Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome. You're listening to a recording from Inside the members hub of the Whole Health Revolution. These episodes are taken from my Live weekly Coaching calls where members can join me in real time for honest conversations around health, nutrition, weight loss and sustainable lifestyle change. So inside the program members get access to live coaching calls, a growing library of whole food recipes, workouts for every level, a supportive community, meal plans, and personalized coaching. From me. The Whole Health Revolution is not about restriction extremes or quick fixes. There's no fad diets here. It's about building long lasting healthy habits that support your body. Whether your goal is weight loss, managing chronic health condition, improving your nutrition, maybe you want to balance your hormones or simply start feeling better in yourself.
So if you love this episode and would like to join these calls live, have your questions answered and be supported along the way, you can find out more at www.naturalhealthproject.co.nz.
weight loss program and program is spelled P R O G R A M. You can also use the code Free Week to try the program for one week free. And that is F R E E W E E K.
You'll also find these details in the show notes. Now let's get stuck into today's episode.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Whole Health Revolution podcast. I'm really glad that you're here tonight, especially as we're right in at the beginning of our 21 day reset challenge, which started on Monday. And I know that over the next three weeks many of you have chosen one or maybe a few habits to focus on when it comes to your health goals. And you know, it's been really great to see how you've already committed to them and also that you're not putting pressure on yourselves if things don't go to plan, because that's going to happen and that's okay.
And that's exactly why I wanted to bring tonight's guest into this space.
Because we so often we know what we want to change and we start strong and we feel motivated and then life happens. And then what happens? The wheels fall off and then we blame ourselves for not committing to our goals. And you know, it can be a downward spiral, but that's normal. Our motivation does dip and then the old habits start creeping back in again and then we're back where we started.
And so I never say that we're back to square one. I feel that everything has a learning experience. We learn from everything. You're never back to square one. But it's just simply that we need to pick up from where we left off and carry on.
So tonight's podcast is going to be a really good one. You might want to grab a pen and paper and get some notes because tonight's conversation is all about making change feel more sustainable, more supportive and less like punishment. I've been there myself where I've changed in my bodybuilding shows and the whole journey was punishment. And we don't want that. That is not sustainable. So I am really pleased to be joined by Sandra Madison, founder of BLOW Coaching and Learning. Sandra works with individuals and businesses who feel stable, stuck or overwhelmed. So she helps them gain clarity and build that confidence and create meaningful, lasting change.
And her approach is very aligned with what we talk about a lot inside the whole health revolution. Making those small steps, being self aware and making sustainable progress rather than those little quick fixes. Thank you so much for being here tonight. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: I'm looking forward to it as well.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Wonderful. So welcome to the show, my second guest.
Now, for those who don't know you, can you share a little bit about your work and how you help people and what led you to coaching? So there's a three parts to that question.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Well, I spent 35 years working in corporate and government jobs and it was really incredible the amount of times I kept finding myself coming back to two things, and that was helping people learn something new about either their job themselves or the world around them, and to coach them and support them through the changes that they wanted to make or needed to make in their career.
After 35 years of working right. In 2020, I was made redundant. But I'd had a little bit of foreshadowing a couple of years earlier where my role had been disestablished. And I decided to go and get my professional coaching qualifications because I thought, well, if it happens again, I want to make sure that I have all the skills that I need to be able to bring what I want to bring to life. And so I did that. And then sure enough, a couple of years later, I was made redundant. But in the meantime, I'd already created glow. I'd sort of, as soon as I got my qualification, it was like, right, I'm going to set this up before I, you know, back out of it. And I registered myself as a company for GLOW Coaching and Learning. And so I was still employed at that time and embarked on a journey to learn all about business while still helping people in my day job and planning about what the future would look like.
So coaching and learning is something that I know that I've benefited personally from all sorts of learning and coaching opportunities. And I know that it's helped me think about things differently, understand the world in a different way. And that's what I love to be able to bring through to other people so that their face will light up just like mine does when I've learned something new or felt something different, felt something, you know, that has put me in a better position.
We're a better place.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's interesting, actually, that you've got coaching and learning.
What's the difference between those two?
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, coaching is all about supporting somebody. Coaching is the belief that you already know.
It's just supporting you and guiding you towards your goals and being there.
I look. Look at it as being your cheerleader, you know, being your source of support and sometimes, sometimes the truth teller, while I'm knighting the way.
So not being afraid of having tough conversations on accountability or, you know, hey, you said you want to do this, but this is what's happening. What's going on for you. Those are the sorts of conversations that I'm quite comfortable in having to help people towards their goals. Learning is when you don't know something. So, for example, at the moment, one of my passion projects is doing some painting. Well, I didn't know a lot of color theory. I didn't know a lot about how to get started with acrylic painting. So I took an online course so that I could learn that it's actually okay to have no rules and just go for it, basically. But it was about the skills that I needed in order to perform an action that I wanted to take.
So learning is about understanding something in a way that would best suits you. Not all of us learn the same way.
Some of us need to hear it multiple times. Some of us need to hear it, see it, feel it, do it, talk about it, and then do all of that again.
And some of us can pick things up just in one way, so we're all different. And it's about making sure that with what I'm doing with people, if I'm working with somebody, for example, a small, I might go in and do some extended disc behavior profiling. I might have some coaching around that. But then there might be a need. So some learning up skills might be needed on communication or time management or on change.
And so that's where the learning comes in as well. It's recognizing that actually you can't cope something that somebody doesn't know.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting.
Picking up on different learning styles is so important as well, because not every organization does that, do they? You know, I've been in workplaces before where it's. It's just one way. And my. I know my learning style. I've learned that over the years. It's taken me some time. But you do really have to tap into all those different styles, don't you?
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And your paintings are good, too. I saw on your Facebook page, actually today, I saw. I was looking just to get information on you, and you do some really amazing paintings. Really fascinating. I saw the different stages of that you posted in January. Really good.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's funny, the actual process of doing this.
I have to do a lot of self coaching along the way because there's different stages. Like that very first stage, the first thing I do is, oh, my God, I can't do this. I'm terrible. The colors are all wrong. It's too heavy. It's not this, it's not that. And then you sort of go into a process of positive self talk. Like, actually, it's just paint, and it's the first layer. I've got seven more layers to go.
This is what the paint wanted to do right now, and it's okay.
So it's a great reminder about being kind to yourself. And I think that's one of the things that's so important when it comes to habits and change is actually remembering some self compassion. Because in the same way that if I was teaching somebody else how to do what I'm doing at the moment with painting, I would never belittle them. I'd never tell them they're useless or incompetent or anything else.
But it's the first thing we often do to ourselves.
So, you know, it's a wonderful opportunity and experience when you're putting yourself through something like that to, you know, really break it down and remind yourself about, actually, this is okay. And for me to put it public, that was a massive.
A massive barrier for me because right from a young age, I didn't want to show people the work I did. I did pottery for 20 years, and I got to a stage where I was being an absolute perfectionist about it. And if it wasn't good enough for me, it wasn't good enough for anybody, even though I'd sold quite a lot.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Wow. Huge learning step, isn't it? And it's that kind of thinking that holds many people back from starting small businesses or doing their projects. Isn't it because that perfectionism or I'm not good enough or where do I start? And sometimes you just got to make a start like you did with your painting, you know.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: And know that you're not always going to get it right. And that's okay.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. Like Monday, the very first day of this challenge. Well, feeling a little bit rotten. And actually, I didn't. Didn't really do much.
I did drink lots of water. I needed to, but it was like, it's okay because there's tomorrow.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: And it's like, okay, today might be the day that I haven't paid too much attention, but actually I can still accomplish what I needed to accomplish tomorrow, but I can still do a little bit today. And I think that's part of that being kind to yourself, but still giving yourself a structure so that, you know you're not going to be kind to yourself and just give up, because, you know, that's. That's not what we're trying to do here.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: No. All or nothing thinking in this program.
So.
So you work with people who feel stuck, and I'm interested to know, what does it actually look like in real. Look like in real life? Can you give some examples of people or organizations or people you've worked with without giving away any names? But what does stuck look like? What can it look like?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: It can be really different for everybody.
I worked with somebody last year, and stuck for them was about having an option to either change everything up what was happening now, maybe move overstairs overseas, get a job somewhere else, or keep doing what they were doing.
So it was sort of like, you know, is the grass greener on the other side? Is the question that we were answering through our coaching program.
So for one person that I worked with last year, we were answering the question, is the grass greener on the other side?
There was a lot of things in the person's mind that they felt that they could do and that they wanted to do, but they. They didn't really know if they did. So that was what we worked on over a coaching series there.
For other people, especially if they're still in the workplace, they might be sitting there feeling really overlooked that everybody else is getting opportunities and not them, but they know that they can do it. But there's something missing between their ability to know that they can do it and other people seeing that in them.
So that's a person that's very dear to my heart, that type of client, because that's a space that I was in Myself.
And that's often why throughout my whole career I did a lot of external study and management and call center management and all these other things because I knew that I needed to get outside help to move ahead to where I wanted to be.
Also, a lot of people are really fearful about making the wrong decision because there's the security and stability from the job they're in or from the space they're in.
But sometimes when you want to be seen differently, like if you want to be seen as a leader, there's different things that need to happen. Maybe some of your relationships with colleagues might be not conducive to going up the ladder. It could be that you're self employed or not employed by.
And change is scary. Like going out and getting a job following your heart. That's really scary.
Even just following a healthy eating plan could be really scary for some people.
And a lot of that is because there's ease and comfort in being who you are right now.
But if you change, other people will change how they react with you. And that can be a big fear for some people.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: And probably the biggest thing of all that applies to so many people is they've lost confidence and faith in their own skills and abilities. So it's rebuilding that self belief that you can be whatever you want to be. And how that may look, may change over time, but you know, if you start working on it, something else could happen that might be even better than what you thought you wanted.
So, you know, there's lots of really, really different reasons why people might feel stuck.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: And then of course we've got social media as well now. You know, you're comparing yourself to others. I mean, I've had that, you know, in the work that I do, I feel great. And then I'll see something on social media and I'm like, I can't compete with those people that have got a million followers. And you know, it sort of is never ending and it's. That can be quite detrimental as well to your own goals and your where you want to be as well, how you want to put your out there. Because you're kind of competing with these people that have been doing it for years and you just can't compete with those. So it's about kind of almost for me it was about shutting that off and coming back to who am I? Because you've got to be yourself, haven't you? You can't try and pretend to be someone else because people see, right, everyone else is taken. Exactly, exactly. That's it and why would you want to be?
[00:15:59] Speaker B: And I think social media tends to put out this image in society that the gold standard of, of a fit, healthy person looks like this.
And I know for myself is that when I was 15, 16, I thought I was really fat and I thought that I was horrendous and all the rest of it.
And when I look back on photos I go, geez, I looked pretty awesome actually.
And it's just that I did not have an anorexic body like some of my friends did.
You know, I looked different to my friends but actually if I'd fast forwarded 20 years it would have looked pretty awesome and pretty much like everyone else.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: So you know, but that negative self image, it sticks in your head because of what you see in social media and it starts to reflect back what you're thinking and you're thinking what you're saying.
So you have to break that loop.
And that's why it's really important nowadays for people to actually start really thinking about their social media habits. Because I know, well, I've not been. Well, I've been playing a few games on my iPad. The ads in them are horrendous. You know, they really are.
They're all showing these men that are AI generated with big chests and hey, do this tai chi walking and you will look amazing. And it's like what?
You know, and they're sort of meant to look like 80 year old men on their heads but with the body of a 20 year old bodybuilder. And it's like okay, that's a whole lot of long messages.
So you know, like I can look at it with a critical eye but for young people that they would find it hard to discern between reality and a sales pitch.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And it's not motivational really because it's just too far fetched. And these days we don't know what's real and what's not, do we? You know I love to see a real person on social media saying okay, yeah I'm fit and I'm healthy. No, I'm not the perfect body. I've got rolls on my belly and that's ok. You know, I love that kind of content. Would I feel that it's coming out more and more now because they're sort of making a stand against those perfect sort of, you know, be like me models and it's awful. And actually, you know your point when you say you looked back at yourself when you're in your teens or what have you? And when you felt really horrible and about yourself and I was in the same space as you, I was like, I was the same. There were some days in my late teens where I wouldn't even go outside because I just felt horrendous and I just wanted the world, the ground, to open up and swallow me, you know, just, I just felt awful and I felt everyone was looking at my thighs and I was so huge and. But look back, I was a normal, just a normal person. I didn't even stand out. No one was looking at me. But in my head this was amplified.
And for me that didn't that change, mind shift change didn't come until many years later, until I saw myself up on the body building stage. I looked back at photos because when I was on stage I was very self critical. And it wasn't until a year or so later when I'd gone back to my normal physique, you know, normal, whatever. I look back and I'm like, man, what was I criticizing? I looked amazing. I worked really hard for that body. And that was the light bulb moment for me. If I didn't, if I wasn't happy, then I was never going to be happy. You know, it doesn't matter what weight or size or whatever you are, if you don't deal with that mindset, it's never going to happen.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, part of that mindset is about the people you surround yourself with. And you know, if you're in the workplace, it's like, who are you having lunch with? Do you need to be having lunch with those people today? Or are they just really gonna make your life more challenging? Are they gonna take you away from where you wanna be or help you get towards it?
And I think you can see that in a lot of things. Like over the last few months, my husband and I, we just don't drink a lot anymore.
Do we wanna be with people that are drinking all the time? Well, we don't mind because we know that there's more to that. There's actually the company.
But if that was going to become an issue, then it'd be actually maybe we do our socializing in a different way where we're not in a situation where it would become tempting.
You know, we're just not tempted anymore. We've sort of grown growing out of alcohol, which is wonderful.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: And that's okay. And good friends will understand that as well.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: We're lucky. Most of our friends are sort of, A lot of them are doing the same thing. We're moving out of that lifestyle choice of what was our sole entertainment during COVID lockdowns to actually being like, well, actually, I'd much rather go and have a nice salad somewhere than a bottle of wine.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Fantastic. Okay, so from your experience, why do you think people often feel motivated when they start to make changes? You know, maybe you've got some new goals in mind and it's all, you know, everything's, I'm going to change this, that and the other. But then so many people struggle to follow it through in the long term. Why do you think that happens?
[00:21:04] Speaker B: In fact, a lot of that is because when something is at the start of something, it's exciting.
It's like, you know, that first day at school, you know, when you get all your stationery, you know, first at a new job, it's like, oh, this is exciting, this is interesting. And then it's like the regular routine hits and it's like you have to actually work at it. And that's what becomes more challenging for a lot of us. If you've got an interest based nervous system, then you need to be really interested in what you're doing for the whole duration, like forever. If you're wanting to make a sustainable change.
If you're a person that's great at creating a routine and sticking to it because you love structure, then that's awesome. It will probably be a little bit easier for you.
But if you're sort of hyped up on the new what's new? Then it's like each week you need to challenge yourself. Like, oh, how did I do last week? What's new this week? Oh, what can I do differently this week and have that curiosity around it. So I think that one of the things that makes it harder is when you stop being curious about what you can discover this week.
Because if you have that curious mindset, then it keeps your interest and it keeps your engagement. Like, oh, say, for example, if you're wanting to run, it might be, oh, well, last week I managed to run for 10 minutes before I needed to walk for five minutes. That's exciting. I wonder how much I can do this week.
And it's just sort of about challenging yourself with your goals. About, well, this is what I did last week. How can I make that better? Or how can I have more fun doing it?
How can I make going for a walk? If I want to go for an hour's walk, how can I make it more fun? Well, maybe I could do a bush walk this week. Maybe I could walk on the beach this week, maybe I could do this this week. So it's about keeping that interest there.
And I think one of the other big things about what makes it hard when people are struggling to settle through is that they haven't got a plan to actually integrate it with their life.
Or it might be a goal that they think that they should do. Like they think they should be thin. But actually it'd be much better if they focused on being healthy or making healthier choices than this ideal image.
I mean, BMI really, that's not realistic for a lot of people. And if your heart's not in the goal, it's not really going to be easy to achieve at all and it's going to become a big struggle.
So it needs to be something that you really, really have a steep feeling that this is the goal that I want, I want to eat healthier because that will mean xyz.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: And you know, that's why I quite often say to people, you can't just focus on the end result. You've got to enjoy that journey. And, you know, it's got to be something that you enjoy doing. Even on the hard days, you've got to show up. And if it's not, if you're not enjoying it, then maybe that goal's not for you, or maybe we need to change the goal a little bit. But I think that's where your coaching comes in handy. I mean, I wouldn't have done a bodybuilding show without a coach. I didn't do powerlifting without a coach because on those hard weeks they helped pick me up and they helped give me those, bring back that excitement and keep me focused because it's very hard, especially for me, when I was on a 12 week cycle, a 12 week program, that's a long time and you can lose motivation, you can lose confidence and all sorts of things happen. You have a bad training day and that's when the coach really, really comes into their own.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: And not having, I mean, not having a plan is one of the biggest things because how are you going to know how you're doing? How are you going to track your own progress?
You know, I love it like with, you know, with, with the food plan, for example, it's like I can look at that at the beginning of each week and go, oh, what have I got in the pantry already? What do I need to buy? Which food am I going to focus on this week? What meals am I going to do from the plan that will work in with my lifestyle?
And I Have to do that in advance. Because if I look at doing it on the day, it's going to be like.
And I feel like cocaine, what's in the freezer.
But if it's. If it's.
Yeah. And then it comes back to again, it's sort of like when I was working, I made my. You know, I always cooked a lot so that I'd have lunch the next day. Because where I was working, there wasn't a lot of food choices that worked for what I was eating.
So it meant that I could take my own lunch. I had that organized. I could open the fridge, pop it in my bag, and off I'd go. Made it easy because I had a plan in place.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Exactly. I love that. I love that with the meal plans. And that's what they're there for. And everybody uses those meal plans very differently. Some just take inspiration from them, some follow them exactly as they're set out, you know, and both ways are good.
But it's about knowing what works for you. And you really need to have that plan in place because also it minimizes that decision fatigue. You know, when you're starving hungry and you've got no food, highly likely you're not going to make healthy choices when you're really hungry. So having that in place is a lifesaver. It really is. Even if you can only plan a day ahead, some people plan a whole week ahead, and that's all good, but for me personally, I can probably manage a couple of days, and that's my limit, you know, and I. So a couple of days in advance, I'm planning, but that's me. Everyone's different, but definitely have to have that plan.
So are there some simple tools, do you think, Sandra, that you can give people that can be put into practice every day so that anyone that's making goals or creating new habits can stay aligned with their intentions? You know, when they start to waver, what tools can they use to stay in line with that?
[00:27:02] Speaker B: I think that having micro goals, you know, like mini goals along the way. So whether it's rewards or something that you know that this week, if you do xyz, that you've got this to look forward to, you know, that really works well for a lot of people.
One of the tools that I've been loving lately, I've been reading James Clear's Atomic Habits, and their online resources are amazing. So, you know, in the book I've got it on my Kindle, they've got a link to the website, so you can just Go into the website and find all these tools that talk about all of the things of a good habit. So, for example, you know, having stacking behaviors was a really good one.
So, for example, if you were wanting to, I guess the example of taking my lunch to work, if you wanted to stack a behavior there would be like, when I cook dinner, I cook an extra serve so that I've got lunch for the next day. If you're wanting to make your bed when you get up in the morning, because otherwise you're too likely to get back into bed, then you know, the moment you get up, before you go to the loo, you make your bed. And then when you go back to the bedroom, it's like, oh, oh, okay, I'm up now.
You know, so it's just sort of keeping it simple and easy.
It's about making it attractive, like bundling it with something that you really like to do. So if you really like to talk to people while you exercise, what sort of exercise can you do where you get to do that? It might be that you join a bushwalking club. It might be that, you know, you, you know, swimming in an aquilane or something where you can do water walking with your best bud and, and download on the day.
You know, it's just about finding things you love doing and being in that culture where people are doing what you want to be doing because, you know, you are the sum of all the people that you associate with. So you're. If you're with a whole lot of positive people, you will be positive. If you're with a whole lot of negative people, consistently, you'll be negative. So it's the same with the habits that you're wanting to have.
Make it easy, reduce the friction is another point there, as well as the reinforcements.
So the four points that he talks about is make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. So those are four good ways to make a goal stick and to make it achievable and to have fun with.
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Yeah.
And tracking it like your tracker. I mean, this isn't going to come up too well on here, but like on my one, there's three different things I'm focusing on. So on each day, I've written, writing, I've written a whole lot of circles that I can tick off every glass of water and exercise, you know, moving more what that looks like on here. So it's right in front of my face every day.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: So important.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: And it's it's, it's positive as well. I always say to people, don't put a big black cross on there. If you don't do something, don't do that, you know, because that sort of, that can sort of go the other way, I feel. But keeping it positive and ticking off those things that you're doing and, you know, seeing, oh, did I do that yesterday? And it's really motivational. So, yeah, a simple little tracker can be. Can make the world of difference.
And I'll also put in the show notes, actually some links to the online resources because I didn't know. I've read the book, James, but I haven't had a look at the online resources, so I'll check that out and put a link in the show notes for that. So this is awesome advice so far, Sandra. And it, it does make perfect sense. But so many people do go into goal setting with the wrong approach or, you know, it's all about punishment and having that coach by your side. And also I think with coaching as well, you're. If I was to hire you as my coach, you are not in my head. You know, my head can be very jumbled sometimes and you can get the best out of me. And I think that that's so important. I find myself, I struggle because I've got so many ideas on the go that sometimes I don't do anything because there's just too much going on. And I think that's where coach is really, really helpful.
I mean, you must work with some cool people and you must be some great results. And I mean, it must be really satisfying. So what lights you up most about the work you do?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: Honestly, it's just seeing somebody feel better about themselves, you know, because when they're feeling better about themselves in the world around them and what they can do and actually be able to acknowledge their successes, they glow.
And, you know, this is why I came up with my business name, because it's all about lighting up that fire inside. And if you've got a heart goal, you know, if you've got it deep inside that there's something that you really want and when you achieve it or you start working towards it and having all those successes, you do light up, up. And people around you notice it.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Yes, don't they? Around you. It's amazing.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: I start looking at you like you're either pregnant or you have, and it's like, no, I'm just really happy about what I'm doing. And that's what I want for the world, is you Know, I see what I do as lighting the way for people, but also about casting that little people in the pond. Because you know, if I can help one person, then I know that person's gonna be able to help, help more people and they'll help more people and they'll help more people. And I think that's one of the things that I absolutely adored about back in my corporate days I used to run the Emerging Leaders program. So there was I think over 130 people that I had going through my programs where I could see them just glow and blossom and go on and do all these amazing things.
But I actually also saw all the people that they impacted and how it affected them. And so taking it away from that environment, just sort of taking the fact that by having a coaching conversation and helping people get better at what they want to get better at, then I'm really satisfied, I'm really happy, whatever that looks like.
And the cool thing about not being in that corporate environment is that all of the skills and knowledge that I gained from being in there I can share with people in whatever way they come to me. You know, it could be the local person down at the shops, it could be someone in tertiary study, it could be someone who's thinking about returning to the workforce, it could be someone thinking about retirement.
Whatever's important for that person that they need support with is where I love to help.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: No, that's just fantastic, Sandra. I really love that. And I have heard that you can be a manager but not necessarily a good leader. So doing those courses and teaching people how to lead effectively and positively is so important. And as you say, it is like a ripple effect. It impacts everybody around them if they take on board, you know, what you're sharing.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think that's the one thing that, you know, I also took out of that experience as well, is that a lot of people day to day life, you know, no matter, say in the local community, they would not think of themselves as being a leader. But we're all leaders, we all leaders in our own mind.
And I think it's really important that people know that and trust that. Because having that belief that you're the leader of your own life means that you are empowered to take control of your goals and to do the work to achieve your goals. If you feel disempowered or that it's somebody else's responsibility. It's not my responsibility to achieve my clients goals, it's theirs.
But if they're empowered to, oh, I just support them with that, then they will feel that confidence, they'll feel that lift and shift where they know that they're doing great things because they're doing it because they want to do it and it's for their best self and it's coming from their hearts. And I think that's the whole thing about what I like to do is just sort of bring it from all being up here to actually being here in the heart space.
If you've got an open heart, then you will have an open mind and the pathway in front of you will become open and that's how you get unstuck.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: I really. That's a perfect way to wrap up the show. I just love that. And it actually made me go cold when you were talking about that as well. You know, it's so special what you do and, you know, I'd love to. For you to share. Where can people get hold of you anyway, because you coach people worldwide, online, or is it just in New Zealand?
Where can people reach you?
[00:36:01] Speaker B: I am. Oh, I'm based here in New Zealand in the Hibiscus coast, so I do see some people or local businesses locally. Other than that, I can coach and zoom, you know, online is just wonderful.
Primarily, I've only worked with people in New Zealand. I'm open to people in Australia and I would probably just need to have a look at a couple of things for coaching further afield internationally.
But never say never. There's always opportunities.
Yeah.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: The world's so small these days, isn't it?
[00:36:36] Speaker B: Well, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. It's just sort of with, you know, insurances and things like that, I've just got to be careful. But UK would be sweet.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: Yes. Dig into that.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: But, yeah, I.
I often post on LinkedIn, so if anyone's on LinkedIn, you're welcome to connect with me there.
Glow's also got a Facebook page. Glow coaching and learning.
I probably post this often there, but I do because not as many people are using Facebook, I think, as what they used to.
But I can also be contacted by email as well at glocoaching and Learning or sandracoachingandlearning. Co nz Fantastic.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: I'll make sure I've got all of those details in the show notes as well, so they can easily contact you.
So, Sandra, thank you so much for sharing your insights today and I know you've been fighting a chesty cough as well and you've done so well and it's been such a valuable conversation. I've really Enjoyed speaking with you. I mean, we had coffee a few weeks back and it was just, it was really interesting to hear your history and what a rich history you've got. I mean, so many years of experience that you're bringing into your work. It's amazing. And I think it's really nice that we can have this conversation when people are starting with this 21 day reset as well.
So I hope everyone listening takes away the reminder that change doesn't have to be all or nothing. Definitely not. And that progress does come from those small, consistent steps like your James Clear, what have you, those points, stacking little habits. It's the little things that you do frequently that matters the most.
So as we move through the next few weeks, I encourage you to come back to one simple intention. Be kind to yourself. As Sandra said, you must be kind to yourself. Really love what you're doing. And when things feel hard, remember that awareness is progress itself. You know, just being aware of what you want to change, that's already progress. You're never going back to square one. So, Sandra, thank you so much again for the work that you do and for sharing your time with us tonight as well. I really do appreciate that.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Oh, thank you.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I really do. It's been wonderful. Speak. I could talk for hours with you.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: Same.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great when you love your subject. That's when you're, you know, when you're passionate about your work. It's the best feeling in the world, isn't it? We're so lucky.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Thank you so much for inviting me to have this conversation with you because I think that's the thing about change, is that it's just a conversation. You need to take all the scary out of it and, and put in curiosity and it becomes a lot easier to manage.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: And sometimes it can be that one little conversation that can just turn the light bulb on for somebody. It can completely change the direction in their life. You know, it doesn't have to be much. So everyone have a great week. Go well on your 21 day reset. If you've got any questions, anything at all, you know where to reach me.
And I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
