Fiona Thomas: Mental Health at Work, Freedom via Freelancing, and Being Your Own Boss Without Burnout

The Breathe Like A Badass Podcast

This week, I'm talking to Fiona Thomas, a freelance writer based in Birmingham.

Her first book is a mental health memoir called Depression in a Digital Age and her second is a guide to freelancing called Out of Office (available to pre-order now!).

In this episode, we dig deep on how to navigate the world of work when you have mental health issues - or even if you’re just a normal, living, breathing, emotional human! - and how and why so many women have finally decided that being their own boss is preferable to office politics and business burnout.

We talked about:

• Fiona’s journey from being signed off with depression and burnout at work, to finding a new career online and making a living as a writer and course creator
• How adulthood is so often about “unlearning” everything we thought we were “supposed” to be doing
• How to be yourself at work - or, how to start a new career in freelancing, even if you feel as though you’re not good enough, not ready, or not qualified
• How to show up as yourself online, and how being honest helps others to live their purpose too
• Giving yourself permission to dream big
• The problem with “toxic positivity” and why we all need to learn to just “feel our feelings”
• Learning to know yourself, whether you’re introverted or extroverted or somewhere in between

And how to make your work work for you...and not the other way around!

Show Notes: References and links mentioned in this episode

• Fiona’s books: Depression in a Digital Age and Out of Office
• Quote from Anais Nin: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
• The book Mad Girl, by Bryony Gordon
• The book Ctrl; Alt; Delete, by Emma Gannon
• Trigger Publishing, Fiona’s publisher
• The book Quiet by Susan Cain

Find out more about Fiona:

• Website: Fionalikestoblog.com
• Instagram: @fionalikestoblog

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Can't wait to see you there!

Thanks for listening, Hannah x