Your Next Chapter With Angela Raspass | Business & Life Beyond 40 |inspiring Possibility

Samantha has been a performer her whole life – “I sang for 50 cents at weddings and a dollar at funerals from when I was a little girl. I sang backup for MC Hammer and with Joan Sutherland at the Australia Opera. I’ve led shows and developed my own. I’ve always been happiest on a stage but I’ve also been stuck in “people pleaser and approval” mode and that’s taken its toll. It even lead me to dropping the dream of being a performer for the “sensible” career option of accounting on the behest of my family. Over the years Sam invested so much time and energy checking, testing, showing different pieces of herself to different groups to fit in and be seen in the way she felt she needed to be. It was exhausting. And when this is your focus, you begin to lose track of who you really are. But Sam has now interrupted this cycle. She chose to shift her gaze, to weave all the pieces of her into a whole. She began to approve of herself and appreciating where she’d come from, so she would never need to fit in anywhere ag

We’re feeling the shift. It’s time for a return, or is that actually a start, of what many have referred to as “the new normal”.  Borders are reopening. Gatherings are starting again. We’re remerging from one of the most unexpected and challenging times for business owners and individuals and you may be asking yourself, is it “business as usual? Do I simply market in the same ways I was before?”.   Kellie O’Brien and I got together to chat about the emerging trends were seeing in the market and with our own clients and would like to share our observations to add to yours.    Show Notes   Many businesses adapted their way of being, identifying new opportunities, pivoting to online – are there changes you’ll be making?   Some business owners (like me) have, on reflection, found they were previously “addicted to busy” and are now deciding on a new approach   Consistent strategy and captivating storytelling are still in style, and always will be   The most important action you can take is to listen to your

You will probably have heard about the Know, Like and Trust factor, the KLT in business. All three of these things are incredibly important. But I have found there is something even more important and it needs to come first. This is the Seen, Heard and Understood factor, the SHU, if you like. I believe this is the most important thing you can focus on. It’s about getting off you and getting more into the shoes of these people that you're here to serve. And the magic is, when you focus on providing value, transparency and authenticity when you focus on being interested rather than on being interesting, when the members of your community do feel seen, heard and understood, they tend to like and trust you! This episode unpacks this approach more for you. Show Notes The SHU Factor is enhanced by:   Narrowing your focus to deepen your impact – when you focus on a particular slice of the market, you are better equipped to meet them where they are at, developing a deeper understanding of what they are experiencing

All great change begins when you’re thinking is challenged – COVID 19 is a great unknown, it’s provided a non-optional pause for great slices of the world and for many of us this space has allowed contemplation – what might change as we move forward again? My own musing was significantly expanded when I was introduced to an essay by Charles Eisenstein, a graduate of Yale University with degrees in economics and philosophy (a most unusual combination, so it’s perhaps not surprising that his writing is both ground-breaking and thought-provoking in many ways). You can read The Coronation Essay here ( https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/the-coronation/) . Charles is also a social philosopher focusing on themes of human cultural evolution, economics and consciousness, and the author of many books including Climate a new story and Sacred Economics, The More Beautiful world our hearts know is possible. My good friend, author and Purpose Proponent, Carolyn Tate, was also an enthusiast reader and when we were compar

“You’re an active creator”, Angela Philp tells us. “You can take the circumstances facing you and shape them for yourself”. Self-Leadership is the key – what’s the seemingly impossible you want to make possible? A dynamo of energy, fierce focus and commitment, Angela has found her passion and focus in life – “I believe that women need to make have 50% of the decision making capacity in this world”. To further that vison, Angela supports and challenges high achieving women with similarly big visions to take action on their dreams. She is remarkable. And our conversation will energise and inspire you into your own new possible. Show Notes Remember who you are – not the conditioned self, not the should and rights and wrongs There is always an inkling of an idea inside of you – be still and search for it I’ve found my soapbox – gender equality and equal leadership – what’s yours? Women are not a niche! I tempered my voice in the past – “Maybe I might not be liked” quietened me. Not anymore. The cost of keeping q

How the world can change in a very short period of time! I’ve been absent from the Podcast for the past 3 weeks as I was feeling a little discombobulated. I did not want to “add to the noise” online, I wanted to contribute to the conversation instead. So, I allowed myself for these last 10 days or so, just to feel the feels” before I was ready to share with you again. I’ve now gathered some initial thoughts and would love to share the concepts of conscious choices in times of change with you. Show Notes We need to allow our emotions, all of our emotions. IN the Recover Movement we all this “feel, deal, heal”. Whatever comes up for us, we need to experience it to move through to the other side. There's nothing to be gained by pushing it down, or avoiding our emotions or anything like that, because they will come back and demand to be hear! Whatever feelings you've been experiencing, I hope you can move yourself this space where you can simply allow yourself to feel them because none of them are wrong. Brene

In this episode, we explore how you might be self-sabotaging yourself by asking the wrong questions.  Your brain is a meaning-seeking machine and so when you pose questions, it will happily supply answers to you. If the questions you ask create disempowering answers, they become roadblocks that can keep you stuck in discontent and results that are far from delightful! Once you recognise this tendency, you can change it, asking better quality questions that are expansive and supportive and help you to move around self-sabotage and into growth. Show Notes The first step towards asking better questions is to recognise that you have a result in your business and life that is not what you desire. This self-awareness opens the door to change. Underneath the result is a behaviour, and that action, of lack of action, is created by your feelings. The questions you ask yourself can be empowering and expansive, leading to positive feelings and actions or they can be disempowering and reductive, creating roadblocks that

Deciding what to charge for your services can sometimes create confusion and tension! In this episode, I walk you through some of the key considerations when setting your prices to make the experience a little easier. Whilst there is no magic formula to reach an answer, as each business is so very personal, there is guidance to help you make a decision and there is always opportunity to change your pricing when you’ve had feedback from your market. Show Notes Pricing decisions should not be made in isolation – there are several factors that exert influence over your price points Don't be afraid of competition – it’s actually a good thing as it shows you that there is a market for whatever it is that you're offering. Where do you want to be positioned in the marketplace? Are you going to be really accessible, set in the middle portion of the market or sit way up high? Create a positioning matrix to map the market – investment level/price on one axis and level of service on the other. Place yourself and other

Is the ability to handle change well to grab opportunities when they present themselves to you an inherited personality trait or is it more like a muscle, something that you can build with experience and time? My guest today, Joe Hanlon has her fair share of handling change. She's moved through careers and industries and has now landed in a place that feels really aligned with her sense of purpose in this next chapter of her life.  "Change, cultures and conversations" they've always been a part of my life, they've been woven together in many adventures!" Jo's story is one with many chapters, with forays from nursing to sales and self-employment across countries and continents. The environments may have changed, but the focus never did - "My purpose is to help people develop their own strengths, and I love to work with people who want to change and I made the leap into self-employment at 48 to embrace more impact, significance and contribution" Our conversation is anchored in the concepts of self-trust, valu

Why you need a Fabulous File Understanding and taking control of your internal dialogue is one of the most powerful skills you can develop as a business owner. Your thinking creates your feelings and your feelings create your actions or inactions, which then lead to your results. But sometimes simply grabbing hold of your thoughts is just not enough to turn them around. I believe we often need something more tangible when self-doubt comes to visit. You need a Fabulous File. I believe this is essential for every single woman who wants to create an impact, who wants to make a difference, who has a contribution inside of her that's being channeled through the lens of business.  In this episode, I'm going to explain what a Fabulous file is, why it's so important, and how you can actually get started on creating one today.  How do you get started? Set aside some time – I guarantee you will find yourself disappearing down a rabbit hole of memory gazing... in a good way. Purchase a box that delights you – even co

Late last year, I started feeling a little bit disconnected from my work. I was lacking a deep sense of purpose. I think we can have a love affair with our business. And just like with any relationship, our feelings can fluctuate. Sometimes we can disagree, and not feel quite so close. When I actually paused and had a look at why that was happening, I realised a likely reason was that I hadn’t actually articulated my purpose, my vision, my mission for my business in a really clear and tangible way. It was in my head, and it was definitely in my heart, but I hadn’t actually put it out on paper and put it in front of me where I could reconnect to it every day. We all have wobbly days in business, some really challenging times when things are not flowing the way you anticipated. You can be feeling disappointed, invisible, and wondering, is this all worth it, asking yourself why you’re actually doing this at all. It’s when you have these days that you want to be able to turn back to your purpose, your vision and

We’re in the first months of a whole new decade, not just a new year, and you may have created some big goals that you want to achieve in business and life in this new chapter. When reflecting on where I’m at, I realised that the end of this decade I'll actually be in my 60s, and so I decided that now is the time to become the best version of me. That means in a business sense, I have some very clear plans for how I want to create more impact and be more supportive of my audience and my clients, and that’s going to demand sustained energy. And so this means ensuring I have the fitness and flexibility to do the things that I want to do. I was away with my family in the second week of January on holiday, and this is where I really started to recognise that changes needed to be made. I set some clear goals and then reflected on what I’d need to set myself up to achieve them and that’s what this episode is about - the core steps I believe we need to take to give any strong intention a greater chance of coming to

Jodie Preiss is also a woman of resilience, compassion and vision and she has a great, big heart. I say that Next Chapters are often built on skinned knees, and Jodie is a definite example of this truth because those challenges she’s navigated, they’re actually more akin to lacerated knees. But, yes, she has come through to the other side, and as you no doubt know when we have space between the then and the now, there are valuable lessons to process and share, new insights and perspectives gained that can often form the foundations of a new vision. That’s exactly what has happened with Jodie, and her new business, Collective Ripples, is set to become a movement we can all be a part of. Some of the key ideas we discuss include Don’t compare your challenges with anyone else’s. We all have our own journey. The desire to create legacy can often grow after significant, life-changing experiences and the examples left by people we love and admire. Be a great custodian of your energy – go gently, gently and

What do you stand for? It’s an important question to ponder. Write your manifesto with an open heart and mind. Be curious. Explore what’s important to you, what you stand for, believe and want for your clients, and for the world. Keep it private to inspire and motivate yourself or share it far and wide to inspire and motivate others, to create connection to begin conversations. I’ve had a manifesto from another website up on my wall for quite some time. It feels rather fabulous to now have my own. Show notes What I believe Next Chapters are built on skinned knees, where breakdowns become breakthroughs… Allow yourself to be fully seen and put good things into the world. It’s through your story that others will find their path, and what a joy and a privilege that is. Everything you need is inside of you now. Search for it. Give yourself permission to shine. Self-belief is your superpower. Your worth is unquestionable. Stay connected to your truth and always speak to yourself with compassion and encouragement.

Trained as a classical pianist in Music College in the UK in the 1980’s, Sarah was familiar with the demands of being on stage. Although she did experience performance anxiety, her determination initially allowed her to push through the stress. But the development of a significant skin disorder took the challenge of being seen to a whole new level and Sarah lost her nerve. “Even after treatment had dramatically improved my skin, I still felt the audience was scrutinising me. I instinctively knew the only way out of this was to work on my public speaking, to address this fear. And so that’s where I placed my focus”. Over time, Sarah’s amazing expansion was noticed by other professionals who began to ask “how did you do that?” and it became a natural move to begin to open to the entrepreneurial world. Today, Sarah continues to run a very successful Speaking Consultancy and helps an enormous number of people overcome their own fears and develop their skills and, in our conversation,, she shares many of the valua

Each year I host “Review and Renew”, an online event all about looking back at the year that was, evaluating your tangible and emotional achievements and then getting clear and planning for the year. It’s a fabulous experience that provides you with confidence and clarity no matter what stage of business you are at.  It’s coming up again next week and I’d want to make sure you have your invitation to join us! You can register at http://bit.ly/Review2019Plan2020 to join me for the live training and discussion calls, the thought-provoking workbooks and the Q&A’s and prompts in the Next Chapter Facebook Community. Show Notes I'm a big believer in double planning - I really recommend that you take some time this side of Christmas to have a look back through your year and evaluate your results and then put some thought into what you want to create. Then put that aside, give yourself some breathing space and then come back for a review in early to mid-January. You’ll likely be surprised by the changes you then

Post-Traumatic Stress is unfortunately, a term that many of us have heard about, but have you heard of it’s cousin, Post Traumatic Growth?  In this episode, Diane Lang observes how most of us have a story that has led us to the field of helping, just as I believe that next Chapters are often built on skinned knees. Diane has first-hand experience of overcoming emotionally challenging circumstances and thriving as a result and bringing her lessons into her work in the field of positive psychology. She has dedicated her career to helping people turn their lives around and is on a mission to help us develop a sustainable positive attitude that will have sweeping benefits to both your business and your life. Show Notes You can positively change from a traumatic event in your life – the growth comes after the healing You may experience circumstances out of your control, but you can also become a role model for others Our business and life experiences deliver so many ups and downs – and that’s how you develop empa

We live and work in such a hyper-visible and connected online world today. The windows and front door to our competitor’s businesses are wide open to us through their websites and social media platforms. And so we can find ourselves visiting all too often, obsessing over what services and programs they’re offering, how many comments they’re getting on their blogs and FB Lives, how many people are in their groups, what marketing activities they’re implementing and so on and so on… Occasionally these surreptitious forays can be positively affirming as you benchmark yourself. But in my personal experience, and in hearing the stories of dozens of clients, it’s far more common that these forays see you tumbling headfirst into The Comparison Trap. It’s a place I’ve often fallen into and that’s why I’ve created a 4 step approach to escaping it, quickly! Show Notes There is an endless number of people you could compare yourself, your business and your achievements too, and it’s all too easy to do so, even when you i

Sometimes it doesn’t seem like we are choosing our Next Chapter. Rather, circumstances can thrust it upon you and we all can do is respond. And often, with the benefit of kindsight, we are able to see this was the best possible thing to happen for, rather then too, us!  That was Tracey’s experience when a company restructure changed the direction of her successful corporate career. She made good use of the outplacement services that were offered to her and recognised that there was a demand for her skill base, but it was the casual observation from her Dad that opened a new door “How about you start your own thing?”. Bissett Financial Fitness was the result, a business that provides Tracey with the opportunity to leverage all of her skills, make a real difference, escape her industry paradigm and control her own destiny to boot. What’s not to love about a Next Chapter like that? Show Notes It’s not easy to start and grow your own business, but you have ample evidence from your past of your ability to overcom

This week’s episode was inspired by a conversation I had where a client and I discovered the impact of what I call the Chameleon Effect. This is a phenomena that occurs when, for a variety of reasons, we have lost our own value anchors and find ourselves twisting and turning ourselves into a shape that reflects what we think the audience wants of us, whether that be in a job interview or a conversation with a potential new client.  It’s what happens when we fall into wanting to be seen and picked rather than recognised and selected and that’s not a great option for either party.  Show Notes Brene Brown shares that the desire to belong is a deeply held value of all people, so much so that we’ll settle for fitting in, Clarity on your personal brand and message – what you stand for, believe n and wants for your clients is a cornerstone of being able to be “recognised” Congruence across all platform sand touch points is important- will I equally recognise you on a Facebook post, an Instagram story, in a video, o