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Dark Coffee Podcast

Starting brave and bullshit-free conversations around mental health and wellbeing.

23 April 2020

52. Capability versus Capacity

21 April 2020

51. Mental Health, Health Care & Self-Care

18 April 2020

50. 5 Lessons from 50 Episodes

16 April 2020

49. Breaking the Stigma

14 April 2020

48. Dark Coffee x WeAreASSIF Collab

11 April 2020

47. Hope and Mental Health

9 April 2020

46. Keep Calm and Coffee On

7 April 2020

45. Dark Coffee Live Recording

31 March 2020

44. Marketing in a Crisis

28 March 2020

43. Living and Learning in Limbo

24 March 2020

42. OCD and Me

20 March 2020

41. Fostering Connections

17 March 2020

40. Coming Out of the Spiritual Closet

3 March 2020

39. Eating Disorder Awareness Week

20 February 2020

38. Mind Over Grind round-up

9 February 2020

37. Suicide Ideation in Real(ish) Time

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Having an off-day, doesn’t make you a failure •

Struggling with something in your business doesn’t mean you’re not the right person for the job.

Feeling flat, deflated or even defeated doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for it.

It means you’re a human having a bad time.

That’s it.

Too often we blow these moments out of proportion and think they speak to our fundamental worth as a person.

Let’s stop that for a second.

I’m not going to spam you with girl-bossy platitudes like ‘you got this’ (cause that’s annoying, and you might not ‘have it.’

But one thing I do know is that stepping back from a confidence wobble can help give you a bit of perspective.

Instead of curling into a ball of despair when you can’t solve a problem…

Or deciding you can’t do the job cause you’re stuck right now…

Or think you should sell the business because there must be someone out there who is a better fit…

Stop to ask yourself:

“Is this true?”

“Do I really think that this moment overshadows everything positive I’ve done in my business?”

Chances are, it doesn’t.

Checking in with yourself and speaking to yourself with a tad more compassion won’t solve all your problems.

But it WILL give you an opportunity to step out of a doom-spiral of feeling like the worst person in the world.

And that’s definitely worth taking a few minutes out of your day for.

- ☕️ Alice

#peptalk #businessowner #businessownerlife #manchesterbusiness #wellbeing #wellbeingatwork #workplacewellbeing #coach #wellbeingcoach

😞Being in business can suck some weeks. There

😞Being in business can suck some weeks.

There is too much to do

Not enough time to do it

And you’re exhausted from the constant trudge of it all.

🎧If this sounds like you, you’re going to love episode 83 of the Mind Over Grind podcast.

It’s full to the brim with practical tips for working through your never-ending to-do list, even if you’re smack bang in the middle of an energy slump.

And no, it doesn’t involve having a holiday and coming back to it all later.

Sometimes, we need to push through because of deadlines, other people relying on us, etc.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have an action plan for how you can navigate your next energy slump, without losing momentum in your business.

We’ll go from wading through treacle to gliding through honey!

Talking points include:

☕️ how energy levels are not linear – they move in cycles and seasons

☕️ how to stop multitasking and focus on fewer things

☕️how getting more clarity on your workload can help you get started on big projects

☕️how to map out the jobs that have been sitting on your to-do list for months

☕️ how to stay motivated and keep making progress, even when your energy levels are low

☕️ how to spot drains on your emotional, physical and social energy (and avoid them!)

☕️ how to get back some precious headspace so you can devote it to what’s important

☕️ …and how to bring this all together in a handy cheat sheet you can refer back to when the next energy slump hits.

**If you’re looking for support in finding better working patterns and lifestyle routines, I have 3 spots available for 1:1 clients in October.

Book a 20-minute coffee chat in my diary using the link in the bio and we can see if I’d be a good fit for you.

😉 And of course, that’s where you’ll find the podcast link too.

- ☕️ Alice

#podcast #podcaster #newpodcastepisode #newepisode #businesspodcast #coach #coaching #wellbeingcoach #businesscoach #productivity #wellbeingatwork #workplacewellbeing #leadership #howtolead #darkcoffee #realtalk

🎉 New podcast on the block!! Well ok, not new-

It’s a fallacy to think we’ll ever be fearless

It’s a fallacy to think we’ll ever be fearless •

I don’t know about you but I feel scared all the time 😅

Not the kind of quivering in your boots, breathing into a paper bag, terror-stricken fear.

But the quieter, more insidious, whispering-in-your-ear fear.

The kind of fear that makes you think you’re doing the wrong things.

That you should stop.

Or that sometimes, you shouldn’t even have started.

This tile paraphrases a conversation I heard on a podcast the other day, and it really resonated with me.

I *think* it was the Online Marketing Podcast with Amy Porterfield (worth a follow for the practical wisdom anyway.)

But the gist was that, even if we’re scared, it doesn’t mean we should give up what we’re doing.

It doesn’t mean we are doing the wrong thing and it’s the universe giving us a nudge to do something different 🙄

In fact, maybe the reason you’re scared is because you’re exactly where you need to be, and that’s intimidating af.

Or you’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and you’re going through the growing pains.

Whatever the trigger, fear doesn’t have to keep you stuck.

Because you can do it scared.

Have a good Monday, you lovely thing

- ☕️ Alice

#motivation #mondaymotivation #darkcoffee #realtalk #wellbeing #wellbeingatwork #workplacewellbeing #businessowner #businessownerlife #manchesterbusiness #wellbeingcoach #coach #coaching #manchestercoach

Last year, the immediate convenience of working fr

Last year, the immediate convenience of working from home was quickly overshadowed by a lack of separation between running my business and the living the rest of my life.

My sizeable bedroom suddenly became a rather cramped bedroom-cum-office.

Without the commute, there was no marker of the start of my workday.

So I found myself eating breakfast between calls

Struggling to establish what time was 'mine' and what was 'client time.'

Everything was difficult. Nothing was coming easily, and suddenly there was no one around to sense-check things with.

This led to a chronic lack of productivity, which found me falling behind on the arbitrary deadlines I had given myself to stay motivated.

So I started making up the time after hours.

Every day.

Weekends didn’t exist.

My brain was switched on and active at any time of the day and night for months at a time.

Unhealthy, to say the least.

None of what I've written here is unique.

It’s something you will have experienced yourself or seen your team members go through.

So, after more than a year of monumental disruption to our work lives, what is your relationship like with work-life balance now?

If you'd like to gain some insights into how you and your team can redress the work-life balance this Autumn, come along to the Mental Health Meetup on Wednesday 8th September.

It's an hour-long, conversation-based meetup for wellbeing professionals and leaders who would like to learn from them.

There always loads of wisdom in the room that will give you ideas you can put straight into action.

And thanks to our sponsor Sic.official.co.uk, it's completely FREE!

⏰ 12:30 - 1:30pm BST
📅 Wednesday 8th September
💻 On Zoom

📱Link in our bio to join us 😊
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#event #wellbeing #wellbeingevent #networking #network #networkingevent #wellbeingatwork #wellbeinginwork #workplacewellbeing #mentalhealth #mentalhealthinwork #darkcoffee #realtalk #unfilteredwellbeing

🤷‍♀️ Grammatically correct? Maybe not. Bu

🤷‍♀️ Grammatically correct? Maybe not. But the point holds up •

Too often, we can let ourselves be led astray by the world around us.

It can be from listening too closely well-intentioned friends giving us their opinions.

The messages we internalise from our social media feeds.

Or even just being swept up in the flow of life - running too quickly to catch up, to the point where we don’t question if it’s what we really want.

Giving ourselves a bit of head space gives us an opportunity to do things more intentionally.

To look at what we’re doing and be honest about whether we want or need to be doing it.

Which gives us a valuable opportunity to drop the things we don’t!

1:1 coaching gives people that chance to stop and analyse things (which is one of the reasons I love doing it so much!)

But you can work it into your day in small ways.

My favourite technique is the ‘Golden Hour.’

Put simply, the first hour that your’re awake becomes YOUR TIME.

You don’t check your emails.

Don’t pick up your phone.

You ignore everyone else until that hour is up.

Doing this gives you a chance not just to wake up fully, but to prioritise yourself before the world starts interrupting.

You’d be surprised how much of a difference it can make to your productivity, work flow and mood level.

And when it comes knocking later in the day, you feel much more confident in telling it where to go.

————

🙌🏼 I’ll be opening up spaces for new 1:1 clients in October, so if it’s something you’ve been thinking about, this is the best time to get in touch.

📱Chuck me a dm and we can set up a free 20-minute coffee chat where we can discuss where your business is at, where you want to go and how I can help you get there 😊

- ☕️ Alice

#motivation #friday #friyay #podcastquote #quote #badassinbusiness #businessowner #businessownerlife #realtalk #darkcoffee #wellbeing #wellbeinginwork #workplacewellbeing #coaching #coach #workandwellbeing #businesscoach #wellbeingcoach #121coaching #121coach

😑 ‘Work-life balance?’ I don’t even know

😑 ‘Work-life balance?’ I don’t even know her •

After the weirdness of lockdown, the influx of home working and the back-to-work post-holiday comedown, many of us don’t know which way is up at the moment!

Not to worry - the September Mental Health Meetup is here to help you rediscover those boundaries…

Join a room of wellbeing practitioners and business leaders for this free and informal chat.

We’ll discuss:

☕️ what ‘work-life balance’ means (and how you can get one!)

☕️ how it can work in practice

☕️ how we can set boundaries to separate our work from the rest of our lives

☕️ how we can support our teams, collaborators, friends and clients in achieving a better balance

☕️… and whatever else you want to bring to the conversation!

Come for the chat; leave with the lessons.

📅 12.30-1.30 BST Wednesday 8th September

💻 Hosted on Zoom

📱 Sign up through the link in our bio - it’s free thanks to our headline sponsor, Sic. @sicofficial.co.uk

#wellbeing #emotionalwellbeing #socialwellbeing #wellness #mentalwellbeing #mentalwellness #mentalhealth #meetup #mentalhealthmeetup #mentalhealthandwellbeing #mentalhealthatwork #mentalhealthadvocate #mentalhealthchampion #mentalhealthawareness #mh #mhandwellbeing #mhadvocate #mhchampion #mhfa #mhinwork #mhatwork #mentalhealthadvocates #mentalhealthchampions #mentalhealthprofessionals #meetup #darkcoffee #realtalk

😩 Anybody else having a ‘Bank holiday come-do

😩 Anybody else having a ‘Bank holiday come-down?’

You’re not the only one!

4-day weeks are great and all… but doesn’t that to-do list look all the more intimidating?

Rather than cry into your 4th afternoon coffee (although that is a legit coping mechanism as well…) maybe try this:

☕️ FIRST give yourself a break. If a normal week is a challenge, a four-day week is already 20% harder. That’s just maths.

🌱 NEXT break everything down. Whatever job you’re tackling this afternoon, break it down into a smaller chunk to help you get started.

🍰 THEN give yourself an incentive. Whether that’s an episode (ahem, season) of your favourite show, or, like me, a big slab of cake after I finish the next chunk of work.

Positive reinforcement can do wonders!

🙌🏼 ACCOUNTABILITY. If you’d like a hand staying motivated this afternoon, comment below with what you want to finish today and I’ll DM you later to see how you got on 😊

👏🏼Good luck! Tuesday PM, let’s do this….. 🎉

- ☕️ Alice

#bankholiday #tuesday #4dayweek #motivation #accountability #coach #workcoach #wellbeingcoach #coach #coaching #businessownerlife