108. Stop Waiting to Be Invited: How to Step Into Your Own Spotlight with Sandra Garlick

What does it really take to be seen, heard and celebrated in business? In this episode, Charlotte sits down with the incredible Sandra Garlick MBE, speaker mentor, visibility strategist and founder of the Women Who Awards, a woman who has worked with over 10,000 women and helped them step into their spotlight with confidence and authenticity.

Sandra shares the fascinating story of how a broken ankle sparked a business idea that became a movement, why she believes confidence is built rather than born, and what it truly means to succeed on your own terms. They also get honest about burnout, boundaries and the art of protecting your energy whilst still showing up fully for the work you love.

If you've ever held yourself back because you didn't think you were ready, good enough or worth celebrating, this conversation is for you. Practical, warm and utterly inspiring, Sandra is proof that when you stop waiting to be invited and take the leap yourself, your world changes!

CONNECT WITH SANDRA:

Website: https://sandragarlick.com

Woman Who: https://womanwho.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandraGarlickMBE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandragarlickmbe

CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE:

Book A Call: Ready to close your energy loops? Book a free 30-minute call with Charlotte here: https://calendar.idaretoleap.com/widget/bookings/discovery-with-charlotte

Website: https://www.idaretoleap.com

Transcript

Stop Waiting To Be Invited

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I think that the the core is it's so many women believe that they haven't got anything to share, or that they're not good enough, or they're not ready yet, or why them, um, you know, somebody else is so much better than me. And they sit back and they wait to be invited. And sometimes if you sit what back and wait to be invited, it's n it's not gonna happen, sadly. You have to just get over yourself and basically take that leap, and I help them see that, and I help them see, dig down, and find that they have got something to stay.

Welcome And Meet Sandra

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Energy of Success. This is an episode where I am bringing in a hand-selected guest. Now, the criteria that I have when I am picking people is obviously it's energetic, but there's a piece around them being just an outright beautiful human. Every single guest that I have on here has touched me in some way, and that's why they get to come on and share some space with me and share their brilliance with my audience. So without any more of me talking, let's hand over to Sandra and let you know a little bit about who she is, first of all, and kind of like what she does in the world now before we dive in.

Visibility Strategy And Women Role Models

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Okay, well, thank you very much for the lovely introduction and for inviting me on here today. Um, where do I start? Well, right now I am a speaker mentor and visibility strategist. And what does that mean? It means that I work with women in business predominantly to help them be seen, be heard, and I basically put them in the spotlight. I love to see other women shine. And we were just trying to work out recently how many women I've probably worked with or touched in some capacity over the last 10 years of my business, and it's over 10,000 women. Wow. Uh, which is just it just blew me away. And as I say, it's my 10th anniversary in business. I'm also the founder of the Woman Who Awards. That's the Woman Who Achieves Awards and the Woman Who Solopreneur Awards, and that's also something I'm really passionate about. And yeah, I can't believe it's one of those pinch me things when you say 10 years, you think, wow. But predominantly, right the way through, my mission has stayed the same, and that's to create more women in business role models to inspire others.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I mean, can you see why I brought this powerhouse on? It's like pretty clear. I just let's talk about that 10,000 women. I mean, that is just like incredible. And I just want to touch on Sandra hasn't just like supported them in a tiny capacity. This is like women who will have transformed how they see themselves, how they speak about themselves, how they speak to themselves before they do any of the spotlight stuff. This isn't just like we're gonna put you in the spotlight and we're gonna see how you cope. This is about who you are at your core to be able to get that goodness, that brilliance out of you, and then allow you to be brave enough in the following the idea to leap theme, allow you to be brave enough, confident enough, capable enough to then go and share all of your brilliance.

Stories Build Confidence Over Time

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Is that fair?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

It is, and I think that the the core is it's so many women believe that they haven't got anything to share, or that they're not good enough, or they're not ready yet, or um why them um, you know, somebody else is so much better than me, and they sit back and they wait to be invited. And sometimes if you sit back and wait to be invited, it's it's not going to happen, sadly. You have to just get over yourself and basically take that leap, and I help them see that, and I help them see, dig down and find that they have got something to stay. We dig down, we find their stories, and then sometimes when you're sharing stories, it's not the same as standing there saying, This is me, this is who I am. You're sharing the stories of how you've got to where you are, and it's easing yourself in. I always say, if you can find your origin story and you can share that first, you'll always confidence is built over time. It's not something you you wake up with one day and you've got it. It's built the more you do, the more confident you feel. And I still get nervous when I get on stage. You know, I've still got my gremlins there. Everybody has, and that's completely normal. That's okay, and it shows you care.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Exactly. I think that's the piece. If you see somebody come on and they look like they're just flawless, there's something not quite uniquely authentic about them. They're either trying to put on a too polished front or something like that. It's just not quite right, isn't it? People want to see the realness, the reality, they want to see all parts of you. That's part of it. So let's talk about, let's take the listeners back.

Leaving Law And Starting From Scratch

SPEAKER_01 4:51

How did you even get into this?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Well, I was a solicitor by trade, um, and I'd been practicing law for, gosh, well over, well over a decade at the time. And I fell out of love with the law. I had my own practice for eight years, and I just got out of bed in the morning and didn't love it anymore. And I'm a big believer, if you don't like what you're doing, we're only here once, got the power within you, just change it. And it it's easier said than done. I couldn't do it when I wanted originally. Um, I was still on that, even though I got my own business, I was still on the hamster wheel, got boys at university, you know. I had to bring in that money every month, but I had an idea, and I have ideas, I capture them, and I sit on them. And some are not so great ideas, and some of them are amazing. But it was an idea I'd had, and it took a broken ankle to for that idea to come into the world, and I needed some it to do while I was sat in plaster and then in a boot and on crutches for six months. And I I just I sat there on the hospital gurney thing that they put me on. They'd just plastered me, and then they told me that I would have to uh go into surgery. And I just thought, what can I do for the next few months? And it just I just went back to that idea and thought, yeah, I'm gonna do this. And 90 days later, I delivered my first awards.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Love it. I love an action taker. Let's just talk about some of the things that you've raised there. First of all, this is a massive permission piece for people listening. You will have loads of ideas. You don't have to run with them all. Some will be fabulous and some will flop. Um, but the energy that you have of the ones that you know you're gonna lead with, it's about igniting that passion within you. It's about knowing and trusting that actually, this is the one I'm going for. And I'm just gonna get my head down and go for it. And Sandra's like a massive example of that. It did take a break, broken ankle to be able to stop. And this has happened to about three of my clients. There has been a broken bone that has caused a pause in their momentum and their direction and their energy. And it's like, oh, hang on a minute, what am I gonna do with this spare time that I've kind of created that I'd really prefer I hadn't broken my ankle, but actually, how am I gonna use the time effectively and in a way that's gonna just propel me? And that's exactly what you did.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yeah, and I have broken several bones since. And each time, each time I break a bone, it's like a bit of a wake-up call for me. Wow. And it's just before I launched something new. So I launched the solopreneur awards off the back of a broken bone. I can't remember what I launched off my broken wrist, but I did my broken hand was the solopreneur awards, I think. And then my broken wrist was something I so I always I'm always in that that space where it's a reminder to stop, to slow down, to pause, but it always leads to something. So yeah, somebody I listened to somebody this week and they were saying, you know, when you have a pause moment or a stop moment, it's usually because you're leveling up or you're doing something or you're about it's the universe telling you, you know, that you need to stop and that you're ready to do something else or something more. And uh yeah, that that has happened. And yeah, I've I'm clumsy, I break bones.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

It'd be great if we could just miss out the broken bone and you could just up level anyway.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

I don't want to break anymore.

Burnout Lessons And Rest Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 8:13

I decided I'm gonna do differently this time, but I do get burnout really easily, and I had another snapshot of that last October, and I've talked about this a lot in that I packed too much in. I set my visibility strategy and I went all in in October, and I just attended and committed to too many things in too short space of time. And I reached that point of burnout, I was very ill and missed the holiday that I'd booked to actually recover. So I didn't get the holiday that was supposed to be there for the for the wind down moment. And it again, I'm still learning. I'm 10 years in this business, eight years, well, I'm nearly 20 years in self-employed businesses now. But, you know, I still need those reminders. I still need to remind myself, actually, just take it down a level. You're doing too much. As my mum used to say, um, you're burning the candle at both ends.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, I know. That was a phrase I had. I was like, well, I like burning the candle at both ends. Yeah. That's also another reflection piece. And I want to just talk on this a little bit. When we are really passionate about what we do, like both Sandra and I are, like fuelled by passion, there's like a purpose, it's just in our core to do what we do. It is difficult at times to know where that when that capacity has been reached because it drives you, it fills you, it excites you, it energizes you. But the human in you really needs to have an awareness of actually this has been too much, or I've given too much, or the balance hasn't felt quite right. And the invitation as you're listening to Sandra and that story is to just think for a moment have you got a holiday planned? Have you got something planned that maybe in a few months and you know you're doing too much now and you're thinking that your holiday is going to be the rest? I really encourage you to think that every day deserves a moment of rest. When you build a moment of rest within every single day, your holiday comes and you're like, I'm already here for it. I've already got the space, I can now really enjoy it. But when we have it so future pace of where we're going, things just that's why people, it just doesn't quite work out for people. So there's an invitation, if you are on that hamster wheel, definitely harness that for up leveling, but also harness rest as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah. And I have I have a rule, um, my laptop closes at lunchtime. I go and sit outside in the garden if I can, just for a pause, yeah, just for a moment, just for 15 or 20 minutes. Just really, just appreciating. I mean, today's the day of recording is a perfect example. It's sunny outside. I will go outside and have some rest. My laptop closes at four o'clock every night. Love. Um I might open it again if I'm doing some writing because that's a hobby. Um, but I've now, and it's taken me a long time to do it, I don't tend to work Fridays. Uh, I call it Free Flow Friday. So it's a day I can attend an event or host an event if I want, if I choose to do, but otherwise it's added onto my weekend. Love it. And I've stopped working weekends and I've stopped attending events at weekends. My weekends are my my time, my family time, time I see my boys, time I see my grandkids, and time that I just if I want a onesie day on a Sunday, I have a onesie day on a Sunday. I don't have to go anywhere. And it's taken a long time to get to that point, but I do build in that time for me now. And I think last October taught me it was the final, um, final straw, but also the final light bulb for me was that I don't build in enough recovery time. And I've done it for years. I always fly away on the day after my awards, you know, to get my energy back, but I delayed it, and I don't know why I delayed it. So I've brought back and I I make sure that I've got that recovery week, not just a few days, a week. Because when you're doing something huge, whether you're doing a launch, whether you're doing an event, it does literally. I put my heart and soul into it. I give 200%, but that energy has to be recouped back. And so often we go into the next thing, and we the next day we're going to something else. And I I don't think maybe it's my age, I don't know, but I've learned that I need to recover.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

It's not your age, but I think what happens is as we get older, we generate this wisdom where we're like, okay, I've learned that lesson now, I'm listening now. But I there's always a piece, your energy has to be replenished. It's as simple as that. And if you don't replenish it, then you're gonna further on the line, it's gonna come back and get you. So let's talk about the Women Who Awards, where you did this first one like three months after

Creating The Women Who Awards

SPEAKER_01 13:03

you'd broken your ankle. Talk to me about what that one was like, and I know you've got one coming up in a couple of weeks, and talk to me about what this one feels like.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Okay, well, the very first one was a one-off event. It wasn't a business, it was a project, and I'm a big believer in you can do anything in 90 days. So I I set a 90-day plan, I literally delivered it on the 90th day. Um, and it was 120 women, local women in business. I phoned a few contacts and just said, Can you help me out? They all knew I'd broken my ankle, everyone was willing to jump in. Got together four judges that I knew that in business, and 120 people rocked up. I paid somebody to lit deliver that, you know, from stage. I sat with my crutches and people came. At the time there was very little, there's awards everywhere now, but at the time there was very little. And out 85% of women didn't nominate themselves, they waited for somebody else to nominate them. And I put the call out there, you know, if you know a woman that's done something special, nominate her, because people were sitting back, and the awards were born from a passion to make women realise they should be recognising their achievements and celebrating them, and so many women weren't. That was the philosophy behind it. Um, and I sat there and I thought, wow, that was really cool, you know, with my crutches propped up and everything, and everyone was saying what a great event it was, and people were coming up to me saying, When's the next one? When's the next one? And I suddenly thought, I've got something here. This could be a business, but it it was always a side business because I was contracting, I was working in-house legal, I was working uh any uh you know, non-exec director level for certain companies, so that was my bread and butter money. This was just well, I'll put on one next year, and I did that, and people would come up to me at the end and say, What can we buy from you? And I would say, Oh, there's nothing you could buy, just come next year. And I ran a few networking lunches and a few networking events, but it wasn't a serious thing, and it took the pandemic to hit for me to realise what I'd got, and I still delivered it from a studio socially distanced during the pandemic this year, and I think last year was the tenth one because it was the obviously year zero where I did one, and to see 300 women in business in a room and a few men in there as well, and realised what I built, and then it was reflected back on me because one of my members had collated all these video testimonials and they played it to me as a surprise at the start of the day, and I just went, wow, I just wasn't expecting that. Um, so this year I'm going into it. I've reduced the number slightly because 300 was too many. So we're only 200. I say only 250. That's still we're only 250 this year. And I created a whole day event, but it's a business event, and I want people to come in, I want them to feel that they can walk in, and people say that this has happened. They walk in alone and they walk away with friends for life, and that's what I want. I want people to make connections, I want them to have conversations, so I build loads of conversation time into the day. But there's uh keynotes are there's business learning, there's inspirational keynotes, um, but the awards are staggered throughout the afternoon, so it's not just the awards, it's it's a bit of everything. So the the morning is more personal development and network, and the afternoon is networking and celebration. And I love the fact I get I say we're talking about energy, but I I stand on the stage and when a winner's name is called out, I don't see people stomping and walking out and whatever. What I feel is this surge of energy coming towards me on the stage, not only with the person walking up to receive their award, but everybody that's just so happy for them. And that's what I love. I love to see that that everyone's a winner in the room. Everyone, yes, there's disappointment because not everyone can be an actual winner, but I everyone gets their moment on stage, and that that's really important to me because I used to go to so many awards where you were always the bridesmaid, never the bride, and you'd sit there and you were just ignored because your name wasn't called. Whereas I get everybody up on the stage, everybody gets to come up on stage, everybody gets to get their photo in front of the gold wall, everybody goes away thinking, wow, you know, it's I want that feeling, I want that surge of energy in the room, and that's what it looks like now.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

I love it. And I am actually going in a couple of weeks and I am beyond excited about it. Um, mainly to experience that, because obviously, as an energetics coach, I'm like, I want to experience all of this wall of energy that when you walk in, and it's when I went through the process for women who it was fascinating and super deep and really incredible process. But one of the things that I really notice in the way that you support women is we hear this phrase, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna lift you up. We hear this phrase by a lot of mentors, but Sandra does it in a very, very different way. It's like, I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna see you, I'm gonna hear you, and then you're gonna be able to lift yourself up, and I'm gonna allow you to lift yourself higher. There's a real empowerment piece in it. It's not like come and learn from me and do it my way. It's like I'm going to see the gaps that you can't see, and then I'm gonna help you fill them in a way that's gonna work for you by bringing out your core story and bringing out visibility and everything that you help people with for them to be able to stand on stages with confidence. But this wall of warmth, of support, of cheerleaders, of there's nothing like it, the uniqueness is just I I am just gonna be supersonic by the end of it, like in all of that energy. So I'm

Borrowing Energy And Knowing Your Rhythm

SPEAKER_01 19:04

really excited. And if you haven't heard about anything that we're talking about in terms of Sandra's work on Women Who, all of Sandra's details will be below the podcast, and you can go and have a look, you can go and have a binge, you can see how you can work with her. But let's just talk about the energy that you bring. What would you say your clients that you work with now, what would you say they would say about the energy that you bring to the work?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Um, I think I'm I'm glass half full person, but I recognise that not everybody is. Um, so I tend to try and work with people that I'm aligned with, obviously, because there's some people I can't help, and I I'm not one of these that will say, yeah, this I'll make this work for you if I can't. So a lot of the women I work with, I help them to see how to be visible on their terms, and that's really important. And I try and this is why I could never be a coach, and I qualified as a coach, but for me, I'm a mentor, I see things, as we said earlier. I see the gaps, but I see things, I see things in them that they don't see, and I try and say to them, you don't realise how good you are. And in that way, I feel I'm supporting them and lifting them up through my energy, and then and I'm letting them I've heard people say this, but you can borrow my energy, you can borrow my my sort of how I feel, because and I try and inject that on them, and people say, Oh my god, you know, it's it's I just love being in the room, I love listening to you, I love, you know, your your energy that you bring. And yeah, I'm not always like this. I I talk about moon energy, and if it's if it's uh end of a moon cycle and we haven't got into the new one, I am right down on the floor. Um, but I know how I know those times, those times I need to retreat, and those times I work on the business, those terms I'm not front facing, whereas I tap into my higher energy space, um, and I don't know what it is, I don't know why I come to life at full moon. I'm definitely not a werewolf, but I have this super high energy, I could conquer the world. Um, I have a real can-do, and my productivity is off the wall during a full moon cycle. So it's really bizarre. But I try and help my clients see that they've got something, and too often, unless somebody else tells us, we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah. Yeah.

Defining Success Beyond The Pound Sign

SPEAKER_01 21:36

So what would you say the energy of success is? What would you say if someone to say for you to live your most successful life, what would you say the energy that you have to bring to that? What's success for you, first of all?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Success for me isn't all about the pound sign. Success for me is having the time at the weekend to see my like today, day of recording. I'm going to pick my grandson up from school. That's in the diary every single week. Laptop closes at two o'clock. I'm off on the school run. And I love that granny time that we have. And he insists on having his Sunday roast on a Thursday. You know, that's that's success to me, being able to spend time with him. You know, if I can pick up my granddaughter from dancing at the weekend and go and see her dance on stage, I'll do that. Going to the football with my son and my grandson, that is success personified. Uh, being able to go on holiday when I want, obviously, you do need to create revenue to be able to do that. Success to me in the future, and the energy I bring is I'm buying a house in Italy. It'll be able to fly out there whenever I feel the call to do so. Um, and to be able to take that time to wind down. Success means, you know, having the um getting out of bed in the morning and being excited about the day ahead. Love it. And that that really is key for me. You know, I naturally wake up at six, I'm naturally itching to get started, whatever I'm doing that day. And it's just, I love the flexibility I have. I'm unemployable.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Yeah, you're unemployable. I love that. So please do take a leaf out of Sandra's book when you think about your own version of success and what it is for you, because everyone's at different seasons and stages of life, and your version of success will change. Some of you will be in that growing phase where you've got to learn, you've got to put some real focus and growth into where you are. Some people will be in the um family dynamics phase where they've got to spend more of their energy in supporting teenagers or supporting grown adults or whatever it might be. Allow yourself and give yourself permission for your success to evolve. Um, and every which way, the energy is always behind it. So, how can people find out about what you do? Let people know on here. How can people get in touch with you?

How To Connect And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Well, I've got two websites now. I used to have one, but I've now got two. So everything to do with the awards sits on womanhood.co.uk. Everything is on there. And there's a resources page, blog, everything. And then I've got sandragarlic.com, which is more about the sort of um the working with me and that type of thing. Uh, I'm on all the socials, Sandra Garlic at Sandra Garlic MBE on Instagram. Uh, easily findable. And I'm very approachable. I love people to talk to me. Uh, so if you see me at an event, please come over and say hello. I don't bite.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yeah, she definitely doesn't, and she is just awesome. I think we met at somebody else's event when we first met in person. And yeah, we just like had something to eat, had a glass of wine, it was good fun. We enjoyed ourselves, and we've just got that mutual respect for each other, and I have a lot, a lot of time for you. So thank you so much for being on the podcast. I have loved it. What a way to kick start the morning. Um, anything else you want to share, or are you all good to go and sit in the garden with your lunch?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

I'm gonna go and sit in the garden and have my lunch. Um, but no, it's been fantastic to be here, Charlotte. I love um what you do and the conversations we have. And yes, we did meet. And it what was lovely, and I'd just like to say this, when we first met, we've never met before, we didn't know each other, but you came over to me, I don't know whether you remember, and said, Oh, are you here at this event? Come and join us. And that was a lovely thing to do because I was sat on my own uh and I didn't bite.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

No, you didn't, and I'd ask you again and again and again. I'm excited to see you in a couple of weeks, in real life, in person at the Women Who Awards. I cannot wait. And I will definitely be sharing my experience on a single episode, so I'll definitely tag this episode with the one that comes out in the future about my experience in that event. But thank you so much for your time and your energy and your beautiful nature. Look after yourself and take care of yourself. Thank you.