Welcome to the Telling of Story Podcast. I’m your host, Storyteller Jewels, and along with my guests, it’s my endeavour to explore the art and science of storytelling, to attract, engage and retain a business audience, and to unpack why it works for some, and not for the many that try. Listen in as Sue talks about the adventure of being coached.

Sue: One of the things that I do these days is when I’m meeting a potential coaching client for the first time and they say, what’s coaching about? How do you work? I say it’s going to be like an adventure. You and I are going on an adventure into the unknown. And we know what the end vision is. We know what the end goal is, but we don’t know how we’re going to get there because that’s the exciting bit.

Jewels: In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with Sue Stockdale. Sue believes in pushing boundaries and inspiring others to unlock their full potential. In 1996, she became the first British woman to reach the magnetic North Pole and has followed up with travels to over 75 countries. Sue brings this ethos of exploration to her work as an executive coach, encouraging her clients who are board level executives and senior leaders to embark on a transformative journey of self discovery and leadership growth.

Her mantra is, we can all achieve more than we imagine possible. Often the only person stopping you. Is you. In 2020, she started the Access to Inspiration podcast based on the same ethos and is now in the top 10 percent most popular podcast globally. Sue, welcome to the show. 

Sue: Hi, it’s great to be here. 

Jewels: Sue, your bio mentions your expedition to the magnetic north pole, but that wasn’t your first adventure, was it?

Can you talk us through the series that led up to that event? 

Sue: Well, yes, I’ve always been fascinated by adventure, and what got me started was reading the Enid Blyton Famous Five and Secret Seven series of books. And I think Enid Blyton, to me, she made an ordinary day out with your friends and a dog turn into some sort of amazing adventure.

So it really captured my imagination. And then. I think it was when I was 14 or 15 years old, myself and my sister and a friend, we went for a three day cycling trip. Now, these days I just don’t think any parent would want to let their child head off into the wilds of Scotland for three days without any means of communication with them.

But that was really probably my first simple adventure, giving me a sense of freedom, which I think is really what’s at the core of the, all the adventures that I do, resourcefulness, and then exploring what’s possible. And from there, I went to Kenya in 1988 on a charity, uh, there’s an organization, Rally International, and based in the UK.

It was a charity and we did three months in Kenya carrying out scientific community and adventure projects. And there I met people from all around the world on this expedition. So it opened my eyes to possibilities, people from different cultures. And all of a sudden I realized that as a human being in Scotland, I was fairly insignificant in this world, because I had now realized the world was a much bigger place.

And I just wanted to go out and explore it. And then we can fast forward to that Magnetic North Pole expedition as one example of really challenging myself. 

Jewels: My understanding is that before going to the Magnetic North Pole that you didn’t ski even at that point, or cross country ski, is that 

Sue: correct?

That is correct. I’d done downhill skiing, but never cross country. So, 

Jewels: take me through the thought process of why do something that seems so extreme on something that you have never experienced before and apparently at that point in time there was nobody had done it or no female had done it previous to that.

What was the thought process leading to it or were you just, you know, let’s just give it a go. 

Sue: Yeah, well you were about to say, was I crazy, I’m imagining you’re maybe thinking that. I think for me it’s curiosity. And there was an advert in the newspaper and it was talking about this expedition that the expedition leader who’s a well known British explorer was organizing.

And this was really the first time that opportunity for these sorts of adventures had been open to people with no experience. Before that it was always, I don’t know how those seasoned explorers got experience by the way, but it was often people with a lot of expedition experience that were doing polar adventures.

And I saw the advert and it said, You need to work in a team, be able to work in a team. Well, I knew how to do that from my work. And the second sort of qualification was the ability to raise 15, 000 to pay for your place. Now, I don’t know what that translates into in Australian dollars, but in Britain at that time, I probably could have bought a house for that amount of money.

It was a significant sum, and I had absolutely no idea how to raise that amount of money. But there was something about this idea, I thought, imagine, what’s, that’s like living in your freezer for probably a month or so, like, what must that be like? And then I said to myself, well, what’s the worst that can happen if I send off for more information?

You know, it gives me a step forward to find out more. And when the brochure came back, it said on the front, are you man enough for the ultimate challenge? And it was all pictures of men. It’s a bit of a motivation, I must admit. And then there was a whole series of selection tests. I think hundreds of people applied and there was a 28 mile hike.

There was a physical assault course that the military officers in Britain train on at Sandhurst. Psychometric tests, you know, you name it, we had it as a test until the numbers were whittled down and there were 10 of us in the end selected as there were novices with no experience, eight men, myself and a woman from Sweden who ultimately then became the first Swedish woman to reach the pole as well.

So it was about like following my curiosity and I always said to myself, if it’s meant to be, I’ll find a way. So I still didn’t know how to raise the money. But that was, that was my mantra and I just kept on saying, well, what’s the worst that can happen? I’ll just keep, keep putting one foot in front of the other to see if I can raise the money.

And ultimately I was able to get that sum and go on the expedition. It’s a fabulous 

Jewels: attitude. And it sounds like that’s something you’ve sort of taken through your life as a mantra as well. You must have been, to some degree, reasonably fit to pass all of those initial tests. Was it everything you expected, or did it push you to the limits, you know, going on the expedition itself?

Was it far beyond what you thought it might 

Sue: have been? Yes, you’re correct, and it was physically fit before I had to do it. I was actually competing for Scotland in the 3, 000 metres in track and field, so I was training every day. I knew I was fit and had a good endurance fitness, really, which is what’s quite important.

But nothing like going, dragging a sledge, weighing the weight of an average person for 10 or 12 hours a day on your cross country skis, going over uneven terrain. People often imagine going to the pole that it’s like going across an ice rink. It’s not. It’s rather more like Claiming across a building site that’s full of rubble.

Because you’re skiing on a frozen sea ice and the ice with the current underneath the water pushes together and therefore you get these big lumps of ice. And so it’s not uneven at all and you’re having to find your way across the terrain to be able to move forwards. And that’s why you’re wearing skis.

So I don’t think it matters that I couldn’t cross country ski because they were more of a mode of transport than they were a kind of pleasure vehicle. And they have fish looking scales on the bottom of the skis so that you can move forward, glide forward easily, but you’re not going to slide backwards.

And therefore, because your weight is distributed across the whole of a ski, it’s easier then when you’re going across unstable ground and ice that’s not very thick, to not fall through it because your weight is distributed. So all of that, even although other people could cross country ski, they weren’t using their regular skills on that expedition.

This was a completely different environment. And it was every day a physical and mental challenge. So you imagine being in silence. For 10, 12 hours a day, having no color to look at at all, because everything’s pretty much white. You’re in silence because you’re normally skiing in single file. And therefore you really notice what’s going on in your head.

It was like a crash course in mindfulness for a month. And that. You realize, or at least I realized that how I was thinking was so directly related to my performance. And I think that’s a really important business lesson as well. It has to be said that we don’t often really get that direct connection to see what I’m thinking and what I’m telling myself.

Very quickly will turn into the output beneath my feet here. If I say I can’t ski, I’m tired, my speed of skiing will slow down and so on. So what better place, unbeknown to me at the time that this was going to give me a story to tell in business that would be really capture people’s imagination because they can get the sense of that in the workplace.

Jewels: What’s it like being inside of your own head for 10 to 12 hours a day? That must have been either grueling or quite enlightening, one of the two. 

Sue: Both and, I would say. I began, I often used to be very aware of what I was thinking about, so I tried to get away from thinking about, we have another hour to ski, we have another hour to ski.

So I tried to get my head away from the immediate challenge that I was facing and think about other things. And my mind used to often wander to food related subjects. Because I love eating, I love food, I love cooking. And after a while I began to say to myself, Oh Sue, stop thinking about food. You know, you can’t get a lovely slice of bacon or a bit of cheese here in the Arctic.

You’ve just got to eat what you eat. Just stop thinking about food. What would be a better thing to think about? So I thought to myself, I’ll think about friends that I haven’t seen for a long time, and I’ll try and remember who they are and where they are and so on. And when I began to use that recollection, what I did was think, oh yes, I met that person, and invariably we had met at a restaurant or a bar.

And normally we’d had something to eat and I could remember in detail the actual meal that I’d eaten. So I just, in the end, gave up and said, oh, Sue, okay, just keep thinking about food. It’s what you like thinking about. And that kept me going. So there’s just noticing how you’re, I guess, again, as a simple thing, like, do your thoughts keep coming back to the same things?

Or are you really using your imagination? So I’ve realized maybe there’s not too much inside my head, but what’s in there is always thinking about food. 

Jewels: It’s a wonder you didn’t end up being a chef rather than a coach. But, can you tell me, how have you brought those learning experiences and that sort of mindfulness and all the experiences that you’ve done and all your adventures, how have you brought that into your coaching practice?

Sue: Well, one of the things that I do these days is when I’m meeting a potential coaching client for the first time, and they say, what’s coaching about, how do you work? I say, it’s going to be like an adventure. You and I are going on an adventure into the unknown. And we know what the end vision is. We know what the end goal is, but we don’t know how we’re going to get there because that’s the exciting bit.

And to do that, we’re going to have to trust one another. You need to trust me that I can help to take you there and I need to trust you that you’re committed for this journey. And that’s what it’s like being part of a really great team and we’re both going to learn stuff. Now I think what that does is, A, hopefully it captures the coachee’s imagination and kind of excitement and curiosity to go on that adventure because they get a sense they’re not in it on their own.

Also, it’s giving a sense that I, as the coach, I’m not the expert here. I’m going to be vulnerable too. I’m going to learn things and I’m not perfect at the start. And that, that way of really leveling the playing field in that we’re both embarking on this, I think is some, sometimes maybe a different way of describing what coaching is about or what people’s perceptions of coaching is about.

before they start off. And that gets me excited. And when I’m passionate and enthusiastic about talking about that adventure, I think it hooks the client in. And those that definitely don’t want to be adventurous will sign themselves out and say, no, thanks. But those that see that they do maybe want to find out a little bit more about themselves and what’s really stopping them getting to that potential that they believe they have.

If they trust me and hopefully I show up as an open and an open person that’s not judging them that they’ll want to take the first steps on that journey, just like I did all those years ago by sending off for the application form on that expedition. 

Jewels: I love that you started with a story. So thank you for that’s the telling the story podcast.

Very relevant. Was that something that you consciously did right from the start? Is that your natural sort of position to start with the story or is that something that developed and you realized over time? 

Sue: I realized over time. So I used to be this, I used to think that to be a professional, credible executive coach, I had to be very corporate like and very organized.

And I can feel myself even feeling like that as I’m speaking to you here, you know, kind of. Robust and a little bit distant perhaps from the coachee and, and, you know, I know my stuff I’m organized and then my style just evolved over time. I’ve been coaching for over 25 years now, so I’ve had a lot of time to learn.

And I think that also. I used to not really say anything about my adventure background, because I would think why would people want to know about that when they’re in the business world? And then, you know, the way the universe points out something to you when you need to learn something? And I kept on getting clients and people asking when they heard or realized I had some sort of adventurous background, they always wanted to know about that.

And so I thought, why am I not talking about that if everybody seems to find that really interesting? And what I’ve done over the last really decade or so is very much more clearly integrate. That part of my life and experience into my work. And you know, when you show up as a fully integrated person, isn’t it so much more easier to do your job?

And so that’s for me, how I learned to tell that story about what was really, what is really at the essence of me. My essence to me is about adventure and excitement and stepping into the unknown. And if I can do that in my work. Then I’m doing what I love and I happen to get paid for it. I mean, what’s better than that?

Jewels: And what did you notice at that point in time when you made that conscious switch to, to integrating you into the story and you into your practice? Did you notice anything from a business perspective? Were you attracting more people? I 

Sue: attracted more of the people I wanted to attract, funnily enough, and also I think, you know, as I was sitting a little bit more upright when I was describing myself as a professional coach, I just relaxed.

It became effortless, not sloppy or undisciplined, but just more fluid with who I am as a person. And, um, I think that makes a big difference. So yeah, it’s today. I see that it’s very much more integrated and those clients that come to me. They have a curiosity already. They have a sense that they, I asked a client the other day.

They’re a new client. Why did you pick me out of the lineup of potential coaches you could work with? And the person said, well, I had somebody who was very, very much like me in the corporate space. And that would have been probably would have had an idea of how that person would have worked. And then there was somebody else and they had some similar sort of business background.

And then I saw your profile and I thought, wow, she seems to be the complete opposite from what I would normally pick. I quite fancy that adventure. I really want to discover what this is like. And, you know, and so I said to him, you’ve taken a risk already. You’ve gone into the unknown. This tells me a lot about you.

This is going to be a great coaching relationship between the two of 

Jewels: us. Fabulous. I have a few coach friends and, and not just coaches either, any sort of professional in this, that kind of environment where you’re selling a service or some sort of offering. You know, if you lined up 50 coaches and asked them about their coaching practice, there’s a good chance there’d be a pretty strong alignment in some of the, you know, the way, you know, you do things and the way you practice.

And some are probably possibly some of even the frameworks that you’re using. So it’s quite difficult in a sea of coaches to differentiate unique as you, like you are the thing that makes you unique and your stories are what make you unique. So if you integrate the two. You’re able to actually bring a differentiation, you know, differentiation to your practice and you can stand out from the crowd because you will have a certain style and a certain technique that is about the way you are and about who you are.

Do you agree with that? You know, have you seen that in practice? And is that something that, you know, perhaps your clients could learn from as well by, you know, bringing themselves out of their, their shell a little bit? 

Sue: Yeah, I definitely agree with that and I was thinking as you were speaking there that often the reason I found that coaches get into coaching in the first place, not for everybody, but for many people, is because they’ve had an experience of being coached and it was so powerful for them that that inspired them to want to learn how to do it for themselves.

So I often encourage prospective coaches or just anybody who’s curious to ask a coach. Why did you get into coaching? What, what was the reason? So not about how you coach, but why are you doing what you’re doing? And when then that connects that individual back to that, their story, their reason for being curious about coaching and wanting to learn about it.

For me, that’s when their eyes light up. That’s when their eyes sparkle. And that’s when they’re bringing out often the best of themselves. It could be, could have been the worst of times that caused them to get a coach and then therefore see the value of it. But still, there’s an emotion to that. There’s an emotional connection within them as an individual that you just don’t get when you sort of say, well, what’s your coaching philosophy?

And they might then. trot out something they’ve read in a book or something they’ve been told to say as a coaching philosophy. Not everybody, of course, but you know, I’m being very broad brush here. What I love to see and love to observe in others is what makes their eyes sparkle about the work that they do.

And then, you know, they’re in it because they really want to be, not just to get the money and do a job. And that’s really what I’m always interested to get the essence of that 

Jewels: Changing tact just a little bit. I know That you also have a, a podcast, which is, you know, top 10%, which is congratulations, by the way.

I know how hard that is and how much work has gone beyond that. So well done. Thank you. You also BLO blog, I believe, and you’ve done a TEDx talk. Can you just tell me the philosophy behind all of this sort of storytelling, if you like, as part of, you know, your identity and, and perhaps as part of your, your coaching practice’s identity?

Why do, why do you do all of this? All of these different forms of storytelling. 

Sue: I think the core of, of what inspires me and it is inspires me to hopefully inspire other people is my mum died unexpectedly when I was 14 and she was in her mid fifties. And I think at that moment, we often hear that sometimes for me, it was a life changing moment because I realised that life can be short and we should.

Or I should, I want to explore what is possible in whatever amount of time I have on this earth. And sometimes people don’t get that, that message until much later in life, when a loved one perhaps passes away at a much older age. So that, that sparked me into wanting to explore the world for myself.

Standing at the North Pole, I never ever imagined in a million years that that would be possible. And yet it had happened. And so I almost wanted to give back from that and I said to myself, there has to be a bigger reason for this, not, it isn’t just going to be photographs and an album that I look back on in 10 years time and smile at.

There’s a bigger reason for this. What is it? And I thought, well, somehow if my story of the, how I accomplished this adventure and the other ones that I’ve done before and afterwards, somehow if I can share that story, that can inspire the people to get to their North Pole, whatever that is for them. And that, that’s my life’s purpose, if you like.

I didn’t set it out to have a purpose. It came to me. I reflected and realized that that’s what it was, way back after that expedition. And that has served me ever since. And because it’s like, often visions are so high level, it can manifest itself in different ways. So I love variety. Having started off initially doing motivational speaking, that’s one way of communicating that inspiration for people.

Then many of the people that were listening to me speak, they came and said, well, how can you support me long term? I don’t just want to be inspired in one dose. I want you to help me in a longer term. So then the coaching came into that mix. And then people were saying, well, have you written a book? And, and No, I haven’t.

Okay, well, I think I’ll try writing a book then. A different way of communicating. And then more recently was the podcasting. Well, actually, I love podcast listening to podcasts myself, and I love audio communication. So let’s experiment with podcasting and see what happens. Again, what’s the worst that can happen?

No one listens. But if I enjoy the process of making the podcast, if I enjoy the process of getting that sparkle in the eyes of the guests when they’re connecting with what’s really important for them. That’s going to create in my mind a ripple effect and that just having one conversation with one person that even one more person listens to.

Maybe they will change something about their life as a result of what they’ve heard. So I that’s that’s my philosophy. I don’t have to be growing a big empire or. You know, having millions of dollars to do something hugely impactful in this world. I believe I can do it in that very small way by just create, creating a ripple effect of inspiration through all these different mediums that I engage in.

And it keeps me curious. It keeps me engaged. It keeps me learning. So there’s a selfish element for that, having that diversity, but there’s also a way that not everyone learns in the same way. So why not vary the, the modes of communication? And then that will be the best possible chance of success. So 

Jewels: you and I are so similar, like we do do things for the same reasons, you know, and I don’t mind that selfish aspect.

To me, that’s quite important to some degree, because for me to get up and do this, you know, week after week for me to, I also blog as well, you know, to do that consistently over long periods of time, you’ve got to do it for yourself first. You have to have this sense of purpose, as you say, you, you, you know, there’s a bigger reason for it, but ultimately.

If you enjoy the process, you like doing it, you like imparting knowledge, you like, you know, speaking out aloud in whatever format that may be. Then you’re going to bring some joy there as well. You’re going to bring some, some energy to it. And hopefully that’s contagious. And like, as you say, if one person picks up on something that you’ve said, and that changes somebody, it’s all been worth it.

All of that effort, all of those hours. So you and I are very similar like that. Is there any way to quantify what all of that sort of public persona has done for you personally, as a coach, as a business person? Has that changed your, you know, your brand? Has it attracted clients that perhaps you would never have picked up in the past?

Has it done anything for your business growth? 

Sue: Great question, which means it’s a difficult question. Well, there’s, I can probably think of several, what I would describe as serendipitous opportunities that have appeared as a result of following a thread, of going into an unknown space. I’ll give you one example.

I was invited by one organization to do a talk at their women’s network. And as many of these organizations often say, oh, we’d love to have you along, see, but we have no budget. And what I’ve learned to follow is to say, okay, well, money is only one thing. It’s a value that can be traded. There can be other things.

What else can your organization do for me? If it’s not money, what else could you bring would be of benefit to my business? And it happened to be a media organization, which meant that they had capability to video record presentations. So I said, well, how about if you could record the presentation I do to your women’s network, then could I get the rights to use that, if it’s good enough, as video on my website?

This was quite a few years ago, where it was a bit more tricky to get a little bit of video on your website. And expensive. They said, what? Yeah, they said. I don’t see why not yet, but that will be fine. And so that, that was part of the agreement. And then when the cop, the person from that organization was helping me to go through the sort of experience after the presentation and get the video sorted, et cetera.

She said, I can’t help but commenting, Sue, your website as it currently stands pre video doesn’t really represent you. Well enough. I think, you know, it’s not doing you justice. And, you know, that was probably quite brave of her to give me that feedback. She says, I know about websites. How about I help you to learn WordPress so you could build your own website?

We could do it together. So I’ll take you through the process so you can get a better quality website. At no charge. And that’s what happened. So I ended up, my business grew because I got a better website that I created and then knew how to keep editing and changing myself, there was a stepping stone to growing my business and growing it in the, with a better representation of the brand that came from the willingness to go and say yes to an organization that was saying I had no budget, looking for new possibilities, saying, okay, yeah, that’s one way.

That could be value traded. How else could this happen? So I don’t know if that answers your question, but that’s just an immediate example that comes to mind of willingness to step into the unknown and see what’s possible. 

Jewels: It sounds like a recurring theme for you, which is fabulous. The reason I asked that question is because I work with a lot of clients who.

I like to call them the world’s best kept secrets. They are brilliant at what they do, but nobody knows about them. Nobody, you know, beyond their small sphere of influence, knows about who they are and what they do. So one of the areas that I work with people on is to get out of their shell a little bit and to start to do some of this.

And content, you know, this, this form of content or these forms of content where you’re blogging or, or podcasting or speaking is a great way to extend your brand and to actually get your brand out in the marketplace. And it’s the personal brand, I believe, of an organization. rather than the organizational brand, which will attract people like you or at least attract people that like what you have to say and what you are potentially doing.

So it’s quite difficult for some to do because it’s not natural for a lot of people. What advice would you give somebody who’s thinking that way, you know, they’re very good at what they do, they’re excellent at their craft, whatever craft that might be, they’re great at their profession, but they’re a little bit afraid, I guess, to step out of their comfort zone and to, you know, venture into the unknown as you talk about, what advice would you give to somebody who’s perhaps starting out on that process, whether it be deciding to speak or blog or any, any format, even go out on social media a little bit more than they have been?

Um, What advice would you give to where to start, what to do, some things to think about? 

Sue: The first thing that springs to my mind is doing exactly what we’re doing here is to find somebody that you can have a conversation with, that you trust, that’s going to ask you some great questions and really understand the why behind why you’re doing your business or why you’re leading your business.

If you don’t, if you’re not an owner, a entrepreneur, because. I think it, I observe that sometimes people don’t want to be proactively promoting themselves. It seems a bit egotistical. It seems a bit, who am I to say I’m brilliant? But if we turn it around and somebody else is drawing that out of you through conversation, suddenly the person’s just naturally in their flow talking about their journey and why they’re doing what they’re doing, as you’re so skillfully doing with me today.

It then doesn’t seem like it’s egotistical, I don’t think, because you’re, you’re focusing on the need of somebody else to tell the story. And so maybe that would be a good start point for somebody that wanted to even get their story down on paper is to record that conversation and then that can be created into a blog or into a podcast.

And as you were talking about those people that are, that are brilliant, have wonderful businesses and nobody knows about them is exactly the reason we started Access to Inspiration Podcast was that sense was often in the coaching scenario. I hear these people that I’m coaching. tell these stories about themselves and about their challenges and how they overcame things.

And it ends up between two people in a room and nobody else knows about it. And it was like, how can we get those brilliant people or those brilliant businesses to a wider audience? Just find a platform to be able to then let them share their story. And then that can, the message can spread, as you said.

So I think taking yourself away from your own First person, this is going to be egotistical to do it perspective and encourage that person to step into the shoes of their, their audience, their clients, their friends, even wide. What are their friends see in them as a strength? Why do you, what do they admire in them?

So get out your own head and look at the world from other people’s perspectives and say what is it that this person here, this unique person, whoever it is that you’re talking to, what is it that they’re bringing to the world that’s uniquely different and special compared to other people? And when you can get out your own head and see that, that that’s of value to others, I think that can be a way that makes it a little bit more compelling to get out your comfort zone and try it out.

What 

Jewels: would you say to those people who are a little bit afraid to share some of their backstories? You know, I think some of the most personally, I think a lot of the most interesting aspects of, you know, talking to people and their backstories is not just the amazing adventures that they’ve had, which are all great as well, but some of the.

That, you know, some of the down moments as well, some of the struggles they’ve had, some of the, you know, the obstacles and the hurdles they’ve had to go about to get to where they are today. And perhaps they’re still going through some of those struggles. What do you say to somebody who’s a little bit afraid to be that vulnerable in, in those sorts of public forums and public situations?

Sue: Well, there’s two things I would say. One is to tell a story around that in that I interviewed recently Bertrand Piccard, who’s the first man to fly around the world in a solar powered airplane. If you remember that a few years ago, he speaks to world leaders, you know, industry decision makers, global influencers on a regular basis as a speaker.

And I asked him, how do you get them to change? Because you want them to change. He says, I’ve got to be vulnerable first. If I want to influence somebody else to change, I’ve got to do it first. He said, and I used to go and present and tell them all about the success of this, these trips I’ve done. And everybody always wanted to know about the problems.

So I’ve created a whole talk now about the things that went wrong. He said, and that’s much more compelling for the listener. So I’ve heard it from somebody like him, that being vulnerable is really important. And I think from just a way of doing that is I’ve learned when I feel those butterflies in my stomach, when I feel like this is like really uncomfortable, that’s exactly the moment you need to lean in because afterwards, the impact sometimes that that can have on others is it’s, it’s at an emotional level that it doesn’t connect you with people in quite the same way otherwise.

I have also heard of the unintended consequences that come out of that. One person I know as a senior leader in an organization that shared some personal information. And it kind of wobbled the organization when they were so public about the things that weren’t working for them, the struggles they were facing.

So I think there’s also a, just a mindfulness, an awareness of how and what you’re sharing and what you, sort of almost to think through the consequences. with an objectivity and not with a kind of skewed judgment. I think we often say, well, we think of all the bad things that can happen if we share.

There’s also then being objective about what are the good things that can happen and then out of that, maybe you don’t spill your guts about your whole life and everything else that’s gone wrong. But you start with something small, just sharing a small vulnerability, or even just saying, I don’t know, when somebody asks you a question, you know, that’s a way to practice being vulnerable.

So I think that it connects, it makes us, it builds trust with other people and it builds connectedness. And I’m sure, you know, you’re, you’re well aware of that and that’s why 

Jewels: it’s important. So that is a perfect segue into my final question for you. You say that the only person stopping you is you.

What’s the most common obstacle that stops people stepping into the unknown? 

Sue: I think I just named it there is judgment, judgment of ourselves. So we, we’ve got to be able to remove that judgment and come at our life with curiosity. And as I mentioned earlier, we only have one life. So if you miss an opportunity, if you miss a chance to be curious and try something new, then, you know, maybe that opportunity won’t come around again.

So sometimes we don’t realize, I think, the value of the life that we have here on Earth until, as I say, a loved one dies or something, we have some, you know, potential life threatening incident ourselves, which I wouldn’t wish upon anybody. But just don’t always take the opportunity for granted because that time might not come again.

So find a way to just let the judgment go to the side and just come at the situation with curiosity and say, what’s the worst that can happen if I just take this little first step forward? Let’s see what could be possible. 

Jewels: So you’ve shared some absolute gold. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today to spend it on my little podcast.

Where can the audience find out a little bit more about you? 

Sue: Well, there’s two ways, suestockdale.com is my website and all the social media links are on there. Pretty much all Sue Stockdale to search for the, the tags and access to inspiration. org. We’ll have our inspirational podcast there 

Jewels: too. Fabulous.

I’ll put all that in the show notes. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. 

Sue: Oh, it’s been lovely. Thanks for the conversation.

Jewels: I love how Sue described what started her on her adventures, freedom, resourcefulness and exploring what’s possible. Sue’s sense of curiosity is palpable, and how one is thinking is directly related to your performance. Much love, chat soon.