066 Future Proof Your Health & Business With Kellie Williams

About Kellie Williams:

Kellie is a mum of 2 with over 20 years’ experience in business and, as a Coach and Mentor her mission is to help others create the lifestyle they want for themselves and their families.

Kellie believes business doesn’t have to be hard, it can be fun!  She supports her clients by starting with their lifestyle and business goals and work backward from there to create a business designed around their dreams.

At the Drop of a Hat Ltd started in 2019 and scaled quickly reaching the VAT threshold and going limited in 2021. Kellie has created a team of talented individuals including Virtual Assistants, Online Business Managers, Designers and Marketing experts to provide a ‘one stop shop’ model to her clients

Having been through a difficult time with her health when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, her surgery meant that Kellie had to ‘future proof’ her business to make sure it would keep running during her treatment and recovery. She brings this experience and know how to her clients.

You can follow Kellie on all platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/atthedropofahat

https://www.instagram.com/atthedropofahatpa

https://www.facebook.com/kellievamentor/

https://www.instagram.com/kellievamentor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellievamentor/

About Sarah Bolitho:

Sarah Bolitho helps fitness and health professionals develop their careers and grow their businesses by providing specialist training in teaching, assessing, and internal quality assurance, together with qualifications in exercise referral and disability.   

With over 30 years in the health-related fitness and physical activity fields, Sarah has a wealth of experience and knowledge.  She has worked in most roles in the industry from group exercise to personal training but specialised in working with specialist populations.  For over 25 years Sarah has trained fitness and health professionals to work with clients with long-term conditions, mental health issues, disabilities, older adults and pre/post-natal women.  

She has a post-graduate diploma in exercise and health behaviour and extensive training in supporting behaviour change.  She has worked with awarding organisations to develop qualifications and training and with accreditation bodies to endorse high-quality non-regulated training. 

For more about the training and support Sarah offers, visit www.sarahbolitho.com or contact her at admin@sarahbolitho.com.

Follow her on social media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fabnewlous_active_lives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitnesscareer mentor
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbolitho

Transcript

Sarah (00:01.262)

Hello and welcome back to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Bolitho and my guest this week, Kellie Williams. Kellie is a mum of two with over 20 years experience in business and as a coach and mentor, her mission is to help others create the lifestyle they want for themselves and their families. And I'm really glad it's sort of coaching and mentoring because I think it's mentoring is kind of a little bit more about do this, whereas coaching is a little bit more about what you want to do. But anyway, we can talk about that later.

Kellie believes business doesn't have to be hard, it can be fun, which I'm really pleased to hear. And she really supports her clients by starting with their lifestyle and business goals and kind of working backwards from there to create a business designed basically around their dreams, around their lifestyles, which is what we all want. And we were talking a little bit earlier and I was saying about how, you know, let's get rid of this whole work -life balance and let's just have balance.

So she started her company at the drop of a hat in 2019 and Kellie's going to tell us a little bit more about herself and that right now. So Kellie, introduce yourself and tell us about at the drop of a hat.

Kellie Williams (01:08.021)

Sarah, thank you so much for inviting me on. It's really lovely to be here. It's been a couple of months since I've done a podcast and I love doing these. So I'm really pleased to be here with you today. So thank you. So At the Drop of a Hat came about in 2019 because I was busy as a mum, I was working in a full -time role. I was running a recruitment branch for a big care recruitment company and

it just became so difficult to juggle everything with the kids. And I also had a situation where my dad had been diagnosed with dementia and that was also becoming more pressing in that I was helping a lot with his care. So my mum was the main carer at that point in time, but I was always helping. And because my mum didn't drive, I was always there as the one who needed to drive to appointments or if there was an emergency, you know, I needed to be on hand. And at the time my brother was living in London. And so it was a bit more tricky because we're based, well, we're based in Hawarden in North Wales and my mum and dad lived in Chester at that point in time. So, so things became a bit more tricky with work and I'd always wanted to work for myself. I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial streak in me, and I enjoy helping people. So I had this idea about my business at the drop of a hat to be able to help business people run their businesses. And the more research I did on that, the more I found, well, this is actually already a thing. It's virtual assistants. That's what it is. So I set up my business and things started to go really well very quickly and the business just scaled and scaled. So quite quickly, I wasn't a virtual assistant on my own for an awful lot of time. I started to build a consultancy with a team. And because I've got an awful lot of years behind me in terms of staff development, recruitment, business experience and sales and marketing, all that lot helped me with really scaling the business. So I started to mentor and coach people within.

Kellie Williams (03:27.317)

lots of different businesses, but very specifically virtual assistant businesses as well. And then in 2021, I launched my first course and I launched a membership for virtual assistants as well. And by the time I got to July of 2021, I'd broken through the VAT threshold and went limited company and VAT registered. So it was all a massive learning curve for me. And it was just really exciting because not only was I building something for myself, I was also helping a lot of people along the way. And the business has just gone from strength to strength from there.

Sarah (04:08.878)

And it's for anyone out there who's not sure what a virtual assistant is. I mean, I think probably most people are, but just to explain, I mean, it's somebody, in the old days, you would have been a personal assistant or a secretary or an admin. There's various roles, but basically it's somebody who supports people. And the virtual bit is you do it virtually, you do it remotely. Now you don't have to be sat in the outer office, gatekeeping your boss, which quite often happened, been there, done that. But it is basically about supporting people and making sure that people have the necessary support, that they have assistants who are trained in what they want them to use and things like that, because there's so much technology, there are so many different platforms out there that it's not like one shop does all, is it? People specialise in different things. So...

Kellie Williams (04:26.869)

Yes. You do it remotely, yes.

Sarah (04:59.886)

That must have been very, very useful to you when all of a sudden, having done all of this, having scaled your business, having been so successful, you suddenly had a couple of health challenges, didn't you?

Kellie Williams (05:13.237)

Yes, do you know what, I don't know why it is that I sort of have this nervous laugh every time I talk about these challenges. I'm not sure why that is. I need to figure that out really, maybe in some of my therapy sessions, don't I?

Sarah (05:29.742)

Yeah, it might be that you're nervous that people are going to be kind of, you know, the head tilt sympathy rather than just tell me more type thing, we're just taking an interest. Who knows? But yeah.

Kellie Williams (05:38.581)

Yes. I don't know, there's something about me where I want people to think that I've got it all together and I'm really professional and that everything's okay. And that's very much me from my theatre background coming on screen telling people, you know, that this is the story. But actually I am quite open about sometimes it's not okay. And when, when all this happened was at the beginning of 2023.

So it actually getting quite personal here. I've been going through some difficulties with my periods being extremely heavy and very, very painful. And it turned out I was suffering from very bad fibroids. So I started to have some injections to reduce those fibroids so I could actually have a hysterectomy. And it was when I went to my pre -op appointment in January, 2023, they did their normal observations on me and my blood pressure was really high. And that was the first time in my life that somebody had said that to me because my background is dancing. So I was a professional dancer. I've always danced. And obviously having the kids, I was never as fit as I used to be, but I always had low blood pressure before this happened.

So I was told to go to the doctors, you know, get my blood pressure taken and they told me that I had got high blood pressure, sent me to the hospital, they did an ECG, then they said that I'd had a heart attack. You know, I was 46 at the time when all of this was happening. So they told me that I'd had a heart attack. Then I had some further tests and it turned out I hadn't had a heart attack.

Sarah (07:20.974)

Wow.

Kellie Williams (07:32.469)

I've got a heart condition called Wolff Parkinson White.

Sarah (07:37.518)

Right, yes. I have heard of it, yeah.

Kellie Williams (07:39.061)

So have you heard of it? Yeah. Yeah. It was a new one for me because I've worked with a lot of people with health conditions and disabilities before, but I'd never heard of it. So for those people who are listening that have never heard of this, I have a special heart with an extra electrical pathway, which sometimes makes it get confused basically. So as you can imagine, I had a few months where I was sort of getting over this came to the realization that the best thing for me was to get as fit and as healthy as possible. So I worked with a personal trainer who was very helpful with me. And we didn't do anything complicated. I started to walk 10 ,000 steps a day and I made sure I was doing that. I was making sure I was drinking the right amount of water every day and consuming the right foods, you know, high protein and everything. And I even started running. Yes. And I really enjoyed it and it became my lifestyle. So every day I was making sure I would do my 10 ,000 steps a day and I'd have some rest days from running or the exercise that I was doing. And I started to feel much, much fitter.

Sarah (08:44.718)

Really?

Kellie Williams (09:06.133)

And then people started to notice on my Zoom calls and on my master classes, in my membership and what I do, that my head had started to shake.

Sarah (09:17.582)

Right.

Kellie Williams (09:19.477)

So I'd obviously got another health challenge coming. So I'd started with a tremor basically.

Sarah (09:27.246)

You didn't notice the tremor yourself, it was other people saying...

Kellie Williams (09:30.709)

It was when other people started to say it to me that I started to notice it every time I went to record a video, every time I did a live or did a masterclass. And when I was tired or when I was stressed, it would be much worse.

Sarah (09:46.83)

So having built your fitness up and like you say, getting your 10 ,000 steps in and of course the good thing about running is it means you get them in quicker as well, which is always good. But so having really sort of turned your lifestyle around and prioritizing your health and getting to a point where you felt fit and healthy, suddenly this tremor happens and so then what happened?

Kellie Williams (09:54.121)

So we're very fortunate that we've got private health. So I booked an appointment with a neurologist and within the first few minutes he diagnosed me with dystonic tremor, generalized dystonic tremor. So not just my head, my whole body. I just thought that my legs occasionally wobbled when I was tight, but yeah, that's all part of it. And I actually have this little twitch in my eyebrows as well. So,

I now have Botox in my neck and I have Botox in my forehead to prevent the tremor from being so noticeable. So he...

Sarah (10:46.862)

Right, well I was going to say there are medical uses of Botox, I mean there are many medical uses, it has some amazing things, but I imagine that for you that was a reassurance because it then becomes something that's controlled rather than obvious on a call.

Kellie Williams (10:51.861)

Yes. Yeah, I think Botox, I find it fascinating for the medical use side of things. I've actually got one of my biggest clients is, what is it, an aesthetics practitioner, but he does training. So he works with people all over the world. And what they look at is they look at, you know, not just the aesthetics, but they look at the longevity side and the medical side of things. And it's a fascinating business to work with actually.

So at that point in time, in that consultation, in the first five minutes, he diagnosed that. And then obviously he said, we'll book an MRI just to make sure there's nothing else happening in the brain.

Sarah (11:48.362)

Gosh.

Kellie Williams (11:51.029)

And that was when, you know, a few days later, once he'd got the results, he phoned me and he said, there's something there.

Sarah (12:01.774)

gosh, that must have been such a shock.

Kellie Williams (12:05.397)

Yes, it was because you kind of you don't expect that and also because he'd said that the dystonic tremor was something that wouldn't necessarily be related to something else. So he booked me a second scan so they could do a more detailed scan on what they'd found and then in my next appointment with him he showed me that I'd got a brain tumour.

Sarah (12:09.582)

Gosh, that must have been, I mean, A, to be told that there's something there, but then to find out it's a tumour must have been such a shock, particularly as you'd been doing everything right, lifestyle -wise, you'd been doing everything you could to promote health. It must have been the last thing you were expecting. So just, I mean, was it benign?

Kellie Williams (12:49.045)

Yeah.

Kellie Williams (12:54.869)

Yes it was and there's actually, this is something that I get on my soapbox a little bit about now because that's what everybody asks and now I'm actually friends with a number of women who have been through a similar thing and two of the ladies who I'm friends with had pretty much the same tumour, it's called a meningioma one of my friends hers was in a very similar place to mine and one of my other friends who had a meningioma was in a slightly different place but there's a common thread that everybody asks you, is it benign or malignant and yes it was great to find out that it was benign but it's still an invader in your brain.

Sarah (13:48.622)

But also, and this is, I think, something that people often don't realise is the difference between sort of benign and malignant. Malignant, obviously, we're talking about cancer there. I mean, the cancer has more maybe sort of ongoing issues, but the benign tumours can be just as devastating. They can have just as significant an impact on people. It doesn't mean they're less serious. It just means it's a different serious.

Kellie Williams (14:13.493)

Yes. Yeah.

Sarah (14:16.846)

And I think that's a really important one, particularly as you talk about meningiomas, it's kind of in the meninges, the kind of layers of tissue between the skull and the brain, if you like. If people have meningitis, it's an inflammation. So meningioma is a tumour within there. But like I say, benign tumours aren't less serious, they're different serious. And in some cases, because they can grow as well, they can cause just as many devastating...

Kellie Williams (14:27.157)

Yes.

Kellie Williams (14:32.917)

Yeah.

Sarah (14:44.174)

effects so you know it's not a question of being benign that's okay then it's not necessarily is it

Kellie Williams (14:44.373)

Yes. Yeah.

Kellie Williams (14:51.637)

Yeah, and I think I was extremely lucky I've been extremely lucky because The tremor meant that they found it whilst it was quite small. so the position of mine was near to the pituitary glands and But attached to the optic nerve And I was extremely lucky and because I'm trying not to get upset now because it is emotional. but I

Sarah (15:00.032)

Yeah.

Sarah (15:10.894)

right.

Sarah (15:20.046)

Yeah, it must be.

Kellie Williams (15:21.749)

I was extremely lucky that they found it so early because if they hadn't I would have lost my sight.

Sarah (15:29.39)

Right, gosh. So in some ways I suppose Zoom calls almost saved your site because people noticed which got you to go and get it checked out. Gosh. Wow. So what treatment did you have?

Kellie Williams (15:36.981)

Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Kellie Williams (15:46.805)

So the usual treatment for meningioma is most of the time is that they'll decide whether they can operate if they're comfortable to operate depending on where the meningioma is sitting, depending on where the tumour sits. And most of the surgeons will offer a craniotomy, so they'll go through the skull. But I did all my research on this and I found that all the research that I did pointed towards that the best route to get to mine was through the nose.

Sarah (16:25.006)

Yeah, again, anything to do with the pituitary, quite often they do go through the nose now, don't they? It's quicker and easier.

Kellie Williams (16:31.029)

Yeah, so I, what I did was with my private health, I then started to research top surgeons who were experts in endonasal surgery and removing skull -based tumours. And I found a fantastic surgeon in Cheadle and I told my private health that I wanted to see him and only him. And he agreed to do the surgery through the nose and the surgery took place in April in Cheadle and I had two surgeons. I had an ENT surgeon. She was absolutely fantastic. She had to, basically I've had a nose job. So she had to do, what did she call it? A septoplasty to be able to get through. And then the brain surgeon took over to remove the tumour as much of it as he could. And then she closed everything up.

So yes, it's not long since it's happened. So I think we're coming up to tomorrow. I'll be eight weeks post -op.

Sarah (17:38.478)

Right, yeah, gosh. So what's the impact been on your life?

Kellie Williams (17:47.541)

So I suppose when I found out about the tumour, it was more the emotional impact that I felt like I'd only just got my life back from having all the heart stuff go on. And I'd worked really hard on my health and fitness and I'd worked really, really hard to bring my confidence back and to look after my business as well.

So I suppose all of that was the emotional side of it. And then I just, I went into a mode where I knew that the operation would be coming and I just carried on with my health and fitness and I worked on the business and yeah, I was thinking about future proofing my business and making sure that I was delegating everything to my team and basically doing what I do with my clients, which is going in with a bird's eye view and saying, right, what can be delegated? What can be automated? How can we make this easier for me to be out of the business for up to three months if I need it? So I just focused.

Sarah (18:48.974)

It must have been quite hard in some ways though to kind of to almost step back like that and just to be your own client in a way but necessary and how lucky, well not lucky, but how good that you've got that experience and you could say right okay this is how it's going to happen, this is what's going to happen and almost kind of bring a little bit of objectivity in what you were doing so that you can focus on recovery. So regarding activity then, how quickly did you get back to activity?

Kellie Williams (19:25.301)

Yes.

So I'm only just starting to get back to activity now. So for the first six weeks, I wasn't really allowed to do anything and I wasn't able to walk around on my own for the first five weeks or so anyway. I wasn't allowed to bend over. I wasn't allowed to lift anything. I wasn't allowed to do any household chores, which has been fantastic for my nails because they look amazing.

Sarah (19:58.286)

Yeah, I was going to say all of this, the problem is on the one hand, it's kind of complete rest, which is a good thing. But on the other hand, when you're used to being active, you're used to being busy, you're used to running a business, there's that dichotomy of I need to rest. But there's also the side of you that that needs to be busy and active.

Kellie Williams (20:17.845)

Yes, I found it so difficult to sit on the sofa because that's just not me. I'm not somebody who just sits there. I'm somebody that's really busy. My son plays a lot of football. He plays for an academy. He plays for the county. I'm usually, if I'm not working, I'm taking Thomas somewhere to football.

And then the rest of the time, because I enjoy my work and I find it fun, like we said at the beginning, you know, it doesn't have to be hard. You know, it can be fun. I'm usually coming up with like a new idea for something or helping somebody start a business or scale a business. So for me, when all of that had happened and I was in recovery, I found that really hard. And I did have a couple of blip days where I was really down.

Sarah (20:47.822)

I can imagine and of course the one thing that often helps is to go for a walk or do some activity, which you can't do. And it must, that must be very frustrating. And I know people who, you know, quite a lot of people say when they're very, they're used to activities being there, they're released, they're stress management, they're safe place almost, they go to happy place. When you suddenly can't, it's really hard because it's that double hit of I can't be active, but.

Kellie Williams (21:15.733)

Exactly. Yeah.

Sarah (21:36.974)

that the knock -on effect is I can't manage my stress in the same way.

Kellie Williams (21:39.957)

Yeah. But I also couldn't think straight for most of those weeks. My brain didn't seem to be working at full capacity because obviously it was healing and there was probably a lot of swelling. And most of that time, right up until the six week point, I had headaches every day.

Sarah (21:58.958)

Wow and that's debilitating as well isn't it? Very debilitating. So what sort of activity are you are you starting to get back to?

Kellie Williams (22:02.005)

Yeah.

So last week I started walking, so before my operation I used to walk around the village that I live in pretty much every day. Last week I managed to walk up the hill to the village and I worked in the cafe, my favourite little cafe up there in Hardin, and walked back and I did that three times last week. 

Sarah (22:33.886)

Wow. And that must have felt like freedom. Yeah.

Kellie Williams (22:38.165)

Yes, yeah and freedom is the word because you know I felt so trapped, I felt like I've lost my freedom. I've had to surrender my driving license for six months which is big, you know, it's a big thing.

Sarah (22:48.366)

Right, yeah, yeah. And a lot of these things are things that we just take for granted that we can jump in the car or we can go for a walk or we can do things and all of a sudden when you can't, and either you can't physically but also you can't because of advice and legalities in the case of a driving licence, what else is there? It's kind of like it's so hard to think, well what do I replace this with? If you're used to going to the gym and you suddenly, like we just had the pandemic, you can't go to the gym. You find things you can do at home. You do different things. But to suddenly go from being active, particularly for you when you sort of really built this into your lifestyle, to suddenly being like, no, stop. That must have been quite hard to, so frustrating to come to terms with that kind of I can't do it. I'm not allowed to. And it's just like part of you must want to rebel a bit and say, no, I'm going to go. But then the other sensible part is like, no, I've got to do this the right way. I've got to be sensible about this. So what?

Kellie Williams (23:45.653)

But what I'd say to anyone that is going to go through anything like this or somebody who's going through something like this and they're in that recovery stage is you've got to just keep thinking it's temporary and it will pass. You know, my grandma used to have that saying, she used to say it all the time, it will pass. And it's so true.

And that's what I had to keep reminding myself, that it was temporary.

Sarah (24:20.398)

And that's a really important point, isn't it? If this isn't forever, there will be something that you can do, just not right now. What advice were you given about activity?

Kellie Williams (24:34.677)

So the advice that I was given was don't do anything till the six week point but then start with the slow walking and listen to my body. I've got another appointment this week, yeah tomorrow, I've got another appointment with my neurosurgeon where I'll get some more advice but I think now that I'm feeling a lot better I probably need a plan, don't I? And, you know, what is the plan, you know, within the advice of the surgeon and how am I going to get back to my fitness and what do I need to be careful of?

Sarah (25:16.526)

And this is the thing, isn't it? It's for somebody like you who's really worked on your fitness and your lifestyle, it is important to have that plan of getting back into it. It's not just, right, I've got to get fit. I don't know what to do. It's kind of, okay, I know what I was doing. I need a plan to get back to what I was doing and things like that. And this is where, I'm not sure with your health board, but I know there are most of the health boards, particularly up where you are kind of North Wales way do have a lot of neurological physios who will work with you to specifically work on things like balance, on movement and range of movement and things like that. And this is where you're making sure that you ask about this. 

And I think a lot of the times people aren't aware what's available so they don't ask about it. You know for a lot of people it would never occur to them to ask about a neurological physio and yet there are many out there who are perfectly placed to sort of support you in the specifics of getting back but also be able to answer questions about any impact or any side effects or consequences more that you experience as well and I think that's always worth doing is making sure that you find out exactly what advice is available and support and seek that because like you say you want a plan to get back but it has to be realistic it has to be flexible because it's not like Monday, Wednesday, Friday this is what I'll do Tuesday, Thursdays this is what I do it has to be okay if I'm having a good day or a good week this is what I'm going to do if I'm having a bad day I give myself permission to rest.

Sarah (26:52.942)

And it's it's realising as well that the recovery isn't going to be linear. It's not like here's where I am and I'm going to gradually get back to where I was. It will be up down all over the place.

Kellie Williams (27:02.421)

Yes. And that's so important for people to realize because I know how frustrated I got over those six or seven weeks when I couldn't see it being linear. It wasn't going up and up every day. It was a roller coaster of, you know, I was getting better, but I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel. And my light actually came at six weeks when I went to the hairdressers and I kind of had a normal time at the hairdressers.

Sarah (27:31.918)

But it's, and I think this is so important and this is something that, you know, people, like you say, people do need to be aware that, you know, your recovery will not be linear. It will be, there will be good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks. And it's accepting that that is part and parcel of it. You're here now. It's a bit like driving from London to Manchester. You can, you know, for some people they go straight up the motorway, job done, here I am. But the motorway might be closed and they have to go a scenic route which is all over the place and it takes longer and it's you've got a few dead ends and you have to back up and you know they sat down and take you down the wrong road. So you know it's really important for people to understand after any surgery particularly if it's been in the brain that you know your recovery will be erratic and you have to expect it to be you've got to be flexible haven't you in your approach you've got to be flexible in in your mindset of what you're going to do.

Kellie Williams (28:34.197)

Yeah, I just feel very grateful at the moment that I feel well. So this week, you know, I've had my desk back in the office and I've done quite a lot of work this week, which I've really enjoyed. I know that I've got a long way to go in my recovery. Obviously I'll find out a little bit more tomorrow when I see the neurosurgeon. I know he took most of the tumour, but he couldn't take all of it because part of it is within the optic nerve.

So I'm presuming that what he will be doing is monitoring me with scans to make sure it's not growing. And then if it does grow, there'll be a potential that I'll have to have radiotherapy. But yeah, if that happens, I'll deal with it when I come to it. And I'm having to see an endocrinologist as well because of the tumour being so near to the pituitary gland.

If you look at a pituitary gland, funny, it gets very upset. So I've already had some difficulties with my pituitary. I'm still on steroids at the moment, but they've started to reduce my steroid dose. So that's helping my cortisol levels at the moment. But they're concerned from some of the tests that I might be growth hormone deficient. So the endocrinologist said, that in about three months she'll deal with that and she'll do two more tests. And if that's the case, I'll have to take, I think it's anabolic steroids that they give you for that, I think.

Yeah, it is. And this is the thing, you know, growth hormones are very, very important for growth, obviously, but also things like muscle repair and building, which means that again, this is where recovery will take longer because potentially your muscles won't adapt the same way that somebody who it is has normal growth hormone levels. So again, this is where you know, it sounds like you're getting so much support, but it's, you know, the important thing is to do something, you know, even if it is, like you say, just a short walk or some stretching or if you if you can, I don't know the risk of infections like but if you can swim, where you're fully supported it.

Kellie Williams (30:43.477)

Yes.

Sarah (30:54.094)

The important thing is to find something that you feel, okay, this is comfortable, this is something I can manage, this is something that makes me, at least makes me feel like I'm doing something for myself. And that psychological benefit is really important. It's like I'm not just stuck, sat on the sofa. I can, even if it is minor, there are things that I can do and I think that's a big part of recovery isn't it because you you see yourself just doing a little bit more and a tiny bit more most days not every day necessarily but this is where I think having that support though is really important and the ongoing you know checks just to make sure your hormones are right that everything's working the way it should be is absolutely vital isn't it so

Kellie Williams (31:45.045)

Yeah, and I think once I've got all the answers to those things and I've got all the details back from all the specialists and whatever over the next few months, then, you know, my plan can be tweaked, can't it, in terms of the activity that I'm going to be doing.

Sarah (32:00.142)

Yeah, yeah. And you'll probably also have a better level, a better idea of your energy levels as well. So say, right, I know that on certain days and times, my energy isn't up to doing much, but I know on other days it is. So it's kind of having that and prioritizing, prioritizing your physical and emotional health as well as your business. Because again, it's, it's very easy to sort of push back into business, right? Got to get back into business, got to help get that going. Whereas actually, it's having that balance isn't it and making sure that you're looking at every area of your life and saying right they're all priorities. Household chores maybe not but physical emotional health, family health, life, business, they're all priorities it's just you might prioritize different ones on different days. 

Kellie Williams (32:33.845)

Yes. Yeah.

Yes. And anything that I'm doing in my business at the moment is all centered around the future proofing things and putting together things that don't require me to be in the business all the time.

Sarah (32:56.75)

And it's, I mean, is that advice that you would give yourself as a new or you would give any new business owner about, you know, don't just think about day to day what's happening now. Think about what if none of us like to think about worst case scenarios, do we? But actually, if you are a business owner, you know, you do need to have some sort of contingency plan in place that, right, okay, if I can't work then I've got somebody that can. I've got a plan. Is that advice you'd give?

Kellie Williams (33:25.941)

Yes.

Yeah, well, there's a couple of things really on this subject that I'd say. And one is, be very clear on your why, what's your why for running your own business and being self -employed. And don't forget that and lose sight of it. Because I think that's easy to do. And then the lifestyle, because you talk about balance and that's what I'd say to anybody, because it's very easy. And I see a lot of people start a business, set up as self -employed and they forget their why and they forget all about the lifestyle and the balance that they need and why they're doing it. And then they suddenly find themselves really busy. But the other thing as well that I look at in business when I work with my clients is make sure it's not all about you. And that's not an ego thing. That's to do with, you know, if you have to take some time out of the business, Is there an income stream or multiple income streams that will still make you some money? Yeah. And this is just a general thing. And then you've got your what ifs as well. What if something does happen that means that you do have to be out of your business, whether it's to do with, you know, a relative that you need to look after or your child or your own health. What, what if that happens?

So think about that when you're building your business models. I say this to all of my clients and it's really, really important. The other thing that I regret not doing as well is taking out critical illness. I wish I'd taken out critical illness cover.

Sarah (35:09.198)

And it's not hugely expensive either, is it? But it will certainly, it's an added cushion, it's an added layer of support if you do have a critical illness and things like that. Yeah, it's really good. So thinking back then to some of you, I mean, it must be so frustrating having got yourself fit and healthy to suddenly be sort of not backwards, but do you feel that the fact that you had got to a good level of fitness and health has kind of really helped with your recovery?

Kellie Williams (35:19.477)

Yes.

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. When I first had my appointment with the surgeon and we were talking about the surgery, I had the option to either have surgery straight away or I could wait and they could have kept on scanning me to see what the growth of the tumour was like. But his advice was, you're young, which I said to him, can you say that again? Can I record that? Cause I'm 47 so he said, you're young and you're fit at this moment in time and your recovery will be better. And he was absolutely right. If I hadn't done all of that work leading up to the surgery, I wouldn't have got through it like I have. And it was really hard, but yeah, if I'd have been less fit, it would have been really, really tough.

Sarah (36:37.102)

I think that's a really important message is, you know, we know now that a lot of people before they have surgery are offered prehabilitation or prehab to get themselves fitter because any operation is a major trauma, physical, emotional, everything. But it's, you know, don't think, if something happens, then I'll work on my fitness. Do it now, because if anything does happen, you'll be steps ahead of where you could be. And I think, you know, recovery, will be quicker, it will be more efficient, potentially better, which you know it's a good thing, it's got to be a good thing and I think that's a really strong message is you know don't wait until something happens to prioritise your health and fitness, prioritise it now.

Kellie Williams (37:21.909)

And also from a mindset point of view, because you know, a positive mindset will help get you through. And then I happen to have a couple of clients who are hypnotherapists. One is a hypnotherapy trainer and the other lady does hypnotherapy for surgery. So, I had hypnotherapy with her prior to my surgery. She recorded those sessions for me to listen to and she recorded another session for me to listen to during my recovery.

Sarah (37:57.358)

And again, it's, but it's, it's finding what works for you, isn't it? It's finding all the different ways. For some people, hypnotherapy is wonderful. Other people, there are other things, you know, but it's, you know, don't, don't wait until something happens. You know, build these tools into your kind of your life kit, if you like your toolkit now, because do you know what? If touch word, everything else, nothing ever happens to you. You're fit and healthy. Great. 

But if something does happen, you're in a much stronger position for getting better and everything. So anything on the horizon, sort of business or health -wise that you feel you're looking forward to. I think we need to sort of think about looking forward as well as.

Kellie Williams (38:15.797)

Yes. Definitely.

I suppose, you know, personally and health -wise, I feel like I'm moving forward. We've got a holiday booked in October, which my in -laws have booked for us, at Centre Parks in the Lake District. So all being well, I'll be able to do some activities. And if I'm not feeling like the activities, there's plenty of space to wander around or ride a bike. You know.

Sarah (38:55.342)

Lovely. That's it. And it's again, it gives you something to work towards, doesn't it? So right, we're going there in six months or four months, whatever. You know, it gives me something to work towards, you know, that, you know, even if I can just walk around the forest and have a look and watch people or best take part. And I think it's that's a really important thing is to have something like we talked very early, you know, about starting with your goals and working up to them, kind of reverse engineering almost. But I think that's really important to have things to look forward to, to have things to work towards because it just keeps you motivated, doesn't it?

Kellie Williams (39:44.281)

Yes. And then business wise, I'm in the middle of doing another coaching qualification, which I'm really enjoying. So I've got a bit more work to do on that one. I'm also in the middle of launching some things. So I've collaborated with a friend and colleague of mine, Dawni Beth Baxter, and we're launching her Certified Social Media Management course, the only one of its kind in the UK which is certified and CIPD as well. So we're just in the middle of doing a launch for that, which is it's fantastic. I love doing a launch and I love collaborating as well. So that's very exciting. I'm relaunching my virtual assistant course and I've just made some upgrades to my membership as well. So there's lots of really good stuff in the pipeline.

Sarah (40:40.878)

which sounds amazing and considering everything that you've gone through in the last few months, it's like I say, it's really positive, isn't it? To think, right, okay, I'm getting my health back together, I'm boosting my business, I'm collaborating with people and it's just a wonderful thing. Kay, thank you so much for coming to talk to me. It's been really, really interesting. And I think, you know, for me, one of the standout things is it's, you know, future, yes, future proof your business, but also future proof your health.

Kellie Williams (41:06.997)

Yes.

Sarah (41:10.35)

It's really there. Thank you so much. I'll make sure all the links are in the podcast if you do want to get in touch with Kellie and we wish you a full successful and wonderful, wonderfully active recovery.

Kellie Williams (41:11.989)

Thank you very much.