August 2, 2025 • 31 mins
My guest today is the incredible Zoe Plumley and her journey has been anything but ordinary. From nursing to running a thriving coaching and virtual assistant business, Zoe’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and seriously powerful purpose.
We talk about how her own health challenges and her children inspired her to build LNL Coaching & VA Services, a business that now supports other business owners who are also navigating health conditions, plus she leads a team of 15 (yes, 15!) associate VAs.
We also get into the realities of scaling fast, why sustainable growth matters, and what support is really needed for entrepreneurs with disabilities. Zoe opens up about the real feelings behind showing up on social media, the nerves that come with public speaking, and how she’s pushing forward anyway with many new projects on the horizon.
This conversation is a reminder that there’s more than one way to do business, and you don’t have to sacrifice your wellbeing to be successful.
NOTES:
Follow Zoe on Instagram
Visit Zoe’s website
Book your free 15 minute Visibility & Brand Audit With Amanda
Visit Amanda’s website and join Amanda on Instagram
Join the Grow Your Brand With Amanda Facebook Community
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Grow Your Brandwith Amanda podcast, helping
you become a powerhouse brandwith bullseye messaging,
targeted visibility, andscroll stopping content. I'm
Amanda Jane, and I want tohelp businesses like yours
showcase more of you, soyou're not hiding behind your
logo, and your audience getsto see the real authentic
personality behind your brand.My philosophy is the only way
(00:25):
to be comfortable in thespotlight is to truly believe
you belong there. And thattakes a little bit of work for
most business owners becausewe're not all naturals in
front of the camera ormicrophone. On this podcast,
I'm going to share lots ofactionable tips and advice to
enable you to grow your brandin a way that's comfortable
for you. I'll also befeaturing special guests who
(00:45):
will share their amazingjourneys with us. It's time to
grow your brand with Amanda,so let's get started.
Hello, everyone. I'm yourhost, Amanda Jane, and today I
have with me Zoe Plumley.Hello, Zoe. Hello, Amanda.
It's lovely to be here. Andthank you for joining me. Now,
Zoe runs LNL Coaching andVirtual Assisting Services,
(01:08):
and she has a very interestingbackground story, which I'm
going to get to a little bitlater. But before we do, I'm
going to find out whatmotivates her. So, what's your
favourite motivational song?So I had to write it down
because I was up to get it,but it's Moments We Live For
by In Paradise. So it's onethat I found on a Facebook
reel and I had to then YouTubeit. So I don't know if that's
(01:30):
an actual, if that's theactual like proper person that
sang it. I don't know. Butthat's the song that I play on
YouTube. What do I need topick me up? Which is generally
every morning with my cup ofcoffee. I love that. You know,
when you hear a piece of musicand just like, I have to hear
it all searching it. What's itcalled again? Moments we live
(01:51):
for by in paradise. I'm goingto look that up. I just love
that. I do that too. I'll heara little clip and then I'll go
and find it. And I actuallywent years ago before you
could buy music online. Iremember going into HMV,
humming a tune. And we heardof this song and they did,
they were able to deduce it.So, oh, that's what we did in
the olden days, kids. Exactly,exactly. Oh, probably we did
(02:16):
that yesterday. And he waslike, what's one of those? I
was like, Okay, now Iofficially feel old. I know,
things just move so fast andthen the young person says
something just like, yeah,that's just too, that's just
not acceptable in my brain.And do you have a motivational
quote? So I do, so I have twoand I couldn't decide, but
(02:37):
these above my desk, I canread one to you. It's by
Christopher Reeve and it's ahero, it's an individual who
finds the strength topersevere and endure in spite
of overwhelming obstacles. Oh,I love that. Oh, yeah, that is
so good. That's him for whathe endured as well. Oh, that
really touches me. That'sbeautiful. Did you say he had
(02:57):
another one? Let's have two. Ido. I do. I don't know who
this one was by, but if youweren't capable, the
opportunity wouldn't have comeyour way. Believe in yourself.
You've got this. Oh, I likethat as well. I know. And they
both sit up at my desk everymorning. That is perfect. Oh,
I love that. And just when ifyou glimpse those little
(03:17):
reminders, it just gives youthat little kick, doesn't it,
to carry on. Because we canall get bogged down with, oh,
I can't do this anymore. I'mso lazy to do that. I love
those. Thank you for sharingthose. They're amazing. And
then my next question is onlybecause I'm nosy. Do you read?
I do. do read. So I love,I don't have a favourite book,
(03:40):
I have a favourite genre,which is literally trashy
romance novels. So give me areally, really cheesy,
romantic, you know, like mynan used to read like Mills
and Boons, that sort of reallylike soppy, cheesy romantic
slash, essentially. That is mykind of guilty blame. That's
so good because you need a lotof escapism, don't you? I just
(04:01):
like anything that will...That stops me thinking because
my brain will constantlyprocess stuff. But if I watch
a film or read a book, that'sjust totally out of my normal
everyday stuff. I cancompletely unwind and relax.
And and I look no matter whatit is, romance, thriller and I
love World War II. okay yeahyeah grants and the resistance
(04:24):
all of that which is so farhopefully so far removed from
the war and it's brilliant itjust takes you away just for a
couple of hours to a differentworld yeah absolutely love it
and i remember once i pickedup a book and it was um a
really really good story and iloved it but i didn't realize
to the end it was actuallymills and boone which is
(04:45):
really interesting you knowand it wasn't really a genre
that i would have picked upbut i remember the story
really well and it was it wasjust so beautifully told So
yeah, I have a huge readinglist and I've always got
various books on the go. Sothank you for sharing that.
That's absolutely gorgeous. Sotell us about your business
and what are who inspired it?So I start with who inspired
(05:09):
it, it would be my children.So my name, if you like, is
named after my children. Sothe two L's are Logan and
Lana. So they're my now 14 andfour-year-old. So they're my
reasons for why. But it wasbecause I wanted to help
people. Yeah. I historicallywas in nursing. I was in
nursing for just under 15years. And I had to stop that
(05:32):
because of my health, becauseof my health challenges. And
that was really, reallydifficult because that was
something I was reallypassionate about. And I loved
doing it and to suddenly go,you can't do that anymore is
really, really hard and tothen you sort of lose a place
of your identity. And it wasaround the same time that I
moved to Wales. And I moved toWales because I had to go to a
(05:56):
domestic abuse refuge intowomen's aid. And it was all
really, really, I call ithiggledy, higgledy. I mean,
that's making light of it. Andthen some now, because it was
really traumatic at the time.But I really lost who I was.
And I bumbled around for... acouple of years, you know,
different jobs that weren't sophysically demanding. You
(06:18):
know, I have chronic asthma, Ihave rheumatoid arthritis,
heart conditions. There isn'tmuch wrong with me. My kidneys
maybe, they function quitewell, but generically, you
know. So, you know, I'veworked in healthcare
recruitment, compliance,safeguarding. Um, I had a
lovely little office job,which I loved. Um,
(06:39):
unfortunately got my redundantfrom there. New job, very,
very similar role. Um, and sixweeks into that job, I felt
pregnant with my littlest Lwith flana and an hour after
telling my employer, I wasterminated. No. Yes, which
devastated. That absolutelybroke me. You know, it was, I
(07:00):
have my big L, I have little Lon the way. What enough do I
do? And then literally withinweeks, COVID happened, which
as we can all imagine wasjust, although it was, I can't
believe it was five years agonow. That was a it was a
massive, a massive just entityfor us all to have to deal
with. So I went, okay, whatcan I do? Because I'm not one
(07:24):
to feel sorry for myself,unless I have a cold. If I
have a cold, I am the biggestperson in the world. But
generically, I'm not one tofeel sorry for myself. I
always want to, there's alwayssome worse, you know, in a
worse position than you are.There's always, you know,
there's always a silver liningto everything. Sometimes you
have to find it, but there isalways one essentially. So I
(07:45):
took this as a what can I doto find me again to go back to
what do I miss out of, youknow, my life. And it was, I
missed helping people. So Iwent and I got my coaching
qualifications. So I gained myNLP qualification, my coaching
qualification, my time andtherapy qualification. And I
launched my coaching practicewith the aim to help people.
(08:07):
And it was to specialize inworking with people that,
well, business owners withhealth conditions,
disabilities andneurodiversity. Because what I
didn't want was for anybody tofeel... as lost or as alone as
I felt, you know, often we'regiven a diagnosis and it's,
there you go, there's that geton with it. And there's so
much build to, you know, testsand appointments and
(08:31):
everything. And there's somuch support while you're
going through this process.And then you get given this,
this label, essentially, andit's, there's it all by. And,
you know, I remember with myrheumatoid arthritis
diagnosis, My consultant wouldask me, or how has it affected
you? And I've gone, have youever tried to change a baby
like it's nappy with nothumbs? It is impossible. If
(08:52):
anybody knows how to do it,please feel free to email me
after this. If you hear thispodcast, because I couldn't do
it. It was absolutelydetrimental and there was no
support. And at that time, Ihad not long opened a printing
business, and that was goingreally quite well, but I
physically couldn't doanymore. My partner developed
(09:13):
long COVID, so he worked in acare home for known
disabilities. Unfortunately,caught COVID from there. It
developed into long COVID, andhe's now permanently disabled.
But he couldn't work theprocess either, so it was a
case of shut it down. If therehad been someone out there
that could support me at thatpoint that could have offered
me, you know, I'm here foryou, here's some guidance,
(09:33):
here's some support, just, youknow, here's a shoulder if you
need to cry on, if there's amountain to scream off, then
that could have made a massivedifference to me, but we shut
that down. So yeah, so I gotmy coaching qualifications.
And it wasn't long after that,that, again, going back to
helping people, you know,someone said to me, oh, you
know, I'm sorry, I can't focuson this session, this today,
(09:54):
you know, all I want to do,I've just got this, this form
that I need to get done on myinbox just keeps dinging or
I'm so overwhelmed with thisand I'd be like, just give it
here, I'll sort a few, it'sfine. If any coaches are
listening, that is not what acoach is meant to do. That's
how I work, because I want tohelp. I want to take away that
stress some people. I foundout during one of my peer
(10:17):
supervision sessions that itwas what a VA does. I was
like, oh, okay, my bad. So Ithen, you know, just, okay, we
all learn things. Every day isa school day. So I then looked
into a bit more and went, oh,yeah, that is literally what
I'm doing. So I launched theVA services. same specialist
area. Now we support everyone.So you don't have to have
(10:38):
health condition, don't have adisability, neurodiversity.
Heck, you can have a brokenleg and we support you, but
you don't have to have that.But that is our niche area. So
we support everyone fromcoaches to authors to
electricians, you name it, wedo it. But we offer specialist
guidance with body doubling,accountability sessions, as
well as all your traditionalbits and bobs. And that then
(11:01):
grew. And I grew a team of 15associate BAs, which was
incredible. And then we grewagain. And we then launched
disability benefit support,advocacy support, blue badge
support, everything that,again, was so desperately
needed. But we just didn'thave society doesn't have any
(11:24):
more the budget cuts that it'sjust horrendous that the
access to that support justisn't there so we again trying
to fill as many gaps as we canum i'm hoping that we're we're
succeeding with that you knowin november we were one of the
one of the finalists um weweren't the the finalist but
we were in the in theshortlisted lot for the
dyslexia association uminclusive workplace award so
(11:46):
you know we're doing the rightthing um And now we're going
off and we're doing disabilityinclusion training,
accessibility training,corporate, um, you know,
basically people sometimesforget how important that is
that it doesn't matter if it'syour employees your clients if
you can make your company moreaccessible more inclusive it
(12:09):
opens up doors to so manydifferent people to so many
more feelings and actuallyjust it makes it a nicer place
to be in and you just don'tfeel judged so we're working
on that and we've also justwatched our CIC again to help
people that you know to bridgethat gap essentially so that
people have a purpose in lifethat whether that's going to
self-employment back intosupported employment just
(12:31):
volunteering not just just astotally the wrong but
volunteering you've got thatthat support and that purpose
and that's what we want to todo we want to make that
difference to people wow whatwhat a what a story and you
know there's one word thatpopped into my head when you
were telling your story i hopeyou don't mind me saying but
all i all i see when i look atyou is resilience You just
(12:54):
went from one problem to thenext problem to the next
problem to the next problem.And you were dealing with
that. And I just thought youmust have the most incredible
resilience to have moved onthrough all those challenges,
which really would have made alot of people buckle under.
And, you know, you've got yourchildren and you had your
problems with your, you know,your previous relationship
and, and then you're settingup this business and then this
(13:16):
happened and then your partnerhad long COVID. And I just
think, wow, that, you know,that resilience in one human
being is a lot and it's,you're clearly destined for
entrepreneurship and to, helpother people and and it's
people like you that inspireother businesses and think
well, actually, I want to dothat. And even, you know, if
we can have a fraction of yourresilience, a lot of people
(13:38):
will be, you know, heading inthe right direction. But that
is just so unbelievably justsuch an inspiring story and
you know you're talking aboutthe baby in the thumbs I
didn't have any challengeslike that you know when my
when my girls were little butit was still challenging so I
understand what you're sayingand I don't know how you
managed to do the things withall the challenges you must
(13:59):
have felt like physically yourhands were tied behind your
back when you were lookingafter small children because
there's hard work anyway. Andthen with additional
challenges, you know, I'm inawe the fact that you, you
know, you just resilientlymoved on to the next thing.
And, you know, and but whatyou said interested me as
well. If anyone understandscoaching, that's not what a
coaching, what a coach does.I'm also a qualified coach. So
(14:22):
I know what coaches do, butwhat you find in that was such
a cliche, but it's so true.Necessity is the mother of
invention. even, you know,your coach, but you, you find
an area where people neededsupport. So that's an area for
business. And I just think,wow, that's incredible. Start
up this business to do thisthing, but you need to fulfill
(14:43):
a need that these businessesneed this, this other thing.
So there's no reason why youcan't have a multi-strand
business. And I just think,oh, wow, that's so incredible.
But, you know, write thesethings down, write your
experiences down becausesomeday, you know, you've got,
you're going to have a, youhave to write a book and I
(15:04):
have, I have co-authored one.So I was part of a, I don't
think I got one handy. I waspart of a group collaboration
book called Courage. So if yougo on to Amazon, you will find
it and I'm in there as achapter. So not my whole
story, but a, a good chunk ofit. Yeah, yeah. And, you know,
and the whole talk aboutresilience and things, what I
(15:24):
didn't mention was last yearwe launched a disability
inclusion summit and it was ina virtual event, but that was
pure, that's literally yousummed it up, which is why I
thought of it. We want peopleto look at the speakers and
go, wow, if they can do it, socan I. And you know, if we can
light people's, you know, firein their bellies to make them
go, you can do it. It doesn'tmatter, you know, if you have
a diagnosis, doesn't matter ifyou have a barrier, you can do
(15:46):
it because look at what we'veachieved. You know, and that's
an annual event now is when Iabsolutely love that. That's a
passion project for me becauseit just Yeah, it just lights
everyone's fires and it's justinspirational. So yeah, I
mean, you said my favoritewords. I, I hate labels. I
refuse to label anyone withanything. And you said, you
(16:07):
used that word about labels.And, you know, there's no
reason why people, anyonecan't do whatever they want to
do, but either society isgoing to pin that label on you
or somebody is going to wantto pin that label. And my
instinct is to reject thatlabel. And I always like to,
you know, when you talk aboutpeople, I always say like
we're varying degrees ofability because we all have
(16:28):
varying degrees of ability andthat's that's precisely it.
And and I know from experiencein the workplace, for example,
some disabilities are hiddenand you just you don't know
what someone is going through,but you also don't know the
simple adjustments and a goodconversation can make to that
person's world. And it's thesame with entrepreneurship and
(16:50):
the same, you know, in thatsort of different world. But
having a good conversation,just getting a little bit more
information and being able totalk to someone like you that
you can signpost and say, oh,did you know? Did you know?
But the damage that a lack ofaccess to information can do
is can be catastrophic. So mymy ethos is just make sure
(17:12):
that you, you know, you cantalk to people, you can access
information, but that you canapproach someone that will
help you with thatconversation and I love your
the sound of your summit isjust incredible and you know
with a few adjustments a kindconversation you can change
the world for so many peopleand you know there might be
someone with a lacking alittle bit of confidence but
(17:33):
thinking ah well I can do thatand that just builds that
confidence a little bit moreso you just you just never
know who's watching you fromthe sidelines thinking Wow,
that's amazing. So Iabsolutely love that. And I
probably don't need to askthis next question. And it's
about your biggest challenge.So you've probably just
covered it, face building yourbrand and how you overcome it.
(17:53):
But I think you've justcovered that so beautifully.
But I'll go on to the nextone. If you could give
yourself a piece of advicethen going back to to that
employer, that is horrendous.And I won't sort of open that
kind of worms. But if youcould give yourself one piece
of advice at a point in time,what would it be? to, and the
(18:14):
irony of this advice is notlost on me. When I was
younger, I lost the ability towalk. I was an accident, so I
was wheelchair. I wasparalyzed for a couple of
years. So the irony of this isnot lost because I like my
legs. I like moving my legsvery, very quickly now. But
walk before you run. You know,I built my business very, very
quickly. It literallysnowballed and I am so
(18:35):
grateful for it. But what itended up was it ended up being
out of control. And I actuallyhad to break down parts of my
business, which washeartbreaking, but it wasn't
stable. I hadn't built thefoundations. So that would be
my advice is to make sure thatyou walk, don't run. you know
it's not a it's not a race andmake sure you've got those
(18:55):
those sort of foundations inthere and that's in life in
work in you know in whateveraspect it is if you have the
sort of foundations then youcan't build and you're always
going to be little bit wibblywobbly and no one wants that
and it's so true because Iknow people and I know for
myself as well when you seepeople and they're like, oh,
this is not quick enough andI'm not getting anywhere. I
(19:17):
know myself, if I go back tomy journey and I think, well,
if what I wanted had happenedat that point, I wasn't
equipped for it. I didn't havethe systems in place. I didn't
have the time that I needed. Ididn't have the my own
framework ready, you know, butthe minute that you start
getting bombarded with clientsand they want stuff, it
doesn't work. other peoplethat are hugely successful
(19:40):
that it kind of sent them offin a different direction while
they were wonderful at whatthey did everybody just went
oh I want you I want you andthey just couldn't cope but
you're right I think you needto be clear on what it is that
you want to do have thefoundations in place and all
the structure behind thatespecially if you're a parent
and you have other you knowdemands on your family how are
you going to fit all that indo you have the right support
(20:02):
you know you can always earnmore money but you can never
get more time and it's it'sthose things and you can find
yourself in the early daysliterally working 24 7 I think
more than that. Yeah, livingwith health concerns, you have
to stop and look afteryourself and you have to take
those breaks and you have torest. And again, I think
(20:24):
that's another thing thatpeople don't do. They don't do
the self-care properly. Theydon't stop and take a break.
And that is such good advice,sort of walk before you run.
You do see people eager to tryand kick off, but I kind of
think that. things happen fora reason and things just just
flow in the way that thatthey're supposed to know but I
(20:44):
quite like that so howcomfortable are you with your
audience are you happyspeaking in public or social
media or do you handle it in adifferent way so I think I am
until I actually go to do itso my summit is a brilliant
example of this where we hadyou know over 100 attendees we
had 30 speakers over 30speakers and it was beautiful
(21:05):
I loved it and then The lastsession was me and it got to
the session of the last and Iwent, oh no, I've got to speak
now. And then all of a suddenthese butterflies and these
just, this anxiety and thisimposter syndrome was just
like, ah, yeah, I'll say,yeah, I don't mind speaking in
(21:25):
front of people. I can dothis. I can do that. And then
I go to do it. And I go, oh,my days. This is absolutely
terrifying. Oh, this is, oh,your first thing. Oh, wow.
That's so interesting. Andit's, you know, because
different scenarios affectdifferent people in different
(21:45):
ways. Some people like a stagewith a live audience because
you can get that reaction andthen, you know, nod in the
head and clapping and stuff.Some people are happy in this
environment where we'retalking and this will be
released sort of later on andthat's fine. And I actually
prefer a live social media. SoI'm really happy going live on
Instagram or Facebook orpodcast or anything like that.
(22:07):
What I don't like is recordingmyself to put it on later
because I'll do it. And Idon't like that and then I'll
re-record it. Oh, I don't likethat either. And then I'll
re-record it. And that's like,that's the kind of thing I
teach people. So, so I'm justlike, you know what, just go
live and do it because youcan't do it over. And you
know, how bad is it going tobe? But, you know, for your
(22:29):
summit, I think possibly, youknow, think about probably a
lot of people were really,really interested in what you
had to say. Yeah. Oh, you'veheard a thing. Well, I can
prep you for your next one. Ifyou do another one, because
all those people that turnedoff to see it can be quite
(22:50):
overwhelming. But oh, wow, butyou know what? The
butterflies, they can all bedealt with. But it's just, it
just really interests me thatdifferent scenarios affect
different people in differentways. And I know a lot of very
successful experiencedBusiness people would not go
live ever. They would justnever do anything live.
Whereas I find that the mostcomfortable, which is just
(23:13):
very, very strange. Butanyway, no, that's all right.
So what about you on socialmedia? Do you do lives on
social media yourself or doyou rather just sort of post
or hardly handle your socialmedia? So I don't handle my
social media. I have my teamthat handle my social media
for me. It is my thing thatdrives me completely bonkers.
It is my, we all have that onething that we really don't
(23:34):
like. And social media is thatfor me. I love scrolling. I
love commenting and engagingwith people. The actual social
media is just my... Can't goas far as nemesis, but I don't
like it. Necessary, well,really, isn't it? Yeah,
exactly, exactly, yeah. So interms of lives, I don't mind
going live. My issue is Iforget to go live. And then
when I do, it's a really quickrush job of, I haven't gone
(23:58):
live for a while, I betterquickly do it. And then it's
not necessarily as valuable oras... structured, shall we
say, is it like, you know, Ilive in Wales, so half the
time, you know, I have a sheepwalking past the back of my
head or something for all, youknow, for a while. That's so
cute. I just, I just thinkit's so cute. If someone goes
live and there's somethinggoing on around them, I am so
curious about their lives andwhat they're doing, you know,
(24:19):
and if someone says, oh, I'mjust about to make the tea and
I'm doing this, I'm justleaning in going, wow, you
know, it's just people'sordinary. everyday lives are
strangely captivating. You'dlove the one of me chasing
Lana around the garden thentrying to get rid of the way.
I absolutely love that. Andthat's, you know, that's what
(24:40):
makes us unique andindividual. And because you
have this business persona andpeople expect you to behave in
this certain way. But you'reobviously not like that all
the time. And for me, I kindof like sometimes I'm
thinking, what can do behindthe scenes? Nobody really
cares about my espressomartini on a Friday night or
my big giant glass. So I'vegot this big giant glass that
(25:02):
I make gin and tonic in. Andit can hold like triple
measures, maybe more. And Ijust keep pouring it in until
it's full. But it's like a bigfish bowl. It's like one of
those big glasses that likeyou could pour a whole bottle
of wine into sort of thing. SoI'm just like having this big
giant gin and tonic and thenI'm just like yeah maybe
(25:24):
people will be interested tosee the giant gin. But those
are the little quirks thatmake us stand out from you
know AI generated content andand it's a funny thing and if
someone sort of likes youknow, particular brand of
chocolate, whatever, when yousee that, you you sort of
associate yourself with thatperson. So honestly, sheep in
(25:45):
fields and wheels, I am there.Although where I live is quite
rural, but not not quite thatrural. But definitely it just
sounds absolutely idyllic. Sowhat's next for you and your
brand? Have you got any plansfor the future? So the next
plan is we're actually doing acouple of launches. So we've
(26:06):
literally just done a softlaunch for our CIC. So that's
going to grow. So we've got alot of corporate well-being
things coming in, which islush, but like some well-being
days, some virtual weight losssessions, which is actually
just, you come in, again,it's, I know my mom would
always go to Slimming World,for example, there's not an
(26:26):
endorsement anyway, she'llperform, I know very little.
It's okay, but that's whereshe would go. There's a lot of
people that physicallywouldn't be able to do that.
So again, through the CIC, wecan offer that support because
I know I've done, I've done itwhere I've signed up to like,
and wait, I can't even thinkof it, online thing on my
bobs. And I'll weigh myself athome and I'll type it in and
(26:48):
that's it done. But I also, ifI got no one to talk to, I'm
gonna be the first one to getin the bar, I chop it out of
the fridge or something alongthose lines. So we're offering
that. We have, I got amasterclass this month, which
I'm really excited about, butwe're launching an agency
program. So I'm going, I amgoing to teach people how to
grow an agency model in theirbusiness. And that's what I've
(27:08):
done really successfully withthe VA business and I've done
successfully with otherclients as well. So I've
literally, I mean, with my VAcompany, I've quintupled my
taxable income a year, whichis insane just by following
this agency model. So we'relaunching that. So yeah, we've
got a couple of excitingthings coming up. And then
obviously the summit again inOctober. That is incredible.
That's incredible. If you werea powerhouse, unstoppable,
(27:34):
powerhouse. I'm 5.1 andstepping. Oh, that is amazing.
And do you know what isamazing as well? I think the
children of entrepreneurs arereally blessed because they
get to see how you can earnmoney in a different way.
Because a lot of childrenthink that you have to... And
there's nothing wrong with,you know, going to school and
(27:55):
going to college anduniversity and doing a nine to
five, nothing wrong with thatat all. But I love the fact
that they can see there's alsoanother way and there's lots
of other ways. But I thinkchildren of entrepreneurs get
this, you know, to pay behindthat curtain and that there's
other ways that they can doit. And I think, oh, wow, that
is just, oh, that'sincredible. Go you. I will be
watching you very closely. Sowith that in mind, then what
(28:17):
legacy would you like to leavebehind? I think my legacy
would be that, well, that's acouple, I guess, but I guess
it's one of those where don'tsell yourself short, never
write yourself off. You canalways achieve whatever you
want to achieve. You just mayhave to go a little bit of a
wonky road to get there, butnever let anything stop you
(28:37):
because anything is achievableas long as you decide it's
achievable. And you'vecertainly not let anything
stop you whatsoever. I justthink you're just, you are,
you're just like straightline, just power on through
regardless of what'shappening. Oh, that is such,
such good advice. Just neverlet anything stop you. So
where can we find out moreabout you online? If you've
(28:57):
got a website and you're so,and I'll put this on the show
notes, by the way, yourwebsite and your social. So,
yeah, so we have a website atthe moment. It's
www.lnlvaservices.co.uk.Shortly, it will just
because... Did that even comeout right? We're going to be
incorporating the coaching theVA. So we're going to be LNL
Services. So it will go towww.nlservices.co.uk. So you
(29:21):
may have to take up the VApart. You can find me and Zoe
Plumley on LinkedIn. You canfind me as NNL VA services and
also NNL coaching services,both on Facebook and
Instagram. And then I alsohave a business group, support
group, which is my freecommunity, which is NNL
business inclusion, which youcan also find on Facebook.
(29:44):
Sounds wonderful. Well, I willput those on the show notes
and people can click the linkand follow all the wonderful
things that you're doing. Andso thank you so much for
joining me. It's been a realpleasure talking to you and I
just can't believe your yourenthusiasm, your resilience,
your you're you're just youget up and go and you just I
don't think anything wouldstop you really and it would
(30:05):
surprise me if in five yearstime we see you on the cover
of Time magazine or something.That would be incredible. But
yeah, I think myfour-year-old, I have us four
in the morning, is currentlywhat's stopping me when she
comes in. Oh, the juries aresprung and I'm like, no,
where's the coffee pot? Thosedays, as exhausting as they
are, genuinely, they don'tlast forever and they do go by
(30:28):
in the blink of an eye, trustme, but it is exhausting when
you're in the middle of it.But thank you so much for
joining me, Zoe. It's been anabsolute pleasure. Thank you
for having me. Thank you somuch for spending time with me
today. If you have enjoyedthis episode, please leave a
review and share it with abusiness bestie who might also
find it useful. You have beenlistening to the Grow Your
(30:49):
Brand with Amanda podcast. Ifyou want to know more about
how I can help you grow yourbrand, then visit my website,
AmandaGian.co.uk or come andsay hi on Instagram at Coach
AmandaGian. Bye for now.
Welcome to the Grow Your Brandwith Amanda podcast, helping
you become a powerhouse brandwith bullseye messaging,
targeted visibility, andscroll stopping content. I'm
Amanda Jane, and I want tohelp businesses like yours
showcase more of you, soyou're not hiding behind your
logo, and your audience getsto see the real authentic
personality behind your brand.My philosophy is the only way
(00:25):
to be comfortable in thespotlight is to truly believe
you belong there. And thattakes a little bit of work for
most business owners becausewe're not all naturals in
front of the camera ormicrophone. On this podcast,
I'm going to share lots ofactionable tips and advice to
enable you to grow your brandin a way that's comfortable
for you. I'll also befeaturing special guests who
(00:45):
will share their amazingjourneys with us. It's time to
grow your brand with Amanda,so let's get started.
Hello, everyone. I'm yourhost, Amanda Jane, and today I
have with me Zoe Plumley.Hello, Zoe. Hello, Amanda.
It's lovely to be here. Andthank you for joining me. Now,
Zoe runs LNL Coaching andVirtual Assisting Services,
(01:08):
and she has a very interestingbackground story, which I'm
going to get to a little bitlater. But before we do, I'm
going to find out whatmotivates her. So, what's your
favourite motivational song?So I had to write it down
because I was up to get it,but it's Moments We Live For
by In Paradise. So it's onethat I found on a Facebook
reel and I had to then YouTubeit. So I don't know if that's
(01:30):
an actual, if that's theactual like proper person that
sang it. I don't know. Butthat's the song that I play on
YouTube. What do I need topick me up? Which is generally
every morning with my cup ofcoffee. I love that. You know,
when you hear a piece of musicand just like, I have to hear
it all searching it. What's itcalled again? Moments we live
(01:51):
for by in paradise. I'm goingto look that up. I just love
that. I do that too. I'll heara little clip and then I'll go
and find it. And I actuallywent years ago before you
could buy music online. Iremember going into HMV,
humming a tune. And we heardof this song and they did,
they were able to deduce it.So, oh, that's what we did in
the olden days, kids. Exactly,exactly. Oh, probably we did
(02:16):
that yesterday. And he waslike, what's one of those? I
was like, Okay, now Iofficially feel old. I know,
things just move so fast andthen the young person says
something just like, yeah,that's just too, that's just
not acceptable in my brain.And do you have a motivational
quote? So I do, so I have twoand I couldn't decide, but
(02:37):
these above my desk, I canread one to you. It's by
Christopher Reeve and it's ahero, it's an individual who
finds the strength topersevere and endure in spite
of overwhelming obstacles. Oh,I love that. Oh, yeah, that is
so good. That's him for whathe endured as well. Oh, that
really touches me. That'sbeautiful. Did you say he had
(02:57):
another one? Let's have two. Ido. I do. I don't know who
this one was by, but if youweren't capable, the
opportunity wouldn't have comeyour way. Believe in yourself.
You've got this. Oh, I likethat as well. I know. And they
both sit up at my desk everymorning. That is perfect. Oh,
I love that. And just when ifyou glimpse those little
(03:17):
reminders, it just gives youthat little kick, doesn't it,
to carry on. Because we canall get bogged down with, oh,
I can't do this anymore. I'mso lazy to do that. I love
those. Thank you for sharingthose. They're amazing. And
then my next question is onlybecause I'm nosy. Do you read?
I do. do read. So I love,I don't have a favourite book,
(03:40):
I have a favourite genre,which is literally trashy
romance novels. So give me areally, really cheesy,
romantic, you know, like mynan used to read like Mills
and Boons, that sort of reallylike soppy, cheesy romantic
slash, essentially. That is mykind of guilty blame. That's
so good because you need a lotof escapism, don't you? I just
(04:01):
like anything that will...That stops me thinking because
my brain will constantlyprocess stuff. But if I watch
a film or read a book, that'sjust totally out of my normal
everyday stuff. I cancompletely unwind and relax.
And and I look no matter whatit is, romance, thriller and I
love World War II. okay yeahyeah grants and the resistance
(04:24):
all of that which is so farhopefully so far removed from
the war and it's brilliant itjust takes you away just for a
couple of hours to a differentworld yeah absolutely love it
and i remember once i pickedup a book and it was um a
really really good story and iloved it but i didn't realize
to the end it was actuallymills and boone which is
(04:45):
really interesting you knowand it wasn't really a genre
that i would have picked upbut i remember the story
really well and it was it wasjust so beautifully told So
yeah, I have a huge readinglist and I've always got
various books on the go. Sothank you for sharing that.
That's absolutely gorgeous. Sotell us about your business
and what are who inspired it?So I start with who inspired
(05:09):
it, it would be my children.So my name, if you like, is
named after my children. Sothe two L's are Logan and
Lana. So they're my now 14 andfour-year-old. So they're my
reasons for why. But it wasbecause I wanted to help
people. Yeah. I historicallywas in nursing. I was in
nursing for just under 15years. And I had to stop that
(05:32):
because of my health, becauseof my health challenges. And
that was really, reallydifficult because that was
something I was reallypassionate about. And I loved
doing it and to suddenly go,you can't do that anymore is
really, really hard and tothen you sort of lose a place
of your identity. And it wasaround the same time that I
moved to Wales. And I moved toWales because I had to go to a
(05:56):
domestic abuse refuge intowomen's aid. And it was all
really, really, I call ithiggledy, higgledy. I mean,
that's making light of it. Andthen some now, because it was
really traumatic at the time.But I really lost who I was.
And I bumbled around for... acouple of years, you know,
different jobs that weren't sophysically demanding. You
(06:18):
know, I have chronic asthma, Ihave rheumatoid arthritis,
heart conditions. There isn'tmuch wrong with me. My kidneys
maybe, they function quitewell, but generically, you
know. So, you know, I'veworked in healthcare
recruitment, compliance,safeguarding. Um, I had a
lovely little office job,which I loved. Um,
(06:39):
unfortunately got my redundantfrom there. New job, very,
very similar role. Um, and sixweeks into that job, I felt
pregnant with my littlest Lwith flana and an hour after
telling my employer, I wasterminated. No. Yes, which
devastated. That absolutelybroke me. You know, it was, I
(07:00):
have my big L, I have little Lon the way. What enough do I
do? And then literally withinweeks, COVID happened, which
as we can all imagine wasjust, although it was, I can't
believe it was five years agonow. That was a it was a
massive, a massive just entityfor us all to have to deal
with. So I went, okay, whatcan I do? Because I'm not one
(07:24):
to feel sorry for myself,unless I have a cold. If I
have a cold, I am the biggestperson in the world. But
generically, I'm not one tofeel sorry for myself. I
always want to, there's alwayssome worse, you know, in a
worse position than you are.There's always, you know,
there's always a silver liningto everything. Sometimes you
have to find it, but there isalways one essentially. So I
(07:45):
took this as a what can I doto find me again to go back to
what do I miss out of, youknow, my life. And it was, I
missed helping people. So Iwent and I got my coaching
qualifications. So I gained myNLP qualification, my coaching
qualification, my time andtherapy qualification. And I
launched my coaching practicewith the aim to help people.
(08:07):
And it was to specialize inworking with people that,
well, business owners withhealth conditions,
disabilities andneurodiversity. Because what I
didn't want was for anybody tofeel... as lost or as alone as
I felt, you know, often we'regiven a diagnosis and it's,
there you go, there's that geton with it. And there's so
much build to, you know, testsand appointments and
(08:31):
everything. And there's somuch support while you're
going through this process.And then you get given this,
this label, essentially, andit's, there's it all by. And,
you know, I remember with myrheumatoid arthritis
diagnosis, My consultant wouldask me, or how has it affected
you? And I've gone, have youever tried to change a baby
like it's nappy with nothumbs? It is impossible. If
(08:52):
anybody knows how to do it,please feel free to email me
after this. If you hear thispodcast, because I couldn't do
it. It was absolutelydetrimental and there was no
support. And at that time, Ihad not long opened a printing
business, and that was goingreally quite well, but I
physically couldn't doanymore. My partner developed
(09:13):
long COVID, so he worked in acare home for known
disabilities. Unfortunately,caught COVID from there. It
developed into long COVID, andhe's now permanently disabled.
But he couldn't work theprocess either, so it was a
case of shut it down. If therehad been someone out there
that could support me at thatpoint that could have offered
me, you know, I'm here foryou, here's some guidance,
(09:33):
here's some support, just, youknow, here's a shoulder if you
need to cry on, if there's amountain to scream off, then
that could have made a massivedifference to me, but we shut
that down. So yeah, so I gotmy coaching qualifications.
And it wasn't long after that,that, again, going back to
helping people, you know,someone said to me, oh, you
know, I'm sorry, I can't focuson this session, this today,
(09:54):
you know, all I want to do,I've just got this, this form
that I need to get done on myinbox just keeps dinging or
I'm so overwhelmed with thisand I'd be like, just give it
here, I'll sort a few, it'sfine. If any coaches are
listening, that is not what acoach is meant to do. That's
how I work, because I want tohelp. I want to take away that
stress some people. I foundout during one of my peer
(10:17):
supervision sessions that itwas what a VA does. I was
like, oh, okay, my bad. So Ithen, you know, just, okay, we
all learn things. Every day isa school day. So I then looked
into a bit more and went, oh,yeah, that is literally what
I'm doing. So I launched theVA services. same specialist
area. Now we support everyone.So you don't have to have
(10:38):
health condition, don't have adisability, neurodiversity.
Heck, you can have a brokenleg and we support you, but
you don't have to have that.But that is our niche area. So
we support everyone fromcoaches to authors to
electricians, you name it, wedo it. But we offer specialist
guidance with body doubling,accountability sessions, as
well as all your traditionalbits and bobs. And that then
(11:01):
grew. And I grew a team of 15associate BAs, which was
incredible. And then we grewagain. And we then launched
disability benefit support,advocacy support, blue badge
support, everything that,again, was so desperately
needed. But we just didn'thave society doesn't have any
(11:24):
more the budget cuts that it'sjust horrendous that the
access to that support justisn't there so we again trying
to fill as many gaps as we canum i'm hoping that we're we're
succeeding with that you knowin november we were one of the
one of the finalists um weweren't the the finalist but
we were in the in theshortlisted lot for the
dyslexia association uminclusive workplace award so
(11:46):
you know we're doing the rightthing um And now we're going
off and we're doing disabilityinclusion training,
accessibility training,corporate, um, you know,
basically people sometimesforget how important that is
that it doesn't matter if it'syour employees your clients if
you can make your company moreaccessible more inclusive it
(12:09):
opens up doors to so manydifferent people to so many
more feelings and actuallyjust it makes it a nicer place
to be in and you just don'tfeel judged so we're working
on that and we've also justwatched our CIC again to help
people that you know to bridgethat gap essentially so that
people have a purpose in lifethat whether that's going to
self-employment back intosupported employment just
(12:31):
volunteering not just just astotally the wrong but
volunteering you've got thatthat support and that purpose
and that's what we want to todo we want to make that
difference to people wow whatwhat a what a story and you
know there's one word thatpopped into my head when you
were telling your story i hopeyou don't mind me saying but
all i all i see when i look atyou is resilience You just
(12:54):
went from one problem to thenext problem to the next
problem to the next problem.And you were dealing with
that. And I just thought youmust have the most incredible
resilience to have moved onthrough all those challenges,
which really would have made alot of people buckle under.
And, you know, you've got yourchildren and you had your
problems with your, you know,your previous relationship
and, and then you're settingup this business and then this
(13:16):
happened and then your partnerhad long COVID. And I just
think, wow, that, you know,that resilience in one human
being is a lot and it's,you're clearly destined for
entrepreneurship and to, helpother people and and it's
people like you that inspireother businesses and think
well, actually, I want to dothat. And even, you know, if
we can have a fraction of yourresilience, a lot of people
(13:38):
will be, you know, heading inthe right direction. But that
is just so unbelievably justsuch an inspiring story and
you know you're talking aboutthe baby in the thumbs I
didn't have any challengeslike that you know when my
when my girls were little butit was still challenging so I
understand what you're sayingand I don't know how you
managed to do the things withall the challenges you must
(13:59):
have felt like physically yourhands were tied behind your
back when you were lookingafter small children because
there's hard work anyway. Andthen with additional
challenges, you know, I'm inawe the fact that you, you
know, you just resilientlymoved on to the next thing.
And, you know, and but whatyou said interested me as
well. If anyone understandscoaching, that's not what a
coaching, what a coach does.I'm also a qualified coach. So
(14:22):
I know what coaches do, butwhat you find in that was such
a cliche, but it's so true.Necessity is the mother of
invention. even, you know,your coach, but you, you find
an area where people neededsupport. So that's an area for
business. And I just think,wow, that's incredible. Start
up this business to do thisthing, but you need to fulfill
(14:43):
a need that these businessesneed this, this other thing.
So there's no reason why youcan't have a multi-strand
business. And I just think,oh, wow, that's so incredible.
But, you know, write thesethings down, write your
experiences down becausesomeday, you know, you've got,
you're going to have a, youhave to write a book and I
(15:04):
have, I have co-authored one.So I was part of a, I don't
think I got one handy. I waspart of a group collaboration
book called Courage. So if yougo on to Amazon, you will find
it and I'm in there as achapter. So not my whole
story, but a, a good chunk ofit. Yeah, yeah. And, you know,
and the whole talk aboutresilience and things, what I
(15:24):
didn't mention was last yearwe launched a disability
inclusion summit and it was ina virtual event, but that was
pure, that's literally yousummed it up, which is why I
thought of it. We want peopleto look at the speakers and
go, wow, if they can do it, socan I. And you know, if we can
light people's, you know, firein their bellies to make them
go, you can do it. It doesn'tmatter, you know, if you have
a diagnosis, doesn't matter ifyou have a barrier, you can do
(15:46):
it because look at what we'veachieved. You know, and that's
an annual event now is when Iabsolutely love that. That's a
passion project for me becauseit just Yeah, it just lights
everyone's fires and it's justinspirational. So yeah, I
mean, you said my favoritewords. I, I hate labels. I
refuse to label anyone withanything. And you said, you
(16:07):
used that word about labels.And, you know, there's no
reason why people, anyonecan't do whatever they want to
do, but either society isgoing to pin that label on you
or somebody is going to wantto pin that label. And my
instinct is to reject thatlabel. And I always like to,
you know, when you talk aboutpeople, I always say like
we're varying degrees ofability because we all have
(16:28):
varying degrees of ability andthat's that's precisely it.
And and I know from experiencein the workplace, for example,
some disabilities are hiddenand you just you don't know
what someone is going through,but you also don't know the
simple adjustments and a goodconversation can make to that
person's world. And it's thesame with entrepreneurship and
(16:50):
the same, you know, in thatsort of different world. But
having a good conversation,just getting a little bit more
information and being able totalk to someone like you that
you can signpost and say, oh,did you know? Did you know?
But the damage that a lack ofaccess to information can do
is can be catastrophic. So mymy ethos is just make sure
(17:12):
that you, you know, you cantalk to people, you can access
information, but that you canapproach someone that will
help you with thatconversation and I love your
the sound of your summit isjust incredible and you know
with a few adjustments a kindconversation you can change
the world for so many peopleand you know there might be
someone with a lacking alittle bit of confidence but
(17:33):
thinking ah well I can do thatand that just builds that
confidence a little bit moreso you just you just never
know who's watching you fromthe sidelines thinking Wow,
that's amazing. So Iabsolutely love that. And I
probably don't need to askthis next question. And it's
about your biggest challenge.So you've probably just
covered it, face building yourbrand and how you overcome it.
(17:53):
But I think you've justcovered that so beautifully.
But I'll go on to the nextone. If you could give
yourself a piece of advicethen going back to to that
employer, that is horrendous.And I won't sort of open that
kind of worms. But if youcould give yourself one piece
of advice at a point in time,what would it be? to, and the
(18:14):
irony of this advice is notlost on me. When I was
younger, I lost the ability towalk. I was an accident, so I
was wheelchair. I wasparalyzed for a couple of
years. So the irony of this isnot lost because I like my
legs. I like moving my legsvery, very quickly now. But
walk before you run. You know,I built my business very, very
quickly. It literallysnowballed and I am so
(18:35):
grateful for it. But what itended up was it ended up being
out of control. And I actuallyhad to break down parts of my
business, which washeartbreaking, but it wasn't
stable. I hadn't built thefoundations. So that would be
my advice is to make sure thatyou walk, don't run. you know
it's not a it's not a race andmake sure you've got those
(18:55):
those sort of foundations inthere and that's in life in
work in you know in whateveraspect it is if you have the
sort of foundations then youcan't build and you're always
going to be little bit wibblywobbly and no one wants that
and it's so true because Iknow people and I know for
myself as well when you seepeople and they're like, oh,
this is not quick enough andI'm not getting anywhere. I
(19:17):
know myself, if I go back tomy journey and I think, well,
if what I wanted had happenedat that point, I wasn't
equipped for it. I didn't havethe systems in place. I didn't
have the time that I needed. Ididn't have the my own
framework ready, you know, butthe minute that you start
getting bombarded with clientsand they want stuff, it
doesn't work. other peoplethat are hugely successful
(19:40):
that it kind of sent them offin a different direction while
they were wonderful at whatthey did everybody just went
oh I want you I want you andthey just couldn't cope but
you're right I think you needto be clear on what it is that
you want to do have thefoundations in place and all
the structure behind thatespecially if you're a parent
and you have other you knowdemands on your family how are
you going to fit all that indo you have the right support
(20:02):
you know you can always earnmore money but you can never
get more time and it's it'sthose things and you can find
yourself in the early daysliterally working 24 7 I think
more than that. Yeah, livingwith health concerns, you have
to stop and look afteryourself and you have to take
those breaks and you have torest. And again, I think
(20:24):
that's another thing thatpeople don't do. They don't do
the self-care properly. Theydon't stop and take a break.
And that is such good advice,sort of walk before you run.
You do see people eager to tryand kick off, but I kind of
think that. things happen fora reason and things just just
flow in the way that thatthey're supposed to know but I
(20:44):
quite like that so howcomfortable are you with your
audience are you happyspeaking in public or social
media or do you handle it in adifferent way so I think I am
until I actually go to do itso my summit is a brilliant
example of this where we hadyou know over 100 attendees we
had 30 speakers over 30speakers and it was beautiful
(21:05):
I loved it and then The lastsession was me and it got to
the session of the last and Iwent, oh no, I've got to speak
now. And then all of a suddenthese butterflies and these
just, this anxiety and thisimposter syndrome was just
like, ah, yeah, I'll say,yeah, I don't mind speaking in
(21:25):
front of people. I can dothis. I can do that. And then
I go to do it. And I go, oh,my days. This is absolutely
terrifying. Oh, this is, oh,your first thing. Oh, wow.
That's so interesting. Andit's, you know, because
different scenarios affectdifferent people in different
(21:45):
ways. Some people like a stagewith a live audience because
you can get that reaction andthen, you know, nod in the
head and clapping and stuff.Some people are happy in this
environment where we'retalking and this will be
released sort of later on andthat's fine. And I actually
prefer a live social media. SoI'm really happy going live on
Instagram or Facebook orpodcast or anything like that.
(22:07):
What I don't like is recordingmyself to put it on later
because I'll do it. And Idon't like that and then I'll
re-record it. Oh, I don't likethat either. And then I'll
re-record it. And that's like,that's the kind of thing I
teach people. So, so I'm justlike, you know what, just go
live and do it because youcan't do it over. And you
know, how bad is it going tobe? But, you know, for your
(22:29):
summit, I think possibly, youknow, think about probably a
lot of people were really,really interested in what you
had to say. Yeah. Oh, you'veheard a thing. Well, I can
prep you for your next one. Ifyou do another one, because
all those people that turnedoff to see it can be quite
(22:50):
overwhelming. But oh, wow, butyou know what? The
butterflies, they can all bedealt with. But it's just, it
just really interests me thatdifferent scenarios affect
different people in differentways. And I know a lot of very
successful experiencedBusiness people would not go
live ever. They would justnever do anything live.
Whereas I find that the mostcomfortable, which is just
(23:13):
very, very strange. Butanyway, no, that's all right.
So what about you on socialmedia? Do you do lives on
social media yourself or doyou rather just sort of post
or hardly handle your socialmedia? So I don't handle my
social media. I have my teamthat handle my social media
for me. It is my thing thatdrives me completely bonkers.
It is my, we all have that onething that we really don't
(23:34):
like. And social media is thatfor me. I love scrolling. I
love commenting and engagingwith people. The actual social
media is just my... Can't goas far as nemesis, but I don't
like it. Necessary, well,really, isn't it? Yeah,
exactly, exactly, yeah. So interms of lives, I don't mind
going live. My issue is Iforget to go live. And then
when I do, it's a really quickrush job of, I haven't gone
(23:58):
live for a while, I betterquickly do it. And then it's
not necessarily as valuable oras... structured, shall we
say, is it like, you know, Ilive in Wales, so half the
time, you know, I have a sheepwalking past the back of my
head or something for all, youknow, for a while. That's so
cute. I just, I just thinkit's so cute. If someone goes
live and there's somethinggoing on around them, I am so
curious about their lives andwhat they're doing, you know,
(24:19):
and if someone says, oh, I'mjust about to make the tea and
I'm doing this, I'm justleaning in going, wow, you
know, it's just people'sordinary. everyday lives are
strangely captivating. You'dlove the one of me chasing
Lana around the garden thentrying to get rid of the way.
I absolutely love that. Andthat's, you know, that's what
(24:40):
makes us unique andindividual. And because you
have this business persona andpeople expect you to behave in
this certain way. But you'reobviously not like that all
the time. And for me, I kindof like sometimes I'm
thinking, what can do behindthe scenes? Nobody really
cares about my espressomartini on a Friday night or
my big giant glass. So I'vegot this big giant glass that
(25:02):
I make gin and tonic in. Andit can hold like triple
measures, maybe more. And Ijust keep pouring it in until
it's full. But it's like a bigfish bowl. It's like one of
those big glasses that likeyou could pour a whole bottle
of wine into sort of thing. SoI'm just like having this big
giant gin and tonic and thenI'm just like yeah maybe
(25:24):
people will be interested tosee the giant gin. But those
are the little quirks thatmake us stand out from you
know AI generated content andand it's a funny thing and if
someone sort of likes youknow, particular brand of
chocolate, whatever, when yousee that, you you sort of
associate yourself with thatperson. So honestly, sheep in
(25:45):
fields and wheels, I am there.Although where I live is quite
rural, but not not quite thatrural. But definitely it just
sounds absolutely idyllic. Sowhat's next for you and your
brand? Have you got any plansfor the future? So the next
plan is we're actually doing acouple of launches. So we've
(26:06):
literally just done a softlaunch for our CIC. So that's
going to grow. So we've got alot of corporate well-being
things coming in, which islush, but like some well-being
days, some virtual weight losssessions, which is actually
just, you come in, again,it's, I know my mom would
always go to Slimming World,for example, there's not an
(26:26):
endorsement anyway, she'llperform, I know very little.
It's okay, but that's whereshe would go. There's a lot of
people that physicallywouldn't be able to do that.
So again, through the CIC, wecan offer that support because
I know I've done, I've done itwhere I've signed up to like,
and wait, I can't even thinkof it, online thing on my
bobs. And I'll weigh myself athome and I'll type it in and
(26:48):
that's it done. But I also, ifI got no one to talk to, I'm
gonna be the first one to getin the bar, I chop it out of
the fridge or something alongthose lines. So we're offering
that. We have, I got amasterclass this month, which
I'm really excited about, butwe're launching an agency
program. So I'm going, I amgoing to teach people how to
grow an agency model in theirbusiness. And that's what I've
(27:08):
done really successfully withthe VA business and I've done
successfully with otherclients as well. So I've
literally, I mean, with my VAcompany, I've quintupled my
taxable income a year, whichis insane just by following
this agency model. So we'relaunching that. So yeah, we've
got a couple of excitingthings coming up. And then
obviously the summit again inOctober. That is incredible.
That's incredible. If you werea powerhouse, unstoppable,
(27:34):
powerhouse. I'm 5.1 andstepping. Oh, that is amazing.
And do you know what isamazing as well? I think the
children of entrepreneurs arereally blessed because they
get to see how you can earnmoney in a different way.
Because a lot of childrenthink that you have to... And
there's nothing wrong with,you know, going to school and
(27:55):
going to college anduniversity and doing a nine to
five, nothing wrong with thatat all. But I love the fact
that they can see there's alsoanother way and there's lots
of other ways. But I thinkchildren of entrepreneurs get
this, you know, to pay behindthat curtain and that there's
other ways that they can doit. And I think, oh, wow, that
is just, oh, that'sincredible. Go you. I will be
watching you very closely. Sowith that in mind, then what
(28:17):
legacy would you like to leavebehind? I think my legacy
would be that, well, that's acouple, I guess, but I guess
it's one of those where don'tsell yourself short, never
write yourself off. You canalways achieve whatever you
want to achieve. You just mayhave to go a little bit of a
wonky road to get there, butnever let anything stop you
(28:37):
because anything is achievableas long as you decide it's
achievable. And you'vecertainly not let anything
stop you whatsoever. I justthink you're just, you are,
you're just like straightline, just power on through
regardless of what'shappening. Oh, that is such,
such good advice. Just neverlet anything stop you. So
where can we find out moreabout you online? If you've
(28:57):
got a website and you're so,and I'll put this on the show
notes, by the way, yourwebsite and your social. So,
yeah, so we have a website atthe moment. It's
www.lnlvaservices.co.uk.Shortly, it will just
because... Did that even comeout right? We're going to be
incorporating the coaching theVA. So we're going to be LNL
Services. So it will go towww.nlservices.co.uk. So you
(29:21):
may have to take up the VApart. You can find me and Zoe
Plumley on LinkedIn. You canfind me as NNL VA services and
also NNL coaching services,both on Facebook and
Instagram. And then I alsohave a business group, support
group, which is my freecommunity, which is NNL
business inclusion, which youcan also find on Facebook.
(29:44):
Sounds wonderful. Well, I willput those on the show notes
and people can click the linkand follow all the wonderful
things that you're doing. Andso thank you so much for
joining me. It's been a realpleasure talking to you and I
just can't believe your yourenthusiasm, your resilience,
your you're you're just youget up and go and you just I
don't think anything wouldstop you really and it would
(30:05):
surprise me if in five yearstime we see you on the cover
of Time magazine or something.That would be incredible. But
yeah, I think myfour-year-old, I have us four
in the morning, is currentlywhat's stopping me when she
comes in. Oh, the juries aresprung and I'm like, no,
where's the coffee pot? Thosedays, as exhausting as they
are, genuinely, they don'tlast forever and they do go by
(30:28):
in the blink of an eye, trustme, but it is exhausting when
you're in the middle of it.But thank you so much for
joining me, Zoe. It's been anabsolute pleasure. Thank you
for having me. Thank you somuch for spending time with me
today. If you have enjoyedthis episode, please leave a
review and share it with abusiness bestie who might also
find it useful. You have beenlistening to the Grow Your
(30:49):
Brand with Amanda podcast. Ifyou want to know more about
how I can help you grow yourbrand, then visit my website,
AmandaGian.co.uk or come andsay hi on Instagram at Coach
AmandaGian. Bye for now.
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