Episode 34: Journey to Business Award Strategist

Date broadcast: Tuesday 3rd June 2025

It’s not often I speak to someone with such an unusual business. There’s plenty of business awards out there but not many people who can help you with the process and actually winning. Emma, mother of two children, aged 7 and 9, shares how she chose the world of self employment to give her flexibility around raising them. It has taken her a few years to create this business which she launched last year. The book she recommended was “Maybe I don’t belong here” by David Harewood. And her advice? If an opportunity comes your aware assess it first but, if the only thing that stands in your way is fear, go for it, because these are usually the best!

Emma Hewitt is a Business Awards Adviser, working with small business owners to build award strategies to boost visibility, credibility and opportunities. She helps clients to reflect and recognise their achievements, find awards that meet their business goals and write award-winning entries. Emma has been self-employed for 9 years, as a franchisee, then supporting small businesses on a freelance basis (including running an annual business award for 5 years). Combined with a background in higher education, she has almost 20 years experience of managing, assessing and advising on university scholarships and business awards.

To find out more about Emma’s work here:

https://welcome.emmahewitt.co.uk/home

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Episode 33: Journey from Therapy to Therapist and Queen of Happiness

Date broadcast: 20th May 2025

In this episode we hear how Jo experienced therapy following the death of her biological father. It had such a profound impact on her life she trained in therapy herself and then found the Happiness Club to help as many people as possible grow in mental and emotional resilience. This is a business that she has franchised. We discuss our experience of self employment and growing businesses and also the importance of experiencing contrasting emotions ie you can’t experience joy without pain, love without hate. Listen out for her analogy of the buffet table. And the book recommendation this episode was “Living Untethered” by Michael A Singer

Jo’s bio:

Jo Robinson-Howarth is an advanced hypnotherapist and mindfulness practitioner who runs The Happiness Club, an app based support service for mental and emotional wellbeing. She is mum to two beautiful teenage daughters, one gorgeous cat and one very naughty dog. She lives in Merseyside but hails from Somerset originally.

To find out more about Jo’s work here:

www.thehappinessclub.co.uk

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Date broadcast: 06/05/2025

Episode 32: Journey from Music to Writing

In this episode we hear how German born Susanne developed her love of reading and story telling as a child and is now a full time writer. She is also a musician and wanted to be an opera singer but that was not to be. She married an American serviceman and now lives in Washington State in the North West of the US, writing, she’s a foodie and loves to explore the local countryside

Susanne Bacon is a bi-lingual, German-American author, journalist, and columnist with plenty of experience as an event creator, organizer, and manager as well as a business consultant, translator, and public speaker, singer, museum docent, sales associate, and craft instructor. All of these colorful chapters in her life and a very positive, hope-inspired attitude influence her topics and her style of writing.

Susanne Bacon was born in Stuttgart, Germany, She learned her ropes as a writer, first as a freelance journalist with a daily paper in her hometown, then with a trade magazine for which she would end up as the editor-in-chief for over a decade. During this time, she published two books of poetry and short stories in her German mother tongue.

Susanne emigrated to the U.S. in 2010, where she has been living with her husband in the South Puget Sound region in Washington State ever since.

In 2015, Susanne Bacon edited and translated her first, originally German novel, “Islands in the Storm”, a historical novel about the German occupation of the British Channel Islands in WW II. Immediately after its publication, she wrote and published her first American novel, “Delicate Dreams”, which would become the first in a series that she hadn’t even planned on. Her Suburban Times column “Home from Home”, comparing her former German life to her American experiences, turned into another book with the same title. In 2021, Susanne created an off-spin from her Wycliff series, a romantic mystery based on the character of a military spouse, while also writing some dystopian and alternate historical short stories. All in all, since 2015, Susanne Bacon has published 15 novels – the 16th is in the workings –, one book of short fiction, and two books of non-fiction; they can be found on Amazon in English and in German.

To connect with Susanne and buy her books:

https://susannebaconauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/susannebaconauthor

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Date broadcast: 22.04.2025

Episode 31: Journey from Midwifery to Relationship Coaching

In this episode we hear how Naomi moved from her career in midwifery to becoming a relationship coach, in part because of her own relationship breakdown and her love of helping others. We talk quite a lot about our relationships with ourselves and how we have the power and choice to change that which I turn can enhance our relationships. She is now in business with her life partner, Martin and we hear how their business has evolved

Naomi is a relationship coach who helps individuals and couples navigate the complexities of love and connection. With years of experience, Naomi, alongside her partner Martin, guides clients towards deeper self understanding, improved connection, and healthier relationships. Whether you're seeking to heal from past hurts, build stronger bonds with your partner, or simply cultivate more fulfilling connections in your life, Naomi offers compassionate support and practical tools to help you achieve your relationship goals.

To connect with Naomi:

www.just1to11itcoaching.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/share/18Q9KfDAjG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

I’m always amazed how things happen in people’s lives and lead to incredible transformations. In this episode bereavement, grief & loss specialist and author, Sharon Rosenbloom, powerfully describes how her emotions after the tragic death of her husband, Simon, aged 41. She describes how it has helped her find her true purpose in life to help others navigate their own bereavement journeys. She also describes how she healed herself from a chocolate addiction and, through that learning helps others recover too. Finally she is a very proud author of “Widowed with Kids”

Sharon sadly lost her husband 22 years ago now when she was 39 and Simon was 41.Theyhad 2 young children of 5 and 7. Their 5 year old, now 28, has complex special needs. He has autism, dyspraxia, ADHD, learning difficulties , speech impairments and has a developmental age of about 6 or 7. Life was obviously challenging for Sharon with Oliver before Simon died When she saw Sophie, her daughter, climb into bed with Simon after he died, she just broke down and thought why me. However she can now see that losing Simon has been a gift so she can support others who are grieving. She is a psychotherapeutic counsellor specialising in bereavement grief and loss, a hypnotherapist, a life coach, a naturopath and author of “Widowed with Kids”. She was also a chocoholic and feed every emotion she felt with chocolate. Her naive brain thought addictions were drugs and alcohol but she discovered that sugar is a bigger addiction. You can live without drugs and alcohol but you can't live without food. When we went into the pandemic Sharon said she would rather die than give up chocolate. Everyone was queuing at the supermarket for toilet paper and pasta. she queued for over 2 hours one day for chocolate

She describes both of these experiences in much more detail in the podcast .

Website: www.sharonrosenbloom.com

If you are suffering from fear and we can have a free discovery call to see how I can support you https://www.amazon.co.uk/Widowed-Kids-until-rediscover-yourself/dp/1913501108

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Episode 29: Journey to the Unlikely Guru

Date broadcast: 25th March 2025

This is my story from leaving the NHS through burnout and my journey through self employment, saying yes to opportunities and not letting age being an obstacle.

Ann Girling, also known as the Unlikely Guru, is on a mission to empower women with the knowledge they need and inspire them to action so that they can become healthier and more happier versions of themselves. She does this through her Arbonne business, recommending products and a business opportunity that have been key to her own personal transformation from 50 year old burnt out health visitor to 75 year old business woman loving life

She worked in the NHS for 30 years and left feeling totally disillusioned and burnt out. Since then her work has been varied and she did train as a coach with the Coaches Training Institute and set up a business On The Threshold working with women who were looking for change after experiencing a significant life event. At that time she also wrote her first book “Journey to Chocolate” in which she shares her life experiences and the research around them with coaching exercises for the reader.

She started her Arbonne business in 2011 after the birth of her grandson, Jacob, to create the income to be able to visit her family in the States. And this year she is launching her own podcast Tales of Transformation and is starting work on her second book. In addition she is growing her Facebook group The Unlikely Guru where she is growing a community of women who want to live better for longer and her goal this year is to grow it to 2000 members

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Episode 28: Journey to becoming a Life & Therapuetic Coach

Date broadcast: 11th March 2025

In this episode we hear about Naomi’s decision to leave her corporate role in Human Resources because of ill health. She suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and it was through her diagnosis and recovery that led her to want to help her clients on their wellness journey. She also talks about how she uses enneagram, a personality profiling tool in her work and how that has helped her personally. All I can say is listen to what she has to say, what she’s learnt and her tips for all of us who might want change in their lives

Naomi Dake is a Wellbeing, Leadership and Organisation Development Specialist and enjoys partnering with teams and organisations in improving their overall culture and leadership capability and effectiveness.

Naomi is also a qualified and experienced Life and Therapeutic Coach who supports people to develop or change areas of their life and/or wellbeing. She does this through creating a warm, friendly, safe and accepting space, to enable individual clients to explore and enact sustainable shifts, which lead to a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life for them.

In support of both her leadership and coaching practice, Naomi works as an accredited Enneagram (personality profiling) and Strengthscope (strengths profiling) practitioner, which she uses when appropriate with people and teams, as insightful tools to facilitate greater self-discovery and growth, through a positive, strengths-based approach to development.

Naomi’s professional career began in HR around 25 years ago and she has since worked across a breadth of industries and sectors, including two market leading consultancy firms, before moving into running her own business full time.

She lives in Cheshire with her husband and much-loved ginger cat, enjoying the balance of rural village life!

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1. To connect with Naomi:
2. Website: https://lifeunlymmited.co.uk/
3. Linked in: www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-dake-3a0ba549

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.

Episode 27: Journey to becoming the TropicPianistGamer

Date broadcast: 25th February 2025

In this episode we hear how Jen overcame a lifetime of crippling anxiety to be able to play her piano in public. She documents her journey in her best selling book “Tales of an Anxiety Warrior. She also describes how her love of gaming led to bullying at work and how she decided enough was enough and so her three businesses were brought together in her TropicPianistGamer brand. It was a fascinating call

Jen is known as the Tropic Pianist Gamer, a multi-passionate creative, best selling author and podcaster. She lives on Anglesey with her husband and her Neurodiverse 7 year old. She’d been suffering with anxiety since the age of 13, but was only diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder at 27. After discovering there was a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of lockdown, she was able to grow, becoming a best selling author and established podcaster, but most notably, an alternative piano tutor that makes a difference. Her mission is to make music accessible to all!

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To connect with Jen:

• Website: https://tropicpianistgamer.co.uk
• Book: https://amzn.to/3PH7RAM
• Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NlQqp8e9sKZLQfbkYFwiN

To connect with me and join my group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikelyguru/?ref=share

https://linktr.ee/AnnGirling

Thank you for listening to Tales of Transformation! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends.