Business for Entrepreneurs with Louise McMilan

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Hello, and welcome back to another fantastic episode of
Business for Entrepreneurs. It's the first episode back in our season,
our second season of the show. We decided to have
a little bit of a breakover the Christmas period and
we thought we would kick it off today with an
absolute phenomenal guest and that is, of course, the lovely,

(00:22):
the motivational Louise McMullan. Louise, welcome to the show. It's
it is Jenny. I'm very excited about having you here.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, thank you, Jamie, and thank you both for inviting
me and that lovely introduction. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
It was one of my short ones. Actually I usually have.
I usually I usually length it.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
But the problem by lengthening your introduction is it actually
takes away from who you are because the type verson
that you are. So I want to one of the
first questions we always ask right within business entrepreneurs is
how did you start in business?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Or what is the beginning of your business journey? But
I'm not going to ask you that same question.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
I am in a long drawn but I want you
to tell us a little bit about your backstory because
that is in itself the foundation of your business.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
It is so aspeit my backstories is my background is HR,
and I had that career for over twenty years. But
I always my mental health always impacted on me, so
whether that was my career, whether that was in relationships,
and just how I thought about myself. So it's always
been there about me not believing in myself. And I

(01:34):
used to think I was wired wrong. I thought it
was only me that kind of thought this way and
would think that I was no good, that I was
faking things, over analyzing thinking what people would say, and
so anxieties would rise and I would spiral in and
out of depression, and you know, it would happen quite
a few times. And obviously being in HR sometimes the

(01:56):
work was hackle a bit. When you do another employer
relations types of things in work, it's quite hard going,
you know, and it's everything you as people, Centril, because
I knew I wanted to work with people when I
was younger, I wanted to be in the police force,
So I always knew that there was a bit about
people that I wanted to work with. Doing that kind
of tougher side of things of employer relations is it's

(02:17):
quite hard. I remember one job I had many years ago,
I was waking up and I was going to go,
am I doing a disciplinegy today? Am I doing a grievance?
Am I doing a poor performance? Am I doing a sickness?
It was all negative and I needed to get the
balance right. And so I did specialize in recruitment because
I enjoyed that, and you kind of met quite a
few people. But there were times when I used to

(02:38):
look at things and go, I, this can't be this simple.
I'm missing something. This is just this just can't be
this simple to do this. So I'd never believed in
my my ability, which also used to help just used
to help go in spiraling down in into depression. And
I had a really bad case of depression back in
twenty sixteen. And prior to this, I had thought about

(03:01):
coming out of HR and I did a coaching diploma,
and of course they talked to you about setting up
your own business, and I thought, I'm never gonna be
able to achieve that. Again, negative put myself down. So
in twenty sixteen, when I was really bad with the depression,
I had a conversation with my moment of Christmas and
I needed to change something. I didn't know what and
I didn't know how, but I had to change something.

(03:24):
And this was the first time I kind of said
to her, I think I might have to come out
of HR because I always didn't want to because I
professionally qualified. I'd worked hard to get to the level
that I got, you know, and obviously when I studied
my CIPD, I was working full time as well as studying.
You know, I achieved quite a lot of doing that.

(03:46):
So I kind of had a plan that was trying
to fix myself, just get myself in a better place.
My contract I was doing maternity cover was coming to
an end, so I thought, let's just get another job
doing recruitment, and then when I'm in a better place
as I can be mentally, then let's have a look
at the bigger picture. But life took a different, a
different turn because I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
And that's a pretty fundamental change of your life. I mean,
it's before you kind of go any further with that,
all right, Yeah, we we do ship. I've never had
breast cancer, but we do share the journey of cancer
and chemo and everything else. What was so obviously you
have in these thoughts right in your mind, I think

(04:29):
about changing my life and think I changing my career,
and then all of a sudden, the rug get swept
from underneath you. I'm just going to ask you, what
was your first initial thoughts.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I don't want to die yet. Okay, Yeah, I was like,
I'm not ready to go anywhere yet. That was my
initial thoughts. And then it was like oh beep, and
then it was right, I'm just going to get through this.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's made me really teary. Actually is because it was
for you. And you've always said this, because we've heard
your talk in various sort of other sort of circumstances,
and you've always said that that was the wake up
call when you've got rest from everything else that you
had previously. And I think that's that's such a brave
thing to say it. It's such a brave thing to

(05:19):
kind of statement to sort of you know, you didn't
want to die, you did want to come, You wanted
to come along and do something else, and you you've
actually done that and you've succeeded in that.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
So now you're in a situation where your your breasts
if we've said this before, where your where your breasts
are now trying to kill you. But actually principle, they
are saving your life, right.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Absolutely, I mean, as I totally said always, you just
have a relationship with them, and now they're trying to
kill me. But yeah, they did, they did, they did
save my life. I'm always than one, I would say, so, yeah,
And I think I just kind of, as you know
when you're in that you're in this bubble is kind
of all the appointments had just come and left right
and seventy you know, pre Op lumpet to me, and

(06:05):
then the results coming through, and then had I knew
I had to have chemo before they told me, had
this gut feeling. But yeah, I as you've heard before,
my my my body decided breast cancer wasn't dramatical enough.
And a week later after my first chemo, I had
stomach ache, which I thought was a side effect, and

(06:28):
it carried on and I had one sun day when
I was really really bad, literally lying on my doorstep
waiting for my mum and dad to come around because
I was in such agony. But of course, because I
haven't had children, everybody trying I said, well, you don't know,
you're going through your own pain. Threshold's and nobody close
to me has had chemo before. It was the side effects.
But the week I was due to have my second chemo,

(06:49):
I just couldn't couldn't stand it anymore. I went to
see my GP before I only had to wait on
another we less than forty eight hours to see my consultant,
but I just couldn't wait. And they said to me,
if you come up with me with just this, we
would say it was appendicitis. And the CT scan I
had was all clear, so I knew it was fine,
and they admitted me straight to hospital and when they

(07:09):
did some tests, they told me I was very very poorly.
I had my appendix had burst, but it was now
in an absess and it was all stuck to my
bow and my colon and they were going to do
try and do keyhole. They said, you had to do
emergency surgery. They were going to try and do keyhole.
If not, they were going to have to open me up,
which is never to be what they did. So I
ended up in intensive care forty hours, blood transfusion, my

(07:31):
hair falling out, and I came out of there night
before my forty fifth birthday.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
But I do want to come back.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
You carry on, No, no, no, I do want to
come back to the breasts. One of the things that
I found fascinating is you thought there was something wrong
with your one breast. Actually it was the other that
was quickly. I just think it's really important that people.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Absolutely yeah, absolutely, So thank you ALV for I might
be back to tell about that. So I noticed a
discharge on the pajama tops I walked bed. So it's
a bit like a like a dry wet mark, so
I knew it wasn't possy water. And it happens on
my left breast, and it happened a couple of times,
and I thought that it was a bit strange. So
I went to see my GP. They examined me and said,

(08:28):
don't think there's anything untoward, but we'll ReFood to be
on the safe side. Consultant exam me said, I don't
think there's anything untoward. It might be a block milk duct,
but let's get some tests be on the safe side.
So I had a mammogram and then I had an ultrasound,
and when they were doing the ultra sound, they said, right,
we've got to do a biopsy from your right breast,
and I said, it's my left one I've got the

(08:49):
concern with, and explained so blessed. They did the auction
hand we'll ever again went there's something here on your
right and so did the biopsy. And even when I
left and I walked back from the hospital with my mum,
she she was comes to a companies me and said,
I said she should always a bit strange, but she
said she had to assist many years ago. She said
it might be something like that. So we were absolutely oblivious.

(09:10):
Cancer didn't even come upon our radar until we got
called back in or I got called back in the
following week, and we actually thought on the way in
we were being called back in because we lived locally.
Just get us out of the system, so to speak.
So when they told us, absolutely shocked. Absolutely, yeah, it is.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
It is incredible because most women, I mean, we all
know people who have gone through one cancer or another.
It's just very very sad. But this is why you
openly want to talk about how that journey could be.
But it's often the fact that you don't actually think
is something wrong, but you just go and check, and
it's often under the age of fifty as well. So
if I just want to kind of point out it's

(09:52):
so important if you do think that it's something that
is not quite right, do go and see your GP
and sort of you know, look out for the feelings
that can happen. That's really really important.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Another question that I have then is what was causing
the issue with the other breast. We never found that out.
It was literally just your one move. Hey, this guy
needs to have a look at baby.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's like, well who And it wasn't like it was
once this, This is like three or four times I
noticed it before I picked up the phone. Do you
know what I mean? It's because I've got my pajama
top and I like, I wear it still now and
I'm going, I never can get away and I can

(10:38):
never throw you away.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
No, do you know me?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
It sounds silly, but I put it on my going
I could never part with you. And you know when
you think it's like all old, you can't wear it anymore,
it's like no, I think you're just gonna have to
stay in the in the cancer box. Right.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, So you you're going through chema, which is not
as not a short process you know, it has its
ups and downs, more downs and ups, I'm afraid to say.
And you've you've come out the other end. So how
long did it take you before you went into remission?

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Oh, it was nearly ten months from when.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
I Yeah, it's best saying to me. Actually mine was. Yeah,
mine was about eleven months.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
I haven't ten, yes that I think.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, I'm not sure if that's the standard thing, by
the way, but it just coincidence.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
I think.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah. No, my chemo was delayed, so I should have
had all my chemo radiotherapy before the Christmas but I
didn't because obviously the chemo was delayed. Because so yeah,
there was like ten ten weeks before my first chemo
and my second chemo.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
And when what year was this?

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Twenty seventeen?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I knew that there was a connection because I went
through mine in twenty seventeen, which is ironic.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
We went through the journey together. We didn't even know
each other.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Absolutely, so we've not we you So you've you've gone
through it.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Now you've had the remission.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
I'm assuming have you gone back to work at this point?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
So because I was signed off when I had the appendicitis.
The contract I had got came to an end, which
was fine. I mean, they looked after me so well.
My doctor just signed me off. He said, like he said,
I know you, he said, you'll. I just need you
to get over this and your body repair and everything else.
So I had to find a new job, which I
did and staying recruitment. But I could only go back

(12:20):
part time, so I did Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, so
I had the Wednesday to recover and I was working
quite at a distance, you know, I was an hour
so drive, so literally wednesdays I was kind of catching
up on sleep and I had this this one morning
where I could I could feel the sort of anxieties

(12:43):
beginning to to heighten again in myself. And this one
morning I was when I was doing my hair, I
got some quotes and literally this quote was about that big,
but it was like massive this one morning, which is
if you always do what you've always done, you lways
get what you've always got. Yes, and my wall for years,
but that morning it just was it just it just

(13:04):
seemed like it was huge, and it was like, yeah,
I got to change this is I've got to change this.
So I thought, right, I'm going to become I'm going
to do I'm going to be the coach. I'm going
to help people get you know, with their mental health,
support them that kind of thing. And that's so I
started working on that. Then.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
So let's talk a little bit about motivational speaking, right,
because it's something else, is another commonality that we share, right,
And I kind of want to I don't want to
constrct too much of it, but I do want to
contract on it because it is one of the hardest
industries to get into as a self employed business.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
And I say this to everybody, right, if you'll never
become rich being a motivational speaker. You don't do it
for the money. You do it for the pleasure and
the and the reward of actually doing it. I know
that sounds like a cliche, but it's right. And also,
before you get any paid work in motivation speaking, you've
got to do a track of volunteer work. So is

(14:05):
this something that you did. Did you start doing voluntary work?
And why that sort of thing? Is that the type
of thing that you started get yourself going.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yes, I did, Yeah, I think I wasn't my intention,
So you know, both know that the lovely Nick Holston.
So he was doing a speaking academy and I was
introduced to him when I was a plan was to
do coaching, but find a part time HR job and
the recruitment agent I spoke to new Nick and done

(14:33):
to work with him. So introduce me to Nick and
he said, oh, and he was doing this new event
and he was also doing an in person his first
in person kind of event at the Bristol rovers Ground.
So when I watched him and thought, God, this guy
is really good. I want to work with him. Funny enough,
that's where I met Julie Hartel for the first time.

(14:55):
It's a small world and this is how everything all
kind of explodes from from there and I went on
his course, which was which was brilliant. I think I
was the first one to cry, we actually tell your story,
and Julie and a couple other said, you've got to
get this story out there. You've got to tell people.
And I had a chat with Nick and said about
mentoring with him, and I was like, you know, and

(15:18):
I know where you won't mind me saying this. I said,
don't give me the sales pitch. Tell me honestly your thoughts,
and he went, Lou, you can do something most people can't.
Everyone can do. You can make people feel, he said,
and you can't learn that. So what he was saying
is when I met right tell my story. People do
feel what I'm when I'm talking about it, you know.

(15:38):
So so I worked with with Nick and then started
getting a few introductions by Nick. Went to all the
rotary clubs and locally the the w I's you know,
other groups. A couple of doors down from me, she
does a group. I'm trying to think, what's what her
group's going. I went to some of hers and just
kind of built it up from built it up from there.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
So, yeah, I want to because there's going to be
people out there who've got a story to tell and
maybe been thinking about doing motivation or speaking either sort
of to contribute to coaching or something like you do.
What would your sort of top tipy for somebody who's
thinking about getting into that line of work.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Oh, that's a good question, I would I would say
it's finding the right mental one and seeing who's out
there to support you, because that is really key, because
that really helped me. I think I got the lot
quicker in understanding what my story was and having my
keynote talk ready to present because I had had nick.
I think his joking thing was I all do my homework,

(16:38):
which was really good because that you used to set me.
And I think it's just being consistent of just you've
got to go out there, as I say, get the
shoe leathers. You go out and do all the groups,
because you'll never you learn by doing, and you'll come
away and you go that didn't quite hit, but then
another time you could use it and it will hit,
you know. And I mean sometimes when you do your
tongue in cheek kind of kind of things, and sometimes

(16:58):
you come away and there's no question, like I did
one last Thursday. I think I had one question, but
when it finished, I didn't stop chatting because people were
coming over to me separately. And I think for me,
that's the thing is is you can never tell. But
it's just you're at peace to some people and you
won't to others, and you've got to be thick kind
of skinned to go that's okay because at some point
they'll take something away.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
And it's always something small as well. There's a story,
if you don't mind me sharing I've done a talk
at the Welsh said it then it was a voluntary talk,
another voluntary talk, and there was there was a young
lad there who had severe ADHD and I never heard.
I didn't know this at the time, but I have

(17:40):
the motto hashtag get back up, and I always say
when you four get back up, when you're having a
bad day, I get back up and I and I
share the story about Maddie Puddle days, et cetera. And
it turned out that actually that one saying that get
back up is what changed this young lad's outlook on life.
And when he was having a moment, his mum would say,

(18:03):
you know, what do you need to do and he goes,
I need to get back up, mummy, I need to
get back up. And I've got admit when I found
that out, like you could have paid me a million
pounds for that gig. That is what made that gig
worth its weight in gold. And it's what it was
really the I don't know, it was a bit of
a cat list in my career. It really was a
turning point. So it is You're right, it's about the

(18:27):
small little wins, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Absolutely absolutely, And I mean I did done in Somerset, WR.
You obviously this is all for lockdown. You have to
go down and you have to do a bit of
your talk and then they decide whether you're on their
speaker's list.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love that. So going around and there's a whole great,
big room of like I don't know, fifty odd women
in the in the room and I finished doing my talk.
The overhead projector wouldn't work, so they couldn't see my slides.
So I was, you know, and it's like, oh my gosh,
so I could see my sides because I remember because
i'd have to see the pit and it minds what
I'm saying at which point, even though you know i'd
live ater on. But and the very end of President

(19:05):
said can I have a word with you? When you finished,
I'm like yes, thinking, oh my god, what did I say?
Because you know you knew me. I'm not I'm not
a swearer, But did I actually accutely swear? And we
came out and she said I waited for tests and
she said for breast cancer, And she said, You've just
changed my whole viewpoint. And I'm like, you knew what
I was going to talk about and you were still

(19:26):
there and she was like yeah, she said, she said,
and now I'm looking at this totally different, and I
was just so well. I said to her, you know,
give him my number and said, if you need to
chat or give you know, let me know. But it's
those kind of things, you know, and it's it's it's
just a little taking things away. And I've had other
women come to me and go I've gone and had
some tests and even when I was in hospital having

(19:47):
recovering from appendicitis, one of the nurses kept putting off
a mammogram and I kept saying to it, please don't.
And then she came in, look a couple weeks later
said I booked it. And it's like, you know, she
just people get scared, and you just think you just
make a little bit difference.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
So yeah, that's just giving me goose bumps because it
is it is important. This is why we love doing
these shows to hear it, but real life stories, to
have you know, happened, and you come out the other
end and it's become something positive in what you're doing now.
So I want to come over a little bit more
to the business side of things because this is you know,
you've done, You've gone there, You've done what you needed

(20:21):
to do with Nick Elston, You've got the mentoring going.
What other sort of positive and sort of challenges did
you find along the way of setting up your own
business For anyone listening out.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
There, I sometimes it's just doing it on your own
because you are I still double check is is this right?
Does this look right? And of course it's remember there's
no right or wrong. It's just going what you feel.
But you are everything in your business. You know, you
are the accountant, you are the it, you are the marketing,
you are the and sometimes it feels like I'm not
actually doing what it is I want to do because

(20:53):
I'm doing everything everything else. And it's knowing who you've
got is your group to kind of have a bit
of a so just sort of sort of a safe
place just to go ah and then get back on
again if that makes sense. And it's choosing the right
coach for you and the right mental for you as well,
because it helps if they've got someone I can think

(21:15):
this knows a little bit more about your journey or
about the the industry that you're in, like coaching, and
that kind of thing rather than having sort that's totally different.
So it's getting that support you do need. Yeah, do
you need the right support to help you through just
through to build your business.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
A really really good tip there, right, what you just
said is find someone. If you're going to find someone
that mentors, find someone that mentors at the same level
as you do. Like, there is absolutely no point finding
a mentor that is on a different page to you,
because you're not going to achieve anything. Who's the big
American Tony Robinson.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, Like even if he walk in this house right
now and said, Jamie, I will mental you, I would
turned him down because he's on a different planet to me,
and I would I wouldn't want to be that type
of speaker.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
That is not what I'm about. And I think you're
the same. So you really do need to find someone
that is on your wavelengths, singing off the same sheet.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
I think something else as well that I want that
I want to ask you about is when I started
speaking and became a speaker, I was actually very clear,
not so much about what I wanted to talk about,
but I was very clear about what I didn't want
to talk about, because there was less that I didn't
want to talk about than there was what I was happy. Right,

(22:43):
have you done the same sort of thing as a
speaker of you said, right, I'm not talking about that.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I don't let it be known that I'm not going
to talk about there. There are, but there are things
I I just won't talk about, so I'll kind of
edge it off a different way, or there might be
a little snippets. But there's certain things that I don't
because sometimes I just don't want to. I don't want
to go there. In a public.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
That's quite important, but in business as well. Listen because
when you you know, when your own your business, you're
all out there, we're all going to be visible, we
all talk to and you know, networking and that sort
of thing. I think it's quite important as a business
owner to know what you want to talk about and
things that you don't want to talk about.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Would you agree, absolutely? I think you've got to. You're
going to be comfortable well what you're with what you're saying,
and I think worse than going, oh, wish I han't
said that. Now, I know I've suppose over time, I've
learned who I can trust in business as well, So
who I will confide in that little bit more that
certain things you know you don't but but you you

(23:47):
get to you get to know who know that. And
it's not to say I don't trust people. It's just
about I don't feel comfortable to share that bit of
my story. Not that they'll go off and talk about it.
It's just the fact that I want to keep that
kind of some things just bit more personal. You know.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
I talk about this on a regular basis, right, Like
you have you surround yourselves with people. I always say
there's two types of people, right, there's who there's drain
pipes and there's radiators. The drain pipes will suck the
living soul out of you, and the radiators will make
you feel warm and safe.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
And you know this because me and you have spoken
about it.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I say about nourish and deplete. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
But there are people in your circle that have different
roles within your circle, right, There are people that you
go to when you want to have a good cry.
There are people that you go to who you want
them to kick you up the backside. There are people
that you go to that you want to ask professional advice.
With is that level. It's not about trust, it's who
you trust with the information you give at that particular time.

(24:43):
There are people that I would trust with my life,
but I wouldn't trust.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Them with my car keys, right, And it's important to.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Understand might be one of them who I do want
to play figures, But you know, it's it's important that
you understand that it's okay to not want to go
down that road with someone because they.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
May not have that may not be their role in
your life.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Absolutely, Yeah, you're right, And I think sometimes years ago
you kind of you know, when you're younger, in your twenties,
everybody's your friends. You share everything with all your friends.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, and then as you.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Get older you realize a little bit more about the
part that they play. And I never say that. People say, oh,
you're no longer friends them. Well, yeah, I'm still friends them.
We're just on a different chapter of the book or
just been volume with the book. But that doesn't mean
that in years to come that we'll be back on
the same page or the same chapter. It's just at
the moment, it's then you know, our lives are not aligned.
But that doesn't mean that I may not reach out

(25:36):
to them, so you know, I mean, I know when
I was probably I had people send me messages and
cards and I hadn't seen them for five or six
years even longer. So when I worked with it over
ten years ago, had sent me a card because she'd heard,
you know, that I'd had was going for this. And
I think that's the thing, is that you might not
see people, but they come back to you in a
certain way, and you know you have you know, you

(25:58):
chat them at at well, and then you kind of
drift off the gain. But that's and that's fine. And
it's the same in business. You know your pocket them
and I know who I can turn to for different things,
and I know who I know I wouldn't probably go to,
not because I rob a person, but because I.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Probably wanted to get It's quite important, isn't it. Because
we've met through networking and we become friends. And we've
been talking a lot about networking in this episode, and
it's it's something that I learned kind of the hard way,
because you rely very heavily sometimes when you're in business.
And when I was first in business, I was talking
a lot to friends and families and they did not

(26:32):
understand why I wanted to have my own restaurant and
they just had no idea and they thought I was
completely crazy. And it's something I think you've learned along
the way and that you know, you've got to surround
yourself that will understand you and support you, and that
might not always be the closest people to you because
they worried about you. And that's yeah, it's quite quite

(26:56):
a sort of strange thing, I think. So, so how
can we pick up and get people that are like
minded into a sort of business world.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I think it's just by just telling our story a
little bit more. I think that's how the parts that
we want to share to get people aligned with your
values in your the way you are aligned.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I think you know, I get your values ethos, you
get on the right song sheet with you.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Absolutely, because I've met people over the last couple of years.
You two included lovely Catherine, lovely Chris Briggs, who you
know I would never have met if I had been
doing this. And you know, Catherine and Chris have totally
different This is especially Catherine and we just it just
aligns that you know, we kind of we can chat
about things, you know, and talk and we would never

(27:48):
have met having not been networking, and we there to
support each other, but our backgrounds would never applied it beforehand.
And even just outside of you know, seen abounds and
BfN the people I've met, and I'm just so grateful
I've met them, the opportunities I've now got, and I
have to say, sometimes it's all back down to having cancer,
because if I didn't have cancer and I didn't go

(28:09):
on this journey. But like sliding doors.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Oh, don't tell me about lining doors. I cried on that.
Though it's funny you say about pages in the book
we were talking about. I can't remember we're talking about now.
And Charlotte said, the problem is they're just not on
the same page as us. I said, I think they're
on the right page. I'm just not sure they're in
the right book.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
I think the one thing we often get, which is
why I wanted to mention about networks, because a lot
of people when they start out in business, are too
scared to go to network and they rely on the
family and friends, and then they I often sort of
hear you know, but they don't understand me. You go, no,
you've got to go out there and find life minded
people within the business world as well to be able
to survive and be successful.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
And I think that's been important absolutely, and not every
business person is going to be aligned. You know this,
You know you've got to just go into the different
networking and find you find your group.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Well, Luise, it has been phenomenal having you on the
show and having you all to ourselves is absolutely lovely
of obviously the fifty million people that's watching. So if
we were talking about top tips for business, what would
be your top tip.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Top tip, get the right coach mental Definitely.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
I think, yeah, I think that that is a good one,
and I'm not sure if we've had that tip before.
Actually no, I don't think I didn't have, and it's
a really good one. Yeah, So we've had surround yourself
with the right people, and I think that that is similar.
But yeah, definitely get yourself the right coach.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, and I think it's something that again people often
forget when they first start out, but actually that will
take your business to a whole different level.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
If you wanted to learn a new sport, you wouldn't
just go out and just start playing and kicking a
ball against the wall, you find yourself coach, or you
find yourself team.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Now, business is no different.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Business really is like any other sport or hobby that
you have. It's a very expensive hobby, but it will
be all the same and it is exactly that you
need to.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Learn how to do it.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
You need to do you know, you need to get
there and and and sometimes someone guiding you and helping
you along is the right way to do. Uh, Louise,
thank you so much for coming on. It's been lush lush.
If anyone wants to find you and they're listening to
the show and they're going, I want, I want, I

(30:27):
want to get in touch with this woman and have
her speaking at my gig or I wouldn't mind having
a one to one with her and seeing how she
can help me through some levels of coaching in my
in my own world.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
How do they do that? How will they find you?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
They can find me on my website which is obviouly
w w dot Louisemacmillan dot co dot uk. They can
email me Louise at Louisemacmillan dot co dot uk, or
they can find me on LinkedIn. Just so you know,
I always always have to sube. The spelling of my
surname is think of the football team ac Milan and
Chase the first.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Or if you're like the astute of us, just have
a look roughly here on underneath the little piece and
you'll see your name.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Just spell it out that way. But other than that,
all your details will be in the in the in
the comments, I'm sure Charlotte will be.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Thank you so much for coming along and doing the
show with us, absolutely lovely and that's it. That is
the end of another episode of Business Freentrepreneurs. So if
you are listening, either live or listening on our replay
or listening via podcast, please bear in mind that if
you want to get hold of Luise, you can find
it on the best business directory in the world, which

(31:42):
is of course senor.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Balance and from all of us.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Have a lovely evening and we will see you right
back here very soon for another fantastic episode of Business Freentrepreneurs.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Thank you very much, good night, goodbye,