The RISE Story
I know your story because I've been there too. In 2015, I moved to China to teach English. I loved working with students and seeing their little lightbulbs ding when something clicked. What I didn't love was the office politics, the philosophical differences towards education, or lying on report cards because it kept the money flowing in from parents. Managers told me things like:
- "It's just a job, don't take it so seriously"
- "You're just one person, you can't make a difference"
- "If you don't like it, why don't you just go back home?"
So instead of changing the system, I put pressure on myself to do better, to work harder, to try to make every single moment in every single class mean more. The pressure built up, and as the cracks started showing, I realised that teaching wasn't a forever gig for me and that was okay.
I disconnected and took some time out to recover the mental and physical health I had sacrificed for a job that saw me as disposable. And that was when I found coaching. Right away, I knew that I wanted to provide support for other educators who were feeling the same way who knew just going home wasn't the solution.
When I learned to recognise my patterns, like putting pressure on myself to change the entire system single-handedly, I realised that there was no way I could win. I had to be open to inviting the new perspective that teaching wasn't the path for me, and believe that if I let it go, I would find something that was more aligned with my values. As I explored what it meant to be a coach and build a business, I learned to stand in my power and own my story. And when I put it all together, I began embodying the woman that I had dreamed of being when I was lost in the deepest pit of my burnout depression.
When I realised that this was the exact same process that I took my clients through, everything began to shift.
Fast-forward 10 years from when I first stepped foot in China and my life is completely different:
- I wake up every day to a supportive and loving husband
- I have a tiny human who is about to start kindergarten
- I help women have life-changing transformations and give themselves permission to want more.
And when they do, it's incredible!
My clients have stopped holding themselves back and started:
- writing and publishing a series of children's books, gone on a virtual book tour, and developed a program to help teachers and parents use writing as a way to unlock creativity
- applied for a teaching position in her dream school with benefits including health insurance that covered an urgent operation so she didn't have to worry about a huge medical bill
- landed the promotion for a role she wasn't confident in applying for, but allowed herself to feel the fear and do it anyways
- started her coaching business, found a collaboration partner and launched their first workshop together incorporating art and mindfulness
- building a non-profit organisation to help female founders, set boundaries, and learned how to model the lifestyles and choices they want future generations to make.
But don't just take my word from it...