Find Your Voice

Find your voice - Episode 20 "It's a curse to call yourself a true Entrepreneur, unless you really are" - Penny Power #20

Tagline: "Love is the most powerful force in the world, the more you can live within that energy, be that energy and give that energy the better your life will be "

Penny Power, OBE is an incredible woman who could complete a podcast series alone. Having labelled herself as an 'Accidental Entrepreneur' Penny formed the first social network for business owners exceeding 650,000 members. However, as many entrepreneurs can relate, she was then forced to handle many ups and downs along her journey and forced to really look deep within herself. Through a journey of self care and discovery Penny began to deal with depression and really find her true purpose and love for herself. A journey she may even consider tougher than the entrepreneurial one.

More importantly than the above, Penny is an extremely proud mother to 3 and wife to her husband all of whom she considers the greatest gift she ever received. Penny now coaches people on a 1-2-1 basis transforming not only their lives but also living her true purpose.

From depression, to business, to self care to coaching we discuss so many facets that many of you today can relate too and hopefully take nuggets of information to move your lives forward and find your voice!

Please check the links below and follow Penny's journey as she is credible, honest and an overall lovely soul.

Thanks for listening

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Podcast: https://www.findyourvoicepodcast.com

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Links to guest:

Website: https://www.pennypower.co.uk/

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Books: https://amzn.to/2DPEvfU

Have an awesome day

#JustDeuIt #FindYourVoice

[Music]

welcome to an episode of find your voice

a movement led by yours truly

Aren do a guy who has overcome

crippling anxiety adversity and

difficulty like so many of you in life

whose main goal now is to help you

combat your excuses take control of your

life write your own story and most

importantly find your voice so now

without further ado I welcome the host

of the show himself mr. Aren do what's

going on people thank you for tuning in

to another episode of find your voice my

name is Aren and as always I am the

host of the show so I'm extremely

delighted to bring to you today

penny power now for anyone who knows

penny they might also know her as the

accidental entrepreneur and the reason

for that is because penny created this

absolutely monster of a social network

for business people in 1998 which

actually had over 650,000 business

owners in it not knowing what she had at

that time penny was sadly disrupted by

what we know today as linked in so

there's definitely a brilliant story

there and we do discuss that further

into this episode alongside this penny

has also received an OBE in 2014 for the

work that she's done and she's seen by

many as a winner and having spoken to

her in some depth not just during this

episode but prior to it she certainly is

that alongside being a mother to three

children and a wife to her husband penny

now sees herself working with clients on

a one-to-one basis and we're in a

society today where a lot of coaches are

almost spawning overnight I mean we're

seeing people with one or two years of

experience becoming a coach and then

selling their services and being a bit

skeptical apart a lot of these coaches

penny is somebody I'm certainly not

skeptical about because if I was ever to

recommend anyone as a coach it would

certainly be penny because penny has the

experience and you can tell from the way

she speaks in this interview she knows

this stuff so I think without further

ado we're gonna jump straight into this

one it's extremely exciting for me to

bring somebody like penny onto my

podcast

and I'm extremely grateful for that and

I hope you all enjoy this episode thanks

for tuning in

ok so firstly I just want to thank

everyone for tuning in to today's

episode today and I've just had a

fantastic discussion with penny prior to

this actually going live so I've got to

know her a lot there but I think it's

very important that you guys listening

tuning in today get to know the real

penny or Penny powers she is known to

many of us out there today so firstly

how are you doing today

very well I feel very well warmed up

lovely conversation with you it was it

certainly was I could almost have an

episode out of that just in itself but

I'm just for their sake of the listeners

who have just tuned in now and obviously

may or may not have heard of you could

you please just maybe give us an insight

in relation to where you first started a

little bit about your journey and

basically what brings you here today and

so I think you know and I think it's

been a journey of finding my voice which

is just perfect I'm gonna try and keep

it little 16

I went into the IT industry when I was

19 I didn't go to university I went into

sales and tele sales and joined it when

it was really booming and so it was

fairly relatively easy to excel and I

ended up with in about by the age of 24

I was sales marketing director of a 80

million pound company with about 400

staff that I was responsible for and an

80 million pound sales line and we had

offices around the country eight offices

and but my first day there I just went

into there and completely just out of

scarcity and needed to leave home and it

was a job and and I realized I was quite

different to everybody else in the room

you know I wasn't really that focused on

the sale but I was focused on the impact

of the sale that would have on whoever

was buying the product and I actually

resigned after seven months and I was

going to go to the University to do a

psychology degree I had finally got my

place and my boss took me into a room

and said why are you leaving I said I'm

just not cut out for business it's not

my world I want to be have more impact

in business and he said but you have no

idea of the shift that you

created in the culture of our

organization and I was ripped shots as a

19 year old to be told that and he said

just be you stay and be you very

powerful when someone says that to you

so I did and I built quite a nice career

I'd sort of left that company and

actually went off to four other

companies and then was invited back to

be their sales marketing director when

they had grown quite substantially and

then at 28 I was blessed with my baby

Hannah and two more children and that is

absolutely that and my marriage is being

my highest values my highest joy the

thing that I think is the most important

thing in my life I think you know that

fall saying charity begins at home I

think if you put oxygen on your family

then you build a family that doesn't

take from the world it can give to the

world

i I've taken my role as a mum really as

my most important thing in my life and

my merit and my marriage because that

completes the family and but I am quite

driven I love I do love business and

when I was 33 so I had Hannah was five

and then I had Ross who was three and TJ

was just not long born about six months

old I came up with the idea of the fact

that business seemed so lonely people

working on their own my husband being

one of them and sort of subject of night

networking in 1998 wasn't huge but there

was it was sort of going on but there

was no online networking for business

there was Friends Reunited and MySpace

but nothing for business so I created a

community for business online with a

culture of reducing loneliness helping

people with their self-esteem and her

self-worth and helping people to be who

they were rather than just what they did

and it grew and it grew and it was

phenomenal but then we got massively

disrupted we were growing up organically

it was a subscription-based business ten

pounds a month ten dollars ten euros

depending where you were in the world we

were in 52 countries had 5000 offline

events here and then LinkedIn took hold

so retweet hoffman had actually visited

and used our site a little bit he then

raised three hundred and thirty million

dollars when in the

okay we just couldn't raise any money

we'd raised very small amount of seed

investment but interestingly he just

went a different route and culture he

went to the business world with his

fantastic tool but it's said it's only

about what you are and actually then we

saw that was in 2002 so that was four

years after we had grown then in 2004

Facebook came into the student market

2006 Peter came in and the mark I think

we all polarized you know this is Who I

am on Facebook this is what I am on

LinkedIn an academy sat somewhere in

between we needed to pivot the business

model by now we had lost our house in

order to keep the business going it was

very challenging the trout children

traveled around the world meeting our

members had little lapel badges with

their names on them shaking hands at

teach ethics or he first started

networking and anyway in 2008 we went to

the bank and said look can we have a

loan to pivot this business and they

gave us a 5 year loan enabled us to

start looking at how we can offer free

and start basically doing what we didn't

want to do but in order to survive which

was going to be sell your data so you

you know what we now upset about in the

other markets so obviously that meant a

lot of our members that were happy to

pay we're unhappy but did get some new

members joining who were happy that it

was free but it really challenged our

values and then three years into that

with two years left around the bank loan

the banking crisis happened

we got a 30 day notice to pay back the

rest of the two years and they brought

the business down the bank after 14

years so an incredibly painful defining

moments in 2012 and it has been an

unbelievable climb to get back any sense

of self-worth self belief a big journey

I which we can we can look into it was

wonderful in 2014 out of the blue came a

beautiful letter and offering me an OBE

for the contributors

lovely feeling of validation and

but actually what I really learned is

you can get huge amounts of external

invalidation in life but unless you can

validate yourself and believe in

yourself and feel your own sense of

self-worth these things are just a bit

of gloss on your life and that's been a

journey which culminated in me writing

my book last year

fantastic and your book is called it's

called business is personal well firstly

what a journey I probably got more notes

here that again I could do probably a

podcast on separately so I just want to

touch on a few things throughout your

journey so you ended with the validation

statement which I don't want to go into

cuz I think that's so important

especially in today's society yeah you

were 19 years old you had almost kind of

disrupted and made a positive scene in

this industry where there was a fitting

comment and you said just stay and be

you yeah I loved that because I filmed

myself and in an industry where a lot of

my business comes through social media

there are people not just being

themselves I feel that a lot of people

have a magic or they're saying the

things that they necessarily feel they

need to say yeah what people want to

hear and I think sometimes we all have

such a unique gift or skillset that we

may not ever get to see if we're too

busy trying not to be ourselves if that

makes sense

I think I think that was beautiful and

you touched the game moving after that

about your family and I just resonated

so much with your values in terms of

breathing oxygen into your family and

how important your marriage is so we

touched obviously prior to this show a

little bit about one of your children I

lost a TJ and just the incredible person

that she is so again that's a testament

to your values and that kind of brings

me to where I am so I touched on the

LinkedIn obviously disrupting and it's

and sadly for yourselves you had to

almost kind of pivot but you mentioned

something which I just found fascinating

which was the values bit that really

kind of struck you so it's nice to hear

and it's quite refreshing from yourself

that yes you could have pivoted the

business and almost kind of taken on a

LinkedIn approach but that's not who

penny is so using that and realizing

that in that moment getting the external

validation of OB what did you then do in

terms of your business I mean is that

still going now that sort of business or

have you completely shifted it now

towards really helping people trying to

find out about themselves as in terms of

full of himself with yeah I mean I

definitely has been a thank you for that

that lovely reflection of what I said I

think it's been a journey you know

something I say when I am coaching and

mentoring and I run a mastermind group

now I take two cohorts yeah so I I

support people through a mastermind

group which is beautiful experience we

do need in our values we do need to have

a brand we need to know what we're here

for you know that lovely saying to best

days of your life the day you're born

the day you discover able all of these

things are very very powerful

start with why simon Sinek what it's

created it's created a massive panic of

people that don't feel they have it yet

and you can't force it so you know was

coaching a lady yesterday it was

incredibly inspired by brainy Brown and

her vulnerability statement and simon

Sinek and all these role models and

she's desperate to find her big message

and I just said just it will come but it

absolutely starts with the seed of who

you are and you can't force it because

you want to market yourself better or

write a better book or you've just got a

lot now having a coach or a mentor or a

loved one help you coach that out of you

is very powerful and I was with a

brilliant guy called Sun hartley

yesterday and he's a performance coach

and he said these three things you know

yourself be yourself accept yourself

I loved that thought I love that know

yourself be yourself accept yourself and

I don't think that we can you know I

went through a process last year with

psychologists and group therapy because

I broke and I didn't break to the point

where I was you know I was shaking in

the corner but I had a really day of

devastating experience that dangerous

and scary experience on the 30th of

November 2017 that I went off to a

hospital thinking I had had a stroke or

something and they found no new logical

things and and anyway through going to

see psychologists discovered that and I

was now having some form of mental

health challenges and I actually spent a

lot of time reflecting and thinking and

I think I started to break probably for

you

before I had that incidence it's not

something I was fat you know you could

start off you could start off being

completely disabled with a bad leg

through or hip through eighth rightous

it would start years before you know you

get the so I think mental health issues

you have to start becoming very

self-aware of how you're showing up in

the world before you really know you've

got them and and you know I believe in

mental fitness but there's another

subject you know starting before it

starts like you do when you look after

your physical health so the values

finding your voice knowing your values

are very critical you can't force these

things though and you know when I talk

to CEOs of businesses or leaders of

businesses they've got pulled into a

vortex of ambition like this whirlwind

of ambition that actually is fantastic

if economies create that culture because

they create to the fear and they create

the culture of you're lacking and

therefore scarcity and and fear and you

lack and the market is a brilliance has

it online saying you could be more

successful you could be richer you could

be more beautiful which immediately when

you actually read that your subconscious

hears I am lacking really wave love so

brilliant it's so clever but revolting

so we have to step away from things like

social media and comparison and

Roosevelt said comparison is the thief

of joy it's my favorite quote yeah it's

brilliant isn't it love it yeah

absolutely and and it's it takes a huge

amount of reprogramming your mind to

stop doing that

but at least once you're aware you're

doing it you feel yourself doing it you

call yourself back into line because

when you look at the ingredients of who

you are you know what makes you up there

is no single human being on this earth

the same as you say mercury your

knowledge your skills your intentions

your passions your experiences your

adversities you've it's just absolutely

nothing that could make someone the same

as you so therefore comparing yourself

is the first downward spiral really and

one that people are so locked into and

so you know anyone listening I'll just

say calm down listening to yourself just

have more self-awareness think of your

joys think of what really sets you on

fire all that's that which other people

will say but really do it not to make

money from it to begin with I saw

powerful again I mean I can resonate

with this and I'm not sure if you've

followed it in my story or any of my

progression but I try and say a lot of

this myself because again probably

similar to yourself I found myself in

the state of comparison initially

especially when I started the property

journey and I have this habit now and

I've kind of I don't do this in a way to

offend people or be rude but I've

stopped almost going on social media and

liking people's posts and stuff because

what I effectively do now is I have a

message every morning or every evening

that I want to share with the world and

what I'll do is I'll write it out and

I'll send it out and all of a sudden I'm

off social media I'm not there to see

how many likes I get or how many shares

I get because if I fix ain't myself on

that metric in itself what's gonna

happen is if it's law one day the next

day I might be scared to share my truth

again and I think I think one of the

important things you touched on again is

people are almost in this panic of we

don't have it but they probably do and

it's a patience game I suppose and where

I always say to people he's just speak

your truth speak whatever that comes to

you it's your own perspective it'll

resonate with certain people and we're

almost in a society where people are

trying to almost say key and buzzwords

because they feel like that's what they

need to almost same and I think you hit

the nail on the head and I think with

your experiences Ryan you just briefly

mentioned the coaching aspect I think

people listening to this show can gain

so much value from that so I just wanted

to touch on your mastermind that you

mentioned is that what's something that

people would necessarily need to do in

person or is it something that you can

do online from the comfort of your own

home a really great question so I've

been on my own journey and I'm gonna

come back to that if that's not too

annoying so really so when I my - I call

myself an accidental entrepreneur for

years because I was when I came up with

he had a me I didn't know his tiger by

the tail but I had and then I started my

second business after he had me call

digital use academy which it was highly

impactful it was working

young people I created the digital

marketing apprenticeship that is now

widely used and I got investors to put

money in we invested three hundred and

fifty thousand pounds in an e-learning

cent system and we distributed that

through further education colleges as an

apprenticeship and over three years I

out two thousand unemployed very hard to

reach young people into jobs giving them

the confidence that their digital skills

had value in the world and and hoping

that they would go into it with us the

sort of culture that I believe in around

social media so that was my second what

I call on two-player journey then I

started my third which is called the

business cafe and it was that part of

the journey that broke me because it was

another push and what I feel is um the

term entrepreneur is really dangerous to

me entrepreneurs are creating something

from nothing and have massive ambition

and Luke Johnson in his book stops

startup I think it's called said

ambition is a curse and not everybody

has it right to be a true entrepreneur

you have to be massively ambitious and

you have to know how much you're willing

to sacrifice in terms of time money and

gratification because being true you're

building something as scales and has

impact and this is the Silicon Valley

world you know go out raise 300 million

dollars and there and reduce all your 1%

and you know it's long busks and Mark

Zuckerberg the thing that a lot of

people your generation and two cents

that my generation came you know we we

witnessed from about 20 to 23 years ago

when ecommerce everything started so I

would say that you know it's a curse to

call yourself an entrepreneur unless you

truly are so my own personal journey is

and where I am finding so much joy now

going back to your original question

yeah is that I was employed had my

children then became an entrepreneur

accident accidentally then they became

an entrepreneur a game with digital

youth academy then tried to be an

entrepreneur game with the business cafe

and I still want to bring the business

cafe to market but when I broke my basic

my cup was full I was overflowing for

even a got out of bed

my resilience had gone and I was

exhausted and burnt and the way I've

come back is by saying actually I'm

going to be a small business much nicer

of course yeah

a small business is what is my value to

one person and how can I exchange that

value for money and impact their lives

directly so at the moment starting from

January when I launched my mastermind

and my mentoring coaching program this

year I only need to work with about 34

amazing people and I will fulfill not

only my emotional needs but my financial

needs and when I go into a room with

somebody I'm coaching I know that I get

that gratification I'm not only seeing

the impact I'm making on that one person

but also they're paying me yeah money is

actually ultimately one of the ways we

get our worth it is it's I know we don't

chase money but if we're broken and I've

been broken and if we can't financially

afford to feed our children trying to be

an entrepreneur is a very very dangerous

journey so going back to your question

am i delivering it online yes I've been

asked that a lot

yeah if as soon as I do that I'm

stepping away from my direct impacts in

terms of I'm putting a computer between

me and and being able to love and hold

and touch and care and look in the eyes

of the people I'm wanting to impact and

so this year that's what I'm doing thank

you for that answer so I want to play

devil's advocate just a little bit on

the the last night you said there so I

fully understand the whole direct beep

there directly impact them hold them

love them and touch these people that

you weren't have been on a one-to-one

basis and I suppose when I first started

personal training I literally started

personal training because one I had lost

a lot of weight and done a qualification

with a bit of spare change I had but I

thought it would pay for my way through

uni and then obviously doing that I

really enjoyed it I loved transforming

lives and seeing people lose weight gain

confidence which again I felt fantastic

as being mothered journey and I got to a

point myself as I and I remember

I should take this online and almost do

like an online coaching for personal

training where I will check in with

clients online again losing that that

one-to-one communication thing but at

the same time getting back some of my

time so my yeah and perhaps potentially

making more money and I initially kind

of was with yourself I was like I don't

want to do that it's got it's kind of

almost dilute my power and my gift that

I have when I work with people but then

at the same time I had somebody question

me and again this is a question I wanna

ask you is do you not then feel because

in this very brief moment with yourself

the reason I ask this is because I don't

want it to be that penny is based in

this part of the world or this part of

UK and we don't have access to penny

right now because I feel that if you are

able to connect with more people yes the

message might be slightly diluted but I

think your message is so powerful that

you could affect so many more people so

is it something that maybe your identity

later or I used sorry I'm gonna give you

a really long answer to this Aren okay

so at the moment I don't believe in

myself enough okay it's getting there

and this is the story I'm gonna tell you

and it's absolutely true and it's the

most up to date story I can tell you

about my life okay yeah please do I have

always wondered why people would spend

money on an aspen all our mulberry or

Gucci handbag right so you're gonna

think where the hell she kept okay I

never needed it

I never wanted even when Thomas and I

had money you know and life was a bit

easier didn't turn me on Thomas came

back from Dubai once on a speech has

brought me back in a beautiful good she

box a handbag and it sat in the box for

three years I never used it didn't write

and but my daughter Hannah who we talked

about a little bit and and hopefully you

might interview so absolutely would be

an honor so when she was 20 and I we

didn't spoil our children they had to

work from the age of from a young age

and at 16 they got jobs in supermarkets

or Starbucks or whatever and age 20 she

got an internship at Barclays and I met

her after work one day and we went off

to Marbury

just off Oxford Street and she spent 900

pounds in a bag I didn't judge her I

didn't judge at all is her money she'd

worked hard for it and that was some

symbolism she wanted that bag and she

had this private relationship Reeves my

big my older sister who's 10 years old

and me because my elder sister he's 10

years old of me loves designer handbags

and I used to watch quite jealously this

but I think I want to join that Club I'm

not in certainly sign a handbag but I

was quite jealous of these this banter

that I would hear and then looking at

each other's bags because ever since

then Hannah's brought more bags anyway

when I started this mastermind group we

were meeting at some Pancras station

it's beautiful meeting place and a

restaurant there and that's where my

master minds are going to be in a

private room there and I had 12 separate

meetings because I have a four-hour one

to one with all the masterminds before

they join and I would walk past an

Aspinall shop right eight and I walk

past it looked in sort of smug that all

Hannah would love that and walked up

these steps into this restaurant anyway

one day I about the bath Inc was about

the ninth meeting I went into the

Aspinall shop took a photo of this

lovely handbag and said to Hannah

you'd love this handbag Hannah and she

said yeah is lovely the next time I went

back my 10th time I went in and I got it

off the shelf and I put it on my

shoulder oh yes quite not put it back

11th time went back went in looked at it

and asked him how much it was and talked

to him about it last week was my 12th

time and I said to Hannah the night

before I was going back to London for my

12th meeting Hannah I fallen in love

with an astronaut bag yeah and she went

by it by it mom buy it buy it buy it

really and she said I am mom you really

deserve it buy it so I said don't be no

somebody who works for Aspen or

something I could get a 30% discount

oh yeah I can look into overnight if you

want mum so we'll do that that'd be

lovely done it anyway next morning I

woke up to get the train to London my

job meeting and I sent her a text and

said Hannah I'm gonna buy it I don't

want it discounted I went in and I

bought it and we came home and we

champagne while I opened it at home and

Thomas said to me just said out of the

blue how come you've decided to buy

yourself back and I said Thomas I'm

worth it and it was so poignant that

everybody cried because Hannah has said

to me mum why don't you believe in

yourself you've gotten an OBE look what

you've done look at the lives you've

changed look everything you've done and

I said I just didn't believe it inside

me until I've got I do now so this is

the most up to date story I can tell you

our an a my journey and it's been really

interesting I share it because I'm

really open with everyone if somebody

wants to judge me for the the pain I've

been through and the losses I've been

through and judge me is a bad business

person because I'm not achievable you

know I could have achieved I don't I

really don't care about that I'm just me

and um and I will share that that story

with the world because it's we've got to

find our own self worth deep deep deep

down now so in answer to your story

which was bad to me to go online and

expect somebody to want to pay for an

electronic version of me I haven't got

to that point yet believing in myself

enough

that's incredible thank you for sharing

that I'm grateful for you sharing that

because as you were saying that there

were so many parts of it maybe some of

the listeners could probably resonate

with it where I'm on this

entrepreneurial journey where I'm kind

of bootstrapping

as and when I can and stuff like the bag

if we use trainers for example where my

younger brother who's nine years younger

than me we're going spend to endure

parents on a pair of trainers where I'm

like I can't do that I can't possibly

think I'm doing that I mean you grew up

in slightly different generations where

finances were different and growing up

but I don't know something tempting just

click there and I thought maybe there is

a is an element within myself where my

self-worth needs to kind of at least be

reflected on and maybe people listening

to this can reflect on that because it

was a beautiful moment I could almost

picture you coming home

popping up and that bottle of champagne

and then having this moment where you're

like do you know what I am worth it so

it's a beautiful story that you've just

shared there and in relation to the

diluting the message

thing which is the question that I asked

you and you feel that you're not

necessarily worth it now can I just ask

is that kind of like an impostor

syndrome that's going through your head

or do you I think it's partly that I've

watched so many I don't want swear you

can sway tosses is the places I say sell

a dream online and manipulate and and

corrupt I don't want to be part of that

world and I've seen people close to me

you know hire an expensive house rent a

fat Ferrari and stand outside and say

you can be as rich as me if you do my

program and and they are multi

millionaires but I have seen so many

lost souls back up their lives leaving

that story and so I've got to I've got

to get to a point where for me to join

that world I've really got to feel safe

that I am never going to do that to

anyone penny I loved that about you

that's like for me it's kind of like

about the Family Fortunes TV episode

going through my head reach that top

answer and it's like kind of bleeding

because for me it's one of the things

that I hold very close to my heart so I

I got taught off by my wife actually

last night so this is a very current

story and I was writing a post and I

kind of just write post from my heart or

whatever I think I don't spellcheck it I

don't think about it I just literally

write it there and then and as I was

writing it I sinner peeping over it she

was kind of looking at it like why you

kind of she's seen it as me being kind

of argumentative or not I'm just trying

to think of the wrong bird a bit against

the grain kind of thing because my

message yesterday was very similar to

yourself so I'm in the property space

and in the property space there are all

these millionaires selling this poor

thing

dream and I absolutely hate it because I

was fortunate that I had 12,000 pounds

left in my account which I spent on the

education I still believe I would have

been where I am now without that

education because in hindsight it wasn't

as good as I've published sin so since

then I have probably

move people away from the education and

I've offered my free service I've given

my course material that I've paid

thousands for because I'm like listen

you can learn all this yourself you

don't need this shiny book or this

course that's gonna change your life

because I've done it I joined this

course thinking twelve months time I'm

gonna be a multi-millionaire blah blah

blah all of that so you've obviously

seen these kind of and I put crooks I

don't call them houses but appearances

is probably a better word and it really

really it gets it gets to me because at

the same time I also feel I have value

in some of my skills that's where I can

go out and coach an extensive amount of

people but then I almost getting this

impostor syndrome myself thinking I

don't want to ever be seen like these

people out there exactly doing it the

wrong way so I fully get there and

obviously we're at different stages in

life you're a lot more advanced and

experienced than myself and I get that

and at the same time I'm like I'm seeing

people with less experience than myself

who have fabricated their results taking

good selfies on one Facebook and then

all of a sudden the selling weekend

courses for two thousand pounds and I

read a book recently on it and it was

about neuro linguistic programming NRP

called the dark psychology and there was

a brilliant quote in that and what it

said was you can either manipulate

people or persuade people basically and

the people there's a lot of people who

say I want to help you I want to do this

for you and you need to be able to

assess are they trying to manipulate you

I looking at their own self gain

irrespective of whether it's going to

actually get you what they're promised

in you or are they're just trying to

persuade you to abandon life and I'm I'm

grateful that I've managed to have this

interview with you and lets you connect

with you because you're one of the good

people and it's nice to see somebody

doing it the right way and I do feel

that sometimes we may not get there as

quick as other people and we may have to

probably face more obstacles but I just

believe it's just so much easier to go

to sleep at night doing things the right

way well it does it goes back to what

you said at the beginning about your

core values and and and whether you can

sleep itself you know these CEOs that

Sam you this someone was telling me they

coach it said the CEOs are in fear of

losing their jobs or their business

because all around them they have no

la they've just lost everything we've

lost their wives they live no

relationship with their children in

their strife for success of whatever

they decided success would be when they

were young they have and now they sit in

fear in these big jobs because if they

lost their job or they lost their

business they have nothing else left and

I think we have to think about what is

it we want to surround ourselves with

Tomas and I have lost everything and we

still had our marriage and our children

and it's it's all that matters that's to

me that's the possible and I think

people need to go deep into their values

but they chase this ambition or this

dream or this comparison or whatever it

is that's confusing them yeah absolutely

I think that's a fantastic message thank

you for sharing that penny I really

appreciate it

so now that you're you're definitely an

entrepreneur I think I don't think

anyone's gonna disagree that you're an

entrepreneur whether it is by accident

or whatever I mean I feel I'm a big

believer that everything happens for a

reason and if we choose to we can find

our own way and I'm grateful that you

found your own way but what I want to

ask is so for somebody who's been

through been through it all should I say

in terms of the journeys of ups and

downs what's your daily routine like

because I'm a firm believer that

motivation doesn't last forever and I am

strongly I'm strongly for sorry and that

we should discipline ourselves in

certain aspects hence your nutrition or

the thoughts you tell yourself

affirmations being grateful all that

sort of stuff in order to get through

the darker days and not everyone speaks

about the darker days but what's your

daily routine like Monday to Sunday um

so I am always been an early Waker even

as you know child when I was teenager

did my revision early I always wake so

does my husband around 5:00 o'clock and

we love that and we go down and get two

cups of tea each one of us goes and gets

four cups of tea

and we do have that television in the

bedroom which we absolutely love so this

morning we watched we loved all the

dramas we watched the final of mother

father son for example and we lie in bed

together and we hole

has and we have a cup of tea and we

watch that and then we do that from our

now this is I'm not rushing to London

for trade and then I share and then I

for the last six years I have made a

very lovely drinks which contains

spinach kale berries chia seeds flax

seeds hue carrot and and then I start

work because I love work so either start

work in the office or I will go to

London I do try to go to London after

10:00 because hey the trains are so much

cheaper oh I go on the train I mean it's

you know how much that makes a

difference to your monthly outgoings if

you if you do have a discipline of doing

that and I just feel better if I do that

then I get a good start in the morning

and then my ideal day is to coach one

client today about three times a week so

in the afternoons

I'll meet at this lovely place and coach

them if it's better in the mornings I

will do the morning because it's really

down to where they when they get their

best energy of course Alice and three

times a week I'm really grimacing here I

try to go to the gym okay Red Mill and

do some weights but I'm not achieving

that very well moment and I do have a

yoga routine that I try to do every

morning before I get dressed that's it

fantastic do you do any sort of them I

mean I know you've touched on yoga there

do you do any meditation or any

gratitude journaling or writing your

goals down is that so I do I am I have a

attitude of blessings and gratitude all

through the day and I do start my day

with that I definitely don't even have

to consciously do it I just comes into

my mind that I have not that I feel it

now it's I think it's incredibly

powerful that mindfulness meditation

that would completely elude me I just

don't have you do that but mindfulness

I'm trying to learn that my son who's

studying psychology at University who

and there's quite a high performing but

very him puts a lot of pressure on

himself a lot of pressure on himself

he's learnt mindfulness and he's

actually done a certificate in it now

and he has it's it's incredible how its

transformed him he said he can't live

without it and so it is that's an

discipline I'm trying to bring into my

life like I've got it

fantastic and just actually if we may

just going back to something we touched

on earlier we touched on mental fitness

and I know we spoke about this before I

click the record button yeah do you want

to just briefly elaborate on that as

well because I think that's going to be

very important for the lissa so I when I

had this sort of breaking moment I

ultimately took a while but in the end

the psychologist diagnosed me with PTSD

which I always thought needed to be a

huge trauma you know something it

directly happened to you but PTSD is

basically anything that everyday comes

back into your mind and it is and it

fills your cup before you because at

work Venus that started today and I had

12 things that from the age of 3 through

to about 3 years ago that were still on

pains that I hadn't accepted and

reconciled and I wasn't a victim of them

but they were still front of mind and I

had to go through a process called EMDR

to work through them which was a hard

exhausting painful process of acceptance

and letting it go and then when you do

it goes into your you might back in your

mind the other thing that I got

diagnosed with is a form of depression

called cursive strong which is a bad

book by dr. tim cavanaugh on

he owned a Mazon he worked for the

Priory and he found that people that

were coming to him who were very dynamic

very hardworking high levels of

discipline were he'd ended up diagnosing

hit them with this and what I got

diagnosed with and it's basically a form

of depression that means you will not

self care and look after yourself right

if you just get up every day and you

just keep pushing until until you just

you just just exhausted and so when I

was going through my psyche my group

therapy and times with my psychologist

which talked about in my book

there was healing triggers and emotional

mental repair that I talked about in my

book that I feel is relevant to every

entrepreneur every human yeah I believe

around your belief systems your values

to thoughts your feelings your

personality type etc and what I then

thought was actually if I had no in this

twenty years ago before I became an

entrepreneur or even younger I would

have focused on my mental fitness not

moment I'd not got to a point where I

had mental health issues so now I'm an

advocate of mental fitness because I

think that there are things that we

could learn about ourselves so to me

resilience isn't about how hard the

punches are that you are willing to take

and bounce back from resilience is like

a boxer you learn what to dodge you've

done the things that your personality

and your who you are and what matters to

you that you do not want to be

confronted by and you dodge and that

would enter Fitness to me fantastic

actually the first time I've heard it

explained like that I think I think the

message is clear though and I'm quite

fascinated now you've got me intrigued

into your own personal book so I know I

don't read books in terms of the

hardcovers but I am an advocate of

audible and listening to books is your

book available as an audible version or

is it strictly a hardcopy

no it is I went into studio recorded it

so it's on audio it's on Kindle and it's

on poppy yeah okay fantastic so there's

no excuse for me not to buy that then

I'll definitely be checking that out

thank you for that thank you okay so the

next thing I always ask my guests and

again this is something that will

hopefully give the listeners maybe

lessons that they can take on or some

sort of advice is about adversity now

you've obviously been through a lot of

adversity some of it we probably haven't

even touched in this very short episode

so I know you mentioned briefly and you

lost your house you mentioned I think it

was November you were having these

mental health challenges if you could

either choose one of those or something

else in your life where you've been

through adversity and just tell us how

you've basically overcame that and the

lessons that you've got from it just to

kind of give the listeners maybe some

tools that they could perhaps use yeah

y'know happily so there have been I

mentioned that there were I think I

mentioned there were twelve things on my

list when I went to the psychologist

that bothered me that was still throw

front of mind went back to his childhood

not that I was abused or anything but

there was something you know things that

bothered me and all the way up to adults

so I think one of the greatest learnings

was that the second business that I

started digital youth academy I got some

investors involved I didn't do any true

diligence on them but because I had

known of them and they certainly seemed

to have my best interests in the passion

of the business in their hearts when

they invested but I think I was at a

point of scarcity when I went into that

relationship which is always dangerous

whether you're taking on a client or a

supplier or a marriage whatever you owe

into it in a scarcity fear mindset then

it's going to be very difficult and so

ultimately I had to work my way out of

that relationship even though I loved

that business very much we had to exit

and sell that business and the issue was

that because I was in scarcity and

clearly was lacking in personal

self-worth I enabled them to have

control over me and one of the things

that strapline of my book is how to lead

the life and business that you want and

I was told by actually somebody who

worked for me in that business Russell

who now runs the Starbucks

apprenticeship program across Europe he

was a brilliant guy he was ops director

working with me and he said to me pet

one day penny I can tell and when I

first met you two who you are now things

you're not as happy as you used to be

I said well that's a real shame and he

said I watched a documentary last night

and they said there were three parts of

happiness and they've done a big study

globally and three parts were 50% of

happiness is your Constitution are you a

happy person he said penny you always

happy and you are a happy person

10% is the achievement of the things you

want and you know in this study we know

that we all always want something else

soon as we got something we always want

something else that's why us so much and

innovate and keep going you know we're

not happy

why we're not animals and that's why we

are so progressive 40% of happiness is

how much control you have a have over

your own life and decisions you make and

he said clearly you're being controlled

and I was now I had to then unwind that

and I talked about this in my book how

sometimes you have to positively

surrender to a situation and I realized

that I wasn't going to change a pattern

that we had created between us as a

relationship where they were assertive

and I was passive where they were the

adult and effectively they were treating

me as a child and it was my own doing

because I went into this relationship

already in a bad place yeah and so part

of the learning I had to go through is

I've got to a point in my life where

anybody who was assertive with me I had

was labeling them in my head as a bully

so I was catastrophizing anybody who

seemed to want to have control over me

anybody that had an opinion that was

strong I saw as bullying and I had to

learn as a naturally not assertive

person anyway I had to learn to be more

assertive and realized that being

assertive is actually a very adult

communication style it doesn't have to

be angry that's one one lesson I can

pass on absolutely I think that's a

lesson that I've had to learn myself as

well because when I first I property I

was very probably a similar situation to

yourself as our kind of put people on a

pedestal yeah I think thinking that I

wasn't worthy or didn't have in much

knowledge yeah yeah in fact I probably

did in hindsight now the funny thing is

I got ripped off I got builders running

away taking advantage of me I had

potential business partners see me as

naive and trying to make me do more work

than initially agreed to so I had all

these kind of problems and teeth and

issues initially as well and I remember

my mom actually saying and you need to

you need to be stronger you need to stop

being like a walk or a pushover and I

was just like it's just who I am as in

and I was always confident that if I

didn't become this again I assumed it

had to be a nasty dictation person and I

was as long as I just be myself

somewhere along the line I will get the

right

kind of people around me and and maybe I

have developed some level of

assertiveness over the last few years

but I've certainly now got a team around

me who I can trust and they know me from

my skills I know them for their skills

and it certainly helped but I think you

hit the nail on the head there where you

said it's a skill to learn and and in my

head it's always been if I come across

too assertive are people gonna think I'm

a bully or embossing axe or whatever it

is so yeah that's really interesting I

think I think people can definitely

resonate with that good yeah definitely

so penny what's your biggest fear um

I suppose my biggest fear is currently

is long-term sustainable income because

we you know when you lose everything and

I'm it's amazing some people I'm

attracting now as co2 coach them is a

lot of people in their 50s that have

huge skills and but they haven't really

been able to manage their business life

the way they needed to and and create

that sustainable income so I love

working so I'm going to be very happy

working well into my 70s and Beyond if

people still have me but creating some

sense of security into my old age is is

probably what what I suppose drives me

but also drives me negatively because it

is also a fear okay that's interesting

so a bit of a shameless plug here have

you thought about property investing as

I sort of yes I've not anywhere near

that place to be able to even consider

that well if you ever ask them please do

reach out yeah I will I appreciate that

and I will and I think we'll definitely

do that much thank you so much what

we're gonna do now is actually we're

going to completely mix it up now we're

going to go into what I call the fun

part of the show so at this stage of the

show all I'm gonna do is literally ask

you the most random questions that I can

think of from my list in front of me

you've got no idea what I'm gonna ask

you we're gonna do the buzzer for about

60 to 90 seconds so there are no right

or wrong answers so literally just say

the first thought that comes into your

head oh gosh that's very good god yes no

no you'll be absolutely fine okay we're

gonna start in three two one

what did you eat for breakfast my shake

the ability to fly or be invisible lie

what is the best thing about being an

entrepreneur Breeden if you could

eliminate one thing from your daily

routine what would it be

exercise what is the best gift anyone

has ever given to you my children would

you rather have a rewind button or a

pause button on life pause don't say

where your fame o'money

your proudest moment my children

graduating your favorite food choice

okay Netflix our YouTube Netflix your

number-one goal this year to help 34

people achieve their dreams your

favorite TV show ever pride and

prejudice

would you rather know how you would die

or when you were dying how if you could

sit with one person in the world for an

hour who would it be my husband speak

all languages or be able to speak to

animals all speak to animals and finally

if you could abolish one thing in the

world what would it be

religion okay fantastic so that's the

end of the fun part of the show it

wasn't that hard was it

no that's very good okay brilliant so

we're almost at the end of the show now

I just got the last final few questions

I just want to ask you penny and now the

next question is about reflection so

obviously hindsight's a wonderful thing

where we can always think of ways to get

ourselves somewhere quicker easier or

with less heartache but I guess the

journey also teaches us a lot as well so

what I want to know is if knowing

exactly what you know now you could go

back to a younger penny and maybe

whisper something in their ears to

inspire her for the journey that lies

ahead

what would you say it'll all be okay I

think I've probably just give her that

comfort really just that reassurance

it's just the reassurance yeah and that

actually suddenly brings us to the last

question then what for the show and

again this is something asked for all of

my guests and it's about legacy so if in

150 years time science fails to save us

all and all that's left is this book and

this book is about penny and her life

and everything she's accomplished and

all of the great wonderful things

firstly what would the title of the book

tell us and secondly what would the

blurb at the back read to us cost I off

the cuff yeah well the first the title I

thought was love okay and it would just

say that that love is the most powerful

force in the world and the more that you

can live within that energy and be that

energy and give that energy the better

your life will be thank you for sharing

okay brilliant so that brings us to

literally the end of the show and just

before I leave penny what I want to do

is give you a chance to connect with the

audience so if you wouldn't mind could

you please tell everyone listening how

they could reach you and maybe if you

have time and the capacity for them to

maybe engage with you that's very kind

thank you so I'm on Twitter so at penny

power I'm on LinkedIn so I'll be easily

found as penny power I'm on Facebook but

unfortunately I think I've just about

reached that five thousand limits and

I'm absolutely rubbish and got to put my

page right but I don't have a page I've

got a lovely community on Facebook

called the business cafe global and

that's a very caring very honest and

real community of small businesses I'm

on Instagram as penny F power and then I

have a website which is penny power UK

and on there there's different contact

forms that's fantastic and what I will

do is I will put all of those details in

the show notes thank you that's very

kind

no no you're very welcome I'll also put

a link to the book as well because I'm

looking forward to reading that myself

and I just want to say once again penny

thank you so much for your time today

it's actually been a fascinating talk

even the stuff we spoke about before the

episode and I just wanna thank you for

your time I want to thank everyone at

home as well

thanks for listening wonderful and

remember this podcast is absolutely free

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awesome day