📍 I think leaders who ask great questions are the best leaders who have humility.
It also makes them more human. Which creates connection. 📍
📍 Welcome to Lonely At the Top, the podcast for high level leaders carrying the invisible weight of the world. Because you know the higher you rise, the fewer people you can safely talk to. Here we welcome founders, executives, and decision makers who feel the isolation and pressure that comes with power.
Lonely At the Top is your sanctuary in the storm, and I'm your host, Soul Medic and former psychotherapist, Rachel Alexandria. Today on the podcast we have the lovely Emma Whittard. She's a transformational coach focused on women leaders in midlife.
Prior to becoming a full-time coach, she had a 20 plus year career in children's books, including running businesses for Disney, dreamworks, and Warner Brothers, as well as her own intellectual property development business. Now, she coaches women by looking holistically at their lives and working with them towards fulfillment and balance by shedding the limiting stories they've inherited
to become their authentic selves. Thank you so much for joining me today, Emma.
Thank you, Rachel. It's lovely to be here.
Folks who listen to the pod may or may not notice. I don't tend to have on a ton of coaches, partly because it's close to what I do, and also I like to hear people who really have stories from in the trenches.
What's cool about you is that you have both pieces of experience, and I'm excited to get into that. How did we meet? I actually don't remember. Was it Jessica? Okay. Was it
Deeper Foundations? Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Regular listeners may notice that I, I meet a lot of people through Jessica Lackey's programs and also through Michelle Mazer's programs.
When you're in business for yourself, you have to do a lot of networking with other people and, but it's great.
Yeah.
So I'm so glad that we got a chance to connect. Give us a little bit of your background so that people can get to know you a bit.
Okay, where to start? Goodness me. I guess I originally began in traditional children's book publishing. Back in the UK. I was always a doer of deals. I was in the rights department. I would sell foreign translation rights for children's books, which was great.
I was doing a lot of traveling on my own, meeting with foreign publishers. So that was lonely. My first ever Asia trip was about three and a half weeks long, and I think two weeks in, I burst into tears on the phone with the, CEO.
Just because you were by yourself? Yes. And you know, it was very formal in those days, so sitting up straight and eating whatever was put in front of you. In Korea and Japan and Taiwan and Singapore, and I was in my late twenties and it was all a bit overwhelming.
But then , I got headhunted by Disney. And it was a bit different. It was running a business for them.
Mm-hmm.
So I went from doing individual deals to running a chunk of business. I ran their UK book publishing business for them.
Mm-hmm.
So that was the beginning of my leadership path.
Yeah.
They hired you to build a business or to take over a business within their company?
So how a lot of these, intellectual property owners like Disney, Warner Brothers, is they license out the rights to their intellectual properties.
So imagine, Moana, the music. I was
just gonna say Moana. That's so funny. There you go.
Bit of a psychic something going on there. Little bit. Mm-hmm.
Disney made Moana, and they then licensed the rights out for Moana books, mugs, t-shirts, towels. Toasters. So I would manage the book part of that business. Okay. So that was how I started my corporate business career. And that was a long time ago.
Now that was back in my early thirties. I'm 55.
Mm. So it's been a while. I, I think you're lying on that one. Or you carry it Well, how about if I say it that way?
I like to say it's the virtuous life I've led. Okay. Yeah, to say that. Nice. But yeah, I mean that led to me running bigger and bigger businesses for Disney.
My last job at Disney in the UK was running global book business, including the whole of Europe.
So are you then managing a lot of teams? What does that mean to run those businesses? So
back in those days, that was about 60 people?
Mm-hmm.
it was however many countries, because it's publishing, you do deals for different languages. So it was all the European languages. Part of the business was global, so every language in the world, multiple publishers. So you are not just running a team of people who are out doing deals,
you are managing business relationships with the publishers as well. So all the big publishers around the world, and lots of little ones . And then the internal relationships at Disney. Mm-hmm. As well. So in order to do work like that, you have to have, relationships with the studio, with corporate, lots of relationships.
Yeah. Yeah. I hear that. When we talked about doing the show, you were talking about one of your experiences of loneliness, moving from what you had been doing into building a business within a business.
Mm-hmm.
What is that like? Yeah, that was
Dreamworks, I was asked to build them a publishing business.
And actually create an in-house publisher, so instead of doing deals, just doing deals with other publishers, become a publisher ourselves.
Okay.
. So it was very exciting. It was quite scary. Um, I was the only person in the whole company who had had experience of doing this.
Mm-hmm. So
helping to explain to the rest of the leaders there and my boss, what this meant, it was all me. Mm-hmm. Um, I remember creating the business plan one Christmas sitting on my bed. I had. I think a 2-year-old, sitting on the bed creating my first publishing plan and putting the business plan together.
And , in January. I had to hire a lot of people. Really? How many? About 20 I think we started with. Wow. Um, but they needed to really know what they were doing. 'cause we were hitting the ground running. We had best selling books in Walmart by. The fall by Thanksgiving. Wow. And a normal, that's fast.
Yeah. A normal publishing cycle is two years. And that's for an established business.
Yeah. That's why I'm saying that's fast. Yeah. People
know about publishing,
but yeah.
Yeah. It was a lot of work very quickly. It was a lot of responsibility Very quickly as well. I had people coming, hearing what I was doing and asking to come from Disney to Dreamworks, and I said, look.
You know, you've been at Disney for 20 years. I know you think you're coming to an established business. Dreamworks is established, but , the publishing , this is a completely new business. It was literally a startup within the business. The building they put us in didn't have lights.
Oh my God. It was, it was crazy. It was really great for a while.
Highly creative. I had some incredible people working for me, really experienced, very much knew what they were doing, but within this business hadn't got the faintest idea even what we were trying to do. Wow.
Um,
so it was exciting. But it was a lot of responsibility as well.
And you're in your early thirties by this point? Oh no, I was early, mid forties. Oh, okay. And the first year was amazing. The second year. The whole remit at the studio changed. It was just before they were sold to Universal. Mm. Um, so I'd been building a business, for the first year or so, and in year two I was asked to pare it down to the absolute, absolute minimum.
Mm. Um, so yeah, I had to start laying people off, which was awful. It was awful. Hmm. And I felt so alone. Yeah. Um, that's the closest I've ever been to feeling like I would have a breakdown.
Yeah.
, Yeah, it was rough.
What did you do with that? How did you handle it?
I didn't have a lot of resources at the time.
I have to say, now I know exactly how I would handle it, but back then I didn't have any of my coach training to fall back on. Yeah. Um, I didn't really know anybody else in my position. My husband didn't get it. None of my friends had the faintest idea of what it was like. I wouldn't say. I had much resource to know how to handle it.
My boss gave me a spa certificate. That was, that was the one thing I remember really helping. Yeah. She knew that I was going through a really hard time with this and she gave me a certificate for a massage somewhere where they had a hot tub and honestly just lying in the hot tub made a massive difference.
I would, now I know what that is. That is self-care.
Hmm.
That is self-care. Yeah. And that's what I needed. I needed to look after myself, and that's what I did. Now I would say find yourself a mentor. Find somebody who has to some degree done what you are doing. Yeah,
but it was difficult.
It sounds like there weren't a lot of people doing what you were doing. That's a refrain I hear a lot on the show from other guests is Yeah, even when they get help . part of what the loneliness is, is that they're innovating. Yeah. And there isn't anyone to say, here's how it's gonna go, or Here's what you can expect.
It's just like,
try stuff. Good luck. Yeah, exactly. There was, nobody in the company who understood what I was doing. It was really nice afterwards when I came out the other side, a year or so later, somebody in the publishing industry who I won't name but knew better than anybody else what I'd been doing said to me, that was an incredible thing that you did.
Aw, The only person who ever said it. Oh my gosh. Well, , nobody knew. You know, , I launched something and then I had to start to dismantle it almost immediately. , So nobody really knew but to have him say that, and he really did know better than anybody else. What I had been working to achieve, it meant a huge amount.
It helped my self-esteem after the whole thing. To hear that from somebody I respected who really got it. Wow. Yeah,
it's remarkable how often, A people don't know what we're up to when we're in leadership, so they can't really provide any feedback, and B, when they do know how rarely people will actually take the time to say something like, I see you.
I know you're working hard and you're doing a great job.
Yeah,
the higher up you get, the fewer people are above you. And so you don't get that validation of like, here's your performance report.
No, exactly, and we created some really extraordinary stuff at Dreamworks and they must be sitting in a vault somewhere and I just hope one day some of them will see the Oh
no.
Who knows. Who knows. , And these are books
or that, because you said it was publishing
Yes. Stories about the characters. Existing characters.
And they still haven't been released? Some of them, no. Oh
yeah. That's so hard. Who's at Universal? You have a load of gems sitting around somewhere. Call me.
I'll tell you about them.
Yeah. Hey, if you know we've got a high up exec at Universal listening to the show, you need to call Emma Whittard.
Give me a call. I'll tell you what you've got there. I think the hardest thing at the time was feeling very, very responsible for the people I'd hired. Being worried about what would happen to them.
, Yeah, I was very, very lucky. , The night before I had to do a load of layoffs. I met up with an old friend from publishing and I was honest with her. I told her what I was going through and she said, I can't believe you're telling me this. I am about to ramp up my hiring and she was in LA as well.
And, you know, there aren't many publishing people in LA mm-hmm. She said, we need people. And we literally sat there , at the bar that we were in and I went through the people and she said, okay, this is the position I have. What can they do? And we figured it out so that when I went in to do the layoffs the next day, I was able to say.
This is happening, but I do have this Wow. If you're interested. I'm sure they were very grateful. Yeah. A lot of them did actually go and take those
jobs, which was great. Yeah. You were
happy.
Oh, that's such an incredible, synchronicity or mm-hmm. You know, spirit led. Yeah. Like, that's amazing. I'm sure most people with good hearts who have to do layoffs, wish they could have something like that happen.
And I'll tell you something even stranger about it, she and I are both English and we grew up in the same town. Wow. We used to go to my little sister's birthday parties when she was a teenager.
What? And you're both in LA in publishing?
Yeah, we were then, yeah. Wow. She's not
there anymore. But
yeah,
that felt very lucky and very, as you say, like the universe had put us together so that we could help people to, progress in their careers. Yeah. At that time. Mm.
So there you are, you've just built something. Then you have to start dismantling it the next year and laying people off and all you've got is a spa gift certificate and a, and a dip in a hot tub to deal with it. Wow. That is, that is really being tested. Did that change anything about what you did moving forward?
Was that part of why you ended up heading into coaching?
Yeah, absolutely. After that experience, basically after I think two rounds of layoffs, it was my turn That just wasn't there, wasn't the business there. The thing that I'd been, yeah hired to do basically wasn't relevant anymore. Wow. So, um, so I was laid off and my daughter was three.
She was just starting preschool and ever since she'd been born, I was desperate to just hang out with her. I wanted to spend time with her before she started, formal grade school. Mm-hmm. I think I can afford to take maybe a year off. Mm. Do some consulting and just spend some time with her.
Mm-hmm. So
that actually turned into two years. I set up my intellectual property development business, The Queen's English , and it was amazing. I discovered this mythical thing called work-life balance, which I never experienced before , and that really changed me
I really enjoyed consulting. , But once I realized that work life balance was available, I just thought, well, why would anybody go back
a corporate job? Well, you know, interesting that you were able to find that. I know a lot of people who start businesses,, what's the joke? You leave the 40 hour work week, getting paid a salary so that you can pay yourself less and work literally all the time or something like that.
Yeah.
I am very lucky. I was given some very, very good advice right at the beginning of my consulting. Oh, please share. Really, I think it was three different pieces of a advice that I put together. . I remember reading something in The Economist about how bad it is for you to work more than 25 hours a week over the age of 40.
And I thought, oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, so I thought, I thought, okay, if I was only gonna work 25 hours a week and I wanted to make as much money as I used to make, how much would I need to charge? Okay. , And I was also given the advice, don't charge an hourly rate for consulting, charge a project rate.
Mm-hmm. You know what your hourly rate is, but you work out how long the thing's gonna take you and you charge by the project. Yeah. So I had a very lovely period of time where I was making as much as I'd been making at Dreamworks for 12 hours a week. Whoa. Wow. That's amazing. But a lot of it was about having the confidence to say no to things and not coming down from my rate.
And I imagine this is something that I didn't understand when I first got into running my own company. I imagine that a lot of your ability to do that is because you already had contacts.
Mm-hmm.
Because of all your corporate experience. Yes. So people who already knew and trusted you. And so when you said, oh, I'm stepping out to do consulting, they're like, great.
Yeah. I got a job
straight away. Mm-hmm. I went to, uh, a franchise plan for Reading Rainbow immediately. , And that was absolutely about contacts. Yeah. I think sometimes what's not said when you hear about success stories mm-hmm. Is the amount of resources the person already has. Absolutely. I do think success is generally a combination of who you know.
Mm-hmm. Actually how much money you have. Mm-hmm. Because I had enough money to be able to say, okay, I'm gonna try this consulting thing out for a while and not just take the first job. Right. That comes along. , I ended up going back into full-time work for Warner Brothers a couple of years later because I had to financially, .
But I had two years , of running a business , which was wonderful, and if I'd had more capital, I probably, could have kept going.
Mm-hmm.
, So I do think having money upfront , is something that often is not talked about. Absolutely isn't.
Yeah. Yeah. People are like, I started in the garage.
Cool. Whose garage was that? That they didn't need it for their stuff. Car. Yeah. Who had the property that you could be on?
Who was feeding you during that time? Yeah, right. I was lucky. I, at the time, was married. , We had the, the health insurance covered. Nice. We had savings so I could afford to do it. .
But yeah, I mean, I did have to go back to full-time.
Mm-hmm.
My runway was too short for me to keep building that business at the time.
And then when you went back to full-time, was that in another high level leadership experience? Yeah.
Yeah. So I went, to be head of licensed publishing at Warner Brothers.
So I had a piece of the business at Disney. I had the whole business at Dreamworks, and then Warner Brothers was a bigger business than Dreamworks. Wow . That did not feel lonely though, because I had an amazing team who were very, very well established, who knew exactly what they were doing.
Nice. My team were there already. I slotted in, it was a very, very different situation than the Dreamworks situation.
Yeah. Well, here on the podcast, we like to open the private ledger, you know, because no one really knows your balance sheet of burdens.
Mm-hmm.
But we like to talk about it more openly because I think it's helpful , to see behind the curtain instead of just looking at someone's success and being like, oh, they're so lucky and blah, blah, blah. Right. But , there's costs we pay. So what's one cost you paid for being in leadership?
Back then
I think the biggest cost was living life outside of work. Hmm. You just didn't have one? Not really. Once I had my daughter, I was much more careful to have time for her, but still time with her when I was in a corporate job was before eight o'clock in the morning and after seven o'clock at night. Mm-hmm.
So when I was consulting and then when I left Warner Brothers , and went to full-time coaching, I was able to fit in with her times. Now, for example, when she's home, generally I'm not working. Some of the time I have to do maybe an hour here or there, but Nice. Generally when she's home, I don't work.
So the big sacrifice was time with my child., Before I had her, I worked all the time., My last role for Disney was global. So that when when you're in a global job, somebody is awake somewhere. All the time.
All the time, yeah.
So I worked all the time other than when I was asleep, and I would work at the weekends as well.
Hmm. Okay. It's a big cost, right? Yeah. Usually comes with hopefully good money, but it's a big exchange.
Yeah. Good money, but you spend an awful lot of it on things that compensate for the fact that you don't have any time.
Mm-hmm.
And you are completely stressed out, so you spend a lot of money on childcare, someone to clean your house.
Meals that you haven't had to cook. Mm-hmm. And vacations and massages and things to help you to de-stress from everything.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What is one invisible asset that you didn't realize you had at the time?
Inherent, or learnt on the job, or it doesn't matter either? Yeah, both. I think when it comes to leadership, one big asset for me was how I was raised.
I was raised by a very old school boss dad.
Mm-hmm.
So I had leadership, he was a very good boss. The people who worked for him liked him a lot, so I had good leadership modeled for me, but he also expected me to do great things, and I guess he was really good for my self-esteem.
My parents built my self-esteem. I work with a lot of people now as a coach who had a really rough time when they were kids. Yeah. And were not told that they were worthy. Right. But I was always told I was smart and could do whatever I wanted to do, and that they loved me no matter what I did. So there were no strings attached to that.
Yeah. That's lovely and very rare.
Yeah. So I think. I always assumed that there was more to me than my job, that my worth was not attached to my job and that I deserved to be in the room that I was in, no matter how senior the people were around me. And I think that's, I do think that's rare.
It's a huge asset and yes, extremely rare.
Yeah. Well, extremely rare perhaps for people who were raised middle class I might say, I suspect the wealthier that people were raised, the more they might hear, maybe not the love part, but definitely the you deserve to be here part.
Yeah. And I think it's different, you know, because , I coach mainly women, we women are
a disadvantage in that respect as well. Basically, anybody who isn't , a white dude
mm-hmm.
Um, I think gets the messaging from society that they're not necessarily the person that everybody would expect to see as the boss.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. In, white Western culture. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well that is an amazing asset and I'm so glad you had that.
It's really lovely to hear when someone does get it, because so often I hear about when they don't. Hmm. Yeah. So tell us now, especially because you now better understand self-care. What is one investment you're making for your wellbeing or your soul?
At the moment, it's so funny, it's back to the hot tub.
Um, this year is challenging I think for pretty much everybody I speak to.
Oh, yeah.
So, i'm like a broken record. I'm constantly reinforcing to the people around me how necessary self-care is when life is tough.
Mm.
Um, that it's, a way to resource ourselves and to be more resilient. So I'm doing that .
That's the funny thing. My old boss gave me this gift of, oh, a massage in a hot tub can actually make a really huge difference . that's what I'm doing this year. , Once a month. I knew it was gonna be a rough year. I thought to myself, do I want therapy or do I want a massage in a hot tub? And I have, I have a coach.
Mm-hmm.
I've had a coach since 2018, so I work with her. I have great friends. I thought, do I need somebody to talk to? I think I've got that. What I need is almost somatic. The somatic.
Mm-hmm. Work.
Of having the stress pounded out of me and that lovely contemplative, for me, a hot tub is a contemplative practice.
Yeah, I can see that. It's that sort of, yeah. Contemplative time in the nice hot water. For my spiritual health, I hike. Mm-hmm. , I aim for two or three times a week.
Nice.
I'm literally looking at the mountains right now. So. Nice. Yeah, so that is my therapy, my exercise, my spiritual life. Mm mm-hmm.
My emotional regulation.
When I lived in Seattle, because it's so cold and damp there, I was literally going to the, Korean Day Spa like. It wasn't once a week, but I was going at least once a month and probably more often during the, the really cold times because I'd get so cold and so depressed.
Mm-hmm.
I was like, I have to get into these infrared, heat rooms and hot tubs and just like be cooked. So I'm actually not shutting down. So I love that also. And , I love that you're bringing in the somatic element because it's so important. People generally don't think about it.
They run for exercise, so they can look a certain way maybe, but not because that's the place where they actually release their endorphins and reset their adrenals or whatever. I'm not a, obviously I'm not a doctor, but, for me, dancing was the thing , and is sometimes now still the thing, dancing, rollerskating, boogie boarding things where my body gets to have like an, a passionate movement experience.
Yeah,
yeah, exactly. Yeah. I find, , when I work with leaders, we are taught that really anything below our neck we should be ignoring. It's irrational. It's got nothing to do with anything. And the opposite is true. , And that's something that I've learned since I started my coach training.
Your body is your ally. Your body is there to teach you , and you have to take care of it because mm-hmm everything is connected. And that hiking that is emotional regulation. That isn't just physical exercise. It's, it's connecting me to the greater world around me. It's allowing me to experience awe.
It's helping me to regulate my emotions., And I think for leaders, it's a really important thing to have in your toolbox , whatever that thing is that you can do physically, that really grounds you, helps you move emotion through your body. . Yeah. And gives you that lovely feeling of wellbeing afterwards.
Yeah. Yeah. . And I love that you're recommending that . It's something that I talk about on my newsletter a fair amount, but I haven't really talked about much on the podcast, so I'm so glad you're bringing that in.
Yeah. And again, I didn't have that when I went through that craziness at Dreamworks, I hadn't found hiking.
Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I dunno how I survived really, to be honest. Burned some of your life energy probably.
Mm.
Yeah. I mean, probably my daughter was the thing that would have grounded me that back then.
Mm.
I remember now going into her room to read her at story at night.
Everything would sort of disappear and go away while I was doing that.
Nice. So, and I think people use their pets too, right? Mm-hmm. Just bury my face and my dog kind of thing.
Yes, absolutely. I have two cats and a dog, and 100% they are therapy animals.
Yeah.
What do you wish more leaders felt permission to say out loud?
, That they don't have all the answers. Yeah. Yeah. I work with people a lot on this. A lot of people think that when you're the boss, you're supposed to know everything.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely not. Have you ever worked for somebody who thinks they know everything? They suck.
What kind of an experience is that? It's terrible. Yeah. , So I think, yeah, I wish more leaders would say, you know what? I really dunno the answer to that. I'd love to hear what you think.
Yeah. , Yeah. Not just, I don't know, but do you have any idea? Yeah,
📍 I think leaders who ask great questions are the best leaders who have humility.
Mm.
It also makes them more human. Mm-hmm. Which creates connection. My favorite thing about my corporate life was leading a team. I always led with, vulnerability. Yeah, I said, you know, oh God, guys, I'm having a really bad day.
This thing's happened. What do you think we should do? And we would sit and figure it out. And because of that, really almost by chance, we were so bonded as a team and, I was known for building highly effective teams.
Yeah,
very bonded teams. And this was before I knew who Brene Brown was or what was, or I just did it that way because anything else just seemed really, really hard work.
The idea of putting on a persona. Mm-hmm.
Not for you.
Not for me.
And , like you said, you were not raised to do that.
No, I didn't think I needed to.
That's great. Uh, I can feel the people listening, being like, man, that must have been nice.
Yeah. Looking back, I had no idea how hard it could have been if I hadn't taken that approach.
It's really interesting on the show because I'm really trying to hear the stories of very different people. It's interesting to me that there is no one background that's like guarantees you'll be successful. Whether you were loved by your family or harmed by your family, raised wealthy, raised poor, coming from the global minority population or the global majority, which is people of color, um, it doesn't seem to matter.
People find their way into leadership who are meant to be leaders. Hmm.
Yeah, I think, it's interesting of the people I work with, I actually find hardship tends to create. That's one of them.
That's one of the paths.
As you say, there isn't one path, but that is a path that I come across a lot.
And often the story that's driving the person is, I'm not good enough. And also, if I
don't
do this, I'm gonna be in the
gutter. Yes. Yeah. So it's
necessity, but it's also the inner imposter syndrome can be quite quote unquote useful motivating Yeah.
Times. Mm-hmm. It doesn't make you happy because unfortunately you never arrive if you're being driven by that engine
mm-hmm.
Never arrive. It's never good enough. No. But it certainly will get you somewhere.
Mm-hmm.
And I think a lot of the problems we see with senior leadership around the world at the moment is, unfortunately, what is driving these people.
The drive for significance is not necessarily a drive that's healthy for the rest of us when they get there.
It's a drive that can't be fulfilled. Right. I think of it as the Hungry Ghost. Yes, exactly right. That's not my terminology. That's something I learned and it's never fulfilled.
It's like that scene in, uh, have you ever seen Spirited Away?
No, I haven't. Which is crazy. Yeah.
Yeah. You gotta see it sometime. There's a character who just constantly is asking for more
and ends
up kind of taking over this bathhouse and just keeps demanding more and more and more.
And when, when people can't fulfill it, then it starts eating the people. Hmm.
Yeah. You know,
it just, it's never satisfied.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. . Well, before we get to our final question, I always like to check in and find out, would you like to share anything with the audience about how people can find you, if you're open to people getting in touch?
Yeah, if
they wanted to get in touch with you.
Yeah, that would be great. Thank you very much. Yes. So nowadays I am a coach. I coach mainly women leaders in midlife and if you like anything that I've said about leadership, my approach to leadership, the best place to find me is my website, EmmaWitthard.com.
And there you can sign up for my newsletter or email me. My newsletter's always a good place to start to learn a little bit more about how I approach things. And I do a free master class once a month.
Well, I know you have a lot of good perspective that you're able to share. So I hope if somebody feels drawn that they reach out. Thank you.
Last question before we wrap is the time machine question. And you, you've answered it a little bit already, but maybe there'll be another answer.
If you could right now step into the time machine and go back to any point in your life, what would you say to help a past version of yourself?
Oh my goodness me.
This is what comes to mind. This is not profound, but it's, good practical advice. I would go back to me in my early twenties and I would say educate yourself financially. Oh. You're gonna earn lots of money.
Just saving. Just knowing that you need to save some isn't enough. Get yourself a proper financial education. Wow, that
is such good advice and has not been said yet on the show. I love it. I would second that by the way.
Like yeah, that's one thing. There aren't many things I would actually do differently, but that's one thing I would do differently.
And I think as women, we are taught to save, not spend, but we are not taught actually how to manage our finances and manage investments and that kind of thing.
Yeah. That is great advice for not just your past self, but for all of us
yes.
Well, thank you so much for joining me today on the show.
Thank you. It was very fun. Great questions.
📍 Thanks for listening to Lonely At the Top. If today's conversation resonated, I hope you'll give yourself permission to pause even for a moment and check in with what you might be carrying.
You don't have to hold it all alone. I work with high performers who wanna clean up their secret messes, and you can learn more at RachelAlexandria.com. If you know another leader who needs to hear this podcast, please send it their way, because yeah, it's lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to stay that way.