Nicky Lowe [00:00:06]:
Hi. It’s Nicky Lowe, and welcome to the Wisdom For Working Mums podcast show. I’m your host. And for nearly 2 decades now, I’ve been an executive coach and leadership development consultant. And on this show, I share evidence based insights from my coaching, leadership, and psychological expertise and inspiring interviews that help women like you to combine your work, life, and motherhood in a more successful and sustainable way. Join me and my special guest as we delve into leadership and lifestyle topics for women, empowering you to thrive one conversation at a time. I’m so happy that you’re here, and let’s go on with today’s episode. Welcome to this episode.

Nicky Lowe [00:00:48]:
I’m your host, Nikki Lowe. And as we enter this new year, today, as I sit here, is the beginning of January. We’ve just returned from a family holiday after Christmas. My children go back to school tomorrow. And I wanted to dedicate this episode to explaining a change in my work to you. And I’ve got to admit, I nearly forgot to share this with you because this is a journey that I’ve been on for the last 18 months or so. I’ve been working on it behind the scenes. And, actually, I’ve gone through this process, and it wasn’t until my business manager said to me, we’re gonna be making some changes that are kind of forward facing that that you and kind of my my, I suppose, network and connections are gonna see.

Nicky Lowe [00:01:29]:
She was like, we kind of need to tell people why you’re making those changes. So, as I said, it was really easy for me to forget to share it with you because I’ve been so immersed in that process. But bringing you along for this journey is really important. And that’s exactly what I wanted to do in this episode. And something I often talk about in my leadership workshops when I’m helping leaders to navigate change is the importance of communication. And as leaders, it’s really easy to overlook something fundamental, which is our own unconscious bias. Because when we’re deep in the process of change, like I’ve been, we can forget that others don’t have the same context, they haven’t got the same insights, or they’ve not been on that journey that we’ve been on. So what feels obvious to us might be completely unclear to others because they haven’t seen what we’ve seen or thought what we’ve thought.

Nicky Lowe [00:02:18]:
And that’s why I wanted to share this announcement with you. And I’m really excited because it kinda marks a, I suppose, almost a transformative new chapter for me, my business, and my mission. And that announcement is that Wisdom For Working Mums is evolving into Luminate Group. And it’s not just a name change. It’s about expanding, I suppose, the impact and bringing everything together that I’m passionate about. And it’s the culmination of a 20 year journey. And in this episode, I’ll share with you why this change is happening, what it means, and, importantly, how it will continue to serve and support you. Because effective leadership is about bringing people along for the journey, and this podcast is my way of doing that with you.

Nicky Lowe [00:03:11]:
And to explain this transformation, I really need to take you back 20 years to a time before I ran my own business. Back then, I was working in the corporate world as a global account director for a Silicon Valley tech company. And that chapter of my life taught me so much about leadership, about organizational life, about ambition, and about the challenges of balancing work and personal life. And at that time I was managing global account teams, so I was managing virtual teams in different regions around the world. And I was leading often people twice my age and twice my experience, and they were mostly men. And as a young female, I felt like I needed to prove my capability because I wasn’t the most technical, I wasn’t the most sales driven, and I wasn’t even the most commercially savvy. So I became curious about how did I add value? How did I prove my capability? And in that process, I became really curious about how I could become the best leader, really asking myself, actually, what was a leader? What was leadership? And what did great leadership look, sound, feel like? And what did I need to do to become a great leader? So I ended up reading lots of books about leadership, both in the workplace and also personally. I listened to audiobooks because there wasn’t podcasts back then.

Nicky Lowe [00:04:40]:
I looked for role models and mentors. I went on training courses. Basically, I took my personal and professional development really seriously. And I remember being on a training course about managing cross cultural virtual teams that really changed the trajectory of my career. And even though it was 20 years ago, I remember that moment like it was yesterday. The training was hosted by a guy called Kevin Hall from a company called Global Integration, and he was really sharing how to manage virtual teams from different cultures. And at that time I was account director for several kind of large global organizations, one of which was General Motors. I was the account director in Europe and I had team members who looked after different divisions.

Nicky Lowe [00:05:24]:
So there was somebody in Germany and Sweden. I was reporting it to the global account director who was based in Detroit in the US. I was also an account director for BA Systems and we had team members across the world. This 2 day course was all about how do we manage those teams that are virtual. So we never very, very rarely met. We’d meet perhaps once, twice a year. They manage it was about managing the different cultures and approaches, while also trying to be a high performing team. And I remember we did an activity that was the catalyst for me leaving my job.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:03]:
And the activity was when we sat back to back with a partner. So we took away the visual aspect you would get from working face to face with somebody. So we were trying to kind of, I suppose, recreate what it’s like to work remotely. And then Kevin got us doing this exercise that was what I now know was teaching us the basic coaching skills. And the exercise was powerful, not just in the results it created in that exercise, but also what it invoked in me. And I had this realization that my natural leadership style was to coach. And if I think about it, it made sense, but I couldn’t tell people twice my Asian experience what to do. So I was coaching them, but it was also my natural personality.

Nicky Lowe [00:06:46]:
And when I realized it was a natural strength and it was so transformational for leadership, It really sparked this passion in me. And I found a course to sign up to learn more about coaching. I then hired my own exec coach, and I suppose you can say the rest they say is history. But there’s a level of depth to this story that really shaped the last 20 years, which really informs what I’m doing with my business now and the work that I’m gonna be doing going forward. So back then in my corporate role, on paper, it looked like I had it all, you know, the 6 figure salary, the big bonus scheme, the company car, the stocks and shares, the pension. We’d bought a house in the countryside, and it, on paper, was just phenomenal. I was in my twenties, you know, beyond my kind of dreams at that point in in my life. But, actually, whilst I was creating this really high standard of living, my internal reality was that I had a really poor quality of life.

Nicky Lowe [00:07:47]:
And I think what I was experiencing was lack of alignment burnout. And it’s a topic that I’ll cover actually in the podcast this year because I don’t think it’s talked about enough, but actually, I was burning out because I wasn’t aligned in my life. It was almost like I was this square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole, whichever way around it is. I don’t know. But I wasn’t in alignment with my natural strengths, with my values, with the way I wanted to live my life, and I was working harder and harder trying to make it a success. And in that process, I was I became a person I didn’t like. So I had all these, I suppose, external measures of success, but internally I was really suffering. As I say, I was working longer, harder and faster than anybody else, I think, really to prove that I was good enough to prove that I could make this work.

Nicky Lowe [00:08:42]:
And I was achieving, like I was getting promoted, I was getting recognized, I was getting rewarded, but it was at a huge personal cost. And I knew I needed to leave my job, but I didn’t know what I could do. I didn’t know where I could, you know, take my skills, my experience to that point, which I suppose was really quite limited. You know, I was only in my twenties, although I was doing some phenomenal things. You know, I was relatively young in my career. And I also didn’t know. I’d started to build my life around the money that I was earning, and I didn’t know what else I could do that would give me that amount of money. We were renovating a big farmhouse.

Nicky Lowe [00:09:21]:
You know, I, you know, I I felt stuck. It was what I would call my I was a corporate prisoner. And as I said, I knew I needed to leave, but but I didn’t know how or what. I ended up hiring an occupational psychologist hoping that she would help me to figure out who I was, what I was good at, and where I could take that in my career. And to be honest, I didn’t find that useful. And then through this coaching experience on this training course, I started to learn more about coaching, and then I decided to hire an executive coach. And that experience was just profound. I found a lady called Laura who I actually now work with.

Nicky Lowe [00:09:58]:
I do I do coaching work for her organisation. She runs one of the biggest business coaching, organisations in in the UK and Europe, and I I work as an associate for her. So we’ve stayed in contact over those 20 years. And in that initial contract and conversation with Laura to be my coach, I said, I I think I want to become a coach. I think I wanna retrain and set up my own coaching business, but I I need to just explore if that’s the right thing or am I just looking at something that the grass feels greener? And in that process, what I discovered was so powerful. I discovered who I was, what I was about, what would make me happy, why I didn’t feel happy. It wasn’t that I was just not grateful for the life I had, but I wasn’t in alignment. And I knew that I wanted to set up my own coaching business.

Nicky Lowe [00:10:49]:
I came to that realization. And I actually gave myself a 2 year exit strategy. So I came to that realization and said, I I wanna retrain as a coach. I wanna set up my coaching business and launch it. And I remember Laura saying, okay. So when do you wanna do that? And I gave myself this 2 year goal. And she challenged me and said, well, why can’t you do that now if you know that’s actually what you wanna do? And I remember giving her all of the reasons why I couldn’t, you know, financially, it just, you know, I needed to give myself time. And I remember Laura challenging me to this day.

Nicky Lowe [00:11:22]:
And I was adamant that like, no, I needed to give it a 2 year exit strategy. I also remember doing an activity with Laura, which was called the ideal week exercise. And she got me to visualise what my ideal week would look like in the future. And what’s so powerful is that I remember doing that exercise and just feeling like it was, you know, out of reach. It was just so, what’s the word I’m looking for? So, like, pie in the sky, so unachievable, but it just brought me this amazing feeling. And what was quite kind of profound is less than I think it was what would it have been? Less than 5 years after having that kind of visualization, I’d actually created that life. I’d created my ideal week that I just thought was completely unachievable. And if you’re interested in this ideal week, I would really recommend you go back and listen to episode 70 4 when I share that.

Nicky Lowe [00:12:19]:
I talk about how to set yourself up for success, even if you don’t enjoy goal setting. And it’s a really powerful, powerful way of kind of exploring what you do want. And as I say, Laura challenged me at the time and I gave her all the reasons and I really believe that was the truth, but it wasn’t. It was just my kind of excuses and, I suppose, limiting beliefs or fear. So shortly after I finished my coaching program with Laura, I knew that I needed to get on holiday because I knew that I was out of alignment and I’d kinda got this 2 year, kind of, I suppose, window where I needed to dig deep and just kind of get on with life as it was to create the life that I wanted. And so because I was feeling so burnt out with with the thought of doing that, I booked this kind of 2 week holiday. So me and my, with my boyfriend at the time now, husband, we booked a holiday to the Maldives. And if you’ve not been to the Maldives, you can just imagine kind of the most idyllic setting.

Nicky Lowe [00:13:24]:
That was it. And so I was in, you know, effectively paradise, but something happened that really changed my life. So one week into that holiday, we’d just had breakfast in paradise, you know, with our feet in the sun because all the restaurants, you know, you can just go bare footed. We walked back to our kind of, beach, I don’t know what you would call it, beach apartment. It was like this incredible hut overlooking the sea. And I got a call from my brother to say that my mum had suddenly and unexpectedly just passed away. And so there I was sat in Paradise, you know, on the most idyllic beach, coming to terms with the worst possible news at that point in my life. And, obviously, we needed to get a flight home, but it was gonna take us 24 hours for us get the next flight home.

Nicky Lowe [00:14:17]:
So I had, effectively, 24 hours sat in what should have been the most perfect setting, really having to take a hard look at myself and my life. And in those moments, I decided that I could no longer carry on living the life that I had lived. It was like my mum’s death was begging for me to truly start living, to really follow my heart, and it’s something I’ve tried to do ever since. So what I did when I got back was I handed in my notice, and I started my coaching qualification. And none of it made any logical sense. You know, financially, it didn’t. You know, just walking away from a big job with, you know, effectively quicksand underneath me. There was no foundation to, you know, I hadn’t started my training.

Nicky Lowe [00:15:16]:
I had no idea if I could make being a coach a success. I had no idea on this, but I just followed my heart. So November 2020 2005, so 20 years ago this year, I left my corporate job and did a year long coaching qualification. And so the following it was in September 2006, I launched Luminate Coaching, my coaching business. And actually, to begin with, all I wanted to do was life coaching. I wanted to reject the corporate world. I felt resentful and bitter for what my corporate career had cost me. I felt like corporate prisoner.

Nicky Lowe [00:15:52]:
And at that point, what I thought I wanted to do was to help other people who felt the same, to escape the life they found themselves in and create the life that they really wanted. And so I started coaching people personally. But quite quickly after launching my business, I found myself missing the corporate world, not working in it, but being connected to it. And by chance, I won a contract to deliver a corporate coaching and leadership development for a financial services company. And I loved it. Being able to make an impact in the corporate world, but not actually working in it really just lit me up. So over the course of the next 7 years, I built my business up, going from life coaching to corporate executive coaching, to delivering on global leadership development programs, you know, working in places like New York and Washington DC. And I took my training in my executive coaching and I just kept up leveling.

Nicky Lowe [00:16:48]:
So I trained in emotional intelligence. I trained in psychological mindedness. So I’m trained in numerous different tools like cognitive behaviour and coaching, Gestalt coaching, systemic coaching, transaction analysis, neuro linguistic programming, personality profiling, you name it. I’ve trained in it because my hunger for knowledge on human behaviour and organisation behaviour was insatiable. And I built up thousands of hours of coaching. And I got to work on leadership development programme with some of the world’s best organisational psychologists. And all of that learning and professional kind of practice led me to become one of the world, the UK’s top exec coaches. And I was supporting leaders in some of the world’s best known companies to thrive personally and professionally.

Nicky Lowe [00:17:36]:
And my business was thriving. And interestingly, at that time, one of my clients was Absder and they went out to tender for 10 UK exec coaches to come in and support their leadership team in their leadership development. And I went through this kind of massive, recruitment process where I had to be interviewed, they had to watch me doing coaching, you know, complete these kind of loads of hurdles and hoops to jump through to prove my ability as a coach. And I then kind of became one of those 10 coaches. And I got to coach leaders in their organisation. And they actually have a high proportion of female leaders just because of the demographic of their employees. And it meant that several of my coaching clients were either preparing for motherhood or returning from motherhood. Some of them were preparing biologically and some were preparing to become adoptive parents.

Nicky Lowe [00:18:29]:
And I became well known for being able to support women with their maternity leave. So much so that I was asked to contribute to a book called Mentoring New Parents at Work. It was written by, Nikki Senneur. Nikki ran the mum to mum network at Asda before leaving to set up mentoring parents with her business. So when a few years later, I decided to start my own family, I thought I was well placed. I thought I was in the best place in my life personally and professionally to become a mum. Then fast forward to having my first child, and I naively thought I would navigate motherhood and working motherhood with relative ease. You know, I’d navigated the challenges of the corporate world or the business world, and I thought the parenting world would be easy in comparison, or so I thought.

Nicky Lowe [00:19:16]:
You know, I’m not sure if the love for crying my naivety now. And as many of you know, a year after having my first child, who’s now nearly 12, I ended up burning out. I became so ill, I ended up not having the energy to literally get myself back off the floor after playing with him as a 1 year old. And after months of trying to get the answers to my health issues and just being told, you’re a new mum, all new mums are tired. I finally got the diagnosis of adrenal fatigue. I’d burnt my adrenal system out. And you can go back and listen to other episodes where I dive into more detail around that. But effectively, I became fiercely curious as to how that happened because it blindsided me.

Nicky Lowe [00:19:57]:
You know, when I first blamed myself for not eating enough kale or kind of doing enough yoga or getting enough rest, but then my eyes opened to the systemic factors, what I now know to be the psychosocial factors of what can be the barriers for working mothers to thrive. And I started to share my journey about what I’d learned with other mothers and it resonated. And I realized there wasn’t a space for professional women who were mothers to get the support and insight that would help them to thrive. So the idea for Wisdom For Working Mums was born. And I held onto that idea whilst trying for my second child, but I experienced recurrent miscarriages. And I was told by a fertility expert that I had secondary infertility, which is effectively, you are infertile, even after having a child. So I thought I wouldn’t be able to conceive another child and was told that I wouldn’t be able to without intervention. And when the treatment didn’t agree with me, I decided to let go of having a second child.

Nicky Lowe [00:20:56]:
And instead, I decided to pick up the idea of birthing Wisdom For Working Mums into the world. And as I was preparing to launch Wisdom For Working Mums, I discovered I was pregnant with my second child. And then I faced that decision. What do I do? Do I just drop the idea of Wisdom For Working Mums? And I decided that if I didn’t launch it into the world, then I never would. So in 2018, I gave birth to Wisdom For Working Mums. And the idea was to create a platform to share insights that would help women combine their work, lives and motherhood in a more successful and sustainable way, taking my insights, my executive coaching, my psychological mindedness, and leadership into that business. And over the last 7 years, that’s exactly what I’ve done. Originally, I created Wisdom For Working Mums as a platform for women personally, who wouldn’t get access to a coach through their employer.

Nicky Lowe [00:21:51]:
So I created this podcast, my blog, and then my personal coaching services. And I launched Wisdom For Working Mums to support working mothers like you in navigating the complex balance of work, life and parenthood, really building on my own struggles after being a working mum. But over time, it developed into something more. Not only was I working with women personally, but organizations wanted to hire me too, not only to do maternity coaching and parental leave support, but then to support women further into their careers as mothers. But I was also supporting leaders generally, both men and women, some parents, some not. So to begin with, I kept my businesses separate. Luminate was for my general leadership work and Wisdom For Working Mums was for mothers and then more broadly for parents. Then I started getting involved in more leadership well-being through my work with the Global Leadership grow and evolve personally, so do our businesses.

Nicky Lowe [00:22:53]:
And it feels like the last few years have been a whirlwind of growth and change. You know, not only launching this podcast, but raising my children, going on my own leadership journey. So I’ve gone on my own journey of transformation, learning and stretching and stepping into my own leadership. And over the last few years, I’ve felt a deeper calling both, I suppose, from within myself, but also for my clients to do more and expand my impact. And over the last 20 years, the golden thread of my work has always been about living a wholehearted life, pursuing our career ambitions while prioritising our well-being, knowing that I didn’t wanna be somebody that just strived or survived. And I don’t want that for my clients either, but it’s about thriving, creating a foundation for sustainable success that allows us to flourish personally and professionally, whether it’s in life, work, parenthood. My purpose has always been rooted in helping others navigate the complexities of their world while creating space for, I suppose, growth and joy and success. So this next step feels really personal.

Nicky Lowe [00:24:00]:
It’s about uniting everything I’ve learned and created and dreamed into one powerful mission, to illuminate the path for leaders, working parents, and organizations to thrive in all areas of life. And so today I’m proud to announce that Luminate Group is the unified brand that ties all my passions and purposes together. So what is Luminate Group? Luminate Group brings together all of my offerings under one identity, providing a comprehensive suite of resources. So Wisdom For Working Mums sits under Luminate Group. So I offer coaching consultancy and this podcast that continues to empower working mothers. There’s the motherhood management suite, which is about coaching and support for mothers at every stage of their career and motherhood journey. There’s the parenthood management matters suite, which is tailored to help working parents and their managers find the balance of the demands of work and family. There’s Luminate Development, which is bespoke leadership and well-being solutions for organisations.

Nicky Lowe [00:25:07]:
And there’s Empower. And those are programmes designed to give female leaders the tools, the confidence, and the strategies to thrive personally and professionally. So this is just the beginning. Here’s what you can expect from me in the come coming months. I’m gonna be sharing new programmes and workshops, all designed to help you lead, parent, and thrive. I’m gonna be hosting leadership retreats and transformational experiences. There’s gonna be collaborations with new clients, new organisations, and I have my fresh new website. It’s the Hub For Everything Luminate Group.

Nicky Lowe [00:25:39]:
And you can check it out at Luminate, which is l u m I n a t e hyphen group dot co dot uk. So to make you aware of what’s changing, my communications will now be coming through from Luminate Group. So my email address is nikkiluminate hyphen group dot co dot uk. You’ll get if you email me on my old Wisdom For Working Mums, you’ll get a reminder that it’s moved, so you still will be able to contact me. But going forward, everything will come through my Luminate Group email. My website has moved to Luminate Group, so that’ll be the central hub. My social media handles are changing. So on Instagram, I was Wisdom For Working Mums, but it’s now gonna be Nicky Lowew Leadership.

Nicky Lowe [00:26:22]:
And it’s really important for me to say that this is so much more than a name change. It really represents growth and transformation of me and my mission. So what’s staying the same is the heart of Wisdom For Working Mums remains. So the podcast will continue to be Wisdom For Working Mums, and it will continue to be a space for inspiration, practical strategies, and community. But now it’s part of a bigger vision to serve leaders and parents in a more meaningful way. And I think why this matters is this rebrand, as I say, is not just about name or new logo. It’s a reflection of my deep passion for helping people thrive, and it’s about creating a space for you to grow, to lead lead, and a space to live in alignment with your values. And change can feel scary, especially when it involves sharing it with others.

Nicky Lowe [00:27:20]:
So I noticed that I’d got a bit of resistance and a bit of, I suppose, a bit of anxiety about sharing this because I think change can unsettle anyone, but change also challenges us to grow and to step into new possibilities. And I’m ready for that. So I just wanted to say thank you for being part of this journey. Your support, encouragement, and connection mean the world to me and inspire me. And I’m so grateful to have you with me as we step into this new era. So here’s to a new year of growth, inspiration, and transformation. And going forward, you’ll now hear me refer to myself as Nicky Lowewe, founder of Illuminate Group, proudly incorporating wisdom for working moms. And if you have any questions or you just wanna share your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you.

Nicky Lowe [00:28:10]:
Don’t forget to go and explore the new websites, illuminate hyphen group dot co dot uk. And remember that my email will be transitioning to liquelluminate hyphen group dot co dot uk. And my Instagram will be moving from Wisdom For Working Mums to Nicki Lowewe Leadership. And I hope this podcast inspires you to embrace whatever change you’re being called to step into, knowing that growth, while challenging, can lead to something even more fulfilling and aligned with who you’re becoming. Thanks for listening, and until next time. Take care. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Wisdom For Working Mums, please share it on social media and with your friends and family. I’d love to connect with you too.

Nicky Lowe [00:28:55]:
So if you head over to wisdom for working mums.co.uk, you’ll find a link on how to do this. And if you love the show and really want to support it, please go to iTunes, write a review, and subscribe. You’ll be helping another working mom find this resource too. Thanks so much for listening.