Suzie Clark | From Burnout to Bliss: Finding Success and Joy on Your Own Terms

Season Four
Written By Nicole Christie

Suzie Clark, founder of Female Leadership Collective, shares how she left a seemingly perfect life in London—including a high-powered, yet unfulfilling, career as a banker—and moved to Bali to live a more purposeful life. She talks about the missteps and mistakes along her path to finding meaning and joy in online entrepreneurship, and how she’s now helping other women leave their corporate careers to do the same. Suzie emphasizes the importance of aligning your values with your life and work, practicing self-care, and defining success on your own terms. 

Show Notes:

  • Nicole: [00:00:03] Welcome to Here For Me, a podcast about the power of choosing yourself. I'm Nicole Christie, and I'm honored you're joining me for stories and conversations about life's disruptions, derailments, and transitions.

    On this podcast, we talk about navigating challenges, walking through fire, and along the way learning to show up for ourselves. Because, just as we say “I'm here for you” to show we care for someone, saying “I'm here for me” to ourselves is the best form of self-care.

    Today I'm talking with Suzie Clark. Suzie is the founder of Female Leadership Collective, where her courses, coaching, and Bali retreats help high-achieving women leave the corporate 9 to 5 and find purpose and self-defined success by launching their own freedom-based businesses.

    A former banker turned online entrepreneur, Suzie had it all by material standards. The exciting life in London, the six-figure job, impressive title, skyscraper office, city apartment, and five-star vacations.

    Yet she was absolutely miserable. She was addicted to achieving and climbing the corporate ladder, doing everything she could do to find happiness, but felt bored and numb. She desperately wanted to leave everything behind and start her own business, but was terrified of losing what she had worked so hard for.

    Suzie eventually decided the risk of her mental health was greater than the risk of leaving. She invested in her personal development, and in 2019 found the courage to leave her job, relationship, and home country, booked a one-way ticket to Bali, and founded Female Leadership Collective.

    We'll hear from Suzie about how she overcame burnout to reclaim herself, her purpose, and a deep sense of gratitude and joy.

    Suzie, welcome to Here For Me.

    Suzie: [00:02:00] Hi. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited for our conversation.

    Nicole: [00:02:03] I'm so excited for our conversation as well. It has been so fun to connect with you. We connected a few months ago, and your story of doing something that many people want to do, walk away from everything, and move to a tropical island to start over, to live a life that's authentic to you is so inspiring, and I can't wait for everyone to hear about how you did that.

    I literally can't think of anyone who hasn't wanted to do this. I know I personally wish for it sometimes. Like, my dream is to move to a tropical island and sell ice cream on the beach, those moments when I'm burned out.

    But what you have done, moved to an island, built a thriving business, and are now helping other people do the same, is like finding purpose amongst the palm trees. And I'm just so excited to have you here to share it with everybody.

    Suzie: [00:02:52] Yeah. Thank you. It's actually really funny hearing it reflected back to me like that. So I'm excited to share more. But, yeah, it's nice to be at a place where a lot of what I really dreamed of and wanted to manifest and create, like, I now have. It's unbelievable sometimes.

    Nicole: [00:03:07] I think it goes without saying that you should be immensely proud of that because it is courageous beyond words. Because I know it's scary and you did it anyways, which is like the definition of courage. So I just want to give you big congrats on that.

    So let's talk about how you got to that point. You were leading a life that was enviable on the outside, but you were crumbling on the inside. How was that manifesting in your mental and physical health?

    Suzie: [00:03:34] To set the scene, I went straight into working for the world's largest investment bank out of my economics degree at university, so I was working for J.P. Morgan on their graduate scheme, and on their graduate scheme, you're supposed to be the leaders of the future. So you're really put on this pedestal and you feel that you're like God's gift because you've been put on this platform.

    So I'm going in. I've got my, like, trouser suit going on. I’m working in a skyscraper. I'm thinking, wow, I'm really impressed with myself, you know?

    And that lasted all of about probably six months. And I realized, oh, is this all it is? And it was kind of a weird, unsettling feeling. And maybe six years goes by and the feeling definitely got bigger.

    And I guess what happens when you carry on doing something that is out of alignment with what your body or your mind really wants to do, you start to lose more and more pieces of yourself, and your life just runs on autopilot. And I guess the word to describe it was just feeling more and more numb over time.

    But then there's this weird guilt that comes in when you're really fortunate. You've got one of the best jobs in the world, and you're being paid a lot more than your friends. And why should I feel unhappy with that?

    There was this sense of like, real guilt. So it was really conflicting and it kept me stuck. So at that point, my mental health really started to suffer. And now with hindsight, I can look back and I think the reason was I was depriving myself of the joy that I really wanted to have, like the conditions that I was in. Yes, society says that you should be really happy with an amazing job, like financial stability and that future ahead of you.

    But I didn't feel joy in that situation. The sense of adventure wasn't there, the sense of impact wasn't there, the sense of being able to look after my body and have spaciousness in the week wasn't there. And now I know those are the things that create success and joy for me.

    But at the time, I didn't know that. So yeah, I was just left feeling, I think, depressed, to be honest. I never saw anyone about it, but it really did feel like I'd lost all sense of who I was. And then your confidence goes, so your ability to get out of it is even more tricky.

    Nicole: [00:06:08] Yeah. And you said like, six months in, you knew, uh, this is not for me. To be in that for six years, how did you manage to get through that? Were there things that you were doing for yourself in your life to kind of make up for those hours that you were at work—and being in finance, you were probably working 20 hours a day. So talk about what that was like and how you managed to get through six years before you hit a breaking point.

    Suzie: [00:06:38] I think that's a really interesting question, because now when I look back on that time, I'm like, wow, how did I actually cope living so out of alignment? Because I've got the beauty of hindsight and perspective. But at the time it was normal.

    Everybody around me felt like that. And so that kind of set the standard. And so that's what almost kept me stuck in a way. Because who was I to have the audacity to think I could have something different? And who was I to think that that dream life of living on a tropical island was available to me, because everybody else had put that in the bucket of a dream life? That's never going to happen.

    So I almost had shame around anything else. So, I think that there was an element of settling a lot with all aspects of my life because that's what everybody else was doing.

    But then also I was trying to get hits of joy from real external things, like the dopamine hits from shopping, buying a designer bag. And I was learning a lot of these things from my peers around me, like, this is how everybody else is coping. So it was booking luxury holidays to Mauritius and things like that, and I always needed the next thing to buy to give that boost of dopamine, and then it would just disappear. And like lots of boozy brunches on the weekends, all your standard codependency and your relationship where, I was relying on these sources, which weren't healthy sources for my short hits of joy, which weren't really deep joy.

    Nicole: [00:08:12] You mentioned you were in a relationship that was not serving you. What was that relationship like and how was it not serving you, given everything else in your life being out of alignment?

    Suzie: [00:08:22] Just for context, now, I'm 33, but this relationship was throughout most of my 20s. We met when we were 21, and then I broke it off when I was about 28. So we kind of grew up together. You change between those ages and it just felt like we grew apart. And so it becomes a tradition and you start to depend on that person, especially when I wasn't in a good place myself, the affection, being able to have somebody there, I think that's the codependency that was coming from me, in the sense that I relied on him to make me feel less alone in myself.

    And even though it was very clear halfway through that we were growing in completely different ways and we started to resent each other. And it wasn't a healthy relationship, but we both were too afraid to leave because we weren't whole of ourselves. We were not confident enough as ourselves to be on our own. And I think that was quite a journey to get to that point, where I felt confident enough to be able to deal with the aftermath of how it feels to break off a relationship that's like six, seven years long, where you feel like your family, like you've grown up together.

    So it was a beautiful relationship in some senses. I have great memories, but at the same time I stayed in it far too long than I should have. We weren't the right match.

    Nicole: [00:09:47] So talk about that moment when you knew that the risk of staying where you were in the job, in the city, in the relationship, was far greater than the risk of leaving and figuring out what alignment looked like for you. How did you start taking steps to where you are now?

    Suzie: [00:10:08] It was really interesting because all the decisions came in the same week, so I must have suddenly felt like I've hit the threshold of the strength that I need. Like I broke off the relationship, I quit my job, and I booked a flight to Bali all in the same week.

    And I knew I wanted to do these things, but I just knew that they were such big decisions that I was going to need so much energy to have the momentum of the feeling of that risk.

    So I felt like I needed to get myself into a strong place. When lots of things started to happen, I just felt dark thoughts. I put on a lot of weight, I was self-sabotaging, I just felt so numb to life. Like almost as an observer, that you're feeling like this.

    And that's when my personal growth journey started. I started picking up yoga, and yoga really was my first insight into feeling my body. I'd never communicated with my body, or even thought about it in that way of how it feels until yoga, because there's so much space and silence in a class that your body kind of speaks to you.

    And I think it was opening that channel to my body because your thoughts are what your body is feeling. I learned so much more about myself, and it almost felt stronger, that ‘you need to do something’ message felt strong, because I could feel it as a whole. So that really then drove me to start to do personal growth classes. I did the Tony Robbins Unleash the Power within all of these things, to discover more about myself and get myself strong enough to then execute all these decisions that happened in the same week.

    Nicole: [00:11:55] All I can think as you're talking about this is badass and empowering. And just to go, fuck it. With the relationship, I'm done. The job, I'm done. I'm booking this trip to Bali.

    And even though it is a lot in a short period of time, I think you were just at the point where you were like, I have to do something, I have to walk towards it.

    And you're right, our bodies talk to us and yoga is a beautiful way to go into your body and be like, what is it telling me about how I'm going to march forward?

    Suzie: [00:12:28] Yeah, exactly. And I think a big part of this as well was, um, ego. So a big thing that was keeping me stuck was I had built this identity around my banking career and my academics, and I'm that kind of person. And I built this identity around it.

    So quitting my job and doing something else, I couldn't bring myself to even go there because I had shame around it. That was what was really holding me back. And what I realize now is that is society's version of success and society's hierarchy of what is a prestigious job and what is less so, and all of these things.

    But actually now my definition of success is feeling calm, feeling peaceful, feeling happiness, having space in my schedule, not having an alarm in the morning, and being able to go to the sauna for a few hours, and going to sunset on the beach with my dog.

    And none of those things are like how much I'm paid, or what my title is, or that I'm working in a skyscraper, like these external things. So it really had to be this shift where I recognized that actually, no, the importance is defining success for you and not living for what other people are saying success is, and then trying to work through that shame.

    Nicole: [00:13:50] There is a ton of shame around that. And when I started my first business in 2005, I had gone through the end of a relationship, and I'd moved to New York from Seattle, and that was my last ditch of like, this job is not for me. It was the big consulting firm in the skyscraper in Manhattan and all that.

    And I identified freedom and flexibility were the most important things to me. I want to do the work I'm good at, that I love, doing where I want, when I want, how I want. I'm going to go to Pilates in the morning for a couple of hours, because I'm going to stop and get a coffee on the way home. I'm usually up early, but I'm not functioning early. The thing that you said about the alarm totally resonated with me. That is defining success on your own terms, and I applaud you for that. And I love that you're teaching other people how to do it.

    So I want to talk about how you got to that point. Because when you booked that ticket to Bali, did you have a sense that you wanted to go there? Were you just sort of like, it's beautiful, I'm going to go on vacation? Were you like, I feel pulled in some way. What was that for you?

    Suzie: [00:14:49] So I had read this book, which maybe some of your listeners might know, called The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.

    And really, that title is just clickbait. It's not really about, like, getting to the 4-hour work week. But what it did do is introduce me to this concept of people working from their laptops, and he was talking a lot about Bali because that was kind of the original place that a lot of these nomadic people were starting out, like, 10 years ago when he wrote that book. But that really planted a seed to me of this whole actually, if you can reduce your living expenses by moving to a country where it's not as expensive as London, for example, then you can buy yourself time to build a business and make the income that you want to make.

    So in my head, that totally made sense, but it just felt so far-fetched. Like the whole thing, again, about the audacity. Who was I to think I could move to Bali and then start to make money off my laptop? But the seed was planted and that was early on in my career that I read that book and it never went away.

    So when I left my job, this yoga teacher thing was in the back of my head. Maybe that's the way I could make money until I decided what my business was. So I did a yoga teacher training. And it's quite funny because I trained as a yoga teacher and I tried teaching a couple of classes, and I realized I don't actually like teaching yoga. You can't relax as a teacher. And literally I'm just like, oh, well, this wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it took me to Bali.

    Nicole: [00:16:21] Yes, absolutely. So you end up in Bali. What was it like to start over there? How did you support yourself and then find your way to online entrepreneurship?

    Suzie: [00:16:33] Yeah. So one kind of quote that I really believe is, you can't be what you can't see. And so the biggest shift for me was I went into a co-working space that a friend had told me about called Dojo, which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore.

    But I walked in there and I saw all these people working from laptops, sitting on beanbags, floating on a float in the pool, like sipping a coconut on their laptops with the headphones on. And,I was like, wow, this is real. The book is real. People are digital.

    Nicole: [00:17:04] The digital nomads are here!

    Suzie: [00:17:06] Yeah, people are doing this. And the moment I saw it, it created a shift in me of belief in possibility. Like if I got one of the best jobs as a grad, there is no reason why I can't make this work.

    So that planted the seed from that moment and in the end it went back to London, sold everything, condensed all my stuff into like two suitcases and moved to Bali.

    And it's been four years now, so it's been quite a journey and I must say, like, I'm running my dream business now and everything is just what I always wanted.

    But that's not how it always was. There was definitely huge destroying of the ego, business failures, lots of learnings. And this was during the pandemic as well. So a lot of anxiety, a lot of evolution. But I'm sure you'll agree with me that starting a business is a whole healing journey and I'm a completely different person, but way more me. And that feeling of whole that I didn't have before, I have it in abundance now.

    Nicole: [00:18:13] In Female Leadership Collective, you're helping women leave the corporate 9 to 5 and start an online business. So talk about the online entrepreneurship journey and where did that start and how did it get to where you are now?

    Suzie: [00:18:26] When I first got to Bali, I came with savings. I had built up savings whilst all my friends were saving for a house. I'm like right, this is my escape fund. So I came with savings but I knew they were going to run out, so I did any job anybody had going.

    One of the funniest ones was that I had a friend who had a non-plastic straws business with logos on the straws. So I was calling all of his Facebook ad leads trying to sell these straws, and it was almost humbling for me to go from like having all this ego around my job to just really...

    Nicole: [00:19:00] J.P. Morgan Chase. Yeah, like at the top of the financial world.

    Suzie: [00:19:03] Yeah, it made me laugh. I kind of enjoyed it. It felt rebellious and it felt playful, and it felt fun. But glad that didn't last too long.

    So then I was just freelancing around anything I could do, like my background is sales, so anything along those lines. Then my savings started to run out and I applied for a customer service job at a finance crypto startup because they're all really used to working remote. And in the end, the CEO hired me to run their Asia sales, and it turned into this whole big job, great salary.

    But six months in, I realized I've replicated my finance career from an air-conditioned room in Bali, and I'm sitting at dinner and watching Slack, constantly feeling anxiety. And I'm like, wow, just because you moved to Bali doesn't solve all your problems. If you haven't solved the root of it, everything will just follow you.

    So that was what I realized. It's not about the remote job for me. I definitely want to be my own boss.

    At the time, I had built an e-commerce brand selling blue light glasses, and I built a charity model into that, where I was inspired by the TOMS founder, the one-for-one model. So when someone bought a pair of glasses, we donated a gift of sight to someone in the developing world because I thought, right, that's going to bring me purpose. And it did.

    But something was missing from this as well, because people would say, “Oh, I love your glasses. They've cured my headaches.” But then I'd never speak to them again. And so I felt like the purpose for me was still not enough.

    And then economically, it's tricky to build a product that's like $45 to pay you. It's going to take a while for you to pay yourself from that business or a big injection of capital. So I learned that.

    I then got the courage to be like, okay, this business, isn't it. This job, isn't it. So I packed them both in. And at that point I was like, right, it is now or never.

    What is the business that I want to do? What am I here to do? And what was coming to me was helping women get out of their corporate jobs and launch businesses. Because I'd been freelancing a lot, helping coaches and consultants sell their courses and had great results.

    So I was like, I can teach these women how to sell. I can teach these women how to launch because I've been inside of all of these businesses. So, Female Leadership Collective was born.

    And my first program was born, Launch Academy, where I take women from idea. They can come in. They don't even have an idea, and then they've launched a business by the end of it after three months. So I absolutely love it.

    I do retreats now as well. I have a Bali retreat called The Reset, which is beautiful full circle thing. Because the whole week is all the healing, all the spiritual, all the personal growth things I have done in the last four years that Bali has. And then I give these to other women and I get to see that transform them. I can't tell you it's probably the most rewarding thing I've ever done.

    I am literally living my dream now, and I'm not embarrassed to say that because it sounds a little bit cringey sometimes. But you've got to fail fast when you know things aren't working. And keep searching and be true to yourself and then it will find you.

    Nicole: [00:22:37] I love that so much. You talked about how you are a completely different person now, certainly then the person that you were when you left London and even when you first got to Bali.

    But what does that look like? How you show up in your day-to-day, who you are on the inside, how you're here for yourself? How is that different now than it was when you started all of this?

    Suzie: [00:23:02] I think a lot of the western world, we're conditioned to run on adrenaline. We're not in our normal state for most of our day, and now that's not the case for me. I'm definitely much more peaceful in my day, much more relaxed.

    And I interpret this, and I know it's not necessarily everybody sees the gender thing in this, but I interpret a lot of this as in reconnecting with a lot of my feminine energy. And that's made me feel more me, allowing myself to lead in ways that aren't traditionally recognized as strengths. But actually in my business, that's what I've done. And people have got great results.

    And I can give an example on the retreat, actually, of how another woman summarized it. She said, at the start of this retreat, when I was doing a few of these workshops, I felt like I was trying to be someone I wasn't. And then as time went on, I realized that's actually who I am. And I was suppressing it because society says that you can't be soft and you can't be spontaneous and playful and all of these things. And she's a mom now. And she said, this has empowered my entire family. I'm showing up so much better for my two boys, my husband. I just love that.

    And that's exactly what I went through, because you then feel more comfortable being yourself. You don't have to be pushing all the time, living on adrenaline, doing more, proving, proving, proving there's nothing to prove. You're enough as you are. And when you realize that and let go of all of these constant conveyor belts of trying to prove and achieve, that's where you find inner peace.

    And that's the freedom piece for me. Freedom is when you free yourself internally.

    Nicole: [00:24:59] That's one thing I think, as far as leaning into your divine feminine, and thank you for bringing up that term, the divine masculine and divine feminine energy, which we all have within us. It's not a gender-based or a gender identity-based thing. We all have that balance.

    Yours was way on the masculine side in your career, particularly in finance, very male-dominated industry. I came from tech. Same thing. Back-to-back meetings, hustle, you know, politics, bureaucracy, bleh.

    When you're working with women and helping them lean more into the divine feminine, what does that look like to bring your divine feminine into your business?

    Suzi: [00:25:37] It's a lot around feeling like, with my Launch Academy course, what happens is, the first three weeks is not strategy because I need to make sure you are picking a business that is really aligned with that feeling.

    It's going to create that impactful, purposeful feeling rather than you're choosing something that's going to make money because you might as well stay in your corporate job.

    But all my clients, because they're such “Type A”, high achieving women, come in being like, this is too slow. Like, when's the strategy coming? I feel like I'm not doing enough.

    And I'm holding the space for them, for all that to come up so they can see that. And then they start to realize, oh, this is what I want to do. Ah, I actually want to help these kinds of people. And often people come in with an idea and they change it after that because they've connected with themselves.

    So what happens is you start to see more of a glow. You start to see them allowing themselves to receive more joy and pleasurable experiences in their life. You see them tapping into more sensuality, like putting music on more, or maybe scented candles, or just simple things that give you those sparks of joy and that feeling. It helps you feel.

    And by the end of the program or the retreat in particular, because I get to see the people in person, what they're wearing changes. Their face changes.

    And when I really tapped into this stuff, I was looking at my closet. And one half is like all this dark clothes. And then suddenly, the other section starts to get more colorful and patterns and things like this. And now my whole closet is way more colorful and not as much black. But it's really interesting because when you tap into that, you start to see the beauty of life and you start to want to be vibrant. And you start to go from numbing and making yourself small to being able to express yourself and being comfortable expressing yourself. And it's really beautiful. That's when you start to feel fully empowered as a leader, I believe.

    Nicole: [00:27:45] And it's a, it's a form of leadership that we need more of. So what you are doing is something that not only the woman you work with need, but really, truly the world needs.

    Especially the world we live in now post-pandemic, where I think people softened a little bit in a lot of ways and are like, huh, I'm not really sure the way that we were doing things for however many centuries, and even beyond that, I'm not really sure that works anymore.

    Suzie: [00:28:10] Yeah, it's just not built for our bodies, especially a female body. We're so cyclical. We're not the same throughout the month. And so the system is not built for that, and it's not built for women who are going to go through childbirth.

    And actually technology, in the way that we live now, all these things have gone so far ahead that there's so many amazing ways that we can build much better culture for female bodies in a workplace, but it's so hard to shift corporate.

    So I see a world where corporations can be amazing cultures, but I don't see that in my lifetime. So that's why I've set up Female Leadership Collective, because I think the only solution for people living now is to create their own business, to fill that themselves because I don't think the opportunity is in corporate women in our lifetime.

    Nicole: [00:28:59] I could not agree with you more and what you're doing, and I know that you share this with your clients, is the best thing to do is be the change. Be the change that you want to see in the world. It's Gandhi and that's what you're doing. So thank you for that.

    Suzie: [00:29:13] And that's the gift that you can give to other people as well. So many people get scared like, oh, I want to put myself out there. But when you flip it and you're like, but what if you inspire so many other people to feel better?

    Nicole: [00:29:25] Yes, exactly. That is the gift.

    So when we think about how many people are burned out? Probably almost everybody listening to this show in some fashion. I would say I am not and you are not, because we're doing something that feels purposeful to us. So it is possible, I just want to put that out there for listeners.

    What is your advice for people who are experiencing burnout? The first thing that they can do?

    Suzie: [00:29:50] I think we need to get into a mindset of interrupting the cycle and have some compassion, because most of the time it's not your fault. You're in an environment and a society that rewards being burned out. People are impressed when you're the busiest and you're the hardest worker and all of these things, so it's not your fault.

    But we need to kind of interrupt the cycle. So I think the best way, and this is how I started, is getting into your body. So that might look like taking a yoga class for the first time. Maybe you want to go at the back if you feel nervous about it. Or going and doing a meditation. There's a free app called Insight Timer that's got loads on there.

    Nicole: [00:30:32] Sarah Blondin on Insight Timer is everything to me.

    Suzie: [00:30:35] And even something simple like take a bath. How many of your listeners have a bathtub? How often do they allow themselves to use it and give themselves 30 minutes to read a book in the bath? And I'm sure lots of people are nodding their head and they're thinking, yeah, that thought’s entertained my mind. But then I've realized I've got so many things to do.

    Nicole: [00:30:57] Right. It feels like you're slacking off. A lot of people feel that way. Yeah.

    Suzie: [00:31:00] But, it's a muscle. And the more pleasure, pleasure doesn't need to be a sexual thing. Like, the more pleasure and the more you can receive joy from yourself, like giving yourself the gift of having a 30-minute bath and relaxing with no agenda. The more you can bring in little bits of that in your day and then chance to train yourself, wow, this feels good. I want to do more of this.

    Over time, you'll start to shift your priorities towards things that give you that feeling, because you'll start to see the difference between that feeling and the burnout feeling, and your brain will rewire towards those goals. And ultimately, that's how I'm here now.

    Nicole: [00:31:43] It's like a snowball. It just takes off from there. And you know, what I love is that the first step that you're giving people is something that feels good. Take a bath, try to meditate, read a book. That's always a nice place to start, as opposed to sit down and make a list of 5 or 10 things you really want to do, which feels like more work.

    You're saying, take time for yourself.

    I'm a big Pilates person and I tend to do more hardcore reformer Pilates, but I also do their therapeutic stretch class and I often do a double on Fridays, and that will be the second one. And you're just in your body the whole time. But similar to yoga, there's so much cueing of like, flat back, knit ribs. I can't not be in my body. I can't be in my head. I won't follow anything. Yoga is very similar.

    Like, you have to be listening for what you're doing, and it's just a beautiful way to forget everything, relax your mind, and then when you come out of it, you're like, what was I so stressed about when I walked into the class? There's a calmness that comes over me, even a hard Pilates where I'm like really going and sweating.

    I love that advice. Thank you for encouraging people to do that.

    Suzie: [00:32:47] People often say, oh, I'll feel happy when…or I'll feel free when I can launch this business. You're not going to do that until you start to get a taste for it.

    And there's little things you can start doing now that build that in. And if you're struggling to think of something to do, another thing to do is to think back to what things did you do as a child that you loved?

    For me, it was tennis. So I went and did some tennis lessons back in London, and suddenly I reconnect with that playful feeling and I can't get enough of it. So I start to do more of it. So that's another tip.

    Nicole: [00:33:21] I love the inner child. Connect with your inner child and bring that forward is so, so healing.

    So you have a number of ways that people can work with you. You mentioned your retreats, your courses, your coaching.

    Anyone who wants to reach out and work with you, what are the different ways that they can do so? And maybe if you recommend some more than others for where somebody is at in their journey.

    Suzie: [00:33:42] Yeah, absolutely. So I have my retreat, that's The Reset. So typically that's for the type of women that we've been talking about, someone that's really burned out. Almost at crisis point but don't know what to do. This is what I've built it for. It's the retreat I wished I had. And the aim is that you walk away feeling more like you again, reconnecting with you, but also a clear plan of what to do next. That's where the coaching comes in. So there's the reset that's happening in May. I'm opening spots very soon.

    Then there is Launch Academy. So if you want to launch a business, you can come through the Launch Academy Accelerator program, which is three months. I typically run it kind of every month. So there's probably an opening available at the time that you're listening to this.

    So the best way to go and see what's going on is Female Leadership Collective on Instagram. And if you're a bit confused, just send me a DM. I absolutely love to speak to people in the DMs, and it lights me up when I get to hear people's stories and their situations.

    And then if it comes to a point where it makes sense to work together, I can suggest what's the best program. But if I don't feel like I can support that person, then I can point them in the direction of where I think can help them too.

    Nicole: [00:35:00] And we'll put where to find you in the show notes.

    You're just such a delightful person, and your story will inspire people to follow what you have done and find what that means for themselves.

    So, my final question as we wrap up, you've shared such beautiful wisdom. Reflecting on all of that and everything that you have been through to get to this point, what would you say is the most important thing you've learned, and what advice do you have for listeners on how to be here for themselves?

    Suzie: [00:35:30] Try to look through the lens of love when you're going about your day. And I think that sounds quite cringey, but I cannot think of anything more powerful.

    And if you can start to see as much as possible through that lens, it's very healing. It very much detaches you from a lot of things that cause you problems.

    Try and find this inner love. Try and see love everywhere you look, even just simple, like if you see a tree and it's like, wow, that's so beautiful, you cultivate that feeling of love. If you can feel that more, your life is going to get better and things will start changing.

    Nicole: [00:36:14] I love that you've talked a lot about what our culture's conditioned us to do is look at everything from a place of fear or lack or scarcity of like, oh, I got to do this, I have to do this. Why is that like that? Why is that this? And resisting and fighting.

    What you're saying is just relax and open up into it and come from this place of love and gratitude.

    Suzie: [00:36:34] Exactly.

    Nicole: [00:36:35] Thank you so, so much for being here, for sharing your journey, for doing what you are doing, for being the change. We need more people like you.

    Suzie: [00:36:44] Yes, thank you so much Nicole. And also, I forgot to mention you came on my podcast as well so your listeners can go and listen to your episode too.

    Nicole: [00:36:52] Yes, we did do that, I know, so yeah. Check out Suzie's podcast, Female Leadership Collective, and hear the conversation we had about my story and starting my business because we talked a lot about that and then do these back to back.

    Suzie: [00:37:06] Yeah. And back. Right back at you. Thank you for the work that you do. It's amazing.

    Nicole: [00:37:11] Thank you so much.

    Suzie: [00:37:12] Thank you Nicole.

    Nicole: [00:37:16] Suzie Clark embodies what it means to define success on your own terms. Her story is a shining example of choosing yourself, of following your heart, leaving behind what's expected and available to everyone to reach for what's exceptional and uniquely yours.

    But Suzie didn't blindly take a leap of faith. She did the inner work, digging deep into herself to understand why she was unhappy. Facing depression and codependency and shame head on.

    She determined her values and what matters to her and how her life was misaligned. She learned to get out of her head and into her body, which is ripe with messages we often don't want to hear.

    While Suzie's story, moving to a tropical island and finding success, balance, and joy, sounds like an enviable one, it required her to make hard decisions. To let go of what felt safe and comfortable, to embrace uncertainty and loss, to make choices she didn't want to make but knew she had to make.

    There's a misconception in our society that the process of pursuing a dream is a dream itself. That it's ripe with joy, ease, and rapid acceleration. No one wants to hear it's a slog filled with doubt, setbacks, and difficult self-examination. It's why many people quit that pursuit. They assume if it doesn't feel good, it's wrong.

    But many in the spiritual community believe that's a key component of manifestation. That obstacles aren't something to fear, but to lean into. That they're a sign your manifestation is closer than you think.Or as we sometimes hear, that things get worse before they get better.

    But if you're like Suzie, brave enough to make hard choices, to let go of safety and certainty, to choose alignment and authenticity, to not just settle for impact, but purpose. The next step, the final step, is to keep the faith and keep going. That's what it takes to find success on your own terms, to live a life you once only dreamed of. A life where you choose yourself.

    Here For Me is produced by Lens Group Media in association with Tulla Productions. As is often said, it takes a village to make this podcast, and my deepest gratitude goes out to every person in that village: our producers Dave Nelson and Stacy Harris, our audio editor, J.D. Delgado, designer and illustrator Amy Senftleben, and our production assistant, Sarah Carefoot. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd follow the show, rate, review, and share it with people you love. You can also follow me on Instagram at nicolejchristie. Until next time, thank you so much for listening—here's to you being here for you and to the power of choosing yourself.

Nicole Christie
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