Today, we have a very beautiful and inspiring story from Lauren on how a shift in mindset paved the way for good things in her life and she was able to set up her business while expecting her first child. Enjoy!

Before January 2019, I did not know my thinking was geared towards the fact that I was not good enough. I was generally confident, and successful in my management roles and had recently taken a new 12-month contract with a training company. I got married the previous. I had an eating disorder and my belief of ‘I’m not good enough’ meant that the idea of starting my own business was a ridiculous dream.

But then my world was transformed. In January 2019 I attended a 7-day intensive NLP practitioner training course. For those not familiar, NLP is neuro-linguistic programming, it is all about how we communicate, with ourselves and with others.

It was the first time I was introduced to my unconscious mind. As someone who had used coaching (or as I called it ‘effective conversations’) for a long time this was a real step up for my skills.

Along with the NLP practitioner certification I also received the TimeLine Therapy™ practitioner certification. This was something I had never heard of before and was intrigued and possibly a little sceptical. TimeLine Therapy™ is the process of releasing negative emotions and limiting beliefs. I released my anger, sadness, fear, hurt and guilt and I released the limiting belief of ‘I am not good enough’.

My mindset shift paved the way for good things in my life and so did my behaviour. That eating disorder that I had held onto for 20 years? Gone. I have not demonstrated those old negative behaviours around food since. I believe this shift was because I removed the limiting belief of ‘I am not good enough’ – I now knew I absolutely was good enough to achieve my dreams. I was starting that business.

I began excitedly making plans with the fellow delegates; what could I call my business, what area would I specialise in – training? Coaching? Hospitality? Something else? I was even starting to look up domain names and had lists of ‘things to do’ before I start. The 12-month contract I was currently working in ran out in September and I thought this was the perfect time to get all my ducks in a row and launch my business then!

I returned home from the course absolutely buzzing – I had already signed up to study NLP, coaching, hypnosis, and TimeLine Therapy™ at master practitioner level. My husband was supportive and shared that he too wanted to start his own accountancy business – ‘Go for it!’ I declared!

4 weeks later I woke up at 4am on a Monday morning knowing something was quite different. I tried to be patient but within 5 minutes I was in the bathroom awaiting the results of a pregnancy test. Positive! I was absolutely delighted, and so was my husband when he had got over the shock of being woken up at 4:30 in the morning!

My body, because of the mindset transformation work I had recently done, because I had removed ‘I am not good enough’, because I had stopped the negative behaviours around food, was ready to carry this baby and take part in this next adventure.

The baby’s due date was 28^th October 2019. This was about 6 weeks after I planned to start my business. ‘Not ideal’ I thought. I did not want to stay in the job I was in, even if they did extend the contract, I didn’t think that job hunting at 8 months pregnant was going to work (despite the fact that it shouldn’t make a difference at all) and I also didn’t feel particularly keen to be starting a business at that stage either!

I jumped onto Google and typed in ‘Starting a business when pregnant’ expecting some fabulous guidance and inspiration. What I got was: ‘don’t do it’, ‘it’s too hard’, ‘you must be crazy’ and the implication that I would be a bad mother or even woman for prioritising my career now I was pregnant.

So, I quit my job and started my business. I have always been quite a determined person but now I knew I was good enough to do it, nothing would stop me, no one would tell me I can’t! I decided then that I was going to make a success of this business and I would write a book so that other women in my situation could have inspiration and permission to follow their dreams too.

I called my business Lemon Tree Coaching and Development. LEM are my initials but also, we called our baby, before we met him, our little lemon, the lemons were growing together.

I am not going to pretend it was all easy. It was not. But by understanding my mind, setting clear goals – using my goal-den rules – and offering myself some self-compassion I remained positive throughout. This mindset shift was incredible and it certainly paved the way for good things in my life.

In September of 2019, a month before my due date, I was reflecting and looking through my finances with my accountant – and realised it was possible to take all of October and November off to birth and enjoy my baby. How sweet is that?!

My little boy, who we named Oak, arrived a few days early and he is wonderful. I started seeing clients again 5 weeks after he was born, in early December.

In January 2020 I decided the time was right to put pen to paper and start the book! The Expecting Entrepreneur was born!

My book aims to support the development of a successful mindset for pregnant women and new mums, and draws on all my experience as a master practitioner while using my story as a backdrop to provide inspiration and permission to the next generation of women who may be met with similar negativity when they want to follow their dreams.

You can have everything you want – the message I instil in all of the amazing female entrepreneurs I work with. My book was released on Friday 16^th October, the Friday before Oak’s first birthday, and is available from all good online retailers.

If you would like to learn more about me, The Expecting Entrepreneur or ways of working with me, which includes a number of free Facebook communities, check out my website www.lemontreecd.co.uk

THE END

Thanks for reading and a very big thanks to Lauren for sharing her positive inspirational story with us today. See you in the next post.

Fancy reading another inspiring story? Here is one from Helen on the importance of self-care