There's a version of confidence that looks like having it all together from the outside, and then there's what it actually feels like on the inside. If you've ever walked into a room certain that today is the day it all comes unstuck - this one is for you.

Doulla Croft has known Daisy since the day she was born. She built a career spanning decades at some of the world's biggest companies, managed high-performing teams, smashed targets - and spent most of it quietly convinced she was faking it. What makes her story worth hearing isn't the career. It's everything that had to happen before it, and everything she chose to walk away from after.

In this conversation, Doulla talks honestly about growing up feeling different, the cultural expectations placed on her as a young girl, and the moment during her first marriage with two children under five - that she turned her car around and signed up for A-levels at night school. She talks about imposter syndrome that never fully went away, the trap of tying your identity to your work, and why financial independence matters more than any job title. And she talks about what two rounds of cancer quietly clarified: what was actually worth fighting for, and what wasn't.

Doulla is one of those people who has genuinely earned her perspective - and she passes it down here without a single piece of advice that doesn't come from having really lived it.

Every Thursday at 3pm 🌼

In this episode we talk about:

• Imposter syndrome and how to build confidence from evidence rather than feeling
• Growing up under cultural expectations as a first generation British woman
• How to separate your identity from your career
• Finding your purpose after corporate life
• Financial independence for women and why it matters in every relationship
• Overcoming a difficult first marriage and starting over in your twenties
• Discovering you're dyslexic as an adult and what that changes
• Work life balance and the trap of tying your self worth to your job title
• Getting braver with age and giving less of a damn
• What a cancer diagnosis teaches you about what actually matters
• Intergenerational wisdom and passing down what you know

Follow The Daisy Chain:

• Instagram: @thedaisychainpod
• TikTok: @the.daisy.chain.pod
• LinkedIn: The Daisy Chain Podcast

Follow Doulla

• Instagram: @doullacroft
• Linkedin: Doulla Croft
• Side Hustle Productions

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Links & Mentions:

• Warning by Jenny Joseph
• Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am? by John Powell
• Sentimental Value
• I'm Still Standing by Elton John
• The Traitors

Guest: Doulla Croft

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a podcast for the glowy skin, perfect morning, collagen-in-the-coffee version of you. This isn't it.

The Daisy Chain was born out of two of the most defining moments of host Daisy's life - losing her mum at 14 and finding herself lost in a spiral of self-improvement content in the run up to her wedding. Both times she was looking for the same thing: not more information, not another how-to, but the honest wisdom of someone who had already been through it. Someone who could sit with her and say - I've been there, and here's what I know.

In this first solo episode, Daisy introduces herself and the show. She talks about navigating adulthood without a conventional map, the grief of growing up without her mother, and why the women around her - her aunties, her neighbours, her teachers - became the mentors and guides she didn't know she was looking for. She also talks honestly about the overwhelming noise of self-improvement culture, why it made her feel worse not better, and what she is craving underneath all of it.

This is your 3pm podcast. The one for when the spiral starts and you need something real. Not more noise - just an honest conversation that reminds you that feeling lost is not a failure and you are not doing this alone.

If you've ever felt like everyone else has it figured out except you - this one's for you.

Every Thursday. 🌼

The Daisy Chain is a weekly podcast — intergenerational conversations where remarkable people who've already lived through what you might be facing pass down four pearls of wisdom to those of us still figuring it out. Every Thursday at 3pm.

Enjoyed this episode?

• Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts
• Leave a 5🌟 review — it helps more people discover the chain

Follow The Daisy Chain:

• Instagram: @thedaisychainpod
• TikTok: @thedaisychainpod
• thisisthedaisychain.com

Got someone amazing in mind for the chain? Get in touch: thedaisychainpod@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.