How to Slow Down, Enjoy Life, and Be Intentionally Happy w/ Julie Leonard

Julie Leonard 0:00
Professionally, I was doing really, really well. So I had this kind of parallel life. Actually, I’m like, I became a manager of the organization I worked for I, you know, I developed services I specifically developed a lot of services for women and women who experienced trauma and abuse and that’s what I did a lot of work on. So I was really raising women up and really, you know, giving voice to a lot of people and I was successful in in the professional life But personally,I put my happiness in the hands of someone else that went became very negative.

LaWann Moses 0:40
Hey, mamas. Welcome to the more than a mother Podcast, where we believe you can pursue your dreams and be a great mother at the same time. I am your host LaWann Moses, and I am helping you find the freedom to live. Are you ready? Let’s go

Today I was able to sit down and virtually traveled to Germany. I had the pleasure of talking to life coach and happiness evangelists Julie Leonard of Julie Leonard coaching. Julie gets candid about her struggles through childhood, how that impacted her into her adulthood and how she had to go on her own transformation journey in such a live with intention, so that she could gain clarity on what she wanted for her life and how she wanted things to go. It was truly an honor sitting down talking to Julie and I hope that you are able to learn from her as I have. And stick around to the end of the interview where Julie has a special offer just for the more than a mother audience. Let’s take a listen to how Julie is living within tech Hey Julie, how are you today?

Julie Leonard 2:03
Hello, I’m really good. How are you?

LaWann Moses 2:06
Hi, Welcome to the more than a mother Podcast. I am so excited to have you as my guest today.

Julie Leonard 2:13
Oh, I’m absolutely delighted to be here. It’s so great to chat with you.

LaWann Moses 2:18
Yes. So we have a lot of great things we want to cover today. But before we get into all that, can you please just introduce yourself to the audience?

Julie Leonard 2:27
I would love to Hello, everybody. My name is Julie Leonard. I’m a life coach and happiness evangelist. I come from Scotland and I’m currently living in Munich, Germany. I have my own business, do the letter coaching. And I’m also a mom. I live here in Germany with an Italian partner. And I have a lovely for your old son Leonardo. And so I managed my business. Also an ex parte mom, too. I’m so passionate about what I do. I’m so delighted to be here with you today. At my whole life, I’ve been working with women to transform themselves and their lives. And that’s because I studied psychology and then worked in mental health services for years. And I’m now currently working as a coach. So I’m delighted to be here and chatting with you.

LaWann Moses 3:26
That’s awesome. I can’t wait to hear more about all the great things that you are doing. Well, before we get into that, I just want to talk a little bit about your story that you know, at more than a mother we believe you can pursue your dreams and be a great mom at the same time. So that being said, I believe here that everyone has a story and that we become such transformational people. We have so transformational moments when we share our stories of what made us who we are today. So before we get into all the details of business and everything would you Just mind sharing with your audience, what was your aha moment and that moment that led you on the path that you’re on today,

Julie Leonard 4:06
I’d love to share my story with you. I grew up in Scotland, and I grew up with a father he was and still is a depressed man. He’s now in his 80s. And in the west of Scotland, men are, are told not to talk about their emotions or to be emotional. And it was just never spoken about in terms of what his depression was. I knew he had depression, but I didn’t really know what that man as a child. And how that manifested was that he often would be alone in his own head and caught up in that so not listening to me or he would talk over me and things like that. And he was he was, in a lot of ways very expressive in terms of he loved me and I knew that but what that meant was I grew up feeling that I wasn’t good enough. Why internalize his behavior is not good enough, I internalized that, I didn’t have something important to say because I was always cut off or I wasn’t listened to. Or that, you know, my opinion wasn’t worthy of something. And that kind of really is what followed me for a long time in my life, this really negative thinking. I also am not entirely sure where all came from, I kind of know most of it.

But I grew up with a very strong belief that I was very ugly. And I was a very ugly child or an ugly woman. And that followed me a long time through school and I had braces and lots of things like that to deal with and low bullying. And I grew up with a very strong belief that I wasn’t very beautiful and that that, yeah, when I had very low self esteem, I really felt that, you know, if I was more beautiful, I’d be more popular or I’d be more liked or be more happy. That kind of stuff. I’m sure people relate to that. Yes. So it’s it’s no surprise I ended up studying psychology university, I really had to make sense of what was going on. And when I got there, I realized that I wasn’t as weird as I thought I was, you know, other people thought the same way, which is great. I really struggled with like, being really self conscious and very shy, and quite introverted. And like, I couldn’t even go and meet friends in the canteen for a coffee because I was too nervous to walk across the floor, you know, of the canteen and stuff.

So it followed me into my 20s. But here I was learning all about psychology and the mind and how things work and fascinating. And I was really drawn to that line of work. And I think I think when you have your own experiences, you can then empathize with other people much better and you’re more compassionate. When you’ve had struggles in your life. You’re a more compassionate person. And so I ended up Getting some volunteer work after university and mental health services and just loving it, just loving being able to work with people and predominantly women. And that’s what I did was I worked for over 20 years and mental health services really working with women to, to change themselves in their lives. And I had the opportunity actually to go into people’s homes, and to talk to them and build relationships and ask them what is it you want? and time and time again, they would say I want to be happy, I’d be happy. And I’d be like, Well, what does that mean? What do we have to change and we break that down into like, emotional and practical support, and then break that down into steps which, in fact, I was coaching, wasn’t I that’s what I was doing. And so that’s what I did for a really long time and just felt this deep. Passion. This was like my whole purpose in life is to work with women. So I’m very fortunate. I’ve been doing that. for 30 years, my whole life so

LaWann Moses 8:02
So when you are experiencing, like, I know you mentioned your father being very like closed off in his moments. And it’s the same here in the United States that men don’t tend to talk about their emotion. So that is really hard for especially when you’re a daughter with a father, you’re looking for that validation, those types of things, and you start to internalize those messages. Yeah. So what kind of you mentioned briefly some obstacles that you were encountering. So what kind of obstacles Did you encounter because of this?

Julie Leonard 8:35
Um, I think I really felt that I was really limited by my beliefs. So I had this continual inner critic that was very, very negative. And so I would, when I spoke, I would, I would sort of negate my sentences I was, you know, justify what I’m going to say I would put myself down before anyone else could that kind of language. I had this running commentary of like, yeah, yeah, other people are like this but not me. You know, it was it was very negative. I was very alone among head I was always worried and anxious. I did a lot of the four s What if this happens what if that happens?

I felt it limited me and my confidence and sort of limited me in what I did. I had that youthful optimism that we all have, you know, so like, in my 20s, you still kind of believe a little workout in a week despite what’s going on. And so I still did things but I didn’t fully embrace them. I don’t think I took full advantage of everything that I could have. And I don’t think I fully participated in university life the way I could have, because of this, of these negative thoughts and feelings. And how also showed up a lot was in relationships. So I formed very good friends. But in terms of when I started dating, I think my low self esteem meant that I often attracted or settled for people that weren’t particularly healthy. And so I ended up in a long term relationship for about 16 years.

So when I was I met at school and then a bit later after university, and I loved him dearly. I was really, you know, he was everything. And I think what I did was I put all of my happiness onto him and like, you know, I, you know, everything that I wanted, I, you know, I put it to him. And so when I was with him, I was happy and he was my source of happiness. Other than being happy in myself, you know, I needed him. But he was actually going through a lot of stuff I didn’t know about when I met him, and he kept very hidden for a long time and was struggling with and I didn’t know this for a long time. And that came out a lot later when we had bought a house together, and we were together for many, many years. And he was really really struggling and because he was struggling and he was very, very depressed and very anxious. It became a very negative relationship. He took a lot of eyes on me and I stayed way longer than I should have done. And so these were a lot of obstacles that really got in my way yet professionally. I was doing really, really well. So I had this kind of parallel life.

Actually, I’m like, I became a manager of the organization I work for I, you know, I developed services, I specifically developed a lot of services for women and women who experience trauma and abuse and that’s what I did a lot of work on. So I was really raising women up and really, you know, giving voice to a lot of people and I was successful in in the professional life But personally,

I put my happiness in the hands of someone else that went became very negative. And also I think, for a long time, I was so happy with the job that I had, and in No, I had such meaning and purpose, you know, to really help really, really help people and see amazing transformations. And I felt really, you know, that was very fulfilling for a long time. But then I there was a moment where, after in 2004, I took the decision to leave my relationship, I got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore, and it was really unhealthy. And that was a really hard point because of the relationship I I had a very reduced circle of friends. I just worked and I took care of my partner. And then here it was with the opportunities to start to go out and to live life again. I have such a moment of sitting on my sofa just clear as anything sitting my sofa with my my little cat next to me, he’s still with me now. He’s 17 years old, sitting next to me. And really thinking like, Oh gosh, you know, I want to I want to I want to I want to go out for a drink come Saturday night with some friends, I want to do things, but I’m terrified, you know? And asking myself like, what’s more frightening to stay as I am, to stay stuck as I am? Or to get out there and face my fears, and I realized it was so clear, like, it’s more scary to stay stuck, right when you go out there and live and I think I’ve always had this like, drive somewhere that I want to get out there. I want to live I want to have a great life. And so that was just such a turning point for me where I was like, I have to face my fears. I have to get out there. I have to live life I want to I want to live and not just live I want to really live I want to grab life with both hands and go for it.

LaWann Moses 13:47
And it sounds like even though like you said you had this personal and professional kind of like two separate lives. It sounds like perhaps what you were doing professionally, eventually got you to that point to where you’re able to take those tools that You were helping others with and help yourself to leave this situation and kind of reclaim that power over your life. So it’s amazing how those two things can work together, even though at the time you’re probably questioning like, how can I help all these people be happy and give all these tools to others, but then I go home, and I’m living such a separate life. But I mean, I think that happens to many women in particular, what we’re doing well, professionally with it personally, things could just be falling apart. So that’s definitely something.

Julie Leonard 14:30
Absolutely, absolutely. And like, yeah, thankfully, I was in a job that taught me all these tools. I was applying them and seeing the work. So I knew that I could do a lot for myself, but when you have that low self esteem and the relationship was compounding that I’m also that kind of person where, you know, I really care about people. I think that comes across in the work that I do that. I do it because I genuinely care about women and I genuinely care. I guess that’s what really drives me. I don’t want women to feel the way that I do. I don’t want them to be alone in their own heads and having all this negative thinking and feeling that they’re not good enough, which is what a lot of women feel like they’re not good enough, or they’re not doing enough or they’re not managing or they should be able to cope better, etc. And so I really hope that comes across. But it also means then that I think back then I stayed longer, and I did more because that’s the kind of person I could see his suffering, right. And I wanted to help and forgot about myself. Not that it almost broke me.

LaWann Moses 15:37
Right. That’s what a lot of us do. Yeah, I mean, a lot of us do that, too. We put so much into it. That’s that caring personality that we have to we want to help others and support others that we often like put ourselves on the back burner and just basically sacrifice ourselves for someone else’s happiness while they could really care less about what’s happening with us. I mean, I just that’s just not something that’s specific to you. I mean, I know I can think of experience where I’ve done the same thing. And I’m sure many people listening can think of those same experiences. But I just feel just listening to you just the things you discovered about yourself in that time. Just were so powerful to where it’s like you were working professionally, like building these things that you would need to help yourself, get up and out of your situation and recognize your happiness. And you’re building that professionally, and helping your clients but at the same time helping yourself so I think that’s great, how that crossover happened. I mean, it may not have felt like it at the time, but just listening to it. I can hear that. And I can see that just listening to what you’re talking how that crossover happens.

Julie Leonard 16:46
I need to have these interesting chats because I was very fortunate I could work with women quite intensively but for long periods of time, particularly women who had very low self esteem or women who had experienced trauma abuse or we’re living in abusive situations. And they would often say to me, you know, but look at you, you know, your life is great or something’s you think perfect. And, and I would say to them, you know, like, you know, I, I have loads of stuff going on because life continues to because you’re, you know, a professional or a coach, you know, it doesn’t mean that life never happens to you. But no, I have the tools and the resilience to cope with things. But I would say to them that you’ve seen me for like, a long period of time.

Do I look different? Do I sound differently? Like, yeah, and I’m like, Yeah, because I’ve been on a journey to can you see that? Right? And therefore, you know, I can help you to, you know, I’m, I hope it was inspiring for them that they can see my transformation over the years. You know, I went from starting work in mental health services that you know, my early 20s like 21. So, you know, like so young and, you know, so you have course you changed as a person. But I grew so much and myself as I, as I worked on myself and rica see that transformation and that, I hope, give them hope that, you know if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for them too

LaWann Moses 18:15
And that’s good. I mean life, being a great teacher and just going through those experiences and, like you said, walking with your clients on your own journey, but while you’re also pouring into them, so I think that’s great. You’re recognizing, like our own transformational journey, even in the midst of helping others and it seems like this whole journey has just been very helpful to you and building your business and building your life and all those things.

Now, this time, I’d like to tell us more about what you’re doing with your business and coaching and those type of things. Yeah, of course.

Julie Leonard 18:48
So yeah, I have my own business. So these are the last part of my story. There is that after all of that, and He’s dating and working on myself. I eventually, in 2012, went to a wedding in Romania. And there I met my new partner and lovely, wonderful Italian man who was at this wedding, and was living in Munich, Germany. And I thought, well, he was quite relaxed by that point. I wasn’t like, oh, here’s a man, right? I’m going to him just in case. I was in a really good place. And I was like, well, maybe I’ll just go backwards and forwards and maybe I’ll just have that summer where I’m at that Italian and Munich and had a great summer.

Because I was in Scotland, it’s, it’s for anyone who doesn’t know that’s two hours flight. So okay, it’s very possible and I was working really hard in this job and I had lots of flexible time. So I had these break weekends over here with him. And I met him I was it was a month before my 41st birthday. So I hope this is also inspiring to many people, but there was thinking maybe I won’t find the one maybe I wouldn’t have a child. And here I am just before my 41st birthday I meet him. And when I was 43 I decided to give up everything I moved to Munich Germany with him. And when I was young 42 maybe 18 months after so 42 and then when I was 43 I got pregnant and had my son who’s now four years old, do the math, right 30 years working and all this so you can’t see me but obviously I’m younger than I look. Yes.I look younger than I am maybe

so yeah, so um, when I moved here, I really wanted to continue working with women and a way to be able to create that balance in my life as well. So here I am an ex parte I have no family. I have no you know, close friends here. So I it was a really natural continuation to do coaching which is what I’ve been doing so I studied the difference. My coaching as well. And I felt combined with all these experience and my psychology background, I could set up my own practice working with women in English here in Munich, because it’s a huge expat community. But of course now you know, anywhere online around the world, it’s amazing. I know why to create that work life balance.

So I offer coaching to women, helping them deal with that limiting beliefs, the negative thinking thinking that inner critic that we have, that’s my speciality is what I’ve talked about in myself, but what I’ve been doing, so I help women really work on that, identify it and change it. And what we know from science what we know from research is that we can change the brain that we can change from being negative and focusing on the negative to be more positive and sustaining that positivity. We can train it And so I love this. I love that not only that I know this from my years and years of practice, but we know from science, we can change the brain. And I really want to tell women that you’re not defined by your past that you can change yourself and you can change your thinking. So that’s what I work on. I help women get clarity, what is the one? I really support them to reach their potential?

LaWann Moses 22:22
And I believe you call it intentional happiness. that correct?

Julie Leonard 22:26
Yes. So I’ve named intentional happiness. And I say that because I think when we want to balance life, and so here I am, I’m a partner, a mom. I’m an entrepreneur, a business owner, I’m an ex Pat and we’re friends. You know, as women we have so many roles and so many demands on ourselves, and so many needs and we often put ourselves at the bottom of that pile. And I really believe in order to be happy in order to reach your potential and in order to have balance in your life in order to be successful in your business, we have to live with intention. We have to slow down we have to simplify our lives and we have to focus on what’s absolutely important in our lives. You know this you know this we’ve talked about this already. You know, her busy life is we are all super busy.

Yeah, we’re super busy for we hopped on this call, you know, like, our lives are busy. And, you know, before we know what week is going by, the months have gone by before we know it. We’re like, Man, it’s Christmas again. And often we feel like oh, gosh, I didn’t do all the things I wanted to do. I didn’t achieve all the things I wanted. Or how often do we utter like, Oh, I’m too busy to do this. I’m too busy for that. I don’t have enough time. So I’m really working on this like, living with intention, but just getting clarity in what is so important to you. You know, your family. your kids, your business, your relationships, time for yourself, your health, those kind of things are really, really important. So it’s about slowing down, simplifying life and everyday working on what’s important to you.

Can I maybe give you an example of how that works? What I’m doing just now like, so for me, my health is important to me right now. So I’m 48 years old. I’m feeling a bit perimenopausal a little bit hormonal at the moment. I’m also struggling with like allergies as well. I get really bad hay fever. It sounds not too serious and it’s not that serious, but for me, it really affects my health. It really gives me sore eyes, which you can’t see just not really for eyes. It really depletes my energy. I feel like I live with like a really bad cold all the time. So it really Makes me suffer and I don’t like it. And so last year, I was like, I can’t, I can’t do this anymore, you know, and also like feeling like I’m getting really hormonal, I don’t want to spend the next 10 years, finding myself and like sweating and you know, just being miserable. So I decided to really prioritize my health and work on that.

And so I engaged with holistic nutritionist, and I’ve been working with her. And what that means now is that I’m very focused on that every day. Every day I’m thinking about what I put into my body. What I don’t put in my body because there’s things that are triggering for me right now. Every day I think about what I’m eating, I show up and plan and I prepare and eat healthy food for me and for my family. And I’m very clear like this is what I need to eat for my house and this is what I don’t want to be eating too much of So we’ve had this like really mild winter, just learn, like everything’s kind of blossoming over Eddie. And so I’m feeling a bit more like my histamine levels are quite high. So that’s when I just go through a bit of a detox and they eliminate stuff. And rather than just saying, I’d like to be healthier, or I shouldn’t eat so much chocolate, you know, or you know, that kind of stuff. It’s very specific. This is what I’m eating. This is what I’m not eating. And everyday, I’m sticking to it because it’s important. And I’m getting amazing results with that I have so much more energy have a mental energy. I’m a mom, I’m 48 years old, and I have a four year old So, you know, I’m so thankful to have him but man, you need a lot of energy with a four year old. Yeah.

LaWann Moses 26:48
And I think it’s important how you mentioned when you were living with intention, and then you just mentioned prioritizing your time I mean, that is so important because being a mom having a partner household All of these different entrepreneur, all these different roles that we carry. And as you said, we put ourselves on the bottom of our to do list, but I just really like how you said, finding that way to prioritize because if we’re searching for balance, I mean, that’s something we can always be searching for. But when we get intentional with our time and making priorities and making that list, and being intentional with living that is just really great when I experienced my own health episode towards the end of the year to where I’m taking some of these same steps that you have taken,

So I’ve told my story to the audience before I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a few months back, and it really just like shut my whole life down. So I couldn’t be anything but myself, which was where the whole more than a mother idea kind of evolved and bloomed. I mean, I’ve been working on it for years and different things for years. But it wasn’t until I couldn’t be anything but myself that it was kind of like hey, I am a person and we start to realize those things and even though We take those steps to live with intention. It’s just certain things make us more purposeful and live with more intention to where we may not have been doing the best that we could. I mean, I think that’s really good, because prioritization is definitely something that I’ve been doing for years. But I’ve been doing it even more now with my recent health episodes. So that’s really great.

Julie Leonard 28:21
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, that’s a big diagnosis to wrap your head around. And of course, no, that’s forcing you to really just dive in on like, what is important? Yes. And of course, we don’t all want to get to something like that. Right? Often, often. That’s what happens, isn’t it? We get to crisis. Exactly. And as moms and entrepreneurs, we often get to that where we just get that overload that overwhelm of just too much stuff. You know, I know this you know, like in a business as a business owner, the to do list that we have, you know, and the many hats we wear just within a business right? Huge and endless and quite overwhelming. And then as a mom, we’re also it still is still the same women carry more than their fair share of that burden of just running the household and taking care of kids, even if you’ve got the most amazing partner and brilliant hands on father who’s like, right now looking after my little one, I do this, you know, but we still carry much more of that burden.

We have these endless to do lists all the time, right? And so we often it’s not until we get to that real overwhelm or that real breaking point that we have to reassess and I really want to come into a way of talking about how we can be much more proactive than reactive in our lives because we are often just reacting so much to do, how can we be more reactive proactive, excuse me proactive in our lives and take charge of it and just really focus on what’s important, right, you know, and I, I know for me It’s a constant struggle. And I know from talking to many women and entrepreneurs, that women more than men to this, that when we’re working, we feel like, oh, gosh, we’re not with our children and our children. We’re thinking I’m not doing my work. I know I’m like, we’re really struggling with these two full time jobs. Yeah. And we feel the guilt. It’s huge, isn’t it? Yeah.

And so that’s why when we can really focus on like, what is important what, what do I want to focus on my life, my job is important because I want to create something I want to create freedom. I want to create balance. I want to be successful. I want to have the financial success to give us freedom within our families. You know, that’s important, but family is also important or relationships important. I’m important for sales in there. There maybe there’s some other things in there but apart from that, everything else isn’t as important and we have to let go of a lot of stuff. I’d really say, this is how I spend my time because this is, this is what you look back in 20 years, and you don’t want to say I wish I’d worked harder or wish I’d been on Facebook longer. You know, that’s not what you look back and be like, you know, look back and go and I love creating those memories. I love that time with good friends that that’s what we look back on.

LaWann Moses 31:20
And those are the things that matter. Like said those are those priceless memories, but making those moments, those are really the things that matter. And as you said too often we get to such a place of overwhelmed by trying to carry all the load in the roles that everything. That’s why these platforms like these type of conversations we’re having right now, just to start those conversations to where a mom out here or a woman out here listening can hear that you don’t have to let it get to a point to where you’re birthed out. You can start to do that today. Just taking those steps to figure out what what matters to you what’s important how you can start being happy and living with intention instead of waiting Waiting and then just constantly trying to wait for what I call the right time, which doesn’t exist. So never comes does ever call now. So that’s why it’s good that we have platforms and we’re doing the work that we’re doing to this help forum to women torrents of others, just one by one. So that is just wonderful.

Julie Leonard 32:21
I just I just wanted to say that also, it’s important for me to see that, you know, my life isn’t perfect because I read this and I follow this, you know, but it’s a great tool that I use in order to keep checking in and get rebalance because it’s what I work on a lot and I’m really using it in my life to keep focused on what’s important. But of course, life runs away sometimes or things get really busy or things unexpected happen, etc. And there are times where I just go hang on, I’m just looking up saying yes to too many things or I’m thinking too much I’m focused in the wrong areas, and it’s a way of checking in as well and going to hang on.

What did I say was really important to me? You know, is this taking me forward with what’s important? Are these my top five priorities right? And so it’s also a way of just bringing yourself back and checking in again, you know, when it does slip, because of course, we’re human beings and life is unpredictable. And it just felt it was important to say that, you know, I don’t want to stay here and go like, hey, my life is all, you know, perfect and read along, because I’m a human being and I still have my inner dialogues, we still have my struggles, I still have many things to deal with. But as a human being, how can we employ the tools that we’ve got in order to be as happy as possible, right,

LaWann Moses 33:48
because like you said, life happens and there is no such thing as a perfect life. It’s just important, as you said, just having those tools on hand and where you can change that inner dialogue as well. You start having those negative thoughts or those limiting beliefs to where you kind of have that checks and balances system. So what do I really believe? So I mean, that is the important part is just having those tools that many people do not have or do not know about. So that’s just something great to have.

Julie Leonard 34:16
Yeah, just bringing it to your consciousness, isn’t it? You know, like this often we forget, just like what we do know. And it’s just, when you’re in something, when you’re busy, or when you’re in it, we can always see what we need to do is that we have just something that just reminds us and bring us back to our conscious thinking of like, yeah, I need to get more balance here.

LaWann Moses 34:36
Exactly. So what do you feel has been the most rewarding part of your journey so far? Be it your mom, journey, life journey, business journey?

Julie Leonard 34:45
Wow, that’s a great question. you know, I feel so fortunate that I’ve been able to do something in my life that I just I love so Much. So I think despite all the things I’ve experienced, I’m very thankful for them because they’ve shaped me into the person I am and the person that I’m working on. So one of the best things is just the incredible women that I’ve met along the way. I always think that the job I have is amazing because I end up meeting so many incredible women from around the world with incredible stories, and so much potential. Yeah, I just love I mean, I just really like people. But I really love that I have the job that’s brought me into the lives of so many incredible people and that I have a job that brings me a lot of meaning and purpose, and that I can help other people. That’s just wonderful. And yeah, the mom journey is also very interesting. thing. It’s been a real challenge as well, you know?

Yeah, it’s, I love it and I love. I love where I’m at in this point in my journey as a mom, I have a four year old. He’s going to be five in April. He won’t let us forget. He’s super excited about turning five all of you out there. We’ll know that what it’s like it’s desperate to rush through life at this age. And I just loved the day he’s born. I love that beautiful baby I had I never, I was never quite sure if I would have a child because, you know, I was much older when I had that opportunity. And so I’m really thankful for that that I have him he feels very special. He’s the only child and my side of the family and the only child and my Italian partner sadness Italia because you can imagine them he is. He is the prince for the grandmother. Yeah. And also so he’s the only he’s the only child and all our families so he just feels priceless. special in that way. So I’m very thankful to have him. I love this stage for he’s at he’s just such a character and so engaging and so funny. I can’t believe I love him even more now if that’s possible

LaWann Moses 37:14
I understand, that’s wonderful. And I mean, I think that you had some very great tips when you were talking about finding your partner and having your son and those things that you let people know it’s never too late. Whether you’re starting a business, no matter what it is, it’s never too late as long as you have breath in your body that if you you can find the love of your life, you can have a child, you can start a business, like it’s never too late to do whatever it is that you have on your heart. And I mean, that’s just such an inspirational message to people that are maybe older and maybe having some of those same thoughts and so will my time ever come? Will it ever happen and just living that example and being so open and sharing that so just thank you for sharing that with us.

Julie Leonard 37:57
You’re most welcome. Yeah, yeah. So many clients who think Yeah, I felt this way for so long, you know, so maybe it wouldn’t change for me or I can’t change and it’s never too late to, to change your thinking change your life and go for what you want as a, as an entrepreneur or as a mom, in any sense, you know, if there’s something that you want, it’s never too late to do that. You really got to keep going, you know, and it’s amazing. I often have quite young women as well who come to me and they say, Oh, you know, it’s almost like, Oh, my life is almost over. And I’m like, you’re 27. So I think, you know, we’ve got some time, but even people that come now, and they’re like, in their 30s, and I’m like, you know, you’ve got another 40-50 years ahead of you.

Let’s work on this because there’s a lot of time, you know, to Yes, far worse. So, yeah, I share my story and I hope it resonates with people please go for it. And that’s why I talk about being intentional as well. Like, if you want to work in business, if you want to build a business, if you want to be a mom, focus on that, focus down on that and think every day is what I’m doing. Taking me forward in the dreams that I have, right? That’s what you want to keep focusing on. And when I ever a little tip maybe that might be helpful is whenever I struggle with some of the stuff that I have to do, I try and focus on the why and not the fort. So, you know, like, you know, some of the stuff in our in business isn’t that exciting is it let’s be honest, there’s great perks of having your own business, but you know, when I have to sit and do my taxes or, you know, I’m dealing with tech issues or,you know, plain old stuff like that, you know, I don’t always want to do that.

But I focus on the why, you know, and the why is I’m building a business and becoming more successful, I want to be freelance I want to work for myself. I want to reach people excited. Extra, you know, and so I use that, you know, with clients who maybe see like, I want to get fit, but I hate the gym, you know, or I don’t like exercise and it’s like, what are some of the parts you have to do but the Why is the Why is I want to feel confident, I want to feel strong, I want to feel sexier, when he lose weight, whatever it is, then focus on the why, because why is the motivation. If you’re doing this for kids, if you’re doing this for your family, if you’re doing this for freedom, you know, then focus on the why not always on what you have to do.

LaWann Moses 40:32
And that that’s a great tip for anyone really struggling to find their way. Trying to manage it all. Anything like that such a great tip is to focus on the why and not the what. I really appreciate you sharing that that is just really great. So I know that you could talk to you all day, but we all have busy schedules. So I know you have some exciting things going on over on your website, if you could just tell the audience where they can reach you and anything That you have going on?

Julie Leonard 41:02
yeah, absolutely. It’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you as I see. Yeah, I’m the same. I could chat to your wonderful.Yeah. So I’d love to invite you over and check me out. I’m over on julieleonardcoaching.com. And I know you’re all those details up for everybody. I’d love to invite you over there. Like one of the great ways to start on this journey of living with more intention and getting this balance and a more simplified life is to assess where you’re at right now. And so if you hop on over there, you can get a little free happiness quiz. So that pops up little box pops up saying up there and take my free quiz. It’s a lot of fun. It’s super easy, but it’s a great starting point to know. You know where you are in your life. And this is based on a lot of research. The questions are based on research around the key areas over happiness. And then if you do that, you’ll also then get a little bonus as well, which is a little wheel of life. chart that you can download. And you can color in. And you can map out your results on that and see where you are in your life and which areas of your life you maybe want to work on a bit more. So that’s a great starting point. I’d love to just direct people over there so they can see that and get that for free.

But then yeah, if I can help anybody on their journey with anything or in their mindset, or around this living with intention, I offer free discovery call. So reach out, you can look and have a chat with me. And as a huge thank you for having me on here. I’d love to offer all of your listeners 50% off your first session with me. So if you’re looking for a session, you can get it for half price as a huge thank you. It’s an absolute pleasure to be on here today.

LaWann Moses 42:46
Oh, that’s awesome. Thank you so much. And I really appreciate you extending that offer to the audience. And I’ll be sure to link to all of that in the show notes so that everyone can easily find you. Thank you, Julie. For Joining me today and it was such a pleasure just chatting with you and I hope we get a chance to do this again soon.

Julie Leonard 43:07
Absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

LaWann Moses 43:10
You too. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. as Julie mentioned, you can head over to her website, Julie Leonard coaching and take her How happy are you quiz that will help you assess where you are in life and where you want to go. And as a bonus, you get the will of life chart that will help you map out your results. So you can see firsthand your happiness journey. And as a special offers Julie mentioned to the more than a mother audience. She’s offering 50% off your first session with her. So be sure when you reach out to Julie to let her know that you heard about her on the more than a mother podcasts.

Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to LaWann Moses calm. I love for us to stay in touch. Make sure you leave your email address, so I can send you inspiration tips and the latest updates. Or if you prefer, text the word more, that’s m o r e 23024404632. We have some great things coming up and I don’t want you to miss a thing. Thanks again, make sure you subscribe and leave a review. Until next time, keep pressing because victory is yours.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai