tell him I was feeling great, yeah so how did you, over this period of time where you were, where you were suffering, you know, with manic episodes and depression and just going between the two for quite a long period of time, can you think of something, or a period, or like a catalyst, where you started to make the changes so that you could manage it better?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So when it was meth and I was, you know, going between the mania and the depression a lot, I had no system or strategy and because mania feels good, you keep dipping into it. So I now have a lot stronger boundaries. I know what's important to me and I know that you know, the instant gratification of mania is not worth the repercussions of all the bad behaviour that you do while you're manic. So it's been a real learning curve for myself just to have my own boundaries and to be like I check in with myself daily and if I get to day three of feeling fabulous, I book in with my doctor, I go and get the support I need, because I'm always questioning is it genuine happiness or is it the start of my next manic episode? So it's that monitoring and it's that having a support system and it's being really self-aware of where you're at with your mood, yeah, and what's really interesting.
Speaker 1:How can you tell the audience because this is you're talking specifically about bipolar disorder here, which is a disorder that has set what's the word, like markers. Okay, we can define bipolar disorder If we parallel this with um and with other uh, mental, mental challenges that people have, which we, which to me also sounds very much like someone who may be using substances. Okay, so they use the substance, they feel great, great. Then the repercussion is what goes up has to come down, and then, when they come down, they then feel the depression and then it's it. It can become, and it does become, a cycle. So how did you get to the point where you've, where you had enough self-awareness to know that you needed more support, that you needed to check in with yourself and become more aware of just yourself in general, because it must have been really hard to go through that period of up and down, up and down, up and down, without you know and being able to take a step back from that and saying I've had enough of this. How did you get to that point?
Speaker 2:I would say that it was my baby. I have a daughter who's five. I fell pregnant and I just thought I can't keep doing this. I can't keep having the manic highs and the depressive lows. I have someone to live for now. It's not me.
Speaker 1:Okay. So there was a time in your life, there was a moment in your life, where it became more than you. Yeah, so it went from this is me going up and down, this is me struggling through life, and then, when your daughter came along, you thought it's not just about me anymore. So that helped. Yeah, that really was empowering for you to take a step back and have a really good look and go. What can I do to help myself? Because to me it sounded like you did have a at least had your mother as a great support. Yeah, I was. And possibly the medical field. I'm not sure if you had a good doctor. How did the medical side of things help you like? Did you? Did you have a good doctor? Did you have good support there?
Speaker 2:um, yes and no. Um, I disliked my psychiatrist, who diagnosed me and fed with medication that made my body change and fluctuate by more than 25 kilos. I did not like him and then my GP that told me I didn't have him. I love that man, I think he's a beautiful guy, but he obviously got that wrong. And then I have a really, really good psychologist. So when I think about the difference between a psychologist and psychiatrist, I've always believed that the psychologist talks you through your problems, where your psychiatrist gives you the medication to solve the problem. That's the difference between them. But yeah, it takes a really good team and I've got a really good team now. I didn't necessarily at the start. It's taken me 10 years to love my medical team, but yeah, they make all the difference. Now they're fantastic.
Speaker 1:So, looking back at that time when you realised that it was more about you and I know that you know this is like it makes you emotional. Why does it make you emotional when you think about that time?
Speaker 2:Because I was homeless. I was living in housing commissioned housing. I felt pregnant to a guy that was very under the influence of drugs. Often I was making really poor choices. And then I had a baby and everything had to change, because you don't bring a baby into the world to have a shit bath.
Speaker 1:And you know, have you ever stopped and thought, felicity, that that was a major achievement of yours that you should be celebrating? And I know it's emotional, but we have. You know, I call it happy, sad, and then there's sad, sad. So, yeah, being happy, sad about the fact that you knew that your life was more than and you know, if you weren't respecting yourself, you had the courage and the determination to know that you were going to respect your child and that was the catalyst for your becoming more self-aware and seeking support.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Eloise was, yeah, the game changer. You know, yeah, you can't. You can't keep having the many cars and the depressive lows. When you have a child to anyone you know that you bring into the world, you start needing to be an adult and you'd have to take some responsibility for your actions. Because as much as I'm not myself when I'm manic or depressed, it's still me.
Speaker 1:And so, for the audience that are listening, if there's anyone that like is struggling with it may not be bipolar disorder, but it could be depression. It could be just a severe lack of self-esteem, self-confidence or feeling lost. Like you know, they just feel lost because maybe they don't have direction in their lives. What is like one thing that really helped you at that time I know that you had Eloise and you were pregnant and what was another way where you started to be able to put your own health and wellness first? What is a strategy that you used or a tool that you used Do?
Speaker 2:you recall, yeah, so I've got a couple. So I am a very creative person and I think that I need flexibility and, you know, to be spontaneous to have this creativity. But it's actually structure and routine that make me function better in society. So implementing structure and routine into my days was really really helpful for me. Having a job for a while there I was completely unemployed because I couldn't function. So having the stability of somewhere to be and something to do that was more than just feeling sorry for myself was really really good. And then once I started getting back into my exercise so I used to be a half marathon runner and then obviously I ballooned with the medication weight and then getting back into some kind of structure and routine with my exercise and it was really really positive as well so if we, if we are those three things one the first thing that you said was structure and routine.
Speaker 1:how did you, how did you, create more structure and routine in your life at that point, so from the point of when you had Eloise, for example?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I had Eloise, I went back to work. When Eloise was six weeks old, I started working at a cafe and I was doing the same hours and I was doing the same days. I'd get out of bed at the same time every morning. I know it seems really trivial, but when you're really unwell those things make a big difference.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have that routine of the same job, the same work hours, the same days. So then, having that routine. How did that help you? How did that make you feel when you had a better routine?
Speaker 2:It made me feel like I was more in control of my life. It made me feel like I was, yeah, in control, like it gave me my power back. My mind wasn't as rushed or as scrambled in the mania or as non-existent in the depression, because I had structure and routine and stability.
Speaker 1:It made me feel like I had a purpose again and was part of that purpose being accountable to and at that time it would have been your boss. You were accountable to your child, obviously, but you were accountable to someone other than yourself yeah, and I, you know, I still felt like I didn't want to let them down.
Speaker 2:You know, I know it was um, it was a cafe job, it wasn't, I wasn't lecturing at the time, but I still felt like someone was checking in on me and someone wanted me to show up and that that's a really.
Speaker 1:That in itself is one of the most powerful ways for someone to increase their self-worth is having that knowledge that someone is going to check in on you on a regular basis and that they value you turning up. They know whether you're turning up or not turning up and if you don't, they're going to check in on you okay. So I know one really good strategy for people that may. Loneliness is actually not on the level of bipolar disorder, but loneliness is actually one of the biggest plagues of modern-day society. In the society that we're now living in, especially after COVID, because people work from home, they then become very lonely and if they don't have at least just one person who checks in with them at you know, once a day at least says hello, says good morning, how are you? One little question least says hello, says good morning, how are you? One little question, then that feeling of loneliness can very much be equated to like a depressive feeling.
Speaker 1:So that was one really good strategy that you used in was, you know, having that regular job with the regular routine. And the second one that you talked about was your exercise, reinstating your exercise. And now talk us through, because I know that a lot of the audience that listen to this are all involved in some sort of training, all different facets of training, and they're certainly interested in how exercise can boost our body and our brain and our mental wellness. So talk us through how that helped you become more aware and supportive of yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So when I was at, I just I call it rock bottom, you know, like I, when I found out I was pregnant with Eloise, I was in a really, really bad place and I, um, I knew something had to give and I started going for daily walks, like it was that simple. I was really um, uncomfortable in my body, I was very overweight for what I was used to, and I started walking and it made me feel better about myself, it lifted me up, it gave me motivation and just the endorphin rush, you know, and just being out in nature was really nice. I started enjoying it again and I was pretty severely depressed at this point. So having any kind of feeling that wasn't numbness, felt good. So then I started doing more of it and it just kind of propelled me to want to want to have feelings again and want to feel joy in life. And it was as simple as walking every day. That did it for me.
Speaker 1:And that's a really powerful message, right? Because when people think, oh, I really need to start exercising again, they think, oh, that means I have to go to the gym four or five times a week. And they try and layer on all of these expectations on themselves and they put a lot of pressure on themselves when it can be as simple as doing five minutes of walking a day, which you then, the next week, go to 10 minutes, and then the next week you go to 15. And before you know it, within, say, a six-week period, you're doing five half-hour walks a day.
Speaker 1:And you also mentioned being out in nature, and that is another extremely powerful way to calm the brain and use all of your senses while you're walking outside, because while you're walking outside, number one, you're not in front of a screen if you don't take your phone. Number two, as you walk and this is scientifically proven if you are looking around and you're looking at the trees, and you're looking at the birds and listening to the birds, listening to the sound of the wind in the trees, you are using all of your senses, which actually, um, you know, greatly increases your, your mental health as such, as if that's what we're calling it, your mental health, because that actually helps you release like, become more centred in yourself, become more present, and for someone like you who is a very creative person, it triggers creativity. So some of people's best work and best ideas are born in a simple walk.
Speaker 2:Yep, I agree with you on that one. That's something I still do to this day. It stimulates my creativity Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so, talking on this creativity topic, you had your daughter, you started putting all these strategies into place and you started getting better. Did you then have any other like were there other challenges after you had Eloise, that you, um, what were, what were the challenges then?
Speaker 2:yeah, so in the last five years I mean I, I'm well, I'm really well, I'm not um, I'm not in and out of hospital anymore. I'm not um changing medication all the time, I'm not seeing a doctor every week, I'm not unwell like that, but I still fluctuate um in my mood, I still have bipolar um and it's just being that constant monetarization of where I'm at and how I'm feeling and checking in all the time with myself. But the challenges have been that it is walking a tightrope, you know, and am I feeling genuine happiness or is this the start of mania?
Speaker 2:Like having to second-guess happiness is a really hard thing, yeah, so other challenges are just, you know, when I become elevated, I do all the things again that I did in mania, and I've got to stop that. I've got to, you know, nip it in the bud before it goes out of control. I've got to go to the doctor and be proactive and say, hey, I don't feel the best. Actually, I feel fantastic, and that's the problem. So let's get some, you know, adjustment to the medication and let's settle down a bit. And that's what I have to deal with. Um, even when I'm well, you know, I I still um play with mania every now and then. And, um, it's about being really on top of it.
Speaker 1:It's about knowing, knowing your symptoms and your triggers and having the strategies to deal with it before you lose control, so being very self-aware and being very present with your feelings and emotions, more than I would say a normal person who doesn't have bipolar disorder.
Speaker 1:Because a person who doesn't have bipolar disorder like me, for example, when I'm really happy, I know that my happiness is being caused by created by something that I'm doing or some people that I'm around. I don't have to second guess that happiness because it's a direct result of something I'm doing in my life that I love, right, it's my passions. Now I know, felicity, that when I asked you to write your biography, you did make a really great statement that I'd like you to expand on. You said you were talking about your mental illness and how the bipolar disorder stopped you in your tracks, and we've been through that journey and touched on, listened to your journey so far. And then you said but I'm making a comeback in a powerful way, so can you tell us what you're doing now? To come back to the best version of Felicity, yeah, come back to the best version of Felicity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for a long time I wanted old Felicity back. I wanted the skinny, pretty smart, fun girl that was at uni before it all turned to shit. And she's making a comeback in a big way because she's back doing what she loves.
Speaker 1:She's a small business owner and she's a marketer and she's bloody creative and she can run in seconds flat and her brain works, and so right now are you feeling the emotion that you're feeling is that gratitude for who you are and how far you've come.
Speaker 2:I'm bloody proud of myself.
Speaker 1:You know that's what it is. So you're celebrating the wins, right. You're celebrating your progress and the wins that you've made along the way, and that's a really powerful thing for the audience to think about, because a lot of people can just a lot of people get stuck in the negative oh, I'm not as good as I used to be. I'm never going to be any good, I just did that wrong. They focus on all the things that they've done wrong instead of focusing on the things that they've done right. So I think you're doing a really great job in recognising all of the things that you're doing right right now. Yeah, and there's a lot of them there is. So can you tell the audience, like, what you're so passionate your job, what you're so passionate about what you do? And I'll just let the audience know that I met Felicity as part of a marketing.
Speaker 1:I went and joined a marketing course with another guest that I've already had on the show, kate Kate Astle, and one day there was a Facebook live about doing I think it was Instagram posts or social media posts, and I was the only one on the call. So, lucky me, I got Felicity one-on-one and straight away. I bonded with Felicity because of your openness, your authenticity and your fun approach and your smile. So I was having this conversation this morning with another friend. You can't fake authenticity. If you really love something, it shines through. People can feel it. Rather, they can see it and feel it regardless of what you say. So I loved that's how I got to know Felicity for the audience that are listening, and Felicity helped me with understand ways to, to help me with LK Strength, coach on social media marketing. So can you tell us more about why you're so passionate about your copywriting and what you do today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So that's a good topic. Actually, I might stop crying now. No, I just, I just love it. I love connecting with people. I love, I love that with marketing you get to communicate your offer and what you're good at. And the thing is, everyone needs a marketer. You know, everyone needs to market their product or service, regardless of how big or small your organisation is, and that's what I feel like I do every day. I work with people that are ready to elevate their marketing, that are ready to explode onto the social media scene and to really show us what you're made of, and the way to do that is through marketing. So I'm so passionate about it because I was born into a small business and I, you know, I watch, I watch dad do these 60 hour weeks every week of his life, and I think it's going to be an easier way and it's it's marketing that's got to be an easier way, and it's marketing that's what makes your life easier when you get your marketing right.
Speaker 1:So how do you help people with their marketing? What exactly do you do? Because marketing is actually a very big field and there's all different types of marketing. What do you love to help people with the most?
Speaker 2:help people with the most. I love social media. I live for it. I love Instagram. I love caption writing. I'm a writer, even though I know that social media is very much a graphic, you know, fueled platform. I love writing, so I love coming out with my hook, my value add, my call to action. I love the words, I love connection and that's what I do when I write so for the audience.
Speaker 1:There could be no doubt that some of our audience are business owners. In some respect could be small business, could be larger businesses. What do you think the most effective way to market is on Instagram. If we're talking about Instagram, how would you, what are your points of action that you like to follow? Like the steps that you like to follow that you find create the most success in marketing.
Speaker 2:So when I first onboard a client, I really want them to have a brand guideline document. I really want them to have their fonts, their colors, their logo sorted, because to start having a brand presence, it's really hard if you don't have those basic or fundamental things done. And then we start getting technical with your brand personality, your brand voice, and I always say, like, if your brand was a person, what would they be like, what would they feel like, what would they talk like? And that's what we want to uncover in those questions and then, like the best, the best piece of advice I've come across for social media is like we, we jump on there because we want to get to know you. So we storytelling, we like authenticity, we like value. So that's what I suggest to my small business owners, regardless of what industry they're in start showing up as you start being yourself on social media and you'll work out pretty quickly that that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1:So can you tell me how do you, as a small business owner or a business owner, how do you know where, how do you know to create those type of posts that are authentic, like how do you actually do that? Because a lot of people don't want to be seen on Instagram. They don't want their faces seen, they don't want their voices heard, they have a fear of being seen. So how do you work with people to help them.
Speaker 2:I now have a photographer and he's also a videographer, and then I have a branding lady and then I have a graphic design person that will help me. So when you outsource your socials to me, it will come together really nicely and, regardless of whether you want to show up physically as yourself on there, you're going to have a brand. You're going to be, you know, giving out a certain vibe and a certain point of difference and and attention. Um, so another piece of advice I have is, if you're struggling to show up on social media, go and get the photography package done. Go and outsource your photos, because until you feel good showing up, you're not going to do it. Okay, um, so that was and that was me. I. I hated being on social media and now, if you go on the creative marketing co, my whole page is is me. Um, it's all photos of me that I I'm happy with, that I feel confident in. So how things have changed, I guess.
Speaker 1:And from your experience, felicity, if let's say, let's go, there's a lot of content creators out there now, okay, and that content creators might be different to marketing, I realise that, but let's just say there's 10 marketing people out there that you have to choose from and they're all on Instagram how do you set yourself apart from those other nine or ten people? What, in your experience, do people value the most if they're trying to decide who to work with?
Speaker 2:I think it comes back to the personality. I think it comes back to the person. When you outsource your social media, you're kind of onboarding a marketer, like you're putting someone into your team because we show up and we get to know you and we. In my case, a lot of the businesses I work with are locals, so I go inside and I capture content for them and I write their captions. Like it becomes really personal. So I think the point of differentiation for a good marketer is actually their personality, the way they gel with their clients, because we do become very intimate with your business.
Speaker 1:And that leads me to the next question for our audience. Um, obviously you work with people. Local people from dubbo do you work with people? How do you work with people online, like people that might live here in the whitsundays or towns or mckay or brisbane?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I can still definitely I can do. You know, know Australia wide, and I just jump on Zoom calls and I understand. You know what their business is and what their how they want to. You know, do the gig. And then I'm really flexible in the fact that I one size does not fit all. It never has in any regard. So I just customise my packages to suit you know what your needs are. Obviously, if we're constrained logistically with our location, there's other ways to do things. You know, I might ask you to do a reel, I might ask you to film some content and then I'll create the caption and I'll still pair it with trending audio and then you'll still get social media delivered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and for the audience, I've done this with Felicity a few times I would have a video or a photo and Felicity and I would be on a Zoom call and within five minutes of showing her the photo, there'd be the whole spiel would be written. So the whole, all the words, would be there. Spiel would be written, so the whole, all the words, would be there. She's very, very talented in saying, in using just the right words for your brand and for the message that you're trying to get, that you're trying to get across and really relating to your audience. Because I know I've learned a few things over the last few things or two over the last you know, two years, since I've really been getting into uh, my own LK strength coach business, for example, and the and the one thing that I value the most is understanding your audience. So can you speak a little bit about how important it is for business owners to understand who their audience actually is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So when you go to write anything, you need to think about who your audience is and who you're talking about. You know attraction, marketing and who your ideal client is. So in marketing there's an STP model. I might be getting a bit technical, but it's just segmentation, targeting and positioning. So before you can go after who you want to go after and attract the ideal client, you need to segment your market, you need to target them properly and you need to niche down. So, um, it's really important. Um, I I just think how do you reach your ideal client if you don't know who they are? And? And you don't you reach your ideal client if you don't know who they are and you don't know how to speak to them. You don't know what their messaging is. You don't understand them as a client.
Speaker 1:And so that includes understanding what their struggles are Like. How can what you do help your audience overcome whatever they're struggling with? That's what it all boils down to at the end of the day, we have a need. You know, as people, we have needs, and if we're seeking someone to help us with whatever that need or pain point is, then the person that speaks to us the most, the best, in the best way, using, you know, great visuals and words. We're much more likely to work with that person if we feel like that person understands our needs. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, and that's easier said than done, right?
Speaker 1:Um, and that's where someone like you comes in, because words I and me being a lifted coach, my mindset coaching is all about words. The words that we use create our mindset. So the words of our mindset is the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves every single day, that we tell ourselves about ourselves every single day. So the power of words is phenomenal and you certainly are very powerful with your words in your copywriting and your marketing position. So, felicity, how can you know if you? Firstly, let's just let me ask you one more question, because I'm still on this, celebrating the wins Tell me some of the things that you're most proud of that you have achieved over the last couple of years since I've known you.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I am now a Service NSW Marketing Advisor, which is a big deal, because I'm really really busy in that capacity and I get to work with small business owners every single day that really value the information that I give them. When I'm in that capacity, I'm not actually creating, I'm talking, which is really fun for me, and I just feel like it's what I was meant to do all along. I was meant to provide advice to small business owners that could walk away with it and go and do something about it. So I'm really proud of that. And then I'm really proud that I have been able to stop sidestepping and I've focused on the Creative Marketing Co. So for a long time I worked at the TAFE, I worked in disability roles, I worked in cafes, I worked anywhere that would pay me because I was trying to make ends meet. So I'm really proud that I could step into the Creative Marketing Co space and now I do it full time. I don't have any of these side hustle jobs, yeah.
Speaker 1:What was one thing that you changed that allowed you to go from working in several different jobs to just or I shouldn't say just to solely working with the Creative Marketing Co. If you could narrow it down to one thing.
Speaker 2:One thing is belief.
Speaker 1:I started believing that I could do it, and here I am Absolutely, and I can say that I have been really excited to watch your journey, because I know that when I first met you, that you were doing all the side hustles, and I've watched you grow in believing in yourself, um to where you are now, which is where you've wanted, always wanted to be. So what's next for Felicity? Do you have any future projects?
Speaker 2:Next for Felicity do you have any future projects? Yeah, I've got a couple of future projects, so I'm going to. I really want to go back and lecture eventually. That's the big. That's the big goal, you know. Eventually I will have my Creative Marketing Co business and I will lecture at the uni. So to do that I need a PhD and to get a PhD I have to study again. So that's the road that's going to happen in the future.
Speaker 1:And that's very exciting, and I know you also achieved something on the physical side. Can you tell the audience what you achieved on the training side of things in the last couple of years?
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember this. Yeah, so I've always been a very good umpire. I've umpired netball since I was 10. And then at the yeah, at diagnosis, I gave up my netball and I took 10 years off the sport. And last year I started umpiring again and I got my C badge within like I don't know, three or four weeks of picking up my whistle again. And now I'm training really hard to get my B badge, which is my next level. Yeah, but just taking to the court was really empowering. It was really nice to be back. It felt like, yeah, I was moving closer to my goal of being old Felicity.
Speaker 1:It was really lovely, like yeah, I was moving closer to my goal of being old Felicity. It was really lovely. So it seems that your self-belief spilled out into all areas of your life, into your personal life, your professional life and also your ability to achieve goals that you set for yourself. You've proven that you can do that and therefore you're setting more goals for the future to achieve goals that you set for yourself. You've proven that you can do that and therefore you're setting more goals for the future. So that's certainly something to celebrate the wins with. And, felicity, if people want to work with you because I know that the Instagram marketing world or the social media marketing world, is a minefield of confusion at the moment, because things are changing all the time and you are so good at just simplifying the process, taking out all of that confusion and frustration how do people work with you?
Speaker 2:So they can outsource their social media where it's done for you. You don't, um, you know you don't, uh, necessarily have a lot of input anymore, which is the way people want to go if they are super busy, um, or you can work with me in a copywriting calling approach where, um which is what I actually did with leanne, where I used to jump on these calls We'd, you know, work out what our posts were going to be and, within the hour, we created the magic. They're the main ways that you can work with me. You can either outsource your social media to me or we jump on these calls and I advise you, I work with you, I work with your words and we create the posts.
Speaker 1:All right, that sounds fantastic. So in the show notes they're all the links to your website and, obviously, your Instagram. They're all there so people can jump on and have a look and Felicity. My last question to you is one that I like to ask my guests, and it is how do you uplift yourself? What is the one way? If I said to you I want you to do one thing consistently that you feel uplifted by what, would that one thing be?
Speaker 2:Marketing. I feel uplifted when I write. It doesn't matter what kind of writing it is. I I journal of a morning and that's uplifting for me. I write a caption and that makes me feel good. Um, it's writing, writing's what uplifts me and you know what.
Speaker 1:that's fantastic, because writing is what uplifts you and your writing uplifts others. So thank you, thank you so much for being here and audience. If you want to work with Felicity, highly recommended. In fact, I think I'm going to jump off this podcast right now and go and talk to Felicity about working with her again in the future.
Speaker 1:So, yep, thanks for being here and thank you for being so, so vulnerable in sharing your story about your, your struggle and your ongoing struggle with bipolar disorder, because no doubt the audience have learned a lot and it gives them, if um, a depth of understanding, either to understand themselves better and also to to be able to support people that may have bipolar similar to you or even depression. Because I think it's really important that we understand mental health better, and listening to stories like yours and talking to people who are very open about what it actually feels like to have a disorder, a mental health disorder, is so empowering in moving forward and taking away the stigma that exists and the fear. There's a lot of fear behind mental health still in our society today. So thank you very much, felicity, and I'll talk to you straight after this call.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks, leanne.