It’s time to thrive in business and life

:: 00:00

Welcome to the Thriving Woman Project podcast hosted by myself, Wendy Griffith. This is the podcast for women who want to level up and thrive in all areas of your life, health, and business. Join us as we cover a range of topics, all inspiring you to thrive and not just survive. We are here to work on the project of you because I believe the best gift you can give your family in the world is a healthy and thriving you.

:: 00:25

It's time to thrive. Hello Thrivers and welcome to the Thriving Woman Project podcast. I'm your host Wendy, and I am so delighted to have you here with me today. So just a quick catch up because you might be confused thinking, why is this season four if this is a newly rebranded podcast? Well, you may have listened before and known this podcast as the Healthy and Thriving Career Moms podcast.

:: 00:50

But as with anything in life, things change, things evolve. And so this podcast is really a representation of where I am in my life right now. And this episode is really designed to catch you up on that, give you all the scoop on what's been going on with me and really just to reintroduce myself as such as the host of this new podcast.

:: 01:13

So yes, 5, 000 downloads so far, well, a little bit over that, nearly five and a half thousand downloads of the first three seasons of the podcast. As I said, this is a new season of my life and this is coming to you as a new chapter, a new opportunity for me to really speak to you about all the things that are helping me to thrive in my life, health, and my business.

:: 01:39

So this podcast is really going to be a mix of topics covering everything from, you know, health, especially for those of you who are like me heading into your forties on your perimenopause journey. And also to those of you who maybe run online businesses, or maybe you're thinking about setting up an online business.

:: 01:57

I mean, I don't have to tell you the cost of living nowadays, everything going on in the world. People are looking for extra ways. To create earnings in the household and starting an online business is a really smart way to do that. So we're going to cover a range of topics, which are really going to inspire you, whether you're a seasoned business owner or a brand new one looking at starting an online business to really help give you all the tools, the confidence, the inspiration, the motivation to get started on your business journey.

:: 02:27

So before we get stuck in to the meat of today's episode, I really just wanted to say hi and introduce myself as to where I am in my life right now. So my name is Wendy Griffith. I am born and bred proudly South African. Hut of the victory of the rugby world cup. So I am sporting my green today. Can't see the gold that's in my socks, but yes, I am so genuinely proud and happy to be South African, to have that heritage and that history in my life, to have lived in that country for 23 years and for the past nearly.

:: 03:04

18 years coming up this March 2024, uh, to have lived here in the UK for the past 18 years. So I'm 41 years old. I'm a wife to my long suffering husband, Barry, bless him, who is English, although he gets lumped into the South African thing and congratulated on a Rugby World Cup victory. But also I am a mum to my gorgeous little miracle IVF precious gift from God, Jesse, who is nearly.

:: 03:33

seven years old. Can you believe it? When I started this podcast, she was just coming up for five years old and yeah, now she is full on sass mode. Anyone with kids who are seven going on 17, give me a little, uh, You know, shout out there, but yes, we are so fortunate to live in the gorgeous county of Norfolk in England and we actually made a big lifestyle change going back nearly five years ago.

:: 04:01

We were living in St. Albans area in Hertfordshire. We were those daily commuters in and out of London, you know, working up the corporate ladder and we just had this epiphany that life was too short. And I said to my husband, if I'm going to live in the UK for forever more. Which just makes sense. He's got family here and, you know, it's just where we want to be in our lives right now.

:: 04:22

Then, I really want to move closer to the coast. I want to be more in nature, more in the outdoors. And so we literally put a pin in a map, honestly, we wanted an easy commute to London still. So my husband suggested Norfolk, we came up, viewed 16 houses over the course of two weekends and offered on the home that we live in today, which is in the Norfolk Broads, the national park.

:: 04:44

So if you've ever seen those programs with, you know, the boats on the waterways of Norfolk, that's where we live basically. And yeah, we're very fortunate to be really close to Norwich, 20 minutes to the city and 20 minutes to the coast. So you'll usually find me walking out in nature, listening to a broadcast or chasing my dogs on the beach.

:: 05:02

I have three of them now. One was my original fur baby, two were inherited when my mom came to live with us nearly two years ago now, just after the pandemic finished. She was actually in hotel jail, um, when you had to quarantine, do you remember that? It's just so mad to think back what we've been through over the last few years.

:: 05:22

But yes, she is living with us now in our home here in Norfolk, and I just feel in a really happy, contented place in my life right now with all my family living under one roof. I still have family that live in South Africa, but for now my sort of immediate family all live with me here. If you've listened to the podcast, you'll know that in 2020, I was very sad to lose my stepdad who really brought me up and has been a huge part of my life over the past 25 years.

:: 05:50

And sadly he passed away in September of 2020. So it was a really hard time for me and it was all around the time when I really started to grow my online business and I had launched my health coaching business, something that I. had such a passion for. At university, I'd actually studied health psychology and business psychology and marketing.

:: 06:12

So for me, I just have always been a dual multi passionate person. So having loved health psychology, I decided to do my health and wellness coaching certification in COVID as you do, you know, as if we didn't have enough going on in our lives. But I decided to use the time that we had when the world had really come to a standstill to really come out of it in a.

:: 06:33

better position than I felt going into it. So my daughter was three years old at the time. She was at home with us, but I just felt this calling to go into that world of health coaching. I had been running my online business with a brand that I'm partnered with and have been for over 12 years called Arbonne.

:: 06:51

And that was really my first introduction into running a business because gosh, going back 12 years ago, I was working in my corporate job in London. I was working in a marketing role in the IT industry, you know, fast paced and it was a great time in my life. I loved it. It was very sort of sex in the city, going to work, you know, in your trainers, heels in your bag.

:: 07:10

Getting to work, going out for drinks, meeting up with your friends after work. But that was a time when I didn't have responsibilities or necessarily, you know, a child, all that sort of thing. And I was really looking to the future and thinking, okay. How does a 12 hour, you know, door to door with a commute day work with a family that I wanted to have?

:: 07:30

And so really I was looking around at different opportunities and really I was sitting there thinking, Lord, please, is there anything that I can do that's like online that I can work anywhere in the world? So especially if that meant I could be in South Africa with my family. And in walks my lovely friend Yvonne and we met for lunch in London one day and she told me all about the opportunity to partner with a company like Arbonne.

:: 07:51

And that was all in the affiliate marketing space and it was something that even though I was in marketing, I didn't know, understand myself, but anyway, I trusted her. I was open minded and the rest, as they say, is history. And through the vehicle of Arbonne, I have grown my knowledge, grown my skills, developed myself as a person, grown hugely and immensely over the years.

:: 08:12

And through that journey have become certified as a health and wellness coach and also run a marketing business, which is a digital marketing agency. So I first ran my business as Protea Marketing back before I had my little girl, Jessie. And then I decided to park things and just focus on being a mom, enjoying that, especially after the grueling fertility journey that we'd been through to have her.

:: 08:36

And anybody who has been through IVF will know how emotionally draining and physically draining it can be. And so really, I just wanted to focus on that miracle and just enjoy that time as a mom. As I say, when she was about three, I really just started to come out from the fog. You know what I mean, mums?

:: 08:53

And that's when I looked to do my health and wellness certification. And also fast forward a couple of years later, after things that really sort of settled down with my mum living with us and finding our flow and our new routine. really just was starting to get more and more people coming to me asking me for help with their wellness businesses and just asking how it was that I'd managed to basically at the start of COVID, 98 percent of my business was in person.

:: 09:19

And overnight, as you know, the world changed beyond all recognition and I suddenly had to pull my whole business online. And so I really went through this whole journey and re education, you know, over the past decade, even though I have a marketing degree, I've had to re educate myself and all the new digital marketing streams and channels and everything.

:: 09:39

And I love it. I'm, I'm the sort of person who literally geeks out on this stuff. Like I am such a nerd when it comes to marketing. Just say funnel. And I'm like, Oh, I'm like Mufasa. funnels. Like I just get excited about this stuff. And I just, even though I wasn't very like mathematical and technical at school, I still just love how it all works and the analytics and everything.

:: 10:00

So. For me, restarting my marketing business was just such an organic and natural process. And that's really what I just want to inspire you about today is that you don't have to have all your ducks in a row and everything figured out in front of you, but what it is is leaning into the things that bring you joy.

:: 10:20

And that's really how I've always lived my life. People often say to me, Oh, you're so happy. You're so positive. And. Don't get me wrong. I have been through the storms, but you know what it is about the storms guys is that they come, but they also pass, they go. And I've been through a very challenging season over the past two, three years, you know, notwithstanding COVID, notwithstanding losing my dad, but also starting on a perimenopause journey, which at the time I didn't put all the pieces together.

:: 10:48

Even as a health coach, I didn't join the dots up, you know, things. I started to change in my body, you know, things like the, you know, middle weight gain. And, and also I noticed I was anxious when I'm not an anxious person and things just started to shift for me. And so that's when I really thought, okay.

:: 11:04

Right. I just don't quite feel myself here and it took my incredibly loving husband to say to me one day, it just looks like it's a struggle for you to get out of bed at the moment. And that was just such a loving wake up call, slap across the chops to be like, right, I need to do something here. So that's when I really leaned into my health coaching.

:: 11:26

Side of things. Actually coach myself through that period to just be like, and, and don't get me wrong. I also got the requisite help that I really needed through talking therapy and I'll be honest with you guys. I went to my doctor. I explained, you know, the symptoms I was experiencing, that I was a qualified health coach.

:: 11:42

And decided to go down the route of a really low dose antidepressant, which I just felt at the time I needed to really correct the sort of imbalances in me that had existed through an excessive period of stress in my life where the cortisol was literally attacking my dopamine and serotonin levels, which are your happy hormones, your motivation hormones.

:: 12:04

And so really through that period, through the talking therapy, through getting the help, through leaning on the support of my family and friends, and, you know, it's so, it's so easy for us just to show up on social media and share with the world what we want them to see or want them to hear. But actually.

:: 12:20

The vulnerability in life truly comes from connecting and being honest and vulnerable with the people who know us the best in the world, who know us the most. And that is really authentic connection is being able to say, I'm not okay, guys, and I need help and support. So getting that help and support and just really going on that journey myself and just starting to really educate myself on perimenopause and what that looked like.

:: 12:43

It really just was like an epiphany. Oh my golly, because these symptoms all started around the age of 39. And I thought, This is it. This is actually the start of perimenopause. And so as I delved into it and looked to do my menopause wellness practitioner training as well, my diploma, I learned that the average age of menopause in the UK certainly is 52.

:: 13:05

But menopause is actually only the one day, the one day where you've not had your period for more than 12 months. Okay. So one day, everything prior to that is peri and anything after that one day is post. And I recognize that you can be in a perimenopause cycle and journey for 10 up to 15 years before you even go into menopause, which blew my mind.

:: 13:29

Mind and just gave me the validation and the confirmation that I wasn't going nuts, that this was a change, a hormonal shift. Also exacerbated by the fact that I recognized during COVID and had been living with undiagnosed ADHD, which it sounds so bizarre to be sharing this now because I feel like I've been on such a journey to acceptance and understanding of this.

:: 13:51

I mean, just to give you an idea, when I look back through my family and my, because it's a genetic condition, disorder, I don't really like the word disorder, but anyway, that's a technical term. And I recognize that my mom, my dad, my gran, my uncle, all had ADHD. My half brother, who lives in South Africa, is.

:: 14:13

And while I'm still on the waiting list for official diagnosis, it became so clear to me. And when I started to speak to my family and friends, what it was that I actually been feeling my whole life. And here's the thing, guys, sometimes we can get news or something happens in our life and we can just feel completely bowled over.

:: 14:32

Just like what the actual, is this now seriously? But actually when you start to really unpack and you lean into the fear and the discomfort of really starting to understand yourself and growing that, for me, it was like the lights went on and I could give myself so much grace and forgiveness for what I felt were just sort of fundamental things wrong with me.

:: 14:56

And I actually realized Hang on a minute. This is the way my brain works. This is the way God made me and faith is such a huge part. If any of you, you know, been here a while or you follow me on social media, you know that I am a Christian and that is such a cornerstone of my life. And so for me, I was like, this is the way God's made me and God doesn't make mistakes.

:: 15:18

He meant for me to have a brain, a beautiful brain like I do. And really just to lean in and embrace that and which is what I've done. And through that journey, I have absolutely flourished and gone on to thrive in all areas. And it's, it's not to say that that was just an instantaneous thing. It's definitely been a journey, but I would really encourage you if you feel like something is not right in your life, like get the support that you need, get the understanding, you know, the saying knowledge is power.

:: 15:45

I don't necessarily agree with that. I think knowledge is power when you can. Do something with that when you can take action on that and make a change, that is when it becomes powerful. So with this newfound knowledge that I had ADHD, I could structure my life. My business, everything around me to suit my ADHD brain and help me to thrive rather than trying to fit myself in a square hole, you know, that analogy plug, whatever square circle, I don't know.

:: 16:17

It's gone on my brain. Hello, ADHD. But yeah, it just gave me that freedom and acceptance of myself. But one thing about ADHD that became really obvious to me was that the times in my life when I'd really struggled. Was in those big hormonal shifts and periods. So during my teens, when obviously our hormones are going absolutely nuts, and then again when I became a mom and I just felt so discombobulated, so like out of my brain and body.

:: 16:47

And that was really why when I first became a health and wellness coach, I leaned into helping moms because I needed someone like me when I became a mom to sort through all the stuff, all the head trash and all the loss of independence, but equally like the gratitude at this new journey that I was on with motherhood and all the things and managing my business, managing my life, looking after myself, all those things.

:: 17:12

So really that was why I focused on moms initially in my business. But as I've now gone through and starting to go on my perimenopause journey and those hormones rearing up again, I recognize that this is my new calling to help women on that perimenopause journey, which as I shared can be 10 to 15 years.

:: 17:29

So it's a really long period of time. where hormones are naturally declining. Things are going a little bit haywire in the body and it's really about just understanding that and knowing what you can do to support that. So we're going to do a whole episode on that coming up soon and we're going to get some interviews, we're going to get some experts on.

:: 17:45

So we're really going to delve more into that. So stay tuned for more on the perimenopause side of things. But yes, I also, as I said earlier, have leaned into restarting my marketing journey and business, which I am absolutely loving. It just gives me so much joy to be able to use my skills, to be able to teach other wellness business owners how to bring their voice to the world, to find their voice in the first place because so many people are hiding because they don't know how to share.

:: 18:15

They're incredible gifts. You've got so many incredible business owners out there, but they just don't know how to market themselves effectively. So that has been incredible. And I've also founded my thriving biz club, which is my program. For wellness business owners, giving them all the tools and the support and the accountability.

:: 18:31

We cover things like branding and speaking to your ideal client, social media selling, creating and automating your first funnel, which is very exciting to me as I shared earlier, as well as marketing to and nurturing your growing online audience through email marketing, which I'm very, very passionate about.

:: 18:48

So that has been incredible. And just seeing those business owners in my club thriving, growing their businesses is honestly, it just gives me life. It gives me so, so, so, so much joy. So yes, you can expect in this podcast episodes specifically targeted on business or something that I will think we really need to talk about right now.

:: 19:08

Things like women's health, perimenopause, time management strategies, life coaching. All the things, how we can get some fantastic guests on this podcast to help bring these strategies to life for us. I am so excited to be back with you. Season four, episode one, bringing you all the good stuff, all about helping you to thrive in your life, health, and business.

:: 19:34

So what I would say right now, if you're listening to this today, is please take like a second to take a screenshot of this and share it out with your network and let them know that the podcast is back. You can also go to my website, wendygriffith. co. uk to get some of my free resources. I've got a fantastic Digital marketing masterclass on there, which is a 30 minute, no messing.

:: 19:58

I get stuck straight in and give you all the strategies. So even if you don't want to join the thriving biz club, like you will still get so much from listening to that. I also have a perimenopause workshop, which I deliver also around 30 minutes, which gives you all the knowledge and information that you need to start thriving on your perimenopause journey.

:: 20:16

So I'm all about equipping you and empowering you, whether you become a client of mine or not. I want you to get so much value from this episode. So please do share the love, rate, review, share out on your preferred podcast platform with your audience, with your family, with your friends, with other women.

:: 20:33

Let them know that this is the place to be to work on the project of you, because I truly believe that the best gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy and thriving you. And this is the podcast where we make this happen. So guys, until next time, look after yourselves. God bless and keep thriving.

:: 20:56

Speak to you soon. Thank you for joining me for today's episode. If you've got value from this, please won't you take two seconds to take a screenshot and share a pick of this episode on your socials extra points. If you'd like to rate and review this podcast on your preferred platform so that we can share the love with more women wanting to thrive in their lives, do be sure to visit my website, wendy griffith.co uk to get all my free resources to support you on your thriving journey.

:: 21:20

Until next time, God bless. Take care of yourself. And keep thriving.