How to be Honest in Midlife with Guest Susanna Reay

I don't often "do" days, but there's a day allotted to April 30th - the day this episode airs - that piqued my interest. It's National Honesty Day.

Which made me think of the seeming battle cry flooding my socials - that Midlife is our time to start giving zero f..ks!

No more bubble-wrapping how we're really feeling. No sugar-coating. No holding back...

But does telling the truth come at a price? And does the odd white lie have its uses?

To explore this conundrum, I'm delighted to be joined by my guest Authority Architect and founder of Framework Thinking®  Susanna Reay. 

We discuss how honesty is two-fold - how we are with others, and (more importantly) with ourselves. And we explore the difference between being honest and not lying.

Susanna explains how she is benefiting from being more honest with herself and others, and we share our insights and top tips for how to be honest in our second chapter.

Connect with Susanna

https://susannareay.com/links/

https://susannareay.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannareay/

 https://www.instagram.com/susannareay
 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Midlife Unlimited, the podcast for women who want more. I'm your host, Kate Porter, the Midlife Metamorphosis Coach, and I know what it's like to feel stuck navigating the midlife maze. I've looked in the mirror and thought, who is that woman? So Midlife Unlimited is here to let you know you are not alone. You don't have to put on a brave face and put up with it. You don't have to play it safe. Midlife Unlimited is all about ripping off that mask and telling it like it really is. Nothing is off limits because together there's no limit to what we can achieve. So, welcome to today's episode. Now, I don't usually do days, but there's a day allocated to April 30th, the day this episode airs, that piqued my interest. Because it's National Honesty Day, which made me think of the seeming battle cry flooding my socials that midlife is our time to start giving zero fucks. No more bubble wrapping how we really feel, no sugarcoating or holding back. But does telling the truth come at a price? And does the odd white lie have its uses? Hmm. It's time to explore this conundrum, and I'm delighted to be joined by my guest today to do just that, Susanna Ray, authority architect and founder of Framework Thinking, to talk about how to be honest in midlife. So welcome, Susanna. It's fabulous to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Thank you, Kate, for inviting me on. And gosh, this is a juicy topic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Well, absolutely, because if we can't be honest now, when can we really?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

I know part of me wishes I'd got way more honest for like the previous 30 years rather than waiting till I hit 50, basically. Which seems to me, well, it was probably around 48 when I started, as you say, give zero fucks. I started going, hmm, no, and that was six years ago now. And I'm like, why did I wait so long?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

I'm with you. I'm completely with you. I'm completely with you. And I think we're going to be exploring so many different aspects of honesty in our conversation, sharing some of our own anecdotes and experiences, and moving towards sharing perhaps our top tips and inspiration at the end. But honesty, when I've started thinking about it, it's twofold, really, isn't it? Because we've got honesty with others, which I think is encompassed by the starting to not give an F-word, but also honesty with ourselves, which is something that I come across a lot, and I know it's something that you've been more and more aware of. And also, I mean, I'm a rubbish liar. I put my hands up. I am the world's most ridiculous. Even when I was drinking, I was just rubbish, you know. So the whole idea of lying and white lies, it's a potential minefield, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Oh, totally, yeah. It's just like you don't know where to start. And as you say, there is a difference between a white lie or outright lying, or you know, soft lies, yeah, the white lies, where we say it purposely, like ever since anyone who's been a parent at some point will have done lots of white lies with like Father Christmas is coming, the tooth fairy is coming. Those are ideal examples of white lies who which are there to foster a belief, a joy, a wonderment in a child who might otherwise be wondering what's going on. So there's definitely a space for what I see as white lies, but as you say, there's different places and spaces where they might show up.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

And I think as well, when you kind of when the white lies creep into adulthood, there are certain things, and I think here is when the perhaps the zero fucks attitude starts to come into force. When before we've been wearing our people-pleasing hats, our fear of judgment hats, and we've ended up saying yes to things that we really didn't want to, that perhaps weren't even going to be benefiting us massively. But this feeling of we should, we ought to be doing these things, they were expected of us. But now we can start perhaps. Well, the temptation is to use a white lie, isn't it? When someone says, Would you like to come to this event? and you don't blinking want to, and the immediate thought is tell a little thing, say, Oh, I'd love to, but I'm having a blood test that day, or oh, my car's off the road. Oh, uh, when actually there's nothing wrong with saying thank you so much, and this doesn't have to be a business, a business or social event. Thank you so much for thinking of me for involving me, but it's not really what I'm looking to do at the moment. Or actually, I've promised myself a night in, and I know this idea of honesty with ourselves and with others is put my teeth in with others, is something that is particularly you found applicable, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

The actual realization that it's all right to actually say what suits you, yeah, very much so, and I think this is it's one of these things that as I've got older, I've become a lot more self-aware, that I realize there's things that I've had to handle through life that apparently other people don't. And it's this understanding because we all think we're normal because we are the only person we know, and we think, well, that must be the same as everyone else. And from when I was a teenager, I got really interested actually in psychology, and so early on, I absolutely knew I was more introverted in nature, that means you know, I need to gather my energies on my own, but I am sociable, so even on my LinkedIn profile, I always get comments because I say I'm a sociable introvert, because for me they can come together because yes, I love going out, you know, talking about events and being in those places, but they drain me incredibly, yeah, and it's only as gosh, probably in the last 10 years, because there's been advancements and exposure on various things, that I've realized not only am I introverted, but I've got really high sensitivity to noise and sound, and that's another reason why I find big events and I've never enjoyed going to like music concerts, rock concerts, because the sound is just too much, it is not enjoyable, it literally really like de-energizes me so much, and I remember back in the day when I was having to get on buses, um, get on buses regularly. My brain naturally, and people, and if this was in the north, people were actually talking to each other on the bus in the south of England, they're all deadly quiet, and it made no difference. But I remember when I was living in Manchester, and I my brain would hear all 10, 12 conversations that were happening on that bus in one go. I couldn't like this tunnel hearing that I hear people at, like people working in coffee shops and saying, Oh, I'm going to go out and do my work in a coffee shop. I cannot do that because my hearing follows every single sound in that space and completely distracts me. It's like the worst place for me to gain focus, and it's only with time that I realize, oh well, I didn't realize that this was something, and it was only when I read um Dr. Aaron's book, The Highly Sensitive Person, and that was about 10 years ago, and she had a little checklist at the start, and I was like, Oh, check, check, check, oh, this is me. Oh, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

It's that eureka moment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:29

It is like, oh my goodness. Yeah. And it then sort of resulted in the fact that these days, if I am going to events, I will, I still love going to events, I'll have to say. You will get me going to big conferences. But this piece about honesty is I know that I will pick and choose where I am, and even if I want to talk to someone and the surroundings is too noisy because again, my brain's trying to hear everything. So it's actually very akin to people who are hard of hearing, who then struggle to hear your voice and everyone else's. For me, I'm hearing everything, but I will then say quite often to the person, sorry, can't you mind? Can we step outside and have this conversation? 100% of the time, when I ask that, and that was being honest, like I really need to step out of this environment. Everyone says, Yes, oh, I would love to do that too. Which shows me how much other people might not be being honest, and there's four of us.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yeah, you're really leading by example because I think so often, and it's in social and business situations, we we we literally is those blinking shoulds we feel we need to be behaving in a certain way, particularly if we don't know people very well, or as you say, it's a big crowd, and by this phrase disclosing truths and you know expressing our feelings, we are really leading by example because we're showing that it's actually okay. Not just we're not necessarily giving zero fucks, but we're saying, just say it's you know, I don't actually enjoy this specific, it's not the event that I'm not enjoying, it's not the party, it's this specific area of or this, you know, this specific nuance of it. And by actually saying it, as you say, nine times out of ten, the people you're speaking to would go, yeah, actually, I'd rather be in the garden at the moment. Let's go and get some fresh air, or you know, let's find a quieter corner because the conversation that you're gonna have and the interaction you're gonna have is gonna be better for want of a better word, because of it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Oh, totally. And so everyone's really, really thankful. And when I've even then speaked, spoken to event hosts and mentioned that I know I was at an event last year and they had an after party. You know, I'm there, I'm at that after party, but then I know there's other people there. We're there because we still want to continue the conversation, we're not there for the DJ and the music, and I was like, oh, I would love it if it was possible in that scenario that there is like two rooms a room with music and a room without, just so I could have the choice. So when I'm feeling like music, I can step into the music room when I don't want to, and along with everyone else. And the thing is, when I bring this up in conversation, lots of people agree with me. And this has even led to there's um there's various different devices now on the market that you can actually put in your ear, and they're tiny that help with just taking out some of that noise that's around you. And this is why I'm saying it's like the opposite. When people need hearing aids to hear, I need hearing aids to reduce the noise, and it's much less a known as an issue, but I feel it's equally deliberate, equally debilitating.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Get my teeth in now, and it was something I never was aware of. I bet there are going to be loads of people listening, men and women are going to think, yes, actually, actually, because it's interesting, my other half, he's technically hard of hearing, not he's not actually deaf, but the the things he hears though, I'm the one that will ask for the TV to be turned up. Now, whether that's a male and female different tones, I'm not sure. But half the time, and I'm like, if people are mumbling, I really find it, I almost I mean, I don't lip read, but I find myself really concentrating on their faces, particularly in a loud environment. So no, I I think this honesty lot has got a lot going for it. But if I can go back to the whole phrase giving zero fucks, and I know we're using the F-word, but it's important, we're doing it, it's in context. Now that phrase in itself to me is quite confrontational in itself, I think. And I think there's a lot about brute being brutally honest, being raw, you know, with what you're saying, but I do think there is a time and a place for it, and I'm not being prudish, but I do think I do think this idea of hey, we're over 50 now, we're gonna go and say what we want and do this and do that, and it's like, well, yes, but you've got to ask why you're doing it. Are you doing it? Are you jumping on this bandwagon of rah-rah-rah? Or are you actually doing it because it means something to you? You're doing it with intention and purpose rather than following the herd. I mean, who what the whole idea is we're breaking away from the herd, so let's not just jump on this zero fucks bandwagon. Sorry, I said it again. And I do think as well that we're now old enough, wise enough, fabulous enough to pause a minute and rather than just being honest for the sake of being honest, think, and I'm not saying we're not gonna lie, but if we really have this burning desire to be honest, do is it not sensible, if that's the right word, just to like with so many other areas of our life, pause just for that five seconds, maybe, and think, what do I actually stand? Let's be selfish. What do I stand to gain by being honest here? What do I stand to lose, maybe, in terms of causing upset for other people? And I do think that's an area that it'd be interesting to chat about a bit.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, I am very aware, and I've always been very empathetic to others. So this is when I think you mentioned the term people pleaser might have come into it, but I do think it is a balance. I am not a believer that you can just say anything, whatever, whenever. I do believe you've got to keep other people's feelings into account, but that doesn't mean you've got to go extremely away from what matters to you. And this is where I think it's about having this internal compass and picking the lanes where you want your voice to matter and where you want to stand out and show up because not everything needs your voice added to it. Quite often these days, you know, I purposely step away from certain circles because I'm going, yes, they're speaking their truth, but it doesn't resonate with me. So I'm going to step outside of that circle so I just don't hear it. I even do this with national news in the sense that I'm going, I can't affect what is happening in the world in that sense. So why get involved? Because I've never been politically minded, and I think this is the pacifist in me going, I want everyone to be happy. And in fact, I've traveled and lived around the world. I mean, along the way.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

You've traveled quite a lot, haven't you? That's another episode.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

It is, and just very briefly for the listeners, I'll say three continents, five countries, twenty cities is like the top level. But the phrase that's taken me round the world is smile and the world smiles with you. And that's been my motto because it doesn't matter what creed, culture, race, whoever I speak to, if you're smiling and friendly, they smile and are friendly back. We don't need to be antagonistic, and I think it's this piece linked to honesty is be like proactive, friendly honest, not the negative honesty that's out there. And there's a difference there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

No, I'll say with my midlife coaching hat on, I would say definitely, if there's that urge to use honesty in a not really vicious way, but in a na na na na na type of way, I would actually start asking myself, ask yourself, why are you still in a any form of relationship with this person that you get this urge to behave in this way towards them? Because the chances are that if you had a friendship, a relationship, a working relationship with them, it's run its course to a certain extent because it's it's starting to go into those areas of maybe even toxic behaviour, and it really is time to think walk away, walk away from this conversation or re readjust the situation, rethink the situation. Because if you really have got that, unless it is you feeling like saying F it to the world in general for the day, and we all have that kind of day, don't we? We all have F the lot of you, which in itself is a completely different feeling. But if if this attitude is directed at a person, I think it it is time to start taking stock of how did you actually get to that situation where being so honest that it might end in tears is an option, even.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

And I do love that in terms of it is about being honest to yourself, who is serving you and who's supporting you. The term that I can't remember who originated it is about talking about drains and radiators in your life. So if people are draining you and they're bringing up this negativity, step away. There's more than enough people in the world, different circumstances, different rooms you can step into, which actually bring you joy and they bring you energy, and they're the radiators. So it's always about thinking, has that served my purpose? And I think every year, and we're recording this in the springtime, I feel it's good to do a spring clean practically of connections and situations and think, do I still want to be in this space? Is it benefiting me socially, emotionally, business, whatever that situation is? Because, as you said, we we all evolve, we all change, and that is fine. And you don't have to stay friends with the same person. And I don't think many people are still friends with their you know primary school best friend because we've changed.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

No, absolutely it applies to loving relationships as well. You know, it that it is okay to actually start assessing. I think, yeah, because we're all we're all good, like you know, getting out the bleach and and the disinfectant and opening all the kitchen cupboards, but no, we've just moved into Q2. Let's do that not just for business, let's do it for our personal lives, let's do it for our mental health, our physical health, and have a little spring stock take. I like this, I like this because that ties in with honesty again. But what I think is the overarching thing, and you've you've agreed with me, which is nice. Uh, being honest with yourself, isn't it? Because that underpins the whole idea of how to be honest in midlife. Because if we can't be honest with ourselves, and I know I say it again and again, the whole idea of being honest with everyone else, with the world, it ain't gonna work, is it?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

No, not at all, and those of us who are also running businesses like both of us do as well, I think the honesty piece really starts aligning. And I know when I work with my clients who I really help them to sell their intellectual property, their ideas, but a lot of business owners will come to me and say, Susanna, but how should I do it? Like they're looking for a template to copy, and for me it starts, and in fact, the first step in the process I take people through, which is Spark process, but the yes stands for self, and that is about being honest, and the three areas I always look out to in that is one, your personality, and this is a huge piece about honesty. So for me, that is where I would say, yes, I'm highly sensitive, I'm an introvert, I'm a creator through and through. I'm a if people are into human design and a manifesting generator, like I. Done every psychology profile under the sun, so I think that shows my time, but it also the piece about the high sensitivity with sound. I love and I have been working online since 2002 because I can control my environment, I don't want to be in an office in a workplace. So with the three Ps, because I mentioned personality, and that is about being really honest with yourself, and the second is passion. And again, this is about honesty because when we're creating our own business, I believe you've got to be absolutely passionate that you can talk about that for at least another five, ten years. You're not just picking a random subject, it really is like what do you naturally talk about? What's your flag in the sand that you know the hill you're going to die on? That's where your passion comes into it. And the third is your prowess, that's your expertise, and everything, you know, the accreditations, the skills, the endless qualifications. If you're female, you've probably done to justify your place on earth again, even though you didn't know them.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah. But again, that's all of these. It's about first of all, be honest about who you are, how you wish to show up, what rooms you wish to go into. And all of this ties into honesty. And I found that business owners who don't start with this strong self as the established base really struggle because before they know it, they've gone down a path because a certain business coach has said, This is you know the silver bullet solution, this is how you should be. Yeah, it's all full of shoots. And I'm like, no, get rid of shoots. What do you want to do? What are you excited about? But what matches and builds your energy? Because that's what I've realized over the years, is I couldn't go into live rooms every single day of the week. I couldn't travel around the country being an expert speaker where I'm in a hotel one night, I travel the next day, you're doing another thing the next day. Because honestly, by the time I did the third that week, that audience are not getting high-level Susanna. They're getting low level, like ready for bed, stay under the duvet all day, Susanna, by that point.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

And I think these points that you're making, this spark, that was correct, wasn't it? I think that applies as well to all of you listening who not just business-wise, who are thinking there's something I'm not being true to myself now. I'm gonna start being honest, and we're gonna go back to the title thing. I'm gonna start being honest with myself. But those three Ps would be a brilliant. I mean, I I use it in my in my sessions, a kind of a springboard for brainstorming, having a brain dump, things that light you up, things that fire your passion, where you want to stick your flag, where you want to climb that mountain, and to start being more honest with yourselves. Because we hear a lot, you know, the fake it to you make it, you know, that yeah, the whole thing. I do, I do, I do, because okay, fake it to you make it, it's not necessarily lying, but we mentioned lying. I mean, I'm a rubbish liar, but one of the things about lying is that A, it's exhausting, it takes a lot of energy and mental effort to lie, and it's not just what comes out of your mouth as the initial lie, or what you write, or whatever, however, you're creating this illusion for want of a better word, it's then the huge mental effort in remembering the lie you told initially, and then that initial lie or untruth, and we're not talking little white lies, we're not talking little things just to smooth things, and then ask yourself why did I need to do that anyway? But when it comes to lying, as opposed to the flip side to being honest, it is, isn't it? It's tiring, it's that constant uh bloody hell, I'm gonna get found out. So you're constantly looking over your shoulder, you can't you know you can't, you cannot be true to you. You can't be honest with yourself if you're telling porcupies about things, and also why? Why is it societal? Why do you unless you've done the dirty on something, and you know, that's a different episode in itself as well. I've got a divorce doula coming on next month, so we'll save it for then. Um, but uh when it why you why do you feel the need to big yourself if that's what it is? Why do you feel the need to lie in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

And I think that comes down to societal expectations, how you're brought up sort of culturally as well. You know, we've all been churned out of well, the school system that was generated in the Industrial Revolution to create beautiful little factory people, which no longer exists, the factories are no longer there, so why are we designing ourselves this way? And what I see with a lot of midlife people is they realised, oh, I don't have to go to that societal norm, I can create my own, I can do my own thing, and I can do it the way I wish to. And this is where I just feel, you know, right now I've got two children who are 19, 21, and one of the biggest sort of messages I pass on to them is follow your passion, do what you want to do, don't think what should I be doing, and even to my eldest who's about to graduate from university, I'm going, do not even think about for one moment to do one of those non-paid internships. Because again, that's is well, that's businesses lying, to be honest. It's the people lying to themselves. Because if you're helping a company, they should be paying you because you're adding to their value. And this is one of the hills I will die on, Kate, in terms of I believe everyone should be paid their worth, and that starts from the moment you move into the workforce, and the way things have changed because and that started in the States, and unfortunately, it's come across towards the UK. But I'm like, no, you've got so much power to bring to any situation, and anyone listening has as well, and I think a lot of the societal expectations of shoulds and what should be expected, and even this morning, I know I was looking on um my Facebook feed, and somebody had put into AI a picture of themselves and a picture of their brother, and just asked Chat GPT or similar AI, I don't know which one it was. They just said three words um make us beautiful. The outcome, what she was fascinated with and why she shared it, it wasn't like what does beautiful look like, but it was even the gender difference between what the AI did to the female opposed to the male. The male, just a few tweaks, slightly whiter T, slightly more hair. The female suddenly was in a low-cut top, had loads of makeup on, looked younger, and you're like, no, just no. And that's a piece about being honest as well, and right at the top of this hour. I'm really proud of the fact I'm 54 now. I hate this female illusion that I grew up with. I've never asked a woman her age. I'm like, no, let's share our ages. Let's I'm happy for rituals. Let's be honest. Let's yeah, let's be honest. This is also about showing every age has a different stage, and it's being honest about it. I'm not into like beauty creams that take me back in time. I very rarely wear makeup, even. So I'm like, there's an honesty about being yourself, and against an honesty about appearance. So it's so many fascinating and different faceted ways to look at honesty in terms of how it shows up. I mean, how we show up in our business is one place, how we show up in our personal life, how we show up to ourselves. They all matter.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

No, I love it. I could talk about this all day, you know, but but we're not we're not going to. But you've alluded to your spark method, is that the right word? And we will be put giving the lurp at my teeth in, giving listeners your contact details, which are obviously in the show notes for our episode, and you've got your guest profile on the website as well. But before we do that, I'm gonna be honest with you. We're gonna ask your three questions. See what I did then? That was a little segue, wasn't it? Uh so your first question, and if there's any story behind it, be honest about it. I'm gonna stop now. I'm gonna stop now. So, Susanna, put me out of my misery. What is your midlife anthem? The song or piece of music that when you hear it, you punch the air and go, yes, today's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

It has to be This Is Me from the Greatest Showman, and it's twofold. One is the message in it, is obviously it does actually link with this whole honesty. Honestly, my backstory is I have been a musical fiend, addict, geek ever since I was teeny, to the extent that I watched Mary Poppins when it came out. I think I was four years old at the time, memorized all the lyrics, and I can say super calafragilistic against the allodos backwards, which I won't sort of bring in, but it also links. The reason is musicals have been an anthem from ever since I was young, and then I remember getting Oliver, and there's all the ones that have grown up, all the Andrew Lloyd Weber ones that have gone along the way. Matilda, brilliantly written. But when The Greatest Showman came out, and I saw it on New Year's Day when it was released, and when I heard that song, This Is Me, I was like, Yes, that is my anthem.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah, goosebump moment. Right now, well, your midlife mantra, then are the two linked together, the phrase that you live your midlife by?

SPEAKER_01 32:55

I guess they are, in the sense that it's a simple three-word phase, which is your voice matters. And that again is linked to why I'm now I'm writing, publishing my book as this comes out, be published next month. Is I've had to say to myself, your voice does matter. Stop hiding, stop being quiet, speak up for the things that you care about, and again, it is broached in that I've got my guardrails for where my voice matters, so I look at where I can change, affect, make a difference, and then use my voice wisely. I don't want to be streeting, streeting, I don't want to be um crying from every street corner, but I do want to make my voice matter, and one of the reasons why I've written my book on framework thinking is because I know my voice matters, and at the end of the day, every other book in a similar field out there, sorry, not sorry, guys, they're by stale, white, pale men, and I'm like, I wanted the female view on this, and my view is far more empowering. It's about people doing this for themselves, all the other books out there are saying copy our method.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Oh, we're gonna find out more about that. Quickly tell me what is your autobiography called, and then I want to know more about your book that's coming out in May.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Living outside the box. Yes, that one's kind of speaks for itself. I've mentioned I've lived outside the box for quite a long time, traveled around the world, and now realizing that even my brain lives outside the box.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

It's a good place to be, it's a good place to be, and you're honest about it. So I said all your contact details are in the show notes and on the website where you've got your guest profile. But firstly, can you direct listeners to how they can connect with you and tell us some more about this book, Drumroll, please? Is there a wait list? Where can we get it? Tell me, tell me, tell me.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Excellent. So the best place to find out everything about me is my website, which is my name, SusannaRay, re-a-y.com. That will be in the show notes because Susanna doesn't have an H either. It's both my names are complex. So on there as well, you will find all the links to everything I do. Framework Thinking is the name of my book that is being published. By the time you're listening to this, you'll see big direct signposts. It'll say new book on my website. But I would also love listeners. I am on LinkedIn and Instagram. And if you're listening to this and have got some great takeaways, do connect and send me a DM. Because actually, my truth. Oh, please, please don't drop me a voice note though. There's another bit of honesty. I don't like voice notes because I can't scan them fast. I but I love a DM and I love having conversations and DMs. I'm not talking about sales slamming, I'm talking about proper conversations.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

No, can't stand that.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

So I would say reach out and contact me with that. And framework thinking, my book, is really aimed at coaches, consultants, creatives who have many, many ideas and they want to bring them together simply. So when they're talking to clients, they're not sort of fire hosing them with information, but they've got a simple process they can talk them through. So their clients get it fast, they get it fast, and it keeps them focused. So it's all about turning their expertise into building authority. And inside my book, I actually take you through my whole Spark process, which is self, premise, art, reach, and kudos. There's a chapter for every piece, it's very practical. And by the end of the book, you can have your first framework sketched. It's designed to make a difference and to help your thinking really explode. And I'm so excited about this. It is launching mid-May on my website. There is a book launch list that, if you're listening to this slightly in advance of when it's out there, do sort of pre-order and let's make a difference. Framework thinking is designed for everyone. And even I've spoken to some leadership consultants and people going to the corporate place, and they go, Oh wow, we need this as well. It's not just for business owners, though that is the main market I'd speak to. But I had one sort of global executive be a beta reader, and they've already said, You've got to come in to my organisation and speak to my team because it's how do you share your key strategic communication succinctly so your ideas travel beyond the room and actually get implemented? And that is the crux of what framework thinking does for you.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

No, I need to read this. I need to read this. No, it is it's gonna be phenomenal, it really is. And listeners, have you enjoyed today's episode? Be honest, we'd love your feedback. Come and leave a review, or you can email or text me via the link in the show notes, and um, there's also details there of the website where you'll find how you can come and work with me either one-to-one or join my all-in-one award-winning more program, which is all about getting more by quitting and doing less of what's not serving you. So, thank you for joining me, Susanna, today. It's been absolutely brilliant. I've loved this. I could have talked all day. I'm gonna have to get you back on to talk about other things as well, I think. Thank you for listening. I look forward to tuning in next week because don't forget Midlife Unlimited has a new episode every Thursday available wherever you listen to your podcasts. So here's to being fabulous and flourishing together and living Midlife Unlimited. Thanks, Susanna. It's been brilliant. Bye.