Excel against the Odds

In this episode I chat with Louise van Vessem about her experiences of running a business with a chronic illlness.

Bee Higgins is a creative copywriter, content writer and messaging mentor for heart-led small business owners ready to express their unique magic with words. From 1:1 mentoring sessions, done-for-you offerings and her group membership, Bloom With Bee, there are a myriad of ways to work with Bee to attract kindred clients and nip copy and content overwhelm in the bud. 
When she's not at her desk, you'll find her reading secondhand books, padding the village fields with her dog, and seeking poetry in everyday moments.

In this fabulous discussion, we chatted about the importance of messaging in business and also in the way that people discuss disability and chronic illness. We talked about the imporance of boundaries and of adapting your way of working to fit around your health needs. Bee also recommended some great podcasts which I've been busy checking out.

Social media handles:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Jenn Barnett, a culture change and EDI specialist and psychologist and UK Lead for ESG and EDI for the fifth largest professional services firm; Grant Thornton UK LLP.

In this fascinating discussion, we discuss;

- How chronic illness can affect your confidence in the workplace and how mentoring can help

- Applying for promotion when your chronic illness is always front of mind

- Adjustments and accommodations that organisations can make

- How to encourage people to ask for the support that they need

Jenn is responsible for designing and leading the Grant Tornton's distinctive ESG strategy. Her team are focused on reducing the firm's environmental impact, creating an inclusive culture that prioritises wellbeing and improves community impact. Jenn is addressing this through robust governance and measure, chairing diversity and sustainability boards, respectfully challenging board behaviour and business decisions, innovative policy change, and utilising technology to remove barriers in the operating model.

Prior to this role; Jenn was People Experience Director, where she shaped the employee value proposition and influenced senior leaders to change behaviour to improve the people experience. Jenn has expertise in psychological culture change, and is an executive coaching and leadership specialist. Prior to Grant Thornton, she worked in senior roles with The Co-operative Group, BAE Systems and BAA at Heathrow, where she led the transformation of people behaviours to improve customer service in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2012.

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Amy Walters. Amy is the multi-award-winning Founder and Lead Designer of Bloom Creative, a design business based in Kent who support business owners with a range of services that enhance their brand, including bespoke branding & brand refreshes, eye-catching print design, and quality digital content. When she’s not working with clients helping them to level-up their business look, she enjoys travelling and eating good food! After a long diagnosis journey, she was diagnosed with 3 co-existing chronic conditions: Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder aka HSD (which affects her joints), Fibromyalgia (which causes pain and fatigue), and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome aka POTs (which affects her heart rate and can cause nausea). Amy has found a way to manage her health and her business together, which she talks about in this episode.

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I'm looking at the importance of choosing the right strategy for your business.

Chronic illness can mean that we have limited energy to run our business and so we need to ensure that our business strategy give us a good return on our energy investment.

In this episode, I look at why we need to find the right strategy, the different strategies to consider and when it is good to assess your business strategy.

If you want help with your strategy, I'm currently offering business strategy power hours, please send me a message for more details.

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I examine how listening to your body and responding to its needs can be beneficial for your health and your work. Our bodies are great at letting us know when something isn't quite right, whether it's pain, stress or tiredness we're feeling, it is communicating its needs. Learning how to listen and how to respond can really help us.

In this episode we look at why it's important to listen to your body, how doing this can positively impact your work and how to get into the habit of listening to your body.

To find out more information about my Managing your energy levels when running a business workshop plus Energy Tracker and Symptom Tracker click here:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Jessica Lorimer a B2B Sales Expert who has ME/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I loved chatting to Jess and we covered some fascinating topics including what Corporate Organisations can do to better support employees with chronic illnesses along with some great tips on running a business with a chronic illness.

Jess Lorimer is the UK's leading B2B Sales Expert for small business owners. Having been featured in Forbes, CityAM and Good Morning Britain, Jess is widely recognised within her industry and has supported thousands of entrepreneurs to create simple sales processes that successfully sell within the corporate landscape.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesslorimer/

Podcast: Selling to Corporates

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Georgina Merckel.

Georgina  is the owner of TOPA, a Business Consultancy and Services Provider. She  supports businesses by running, streamlining or assisting with their operations, HR, events functions and working on digital products to  increase their income. She provides coaching and training on running a  business and talks about her experience of generalised anxiety disorder. In this episode, Georgina talks about how her Generalised Anxiety Disorder manifests in physical symptoms and how she manages working while living with her conditions.

You can find Georgina here:

Instagram: @workwithgeorgina @workwithtopa 

Website: www.workwithtopa.com

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Audrey Zannese.

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Hanson.

Andrea  W. Hanson is a motivational speaker and the author of two books about  having a positive mindset while living with a diagnosis; "Live Your  Life, Not Your Diagnosis" and "Stop Carrying The Weight of Your MS''.  She's also a master certified life & mindset coach who's lived with  multiple sclerosis for over two decades. Her podcast, "Live Your Life,  Not Your Diagnosis" features conversations with people who are creating  extraordinary lives while living with chronic illness.

Andrea  teaches people how to tune out the noise of their inner critic and  listen to their authentic voice so they can feel confident in their  ability to make changes and create the life they want. Her upcoming  online course uses the Live Your Life, Not Your Diagnosis method to help  high achievers living with a chronic illness to create self-care,  deeper confidence, and helps them get back to feeling like themselves  again. Get more information and join the waitlist at  AndreaHansonCoaching.com/waitlist.

Andrea loves to hike in the  mountains with her Blue Heeler — and sometimes other humans, too. She's  happiest when traveling with her husband and exploring new things — or  simply sitting poolside with a good book.

To find out more about Andrea:

When you have a chronic illness, it is easy to worry about the impact of growing your business and how it will affect your health. Yet in this episode, I explain why it can be beneficial to grow your business and how it can help your wellbeing.

I also talk about how to grow your business in a chronic illness friendly way. Working with your health, rather than against it. Using processes and systems to help and exploring the use of outsourcing.

I'm running a free Boost your Business training series in the Entrepreneurs against the Odds Facebook group during the week starting 3rd October 2022. In this training, I will teach you the 3 simple growth steps you need for flexibility, freedom & growth in your business.

For more details and to sign up: www.excelagainsttheodds.co.uk/boost-your-business

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds podcast, I was delighted to be joined by Helen Dickman, an English tutor and a business coach at the Love Mondays Club.   

After being diagnosed with a rare degenerative condition (MED) at the  age of 4, she has faced a number of challenges with her health, but this  hasn’t held her back.   

In her own words: "My goals in life were very simple: I wanted a house, a  dog and the freedom to make my own decisions."  Feeling uninspired by the corporate world, Helen left the classroom in  her early 20s to start her own businesses. She started as an English  tutor running group classes, online courses, and memberships.  

Now, after years of learning and discovering the route to an easy life,  she now coaches fellow tutors and business owners on how to use her  simple strategies and processes to grow their online businesses.

You can find Helen in the following places:

In today's episode, I was delighted to interview Pollie Rafferty. Pollie is an experienced storyteller and has been telling tales since 2005,  She first started telling stories as a therapy to help her step out of  crippling anxiety and move into a more positive personal story.  She has since been exploring the power of stories and how they can  impact our lives and business. She has a diploma in narrative therapy  and is spending hours researching different stories, techniques and how  we use stories every day.  A Story is like the seed from a Dandelion. It can take root in any  environment, and like the Dandelion grows into something beautiful and  useful. From this passion and interest, she has developed her own story system  and founded  Dandelion Tales to change lives through Story. From her  motivational storytelling talks, workshops and bespoke speaker training  she is impacting people, inspiring them to share their stories to  connect with others and show we are never alone.

Trigger Warning for this episode: There is a brief mention of suicide in this episode

You can find Pollie in the following places:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dandeliontales1
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pollie-rafferty-b237a012b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dandeliontales1/
Email: hello@dandeliontales.co.uk

For more information about Excel against the Odds and the work that I do:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jill D. Griffin a career strategist and Gallup® certified Strengths Coach. She's spent 20+ building strategy and strengths-based cultures while creating repeated and consistent results. Jill has worked with Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Samsung, Mondelez, and Honda. Just as her career started to take off, Jill was involved in an accident that resulted in head trauma. She spent years learning how to leverage her mindset to work with the cognitive impairment. Today, Jill shows others how to leverage their strengths and their shift mindset towards possibility to create the results they want in their careers. Jill is the host of The Career Refresh podcast. 

You can find Jill in the following places:

In this episode of the Excel against the Odds Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Natasha Lipman, a journalist, podcaster and chronic illness blogger. In this fascinating conversation, Natasha talks about how she works with a chronic illness, the move from working for the BBC to working as a freelance journalist and the techniques she uses to manage her energy and her work. I hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as I enjoyed recording it with Natasha.

You can find Natasha in the following places:

In this episode, which was recorded in two parts, Rebecca talks about the importance of accessibility in business and how she is helping businesses to become more accessible. Rebecca is blind and has chronic illnesses and in this episode, she discusses how this affects her work and the changes that she has made to ensure that she can run a business while looking after her health. Rebecca has been one of my mentoring clients for the last 6 months and in the second part of the interview she discusses how mentoring has helped her to shape her business and the changes that she has made as a result.

Rebecca is running a free Webinar on the 8th March 2022, the details are below

In this episode. Dr Rebecca Williams Dinsdale talks about her journey with ME. She was diagnosed with severe ME when she was 17 years old and dicusses her determination to finish her studies and the work that she now does. She speaks about her life as a coach and an author, how she has learnt to adapt to living with her condition and who inspires her.

To find out more information about Rebecca:

In this episode, Sarah Berthon, the host of the Excel against the Odds podcast, talks about living with ME, PoTS Syndrome, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and Chronic Migraine. Sarah talks about how her health conditions have affected her work and how they have inspired her to set up a business helping other people with chronic illnesses in the work place. The interviewer for this podcast is David Pope. I hope you enjoy this episode.

In this week's episode we look at the benefits of gentle movement when you have a chronic illness. Our guest, Vicky Webster-Clamp talks about when you should exercise and when you should rest and gives some tips on how to increase gentle exercise in your daily life. She also provides information on how to make sure you don't push yourself too hard and talks about her own experiences of living with chronic fatigue.

Vicky is a Mental Health and Exercise Coach plus Personal Trainer. She works with ladies who would like to boost their mental  health through exercise. Vicky helps ladies boost their confidence, self  esteem and motivation by ensuring her clients short term and long term  goals are being worked towards during each session.

Charlotte Carter is  high perfomance coach and in this episode she gives advice and techniques to help turn your business into a high performance business. Techniques covered in this podcast include:

• Understand what your version of success looks like
• Look at what's blocking you from achieving that success
• Understand whether you have any limiting beliefs
• Using affirmations to improve your mindset
• Look at how much you'e achieved and celebrating the successes, no matter how small
• Developing high performance habits such as drinking water and journalling
• Self Acceptance
• Try and find balance by calming the mind and moving the body

charlottecartercoaching.co.uk

www.instagram.com/charlottethehighperformancecoach

www.facebook.com/groups/maximummindsetforsuccess

Excel against the Odds

Elyssa is a thriving survivor of emotional and medical trauma, perfectionism, toxic relationships, people-pleasing and self-doubt. Having spent the last 5 years paving a road out of the darkness that resulted from all of life's unexpected twists and complications, she promised herself that when she got out to the other side, she would document the way for other women to also make it through to being able to trust and prioritize themselves again.

As a transformational self-love coach, Elyssa specializes in helping busy, overwhelmed women stress less and put themselves first without guilt. Her passion is teaching practical strategies to overcome anxiety and negative self-talk by rewiring the brain toward self-compassion and self-nurturing.

In this episode, we discuss looking after our survival brain using breathing techniques, cross-body tapping and self care.

In this episode, we look at the power of following our own path, and not comparing ourselves to others. We look at some benefits of comparing ourselves: motivation, fresh ideas, innovation. However, we then look at the many negatives and look at the importance of celebrating our successes in our own right and not by comparing ourselves to others.

In this episode, I am delighted to be joined by sleep coach, Tracy Hannigan. We talk about different sleep issues that can affect us and Tracy provides insightful advice on how to overcome insomnia and get a better night's sleep.