#112 How an 8k Investment Transformed My Life

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Welcome to the 360 leadership podcast, the top rated show for driven women in senior leadership with new episodes released every Wednesday. I’m your host, Lucy Gernon, a multi award winning executive coach for women leaders and the founder of 360. Leaders Club exclusive high level membership for career driven family orientated women just like you. I created the 360 leadership podcast to share practical tips, actionable step by step strategies, and inspiring stories to support you to unlock the power and belief within to accelerate your impact and potential. So you can build a life filled with success, balance and happiness. So are you ready to achieve 360 degree success? No more excuses. No more waiting. Your time is now.

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Hello there. And welcome back to another episode of the 360 leadership podcast. I am your host Lucy garden. And I am very, very happy to be here with you today. Because this week is the week of love. It’s Valentine’s week. And for me Valentine’s Day, some people see it as a Hallmark card holiday on an older crop. But I actually think it’s a really nice time to show other people that you care. I think it’s not all about romance, I think it’s all about just connected inward with that love. And a big part of that connecting inward without love is about the whole area of self love. Now, that can sound a bit fluffy. And even when I say words like self care and self love, like what does that even really mean? Like, to me that means investing in yourself. It means giving yourself time and space to do things that fill your cup that make you feel good in yourself. And show yourself the same love as you do to everyone else. So that’s my invitation for you today is to love yourself a little bit more this week, instead of thinking about everybody else, show yourself the same love that you show everybody else and it’s not selfish, and you don’t have to feel guilty. So I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear you tell me that. You know what, Lucy, I listen to your podcasts and he booked a facial. Or you know what, Lucy, I listened to your podcast and I decided I was going to take myself out to dinner to go to my favorite restaurant because I’m single right now. Whatever it is, I just want you to invest in yourself this week. Okay, so how the Valentine’s Day from me to you I love you laughs I genuinely do. I’m I know, if you’re listen to my podcast, we’re connected on some sort of a spiritual level. And I don’t take that privilege lightly. So I want to say I’m grateful for you, I love you. And I hope if we hadn’t met yet that we get to meet one day soon.

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So while we’re on the topic of investing in yourself, I thought I would share a story with you about how an 8000 Euro investment transformed my life. Okay, so I want to tell you this story, because one thing that comes up a lot, and it’s starting to come up less and less actually, I’ve noticed in the last year, because I think you’re all sick of me banging on about investment investing in yourself. But

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I wanted to share the importance of investing in yourself and how my life has changed and continues to change so dramatically because I invest so much in myself. So let me just back up

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before I find coaching, so before I qualified as a coach, and before I started working with all of my business mentors and things like that, I was I was really lost, I could get emotional. Now I haven’t cried on the podcast in a while. But I was one of these people who worked really hard, I’m very heart centered, and I was a big people pleaser. And I didn’t really give to myself, like honestly, everything I bought I bought in the sale. You know growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. So I always placed a lot of value on money. And as as a result, money was like,

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was scarce. And I had this scarcity mindset for most of my life. And so when I did coaching when I trained to be professional coach, first of all this is before the aka investment, and coaching itself transformed my life. So when I learned NLP tools and transactional analysis tools, and I received pure coaching, I literally became a different person. And as part of that work,

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my whole mindset changed. And so that was the catalyst that made me realize that I wanted to quit my 20 year corporate career and start my business to support women in senior leadership roles. But to do that, I needed to figure out how the hell I was going to start a business

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Yes. So if you don’t know my story, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 20 years, I worked in food and beverage. Before that I have a research Master’s, I had done a lot of lab work. And besides science background, and but I also always loved like fashion and beauty and self care. And I was always into social media and marketing. And like everything, I had so many different interests. And

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I was lucky enough that actually, my employer had paid for my coach training. And I had never had to actually invest in myself, I had always, you know, done courses on my learning or technical courses, I was lucky enough to do some leadership and coaching training in the Irish Management Institute. But waterfall was paid for this. And the concept of me investing in a coach for myself was beyond alien, I can’t even tell you. But I knew that if I wanted to start with my business, I needed somebody who had walked the path before me, I needed to work with somebody who could show me the way. And I was just about to finish up my, my corporate role. I had decided I was going to leave in the March, the March timeframe is what I had said. So I knew that I needed to really take the business seriously. And I needed somebody to help me. And so I invested in the September and I ended up leaving the Christmas, actually. But before I invested, I had been listened to my coach, her name was Rhonda, on her podcast for literally about a year. And I know that there’s some of you who are listening to my podcast for a long time, because I’ve had lots of you who come to work with me and you’re like, I’ve been listened to your podcasts for so long. And I just didn’t know if I could reach out and it wasn’t sure if I was ready. And I wasn’t sure if I could invest in myself. And I’ve been there literally listen to my coach’s podcast for like a good year. I remember I used to go out for walks in the summer. And I would literally binge all of her episodes thinking I could do it on my own and get there on my own. And I didn’t need to invest. And that was for other people who didn’t really know what they were doing. But what I realized was is that I needed that support. And so I took the plunge and I booked a call. So I booked a call with my coach on that. And she was as lovely as much as I thought she would be she was exactly the same as on her podcast. And I’m the very same by the way, like, literally, I will talk to you like this, I talked to you, my lovely listener, just like I talked to my clients, just like I talked to my children, I’m the same person no matter where you meet me. And I had to call with her. And I was kind of I didn’t really know how much it was going to cost. There’s that word cost, initial instead invest. And when she told me it was like 1000, I nearly fell off the chair because I just had never ever ever done that. For me. It key was huge to me. It was actually more to my savings. And I was about to quit my corporate job. This was the September and I was you know, I left in December. And I really didn’t know when or if I’d even earn again. So can you imagine how scared I was I’m there going, I need help. I need somebody to support me. I’m tired trying to figure this out on my own. I want somebody a professional who knows what they’re doing to hold my hand and hold me accountable and all of those things. But also, I was about to quit my career and not know if this was going to work. And if I was going to earn anything like can you imagine how scared I was? Well, it was just I mean, I have three kids and a mortgage. So. But I listened to her. And I remember she started talking to me about the importance of thinking of it as an investment in myself, and not a cost. And I remember she said to me, and what’s the cost if you don’t do this? What’s the cost to you and your family if you don’t do this? And I was just like, well, it means I’m going to continue to be stressed. It means I’m going to continue to try to figure things out alone. Do it the hard way. Like I always do. Everything I ever did. It was hard. And she was like, um, why would you do that to yourself, like I can help you. I promise you, I can help you if you’re ready to take action. I was like, Yeah, I’m ready. So I did it. So I left and the second I invested I felt so relieved. But honestly that was like the best investment I ever made because I had somebody in my corner to hold me accountable to teach me the things I didn’t know to be there when I when I got scared and didn’t want to take action and encouraged me to do that. And since that time, honestly, it has literally changed my life because since then, I’m like I’ve gone to the other extreme. Now I’ve invested in so many more coaches like top Branco, our coaches like John Assaraf, you might have seen him on the secret. He’s a business mentor. I did some of his his business training his brain to brain training as well on mindset. I did a course with Tony

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Tony Robbins, Amy Porterfield, Nick Paige, and I’m working with another amazing coach Rachel now as well, I’m literally afraid to count on whatever invested in myself in the last two years.

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But look at the results. If you follow me and you know my story, you will know that I have won, like we’ve been nominated for, like 1617 awards, I have worked with so many amazing women from companies that I would have really aspired to work with, I have, you know, done really, really well from a revenue perspective, like more than I could have ever dreamed of in terms of revenue versus what I was being paid in corporate. And all of these things would not have been possible, if I tried to do it on my own. So I honestly like taught us, like I said, investing in coaching was alien to me, I always thought if I wanted to progress, I actually always thought I would do an MBA, because I always had a real interest in business, or go back and do the academic rose. But it really isn’t true. So I want you to know, today my gorgeous listener, if there was one gift you could give yourself this year, that I would advise you to invest in coaching. Now, it does not have to be okay, if you want to progress your career faster, way faster, way easier than ever before. With more ease, more fun, more flow, less work, and hard and more working smart, strategically. Just invest in professional support, get yourself a mentor, get yourself a coach, come work with me inside 360 liters club. And if I’m not the coach for you absolutely fine. But I just want you to know that once you have a goal in mind, and you want to get there faster, you will never get back. And honestly, I want you to know that for me. Like when you work with me, I think you probably know that when you’re listening to me, but I really don’t take this privilege lightly. I really, really don’t I do what I do. It’s a heart led mission. I’m on a mission to empower 100,000 women in leadership by 2027 to unlock the power and belief within to accelerate your impact and potential through leadership development and mindset mastery. So you can build a life filled with success, balance and happiness where anything is possible. Can you imagine what could be possible? If you came on this journey? professional coaching is the missing piece of the puzzle. Unless you’re missing a major technical competency, another degree will not serve you if you want to progress, okay? In fact, the higher up the ladder you go, the less technical skills you need, and more leadership and people skills you lead, wouldn’t you agree? So I would invite you to really consider investing in coaching, if you want to progress faster, if you want to learn the skills, the tools, the tactics, the strategies you’re missing, to handle conflict, to learn to influence people, to truly empower your team, to hold people to account, to be able to progress to be able to position yourself as an authority in your industry, to be able to become that role model for others. I promise you, I can definitely get you there if you’re ready. And there’s lots of other coaches out there too, if I’m not the right one for you, like I said. And the other thing I want to say to you too is like

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if you think about top athletes in the world, or top CEOs,

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singers, everyone, they all have quarters. And it’s not that the court is better. In fact, it’s always a mutual partnership. It’s just about having that person there to show your blind spots, to teach you things to bring to your attention, things that you cannot see yourself. That’s why it’s so important. And I want you to know that you are worthy of it. Absolutely worthy of it. And if you’re ready to make a change, you can absolutely do it.

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So I invite you to reflect on this investment piece and ask yourself about you know, your own money mindset. Is your scarcity mindset blocking you from becoming the woman that you are supposed to be?

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Is your mindset around not having enough or not feeling worthy enough stopping you from having the work life balance you deserve? Because

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money is just one part time is so much more important. You’ve got to really we all have to just enjoy this moment. I heard a story the other day about another court I know she was she was supposed to obviously be spent in family where a Christmas and the week Christmas week she got diagnosed with colon cancer. And this lady is in her 40s and she was going to spend Christmas in hospitals so life can change in an instant. So I want you to just really reflect on this make your plan and if you want to learn more about how I can support you. Absolutely just DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn and we can have a chat

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Now if you want to learn more about investing in yourself, I know you might not take my word for it. I’ve got tons of clients stories I can share who took took the plunge, shall we say, and have literally done things like, I mean so many things, so many promotions, so much more work life balance, so much happiness in their lives, which is like more important to me than anything. And you can go and listen to episode one or two, which is with my client, Laura. And she’s talking all about the importance of investing in yourself. Laura is amazing. We’ve been working together one to one for a while, and then she’s been in 360 leaders club, she’s just renewed her membership. Again, she’s heard me in her company. She has invested time and money in herself. And I invite you to go and listen to that.

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So I hope that this episode on investment has been powerful. I promise you like that a key investment literally was the catalyst that transformed everything. And this is possible for you to no matter what you want. So I hope you enjoyed go reflect and if you want to have a chat about how I can support you absolutely send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn. I link them below here in the show notes. And until next week, be safe be well and I will be back in your air pods next week where I’m going to be talking to you all about another client story about breaking through to senior director within 22 days with confidence. So get excited for that one. It’s a good one. See you then