S2 Episode 3 - Everything Starts with an Idea with Ann English

In this engaging conversation, Ann English, a visual strategist and TEDx speaker, shares her journey from a successful 25-year career in Christmas displays to founding her own business, Create Intrigue, after facing redundancy. She discusses her unique experience with hyperphantasia, the ability to visualize ideas vividly, and how it shapes her work in helping others turn their ideas into actionable plans. Ann emphasizes the importance of community, support, and self-awareness in navigating midlife reinvention and encourages listeners to embrace their creativity and share their ideas.

Ann English is a Visual Strategist, TEDx Speaker, and author of The Clarity Quest Ideas Book. 

A visual thinker with Hyperphantasia, Ann enjoyed a brilliant creative career and dream job for 25 years, before being made redundant at 47. After a string of rejections, she founded her own business, Create Intrigue. 

Today, she helps intuitive individuals, creative entrepreneurs and visual thinkers turn the ideas they’ve been saving for “One Day…” into “Day One” action. Through her unique VisionMapping™ method and VisualDoodle™ frameworks, Ann brings clarity and creative confidence to midlife reinvention.

Takeaways

Ann English is a visual strategist and TEDx speaker.

Hyperphantasia allows Ann to visualize ideas vividly.

She founded Create Intrigue after being made redundant.

Ann's dream job involved creating Christmas displays.

Facing rejection led Ann to redirect her career.

Visual mapping is a key tool in Ann's work.

Community support is crucial for personal growth.

The Clarity Quest is a guided journal for capturing ideas.

Ann emphasizes the importance of self-awareness.

Creativity can manifest in various forms, and everyone has a superpower.

Website: https://hub.annenglish.co.uk

The Clarity Quest IdeasBook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarity-Quest-IdeasBook-Journal-Valuable/dp/1739360303/

TEDx Talk:  https://www.ted.com/talks/ann_english_the_clarity_quest_jan_2021

On socials: @createintrigue

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annenglishcreateintrigue/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createintrigue/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreateIntrigue

Insta @hearmeroarhere

Facebook Hear Me Roar

YouTube @hearmeroarhere

Get in touch: hearmeroarhere@gmail.com or via our website hearmeroarhere.com

Transcript

Hear Me Roar (00:32)

Oh, hello. We've been stressing about our hair as usual. Yeah. That's nothing like the stress I had this morning though, is it? I know, well, this episode is everything starts with an idea, but everything for you this morning started with the word fuck. Yes, I better explain.

So I was up, I was on the sofa on my phone scrolling as you do. Hubby had suggested we had a nice breakfast outside, of pastries. Very nice. Yes, he was going to get dressed and pootle off to buy said pastries. I'd already been outside and decided yes, it was warm enough. And then I went downstairs to get the ironing board thinking I would do a bit of ironing after. And for some reason I glanced at the calendar and suddenly noticed we had two podcast recordings this morning.

first one starting at 10 and at this point it was 9.35. I wasn't dressed, I hadn't had a shower, I still haven't, apologies for that. Sitting so closely next to me. And all my husband could hear from the kitchen was, fuck, fuck! And he said it was like the opening scene of four weddings and a funeral. As I frantically ran around the house throwing clothes on.

He very kindly located my t-shirt and ironed it. And then I had to print stuff out and it was a bit of a mad panic, shall we say? Yeah. And round about the time that you were having a mad panic, I was upstairs putting my makeup on, thinking I'll pop some tinted foundation, not foundation, a moisturiser on. And then I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked like I've been hit in the face. I think I'm having an allergic reaction.

To me? Well. No, I think I'm having an allergic reaction to a horse fly bite that I got the other day. Yeah. But I've taken a piriton and hopefully that calms it down. It does look as if it's calmed down a little bit. I'll probably fall asleep at some point. Well, I'll just get me pokey stick and wake you up again. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, this this episode.

is with Ann English and it's everything starts with an idea.

Hear Me Roar (02:31)

Ann English is a visual strategist, TEDx speaker and author of the Clarity Quest Ideas book. She's a visual thinker with hyperphantasia, which she will explain, I'm sure. Ann enjoyed a brilliant creative career in her dream job for 25 years before being made redundant at 47. After a string of rejections, she founded her own business, Create Intrigue.

Today she helps individuals, creative entrepreneurs and visual thinkers turn the ideas they've been saving for one day into day one action. Through her unique vision mapping method and visual doodle frameworks, Ann brings clarity and creative confidence to midlife reinvention. So let's go and meet Ann

Hear Me Roar (03:22)

Hi Ann. It's lovely to meet you. So this episode is called Everything Starts With An Idea and we're raring to go and desperate to hear about your ideas. But first, we want to understand something which has probably had a huge influence on your ideas is hyperphantasia, which you've got, which

Ann English (03:24)

Hello?

I'll see you.

Hear Me Roar (03:47)

It's not a disease or anything. But it's something that I hadn't heard of until ⁓ I saw some information about you. So can you explain for us, please?

Ann English (03:48)

Yes.

Yeah,

yes of course. Yeah well it's something I didn't realise I only discovered about this recently and then everything then made sense for everything that I've done in my life it all made sense. So I'm going to take you back to a time I ended up during lockdown doing a TEDx talk and my TEDx talk was about having an idea, making it reality and all the twists and turns along the way because I'm a creative and that's

Hear Me Roar (04:17)

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (04:24)

what I've done, that's the life I've lived. And I illustrated my TEDx talk and knew that if I was going to do something, because I'm a visual communicator, it was going to be illustrated. And I created a big vision map, I call it a vision map, so a mind map of all the things I wanted to talk about my TEDx talk. But you can only talk for 14 minutes or couldn't talk about everything. So that evolved then into a program, into a book. So I've got some visual tools here because I'm a visual communicator.

my book, The Clarity Quest. was talking about this in an event and I was showing it. Now, as you look through, you'll see it's all illustrated. So the person, there was a person in the audience that saw me talk about the book and what I did and came up to me afterwards and said, I don't know how you do what you do because I've got aphantasia and I will work as a finance person, you know, really successful as businessman. But he was like,

I've got no visual thoughts and for me at that point I was like well how do you think? Obviously he could think he was very successful but in my head it was like if I don't think visually then I can't think I even kind of count numbers on my fingers or or kind of cross bars and stuff but when do we ever think about how we think?

Hear Me Roar (05:24)

Mm-hmm.

Mm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ann English (05:43)

So I came home and as you do I was kind of straight on the computer googling it and I looked up hyperphantasia and then I found there was this visual scale and at the other end sorry I looked up aphantasia and at the other end of the visual scale was hyperphantasia and I was like ⁓ that makes sense now you can see I've got my Mickey Mouse behind me it sounds like something doesn't it out my favorite movie Fantasia it sounds like something that

Hear Me Roar (06:07)

FANTASIA!

Ann English (06:10)

Mickey Mouse invented but I mean I love Disney I've worked with Disney of you know I've worked I say the big three Santa Claus Willy Wonka Mickey Mouse you know that's that's been my creative career so then it made sense of everything so we all belong on this visual scale somewhere between aphantasia not having a visual mind and hyperphantasia now I would say that I am a multi-sensory hyperphantasia because not only

I've always said I hear words and see pictures. I didn't realize how true that was. And my head is full of maps and I can connect the dots and things, which has obviously helped me with my creative career. But also, there's feelings which go with that. So, for example, some words that kind of have movement with them and things. So, yeah, it kind of just made sense of everything. So, you know, for yourself, for people that are listening, they might also then start to think, ooh.

Am I on that visual scale? mean, we can do a quick fun kind of it's like a test, but it's a quiz if you want. If you're intrigued to find out more. Yeah, on anybody. So think about this one. So think about lemon. OK, so if you're thinking about this lemon. Could you pick it up?

Hear Me Roar (07:13)

Yeah, go for On O's? Go for it, yeah, go for it. Come on then.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (07:27)

Could you turn it around? Could you cut it in half and imagine seeing inside of it? Did you hear the sound when you cut it in half of the knife going through it and hitting the chopping board? Can you pick it up? Can you squeeze it? Can you smell it? Can you smell what it smells like? Can you now taste it?

Hear Me Roar (07:33)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Ann English (07:50)

I was going to say, has your mouth started watering? You know,

it's all of these things. Now, if you don't have that kind of visual recall and if I was to ask you to describe the lemon, you might say, well, lemons or a fruit and the yellow, you know what a lemon is. But maybe if I asked you to describe a lemon and you are more visual. I mean, what came to mind when I said think of a lemon? Where was the lemon?

Hear Me Roar (08:06)

Yeah.

was on my green chopping board. Yeah.

Ann English (08:19)

Right. So you say

you've started to add a visual context to that. You can kind of see that in your mind's eye. So this is what I'm talking about. mean, yeah, you've never heard of the hyperphantasia before, but you know, you're somewhere on that visual scale. So I'm kind of raising awareness of that because for me, that makes sense of everything that I do. And it also makes sense of I used to think I was a bit stupid, a bit thick because

Hear Me Roar (08:32)

No.

Ann English (08:45)

numbers don't compute with me, know, ⁓ data, that kind of thing. And, you know, I've been at events, at master classes, conferences where people have talked about things and I'm listening and I'm thinking, I have no idea what they're talking about. And I've realised if I can't form a visual picture in my head, then it doesn't make sense.

Hear Me Roar (08:47)

you

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Ann English (09:08)

But now it makes sense why I do what I do, because people say to me, you, you know, the word that comes to mind is to say that I help them get clarity, you know, which is why I've called my TEDx talk and the book, The Clarity Quest. And I realize it's because I ask a lot of questions. So if I can't picture it, but then it means that other people have to explain themselves so that I can then illustrate it or create a mind map, a vision map of their ideas.

Hear Me Roar (09:11)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ann English (09:35)

So yeah, it kind of just, makes sense of everything now. I didn't know that until a couple of years ago.

Hear Me Roar (09:38)

Yeah.

But it's interesting because I write books and people often say to me that my books are like movies and they can picture them in their heads. And I think it's because when I'm writing them, a movie is playing in my head as I'm writing. I really visualized the different scenes and what the people look like, what they're doing. And then I turn.

Ann English (09:48)

you

Yes. Yes.

Hear Me Roar (10:02)

the movie that's in my head, I have to turn that into words and describe what's going on in my head.

Ann English (10:08)

Yes, I love it.

You see that's what I talk about it being like you have movies playing in your mind. ⁓ Wonderful. So, you know, I'll say we all belong. It's not that kind of like, well, I do talk about we all have superpowers. It's not like, you know, this is better than that. It's we all belong on that visual scale and we all need each other. You know, before I came onto this call, my headphones weren't working and my husband's an engineer.

Hear Me Roar (10:15)

Mm-hmm.

you

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (10:35)

And was like, John, can you come and help me? You know, he's brilliant with the technical stuff. So, yeah, I think we all we all need to tap into each other's skills.

Hear Me Roar (10:40)

Yeah.

Ann English (10:46)

Well okay I mightn't be able to do that but I can do this.

Hear Me Roar (10:49)

Yeah. Yeah. So before you started your own business, you spent 25 years doing what you describe as your dream job. So what was that dream job?

Ann English (10:53)

Yeah.

So my dream job was working for Santa Claus. I did Christmas displays and shopping centres. So I joined a business called Santa Design. was two directors. I was the first employee. And then over 25 years, that business grew into the major provider of Christmas displays and Santa's grottoes in shopping centres So that's where this

Hear Me Roar (11:01)

well, now I get it. ⁓

Ann English (11:22)

knowledge about having an idea and making it reality comes from because I've literally lived that idea. We would start with a map or a plan of the shopping centre and then I'd visualise in my head what was going to look right within the shopping centre or if it was the Santa's Grotto I'd visualise the walkthrough, the experience that you would have. So yeah it was just amazing you know to be able to do that. I don't think I had to grow up which was fantastic.

Hear Me Roar (11:48)

Well yes, if you were working with Santa Claus. Yeah, but you got made redundant, I believe.

Ann English (11:49)

I still believe by the way, I do still believe, yeah.

Yes in 2013 so Centre Design was the trailblazers really we had ⁓ amazing people working in the organisation so whatever we could kind of dream up we could achieve because there was people from them being product designers through to illustrators, painters or lots of the creative people and then the

practical people that could, you know, I was out on site in middle of the night installing them and then there was another business that was, you know, we were seen as number one, number two was in the Midlands. They were merged together to form a business called Fuzzwire

So when they closed us down and moved everything to the Midlands, that whole business then collapsed. So I was made redundant then, as well as a lot of my colleagues. Yeah, and then both businesses ended up collapsing and moving out of the marketplace.

That was a shame really, but you know what? It's all of these pathways. I was then looking for my next forever job because I absolutely loved that business. If that hadn't happened though, I wouldn't be talking to you today. you know.

Hear Me Roar (12:53)

Thank

No. So

how did that make you feel at the time? Because I had a job where I worked two days a week and it was not my dream job. And I was made redundant and I sort of fell into an abyss of feeling like I'd been chucked on the scrap heap. I was useless. How did it impact you when you were in your dream job?

Ann English (13:10)

⁓ dreadful.

Do you know what? The emotions are coming, I don't know whether you can see. Because they I started there with the two directors, over 25 years everybody else that came through that business and you. So it was like losing a family and you know what?

we worked together as a team to kind of make the magic happen so yeah I mean instead of having a kind of a leaving party I actually organized a reunion

Hear Me Roar (13:45)

Yeah.

Ann English (13:52)

I wanted to make it more hopeful. I wanted to bring people that had left together to kind of connect people. And then I tried to get my next, what I was looking for was my next forever job. So I was applying for job after job

Hear Me Roar (13:56)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Ann English (14:07)

and sometimes as well, it would be a form that you'd have to fill in. There would be a big process of filling in, you know, this form online and then you'd hit send. And then almost immediately you get a reply back saying, sorry, you've been unsuccessful.

often I was just discarded because I didn't have a degree even though I could do work. So yeah and it got to for two years I just kept applying and applying for jobs.

Hear Me Roar (14:28)

Yeah.

Ann English (14:35)

In the meantime I had people who knew me say can you help us with this, can you help us with that project, can you help us with the window display. So I was doing work kind of freelance but my focus was on that next forever job you know until I retired it was like another 25 years. And I remember sitting at the Christmas dinner table at my husband's mother's house you know his parents house and she said to us

Hear Me Roar (14:48)

you

Ann English (15:02)

You know she was being lovely, she wasn't being nasty but she said, you know, how's it going, how's the job hunting going? And I remember bursting into tears, turning to my husband and saying, I can't do this anymore. Because like I just said, just my self worth every time that rejection letter came through.

Hear Me Roar (15:13)

Mmm.

Ann English (15:19)

You know and one of the jobs, I thought I got the job I was down the last two. I got on really well with the guy who was kind of interviewing and running the business. It was for an architects practice doing the marketing job. And I got phoned up by the recruitment agency and they said you haven't got the job. was like what? I'm you haven't got the job and I was like but we got on really well. went yeah yeah yeah yeah I've got the skill yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. But he says you haven't got the job.

Hear Me Roar (15:37)

Yeah.

Ann English (15:46)

you've got wanderlust. I remember at the time being furious having to look it up in the dictionary and go wanderlust what does that even mean because in my kind of head and my heart I was thinking I was looking for my next forever job I was like I stayed with the last business for 25 years I'm looking for my next business 25 years until I retire that's it and she was like nope he says you've got wanderlust you're not gonna stay

And I talk about sometimes people seeing something in you that you don't see in yourself. So that rejection, I talk about rejection now being redirection when you've got time to reflect, that set me off on a different path. You know, those those key moments where it was just that realization that I can't do this anymore for myself worth. So I kind of already started building my business, but it wasn't the key focus and

Hear Me Roar (16:29)

you

Ann English (16:35)

everything that I do developed from people saying can you help me with this thing because they knew that I was able to do that. So that's how it evolved.

Hear Me Roar (16:43)

Yeah.

So tell us about your business, Create Intrigue Tell us about that please.

Ann English (16:50)

Yeah, Create Intrigue. So it's a visual communications business.

So I've always mind mapped ideas when I got a brief from the client. But remember that was all hidden behind the scenes. So I would come up, you know, doodle my creative solutions. I was in the design studio at the time. So I'd sketch that out and then give it to the illustrators who were absolutely brilliant to draw up. And I would always start with the plan. So when I got made redundant and people would say to us, can you help us, for example, with my website because it doesn't represent who I am or can you help us with my exhibition stand?

The first thing that I would do is grab a piece of paper and start creating, know, visually mapping out the ideas. And then the clients I was working with would go, hang on a minute, what's that that you're doing? And I'm going, well, that's how you get ideas out of your head. That's like you get this dot, you get that dot, you connect another dot. You know, that's how you make sense of things.

Hear Me Roar (17:42)

Yeah.

Ann English (17:43)

I realized the more clients I was working with, the more that they valued the process, the actual piece of paper that I was writing my ideas on. So that evolved into vision mapping. And then that evolved into my own method. So it's actually kind of like coaching process, really, where I have discussions with my clients and we talk about all sorts of ideas, we explore them. And then I put

them together and categorise them into making sense. So we either form a vision tree to grow your business or we form a signature system to build your brand. So the signature system will be more like the process that you take people through. So that's more for culture, somebody that doesn't have a tangible object. But actually what you sell is your knowledge, you know, the fact that you guide people through the roadmap from having a problem normally to coming up with a creative solution.

So that's how that evolved. But there's actually three sides to my business. so there is more, which I can talk about as well.

Hear Me Roar (18:40)

So is that... no,

So you've explained visual mapping, but you also do vision doodling. Is that what this is? for our listeners, I'm putting up a piece of paper. With a lot of doodles on them. With  doodles on. Connected by wiggly lines. So it's got things like sea of negativity, the universe of creativity.

Ann English (18:49)

Yeah.

Yes, visual doodle. Yes. So that's the road map.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Hear Me Roar (19:10)

world of your imagination. I mean, I love it as a piece of artwork on its own. Yeah, it's great.

Ann English (19:16)

So

I didn't have visual doodles as part of my offering. I've always doodled ideas. Have you ever watched the TEDxTalk? Do know what a TEDxTalk is? About people sharing their ideas. Some people know them, some people don't. love it. My... Yeah, TED Talks, TEDxTalks. So TED Talks are...

Hear Me Roar (19:26)

Yes. No.

I love watching them. Yeah. Is that the same as a TED Talk?

Ann English (19:38)

the American official ones and then TEDxTalks are the licensed brand that, so I did one with Newcastle University. I love them because it's all about sharing ideas. Amazing, isn't it? So I always said if I do a TEDxTalk,

Hear Me Roar (19:48)

I've seen that.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (19:55)

it needs to be illustrated. Anyway, I got the opportunity to do a TEDx talk, so I kind of had to illustrate that and I ended up at an event drawing what the speaker was talking about. Then I got asked that to put that on social media. Then I got an inquiry for a commission and I couldn't believe it.

it was actually Brené Brown's licensed facilitators here in the northeast of England. So my first commission to do a visual doodle was actually to take Brené Brown's Dare to Lead course and create five visual doodles that sums it up. I know, unbelievable. So my TEDx talk ends up there's doodles that happen all the way through and it forms a roadmap at the end of it. So then that became

Hear Me Roar (20:29)

Wow. All right, wow.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (20:40)

another one of my offers that became another one of my services because people are like, how do you help me with that? So not only do I create visual doodles for other clients and now teach visual doodling as well and how to create different images yourself. And I run daydream and doodle days and during those you create your superpower self, but you're also creating your map of your world. So, ⁓ yeah, that kind of evolved just again out of, you know, a doodle is

Hear Me Roar (20:52)

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (21:07)

Just get the ideas out of your head in a way that you can then communicate that either to yourself so you can see it visually or to somebody else when you're trying to explain it.

Hear Me Roar (21:10)

Yeah.

Yes, and sometimes it's easier to understand it if you can see it drawn rather than just, you know, seeing a list of writing. So people and brands are using your business from a branding point of view to help them get their business right and formulate their strategies for marketing and things like that and putting themselves out there. But also

Ann English (21:21)

Absolutely.

Yes!

Yeah.

Hear Me Roar (21:43)

as individuals to kind of join the dots through the doodles as well.

Ann English (21:46)

Absolutely that's

it you see see I've been painting pictures in your head and now you've joined the dots and you've formed a movie you could do a movie of my life now I love it

Hear Me Roar (21:57)

So you've had this almost sort of midlife reinvention where you were... No! No, the opposite. Where you were pushed into making some changes by your circumstances and...

Ann English (22:02)

I have. thought you were going to say crisis actually but yes let's go reinvention, let's go transformation yeah.

Absolutely.

Hear Me Roar (22:16)

You've not just taken like that as a, right, okay, I'm going to change my direction and do this for myself. But then you've created opportunities and you've built on the opportunities and you've built your business into something which, well, really you've taken something which didn't exist and you've made it a thing now. Yes.

Ann English (22:34)

Absolutely. So that's

what you do. You give it a name as well. So at first my doodles were visual note taker but no, start to own it. So that's my visual doodles. You know my own version of mind mapping, I now call it vision mapping.

Hear Me Roar (22:38)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (22:48)

So

Another part of my business is I teach visual marketing, which is actually based on visual merchandising, which is your traditional window displays. Well, people said to me, yeah, but I don't have a window display. And I'm going, well, you do. We all have a shop window in our pocket. It's called a mobile phone. So if you're businesses, if you've got a website, maybe an Instagram page, anything like that, that's your shop window. So.

Hear Me Roar (22:57)

Right.

Yeah.

Ann English (23:14)

It was after I was made redundant and there was a group at the time called Inspire, the Inspire Network. I ended up, yeah, I ended up going networking because remember the people that I worked with were like my family, my friends. All of a sudden then I lost that. You know, I was applying for jobs. I was disconnected from, you know,

Hear Me Roar (23:20)

No, I feel I did that.

Yeah.

Ann English (23:35)

disconnected from people so I ended up going networking just because I needed to be in the room of other so in this networking group somebody reached out and said can somebody help us with my table display I'm selling products I don't know how to present them properly professionally so I just said yeah I can help with that so I reached out and the time well the lady

had a business called Powder Butterfly. So I said well set it up on your dining table at home I'll come round and I'll show you what to do. So I took a photograph afterwards and then I explained how to move that around to make it look a bit more professional. It was very close but she knew instinctively it wasn't quite right. So then I took a photograph afterwards because I said

you're going to need to be able to do this yourself moving forward. So I was like, well, you know, there's threes and there's triangles and you know, I was talking about this stuff that I just intuitively knew about. And then she was like, you need to teach this. I don't teach this. In fact, well, for 25 years when I did the displays, I didn't, I never did the presentations. I would never ever.

Hear Me Roar (24:37)

You've got a magic power.

Ann English (24:49)

stand up and do the presentations. I would give it to the sales team. would ⁓ create the presentations with the team. I'd create the plans, I would do the storytelling and all of that, but I would never present it.

so ⁓ yeah but then she was she ended up doing a networking event asked us to be the speaker I was like no and she was like please anyway long story short went along spoke for the first time absolutely like way out of my comfort zone I had to sit down

I thought otherwise I'm going to fall down. But then from there people are like, can you teach me? Can you come to our network group? So now I also teach visual marketing principles which again got the ideas out of my head, created a mind map of all the things that people needed to know about their brand, sensors, you know how I call it the secret sense strategy. So it's like selling without selling. It's just like how you present your business which would have been your shop window display.

Hear Me Roar (25:44)

Yes.

Ann English (25:44)

But now

that manifests itself in different ways. So it might be even things like exhibition stands, you know. So that became, when I talk about Power of Three, the third part of my business that kind of just evolved from, first of all, helping somebody else. Yeah.

Hear Me Roar (25:51)

Yeah.

and then realizing that there will probably be other people who would appreciate that help. And then things just start to snowball, don't they?

Ann English (26:06)

Absolutely, absolutely

and you just mentioned the magic word which I talk about my TEDx talk it's the word just because the word just reveals our superpower. So sometimes we diminish our own superpowers by going it's just you know I say we're all creative in different ways so it might be that you just bake a cake or just do the gardening or just you know that kind of thing but then sometimes other people they see your superpower in you so then they might go ⁓

Hear Me Roar (26:15)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (26:34)

can I just pick your brains? Can you just do this? You know, so it's listening out for that word just because it's something that you probably find easy, but actually other people find valuable. Yeah, so what's your secret superpower? That's my question to you.

Hear Me Roar (26:37)

Hahaha! ⁓

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

I don't know. don't know about that. I'm trying to think. I did similar to you and did a bit of a midlife reinvention and started writing books. So I think my secret superpower is just writing stuff. Yeah. Just writing stuff. So you were in your late 40s when you started your business.

Ann English (26:54)

Ha

There you go.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Hear Me Roar (27:10)

A lot of people, women in particular, start to lose confidence around that age. Sometimes it's connected to the menopause, sometimes it's just because we're aging we start to feel invisible. How did you negotiate that and where did you find that confidence from?

Ann English (27:15)

Yes, absolutely.

So again I'm getting emotional. my god it was it was just little tiny tiny steps. It was reaching out and finding the right people as well. So you know whilst I'm seen as a coach, a guide or whatever, every coach needs a coach. We all need each other. It's finding the right people that are going to help you, that are going to empower you, that you can talk to when you're in tears you know when it doesn't go alright.

Hear Me Roar (27:29)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ann English (27:49)

that can pick you up. So yeah, it's been a long journey, ⁓ but it's just step by step. know, yeah, there has been times where I've just thought, ⁓ what am I doing this for? You know, I can't do this anymore. I'm sure we all have those days. But then.

Hear Me Roar (27:54)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. And is that when

your friends pick you up and you're finding your tribe? That's what you always say, isn't it? Find your tribe.

Ann English (28:12)

Yeah, it is.

But you know, it's also it was something that my daughter said she was kind of just in her teens. She probably forgets that she even said it to me. But the night before I was meant to do that first talk and I got told that there was going to be a hundred sorry, not hundred, forty people. I only felt like a hundred people. Forty people had signed up and I was like, and I'd done all my slides. And my daughter said to his mom, just just

Hear Me Roar (28:34)

Ha

Ann English (28:38)

just tell me, just tell me and I turned around to her and I went and I literally I choked I could not speak to my daughter and in my head I was going like what if I fall over what if you know all the what ifs they're like the crazy the crazy what ifs and my daughter just said to me ma'am it's not about you it's about them and I felt at that moment that I just like was like

Hear Me Roar (28:51)

All the WhatsApps.

Mmm. I know, I know.

Ann English (29:03)

I was just literally grounded. was like from floating around in kind of hyperspace in this crazy like whatever world to just going, yeah, to just going, you know what? I love helping people. I love helping people. So I need to go out there with not the opinion of like, you know, what do people think about me? It's like, I've got a message to share and the right people will hear it. So when I did my TEDx talk, I mean, I was quite fortunate, I think.

Hear Me Roar (29:03)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Ann English (29:31)

because it was during lockdown. So there was actually nobody in the room. It was filmed. I was in a film studio, but there was just the camera, a bit like this. So I just talked to the one person that needed to hear my message. You know, I ended up speaking at UK Startup Week a couple of weeks back on the stage there. And that was quite scary. mean, was Daniel Priestley followed me, Paul Mort, who's a renowned speaker. then later on, was Zara Davies was on that stage. So that was a big...

Hear Me Roar (29:39)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Ann English (30:00)

like

you know it was like but again i just spoke i just thought to be honest i couldn't see anybody because the light was so bright on me i just thought i am speaking to the one person that needs to hear my message so going forward you know that was part the reason why i wrote my book as well it was about don't let your ideas die inside of you for goodness sake just don't you know and your mind is a place for generating ideas is not for storing them

Hear Me Roar (30:08)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (30:28)

You've got to your ideas out for your head. You know, I want to empower you. Yes, I've got a magic.

Hear Me Roar (30:32)

Yeah.

Ann English (30:33)

That it doesn't happen by magic, it is a process. You know, that's why the clarity quest got the C in negativity. It's got this twists and turns along the way. The twists and turns represent your self talk because your self talk will determine if your ideas become a reality. Doesn't matter if other people say you're brilliant. Doesn't matter if other people say you're rubbish. What are you saying to yourself? You know, and as I say, I've been on that journey. I've learned along the way. I've connected with other people that helped me. I've helped people.

Hear Me Roar (30:49)

Mm.

Yeah. ⁓

Ann English (31:01)

So when I talk about the power of three this is the kind of like my little trick a visual trick that I do. We often think how am I going to do something so I hold up three cards H O W and we think how am I going to do something and actually those three little magic letters you just swap them around W H O who who can help you because it's as simple as that.

Hear Me Roar (31:25)

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (31:26)

somebody that can help us isn't there? So that's what we need to do just reach out reach out to other people

Hear Me Roar (31:28)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we found that, haven't we? We have. So your book, The Clarity Quest, where can people get that if they're interested in finding out more?

Ann English (31:38)

Yeah.

So the Clarity Quest Ideas book, it's a guided journal for you to capture ideas. So it takes you on the journey and there's pages in there so you can write it down. It's black and white purposely because I want people to colour it in and just tap into their creativity. So it's available on Amazon. You can go via my website annenglish.co.uk

can go via my website as well annenglish.co.uk

Hear Me Roar (32:02)

Super. So that kind of takes us on to the most important question of the day. Your cocktail. Your cocktail. If you were a cocktail or mocktail, what would you be called? What would be your ingredients and why?

Ann English (32:09)

Ta-da!

Cocktail

Yes, well it would definitely have to be a mocktail because I don't drink So yeah let's go for the mocktail. ⁓

Hear Me Roar (32:26)

Okay.

Ann English (32:27)

Shall we call it, we'll give it a name, the Clarity Quest Cooler, especially with this hot weather. So we will add some apple juice for sweetness and clarity. Ooh, shall we put in some passion fruit for that kind of, you know, what are you passionate about, that bold imagination. Lime juice. So yeah, we're going to need some uplifting energy. we'll have it.

Hear Me Roar (32:31)

Yeah, right.

Mm-hmm.

Ann English (32:52)

lime juice in there we might need a bit of lemon juice as well for that clarity. Add some mint leaves we need that fresh focus don't we so a sprig of mint leaves because we're growing ideas here and then some sparkling water a little bit of fun a little bit of fizz to make it pop so yeah I think that's what

Hear Me Roar (33:11)

That's really nice. Marie's been writing it all down. Well, we're going to actually make all these cocktails and mocktails. That's going to be a lovely, refreshing one, isn't it? That's going to be the one that we have in between the alcoholic ones. We'll have one of yours. That will be lush.

Ann English (33:18)

Well.

You've just reminded me yeah my nephew

yeah Rick Rick would although I always call him Nicky he is a barista he's a barman and stuff so he could yeah I think I might ask him to to create my cocktail for us so I'll send you a picture you know the visual side of it I'll send you a picture and the recipe

Hear Me Roar (33:44)

Thank you. Well, it's been

lovely speaking to you and thank you so much. fascinating. Yeah, it has. It really genuinely has. It's a lot of things that I'd never thought about before, but probably... Yeah, you've given us food for thought there. Yeah, probably knew, but you explaining it makes you really know if you see what I mean. But yeah, that's... Yeah. Yeah.

Ann English (33:57)

Good.

Yeah, yeah. It's about raising awareness, isn't it? Because, yeah,

we can all help each other. And, you know, I don't want anybody to feel that they're alone or that they're worthless or they're useless or whatever. It's just about understanding yourself, I think, isn't it? And that's what you do. And I love the fact that you're raising awareness of all sorts of different things, aren't you?

Hear Me Roar (34:16)

Yes.

Yeah,

well, we're really enjoying it. We're loving it. And thank you so much for talking to us. It's been absolutely fascinating. Ann Thank you. Take care. Bye.

Ann English (34:28)

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye.