When Confirmation Hits – This Is Who I Really Am with Anne McDowell
Overview
My guest on this week’s episode of The True North Show is Anne McDowell and she shares with us her incredible journey through both her career and life experiences. Anne has done incredible and life changing work with her clients over the years and she truly loves what she does, you can just hear it in her voice and by the way that she talks about the people she has helped and worked with. Anne also talks about how important her mental health is and what practices and tools work for her while she follows her true north.
Bio:
Anne McDowell is a positivity and transformational change coach, inspirational speaker, and two-time international award-winning author in the self-help space.
With a Master’s in Human Resource Management specialising in leadership and change, and more than 30 years of experience in leadership, coaching, training, and career strategy, Anne helps people rise through change and bounce back with clarity, resilience, and renewed purpose.
Anne is a Phoenix–Magician Oracle with Mystic tones, bringing an extraordinary depth to her work. She guides others through life’s pivotal moments with the wisdom of one who has actually walked through the fire that accompanied the darkest nights of the soul, and she has emerged stronger….she is the Phoenix Rising!
Drawing on intuitive insight, grounded strategy, and soulful presence, she empowers her clients to transform adversity into alignment, and uncertainty into bold and optimistic new beginnings.
Anne is a 5/1 in Human Design—a natural guide and teacher—whose life’s work is helping people view change as a silver-lining invitation to step into who they truly are. An eternal optimist and intuitive empath, Anne has a rare gift for seeing the potential in others long before they see it in themselves, and reflecting it back with clarity, compassion, and unwavering belief.
Anne believes we each hold the power to transform our story, and with the right support, even life’s biggest challenges can become our greatest turning points. In alignment with her essence, Anne’s personal integrity and authenticity is that if she has not studied it, personally experienced it and worked in it, she does not coach it, train it or sell it. Through her coaching, speaking, and digital learning programs, Anne helps people navigate change with confidence, self-leadership, empowerment and connection.
Social Media:
- Website: https://www.amc.id.au
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.mcgrath.395
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annemcdowell1/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-mcdowell-8918a335/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annemcdowell659
Transcript:
Megan North (00:00)
Today we are joined by Anne McDowell, who is a positivity and transformational change coach, inspirational speaker, and two-time international award-winning author in the self-help space.
With a master’s in human resource management, specializing in leadership and change, and more than 30 years of experience in leadership, coaching, training, and career strategy, helps people rise through change and bounce back with clarity, resilience, and renewed purpose. Anne is a phoenix magician oracle with mystic tones, bringing an extraordinary depth to her work. She guides others through life’s
pivotal moments with the wisdom of one who has actually walked through the fire that accompanied the darkest nights of the soul. And she’s emerged stronger. She’s the phoenix rising. Drawing on intuitive insight, grounded strategy and soulful presence, she empowers her clients to transform adversity into alignment and uncertainty into bold and optimistic new beginnings.
Anne is a 5’1 in human design, a natural guide and teacher whose life’s work is helping people view change as silver lining invitation to step into who they truly are. An internal optimist and intuitive empath, Anne has a rare gift for seeing the potential in others long before they see it in themselves and reflecting it back with clarity, compassion and the unwavering belief.
Anne believes we hold the power to transform our story. And with the right support, even life’s biggest challenges can become our greatest turning point. Welcome to the show, Anne. I’m so grateful that you are here today.
Anne McDowell (01:58)
Thank you Megan, I’m so excited to be here. I’m so full of excitement and gratitude. It’s a beautiful day.
Megan North (02:05)
It is a beautiful day it is. And how is it when I’m talking about you and all of the amazing things that you’ve achieved? How does that feel?
Anne McDowell (02:15)
Honestly, it’s beautiful actually and it’s very rare that I actually hear myself about myself. And so because my life is about building up others. So it’s when I hear it about myself, it’s like, ⁓ really? I can’t believe it, really? ⁓
Megan North (02:36)
Yeah,
I think it’s actually something that ⁓ with, you know, people like us who are high achievers and also who are really stepping into that space of holding space for others and watching other people’s achievements and watching them grow. We often forget about reflecting on our own path. I think we sometimes are just so focused on who am I making an impact on? What about us? Like, what impact am I actually making on myself?
And so I think that this is a really nice reflective way to hear about where you’ve started and now where you are.
Anne McDowell (03:13)
Great, it’s such a beautiful opportunity to be able to speak about, you know, life’s journeys and your life’s journey, my life’s journey. I was speaking with a gentleman just a couple of days ago and he said at 70 he’s got many life stories. And I said, yes, we all have. And I think that each of us brings something significant to each other in our experiences, in our…
in what we’ve gone through in our adversities to help rise to hopefully prevent other people from falling into the traps that we may have fallen into in our in our early life.
Megan North (03:50)
Yeah, absolutely or even if it’s been a different perspective for someone because a lot of people say ⁓ I always I thought that I was the only one
Anne McDowell (04:01)
Absolutely. I’d like to say to people is, you know, want you to know that you’re not alone. There have been lots of us who face these kinds of challenges in our life, in business, in personal life, in our family life. And just that you we are a community. And I think over time we’ve forgotten that we are a part of a bigger community and that there are lots of people who have potentially gone through our particular situation.
to just open up and talk about our experiences. I think that that’s a really valuable lesson and one that I’m rediscovering a lot in my own personal journey. it’s realigning the importance of community and making sure that we’re here for each other. It’s law of reciprocity. It’s a two-way street.
Megan North (04:56)
Yeah, yeah. And I also find too, it’s really interesting that when people are going through things, they don’t necessarily want you to fix them. So I had someone that is in my network, you and I are in the same networking group. She had just lost her brother. And I said to her, I’m really sorry. What, can I support you at this time? And she said, just you asking is enough.
You know, she and I think sometimes we worry and overthink. If I ask them, how can I support them? What do I do with that information? If they do say, you know, yes, I do need some help. But realistically, people are actually just wanting to wanting to know that you’re thinking of them at that you are there if they need something.
Anne McDowell (05:46)
You’re absolutely right. And I know that with several things that I’ve had going on in my life, my husband has said that to me. What can I do? I said, you just being here. Yeah. Just all you need to do is just be here. I’m OK. But I have I had a fall and dislocating knee. And he said, what can I do? What can I do? I said, nothing. There’s nothing you can do. Just just be here for me. That’s all that I that I needed in that in that time frame. Yeah, it’s.
grief and loss and bereavement is a really hard thing to know what to say and you don’t want to say the wrong thing to upset someone. And for me, I often, you know, I think, and I just put my hand on the person’s arm. said, I’m here. You can cry. You can do whatever you like in this moment. You can laugh. You can tell me a story. I’m here just to listen to you.
And I’m here just to be whatever you need me to be in this moment. And I think if we remember to do that for each other, it’s just such a powerful thing. And I really love being able to be that for someone else. And it doesn’t really mean that I can solve their problems because I know that I can’t. I can’t take that pain away. But in that moment,
offering my love and my unconditional support potentially is all that they’re asking for in that moment.
Megan North (07:17)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think technology has changed that too, in a sense of when people do stumble and think, I don’t know what to say in any situation. Often, if I’m thinking about someone for whatever reason that they’re going through, I have this thing where I just send like three hearts. I don’t say anything. I just send them three hearts. You know, because that’s it. That’s the symbol. I’m just sending you love. Doesn’t have to be complicated. It can just be something.
Anne McDowell (07:44)
also know you too and they know that it’s from the heart and obviously a heart symbol yes ⁓ but I but if somebody is also grieving I send a broken heart say I’m broken hearted for you in this moment and you know there are no words and often people don’t want words they just want love and they want understanding and they want space you know that that the modern concept of holding space for someone is is such a such a
beautiful, beautiful thing ⁓ where you can’t offer solace but they know that you’re there and I think that that’s a beautiful thing.
Megan North (08:27)
Yeah, absolutely. Definitely, definitely. So with all of the amazing things that you do and all the work that you do, what was the defining moment that led you to pursue your true passion and purpose?
Anne McDowell (08:41)
Well, it’s funny, it came about in a strange way. So I had always been a teacher, I guess. But when I go through school, I didn’t get the marks to get into university to do teaching that I had wanted to do. And even though my mother was a school teacher and I was inference primary school teacher.
And so she handled ⁓ little kids from kindergarten to year two, till about seven or eight years old. And that was my ideal niche as well, or English history at high school. there were quite a very big gap there. But it was more about, ⁓ I was an exchange student ⁓ after I finished ⁓ when I graduated and I went to United States for a year and I spent a year in Pennsylvania.
which I loved, was true to my heart. And when I came back, it was very limited back in the day. So when I came back to Australia, it was in 1988. So it was quite long time ago and there weren’t that many career options open. And one of the things that I had learned when I was in the States was to type. So it seemed like logical progression.
to move into the admin ⁓ arena. so I explored, I went into an admin career and I reached a management level and couldn’t go much further in that particular stream. In 1997, I was working for a multinational company, Australian company, but had international headquarters all over the world. And it was closing because Steele in Newcastle was closing.
And so I was given an opportunity to retrain. And in that moment, this is the crystallization of my of my path was that in that retraining opportunity gave me an opportunity to become a workplace trainer and assessor. a corporate workplace trainer and assessor of adults. And in that moment, too, in this redundancy retrenchment, losing your job,
What do we do now? Kind of face. I was 27. I knew my whole life and career was ahead of me and I didn’t have too much problem getting a job. But the people in my redundancy wave, there was a group of us, were men. They were in their mid to late 50s, so just shy of retirement. And they really didn’t have a lot to move forward with.
And their career options were severely limited. One particular gentleman had been with the same company as a chemist for 28 years and his wife was sadly ⁓ dying of cancer, breast cancer, and his time was really pivotal in his life and there was no emotional support. So there was
monetary support and a retraining opportunity which was incredibly generous but back in 1997 feelings
Megan North (12:09)
Emotions? Those things, feelings.
Anne McDowell (12:12)
that’s not what we discuss. We don’t discuss things like feelings. And so here was I as an observer and a keen understanding, a standard of human ⁓ psyche, because I’ve been a person that everyone used to come to with their problems. And as a problem solver, I’m thinking, how could I solve this problem for this person in this moment? And it was just planted a seed. I didn’t
didn’t do anything with it at the time, but it planted a seed. So I went overseas for a little while, had a wonderful time on my redundancy payout and came home and landed straight into an office management role within a training company where I was able then to utilize my training experience and desire to train adults. And
Megan North (13:06)
Yep.
Anne McDowell (13:10)
It’s coming up to this next section of when it all became crystallized. So when I did, when I was working with that company, my job was a bit of a fixer, fix the systems, fix this, fix that. And I really wanted to step into being what I felt was my passion of public speaking and speaking and educating people. So then I, ⁓ the benchmark for
to do that was to have a tertiary education, so university education, which I didn’t have. ⁓ So my boss then made a, ⁓ as a mature age student, ⁓ I was able to enter university and postgraduate studies via my vast experience in the workplace. So it was a different process. I enrolled in a master’s program.
It was the MBA, but I decided that I wasn’t really good at the statistical and analytical side of things. And I transited to HR. HR was leadership, teamwork, organisational behaviour, organisational psychology, looking at how we orchestrate and organise organisations. And it was also about change.
Megan North (14:31)
Yep.
Anne McDowell (14:33)
And change when I, when I was learning about leadership and change, it’s like, this is what I meant to do. This speaks to my heart. This is what I’m supposed to do. it was, had unknowingly helped people all of my life move through difficulties, adversities, challenges.
help them with their goals and their inspirations. And I’d been that person and now I could do it formally. And so I became a trainer in 1998. Well, it was already a trainer in 97, but I was able to start training people in 1998. And I’ve been doing it ever since. So training, coaching, mentoring, leading, guiding.
Megan North (15:29)
Yeah. And where do you think that comes from? Like, know, you and I had had a long conversation previously, and we’ve got similar sort of ⁓ where we’ve come through in our in our career. But where do you think that comes from? Do you think it’s because your mom, you watched your mom and she was a teacher? Or do you think it’s just innately in you that you’re a confident and a coach and a mentor? Like, where do you feel that comes from?
Anne McDowell (15:30)
the sign.
Well, I think it’s a combination of both environment and innately what’s in me. only last year, excuse me, only last year did I discover human design. I did, ⁓ and through our mutual networking, a lady who was ⁓ doing human design here in Australia, one of the first ones, but according to business.
And I did the human design ⁓ questionnaire or typed in my birthday date and the logistics. And it was like this incredible ⁓ burst of, my goodness, this is me. This is who I really am. Somebody else has said this is who I really am. Because I felt it all of my life, but I’ve been…
steered in so many different directions and you know away potentially from ⁓ what I was meant to be and our conditioning in society and our conditioning in you know circumstance and so it’s so in terms of that I’ve always been this this entity this teacher but this five one in human design that I discovered was about my
my purpose and I’d already known my purpose but this was validated by the fact that in in this my my authenticity and my reason for being is to help people transit through change. I’m a messenger to help people transit through change and understand what’s happening to them, understand their behaviors and their feelings and their and their anxieties and their their
their whole thing about change and get them from point A to point B. That’s like I have myself. So, it’s bouncing back with resilience and change and leading yourself with self leadership to, to allow yourself to sit in the ickiness and go, this is not
Megan North (18:04)
Well.
Anne McDowell (18:23)
this ickiness isn’t something to be afraid of, what can I learn from this and then move myself forward to the next part of my transformation. So I’ve done that for myself in, you know, like we all have, know, but for me, I recognise probably in 2015, ⁓ the importance of what I do when somebody referred to me as
Megan North (18:34)
What?
Anne McDowell (18:53)
It’s all right, Pollyanna. You always see the silver lining. You know, you just bounce back anyway. You know, you’ve got this Pollyanna. And I’m like, I read that story when I was young. I said, what do you mean? And she said, well, to me, you’re Pollyanna. You’re just like this eternal optimist. And she said, you always look at the bright side. You always find the silver lining. You always.
have been like that and I’m like what? So it was a crystal, a crystallised moment for me that I didn’t fully appreciate or understand about myself.
Megan North (19:37)
Yeah, yeah. And do you think also is that because you kind of innately and sense change is okay and that you can be resilient and it creates all of these things, do you think then that that actually then gives you that optimism? Because you don’t see change as fear, you see it as an opportunity to grow or to expand or to improve ⁓
Anne McDowell (20:07)
Well, it’s a… there’s a couple of things behind that. Yes, I do have this always got to be a silver lining thing and yes, know innately things will get better. They just have to. They can’t be optimistically like worse all the time. it was something that I really connected to when I was at uni and ⁓ it was about the locus of control.
And this was a concept that was developed in 1954. it was about whether you see like cup half full, cup half empty. But it was also about what you’re prepared to do to keep yourself in or out of that space. one of the things that, you know, it’s also called in because everything has an historical significance that the modern language then wraps its head around and it’s also called Above the Line Thinking and Below the Line Thinking. But I like it and what I’ve taught over the last 20 odd years is about Tigger and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh because those Disney characters, one has an external locus of control and one has an internal locus of control. One is a pessimist.
Megan North (21:04)
Yeah, but
Anne McDowell (21:25)
One is an optimist. One is about, and I think you probably already know who’s who, but I’m going to explain it. So with an internal locus of control, that means that you as a person feel like you have influence over what happens in your life. You have influence over your choices. You believe there is a choice. You believe you have a choice and you believe that you can enact your choices. Whereas the external locus of control is that you feel you surrender yourself to everything around outside you. So you don’t feel like you have any power that you don’t have any personal power or anything like that to help you change your situation.
Megan North (21:59)
Yeah.
Right.
Anne McDowell (22:19)
So if you think about the Disney characters, and I think that they’re probably the, I think is the best way to describe it. You have Tigger. Tigger is an eternal optimist. He has an internal locus of control. He believes he has choices. He has a choice when the Jaguar comes to town that he sees it as an adventure, not as a fear.
And he then thinks, even if it is a bit, ⁓ I don’t know. He goes, well, let’s just get excited and bounce our way through. he bounces back from things or from adversity. Whereas if you look at Eeyore, Eeyore is the other side of the pendulum swing. So he is, has an in external, external locus of control. He believes that. ⁓ dear, the sky is falling down. Even his voice is pessimistic and he wears a little rain cloud. He takes a little rain cloud with him. It’s everywhere. Yeah. So he feels that in that he doesn’t have much power in his, in his situation. So he surrenders to what is. Whereas with Chigga and being
Megan North (23:28)
Everywhere, yeah.
Anne McDowell (23:45)
an optimist, Pollyanna, we’re optimists, we go, well, you know, the situation isn’t great. No. And it doesn’t mean that we shy away from their realities. Positive positivity isn’t hype. It’s about being able to keep yourself in a mindset that will allow you to solve problems.
Megan North (24:08)
Yeah. Yeah.
Anne McDowell (24:10)
When you get depressed, when you in a negative state of mind, you can’t solve problems well. when we flip it, when we purposefully enter into a positive mindset, into TIGA, we make a choice. We make a choice to make a difference. We make it to the day, to the hour, to the minute that of whatever trauma we’ve just or dramatic situation or just experienced. So, so that’s why that’s why I am because I’m choosing, I’m choosing in the moment and I cry and you know, and I’ve been Eeyore, I’ve been Eeyore on a number of occasions, but I go, okay, I need to draw a line in the sand here. I need to, I can’t, I can’t be Eeyore and solve my problem.
Megan North (25:05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anne McDowell (25:07)
Tigger has solved my problem. So how do I get back into being Tigger? So I set a line, I set a time frame. I feel all the feelings, everything. I cry, I yell, I scream, I whatever. But then I go, okay, at 12 o’clock, I have to jump over that line in the sand and I have to become Tigger. It’s my choice to become Tigger.
Megan North (25:11)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So you just, you go into Eeyore at times, but you just don’t unpack your bags and stay there.
Anne McDowell (25:37)
Yes, you can’t stay in Eeyore. Of course, we’re not talking about clinical depression here. We’re talking about the times where you’ve been blindsided by… I had a month, I had three months, three months where I was in Eeyore with a toxic relationship breakup where that person was an emotional abuser. And I…
Megan North (25:41)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (26:04)
was shattered, I was not myself after it. Three months into crying every day my girlfriend said to me you were at such the top of your game before you met him.
And I sat in that.
Megan North (26:22)
Right.
Anne McDowell (26:23)
I sat in that and I was like, oh my goodness. Seriously, Anne, say goodbye to Eeyore. You get back into Tigger. You get back to being who you are. You do not let him win. You do not let him affect the rest of your life. He’s A, he’s not worth it. B, he’s got his own problems. They’re not yours. Yeah. Take the monkeys off your back.
Megan North (26:39)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (26:52)
They’re not yours, not my circus, not my monkeys. They’re not your problems. Your problem is to fix yourself. And I did. Though it was, you know, I took a couple of weeks, but I didn’t go back.
Megan North (26:55)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Anne McDowell (27:09)
So that was the most powerful thing for me. And it was also about forgiving myself for being in Eeyore and allowing I needed to be, I needed to have it pointed out to me too. Hello, girlfriend, get back on the, get back to being who you, who you authentically are.
Megan North (27:18)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And that forgiveness of self, I think, is really powerful, particularly if we do feel like we’ve dipped, you know, coming just forgiving yourself for, you know, for feeling in the sense of not saying, oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry I felt but just willing, you know, okay, yeah, forgiving yourself that this was a moment in time. And now I need to move forward. Yeah.
Anne McDowell (27:54)
I think it’s important. We’re human. We just try to be the best that we can be in any point, any given day. None of us are perfect. And you know, it’s also about the choices about do we want to choose to be in this? And one of the programs I have is, know, bounce back from the changes that you didn’t ask for because it’s so important that, you know, we didn’t ask for these things to happen.
Megan North (28:18)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (28:23)
But they’ve taught us valuable lessons too, if we’ve been open and honest about receiving the lesson. Yeah. And I learned so many valuable things. And honestly, it’s also incredible for a coach. You have to experience these things yourself so that you can understand what somebody else is going through.
Megan North (28:43)
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Yep.
Anne McDowell (28:46)
And I really believe, you know, one of the mantras for myself in my business is if I haven’t studied it, worked it or lived it, I don’t coach it, train it or sell it. And I find that it’s so important to be authentic to who you are.
Megan North (29:07)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Now I’m going to just take that pause just as a moment for us just to hear from our sponsors. Great. So we’ll hear from our sponsors and we’ll be back in a couple of minutes. And I think it’s a beautiful segue into what we’ve spoken about, because I’d love to now talk to you just in relation to mental health and how you look after your own mental health as you’re going through things and following your passion and your purpose. So can you share with us how you maintain balance and prioritise your mental health and wellbeing in the midst of pursuing your dreams?
Anne McDowell (29:49)
So I do a lot of different things Megan. ⁓ am, I play the piano and I think that that’s one of my very big gifts to Sol because I can play no matter what mood I’m in ⁓ and my music is reflective of the mood sometimes but I find it so grounding. I swim ⁓ and I have, I’m so fortunate, I’m very lucky to have a pool at home.
in my backyard and I also have an outdoor shower that has cold water. So at the moment it’s autumn here and it’s quite cool and so I’m doing morning swims when I can and a cold shower which is also grounding. And I’ve been doing a lot ⁓ of work recently about shadow work and connecting to inner child, doing timeline therapy, doing a whole range of different things because I had just felt that my I was a bit out of balance and I just realized over the last well the last three years probably I’d been doing that I had been out of balance in my business a lot and it was also affecting my mental health because I was driving forward in masculine energy and I didn’t I didn’t really allow myself the divine feminine to come through.
And so I’ve been really rediscovering that. It’s been so exciting. And I was so captivated by your sponsors and their messages because that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been really aligning to my spiritual side ⁓ and understanding that. I’ve been a little bit…
I don’t if you can call it a little bit, but I’ve always had a little bit of, I don’t know, would it be clairvoyance or something. I’ve been spiritual and always connected to that, but lost my way a little. And I’m just rediscovering all of that. It is so beautiful. And also in terms of being able to connect and balance myself, I listen to subliminal messaging.
At night time because I’m going through the outer stages of menopause. So sleep is not always easy. Yeah, I’m doing subliminal messaging in with my earbuds at night time with positive affirmations and connecting to divine and just really I am watching Tarot and really listening to other spiritual leaders on Mindvalley for example and loving it.
I’m absorbing everything I can and it’s so calming. So I’m finding that, you know, with my music, ⁓ with what I do, walking, exercise, swimming, cold water therapy, you know, I’m loving it. And that’s what I’m feeling is so buoyant to my moods and really helping me to connect. I love it.
Megan North (33:00)
Yeah, it’s amazing. And I love how you’ve talked about, you know, how there’s different things that you do. And obviously, you know, well, maybe the cold showers, don’t know, cold, I still continue in the midst of winter, I don’t know.
Anne McDowell (33:15)
I’m screaming.
Megan North (33:16)
I’m assuming with all the different things that you have, you probably start to intuitively feel into what you need more of, what’s not working for you at the moment. Is that right? Like do you find that what helps you with your mental wellbeing flows?
Anne McDowell (33:31)
Yes, it is. a reconnect giving myself permission and reconnecting to my my feminine energy and my divine feminine in that sort of thing has made a tremendous difference to me and my mental health over the last, I would say, four or five months ⁓ that I’ve been really pursuing it because I I didn’t really give myself permission a lot to rest ⁓ and and I didn’t
connect to, I can’t believe I’m wearing that nail polish. don’t know if you can see it. you know, doing a lot, I was driving, I was driving too hard. was, know, it’s all about, you know, achievement and goals and that sort of thing. And I didn’t allow myself to rest. I think that that was a real pivotal lesson for me in disengaging, getting rid of all the noise, disengaging and stop
Megan North (34:28)
Yep.
Anne McDowell (34:30)
I’ve never compared myself to others, stop having other people externally influence my decision making. I should be doing what I shouldn’t be doing. There’s so much noise on social media. As a business owner and of course as a coach, you seem to attract a lot of it. I’ll help you do this and you need to be doing this and you should be, know, blah, blah. you should be able to cut out all the noise.
Megan North (34:56)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good. That’s that I’m so glad to hear that because I think that ⁓ I think the society that we live in now is you’re made to feel guilty if you’re not doing something or if you stop for half a day or if you sit on the lounge and watch TV or something like that. And I know myself that ⁓ sometimes
Anne McDowell (34:58)
So peaceful.
Megan North (35:23)
You know, if I have a really big week on a Sunday, I love to be on the lounge and just watching stupid TV. But get to the point where I’ll turn to my husband and I know I’ve made a shift because I’ll say to him, I’m bored, which is then I see in that space. Because for me, if I’m bored, then my brain is empty. My brain is having a rest. It’s getting a different rest from sleeping. It’s in that boredom mode of I’m just there’s just nothing. And then I know, great, okay, I’ve actually rejuvenated now because I’ve felt that. And then I actually feel not long after that, all the inspiration coming in for, oh, I could do that. Or, oh, what about next week when I’m in that meeting, I could do this. But it’s helping myself to do that. Like I love sitting on the lounge with a cup of tea and watching a bake off or something like that.
Anne McDowell (36:16)
Absolutely. ⁓ it’s just divine and it’s and I often say to my husband. Yes, let’s just let’s just have a show in the background or whatever we’re doing that we don’t have to concentrate on and it’s beautiful and we do need that ⁓ and it’s also giving ourselves permission that that’s okay because in our world it’s it seems to be and this is why I brought blocked out a lot of the noise is that it was a very hustle culture ⁓ for a number of years. you need to be doing this. And anyway, I’ve blocked all of that out. But I’ve also taken to re-engaging with my husband. We turn the TV off and we just connect and play cards together. And I’ve never been a big card player. he on our anniversary went around for a couple of nights in February.
And I’d had a few yucky associations with playing cards in my past in teams, but this was just he and I. And we’ve played every night since. So we turn the TV off. We just talk about our days or whatever, because we’re also in the midst of doing some renovations around the home. And so we were very full on busy, but we have to give ourselves permission just to not do anything to end. Not feel guilty about it. Yeah. The guilt that comes around on those kinds of things too has something that I’ve really needed to settle for myself and go, you know what? You don’t need to be doing everything 24 7 all the time because that’s masculine energy to divine, connected to divine and feminine. And so that’s been an incredible balance for me. And that has done
Megan North (37:47)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (38:06)
Wonders, absolute wonders for my mental health.
Megan North (38:09)
Because the thing is, is that if you’re not in the best space yourself, then how can you be in that space for your clients as well? I mean, you need to be looking at you. You need to be walking the talk as well, but also then showing your clients to that you’re human and that sometimes you don’t want to be doing something. So you go, OK, until 12 o’clock, I’m going to feel like this and at 12.01, I’m going to shift back into this. But, you know, I think that also as a leader.
I think it’s really important to be sharing not every minute detail, but you can then relate to how clients are feeling too.
Anne McDowell (38:45)
Yes, yes, and I can. it was funny that a friend of mine who is a follower of a school friend, she actually called called me and was texted me and she said, I’ve noticed there’s a theme in your in your social media posts of late. Is everything OK? And I was like, yes, yes, everything is fine. I am just really tapping into other people’s energy and what I’m what I’m hearing, what I’m seeing, what I’m feeling and what I have felt myself.
Yeah. Because everything comes from that place of authenticity where if I, if I’m not, and sometimes the posts that I post are for me as well. To remind me to, okay, you’re making, gotta make some choices here. So, so it is, it is very much a reminder that we all need our cup filled and as people, as women, as, as individuals, as business owners, as whatever label we want to give ourselves, we have to fill our cup up first.
before we’re able to fill other people’s cup. It’s the same that analogy that they have on the planes when, you know, with oxygen masks come on. You know, you have to, to have to fill yourself up first. And as a coach, I do that. fill my cup with music, with my swimming and the ideas do come to me when there’s cold water hitting my head.
Megan North (40:06)
And I also think it’s important too for however you want to fill your cup up as well. Like what works for you doesn’t necessarily work for me or the next person. It’s about then finding what works for you as well. I think that that’s really important. ⁓
Anne McDowell (40:20)
everything is okay. Whatever it is that fills your cup is okay. It’s fabulous.
Megan North (40:27)
Absolutely, absolutely. So can you share a significant challenge that you faced and how you overcame it to stay aligned with your purpose?
Anne McDowell (40:39)
So I think the most poignant one for me was happened in sort of June, July last year. I’ve been on my own personal transformation as well as my business transformation, as well as it’s an evolving thing. You have to keep doing it. My business looks very different to what it did 22 years ago when I first started. But I was 25 kilos heavier than what I am now. So what’s that 50, 60 pounds? Wow. Heavier than what I am currently. Yeah. And I have a series of health issues that have been lifelong health issues and that have been hard to overcome and weight was one of them. And because I have polycystic ovarian syndrome and it started to manifest when I was eight. So I’ve had menopausal symptoms since I was about 12, 13. Wow. So I’ve been grappling with that, but excess weight. But it was, was a point in time. I, the saying that I’ve created is it’s only when the pain is sufficient that you will make that intended change or that needed change. Yeah. And the pain was sufficient. So the pain was sufficient on a number of levels in my business, in my personal life, in my health. had to do something.
And it was then the Tigger moment. I was Tigger in everything else, but Eeyore in my weight where my weight issues were concerned. I had to step into Tigger and do things about it. So for the last, well, it’s been probably since July, the first of July, I started on a new ⁓ journey, transformational journey. So I transformed from the inside out.
But also transform my business and realigned to myself, realigned to my authenticity, realigned to my alignment. And I found, you know, the human design. So was about aligning to, my goodness, I’ve been doing this all along and you hello. Yeah. So it was these being light bulb moments all over. And so the biggest thing I was doing my the time line therapy, I was doing shadow work. was doing realignment with my soul, realignment with my purpose, realignment with everything. So the biggest lesson I think for me has been don’t be afraid to realign. When you get out of sync, it’s OK. It happens. Don’t be afraid to go. That’s no longer serves me.
That’s no longer who I am. And I don’t think it ever was who I was and step back into who you really are. Sometimes that’s not always easy to discover, but you know, there, there are people like me and like other people, there are so many people out there who can help you and help people. And if you’re the person who’s struggling, there, there’s just community. There’s your support network. Talk to them.
Megan North (43:56)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (43:56)
Ask
them what you’re good, what do they think you’re good at? Yeah. We have to remember that I confused, and what I did was confuse my talents for my purpose. So I’m talented at a number of different things, but they’re not my necessarily my true purpose. Right.
Megan North (44:00)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (44:20)
So it was like, that a talent or is that my purpose? It helps me achieve my purpose.
Megan North (44:29)
to say your talents would then help you achieve the purpose. ⁓ that’s an interesting way to look at things.
Anne McDowell (44:38)
And it was like, okay, how long do I do this talent in order to, if for it to support my purpose, is it a short term, medium, longterm thing? Is it something I always have to incorporate? Is it something that I can potentially engage somebody else to do for me in the, in the future? Right now, is it, is it sensible for me to do that? Yes, no. Or circumstances might say, yes, it has to be until.
You know, so it was then the clarity, the clarity that came for me about aligning where my alignment was, what my true purpose is. And there was also something, ⁓ mutual friend of ours, Mitch gave me a wonderful ⁓ insight about the Queen Bee and there was a little five minute video, three minute video about what your Queen Bee purpose is in your business.
And it wasn’t about being the queen bee. It was about the purpose. And my purpose is creating content about change and resilience and positivity and confidence so that I can then deliver those messages. ⁓
Megan North (45:57)
Use your talents to then deliver the messages. ⁓
Anne McDowell (46:02)
It’s
the talent to deliver the messages. So part of what I do is what’s called instructional design. So it’s about ⁓ developing learning content ⁓ and learning programs. so therefore, it’s pulling the information that through my learning, my wisdom, my experiences, putting them into learning programs, coaching programs, so that people then can learn from those experiences.
Megan North (46:31)
Yeah, wow.
Anne McDowell (46:32)
So if and because the video said if you’re not there, if you’re not there doing the creation of the content. Your Queen Bee purposes and is there, you’re a worker bee. You’re a worker bee, not the Queen Bee. So you have to then remember who you are in your business. And like if your business is about. ⁓
Megan North (46:46)
Yeah.
Anne McDowell (46:57)
you know, numbers or accountancy, then obviously that’s your queen bee moment. sales or marketing or that sort of thing may not be your queen bee.
Megan North (47:09)
Yeah, it’s just a part of your business. It’s a part of how you operate.
Anne McDowell (47:14)
But you have to core down on your queen bee. And I thought this was, was so amazing!
Megan North (47:22)
That is amazing.
Anne McDowell (47:24)
And that’s what that’s what the spirit of community does for you as well. Because had I I didn’t I had never heard of that before. Yeah. And a person in our community told me about that. It was amazing.
Megan North (47:36)
Yeah, yeah.
That’s amazing. Amazing. I love that. I just, ⁓ yes. Really, really amazing. I think we could do a whole segment just on that.
Anne McDowell (47:49)
you
Megan North (47:51)
What a beautiful way to answer that question. Thank you. Now, can you believe that we actually only have a couple of minutes left?
Anne McDowell (47:55)
I think.
my goodness! ⁓ This has been such a joy! It’s been absolutely joyous!
Megan North (48:05)
It really has, it really has. So I’m going to ask you the same question that I ask all of my guests before we finish our conversation. So what is one lesson or truth that you’ve learned on your journey that you wish you had learned earlier?
Anne McDowell (48:20)
Listen to your heart and it’s calling for you. It’s about listen to your intuition. Yeah. Connect to yourself. Connect to your inner feelings. Connect to you. And I think listen to yourself. Listen to what makes you feel comfortable and not comfortable. Yeah. be authentic because in that feeling is your authenticity. Yeah. And that feeling is your true purpose.
in that feeling is the messengers that you know have been sent to you to guide you on your path. ⁓ Listen to yourself. Trust yourself.
Megan North (48:59)
Yeah, it’s beautiful.
Yeah, yeah, that’s beautiful. Beautiful way to end this conversation. Thank you for bringing such energy to our conversation and just different perspectives. Like I love listening to people because I just get, learn and then I hear different perspectives, different ways of thinking about things and looking at things. So thank you for that.
Anne McDowell (49:25)
It’s my absolute pleasure. I have had such a beautiful time. Thank you, Megan.
Megan North (49:29)
I’m glad, I’m so glad. And I’d also like to thank all of our amazing and dedicated audience and our sponsors and our supporters. And I hope that you all have an amazing and beautiful week ahead and I’ll see you all next week. Thank you again, Ann.
Anne McDowell (49:45)
Thank you. It’s been wonderful.
