Reclaiming Your Spark with Liz Boswell on Confidence, Voice and Menopause

In this empowering and insightful episode, Alison sits down with Liz Boswell of Bold Moves Coaching to explore the profound impact menopause can have on women’s confidence, communication and careers. Drawing from her own journey through perimenopause and extensive coaching experience, Liz sheds light on how fluctuating hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone influence mental clarity, anxiety, self-expression and even the voice.

They candidly discuss the challenges menopausal women often face, such as brain fog, being talked over, fear of stigma and hesitation to disclose symptoms, even to doctors. Liz shares her bold decision to leave the corporate world and start her own business, highlighting how menopause can inspire transformative life changes toward greater fulfilment and work-life balance.

This episode tackles common misconceptions, emphasising that menopause doesn’t have to be a negative experience. With the right awareness, support and self-advocacy, it can be a time of renewal and empowerment. Practical advice includes reconnecting with your strengths, managing communication pace and advocating confidently in both personal and professional settings.

Whether you’re navigating menopause yourself or supporting someone who is, this episode offers honest conversation, valuable insights, and encouragement to embrace this transformative phase with boldness and confidence.

You can find Liz on Linkedin - (4) Liz Boswell - Bold Moves Coach | LinkedIn and through her website - https//www.boldmovescoach.co.uk

🎧 Listen in and rediscover your spark—one real-life moment at a time

I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn;

www.linkedin.com/in/⭐alison-allen-chartered-mcipd

Transcript

Episode 4 - Reclaiming Your Spark with Liz Boswell on Confidence, Voice and Menopause

[00:00:00] Are you or someone you know and love going through the menopause? If this is you low and welcome to find your Spark, real life menopause moments. I'm Alison and I'm excited to guide you through all things menopause. In this empowering podcast, we'll dive into honest conversations, share real life stories, and bring in guest insight to help you feel supported through every stage of the menopause transition.

Hello and welcome, Liz. So today I'm delighted to be joined by Liz of Bold Moves Coaching. And Liz specialises in a whole range of support for women and men through leadership training, management training and coaching. And Liz can tell us a bit more about that. But like I said, thank you so much for joining us today, Liz.

And please can you introduce yourself? Thank you so much Alison. I'm so [00:01:00] excited to be on your podcast. Thank you for inviting me. So yeah, my name's Liz Boswell. My business is Bold Moves Coaching. So, I set up eight years ago now and my business is all about empowering. Women particularly, and also you know, business owners to grow their businesses to the next level.

So bold Moves is really all about taking that bold action that we know we need to do to make change in your business. Before I set up on my own, my background was working for a large training and, um, coaching business in corporate, and we did a lot of work on change management for large organisations.

And so I learned a lot in that. So, I've become a specialist in managing change and helping people deal with those emotions around change as [00:02:00] well, that we all go through when we're trying to lead and grow our business. Thank you. And do you know, I find the name of your business. I think it's absolutely fantastic, especially with what we're talking about today with menopause, and obviously it relates to many other aspects, but if you think about menopause and making bold moves and what we're going to deeper into today, it can be difficult.

It can be a really difficult time in somebody's life to even contemplate making a bold move. So, the fact that you dedicate your, your business to helping and supporting, as you said, particularly women, to make those bold moves. I think it's, it's amazing. I just love the name. We've probably known each other for about two years now.

Yeah. During that time, we've worked together quite a lot. I was part of, um, a part of your Bold moves coaching, used to have an academy that I was part of. Yeah. I've attended many of your workshops, which are [00:03:00] excellent and, you know, you have helped me to, to grow through, particularly through my voice, getting my voice out there, whether that's through social media or through delivering training education sessions.

Really without the help and support from you and Bold Moves, would I be hosting a podcast? I don't know. Probably, probably not because you did give me a lot of confidence in using my voice and, and pitching it in the right way. So, you know, we'll delve more into that. We'll delve into how you can help and support and examples that we've both come across, you know, both corporately and, you know, as business owners with people that.

I struggled through, particularly through the menopause years and looking at the use of the, the voice. So just to, to look at really what's going on in, in our bodies and what's causing us to, [00:04:00] to, to lose confidence particularly. If we think about the main hormones that are, are at play, we've got oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as they're declining and the oestrogen's fluctuating throughout our perimenopause years, you know, it sends our bodies into, it can send our bodies into a bit of a, what's the word, haywire?

Bit haywire, don't they? And, um, kind of goes into a bit of confusion, doesn't it? Thinking, oh my God, what on earth is going on? Exactly. And you know, we're, we're aware that these hormones are responsible for so many things within our bodies, but particularly progesterone and testosterone, when they start to decline, it can severely impact our confidence levels.

So, when we look at our hormone levels, the most common hormone levels that are at play during our menopausal years are eastern progesterone and testosterone. And you know, if we were to go into the symptoms that they. Could [00:05:00] lead to, we're here all day. But you know, if we're particularly focused on, on our confidence levels, uh, you know, and our psychological symptoms, because we typically have your, um, physical and your psychological symptoms and there's not as much awareness of the psychological symptoms and the impact that that has on women now from a point of progesterone.

That's our, our calming, our sleep-inducing hormone. And if you imagine when progesterone declines during our perimenopausal and menopausal years, we can suffer from an increase in anxiety. Our sleep can suffer. We struggle to switch off, we struggle to relax, and you know, this can lead to us feeling less calm.

And then we bring testosterone into the mix. Most people think about testosterone, declining, impacting our strength and our libido, but it [00:06:00] also impacts our confidence levels. So, you know, when we have the, the decline in our hormones, it can lead to these psychological symptoms. And another thing that we need to be aware of is.

Very often when we're feeling these psychological symptoms such, you know, the, they're vast. We have things such as loss of confidence, as we've already said. Rain fog is a huge one that many people talk about. As the listeners have probably heard, um, you know, throughout the, the podcast that I've recorded, sometimes I forget my words, you know, that is a very common symptom.

We have word loss, or you forget what you're saying in the middle of a sentence. Or you, as we said, you can feel anxiety, you can feel an increasing anger levels or emotional levels, and we can find it difficult to concentrate. So, you know, there's so many psychological symptoms. And then with all of that, we can [00:07:00] start to feel stressed.

So it may be that we're stressed because we've got all these symptoms going on, and we're thinking, what on Earth's going on, as you said before, or it could be external factors that they lead into this. Stress, whether that's work, family, everyday life, but we all need a bit of stress for our get up and go.

If that stress is prolonged, our body then also produces another hormone cor cortisol, and if we have a prolonged period of cortisol in our bodies, that can then lead to further. Exacerbation of symptoms because the cortisol inhibits hormone production. So, if we think of the oestrogen, the progesterone, the testosterone being all over the place and and decline, and then we bring cortisol into the mix and that inhibits it naturally, we feel worse.

And then on top of that, as the oestrogen is declining, our oxytocin and serotonin levels decline as well, [00:08:00] which also impacts our cognition. Our mood, our levels of anxiety, how we're feeling. If we're feeling sad or depressed, our energy levels are lower and we can have negative thoughts. So if we think about all of this combined, plus the many menopausal women struggle with the sleep and we know how we feel off one night rubbish sleeps, or you know, if we multiply that over weeks, months.

It's no surprise that we find that people who are going through the menopause transition lack confidence, and then. Feel, imposter syndrome and all of this plays out whether you're in a corporate job or you're working for yourself, it can, well, it can have a huge negative impact on a person's life. So it's not surprising that when we look at the corporate world, one in four menopausal women consider leaving the work because of the menopause, and one in 10 actually has and [00:09:00] do.

14% have gone part-time. 13% consider retiring and 3% have taken early retirement. So, if you think of all the knowledge, the skills, the talents that's walking out those organisations' doors and not to, um, also consider the impact on the individual, the role that you can play in supporting these individuals and these organisations is huge.

Yeah. So, I'd love to know, you know. Whether it's when you are in your corporate world or the last eight years with Bold Moves, what have you come across with individuals that you've, and organisations that you've supported with menopausal women, and how have you helped to support the organization and the individual?

Yeah, absolutely. It's really interesting listening to you talk about those hormones and your expertise in that, Alison, and listening to that and how it relates to the women that I've worked with, but [00:10:00] also myself as well personally. So I think first of all, to say bold moves, the name came from the fact that I walked away from a really good corporate job when, you know, eight years ago when I was 42, and I think.

Looking back, for me, there's no coincidence between the fact that I was just starting out really with perimenopause and for a number of years I'd been feeling all of those things of lack of confidence, uncertain in myself. Not feeling like I fit in anxiety, constantly questioning myself and in a role where you need to be really confident to be able to coach other people, put yourself in front of business owners and be in those boardrooms.

It's really difficult. So I think. What helps me to [00:11:00] really understand the women that I work with is that I've been in that situation. So, first of all, you know, I, I, from a personal perspective, I totally understand what you're saying and relate to it. I think from the women that I work with, what I. Find is a really common thing is when women come to me and one of the things they talk about actually, first of all is they want to be able to speak more eloquently.

And honestly, I didn't really know that word that well, I'm from Yorkshire, you know, so like, that's quite a big word to me, Ali. So, and um, and I was like, okay, so what would eloquent look like? And I think when I ask for people and dig into that. What they mean is they want to be able to get the words out.

They want to be able to speak freely and for their conversation to flow without being interrupted. And I think there's a couple of ways for women that I [00:12:00] hear that they get interrupted. One of those is with their own thoughts. So when you're talking about brain fog. And you know that hormone, how it affects our brain.

I think it's really important because I didn't know this before, but it's, that is completely normal. And I think when you first start, and you'll know about this, obviously when you first start into menopause, you think you're going crazy, thinking like early dementia or something, because thinking, why can't I remember what I wanted to say and where am I forgetting where I've put things and.

So I think that impacts women when they're in the flow of conversations, whether it's in a meeting, in a boardroom, or just having a phone call, um, that they're interrupting their own thoughts. So that's affecting their confidence. It's giving them that anxiety that talked about and stress. The second way, I think, is that they get [00:13:00] interrupted by other people and.

I have to say specifically men, that's what I hear is I'm being talked over in meetings. Um, my voice isn't being heard. I'm, you know, I'm, I'm not getting my point across. And I think some of it is because we don't have the confidence maybe at that time in our lives to put our evidence, you know, to show.

What we know and now share our knowledge and we are kind of thinking, oh, well maybe people won't believe me, or maybe what I'm saying doesn't come across right. And so we've got all these thoughts going on in our head and it's jumbling it all up. So then we can't think straight and we can't get our words out.

And so while we need time to think about what we want to say, we're not being given that time. And I think maybe now as well [00:14:00] in business, you know, everything's moving so quickly with teams and everything, people want information quickly, quickly, quickly. And I think it's a real issue that women are struggling because they can't keep up.

And at a time in our lives when we're getting to that point where, you know, we're in our forties, we're in our primer, we are, listen, we've got all this knowledge to give all of this, you know, great qualities to give. But our confidence lets us down and our bodies and our brains are letting us down. And I think that's the issue that I see.

And I think that, you know, through so many conversations, and certainly personally as well, you know, going through the. Menopause transition. Many people struggle with the, the clarity in the thinking. Yeah. They not feel as sharp as what they used to. So that ties in with what you are saying about not being as quick in you, [00:15:00] in your thinking or, or quick, as quick in verbalizing what you want to say.

And as you say, I've certainly come across that way. People don't like silence, do they? They're quite uncomfortable with silence. I. Rather than giving an individual that space and time to think to what they want to say, then verbalize what they want to say. Somebody will jump in to fill that silence. So it's not necessarily anything, you know, against that individual, it's purely to fill that silence sometimes.

But obviously when you're on the receiving end of that, if you are in a a, a corporate meeting or whatever meeting you are in, it can feel very, um. What's the word? Demoralising. Yeah. Yeah. Humiliating. I hear embarrassing. And then if you add into that against, um, you know, I've been told through many, you know, I've had many conversations [00:16:00] where if individuals are struggling with hot sweats.

You know, that situation can bring on a hot sweat. And particularly if they, if it shows, you know, the face goes red, that can lead to further embarrassment. And I've had so many conversations where, where women are telling me that they feel that the, they feel embarrassed. They feel that their abilities are going to be questioned.

They don't want to admit that they're going through the menopause because the organizational culture isn't, isn't inclusive. So they feel that by admitting that they may, may be shown a bit of signs of failure or yeah vulnerability. So, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I think, um, when it boils down to it through coaching, there's a fear of losing your job.

And I think. None of us want that to happen. And especially now it's not easy to find another job [00:17:00] and, um, people have financial difficulties. There's a lot of pressure on you, isn't there to, uh, bring home that income? Um, because now households need dual income, sometimes even more than that as well. I think that pressure.

We put on ourselves as well to perform and that is put on us from other people as well that we're working with. Really doesn't help, you know, um, that can make matters worse as well. Um, and I think that's the thing with our voice as well, of actually getting it out there and, and getting it, getting it heard and a lot of the time.

That eloquence and being able to flow with our voice is like we're stopping ourselves by actually, you know, holding ourselves back by thinking no one's interested. No one cares what I've got to say, [00:18:00] like you said before, imposter syndrome, because we're kind of thinking, well, maybe what I'm saying is right, or there's other people in this room who know more than me.

I think meetings is one thing, but also obviously public speaking as well. And back to what you were saying about women, um, with the hot sweats or going red, I've, I work with women who struggle with going red when they are public speaking and they worry about that red in the face, red on the chest and things like that.

And um, like I say, they find it embarrassing to think everybody's looking at them. And, um, and it's really hard. It genuinely is difficult. As I said before, the statistics speak for themselves. Go, are they with one in 10 leaving the workforce? 14% going part-time. And if you think about when it lands, so the average age of menopause is 51.

You know, the average age range is between 45 to [00:19:00] 55. So, we're going to be on average, I mean, it could be early, it could be um, later, but on average, a woman is going to be experiencing her perimenopause and the lead up could be in the, the thirties and the forties. You know, like I said, it can be much younger.

So that's not to say that everybody is going to experience it in that period of time, but if we look at that period of time, particular, you know, you will have been in the workforce for. 20 odd years probably, you know, or certainly at least 10, 15 years, the chances are probably have, maybe have worked your way up.

Maybe in senior positions or in positions where, you know, they're extremely knowledgeable within that team, the mentoring people who are starting out their career. So, people within the team are going to be looking to these individuals as experts, as people that are going to mentor them, are going to help them.

You know, like I said, they [00:20:00] may be in senior positions, so not just work everything else that's going on in home life. You know, we are living much busier lives now, so bringing the menopause into this. And you know, we do know that three outta four individuals experience menopausal symptoms, which means that one in four doesn't.

I would question that I personally wonder if they don't recognize what the symptoms are and maybe they're not having hot sweats and they're not moody. The typical ones that people look for, they may overlook many, many other symptoms and think that they haven't had symptoms. But out of those three and four that do have symptoms, we know that one in four experiences, severe symptoms.

So they're having a, an adverse impact on them on a daily basis, you know, and from a an organizational point of view, if that adverse impact last or is likely to last 12 months or more with then falling into the realms [00:21:00] of the equality Act and that individual could be protected through, um, you know, whether it's.

Age, sex, disability, set characteristics. So you know, there's all that to consider as well for, for employers, you know, so how can you help and support that organization and the individuals? Yeah. So when. Individuals have got all this going on and there's all all those kind of concerns. It's difficult for women to speak up I think sometimes and actually share their issues, and I think that's what I tend to find is it's often the work that I do, it's.

Not the organization that come to me for help. It's the woman personally, and I found that quite interesting where a lot of the time it'll be women in very senior positions who come to me and want to pay for the coaching for themselves because they want to keep it private and they don't want to share that they're having coaching [00:22:00] and they're having support.

Because, um, they almost see that as a sign of, again, back to failure or not being up to scratch. Particularly I think women who have been promoted. So I've worked with lots of women who have been promoted to positions on the board in the boardroom, you know, in Lancashire, in the northwest, there's only one in five board positions are women.

You know, we are in the minority. And that's been the same for like the last 10 years, at least to my knowledge and for the research that's been done. So, you know, that's already putting pressure on, pressure on you. Um, yeah. We, again, going back to the statistics to back up what you're saying, you know, a recent study showed that 39% of employees are embarrassed to talk Yeah.

To the doctor about menopause. And [00:23:00] 46% in this particular study didn't disclose their menopause as they were worried it will be perceived negatively. And you know, abilities would be questions. Yeah. Straight. It comes back to that fear of failure and vulnerability and again, impacts confidence. I'd like to go back to something that you said earlier on, which I found really interesting about when you set up bold moves.

I and you said that looking back when you set that up, that you were in your perimenopause years. Now. I know we've had a conversation about this, um, previously, and you very often find certainly through, through people that we know through networking or, um, just having general conversations that when people take that bold move to set, to leave the corporate world and set up their own business very often.

You, you, you probably individuals in the forties, they've probably got about 20 odd years [00:24:00] corporates experience behind them. And then they're using all that experience they've got to set up on their own, um, within the, their own areas of specialism. Now, if we look at the average age of menopause being between 45 and 55, you know.

There's, there's a link there. Mm. What are your views on that list? Obviously, you've got your personal experience. Yeah. Or through individuals that you've worked with. Do you think that there is a connection that people are losing the confidence they've got this, this fear, this level of vulnerability? Um, I think there's a couple of things going on.

Actually, sorry to interrupt you. So, there's, I think you're right that there's the point about you get to that point in your life and you've. You've got all the knowledge, but yet because of your hormones and your, it's affecting our confidence. I think we kind of like question ourselves. Maybe we've been promoted [00:25:00] or we've been in a position a long time and we're kind of thinking, I don't think this is right for me anymore.

So, I think that's definitely one thing where, and I've heard this from clients I've worked with, they've, they've left and set up on their own. Um, you know, like due to confidence. I think the second thing is, and I dunno if you've come across this, but I think sometimes as well, going through the change, as it used to be called something inside us, almost drives us to want to change.

And I come across that a lot and I think that's why women are often attracted to me as a coach because of the name. Because they're like, oh. I've got a bold move or I've made a bold move and they can connect with that, and I think that's exciting. You know, like why not? When we are at this stage in our life, be ambitious and be driven and thinking actually, yeah, I'm gonna do something that I've always wanted to do.

I'm gonna go and set up on my own. So, I [00:26:00] definitely think that's another factor in here. Um, as well. Absolutely. And I think that, you know, when people think about and talk about menopause, it's always negative, isn't it? Mm-hmm. It's always the, oh, you know, it's this symptom, this symptom. You know, you never hear anybody who, who hasn't has the menopause yet come, you never hear them saying, yay, I can't wait this menopause to.

You know, it's, it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom as you said. You know, we're, we've got a lot of years ahead of us to live, to live our best life, to thrive, to, you know, to take a look at what we're doing and, and if we're not happy with what we're doing, and change it and make that bold move. And, you know, if individuals understand the menopause.

They understand the associated symptoms [00:27:00] beyond that, they understand what treatment options are out there. They make the right choice for them. You know, they, they don't, it doesn't have to be negative, does it? You know, there's so many individuals that I speak to through the work that I do through training, through menopause coaching.

You know, they get to the point where they, they're living the best life and they, I know they feel that. They have a new lease of life and it's a time in their life to make a reset. Oh, just remembered as well on that point. I was gonna say like I think another factor as well, why women make that bold move and walk away.

I think the third thing I hear is work life balance. I think that links to what you're just saying about. Standard of living. And I think for me, this was definitely a factor. I was exhausted. I loved what I was doing, but all of the hours that I was working, trying to travel, do long hours, uh, working at night, [00:28:00] not seeing family much, and I was exhausted and I just kind of thought, this isn't what I want for the future.

I don't want my life to continue to be like that. And I think we hear that a lot from women as well, that, um. It affects, you'll tell us about this, Alison, but somehow it affects you. Physically as well as mentally. I mean, just not to be too personal, but I mean, while we're talking about this, one of the things for me was actually the, um, going through menopause was actually a menstruation as well, which was horrendous.

I had a really difficult time with that for a number of years. Um, and actually, you know, two weeks out of four. Were out for me and I was just exhausted and I did, had no energy whatsoever. So I think working for yourself gives you that ability to plan your life better and have a better work life balance, [00:29:00] which goes back to your point of menopause, actually.

Then it can be good if you can have that element of control back. Absolutely. You know, and I think it's, it's having. Finding however that happens, whether it's through support, awareness, coaching, um, you know, it's, it's finding that confidence and it's having that awareness about how we can take control, we can take control of our symptoms.

There's so many things that we can do to whether it's going. Whether it's considering treatment options, whether it's looking at complimentary, you know, it's looking at our lifestyle, the foods that we eat, you know, the things that we put into our body, but also exercise, sleep, you know, a whole host of, of things that we need to do to look at our lifestyle.

To then. [00:30:00] Take the, what's the saying? Not the bull by the horns, but, you know, really grab life and, and appreciate it and, and live our best life, you know, and it's, it's understanding that menopause doesn't take that away from you, you know? No. It's having that understanding and being able to navigate it through whatever help is out there, you know, because advocating suffer.

Advocate, sorry. Again, advocating for your, advocating for yourself. I think as well, being able to use our voice, I can't tell you the number of times I kept going back to the doctors, building up my confidence and courage to go back every six months to say something's not right. You know, I really think I'm going through perimenopause.

And he kept saying, no, you're too young. You're too young. And I was like, no. My mom was 41 years old when she started and still. Quite a lot, you're being ignored, but to learn to advocate for yourself and speak up, whether [00:31:00] that's with your GP, whether it's with your partner and your family, you know, to explain to them what you, what's happening, what you're going through, and also in the workplace as well, sharing what's going on, speaking up for yourself and you know, sharing that, you know you are going through.

These struggles and this is the support that you need during this time. Yeah, absolutely. And that takes confidence again, doesn't it? You know, confidence to be able to speak up. And in the next episode of the podcast, I'm going to be speaking to a lady called Vicky who went through just that, you know, and she will let, she will, um, discuss her story about how.

Because she'd been to the GP and she wasn't, she didn't feel that she was being listened to. That impacted her confidence to be able to go back to the GP. [00:32:00] And you know, it was that vicious cycle and it was building that confidence back up again to be able to go and advocate for herself to get that help and support that she needed.

You know, and it's a story that I hear so often, like you say, and I think when you're not listened to in one area of your life, then it has a knock on effect. And whether that's, you know, at home or at work, one of those things, or more of those things can have a knock on effect on the others. And confidence then becomes a downward spiral.

And we just think, no one's listening to me, no one cares what I've got to say. And then we kind of like s. Becomes that story to ourselves. I think that's where it starts for me with coaching, with, with women, is helping them to reconnect with who they are and what they are capable with. Um, I think self-awareness is one of the most powerful things that we can work on when we do start going through [00:33:00] perimenopause.

That is one of the tips that I would say to, to women to start off with is. Start working on yourself. Um, do some personal development. You know, read some books, listen to some podcasts, but start by exploring yourself as well. Um, I always say ask for, ask for support, but also I think one of the toughest things is asking for feedback.

And this is. Probably about the third session when I'm working with women. One-to-one is something that I work, I work on with women, and one of the bold moves I encourage them to make is going to ask for feedback from their bosses because a lot of the time they've not asked for any, or they've not been given any feedback for a long time and they think they're not doing a very good job, and then they ask for feedback and they get told.

How much they're valued and how well they're doing. [00:34:00] And that has a massive impact. So sometimes it's just, it seems like a big thing at the time, but just making those small steps can make a big difference. Absolutely. And I've certainly seen that from a HR perspective where we've had individuals when I work corporately.

And I worked with individuals who were on the brink of resigning because they didn't feel that they could do the job anymore. They felt that, you know, they just didn't feel that they were, they were doing the job to the right level anymore, I suppose. And, you know, I've had that com, that situation a few times where the manager has sat down with them and spoken to them and, and said, you know, what a good job they're doing.

It's like it's been a shock to that individual because they get inside the mind when they start losing that confidence and that self, that it's that self-talk where we talk negatively to, to ourselves much more negatively than we'd [00:35:00] ever speak to anybody else. Um, so yeah, certainly agree with you. And one thing we talked about previously, which, um, ties in with the work that you do with helping people to get their voice out there is.

The actual change to the, the voice mm-hmm. That may happen during the menopausal years to, you know, and it, and it is a, a symptom that some people may, may, um, experience, you know, uh, during the menopausal years, a woman's voice may become more hoarse. Mm-hmm. Dry fatigued. It can lose volume or range can deepen or it can produce more mucus, you know, have, have you.

Witness this with women that you're experiencing? Yes, definitely. I think women who say they get interrupted, you know, with needing to cough or needing to constantly take a drink of water and [00:36:00] you know, when they're speaking. Also, not being able to project the voice because it's sore or it's hoarse, they get a bit squeaky, so the voice goes high pitched.

Then they get embarrassed about that. So yeah, I've done, I do a lot of work with women on voice control, voice range. Um, so I have, um, vocal exercises that I work on with women just for this very reason to, I. Um, it's like exercise, Alison. It's like our muscles, right? If we don't use them, this seize up. So, I think as we are getting older, I suppose that's what's happening, going through the menopause and the hormones.

So those vocal. Cords and muscles around our neck and things like that can all change and that causes the impact, which will change the sound of our voice and, um, the range that we can, [00:37:00] we can use as well. Um, I won't go into it in too much here, but you know, I get a lot of women who. Like you who who've working for themselves and have got so much experience and they don't wanna do a podcast, they don't like the sound of their voice.

So I hear that a lot as well. And there are lots of reasons about that, which I won't go into too much here, but if you go and listen on my podcast, you'll see, um, episodes I've done on there about, about the voice. And you can go and listen to that. It's fascinating, isn't it? It comes back to the conversation or the comments were made earlier about people just think, oh, you have hot sweats.

Um, sorry, hot flushes or night sweats, or You must be a bit moody. But there's so many symptoms that are associated with menopause. People don't necessarily consider and then think that other things are at play [00:38:00] and not necessarily that they've got. Symptoms of, of the menopause. Yeah. We could sit and chat all day.

I know, I know. Um, so you, you gave a tip before, you know, but any any tips that you'd like to give out to our listeners about how they can work to overcome the Yeah. The confidence issues, um, and to get their voice out there, whether it's with the family, with work, setting up their own business? Yes, definitely.

The number one thing, as I said before, is self-awareness. I think seek first to understand yourself, so look to as much as you can. One of the things I start off with women when I start working with them is we do a disc profile and there's lots of profiling tools out there that you can use, but it, it helps you to re-look at your strengths.

Look at the qualities [00:39:00] that you have that you bring to your workplace. When I go through this with women, it, it opens these light bulbs and they're kind of like, oh, I'd forgotten that I'd achieved that, or I'd forgotten that. We're good at that. I think because we're getting to our forties and fifties and we forget, like we've got 20 odd years of work.

We forget all the things that we are good at. So that's my number one is self-awareness. Reconnect with yourself. Okay, first of all. Second one is preparation. I think this is another thing that has a massive impact with women that I work with, whether that's preparing yet for, we're laughing here out because we know we love to wing it at times, but, um, preparation for presentations or meetings, I.

When I work with women who talk about, I'm talked over in the boardroom, I am not listened to, you know, my messages never get across. No one ever listens to what I've got to say. One [00:40:00] of the things I work with them on is preparing and putting the time aside to prepare before those meetings. And also the, one of the other things that they often say is we never have an agenda.

So my stuff always gets left till the last or. So they actually implement that. You know, I get them making some bold moves to say, no, actually what I've gotta say is important. And those kind of things just give them that confidence and knowing that they are gonna be heard and that they will get the point across in time.

So they go in with a different mindset. So, and the third thing is speed and pace. So whilst. We talked before about brain fog, and I think a lot of the time what I find is that because women feel like they're not being listened to and they're gonna be interrupted, they try and get the point across really, really quickly.

So they try and speed up, but then what happens is they get to a point and like, oh, I've forgotten what I was gonna [00:41:00] say now, and then somebody else jumps in. Whereas if we can get into the habit of speaking slower. Naturally putting in pauses, it just helps our brain to think better, and that gives us clarity.

So it gives us that clarity of thought, which enables us to speak better. So when women, as I said right at the start, women say, I want to be more eloquent. That's what I work with them on is pace, because speaking slower. Having more control in your voice just gives you that time back and enables you to feel more confident about what you're saying and gives you time to think about what you want to say as well.

So those are my top three tips that I would, I would give Perfect, great tips, [00:42:00] and I'm sure that many people are listening to this thinking, how can I work with Liz? So just give us a couple of of things that obviously you do so much, but you know, a couple of, yeah. Um, relevant programs that you, you offer Definitely.

Well, I love working one-to-one with women and I can work with you wherever you are because we can work online. And if you go to the website, bold Moves coach.co.uk, you can go there and, um, there's a Let's Chat button and you can book a free 30 minute trial session with me, first of all. So anyone is welcome to do that.

Um, I also have a one-to-one program at the moment. If you go onto my services, uh, exec coaching, I've got a program called Bold Moves in the Boardroom, which is precisely for women at senior position who struggle to get their voices heard, all the things I've been talking about. Um, so [00:43:00] that is, have a look at that program because that's, that's a good one.

But I also offer bespoke, so. Even if you come to me and say, can I just do one session with you? I can offer a power hour where if you just come and say, I just want to like download basically all of these issues that I'm having, you can book a Power Hour for that. Or you can book a power hour if you've got a presentation coming up and you need to practice and you need help preparing.

So I would say those are the main three. Thank you. Of course. We've mentioned your podcast, so do you want to give that a shout out? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I love a podcast, as you can probably tell. I love talking, so if you go and, um, you can go on Spotify or I. Um, am on Amazon or on, uh, what's the other one?

iTunes and just search for making bold moves. And the podcast is, is on there. So please go and give us a listen [00:44:00] and follow us if that's your thing. And it's all about, you know, just giving you those tools and techniques to help you make your own bold moves. And you know, you, you'll be able to find the podcast that we recorded together on there.

Ah, of course. But as you know, you've accompanied me on many a journey when I've been, uh, traveling all over the country. I listen, I listen in to the podcast and, and it's brilliant. So, I'd highly recommend anybody tune in. Thank you so much for joining us today on, Find Your Spark, Real Life Menopause Moments.

I'll put your contact details in the show notes. Thank you for inviting me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for listening to Find your Spark: Real Life Menopause Moments. If you'd like to learn more, visit www.sparkshr.co uk. Please share this episode with others navigating their Menopause journey or supporting someone through it.

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