Tim Newman [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence Podcast that helps you build the soft skills that lead to real results. Communication, storytelling, public speaking and showing up with confidence in every conversation that counts. I'm Tim Newman, a recovering college professor turned communication coach and I'm thrilled to guide you on your journey to becoming a powerful communication coach. Today's guest is Rachael Edmondson-Clarke. Rachael brings a powerful blend of boardroom experience and entrepreneurial insight. She is a former senior leader in the corporate world who spent the last 10 years running her own leadership consultancy, Elevar. She works with high performing leaders and teams who want to lead with clarity, courage and impact without burning out or losing who they are in the process. Mrs.

Tim Newman [00:00:53]:
Clark is also the former regional Vice President and President of the Professional Speaking association and in the UK and Ireland and a sought after speaker, coach and consultant. Welcome Rachael . Rachael , welcome to the show. I'm really excited to have you and have this conversation. I've been looking forward to it for, for a while.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:01:11]:
Oh, Tim, I am delighted to be here. I'm well done with all of my names. If we'd actually added in the Divinia and Tamara, which are my middle names, it gets to be quite a mouthful. Despite, despite appearances and the double barreled name, I am not that posh and I'm definitely, as you probably hear from the, I'm from a place in, in England called Nottingham or Nottingham as we might say. So yeah, no, very, very down to earth Bath, not it's Bath, not Bath in my house. Despite all of those names. Anyway, I'm delighted to be, I've been super excited too. I have been looking forward to this since we had our original planning session for the show and someone, I don't.

Tim Newman [00:01:55]:
Know if I told you this, but I spent some time in Manchester and Stockport when I was a kid. When, when Charles and Diana got married, I was actually over there. We, we were in a lacrosse tour. So I was, I was 13 years old and we spent probably, we probably spent a month in, you know, my host family was in Manchester and we probably spent a month traveling around the United Kingdom playing lacrosse against different, different lacrosse clubs. And I, I vividly remember the party that we had at my host family's house when Prince Charles and Prince Diana got married.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:02:33]:
Oh my goodness. 1981.

Tim Newman [00:02:35]:
I think I'm old, Rachael . I'm old.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:02:41]:
Oh my goodness. And Manchester is a wonderful, wonderful city. I was, I was there only a couple of weeks ago working with one of my clients and yeah, it's a great city to be in. I Love staying up there when I'm there. It's really vibrant. Lots of, lots of good, lots of good stuff to be said. And, and Tim, what I was also just saying around, just, it is such a pleasure and such a delight to be here. You are, one of you are such a warm hearted, genuine host and I'm just delighted to have this conversation with you.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:03:19]:
So thank you for having me on.

Tim Newman [00:03:20]:
Thank you. You're making me blush. You know, I'm an introvert. I'm a screaming introvert. And you know, I always try and direct the attention away from me and onto the guests. I actually had a conversation yesterday with somebody and he asked, you know, you know, awards this, that and the other thing. And I said, look, man, it's not me, it's not who I am. I consider myself a connector, not a climber.

Tim Newman [00:03:50]:
Right. What I do is I connect people and help put them in places for them to be successful. And I'm very happy doing that. I like doing that. And to me it's more service and value is what drives me than any awards or accolades or things of that nature. So thank you.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:04:08]:
No, and it's really clear, it's really clear from meeting you and the way that you prepare and plan and welcome your hosts to the show. So thank you.

Tim Newman [00:04:19]:
Well, let's talk about you, let's talk about your journey. You know, you, and, and I think that, you know, your, your journey really is, isn't too uncommon. You, you went, you went to university, you graduated and you started climbing that corporate ladder and you know, take it from there and, and walk us through how you got to where you are now because I think your story is really important for people to understand some mindset shifts that we as a society need to start making.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:04:49]:
Of course. So you're absolutely right. I thought I was very clear on what I wanted. I went to college, university. I started off in the corporate world and climbed that ladder to some senior roles in both sales and marketing. And I can still vividly remember the afternoon that all of that came crumbling down. I was in my glass fronted office and I was preparing to go into the boardroom. And instead of walking out that door, I found myself lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling tiles.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:05:31]:
I had collapsed. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe in that moment. And it was a really low and scary, scary moment for me. And what had led me to that point had been months and if not even years of disrespecting my body, of ignoring the most important relationships in my Life and of pushing through, thinking that I knew all the mindset stuff, I knew how to regulate how I was feeling. And if I just kept working harder and harder or if I could just get to the next weekend or through this next project, that things would get better. And in the end, my body went time out and I was able to get myself up off the floor, I needed to because nobody could quickly see what had happened to me. So I, I did manage to get enough breath to get me back on, you know, kind of at least just sat in my office. And I often describe that moment a bit like being slapped around the face with a wedge.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:06:54]:
You know, kind of like I remember, I remember that it was like this real realization with myself, you can't do this anymore. Like this is an stop, like this is something must change. And a day or two after that, I had arranged to speak with my director, we had a very honest conversation and eventually we restructured the team. I went instead of heading up the team, I moved into the team as part of the team. And I helped to recruit somebody with greater experience that could do that role that I had been doing for the last of 18 months, two years. And that was tough. That was really tough. I went from having that glass fronted office to moving out of that glass fronted.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:07:54]:
So all the senior leaders had those, these glass fronted off around a big open plan office for, you know, everyone else. It was just the way the building had been designed. And I had to, I came out of that office and sat back in the open plan area outside of what had been my office to watch someone else walk in. As you can imagine, that was, that, that was tough. I felt guilt, I felt shame, I felt a lot of things. And over the course of what was really about a three year period following that moment, I really reassessed and revalued what was most important to me. There was another moment that I remember specifically. I was getting ready for work one morning and I was stood in the shower and it was like there was a whisper on my heart that I couldn't hear or make out what the whisper was saying.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:08:59]:
And that morning I decided to turn to that whisper inside of me and go, what are you saying? What are you saying to me? Let me try and listen, let me try and hear. And essentially it was saying, you are made for more than this. And I was like, but what? But like, but what? I don't know what that is. And although the answer didn't come there and then I remember stepping out of the shower and my feet Touching the bath mat. And at that point, I'd made a decision that I no longer wanted a job or a career, but I wanted a life submission, work that I could feel like I could jump out of bed for every day. And that's what I then spent the next three years kind of exploring with excitement and possibility what that could be and what that could look like and following my heart and what was lighting me up.

Tim Newman [00:10:03]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:10:04]:
And ultimately that led me to, over 10 years ago now, launching my business, Elevar, and where we help leaders to lead better, live better, and love what they do.

Tim Newman [00:10:21]:
Yeah, that's such a powerful story. To go from doing what we think everybody wants us to do and like I said, trying to get to the next weekend or trying to just get through this project and, you know, if I just get through it, it's going to be so much better. I'll be able to relax. I'll be able to relax. But no, because you start working on the next project before even that project is finished, and then, well, okay, I'll just. You know what? I just have to get to July, and then it's just. I just have to get to the end of the year and then it never ends. And it's that inner talk that we give that we have ourselves.

Tim Newman [00:10:55]:
If we don't do it, then we're going to let, we're letting somebody down, we're letting our boss down, we're letting our team down, letting our family down. And, you know, I've kind of been there, you know, you know, if I was at work, my mind was at home. If I was at home, my mind was at work. And I wasn't helping anybody either. Right. You know, so you're, you're, you're, you're stuck. And it's that constant. I'm, like, you say the guilt of.

Tim Newman [00:11:18]:
I'm not, I'm not helping anybody. I'm letting everybody down. Nothing's getting done at the level that we want it to get done at. And it's the pressure that we're putting on ourselves to, to fulfill something that we think somebody else wants.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:11:33]:
Yeah, absolutely. And when, when we're regulating ourselves, because that's essentially what we're doing. We're regulating, regulating how we're feeling. We're, you know, suppressing perhaps how we are feeling. I think that was one of the biggest lessons I learned from that whole time, which was that mindset isn't everything. I had been a. I'm, I'm going to say healthily obsessed with practical psychology. And what makes us successful, happy and fulfilled and how we can manage and direct our moods and emotions.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:12:15]:
And I had been obsessed with that for, you know, 10 years, kind of running up to this time when I collapsed and I had forgotten my biology. Like, the psychology is great, but actually you also need the biology. And it sounds so simple when I say it. Now we know that our minds and our bodies not separate things.

Tim Newman [00:12:43]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:12:44]:
But I was so convinced that, well, you know, I've just got to get better at managing this or I can reframe this or I can. Up until the point that my body eventually went through, it shuts down.

Tim Newman [00:12:58]:
It shuts down. And that's the biggest problem that I think we, we don't ever connect the two. Right. You know, because again, being. I started having health issues, you know, I mean, and, you know, you know, physical internal health issues and, and, and changed that because of those health issues it had. We had to change lifestyle because I couldn't do, I physically couldn't do the things that I wanted to do or, or used to be able to do. And, and that made things even worse because I would, I would, I would get frustrated and mad. Well, what.

Tim Newman [00:13:39]:
I should still be able to do these things and not knowing what was truly happening, you know, biologically and, and psycho, psychologically tying it all back to, you know, again, who I was trying to be right for, for other people.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:13:55]:
Absolutely.

Tim Newman [00:13:56]:
It's crazy.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:13:57]:
Absolutely. You know, and, and sometimes it's, it's even in the little things, you know, I be the first, I'd be the first to switch the lights on in the office in the morning. I'd be the last to switch the lights off at night. I would walk around and if I was going to get lunch, I can remember walking around like shoveling food in my mouth. I was walking to different people's desks to go and, to go and catch up with them. Meeting cultures can be incredibly difficult because we get into cultures in organizations where it's backed by back meetings.

Tim Newman [00:14:27]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:14:28]:
And actually the etiquette behind those meetings is not necessarily great practice.

Tim Newman [00:14:34]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:14:34]:
And where is then the time for us to do our work? And, and, and we're not establishing our boundaries and saying, you know, do I really need to be in this? And like, does this really need to be half an hour? All of those good things that mean we create time within the day not only to be able to respond, restore ourselves, but also to be able to do our work and to be right. Our best work to, you know, to, to, to that. So yeah, that was a, that, that was a, A huge, a huge lesson. And there has been times when, you know, I can, I have felt myself move back towards that even, you know, just to say. Yes, not always. It's not always perfect. It wasn't like a once and then. Okay, that's it.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:15:22]:
Because I think there is, I think particularly with people who are driven to achieve great things when, when, when we achieve that project, when we get that thing done or when we deliver that speech or whatever it is that that comes with it. Some of that high. Yes, dopamine, kicks of dopamine.

Tim Newman [00:15:51]:
That's right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:15:51]:
Quite addictive to kind of be chasing that next, that next thing, and that's that. Then within that is where there's been much more nuance, I think that I've Learned in the 10 years since this. At times when I felt myself kind of coming towards that burnout again, is checking in, checking myself and recognizing actually that my best work comes when I'm in flow, when I am energized, when I have restored. Well, and that those things that restore us, good food, sleep, nature, daylight, movement, hydration, you know, those things that restore us, they want the reward for the work. They're a critical input to be able to do our best work and bring our best selves to whatever it is that we're doing.

Tim Newman [00:16:45]:
Yeah, absolutely. And I kind of think it's from a generational perspective how we have viewed work and the idea of work, life, balance. I tell the story of my youngest daughter. She is a lot like me, type A personality, very driven, very smart. I just call myself smart.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:17:12]:
I didn't mean it quite right. Too. Quite right. This is your daughter that came back from kindergarten day one and was like upset that they hadn't taught her to read already.

Tim Newman [00:17:21]:
No, this, this is the other one. This is the younger one. Yeah, yeah, so it was in the family too. But I, I trust me, my kids are so, and this is weird for me, I think kids today, and now my, my youngest is 31. But kids today are so much smarter than we were at that age or I was at that age. Like my 5 year old is so much smarter than my kids when they were five. And for whatever reason, I can't figure out why that is, but what they know, their speech patterns, the words that they use. I mean, to me it's insane.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:18:02]:
It's interesting, isn't it? Because I think in some ways the world is exponentially better at the, you know, think about life expectancy or the technology and the connectivity that we have, I mean, I was reminding myself the other day that to have even just a two or three minute call with someone across the pond like you are, Tim, like 20 years ago would have cost us an arm and a leg for me to make this call. And here we are, we're doing with beautiful clarity and video and it's all good anyway. Things are getting exponentially better. But at the same time, I think perhaps paradoxically things are getting exponentially worse as well, you know, and we look at some of the issues facing the world, you know, and climate, climate change, that even coming back to that connectivity point, yes, we are more connected to one another in many senses, but less connected, lost connection with ourselves because I think we're talking about here with perhaps our families, because you were also talking about that. And, and, and perhaps with nature maybe as, as well. I think it's easy in the, what is a very fast paced world today to lose connection with those things that are really important for grounding us.

Tim Newman [00:19:25]:
Yeah. And such good points. And I think, you know, just take climate change as a, for example, how things aren't necessarily better. You know, I think what we've done is we've taken these issues. Do you know anybody who wants dirty water? Have you ever heard somebody say, you know what, let me go get a glass of nice dirty water, let me breathe some horrible polluted air? Right. I think everybody, I've never met anybody who said that. And we demonize people, or the media has allowed us to demonize people who maybe agree, maybe disagree, but say, well, if you don't agree with this piece of it, you're the worst person in the world. Instead of saying, you know what, we all want this, how we get to that, maybe a little bit nuanced.

Tim Newman [00:20:19]:
Instead of demonizing those other people, why don't we try and work together and find a, a better solution than calling this person over here horrible or this person over here a liar, whatever it is. Okay. Do you want clean air? Yeah. Do you want clean water? Yeah. Do you want to clean up the oceans? Absolutely. Do you, I mean, all those, Nobody says that they don't want those things. Let's start from where we agree and work forward as opposed to, well, you disagree and you're the worst person in the world, so we can't even talk about it. I think that's a big, big problem.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:20:53]:
And this is a big part of the work that I do and the leaders that I work with is we are facing a time of unprecedented change, uncertainty, and overlapping and interconnected challenges. And that can feel overwhelming. And so I feel part of my role is how do I make sure that, and how do I work with leaders so that they can show up with the clarity, with the calm, with the compassion that enables those around them to bring their best work as well? Because as a human race, I think when we come together and we work as you've been describing, we, we have tremendous ability to adapt and do wonderful things.

Tim Newman [00:21:55]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:21:56]:
But it does take us coming together.

Tim Newman [00:21:58]:
Together, yeah. And, and treating people with love, respect and kindness, you know.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:22:05]:
Absolutely. And it starts with ourselves. That's not separate and that can be correct. Really hard for leaders to get because they are very often putting other people before themselves and you know, it all. Maybe it almost feels selfish or counterintuitive that I put myself, I, you know, I, I put myself or my, the you know, age old oxygen mask on first, you know.

Tim Newman [00:22:35]:
Yes. So I, I give blood. Every time that I'm able to, I go and I give blood.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:22:41]:
Right.

Tim Newman [00:22:41]:
And so that time for me was like maybe a week ago and it was 11:30 in the morning. I was supposed to go and up to that point I'd been aggravated. Some one thing happened, would aggravate, next thing would happen, aggravate, aggravate, aggravate. So I go in and they take my blood pressure, my blood pressure is high. And she said, is it normally high? Said, no, I'm just, I've been aggravated all day and I'm just, I'm me when I go in, I'm nice people, you know, make them laugh. And, and when I said that, I saw the nurse step back, I said I'm not aggravated with you, you know, and I had to bring her back and say, you know, unless you were, you know, part of the conspiracy to aggravate me all day, it has nothing to do with you. And kind of made her laugh. But that reminded me that we can't bring our baggage in to any other situation because number one, we don't know what that other person is dealing with at all.

Tim Newman [00:23:35]:
And a smile could help. And it's not fair to those other people for us to bring our baggage, our aggravation, our upsetness, whatever it is, and place it on them. That's for us to deal with the people that have, or the situations that have caused those things. And I think that's so important for leaders to understand as well. Because let's just say mid level manager goes in to senior level manager and the senior level manager is saying, look, you're not getting it done. You've got to cut budgets, you've got to cut positions, this, that and the other thing. And then they go and they talk to their team and they start berating their team. It's not the team's fault.

Tim Newman [00:24:17]:
I mean, he's got to deal with those types of things and figure out ways to inspire and motivate that team to get back to wherever it is that they need to be. And coming in aggravated is not going to get it done.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:24:29]:
No. And incredibly difficult in those kind of situations and circumstances. And I mean, just, you know, coming back to how things can emotionally impact us and impact our biology and our ability to be able to perform well, I do a lot of work with a company called CHX Performance. Their co founder is Professor Chris Beedy and he is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and cognition and neuroscience at both Oxford and Kent University. And he will often talk about. As human beings, we're very social creatures.

Tim Newman [00:25:08]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:25:09]:
And essentially we have five social or mammal needs that will vary in their degree of importance to us in any given time of our lives. But these are really important. And when they are triggered that if those needs are not being met, that's going to cause significant emotional dysregulation. And if that's not being dealt with or, you know, being resolved, as you said, with either the something or someone that's caused that, then if we're not very careful, that's clinically predictive of certain outcomes and risks, like disengagement from work, like increase in negative bias, mental and physical health problems, which we've both talked about. Departure and burnout, which we've obviously been talking about. And you've got a story to share perhaps about your daughter here as well. And it's kind of actually, if we're not resolving those, those emotions and seeing those emotional. Those emotions as useful so signals.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:26:22]:
I think sometimes it's very easy for us to think these emotions are getting in the way.

Tim Newman [00:26:26]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:26:27]:
Just like push them to the back or to the side or wherever. They are actually incredibly useful signals. And when we can see them as that and understand what they are, what they are telling us, and we can have open, honest and constructive conversations, if it is something that is. That is. Is is causing that, then that's what leads to teams that can be more trusting of one another, can be more inclusive of one another, will be more engaged. And so far from being annoying things, these feelings are absolutely critical to individual performance and cultures within.

Tim Newman [00:27:14]:
Yeah, culture is so important and I think it's often overlooked to its detriment Just say, for example, you have somebody who is a naysayer not buying into the culture of the organization that can have delirious effects on productivity and the team. Because person B over here is going to say, well, this person over here isn't buying in, so why should I do it? And then it just becomes a cancer. And we've got to find ways to either get that person on board or have them understand that maybe it's time for them to move on. And again, that's okay.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:28:04]:
It's it, it is. It is okay. And I, I, I know because I've had this very, that very real example with a very senior individual and a senior leadership team in an organization. And you, you have to ask the question, how long are you going to let that rotten apple stay in the barrel and be affecting all of those other apple? So.

Tim Newman [00:28:30]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:28:33]:
And some of these conversations to resolve the emotional dysregulation are not comfortable or easy conversations to necessarily have, but so critically important.

Tim Newman [00:28:46]:
And you know, you got to see some of these types of conversations when you were really young. Your mom owned a large hair salon and you worked in there and you worked the front desk. So you were the first person that the clients came in to see. How did that really kind of shape your communication strategy, your mindset, your business strategy, and how did that kind of evolve?

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:29:16]:
I wouldn't have said this at the time, but looking back, the fact that we had 300 clients a week coming in through those doors, and I was very often the first person that they would see. I had two telephone lines coming in, and I would need to assess very, very quickly from their body language, how they were looking, moving, breathing, what they were saying, exactly where they were at so that I could meet them with where they were at and have the most influential and positive impact on that communication that I had with them. And so I, so I, one of the things that I take away, Master. And I worked there from the age of 12 to 21. So one of the things that I think I really took away from that was this. How do we communicate? How do we read people? And therefore, how do we adapt our communication styles so that we can have positive outcomes and be influencing positively with them?

Tim Newman [00:30:26]:
Yeah, yeah. And it's, I think it's so important to learn that at a young age. And obviously you had a good role model with your mom and being a business owner and understanding that, you know, you can't just blow it off, that it's important, it's important for any number of reasons. But you know, in that case, it's important to, you know, for the bottom line, for the business. It's also important for the customer to be able to. Or the stylist to be able to communicate with the customer, to give them what they want to get them to relax so that they could actually give them the services that they needed.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:31:07]:
Absolutely. And, you know, we'd have such a variety of different customers coming in. We'd have a solicitor that would come in and make sure that her hair was done before she was in time, that she was going into court. She's very needed to be, you know, dealt with very proficiently, very, very effectively. Didn't want to mess around everything, you know, needed to be just right, and she wanted to be in and out. And then you have people who did come in and they might be really, really nervous. People who've not had their hair cut in. In.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:31:37]:
In years and are coming in for a restyle and that, you know, that they're feeling quite nervous about what that might mean and. And everything in between. I think another thing for me about working in the salon, which carries on in the work that I do today, is the way that you can really help to have a positive impact on others. I'll never forget answering the phone one day and it was a woman who had cancer. She was having chemotherapy and she'd lost the hair, and her family had clubbed together to buy her a real hair wig to give her the confidence to be able to go out. But this real hair wig was very tatty. It wasn't in any shape or style that particularly suited her, and she knew it needed to be cut. Well, unlike real hair, you cut a wig once.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:32:36]:
It's not right. You're saying to me, you know, I'm just very nervous about this, like, what can I do? I've never been to see you before. And I said, you know, there's one person I want to book you in to look at. And she was also very. She also wanted it to be kept private as well. So she didn't be sitting, you know, in a salon with people seeing through the windows of what was being done. So we kept the salon open later that night, and she came right at the end of the day. And my mum, of course, looked after her.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:33:13]:
And the transformation in that woman and her energy and going out with her new real hair wig in a cut and a shape that just made her feel a million dollars was just incredible. And that happened all the time. It wasn't. That story stands out for me because of it. But that happened all the time. You'd see, see people coming in a little bit stressed or a bit frazzled or and them going out, you know, feeling calm and refreshed and just like, oh, I feel so much better.

Tim Newman [00:33:46]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:33:47]:
And, and then I, and I, and I love that, that as human beings, we get to be able to support one another in those kind of ways.

Tim Newman [00:33:55]:
Yeah. Especially in that situation. And I say that, but, you know, it goes for any number of different situations where, where somebody just wants to be heard. They want people to just hear them. And by just feeling heard, feeling listened to, that changes their mindset altogether. Even if you couldn't have helped her, if you had tried and done those things, she would have felt so much better. But in that situation, going through what she's going through, that probably, you know, that probably changed your life, honestly.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:34:36]:
Yeah, yeah. And I, and I'm in the fortunate position that there has been many people that have changed the trajectory of my life in very positive ways. And I, I, I, I know you've got some exciting news coming up in terms of the coaching and the spirit speaking and the training that you're qualified in now as well. Timmy, perhaps tell us a bit about that in just a second. And because I really do believe in that personal development journey. And, and let me add this. That personal development journey, not just so, not just so. It's not about necessarily what we get or we achieve, but it's about who we become in the process and what we do with that.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:35:28]:
Yes, I think that's the thing. It's not just about the self actualization and, you know, that fulfillment, that's a really important part of what we're doing. But it's then how do we then show up as the leaders our world needs right now.

Tim Newman [00:35:43]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:35:44]:
And so it's, it's bringing that back to, you know, reporting for duty, our families, with our communities in our organizations, and being able to show up as the best that we can. And what I was going to say was those people that have touched my. I've been fortunate to work with some of the best coaches in the world. And, and I have, I have three mentors that I see and speak to regularly. And there is the podcasts and things, you know, this type of thing are so wonderful. And I would encourage people to be fertilizing their minds with, you know, kind of good sources of information and continuing to find courage and be brave and to operate in that amber zone, you know, so we know the green zone is that comfort zone. It's not about being in the red zone and being completely stressed and, you know, but how do we spend more of our time in that amber zone where we are, we know we are stretching, we are becoming, we are evolving who we are. And with that view of how do we better serve?

Tim Newman [00:37:00]:
Yeah. And again, that's the key. You can have mentors, you can take classes, you can listen to podcasts, you can do all those things, but if you don't actually put it into action, if you don't actually step outside your house and actually use that, and again, connect with people and treat them with love, kindness, and respect, then you haven't done anything. It's just becoming an abstract idea. It's actually doing that and touching people and becoming who you say you want to actually be. It's so important to actually do it.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:37:38]:
And coming back to what you were asking me about right at the beginning and my story, I didn't always feel like it was possible for me to become the person that I am now, if you can imagine. Going back to that point where I was in that corporate role. And even when I decided that I wanted to leave the corporate world and start my own business, it was shrouded in doubt and fear and questioning about whether I could or I would be capable of doing that. And it's not even been a straight line since then.

Tim Newman [00:38:15]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:38:15]:
You know, and a couple of very quick stories, but I think that life does test us. I had decided to leave the corporate world and very fortunately had an offer of a redundancy situation. So a settlement agreement through the. Through the company, they were restructuring the teams again, and my role wasn't going to exist the way that it had been existing. And so that was an option for me to take. And the day before I signed that paperwork, my husband and I found out that we were pregnant with our first child.

Tim Newman [00:38:50]:
That's awesome.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:38:52]:
It's awesome. It's also incredibly funny, you know?

Tim Newman [00:38:55]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:38:55]:
Start a business with a baby in my arms. I'm already gonna do this. And, you know, so that was. That was one challenge initially. And I think sometimes we can't always see the road ahead clearly, but to trust and take those first steps. I always remember it feeling like I was at this edge of a misty lake, and I. There was stepping stones across the lake, but all I could see was the first stepping stone. And it's.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:39:22]:
I can't see where I'm going. Like, I don't know how this is going to work. How am I going to have a baby and build this business and, and, and, and, and, and somehow when you commit to that first step, more of the mists lifts and you see with greater clarity the next step and then the next step. And then, you know, eventually it becomes clearer and clearer where you're headed and what you're doing. But sometimes you have to take that leap and that, that, that step forwards and trust that you're following your heart and doing the right thing. And Covid was another time where I lost 95% of my business overnight during COVID and effectively had to rebuild again. And I've rebuilt better and stronger, and the business is doing better now than it had ever done pre Covid. But, you know, that was a real tough 12 months of 18 months.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:40:19]:
Really, really tough. And you start to question, can I do this? That's where the coaches and the mentors.

Tim Newman [00:40:25]:
Are really important to keep because, you know, that inner voice is you telling yourself that you can't do it or you shouldn't do it because of this, that or the other thing. And having people within your inner circle that are not saying that you need or should have people in your inner circle that are. Yes, people. Oh, yeah. You're the greatest thing ever. Yes, you can do it. Yes, you can do it. Don't worry about it.

Tim Newman [00:40:49]:
You've got this. But having people in your inner circle that you can actually trust that are going to hit you straight with whatever it is. Yes, yes, you can do it. These are the things that you need to look at. These are the things that you need to plan for, need to approach and address. If you do those things, yes, you can do this. It's not all going to be, you know, red roses. Right.

Tim Newman [00:41:11]:
There's going to be bumps in the road, but having people in your inner circle who are going to shoot you straight and help you get over that inner dialogue, that is the one that's really keeping us down. It's critical.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:41:24]:
My coach calls it fierce empathy, which I love. It's like, it's. It's like simultaneously, I have the ability to kick you up the ass while giving you a massive hug. Yeah, yeah, you do. You do. And I messaged. I messaged one of my mentors earlier this week, and I was like, can you take a look at this? So it's something that I produced. And I was like, I want you to.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:41:45]:
I want you to tell me, like, where's the BS in this?

Tim Newman [00:41:49]:
Right.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:41:50]:
And how can I make it even more true? And you know that they are. You. You need. You absolutely. Do you need that?

Tim Newman [00:41:59]:
Yeah.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:42:00]:
Always within my, within my coaching. I will. Whatever I do is from a place of compassion and love. But sometimes we all need calling out.

Tim Newman [00:42:09]:
Exactly. Oh, no, absolutely. And I, it's, I think, you know, people get. They confuse things. They confuse the idea of support with telling you everything's going to be okay, when. Guess what, sometimes it may not be okay. Right. But, but I'm going to be there with you to help you get through it.

Tim Newman [00:42:32]:
Right. That's that extra, extra step. And you know, my wife and I are very, very different people. She's a nurturer. I mean, she'll come and she'll rub your back and tell you it's going to be okay and we'll get you through it. And I'm just, I'm the direct person. Okay. These are the steps that have to be taken.

Tim Newman [00:42:52]:
Let's just put your boots on. Let's trudge on through it. I'm with you, but I'm not going to be the guy that's rubbing your back. So there's different ways of being that support system and, and helping people through it. But don't confuse the idea of support with just telling you everything's going to be okay because it's not being honest.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:43:22]:
No, no, absolutely. And this will tie into, you know, I know you've done a huge amount of work with John Maxwell.

Tim Newman [00:43:32]:
Yes.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:43:33]:
And, and congratulations because I believe you've got a very important date coming up soon.

Tim Newman [00:43:38]:
Yeah, I've got some really good things coming up this weekend. And to me, it goes back to mentorship and proximity. Having people in your inner circle that are of like, mind that are doing the things that you want to do, that you can go feed off of them. But again, it, it's not that I'm just sucking everything out. I also have to provide value back to them as well. Right. That's, that's, that's also something I think is forgotten in terms of coaching, networking and mentoring. You still have to provide value back to those people that are providing you value.

Tim Newman [00:44:17]:
And this weekend for me is. It's. I've been looking forward to it for about six months and I don't want to give too much away, but when. So I, I just put out a. The episode that came out this morning, actually. So, so this episode is going to come out in, in a few weeks. The episode I put out this morning, I told people in that episode that, you know, I'm gonna have a big announcement here in two weeks and we're going to. There's.

Tim Newman [00:44:49]:
That's okay. That's okay. So I'm excited about it.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:44:52]:
And now you'll know by the time this comes out, it's very exciting.

Tim Newman [00:44:58]:
It is. And, you know, it's. Again, it's. Things don't just happen either. Right. You have to actually put in the work. And that's another key distinction that I think some of the younger generations miss, and I'm not bashing some of the younger generations, but it's the idea that there's expectations or there's entitlement. You have to actually do the work.

Tim Newman [00:45:23]:
You have to actually put yourself out there, do the hard things, do the things that you're uncomfortable doing, and get through it and get to the other side. And then you can look back and say, wow, number one, it wasn't that hard. Number two, I've grown so much from it. Number three, I've learned so much from it. Number four, I can start providing people with so much more value and helping people that, you know, may not have been able to help before. On and on and on.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:45:50]:
Absolutely. Talking about that mentality that go give, a mentality that you were describing there and how important it is not just to go to networks and people to get, but also to give. I don't know if you've read this book, but it's one that I love. That's by Bud Berg and John David Mann. It's called the Go Giver. Okay, great. Not a big book. It's.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:46:19]:
It's. It's a. It's a little story, but it's all about that go giver. I. That go give a mentality and idea. And I just. I love it. And, and this is what I.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:46:30]:
This is what I have applied in my 10 years of business, and it served me really, really well.

Tim Newman [00:46:39]:
That's. I just write that down. It's going to be the next book. That's it. Thank you so much, Rachael . We didn't even get to half the things that we want to talk to, so we're going to have to schedule more time. If you have more time, I'd love to get you scheduled back on and, you know, finish this discussion. I think you and I could talk for days and days.

Tim Newman [00:47:03]:
You know, it's. There's so much synergy there. And again, you bring so much good information and value. Again, I love to get you back on.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:47:14]:
Oh, gosh, Tim, I would love to join you. And if anything that we've been talking about today has resonated with any of your listeners, I have got something practical that they would be able to take away. Have you got just a couple?

Tim Newman [00:47:27]:
Oh, yes, ma'. Am. Please, please share.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:47:28]:
Yes. Okay, so I have created a very simple tool called the Pause. It's just five questions, but they're the kind that can cut through the noise that I was describing that can really leave you feeling overwhelmed and, and stressed out and anxious. And they can help you lead from that place of truth, not fear. So if anybody would like that, they can download it for [email protected] that's E double L, E V A R or connect with me on LinkedIn. And I'd be very happy to send that with, with anyone who wants a little more clarity and calm in the middle of what is often very chaotic. And Tim, perhaps we can also make sure that those links are with the show notes as well for people to easily find.

Tim Newman [00:48:17]:
Yes, I will make sure that those are in the show notes. Thank you so much for that resource. Again, it's something that I know is going to help our listeners and that's one of the things that I love about our guests. They give our listeners something that as soon as they listen to the episode, they can go and start putting into practice today. Don't wait. Put it into practice today and watch how your life changes. Watch how your communication changes. Watch how your leadership changes.

Tim Newman [00:48:50]:
Watch how it affects the people that are around you. It's very impactful. Thank you so much, Tim.

Rachael Edmondson-Clarke [00:48:58]:
Thank you for all you bring and what you do and I will be delighted to come and join you again. Thank you.

Tim Newman [00:49:04]:
Awesome. Thank you so much. And we'll talk soon. Be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcast.com to get your free eBook, the Top 21 Challenges for Public Speakers and How to Overcome Them. You can also register for the Forming for Public Speaking course. Always remember, your voice has a power. Change the world. We'll talk to you next time.