Episode 19 - Sarah Heron - Personal Brand Stylist

Sarah spent years hiding behind the belief that she had to fit a mould to be taken seriously. She thought success meant being polished, quiet, small, or simply what society deemed “acceptable.” Perfectionism and anonymity behind curated posts became her shields, and she tried to be everything for everyone before allowing herself to fully show up. Over time, she realised that authentic visibility showing her real self was what would truly attract her tribe.

Her mask has long been confidence without cracks: the woman who always knows the answer, who appears to have it all together. But beneath that façade was fear -fear of judgment, self-criticism, and a belief that she had to work harder to earn the right to be visible. Even when she embraced bold, full-length imagery, she carried remnants of that old fear.

Sarah rarely speaks about the personal and professional toxicity she has navigated, love lost, narcissistic abuse, stillbirth, grief, or about the reality of building a brand as a plus-size, 62-year-old woman in an industry obsessed with youth and narrow beauty ideals. That invisibility, and the struggle to be seen, fuels her mission: to help others who feel like they don’t fit the standard, showing them how to step forward with unapologetic confidence.

What she wants the world to know is that her confidence wasn’t handed to her; it was built, layer by layer, through inner work, self-acceptance, and courageous choice. Every challenge, every moment of invisibility, every stereotype she’s had to fight against has shaped her self-worth. Today, it is rooted not in external approval but in knowing she can show others what’s possible when you claim your space.

For Sarah, true visibility is freedom. It’s being seen as she truly is in her brilliance, her softness, her wisdom, her imperfections, and her plus-size body without shrinking, masking, or apologising.

Through her story, Sarah proves that confidence isn’t about perfection. It’s about alignment, authenticity, and courage. If she can step forward at 62, breaking every stereotype that says she should stay quiet or small, then anyone can. Her journey is a testament: you are never too much, never too old, never too different  you are exactly enough to be seen.

Sarah has spent a lifetime learning that visibility is about more than appearances. Her mask of confidence concealed fear, self-criticism, and years of battling invisibility. Her story shows that true visibility comes from authenticity, courage, and claiming your space no matter your age, size, or the world’s expectations. Sarah’s journey is proof that you can shine fully, unapologetically, exactly as you are.

https://www.truecolourswithsarahheron.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TrueColourswithSarahHeron/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-heron/

www.joannawoodphotography.co.uk
www.instagram.com/joannawoodphotography
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-wood-photography-6747a7235/
https://www.facebook.com/joanna.wood.13/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, I'm Joanna, and this is Stories from Behind the Mask, the parts we edit out. Every week, I'll be sitting down with entrepreneurs who've built businesses, created legacies, and dare to show up in the world. And we talk about the stories they usually keep to themselves. The doubts, the wins, the personal challenges, the moments that changed everything. This is about being seen, unpolished, and completely real. So, if you're ready for honesty and truth, it's time to share today's story from behind the mask. Good morning, everybody, and it's Wednesday, and it's stories from behind the mask. And today we have wonderful Sarah Heron. Good morning, Sarah.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Good morning, Joel.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

How are we?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

We're all good, thank you very much. Good in the hood, as I say.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Good.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

And I'm loving your green jumper this morning. It's very bright.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Actually, we're matching, aren't we? We're both in pastel.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

We are green. We're very spring-like. Yeah. I'm always complimented when I wear this green. I mean, it is one of my colours. Um, and it would be foolish not to wear one of my colours, wouldn't it? But it seems to just work with my colouring, so yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Um, so Sarah, I'd love you to tell um the listeners just a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Um yeah, just a bit of your backstory and what you do for your business.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Okay. Eek, not very good at talking about ourselves, are we as women? But I'll give it a go. Um, so yes, I'm 63 years of age, first and foremost. I'm a wife, a mum, a granny. Um, and that's kind of my backstory. I'm also a sister, so I'm surrounded by men in my world. Um, it only dawned on me fairly recently that that was the case. But that's kind of who I am um socially, personally. I live up in the northeast of England, um, which always seems like a million miles away um in the world of business when people are all interacting and you know, um, which closer proximity to one another, I feel a bit like I'm that pin on the map that smiles from anybody and anywhere. However, um, so historically I was a former teacher until my mid-50s when I decided that for various reasons, mainly because I was exhausted, mainly because I was hyper stressed, mainly because I had a very nasty health scare, um, I decided to come out of teaching and began my business the first week of the first lockdown, which was like madness. Um, but I came into my business because I was somebody that struggled all of my life with my confidence. Um, I can't pinpoint it to exactly where or why or what the catalyst was. I had a very happy upbringing, um, very loving parents, but there was something in my DNA somewhere that just didn't appreciate who I was, um, always felt like I wasn't enough. Um, that was kind of fuelled again by um my marriage, where um my husband decided that I clearly wasn't enough and um chose to have multiple affairs, and that knocked me even further back. So I started to hide away um in anything that was big and baggy and black. By this time I'd kind of um put on quite a bit of weight. So I'm somebody that's been a size six and I'm now a plus size 22, and I'm now in a position where I can own that and I can say, well, that's been my lived experience because when I was um a teenager, I was very tall for my age, head and shoulders with my peers. I was um bullied mercilessly because of it, because I was very gangly and gawky and wore glasses and all the things that weren't cool. Um, and so I kind of never felt quite enough, never felt that I was acceptable with the cool kids. Um, however, so at that point I started to learn to make my own clothes um because nothing would fit. Children's clothes were way too small, adults' clothes were way um were way too big. So I learned how to sew, made all my own clothes, and now I'm in a position where I struggle again on the high street because of the opposite end of the scale to where I am now. But as I started to lose myself in my marriage, and I suppose I've been a catalyst before that. Was it a symptom of my marriage? Was it a consequence of a marriage that I'm not sure about if I'm being totally honest? But I did and I lost myself. And I came out of teaching and bought into a jewellery business, and as part of that jewelry business, which was an American franchise, I um came across the world of colour analysis, which was something I knew nothing about, although I'd heard my mum and her generation talking about having their colours done, but I didn't really ever understand what it was about. But that's the whole story in itself. But suffice it to say, I I had my colours done and was completely blown away by the consequence. Um, I remember sitting in the um analysis chair in um a black sort of hairdresser's cape, dressed head to foot in my black. I had my makeup removed, I had my hair scraped back into a scarf, looking like some sort of Amish lady, and all I could see were all the lumps and bumps and the Michelin tires that were going on, and I just wanted the ground to swallow me up until she started draping me in the colours. And then I noticed I I was completely blown away by the difference, the impact on my look that colour had. And as I started to embrace those colours in my wardrobe, people started paying me compliments and saying how well I looked and had I been on holiday, or maybe it was because I'd come out of teaching and you know, part that stress. And I began to realize that those compliments were then fueling my confidence. And I realized or felt very much that there must be other women of a similar age to me, middle life women, if you want to use that terminology, who equally had lost themselves and for whom colour might be just the a tool to help them. Um, so yes, launched the colour business first week, first lockdown, which was great in actual fact. And I hate to say that about that awful period of our lives because COVID was horrid, but from a business perspective, it actually escalated my business. People were at home, they wanted things to do, they were clearing out their wardrobes, they wanted to feel better about themselves. So I did a lot of online colour analysis. Um, and that was great. And people would ask me, would I also help them with knowing what to wear, not just necessarily what colours? So I trained in um style consultation as well, became a personal stylist, and that was the start of my business journey. Um, and then more recently I've kind of pivoted that business more to be in the space where confidence meets identity, meets visibility, meets style. So helping women to get really clear on who they are and how then to show up in a way that feels completely aligned, so they're not following what they think they should be wearing or other people's expectations or societal expectations that people can just be and own who they are, who they are, because that's the journey that I've been on. So that's a very long-winded answer to your question.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

No, it's absolutely perfect, and then you going, I don't know what I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Sorry. That is perfect. So um going on from when you were younger and being like really slim and then becoming a fuller figured woman, how has that transitioned for you? Because as women, obviously, we we're always conscious about our weight and how we look, like how we feel on the inside reflects on the outside. How has that been for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:29

I think I spent an awful lot of my life trying to meet other people's expectations. And it startens me even to this day that my late father was very disappointed when I came out of teaching because he he very much wanted me to be the head teacher and could see me in that role and blah blah blah. And so for him, I always felt like it was a disappointment. Um, I think my parents wanted good things for me, positive things for me, but I think there was a lot of expectation there. So actually, when I've done the personal development work that I have on myself, and I've done a lot, it was very freeing because it was about self-acceptance and it was about saying, okay, well, unless you do something very radical, you're not going to wake up tomorrow morning and be in that size six again. So just own it, own who you are, own what works. And for me, that's been really liberating. Um, so I'm a passionate advocate for, you know, size is literally just a number. And, you know, I give the biggest hugs, I can make babies fall asleep on me because I have this squidgy body. You know, it's it's just um yeah, it's about owning that. And those people that are very judgmental about my size perhaps just aren't the people that are right for me. And that's that's absolutely fine. I don't judge anybody, and I hope I don't, regardless of whatever size, shape, age, stage they are. Because for me, it's about who's inside. There's only one of me, and getting to a position of owning that now and saying, Well, this is who I am, take it or leave it, actually.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

It's been quite a brave thing for me to step into. Yeah, I can imagine. Was there um a version of yourself that you felt like you had to present from? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah, absolutely. Um and to a certain extent, there still is. It's it's funny because being in that sort of style environment, there is always an expectation that you will show up booted and suited, as it were. And so that's that's a a constant kind of dilemma, a constant quandary because I want to be, you know, who I am, but I'm also mindful of the fact that people are going to judge me because of the space that I'm in. Um, so what I try to do is, you know, I've shown up this morning in a jumper, but I've accessorized it in a nice way. I hope that I have, um, which feels comfortable, it feels right. And I'm, you know, I talk quite a lot about um comfortable authority. And I think there's something about that as well, and that's about parking all those expectations. You look online on social media, my feed is constantly full of events and collaborations and get-togethers, and it's very rare actually that you see people booted and suited. And I think I'm probably of an age now where we've come through that dress code, and I think COVID muddied those waters as well. Um, you know, the the dress code for work has changed significantly, and again, that's more freeing. But I think when I was younger, and I worked in business, um, worked in corporate before I was a teacher, actually. I came back to teaching. That was my my degree, but I came back to it when I had my family. Um, I think there was an expectation, you know. I'm I'm thinking of the sort of 90s shoulder pads and those sharp suits and all of that kind of look. So you either went with it or you went against it. And it was only those that were a lot braver than I was that went against it. So, yes, I think there was a lot about sort of societal expectation and being um a certain profession, a certain level, certain level of intelligence, a certain, yeah, it's all rubbish when I think about it. And I suppose all of that experience has shaped me into who I am now. And, you know, I am the woman that sits in front of you and having this conversation. So yeah, I think it was very liberating when I could literally take off those layers, you know, and peel away all of that expectation and actually just get to the core of who I am. And that's the work that I love, that's what lights me up when I'm working with clients. So it's very much about that identity piece first and the clothes second. And people are always surprised about that. They say, Well, you're a personal stylist, and I'm still wrestling with that as a title, and I try not to give myself a title because there's so much more to the work that I do, and I I get very frustrated when I see personal stylists who work from a sort of rule book of body shape, you know, you're a pear. Whoever decided that we look like pears.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 13:21

It's it's bonkers. Yeah, apples, pears, letters. Yeah, there is, it's just it's just bonkers. Yeah, I mean, that's a sort of um Duchess of York, straight up, straight down, it's kind of banana shape. I mean, it's just horrid. But I think what I'm trying to say in a long-winded way is that anything that was rule book based, I was never a rebel, I never had the confidence to rebel. I kind of went with the flow, I went with the norm, I went with everybody else's expectations. It's only now that I can kind of own who I am and wave that flag and say, well, if that's what being a rebel is all about, I'm prepared to stop being what everybody expects me to be, and to show up and to say with confidence, yes, I do work with personal style. Yes, that is a part of who I am, but it's not the be all and the end all to the person that's in front of you. And I'm certainly not going to give you a rule book that says because you're a pear shape, you should wear a crossover dress or a v-neck or a short skirt or a long skirt or you know, flared trousers. Let's talk about who you are first, how you want to feel, how you want to show up, and how you want other people to experience you. That's much more aligned, that's much more authentic to use that kind of overused but very appropriate word. We're digging deep, we're getting clear on who I am and stripping away all that expectation. Um, and I think a lot of it is generational in fairness.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Definitely. I totally agree. And I it was always you always had to keep up with your friends, didn't you, at school who had the latest trainers, or um you liked wearing something but you couldn't because someone wouldn't take the piss or yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

It's bonkers, really, because actually nobody ever teaches you how to get dressed. I've got a grandson now who's three and a half, and you know, he's learning how to do his own buttons, he's learning how to do zips, he's not yet at the stage of tying his own shoelaces, but yeah, we're taught how to do those things, but nobody tells you what to wear or how to wear. So you go from being that child in a school uniform to actually then shopping in Primark or wherever, um, to be part of a tribe, to look like everybody else. We become a clone and we just follow what everybody else is doing until somebody actually says, stop, who actually are you? And people actually find that quite tricky to answer that because they've just followed a crowd in that sort of herd mentality. Um, and that strips away a lot of identity and individuality. So, you know, coupled with sort of expectations, I suppose that is an expectation of you that you'll just fit in, that you'll just be like everybody else, that you'll just be trend-led. Um it's only when we get into sort of adulthood, if you like, that we start to question that or experiment or be a bit braver, or actually challenge and question what that those expectations are.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I was just thinking actually, like um there's my husband's in the biker world, so obviously he's got a bike shop, and the people that have come into his shop they're all very similar. They got the tattoos, they uh lots of leather and bike bike, and it's like there's these groups of people, they all look the same. They have their I don't know how to describe it. Um it's almost like a uniform, isn't it? Because they want to be long.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

That's what's at the root of it. So they want to be identified as being in that group, in that demographic, you know. You only have to open Instagram and it's like 40 things you should wear over 40. Well, no thanks. You know, it's about it's about society wants to group us, it wants to use our demographics, it wants to use our interests. Um, but who's to say that you know you can't be a biker and have a sharp suit and stilettos? Yeah, that's a practicality, of course there is, and leather is kind of part of that. Yeah, break free from that. You know, be it be a member of a group, but be your own member rather than a clone.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

When um you did your talk at um my event, which was which was really powerful. Um talked about um you had some toxicity in your life navigated.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Yeah, I think that the toxicity came all at once um because I was going through this very acrimonious divorce, which fleeced me financially, and it fleeced me from a confidence point of view. Um, and I'm still paying the price, certainly financially, now it's it's it's changed the trajectory of my life. So there was a lot of toxicity around that. There was a lot of um insults being thrown, and you know, the children were at the root of that, and um I hated that, I hated that. All I'd all I'd ever actually wanted to be from being a child was a housekeeper, you know, a good mother and a good wife, and all of that was just the only thing I ever wanted, and that became unattainable for me when I met my husband. Um, and then to throw even more sort of fuel on the fire in terms of um, yeah, lots of negative comments, lots of negative behavior, quite narcissistic. Um, and then concurrent to that was me becoming quite unwell. Um, I had acute pneumonia in in both lungs and continued at school teaching until I'm or less collapsed because the head that had just didn't buy into people being unwell or having time off for medical appointments or dentist appointments. And I actually remember quite clearly reading um a story to the children at the end of the day, um, they were early primary children that I taught, and having a coughing fit and the children being quite scared, um, because obviously I was struggling. And that was the catalyst, I think. I then went from that experience, dismissed the children straight into a staff meeting where I fell asleep. And I thought this is ridiculous. I'm just gonna have to go to the doctor, there's something chronically wrong here. Um, and so I didn't ask permission. I just rang in the next morning and said, I need to go to the doctor. Um, and then there was a query as to whether I had lung cancer. So it was all just horrid. It was a horrid time of my life. Equally at school, the school was going through, it had had um uh quite a negative offstead. And the blame really lay at the top with the leadership. You know, this is a common story, but instead of looking in the mirror and taking ownership of that, the leadership then you know reflected back on the staff and just went through the staff and just systematically removed at least three of us, made our lives completely unbearable because we were experienced, therefore we were expensive, and they just wanted, you know, fresh blood, clean slate, because that would tick all the off-step boxes and everything would be tickety-boom. So um, yeah, there was an awful lot that went on all at the same time. It was an awful lot to when I look back, I don't know how I got through it really, but I think my focus was only ever on my two sons and how they were and how they coped and how they managed and were they okay. And that put me and meeting my needs even further back in the in the queue.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Um, so yeah, it was time to do something about it. And then you you go on to say that true visibility is freedom, which I love.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

It is. It's it's visibility is still something that I it doesn't come easily, doesn't come naturally. But actually, when you own who you are and you show up as who you are, yeah. It is incredibly freeing, is incredibly liberating because. Because you don't need to pretend anymore. You just are, you're just who you are. And it's beautiful to get to that place of self-acceptance. And what I try to do in my business is to expedite that for people. I don't want anybody else to get to 63 years of age as I have to think, okay, this is who you are. Go out there and be visible. I want people to do that when they're 33 and 43 and 53, not 63, because you know the clock's ticking. But when I arrived at that place, and I not only was it a place of self-acceptance, it was always a place, also a place, is a place of huge gratitude. Um, you know, I've lost very special people in my life, um, younger than myself. Um, and so every day is a blessing. And so if I can show up in a way that inspires somebody else or helps somebody else, then that's kind of who I want to be and what I want to be. And who I am, actually, it's not a striving anymore. It's just a this is me, take it or leave it. Either love me or don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Has anything surprised you coming out the other side of everything that you've been through over the years, and now you're at a point where you're feeling good?

SPEAKER_02 23:22

The biggest surprise is how wonderful peace is. It's just a joy. It's just lovely to be able to enjoy being and enjoy being who you are, and surrounded by people who get you, who love you, who support you for who you are. Um, you know, as soon as I started gaining weight, my ex-husband made all sorts of nasty remarks about me. Well, that isn't the case anymore. I I don't need to feel I'm not enough anymore because I am enough. And so that has been the biggest surprise. How completely freeing that is. It's just, it's a bit like, you know, I liken it to being a horse with blinkers on. Suddenly you can take the blinkers off, and there's this whole world out there that isn't judgmental. That when I put myself in the right places, I think there's still judgment that goes on. But for me, I'm now at a place of peace. I know who I am, I know what I like to do, I know the people I like to be around, I know the the spaces I like to be in, I know how I work best, I know how I play best. And so that's just a joy because no is a full sentence.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

It definitely is. I was just thinking then that um how the the visibility for especially the younger people these days, so younger people, um how they are incredibly visible, but I feel like they aren't in the same breath.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

I think um social media, which obviously wasn't around when I was much younger, and I kind of have mixed feelings about that. Maybe that would have helped me be more confident, maybe that would have made me more visible. I don't know. I will never know. Um, but I think young people do crave that visibility actually, and they put themselves into spaces that mean that they're very visible, you know, they're all over social media, they're doing silly things, they're not, they don't have the same sort of self-consciousness that I think I had. Um, so I think, yeah, I think for young people, that whole visibility scene is so much more accessible. Whereas I feel like I've been knocking on doors that I've felt that I felt excluded from. And I mean physical doors of physical spaces, whereas the online spaces are a completely different ball game. So I think a lot of young people have access to that visibility, and most use it well, but the backlash of that is that comparisonitis, it's that feeling, oh goodness me, well, my best friend's dancing all over TikTok doing silly things. I need to be doing the same. And I think it's only with lived experience that you get to a point of saying, no, this is who I am. Um because there's so much, so many curveballs that life throws at you as you get older that shape you and that challenge you. And when you're very much younger, the majority of people don't have that. Um, you know, I sort of worry about the visibility of people who have been through huge tragedies in their lives and they're then all over the news, and the families aren't given the time and the space to grieve or to rest. And you know, quite often there are younger siblings, and you think in the days when there wasn't that huge amount of visibility online, life must have been kinder to them. Um, I'm thinking particularly of the families around the Nottingham murders because my son was at uni with um Grace and uh Barney, um, who were tragically murdered. In fact, he he was out with them the same night that um the murder happened. Only my son had left the club earlier. And, you know, constantly there's trials and um press stories featuring the family even now, kind of years later. Um I'm going goose pimply thinking about it. And I just think those poor siblings, just let them be, you know, the poor parents, you're exposing them to that unwanted and unwarranted visibility all the time. And in the day when it was, you know, a broadsheet newspaper, as I grew up with, they were kind of protected from that. So I think online visibility has yeah, added lots of lays and lots of complexities, and I think it's only the very brave that step into that stage, that arena, as themselves, because you know, there's trolling that goes on, there's all sorts of unkindness that goes on, and I'm a great advocate for kindness in whatever that we do, um do it with kindness.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

You know, there's no need for nastiness or judgment.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

And if I'd had that when I was younger, and if I'd had it in my marriage, I think that would have helped me uh considerably. So I don't think online visibility for young people is particularly kind. I don't think it's a kind space.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yeah, I can't imagine growing up now with the technology that we have.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

I suppose with the technology also comes support and information. You know, I always think there's a flip side to everything, so you know, we have to look at the positives and think, well, actually, there are so many places that support mental health, that support um identity, and you know, it's very liberating that people are able to have multifaceted identities now. Um is that a good thing? Is it a challenge? I don't know. I mean, I I can't speak about that, I have no experience of it, but it's wonderful that we're embracing that that um new direction where people feel they can be who they want to be, but I think that's the minority really. But I I do think that social media and the online space has a role to play in supporting mental health.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

There's so many um I was watching a couple of documentaries yesterday, um one about TikTok dances, and then another one about a crash that happened in the States that was it was all about social media. Yeah, yeah, and how these people have shown up on social media and how different they were in their own life and how they'd put on the mask to hide actually who they were.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Yeah, yeah, and that that really saddens me because I think it's a very natural thing to do. I was gonna use the word easy, I don't think it's easy, but I think it's a natural thing to do is to try and pretend to be somebody and something that you're not, um, to become acceptable to other people, and actually the flip side of that is that being acceptable to ourselves is where the real magic is.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

That's where the power is. Um older and wiser, who knows, but it's it's a nice place to be. So, what feels more honest and aligned these days?

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Um just doing and being and saying and feeling exactly what I want. And I don't mean in a very kind of aggressive, rude kind of way. If I want to show up on online, I want to show up on social media. If I do, if I don't, I don't. I don't. I think for a lot of years or recent years in my business, I've chased so many shiny objects thinking that was going to be the thing, that was what was going to make me successful. And actually, where I am now is a place of success because it's aligned and it's me, and I'm doing things in the way that I want to do them, and I'm showing up as I want to show up, and I'm now owning the fact, you know, when I first wrote the words, you know, that I'd be I'd been a size six and now I'm a size 22, and that felt really scary. It was one of those shut your eyes and press the button moments, but now I've done it. What what was the point? What was the point in me not saying that? What was the point in me kind of covering that up? Because it's true, and so I think what feels different is the truth and the honesty that I'm giving to myself, um, and the gratitude that I have for this body, which is the size that it is, and yes, I've got issues with it, and I'm not as mobile as used to be, and all of those kind of things. But at the end of the day, I woke up this morning, I woke up yesterday morning, and I'm incredibly blessed. And I feel that sense of empowerment to just be. So that for me is has been the biggest trans transition. It's been like stripping away and brushing off everybody else's expectations, Scythe's expectations. Oh, you can't be a um a personal stylist. Gosh, you're over 60 and you're size 22. You know, I say poppycott, and that's being polite. So any of those kind of um judgmental um statements, that judgmental way of thinking. Um yeah, I might not show up in the latest trends, but I show up as me.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

And that's that's the biggest honesty, that's the biggest transition for me. If someone was listening now who felt like that they were hiding themselves behind the dark baby clothes. Yep, or couldn't show up online because of this, that, and the other. What would you say to them now?

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Uh I would just want to give them a big hug and say, you are enough as you are. You are who you are. Let's explore what those limiting beliefs are, what those blocks are. Let me help you to understand why you feel the way that you feel, and let's peel off all those layers and let's really get to the heart of who you are and who you want to be, and how you want to be experienced, how you want to feel, and how you want to move through your life. Because, you know, it's not a guarantee, none of us know whether we'll be here tomorrow. And I've spent so many wasted years. I mean, people say there's nothing wasted, you know, we learn through all our failures and all our mistakes. I get that, but there's so many opportunities that I didn't take, so many things I was too scared to do from being a child and going on you know, school trips and things like that. I was just uh tied to the apron strings, and I just wanted to feel secure. And as I say, I don't want anybody ever to feel like that because it's a very sad and lonely place, a disconnected place. And so I would just say, you know, let's let's chat, let's explore what those blocks are, what those limiting beliefs, as I say, are, and let's try and understand why you feel and how is the way you're feeling manifesting itself in how you're showing up, what you're wearing, how you're being around other people. And let's get really, really clear together on who you are and how you want to move through your world. Because there's no point being somebody who is living a lie because that's what it is. It's just and that's hard for me to say, but it is, it's living your life as a lie if you're not being true to yourself. Um, and I did that for far, far too long. Tried to be somebody I I wasn't, um, wanting to move in circles that weren't mine, knocking on doors that I was never going to be invited inside. Um, so you know, I create my own now. And that for me is and that's brought me the peace. And that's what I'm saying. It's a constant drug juggle, and it's a constant struggle when you're living life behind a mask. Um, but when you take off the mask, when you remove those blinkers, the world just becomes so much more interesting and accessible because you're living it from your eyes, from your perspective. Not wearing a mask of somebody else, not trying to be somebody else, not trying to fit in as a round peg in a square hole. Um, so alignment and self-connection is is huge. And it's achievable for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

It certainly is. That's a wonderful, a wonderful piece of advice, and yeah, if anyone's listening, um where can they find you, Sarah?

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Um, the best place to find me probably is on Instagram. That's probably where I'm most prolific, and it's where most people I think hang out these days. And my handle there is um I underscore am underscore Sarah with an H underscore Heron as in the bird, H E R O N. So I underscore am underscore Sarah and underscore heron. I am Sarah Heron and I own that now.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Fantastic, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Um yeah, I'll put those on the show notes. So if anyone wants to get in touch with Sarah, then feel it's free and there'll be on there. And thank you so much for your honesty today. It's been wonderful talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Jo.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

I'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Okay, take care.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Thank you for listening to stories from behind the mask. The parts we edit out are the ones that matter the most. If something in this conversation stayed with you, let it. You don't need to rush to fix or frame it. And if you're in a season of unmasking and finding your story, know this. You don't have to do it all at once. I'm Joanna, and I'll see you next time.