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Kia ora whānau and welcome to the Crystal Road Impact podcast and we're going to talk about the inner child in business.

I'm going to share with you a little story about when I first fell pregnant with my now 20 year old.

At the time I was only 19 and I had no idea what was going on and I had a very successful uncle.

And I thought, you know what, I'll go to him and I'll ask him for some advice.

I'll study and I will try and make good of this time of being pregnant.

And he literally turned around to me and said, don't waste your time.

You're just always going to be on the benefit.

And from that moment, I was just like, no way.

No way am I just going to be stuck in the same cycle of what society labels as a teen mum and all the negative impact that that actually can have on a person and also on the child.

So for me, I decided to actually really dig deep and make my own path to entrepreneurship or

At the time, I didn't know what that word was, to be honest.

It was just this fire that burned inside of me to not have that stigma over my life and over my child's life.

So I just tried to do more.

What I ended up doing, before I had my daughter, I actually did a hairdressing course.

And then I fell pregnant and

Had a couple of years and I went and got my first job.

And I remember actually, I chose to work 40 plus hours a week in a hair salon for like the crappiest wage.

And I think I made like $7 less than the current benefit for a single parent in New Zealand at the time.

And I actually had a write-up in the New Zealand Herald and it was

a decent article about how I chose to be a single parent and stay off the benefit.

And there was a lot of struggle around that time too, because I had relocated to a different city and I just, I was sort of still lost.

But one thing remained is that I didn't want to be that teen mum that just didn't do anything with my life.

So

From there, I carried on and I've spent many, many years trying to outrun the stigma of being a teen mum and a single mum and all the negativity around that.

And I've always just pushed and pushed and tried different things.

I've tried so many different things in business.

multi-level marketing, I've done Amway, I've done Tupperware, I've done so much different things that are all common in our upbringing, but always coming back to just trying to break the mould.

I just never wanted to fit into the box of being a single mum on the benefit.

It just didn't fit me.

It just didn't resonate at all with my soul.

So I have just tried to keep pushing.

And for a part of my journey, it wasn't the easiest part, but it was always just trying to find that reason.

And that reason was really to be the better version of myself for my daughter.

And the beautiful thing that I've just realized in this moment is it played out well for her.

By me pushing and trying to be the better version of myself, trying all the businesses that didn't work to show her that you keep pushing, that you keep trying,

That being your own boss is the best, and she is a successful business owner herself now, so that's the reward for me.

And that actually makes me feel complete.

It makes me feel proud, and that's one thing that my inner child hasn't felt through my whole experience in business.

Even to this moment, I've never really truly felt proud of myself in business because it was a mission.

It was always a mission to complete something.

It was always, I have to do this, I have to do that.

And I never ever took a moment to acknowledge the progress that I've made, to acknowledge the impact that I have actually had on myself.

and my family and that I actually did that.

I broke the mould.

I actually broke that damn mould.

My inner child stood up for myself and as a result, everything's changed.

When we realise and become the person that our inner child needs or needed then,

That's the real upgrade.

When we actually become the person our inner child needed, when we see our inner self as that younger version and actually be what we needed for them, it's a whole nother level.

It really, really is.

I feel amazing saying that I upgraded the trajectory of my life by being the person that I needed back when I was younger.

I can now tell myself that it's all going to work out fine.

And I can tell my young 19-year-old self, just keep going, you're doing a phenomenal job, and that it's all going to work out fine.

Because when we do show up for ourselves, we win.

We win the game of life.

When I started to heal my inner child, it wasn't very nice.

It was really hard and it was uncomfortable.

But when we're uncomfortable, we grow.

And the amazing thing is that we actually get an opportunity to accept ourselves.

And that was a big part of me growing up.

I never accepted who I was as a younger person.

I never accepted my upbringing.

I never accepted my family, if I'm being completely honest.

I never felt like I belonged anywhere.

And so when I acknowledged that that was the process I had,

played out my whole life, I was actually able to accept my younger self.

And when I accepted her, I had this coaching session not long ago, and I realized that my younger self was really embarrassed.

And when I was able to go back in time and be there for her and just see her, I realized that I really, really did love her.

And that was an amazing turning point in my life that I was already accepted and loved by me.

And that was the healing that I needed for.

my business to take it to the next level now where I'm going to venture into a new path.

I actually want to help and empower other people to find their inner child and love them and be there the way that they needed somebody when they were younger.

And if we can just give ourselves a chance, like I gave myself the chance to see myself, to accept myself, and to love myself, I was able to take the next step in my life.

And in doing so, I'm actually becoming the better version of myself each and every day.

Thanks for listening, whānau, and if you loved this podcast, make sure you give us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and follow us on all our social platforms, and we'll see you in the next episode.