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What to do if you’re facing redundancy {+ new podcast episode with Kerry Roy)

Posted on 2017-10-17 at 11:52 am.

I’ll never forget the day one of my closest friends phoned me at 9am on a Friday, and I knew something was amiss. She worked for an investment bank, NEVER phoned during office hours. It turned out that she had been made redundant with immediate effect, the last of her team to go. She had known it might be coming, but had buried her head in the sand and hoped for the best.

The funny thing is, the best did happen in the end, only not quite in the way she had hoped.

For someone who had been terrified of redundancy, I remember so clearly the lightness in her voice, the sense of relief and the excitement at the prospect of a new kind of freedom. No more commute. No more 6am starts. No more office politics. And so much opportunity. My friend is the first to admit she hates making decisions, so redundancy actually turned out to be a blessing because it made someone else make a massive decision for her. Now, four years on, she runs her own flourishing business, sets her own hours and gets paid twice as much to do the same kind of work she did before. And she loves it.

Sometimes the very things we are afraid of turn out to be the best kind of adventures. So if you are facing redundancy, ask yourself this:

“What if this were to turn out as a great blessing? What would that look like?”

And while you are thinking about it, I encourage you to spend 30 minutes listening to my latest podcast episode with free-spirited Yorkshire lass, Kerry Roy, who lost her job but found her calling.

Kerry used her redundancy notice to hatch her escape plan, combining running a successful glamping, wedding and events business with feeding her addiction for travel and adventure. Always determined to fulfill her dreams, seek new opportunities, travel often and be forever grateful for the wonderful journey of life, in listening to Kerry’s story you will be filled with motivation to bring your dream to life whatever may be thrown at you along the way.

Enjoy the show!

BethXx

Key moments:

[1m 0s] How Kerry dealt with the disappointment of her redundancy notice and instead made it a positive thing

[5m 0s] How Kerry juggled finances when she began the road to opening her own business

[7m 0s] Kerry discovered her calling, hear how

[8m 0s] How the support of Kerry’s partner, Dave, helped her make breakthroughs

[9m 0s] Building a power team of friends and family who helped start Kerry’s business

[10m 30s] Kerry’s attitude to ‘risk’ when curveballs are thrown her way

[11m 30s] The story behind Kerry’s business name, Camp Katur

[13m 0s] Kerry’s mission for Camp Katur, how she looks after her customers and ensures their escape from routine

[16m 0s] Key ways Kerry makes time and space for herself while juggling business efforts day to day

[20m 0s] How she balances work, life and travel – some great tips here

[22m 0s] What’s next for Kerry and Dave, their exciting plans to move to the mountains

[25m 0s] How Kerry and Dave work as a couple in aligning each other’s dreams

[27m 30s] Kerry’s amazing visualization for her future

[29m 30s] The challenges and fears Kerry faces on her next chapter…

Whose permission are you waiting for?

Posted on 2017-10-10 at 11:42 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

How has your week been? With all that is going on in the world, I hope you and your loved ones are well and safe, and that you are finding ways to see beauty in the every day beyond all the difficult news that surrounds us daily.

Over here, this past week I delivered a couple of in-person workshops, and noticed something emerging as a surprisingly common theme with many of the participants. It was the realisation that before you can be a Freedom Seeker, you have to give up the old story of being a Permission Seeker.

A disproportionate number of the participants were the youngest in their family, and realised they still look to their siblings for permission, validation and advice before they take action. For those who were the oldest in their family or an only child, there was a pattern of looking to parents for that same permission, validation and advice. It’s completely understandable, and we all do it in one way or another. However, the potential issues with this are manifold:

If you seek this permission, validation or advice from multiple sources, the conflicting advice you get back can be so overwhelming that you get stuck and don’t actually do anything
They may not give you the permission, validation or advice you are looking for, and that can drive a wedge between you
When something goes wrong, there is a natural tendency to blame those other people
When you make a decision based on the permission, validation or advice you sought out, and later reflect that it was probably the wrong decision, regret weighs even heavier

Fortunately there is a simple solution – simply to start giving yourself the permission you are looking for, to do whatever it is you are wanting to do, accepting your own validation as enough, and trusting that you know the answer already. Of course this is easier said than done, if it requires breaking year-old patterns, but you can begin today simply by making a list of what you really want to start doing or stop doing, and then granting yourself the permission to do that.

To help you, below you can find a printable permission slip (click to download a high res version) which you can download, fill in and keep somewhere you will see it regularly. I encourage you to do this today, and then get cracking with your dreams!

Have a great week

Beth

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Got an idea for a business? Got too many ideas? This conversation is for you

Posted on 2017-10-03 at 12:34 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

There are three questions I get asked often by people wanting to create a business around doing what they love:

It’s all so overwhelming. Where should I begin?
How do I choose which thing to focus on?
Is it really possible with a family to support?

Rather than just share my own views on this, I thought I’d invite the thoughts of someone who is at the coal face, working with start ups day-in-day-out.

Ben Keene is Head of The Escape School and founder of Rebel Book Club, and with a family of five to support, he is perfectly placed to share entrepreneurial wisdom with those who are juggling business needs and family demands. In this episode of my new podcast The Freedom Seeker Chronicles (which is totally free), Ben shares how to deal with risk when you’re starting a business for the first time, how to balance family and work commitments and the desire for travel. You can listen to it here. I hope this will give you some food for thought, and inspire you to go for it!

On bucket lists, goal setting + listening to your heart

Posted on 2017-09-19 at 12:40 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

What is the smallest thing you can do now to follow your heart? Think about it. Write it down if you like.

This is just one of the many questions of wisdom my very first podcast guest Steph Jagger plants on us in today’s episode. Steph is the author of Unbound, a story of snow and self-discovery and she’s helped women the world over define who it is they want to BE and what they need to DO to get there. Listen in for the next 40 mins of exploration where we talk about everything from battling fear, the pros and cons of setting goals, and how to find stillness and solitude to allow golden thoughts and plans emerge.

You can listen and subscribe to The Freedom Seeker Chronicles here.

Join our Founder for a transformational one day workshop

Posted on 2017-09-19 at 9:27 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

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As we edge closer to the last quarter of 2017, how are you feeling about how the year has turned out? A lot has happened in the world, both difficult and good. I wonder if 2017 has turned out how you hoped, or not?

I get the sense from many of you in our community that 2017 has been a challenging year, and so I have decided to offer some in-person workshops to help make 2018 different.

This workshop is for you if…

• You feel like you are at a crossroads and unsure of what to do next

• You are feeling trapped, overwhelmed with too much to do, all the while watching your dreams drift further away

• You have forgotten what your dreams actually look like, and want some inspiration and guidance

• You want to reconnect with what really matters, and do it in a safe space with like-minded people

This workshop has been specifically designed to help you:

• Realign to what really matters

• Understand what’s holding you back, and how to escape that and fly free

• Navigate what lies ahead (because the path to your dreams is rarely the easy road)

I rarely offer small group workshops, but felt called to do this and I would love for you to be part of this transformational experience.

We are offering two dates for 2017:

SUNDAY OCTOBER 1 IN TOTNES, DEVON, UK (hosted by Living Now Events)

CLICK HERE to book (and use the code LivingNow at checkout for a 20% discount)

SATURDAY OCTOBER 7 IN LONDON, UK (hosted by Alternatives)

CLICK HERE to book

I really hope you will join me, or pass this on to someone who needs it.

Much love

Beth

Freedom Seeker is out in Italian and German!

Posted on 2017-07-06 at 1:42 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

When I started writing Freedom Seeker, I was writing it for myself. I was writing myself free. In the process I understood that I was writing this book for you. But the truth is I never thought beyond the English language, until my wonderful agent Caroline Hardman of Hardman & Swainson told me that an Italian publisher (Corbaccio) and a German publisher (Allegria/Ullstein) wanted to buy the rights for their respective languages. This opened up whole new possibilities, and I love the idea of my words going out into the world to be read in other languages. As someone who has a Master’s degree in Interpreting & Translating, I’ve always been fascinated by the way words are communicated against the background of cultural and linguistic settings, knowing that the most important thing is to communicate the concept in a way that it has the same impact on the reader, rather than making sure the words are the same (not to mention how different the covers are!) And so I am thrilled to share that Freedom Seeker is now available in Italian and German, and I would love to hear your thoughts about it if you read it in either of those languages. (PS More languages coming soon!)

From zero to one: How 3 founders went from idea to business

Posted on 2017-07-04 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This is a guest post by Ben Keene. You can find out more about Ben here.

1 in 3 people want to start a business, but only 1 in 10 take the leap.

Turning an exciting idea into a real world business isn’t easy.

But with an array of cheap online tools and a growing community in cities like London, it is increasingly possible to at least test whether your idea has potential without risking it all.

We spoke to 3 startup founders we admire about how they turned an idea in their heads into an actual business.

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What’s going on? Our guide to the best upcoming thought-provoking + life-changing events

Posted on 2017-07-03 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

With in summer in full swing, now is the perfect time to think about what you want from the rest of 2017. Whether it’s learning a new skill, developing yourself personally or professionally, tapping into your creativity, hiring a coach, or taking a break to rest and recharge, making time to nurture yourself and your dreams every once in a while is vital for your health and wellbeing.

Here’s our pick of the best upcoming festivals, events and talks to help you on the path to doing what you love…

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Imagine the life of your dreams & begin with why

Posted on 2017-06-23 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.

Let’s begin with your dreams.

Allow me to guess a few easy ones for starters:

To be less stressed by work and enjoy more time with your friends and family.
To be fitter, perhaps lose a bit of weight, maybe run a marathon, or work up to a big adventure.
To spend less time online, envious of what others are up to, and more time having experiences that you’ll remember a year from now.

Imagine the life of your choice. Tell me, what would it be like? What would be different?

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What to do when those around you tread on your dreams {video}

Posted on 2017-05-10 at 3:21 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Just recently I was explaining a crazy idea I had to someone close to me and they laughed at me like it was ridiculous. Actually it felt like they were laughing at me like I was ridiculous, which was even worse. They took a pin to the balloon of my optimism and burst it, just like that.

The thing is, when we change and grow, and step into new possibilities, those who have known a version of us for many years cannot always see what we can see. They don’t always understand how our perspective has shifted, or how delicate our dreams are. Some people simply aren’t used to looking up and outside the boundaries of the narrow track they live their own life on. Of course if they are happy living that way that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean you have to follow that same track.

Surrounding yourself with people who get it, who get you, and will give wings to your dreams is perhaps the single most important thing you can do if you really want to do what you love.

We are all human. If we keep getting told “You can’t do that”, “Your dreams are too big”, “It’ll never work”, then of course it’s natural that at some point we’ll start to believe those words instead of the truth inside ourselves, the knowing that actually we can do it.

If instead you have conversations about possibility and potential, options and choices, then you start to see and navigate life in a completely different way. That’s why I made this video to encourage you through those hard times when people you love are treading on your dreams. I hope it helps.

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