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Ali Millar and Penny Wincer are not too busy to write. Except of course, sometimes they’re too busy to write as much as they would like. Join Ali and Penny as they navigate the world of writing, publishing and creativity whilst juggling the demands of motherhood, caring and other paid work, without losing themselves in the process. They’ll be discussing the challenges that often get in the way of sitting down to write, interviewing fellow authors and discussing their latest reads. They'll al ...
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
Sas Petherick
Hey guys and gals and non-binary pals! Courage + Spice is the podcast for humans with self-doubt, hosted by me: Sas Petherick. I literally have a masters degree in self-doubt and I've spent almost a decade coaching hundreds of people how to develop robust self-belief. You can expect interviews with delightful humans, evidence-based resources and original proven coaching tools. If self-doubt is holding you back in your relationships, career, creativity or your business, Courage + Spice is esp ...
Penny Wincer is an author, freelance writer, and book coach based in London. She writes about unpaid caring, raising a neurodiverse family, working life, and approaching life’s challenges with curiosity. Her book, “Tender: The imperfect art of caring” is just brilliant. I’m delighted to have Penny as a guest on Courage + Spice today as we explore h…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Chloe Ashby on writing about art, grief and being seen
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41:25
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Chloe Ashby is an arts journalist and author based in London. Her debut novel Wet Paint is about a young woman struggling to move forward after the traumatic death of her best friend, who finds solace in a painting and a life of routine, until a sudden change of circumstances has her undressing for strangers as a life model. We talk about ways of f…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Ilona Bannister on writing challenging women
40:21
40:21
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Ilona Bannister's second novel Little Prisons, is set in one building, from four perspectives, each one a woman experiencing a kind of imprisonment. Emotional, mental and literal. Ilona is our first return guest on the podcast and we discuss the difference between the experience of writing book one and book two, the complex literary devices she use…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Check-in on my Word of the Year: Disappointment
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This is my last episode before a summer break with my lady friends so I thought it would be great for this episode to check in on my word of the year: Disappointment. I chose to play with disappointment in 2022 because I recognised it to be the psychological risk I’m most sensitive to. My self doubt is always trying to protect me from being disappo…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Mothering and Friendship with Lisa Mabberley
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42:36
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Today's episode is in response to two listener letters on issues that affect so many of us, mothering and friendship. I have guest Lisa Mabberley on the show today to share her expertise as a self-belief coach who works with people impacted by issues surrounding motherhood. Thank you to Angela and Jen for trusting us with their stories. So what’s t…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Four Myths and a Truth about Self-compassion
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27:42
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If there is only one idea that will help you navigate the path from self-doubt to self-belief – it’s compassion. It can feel so normal to criticize ourselves when things go wrong and blame everything on our own shortcomings, but embracing self-compassion can be a gamechanger. So what’s this episode really about? Why compassion is so important and w…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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You can sit with us: Self-doubt and the Sisterhood Wound
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30:34
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In this week's solo episode, I wanted to share something that feels particularly alive to me right now: female friendships. I have just returned from a weekend ‘self-love’ retreat hosted by past podcast guest Karen Johnston (you can check out my interview with the marvellous Karen in episode 94) and my three beloved friends, Pippa, Philippa and Hel…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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From baker to nurse: the courage to change career with Zoe Berkeley
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So many of us spend years as an employee, hankering to turn our passions into a business. But what happens when your longings are to give up the self-employed life and join an organisation? In this week's episode, I have the pleasure of talking to Zoe Berkeley: baker turned palliative care nurse. I met Zoe ages ago in her bakery in North London and…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Self-doubt is an unreliable narrator and one question to turn it around
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In this week's solo episode, we explore how Self-doubt shows up as an 'unreliable narrator'. This means it will offer us a lot of stories and ideas that are not based on evidence and fact. When we don't question these stories, we end up making decisions from a place of trying to avoid discomfort. Long time podcast listeners will know that I charact…
Anna Lovind is a writer, creativity teacher and mother living in rural Sweden. She is an introverted entrepreneur who helps feminist creatives & change-makers go from dreaming to doing. We have so many crossovers of creation, from creativity and self-doubt, I am absolutely delighted to have her as a guest on Courage + Spice! So what’s this episode …
Hey folks, the episode contains references to drug use so please be mindful of where you are listening in. In this episode, I am sharing a very personal experience. Just before the new year, I went on a solo retreat and with the support of a guide, I took psychedelic mushrooms for the first time. Psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in mushroo…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Sophie Howarth - on writing about art and the joy being an amateur
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40:28
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Sophie Howarth has a varied and unique career spanning art, entrepreneurship, teaching, activism and writing. She has been Curator of Public Programs at Tate Modern, co-founded The School Of Life and Department Store for The Mind, has written several books on photography. Her latest book The Mindful Photographer is about slowing down and paying att…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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The four times Self-doubt comes up for Coaches (and how to navigate them)
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This week, I thought it would be super helpful for us, as practitioners, to talk through the evolution of our work: namely the 4 times self-doubt shows up for us and how we can navigate these experiences. What I’ve come to experience and I hope you have too, is that our work is never linear. This week's episode explores my own coaching life and the…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Sian Meades-Williams on freelancing writing, making money and newsletter love
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58:48
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Sian Meades-Williams is the brains (and muscle) behind the hugely popular Freelance Writing Jobs newsletter and co-founder of the award winning lifestyle newsletter Tigers Are Better Looking (formerly Domestic Sluttery). In today's episode we discuss Sian's new book The Pyjama Myth: The Freelance Writer's Survival Guide - an indispensable guide for…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Developmentally Minded: How Self-belief Coaching gets to the root causes
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In this week's solo episode, I talk in-depth about Self-belief coaching and how it differs from mainstream coaching. When we first train in the fundamentals of coaching, we tend to focus a lot on thoughts, feelings and actions - what our clients think and feel and what they do as a result. Don’t get me wrong, this is amazing! There are huge gains t…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Maggie Gee on Empathy, language, and the non-human in fiction.
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In this episode Maggie Gee reads extracts from her stunning new novel, The Red Children (Saqi Books). Set in the near future against a backdrop of increased migration pressure, climate change and increasing isolation, The Red Children explores themes of far right extremism and the aftermath of virus. Ali talks to Maggie about the enduring power of …
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Coaching as Ancient Feminine Wisdom with Lianne Raymond
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It’s my delight to welcome this week's podcast guest, my wise, brilliant friend Lianne Raymond. Lianne is a coach, mentor and educator, who re-imagines coaching as a feminine wisdom tradition. She mentors coaches and women leaders, so she is truly the perfect guest for this week: we are talking about coaching as a catalyst for accent feminine wisdo…
Scott Robson is my brother from another mother and my wingman, he is the head support coach of my Self Belief Coaching Academy - an entrepreneurial and marketing coach, creative and connector who supports leaders in the very human experience that is running a business. I don’t quite know what life was like without Scott and I hope I never need to f…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Quantum Self-belief Codes with Pandora Paloma
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In this week's episode, my guest is life and business coach, author and speaker Pandora Paloma. What Pandora does so beautifully, is combine spirituality with strategy; I love how she shows up, inviting us to claim all of ourselves. I myself have been opening up more and more to dancing with the mystery of life - so I’ve been so excited to talk wit…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Lizzie Damilola Blackburn on romantic comedies and writing the character you couldn't find
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34:05
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Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's debut novel Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? tells the story of 31 yr old British-Nigerian Yinka, who is feeling the pressure to settle down. When she finds out her ex-boyfriend is bringing his new fiance to her cousins wedding, she decides to go on a mission to find herself a plus one for the big day. Lizzie and Penny chat…
You are in for a treat folks - in this week's episode I am joined by not one, but three wonderful coaches: Liz Keifer, Susan Sutherland and Marion Langford. They work with leaders, midlife people and people who want to show up as their true selves. Liz, Susan and Marion are are effervescent, laugh out loud funny, and full of wisdom and experience. …
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Clover Stroud - Death, life and writing memoir in real time
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Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times best selling author of a number of books including The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless Nights. Her latest book, The Red of My Blood, is the story of her sister Nell's death and the immediate aftermath. Clover talks about how her writing benefits from the immediacy of writing in real time and how it felt natural …
How do we as practitioners, work with our own self-doubt? After three rounds of the Self-Belief Coaching Academy, what I know is that coaches, therapists, counsellors and mentors experience a lot of Very Understandable self-doubt. We are always learning the craft of coaching while building a business - these are bot complex tasks and most of us fee…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Doreen Cunningham on nature, climate change and motherhood
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36:22
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Doreen Cunningham began her a career as a climate science researcher and has spent the last 20 years as a journalist. Her memoir, Soundings: Journeys in the company of whales, is the story of her experiences follow the grey whale migration from Mexico to Alaska as a newly single parent with her very young son in tow. Woven into the book is the stor…
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Writing the Literary Memoir with Lily Dunn
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In this week's episode Ali talks to Lily Dunn, the author of Sins of my Father (W&N, 17th March) about the craft of memoir. Together they discuss how narrative techniques can be used to move the form past expected norms, taking the personal into the realms of the universal, how the 'I' on the page differs from the 'I' in every day life, and how at …
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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My dream come true: a decade long, wildly imperfect path to success
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It's the 100th episode of Courage + Spice (how did that happen?!) so I’m sharing my 10 year business journey with you all this week. It starts with a poem that I wrote one Sunday night with the Monday dreads and brings us to today with the fourth class of the Self-belief Coaching Academy opening for enrolment, and Self-Belief School about to run fo…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Abigail Bergstrom - debut novelist and literary agent
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Abigail Bergstrom is a literary agent and consultant, former editor, and now debut novelist. What A Shame is a darkly funny novel about grief, friendship and dabbling in the occult. Abigail talks about the challenges of having a lot of knowledge of the industry whilst writing and having to take her agent hat off in order to write, removing the cons…
I’m thrilled to be talking with Bear Hebert today. They are an anti-capitalist business coach and radical consultant and social justice educator. Bear also has a side hustle teaching men how to unlearn patriarchal bad behaviour. I just love Bear’s work, I am so glad they are here. Last year I purchased Freely – Bear’s anti-capitalist guide to prici…
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Not Too Busy To Write
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Different phases of writing and juggling multiple projects
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Our writing lives don't always look the same. Depending on which phase you're in, drafting, editing, submitting, publishing or promoting - our rhythms and routines change according to what phase we are in. Ali and Penny are currently in different phases to each other and to where they each were a year ago. Today's episode is about where they are at…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Making a healthy marriage with Maggie Reyes
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Maggie Reyes is a marriage coach who specialises in helping Type A women have better marriages - without waiting for their partners to do something and without adding to their already jam-packed lives. I’ve known Maggie for years and years and this is the second time we’ve chatted, talk about the OG’s of the coaching world! I really hope you enjoy …
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Charmaine Wilkerson on her fiction debut Black Cake
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Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets. Charmaine discusses the layering of multiple timelines, much like the layering of a cake or the layering of conversation. She also talks about channeling the characters, allowing herself to follow t…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Listener letter: decision making and self-doubt
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We’ve got something a little different this week - I’m thrilled to have a few letters coming in from you folks and these are both related to self-doubt and decision making. Thank you so much for trusting me with your questions! I just want to re- assure all my listeners who are grappling with a specific decision like my listener Rosie, or you reson…
Episode 96: Teens + Self-belief with Maria Evans I’m here this week with the one and only Maria Evans, a coach and mentor for teens, helping them to own their future, take on challenges in the times ahead as well as making sense of the ones they are dealing with now. I’ve been so excited to talk with Maria because if there is one thing I get asked …
Word of the year but make it disco Welcome to 2022 If you are tuning into this episode in real time I hope you got what you needed from the holiday break. I actually rested - last summer i practiced rest and slowing down with mixed results. My over functioning self that spent decades finding safety in doing was not very good at not doing. Over Chri…
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Write It All Down - life writing with Cathy Rentzenbrink
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Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book, Write It All Down, is all about writing from life. Cathy talks about how her first memoir started because she need to write it out of her, how she's learned to trust the process of writi…
It's that time of the year and Ali and Penny have a chat about where they are at with their writing projects and if they are where they hoped they would be. They talk about some big successes and failures, places where the path diverged and where writing projects went off in a new direction. They talk about letting go of projects as well as taking …
A bit of a tongue in cheek question this week... Where do ideas come from? Ali and Penny talk all about ideas, sniffing them out like a blood hound, scratching away at them to see if they are interesting and following our curiosity. For us both, it's all about interacting with the external world and creating a habit of looking for and developing id…
Ali and Penny come together to discuss life writing this week. They have both used different approaches to life writing and they discuss why they made the choices they did and how they might do it differently in the future. It's also an episode in which Ali reveals she doesn't really like memoirs (even though she just wrote one) and Penny that she …
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Goodbyes are hard: grief, loss and endings
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As we come to the end of 2021, we have almost 150 thousand families in the UK grieving the loss of loved ones from Covid19, about 1 in 4 people are looking to change their job in the next 12 months and divorces and separations have massively increased over this pandemic period. I know for many of us there is grief, loss and endings in many shapes a…
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Julia Silk - Literary agent on finding and supporting authors
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Julia Silk is a an agent with Charlie Campbell Literary Agents. Julia spent many years as an editor before becoming an agent who represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction authors. We talk about what exactly an agent does, how agents find and nurture authors as well as how agents deal with rejection (yes they get rejected too!). She also ta…
Content warning: this episode contains a discussion about dysfunctional relationships with alcohol that may be difficult for folks new to recovery. Whenever I talk about my sobriety on Instagram I get a tonne of DM’s, so I’m overjoyed to have the wonderful Karen Johnston, champion of self-love, self-care and self-compassion, on the podcast today. K…
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Huma Qureshi - on short stories and taking your fiction seriously
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Huma Qureshi is a former Guardian and Observer journalist and is the author of the memoir How We Met and her latest book Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, is a short story collection about the distance between people - between mothers and daughters and between lovers. It includes the "The Jam Maker" which won the Harper's Bazaar Short Story…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Why your ducks aren't in a row with Pippa Parfait
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It was love at first sight with this weeks guest, the glorious Pippa Parfait. We met a dozen moons ago at a posh party in London and we have been firm friends ever since. Pippa has had decades of experience before she retrained as a coach, leading big teams and sorting out big companies. This super resourceful lady now runs Disobedient Business, is…
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Claire Lynch - experimental memoir, perspective shifts and motherhoods
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Claire Lynch is an author and academic whose first book Small: On Motherhoods is a memoir about her experience of becoming a parent and the tiny things that are really the biggest things in life. We talk about finding a structure that reflect what the book is about, perspectives in both life and the page and the joy of capturing those early childho…
This episode is about, self-doubt, love, attachment theory and…burgers! If you're sad at the prospect of being alone forever, terrified of settling for someone you don’t really like anymore, if you are convinced that there is only one true soul mate out there for you, if you are dating complete arses, or Insta stalking your ex, if you feel like the…
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Courage and Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt
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Tender-hearted Human Business with Suzy Darke
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Dr Suzy Darke is a business coach like no other! I see her growing a quiet rebellion, inviting us to challenge the kinds of practices we all take for granted as business owners. Suzy is a coach, a mentor, a writer and she’s also a graduate of the Self-Belief Coaching Academy! Having spent six months in her company I’ve found her to be deeply empath…
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Evie Wyld - on awards, writing about male violence and how motherhood changes your writing
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Evie Wyld is an award winning author of three novels, the latest of which, The Bass Rock, won the Stella Prize 2021. We discuss writing a novel about male violence against a backdrop of #MeToo, and speaking about the subjects in the book in a year of highly publicised violence against women. We also talk about how motherhood, and the nature of writ…
It’s my birthday week - I'm 48 - and I thought I’d share five big birthday thoughts for you. This episode is a bit sweary so one for your earphones if you have little ones around. So what's this episode really about? Life is RIDICULOUS - and we are constantly making this up. We are in this super interesting time of trying to identify ourselves - al…
Ali and Penny discuss the pros and cons (yes there are sometimes cons!) of being in a writers group. What are they best for? How do you find one? Or better yet, how do you put one together. A packed episode and we suspect, a topic we will come back to again. Links Sweet Home - Wendy Erskine Intimacies - Lucy Caldwell…
Hello folks if you aren’t following Keri Jarvis on Instagram then what are you even doing here?! Keri is an audacious feminist, a socialist, a speaker and leader of courses and business masterminds and a self belief coach. But more importantly, she a coach who is hear to answer, ‘who do you think you are?’ We have just spent the last six months tog…
