Real & Raw Leadership: Power in the Messy Middle

A few months ago, my life was looking great.. My personal branding & coaching biz was just blowing up and it seemed I was on track to explode into the next level – but behind the scenes I was a mess.

I was feeling unfulfilled, imposter syndrome & like I was meant for something so much bigger than what I was doing. Week after week I would be breaking down to my mentor, crying ‘I just don’t know what to do.’ Nothing fulfilled me. Not new clients, not money, not even courses I was creating. It was all ‘ok’, meh…
Until I was in Turkey, and everything changed. A week with no internet (not through choice!) and I was about ready to break. And break I did… On the phone to my mentor, hanging over my balcony trying to get signal with snot & tears running down my face.

In that moment I knew what had to be done – as much as I tried to resist it before. I had to stop everything I was doing & find myself again. Find what I really wanted to do & who I wanted to help. I had to release control & just surrender to the unknown – to the universe.

For the next 3 weeks I did nothing more but follow my desire on a day-to-day basis, not knowing where it was going to take me but trusting it would take me to the right path. And through that darkness, I started sharing the process in real time. For no other reason than a desire to show what I was navigating. The darkness, the frustration, the anger, the fear – all of the messy middle. And in doing that, I felt a sense of liberation I had never felt before. A sense of fulfillment I had never felt before. A sense of freedom I had never felt before.

Because sharing in real time, whilst I didn’t have an answer or an outcome, was what birthed my movement. The very thing I had been searching for these last 10 years. It started attracting the most incredible people into my world – not just in business but in real life relationships as well! It gave me purpose & clarity & a feeling of undeniable knowing this is what I was here to do.

So, no – don’t always wait until you’ve mastered it. Find the courage & bravery whilst you’re in it (whatever ‘it’ is for you) and share how you lead yourself through to the other side – because you WILL get there, that’s what you do.

This is how we showcased the human behind the screen, so that those looking to us for the answers see we aren’t any different from them and that it is ALL possible for them, too.

This is a level of real & raw leadership which most won’t step into because of fear. But you will because you are different, you aren’t ‘normal’, you’re one of the crazy ones here to change the World.

And we will be right beside you leading the revolution.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of CHOICES Magazine