#134 The moment that you are ready to hear it, the answer will come to you
Release Date: 11/14/2024
#179: What brave leadership really looks like with David McQueen
Another Door Opens
"Bravery for them is, well, I can sack 12,000 people and I can do it in an email at 9:30 on a Monday morning. That's not bravery, that's cowardice. I would look them in their face and go, you're a coward. Just because you've got the power…it doesn’t make you brave at all." When is a “brave” decision really just avoiding humanity? David McQueen, leadership consultant, speaker, and author joins me for a provocative and honest conversation about change, leadership, and the myth of bravery at work. We discuss the doors that open when you seize terrifying...
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#178: Never throw in the towel with Anthony Hutton
Another Door Opens
"I'm speaking from proof, from experience…I do believe, if you really, really, really want to do something, you can." What happens when doors open to unimaginable fame, and then close again, leaving you to find a new way forward? In this very honest episode, Anthony Hutton, Big Brother winner, barber, and founder of Never Throw in the Towel joins me for a conversation about navigating extremes: overnight celebrity, public success, private struggles, and the reinvention forced by change. We chat about the unglamorous aftermath of reality TV victory,and why...
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#177: Creating a leadership legacy from the messy process of change with Ada Parris
Another Door Opens
"Multiple things can be true. There's nothing binary about life." What happens when you step into the unknown, let go of predefined paths, and allow yourself to be messy, vulnerable, and unfinished? In this episode, Ada Parris artist, storyteller, and author of Leadership Legacy: A Manifesto to Create a Mindful Future and a Thriving Planet, talks about about paradox, transformation, and intentionally shaping new identities. We talk about the rawness of unmasking after decades of masking, the courage to sit with uncertainty and having faith in the unknown, and why sometimes the most...
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#176: The career come down: What to do when work isn’t working for you with Stefanie Sword-Williams
Another Door Opens
"The sort of door that closed for me was not necessarily somebody else shutting a door, but me shutting the door on putting work above everything but my health." What happens when the drive for success, identity, and achievement gets shaken by something that stops you in your tracks? In this episode, Stefanie Sword-Williams, founder of Fuck Being Humble and author of Career Comedown, shares her experience of a "lifequake", an unexpected, seismic event that forces you to reassess everything, including your relationship with work. I chatted to Stefanie about why the "career comedown"...
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#175: Closing the door on shame with Andrea McLean
Another Door Opens
"I ended up losing that business. And not only did we lose the business, but we had self-funded it. So we lost our home, all our savings, my pension, everything... So that was a door that closed that I was not anticipating." What do you do when multiple doors slam shut all at once, career, home, health, identity? In this episode, Andrea McLean, broadcaster, author and former Loose Women host, shares her deeply honest story of losing her business, home, savings, health and sense of identity. She talks about the shame and upheaval that followed, selling her possessions and starting again...
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#174: The power of rebellious play in moments of change with Gary Ware
Another Door Opens
"We, as adults, go from seeing the world as a playground of possibilities to a proving ground, the need to prove to ‘myself and to others that I'm worthy’. And when you have that mindset, the playfulness goes away because you're not seeing the world as something that is playful that you can experiment with." What happens when your life’s defining door suddenly closes, not just once but in a cascade, career, home, certainty all at once? In this episode, Gary Ware, founder of Playful Rebellion, shares his journey from executive stress, pressure, challenge to rediscovering joy,...
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#173: Confidence isn’t given. Its practised, chosen, claimed with Lauren Currie
Another Door Opens
“Confidence is the first step of protest. And whether that is a protest where you make a sign and you go and stand outside down the street, or whether it's a protest when you're in a doctor's surgery room and the doctor's not listening to you, or whether it's a protest at the school gates because your kid's teacher's not taking your kid's needs seriously. Confidence is the first step of that self-advocacy and we need that so much right now because the tactics that our governments are using is fear. Fear divides people. Fear keeps people small, and fear takes your confidence away.” ...
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#172: Closing the door on a London agency and building a new creative life in France with Lucy Werner
Another Door Opens
"I have found, when I've shared my fails as well as the journey to getting to my wins, the people who are there with me at the winning line, that finish line, are more involved in that story because they've come with me on the journey. And more often than not, the fails on the journey have led to more opportunities landing for me because people want to talk to me about the fails more than the the wins." What does it really take to shut the door on a thriving city business and step into an entirely different life in rural France ? In this episode, I speak to Lucy Werner shares the honest...
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#171: Navigating life, fame, and self-discovery with Anthony Kavanagh
Another Door Opens
In this heartfelt conversation, Anthony Kavanagh shares the ups and downs of his journey from aspiring pop star to author, exploring themes of resilience, vulnerability, and authentic self-expression. This episode is about overcoming personal challenges and embracing life's unpredictable twists. Key topics we cover - Anthony's early dreams of music and the drive to succeed in the 90s pop scene The power of storytelling in healing and self-discovery Insights into writing a memoir and revisiting past traumas Memorable moments with celebrities like Madonna, Prince, and Faye...
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#170: How leaving the wrong job opened the right door for Cara-Lyn Giovanniello
Another Door Opens
“Don’t confuse comfort with alignment. Just because something is familiar, stable, or impressive on paper doesn’t mean it’s meant for who you’re becoming or what the universe has in store for you.” What happens when you land the job that seemed perfect only to find, deep down, it isn’t right at all? In this episode, Cara-Lyn talks about the daunting process of leaving a high-profile role that simply wasn’t a fit, and how that closed door became fuel for reinvention. From wrongly ignoring her intuition, through the physical toll of staying somewhere misaligned, to finally making...
info_outline"The whole time I could have left but I just wanted to believe so much that it was the right thing for me."
What happens when you don’t get joy from your job anymore? I’m talking to Claire Fitzsimmons, co-founder of ‘If lost start here’. She shares her journey of closing a door on what was perceived as a ‘dream job’ in the art world and following her heart into the well-being world. We also talk about her Mum’s struggle with mental health and how it led Claire to starting a business where they create a unique "well-being prescription" designed to navigate life with creativity and joy. She also opens up about her struggles fitting into traditional roles and redefining what is important. Her story offers us invaluable lessons on embracing change and finding fulfilment.
“I just love the feeling of walking through a gallery and then being around the art and I still love that. I think that's why it was so hard to let go of because it felt really good, but what I hadn't understood was what my role in it would be, and who I had to be in that environment.”
Here are the highlights:
05:41 The struggle of leaving a beloved art world job
12:12 Monetising passions can diminish the joy
13:39 Prioritising personal curiosity over external expectations
17:57 Exploring my mother’s story to understand my own
23:53 Navigating external advice vs. internal connection
27:54 Creative spaces make therapy accessible and engaging
34:42 Different needs: nature connection, and a spiritual practice
37:09 Create your own life guide with support
Claire Fitzwilliam’s Another Door go-tos
The things that helped Claire navigate change.
Book: "Tiny Beautiful Things", by Cheryl Strayed
Music: "My Favourite Coffee House" playlist on Spotify
The one piece of advice: “Feel your way through change and I say that because I often do work around emotions with people and it's often the missing piece.”
About Claire Fitzsimmons:
Claire Fitzsimmons helps people to have more good days by developing an everyday life practice that meets them wherever they are, with whatever it is they need. Claire draws from positive psychology, transactional analysis, somatics, neuroscience, Positive Intelligence, emotions coaching, and the science of well-being to help people understand what it means to be a person in this world, and how we can possibly do life with all that life now needs to contain. Claire also works with women in mid-life, particularly negotiating shifts associated with (peri)menopause. She is one of the world’s first certified Emotions Coaching Practitioners (with In Good Company), an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC), and earned her Certificate in Counseling and Psychotherapy from London’s CCPE.
Find out more: https://www.ifloststarthere.com/
Connect with Claire:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-fitzsimmons
Substack: https://moregooddays.substack.com/
About your host Eleanor Tweddell:
Eleanor supports individuals, teams and organisations through change. Whether it’s 121 coaching or large scale organisational change through communications and training. Eleanor’s work centres around how we, as humans, work through change, embracing the messy bits, the role of playing, with the aim to see opportunity. “Too often we get stuck in the change happening to us, when just through that next door is an exciting next chapter.”
Eleanor is the founder of Another Door, and Get-Recommended.com and the author of Why losing your job could be the best thing that ever happened to you.
Connect with Eleanor:
Instagram:instagram/anotherdooruk
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanor-tweddell/
Website: eleanortweddell.com
Produced by winteraudio.co.uk