My Big Leap

Three women share their life changing stories and how they made the Big Leap in changing their career.

The Stylist

When Lizzie Edwards found herself with low self esteem, an eating disorder and no direction, she decided to spend her last £1000 on a career coach. This turned out to be the best decision she could have made as she now owns a business as a Personal Style & Wardrobe Consultant, We talk to Lizzie about the circumstances leading up to that decision and her plans for the future.

At 33 I didn't have a career and didn't know what I wanted to do. I used to be a model and then went to university out of frustration and wanting to use my mind. Over the years I had worked in commercial media, garden design, florestry and finally found myself working in a health food shop. I felt that I needed to take a risk but knew I needed help as I was in a spiral of despair and in this horrible ‘ Hell Hole'.

It took a huge leap of faith to spend my last £1000 inheritance on a career coach but Suzy Greaves seemed like the right choice for me. She helped me tackle my fear of what to do with my life and during the next few months supported by telephone coaching and lots of exercises, like having to ask my friends and family to tell me what they thought about me, I slowly started to improve my low self esteem and overcome my eating disorder and depression. The idea for my new business came quite quickly and the whole process seemed to move really fast. I enjoyed shopping and having had an eating disorder knew how some people felt about buying clothes and knew I could do something to help people.

At the beginning it was hard work and in business you get peaks and troughs. Sometimes I would ask myself "who do you think you are to run be able to run this business? The first time shopping with someone terrified me. Then shopping with my first paying client. Although I had done the same things quite a few times with guinea pigs and friends, it felt much more scary as I really had to be good and deliver! The fear soon disappeared the minute we got shopping.

All these things are normal now that they are a real example to me of how things are always more scary in your head than in reality, and the only way is to face the fear and do it! I also trained and invested when I could to make sure I had the right credentials which gave the confidence to run my business.

My mentor was Brenda Kinsel, an American stylist, I bought her book and then sent her an email. The timing was great as she was just about to do a conference so I signed up and joined the Association of Image Consultants. I still regularly attend conferences as running a business can be quite lonely so it is good to have people around who are happy to share their time and advice.

Life is too short to just tick over, I took a risk but I really didn't have anything to lose. I am now looking to the future and have plans to develop my work in the corporate world. Of course, I have my off days like anyone else - it is steep learning curve, and I have to keep facing things I think I can't do. With Suzy's help I have proved to myself time and again that I can do anything - it's just up to me to believe it, and achieve it! I could never have done it without her.
www.babetstyle.co.uk
The Big Leap www.thebig-leap.com

The Author

When Keris Stainton wanted change, but no matter what she did or how she felt, she always seemed to end up back in what was basically the same job, just in a different company, she decided to contact life coach Suzy Greaves and has now become a published author.

I was happily married with a gorgeous young baby, and my husband and I had finally managed to buy our own home, but I hated my job and was frustrated that I'd never managed to get a writing career off the ground. (I'd started writing a novel around ten years earlier, but hadn't been able to finish it.) Mostly I was disappointed with myself.

One morning before work, I was reading Paul McKenna's book Change Your Life in Seven Days and, just a few pages in, found an allegory that began ‘Imagine you woke up one day in a land populated almost entirely by giants.' It went on: ‘Do as you are told. It's easier to get along if you go along. Don't cry. Don't fight. Study hard. Get a job. Do as you are told. Get married. Have children to support you in your old age. Do as you are told.' Which is exactly what I'd always done. I'd been the good girl. I'd been conscientious. I'd studied and worked hard thinking that eventually I would be rewarded, but instead I'd just been taken for granted. I got to the end of the story: ‘And then one day you wake up, and there is a tiny little creature staring up at you. She has awakened in a land of giants. And because you love her, you begin to teach her everything you've learned about how to survive in this land of giants. And so, the cycle continues ...' And I started to cry. I had my own tiny little creature - who was, at that moment, being taken care of by someone else - and I didn't want him to grow up with a mother who was disappointed in her life and too afraid to follow her dreams.

I realised that simply reading self-help hadn't been enough - I needed more direct assistance. I contacted life coach Suzy Greaves, who quickly helped me realise that, rather than being afraid of failure as I'd always assumed, I was actually afraid of success. I was also pinning all my hopes on having a novel published, which, should it ever happen, still might not necessarily mean I could give up my job. With Suzy's advice and support, I remembered my teenage dream of being a journalist and, fairly quickly, got a commission from a national glossy magazine. I was worried that it was a fluke, but I also wondered if it could be the start of something. I started pitching to magazines and sold another article straight away. The payment for each article had been more than my month's wages (I was working three days a week) and so, after discussing it with my husband, handed in my notice.

Sometimes freelance work was a struggle. At one point, I had to go and temp for a couple of weeks, which felt like a huge failure. As it turned out, I hated it so much that I spent my evenings pitching with a vengeance and haven't had to temp since. Getting an agent and then a book deal - for two teen novels - was a big boost too. The first book - Della Says: OMG! - came out in May 2010 and the next book - Jessie *hearts* NYC - is out in 2011.

What kept me going (and continues to keep me going) is being a good influence for my boys (I've since had another son, Joe). I want them to know that it is possible to do what you love in life and be good and successful at it.

It may not feel like it at the moment - it didn't to me back then - but you are in control. Find what you love to do and then take steps to make it happen. They don't even need to be big steps; tiny steps will get you there too and they'll stop you feeling quite so trapped in the meantime.

I do credit the self-help author Martha Beck with giving me the tools to stick with doing what I love, even when it's hard and of course Elizabeth Gilbert in her novel Eat Pray Love.

My next goal is to earn a full-time wage from writing fiction. I still do some freelance journalism now, but I'd like to wind that down completely and concentrate on novels. As for the steps I'm taking to achieve that... it mainly involves writing 1000 words a day. Every day.  
www.keris-stainton.com
The Big Leap www.thebig-leap.com

The Diver

When Polly Wood finally left her stressful job working for an IBM business partner, feeling unhealthy, both mentally and physically, little did she know that seven years later she would be running a successful dive conservation business and living in Belize with her new husband Roland.

I took a sabbatical from work, went travelling for over a year in which time I also worked as a PADI Diving Instructor in Fiji, which I loved! I then went back to the same job, but after another year or so, I decided that I wanted to make a long term change. I wanted to dive but at the same time help put something back into the environment. So, I came up with the concept of ReefCI where non scientists can come on trips, we train them to dive and/or the simple research methodologies and they help sustain us financially by assisting with the collection of the much needed data from the marine environment. Oh, and at the same time, they stay on a beautiful coral island in the Caribbean and have a great holiday.

Initially the whole process of starting up an organization, agreeing on a concept, forming a website and then having the conviction and courage to actually leave my secure well paid job was very much outside my comfort zone! I moved to a country that was so totally different from my home country, I had to learn to live without the usual home comforts (for the first couple of years we constantly had water and electric outages!) Dealing with locals, legal issues.......equipment breaking and having no money to get them fixed! The list was endless but how I dealt with it was to always stop, breath and then think about what I was going to do and then form a plan of action to deal with it. And never forget why you are doing it in the first place!

There were lots of times that I felt like giving it up, especially during the initial 5 years. In the early days I told myself that I would give it 5 years and in that time I would work as hard as I could and not give up. Then by the end of the 5 year period everything started to get easier, I got a business partner, Jo who concentrates on the marketing and bookings and shares the load. Locally I gradually got accepted as part of a small town community, this was mainly by not fighting adversity and continuing to support the local community, for example we run a sponsorship program that helps local underprivileged people to become PADI Dive Masters. And luckily during the years the extreme lows are usually accompanied by extreme highs, like swimming with Whale Sharks or witnessing a turtle nest hatch. And I never ever get complacent about how lucky I am to live and experience amazing things in such a beautiful country.

My husband Roland, my business partner Jo and my family, who were also supportive even though they thought I was crazy at the beginning, are my mentors and support. My husband and I worked together for 5 years before we got together, so we began our relationship as good friends and he has seen me go through all of the tough times. He is the most honest person I know. I cannot imagine how I managed without the support and personal friendship of Jo and my family in England, who I speak to every weekend, especially my twin sister and my father and stepmother who run Woods restaurant in Tunbridge Wells and give me both business and personal advice and my Mother who is so standard driven with everything that she does.

My husband and I have just bought a new boat in which we are setting up a sustainable deep water fishing business. ReefCI is going from strength to strength, I am now enjoying it, my main goal is to keep on sustaining what we are doing and not to forget to be standard driven. www.reefci.com