The Sisterhood....In Session

Ann started her career in the NHS, first as a nurse and then a health visitor but chose to leave at the age of 52 for the sake of her mental health as the stress of the job had taken its toll and she wasn't prepared to carry on and risk all. She then entered the world of self employment first providing consultancy aand training services to NHS organisations, then trained as a life coach and ran a coaching business for about eight years. During that time she wrote her story in a self coaching book called "Journey to Chocolate". In 2011 she joined Arbonne as an independent consultant to earn some extra money to visit her daughter & grandson in the states and has run that business for the last 15 years. Now at 76, recognising the impact stress has had on her health, she has added on a self care element to that business to use her extensive knowledge and lived experience to help women create simple self care routines to fit into their busy lives so that they can thrive in business and in life.Join Ann's Facebook Group HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

* PLEASE NOTE - in this episode we discuss childhood and adult trauma and the death of loved ones.*Carol Hickson is a therapist, life coach and trainer based in North Wales, working with clients across the UK both in person and online. Her specialities include individual therapy, life coaching and workplace mental health training. She is also the author of The Resilience Template – 7 Steps to Improve Your Mental Health and Beeston The Anxious Pup.Carol spent over fifteen years in pastoral and teaching roles in secondary and primary education. When that no longer inspired her, she re-qualified as a multi-disciplined therapist and life coach. Recognising how little solid information, and how much misinformation, there is around mental health, she went on to create community and workplace training alongside her one-to-one work.Her practice is firmly science and evidence based, an approach that helped her make sense of her own mental health challenges. Carol has struggled with anxiety at different points in her life, much of it rooted in a difficult childhood. For a long time she wasn’t ready to explore that link, and could be defensive when anyone suggested it. She now knows how deeply unresolved childhood trauma can affect adult lives.The turning point came with more than four years of chronic insomnia that left her struggling to function. At the same time, she was a disabled blue badge holder living with chronic pain from five prolapsed discs. She knew stress worsened pain, but had no idea just how much it was affecting her symptoms, so she took her prescribed medication and resigned herself to a restricted life. Then she lost her mother, and the whole history of her mental health began to unravel.Today, Carol is determined to share what she knows about mental health, stress and their impact on the body. Three key drivers sit behind her work:The effect of childhood and adult traumaChronic pain and how to manage it betterInsomnia, supporting people to understand and manage the conditionHer purpose is to help each client build a toolbox they can use to transform their lives, drawing on hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), ACT, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).Carol believes anxious and stressed people are not broken or helpless. They’re often incredibly strong people living under the weight of old experiences and old expectations. In her words, we’re superheroes, and it’s time we recognised that in ourselves. She loves what she does because she helps people get unstuck, and for her there’s nothing more rewarding.Find out more about Carol and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Nash is a mum, wife, kinship carer, independent midwife and entrepreneur who is navigating a chapter of life she hadn't quite anticipated!She became a mum at just 18 and went on to build a career in midwifery, spending 17 years working within the NHS. Caring for women and families has always been a huge part of who she is, and something she remains incredibly passionate about.In 2024, Nash's life changed significantly following the sudden loss of her younger sister, Charlene. Honouring her sister's wishes, Nash and her husband took on the responsibility of raising her three youngest children alongside their own two youngest children.Suddenly navigating life as a household of seven, whilst balancing motherhood, marriage, grief and a demanding career, Nash found herself having to rethink what life and work could realistically look like.Eventually, she made the difficult decision to leave the NHS. Not because she'd stopped loving midwifery, but because her family circumstances meant she needed greater flexibility and a different way of working.She continued her passion for supporting women through her independent midwifery practice, The Wellness Midwife, offering personalised antenatal and postnatal care.But somewhere along the way, Nash also began reconnecting with other parts of herself. The woman who has always loved music, dancing, travelling, meeting people and simply enjoying life!This led her to create The Move Social, a dance fitness and social community that brings people together through movement, music, laughter and genuine connection. It's about so much more than exercise. It's about creating a space where people can turn up as themselves, have fun, make connections and leave feeling good.Through her personal platform, Nash et al, she also shares her experiences of motherhood, kinship care, womanhood, midlife and the many different roles women find themselves navigating.Now in her late forties, Nash is embracing the idea that life doesn't have to follow one particular path. She's learning that it's possible to love and appreciate the life you've built whilst still wanting to explore new possibilities, rediscover old passions and create something entirely different.Her journey is one of unexpected change, evolving identity, community, ambition and, perhaps most importantly, making room for joy along the way.You can find out more about Nash and The Move Social HERE.And The Wellness Midwife HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Daisy Ferns is a business owner who has built multiple businesses to six figures using one core skill: consistent, conversation-led lead generation.She helps business owners create predictable sales without relying on viral content or massive audiences, using simple systems that support real conversations, thoughtful follow-up, and sustainable growth. Her approach is practical, relationship-driven and rooted in real experience.At the centre of her work is a simple belief: growth comes from connection. Daisy shows founders how to build it, nurture it and turn it into sales.Daisy’s career has always been about people, relationships and conversations, although it took her a while to realise that those things would eventually become the foundation of her own business.After studying teaching secondary humanities for four years, she spent around a decade working at the University of Nottingham, which she loved. Her route into business wasn’t a carefully mapped-out plan. Like many women, becoming a mum changed what she wanted from work. She wanted a career she loved and could be ambitious about, but she also wanted the flexibility to be there for her two children. She started her business as a sleep therapist, working around family life (including homeschooling a reception aged daughter while home with a newborn during the pandemic) and over the course of the next few years gradually found her niche in lead generation and sales. She discovered this was something she did very naturally, starting conversations, building relationships and spotting opportunities - something she noticed other business owners struggled with.Today, Daisy helps businesses create more sales opportunities through relationship-led lead generation and business development.She’s particularly passionate about proving that lead generation doesn’t have to mean cold, spammy messages or pushy sales tactics. Her approach is built around genuine conversations, understanding people and being brave enough to actually ask for the sale.Her journey hasn’t been a straight line, either personally or professionally. She’s navigated motherhood, significant health challenges, the inevitable ups and downs of running a business, and the constant juggle of being ambitious while also being the default parent working within school hours.Now, as she enters her forties, Daisy is increasingly unapologetic about wanting both. She wants to build a big, profitable business and make a meaningful difference to the people she works with, while still being the mum at sports day, going out for dinner with her family at the weekend and creating a life she actually gets to enjoy.For Daisy, the biggest shift has been realising that ambition and a good life don’t have to be competing goals. The business has evolved enormously from where it started, but the thing at the heart of it hasn’t changed: great relationships create opportunities, and sometimes one conversation really can change everything.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Jade is a mother of two, offshore wife, actor and working business owner in Parent & Sleep Coaching. Over the last five years she has been transforming families through positive solutions to the toughest of sleep challenges, becoming a renowned expert in Toddler & ADHD sleep.Now qualifying in TQUK Level 5 Parent Coaching, Jade helps working parents move from 'holding everything together' to creating a family life where everyone can thrive, without sacrificing their career, health or wellbeing using her RESET framework.Jade's journey into her business started after rollercoaster sleep challenges with her own children. From toddler Bedtime struggles to her youngest struggling in the nights as a baby. She decided then that she wanted to retrain, qualify and support other families going through extreme deprivation. Since qualifying, she has transformed over 300 families 1:1!However, behind the scenes it wasn't easy. As a working parent in the early days, taking on a full time role on part time hours led to panic attacks in the workplace. Fast forwarding a few years later, between juggling business and a part time job she found herself at conplete burnout. One morning she got up to go for a shower, and within seconds she completely blacked out and fell to the ground. She knew then that her body was no longer coping with the exceeding demands of work, business and parenting life. She handed in her notice a few days later and has been working full time on her business since then instead. It was scary, but an eye opener that we all have capacity limits and she was beyond hers.This has inspired Jade to gain extra qualifications in parent coaching to support working parents in the overwhelm, the mental load and finding sustainable lifestyles and improving parent capacity so we can show up as the parent we want to be.Find out more about Jade and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Jen Lister is a Business Strategist, Coach, and Speaker and her mission is to help business owners create full-time businesses with part-time hours, giving them more time for family, fun and freedom. Jen is hugely passionate about creating a strategy unique to each business owner and empowering clients to achieve sustainable growth on their terms. A big lover of adventure and spending time in nature, she loves mountain biking and paddle boarding with the family - her happy place.Jen started out in the corporate world back in 2008, and after nearly a decade of working in Strategy across London and Sydney, she decided to take a plunge and start running businesses. The last 10 years in the entrepreneurial world has been full of ups and downs. From selling businesses, to building them around a young family, and now 5 years into Jen Lister Strategy, she truly feels like she's working fully in alignment with such incredible clients.Find out more about Jen and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

* PLEASE NOTE - in this episode we discuss drug abuse and addiction and suicide *Sarah McCalden works with business owners and entrepreneurs to close the gap between knowing what could move their business forward and actually doing it.Her work sits at the intersection of business growth, human behaviour and personal development, exploring how identity, beliefs, confidence and financial behaviour influence the decisions we make, the actions we take and ultimately the businesses — and lives — we create.Sarah has commissioned academic research with Newcastle University into financial behaviour and wellbeing and has spent years developing her own tools and frameworks around behaviour, decision-making and meaningful change.She is the founder of Business Momentum Mastermind and the Financial Wellbeing Club, and writes about business, money, behaviour and human potential on her Substack, Far More Than Money.Sarah’s story is one of extraordinary change — and it has shaped a lifelong fascination with identity, human potential and just how much a person can transform what they believe is possible for themselves.Earlier in her life, Sarah experienced a life-threatening drug addiction. The person she was then and the life she was living bear very little resemblance to the life she has built since. She recovered, went on to become an ultramarathon runner, built businesses and developed a career centred around helping other people create change in their own lives and businesses.Those experiences left Sarah fascinated by some much bigger questions. Who do we believe we are? Where does that identity come from? How much does it determine the choices we make and the opportunities we believe are available to us? And if our identity can change, how much more of our potential might become possible?Those questions have become a thread running through her life and work. Sarah has spent years working at the intersection of personal development, money, financial behaviour and business growth, and commissioned academic research with Newcastle University into financial behaviour and wellbeing. Along the way, she has developed her own tools and frameworks exploring the relationship between identity, beliefs, behaviour, decisions, action and the results we create.Today, Sarah works primarily with business owners and entrepreneurs. She is fascinated by the fact that knowing what to do is rarely the whole answer. Someone can know they need to make the offer, raise the price, become more visible, have the conversation or pursue a bigger opportunity — and still not do it. Her work explores what is happening underneath those decisions and helps people close the gap between what they know they are capable of and the actions they are actually taking.At the heart of it all is the question Sarah’s own life has repeatedly brought her back to: how much of our potential remains unrealised simply because of who we currently believe ourselves to be?Find at more about Sarah and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Emma Eirene is the founder of The Business Misfit Network, Misfit Nation, Business Misfit Magazine, and The Embodied CEO™ Academy.A speaker, author, artist and business mentor, she is known for challenging hustle culture and redefining success through pleasure-led leadership — helping women lead, sell and scale from self-trust instead of self-sacrifice.Author of Unfuckwithable and creator of The Pleasure Code™, Emma’s work sits at the intersection of ambition, embodiment and creative rebellion.Emma journey began with what looked like success on paper, but felt deeply out of alignment in reality. After experiencing a major personal awakening and choosing to rebuild her life from truth, she walked away from a long-term career, a marriage, and the version of herself she had outgrown. What followed was a bold reinvention rooted in self-trust, creativity and courage.She went on to build The Business Misfit Network, create live events such as Misfit Nation, launch Business Misfit Magazine, and found The Embodied CEO™ Academy — spaces designed to help women build success on their own terms. Alongside this, she wrote her book Unfuckwithable, sharing her philosophy that true power comes not from perfection or performance, but from learning to trust yourself fully.Today, Emma’s work helps ambitious women lead, sell and scale through pleasure rather than pressure, proving that sometimes the most beautiful life begins when everything falls apart.Find out more about Emma and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Lisa Newport is a speaker, author and creator of the Funky Diva Vibes® movement and the woman behind the Sausage Machine of Conformity.Drawing on a career spanning fashion and textile design, lecturing, education management and coaching, Lisa explores the tiny, ordinary ways we quietly squish ourselves to fit in - and how those seemingly insignificant moments can gradually shape our identity.Through her Spot the Squish approach, she challenges the invisible rules about how we're supposed to dress, behave, speak, lead, age and live, emboldening people to question the shoulds, make choices that feel more like them and sizzle into their Funky Diva energy.Lisa’s journey has been anything but linear. She started out as a fashion and textile designer after graduating from art school in the 1980s, before moving into lecturing, sales and eventually education management -including running the education department in a prison.After returning to self-employment, she became known for her work around colour, personal style and confidence, later moving into personal branding and visibility. But over time, Lisa realised the common thread running through her seemingly eclectic career had never really been clothes, education or even confidence. It was identity - and what happens when people feel able to express who they really are.Her own journey has played a big part in that discovery. Lisa talks openly about her “Treble F” years - Fat, Fed Up and Frumpy - when she felt she’d lost sight of herself, and the gradual process of rediscovering her creativity, preferences, voice and joy.That journey eventually led to Funky Diva Vibes® and her slightly ridiculous but surprisingly profound Sausage Machine of Conformity - Lisa’s metaphor for all those expectations, shoulds and invisible rules we absorb about how we’re supposed to dress, behave, speak, lead, age and live.Now in her early 60s, Lisa brings together nearly four decades of experience through speaking, workshops and creative experiences. Her work encourages people to Spot the Squish, question the shoulds they’ve accumulated along the way and feel emboldened to make choices that feel more like themselves.Find out more about Lisa and her work HERE.You have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!

Julia had an extremely successful career as a Senior Leader for over 3 decades in the global Fashion Business. Leading large teams and navigating the unique challenges that come with being a woman rising up the corporate ladder. She was struck that whilst the industry is dominated by women, she found that this was not reflected in the heights they rose to and often found herself to be the only woman sitting at the top table. This inspired her to pivot at the age of 51 and she trained as a Coach. She had moved her family to Melbourne for work but decided to return and set up Julia Darlington Coaching & Consulting 10 years ago. With over three decades of international experience as a Senior Executive in the Fashion & Lifestyle industries, combined with her credentials as a qualified Business and Leadership Coach Julia specialises in empowering ambitious women in mid-life to lead both themselves and others fearlessly with unwavering confidence and soul led purpose. As a Creative Strategist she helps them to successfully navigate pivotal life and leadership transitions such as stepping up into Senior Leadership, Redundancy, career pivots and Peri/menopause. She helps women to achieve clarity of their true purpose and life vision and build rock solid inner confidence and self-belief. To overcome their fears, identifying and removing the barriers that hold them back so that they can achieve the professional recognition, financial success and personal fulfilment that they desire and deserve. Whether leading corporate strategies, building businesses, or navigating life’s crossroads, she partners with them as their trusted woman in the wings to define what they truly want and create a unique strategy to reach it. To stop playing small, feel emboldened and live a life they love.You can find out more about Julia and her work here:-https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliadarlington/https://www.juliadarlington.comhttps://www.instagram.com/jjdarlington/https://www.facebook.com/jjdarlingtoncoachingconsultingAnd you can also download her FREE GUIDE - Unshakable Confidence: 7 Essential Steps To Unlock Your Powerhttps://www.juliadarlington.com/the-7-essential-steps-to-unlock-your-power-guideYou have been listening to The Sisterhood....In Session Podcast - thank you so much for joining us!The Sisterhood Networking Group is an award winning franchise with branches in many locations across the UK.We are passionate about changing the face of in person networking, our goal being to make it as accessible and affordable for as many as possible.Nothing local for you to attend? Why not consider becoming a franchisee and host your own groups?! Just like our meetings, the opportunity is affordable and no experience is necessary. Plus you get to promote the day job at the same time. What’s not to love?!! Fancy adding some online networking into the mix?! You can join me Sarah Ridge for my FREE sessions twice a month.For more information on everything I’ve just mentioned just head to our website HERE. Thanks for listening!!