This is my story. Get a cuppa, it’s a big one.
I’m Bronwyn. I grew up 4th in a family of 9 children. I am intelligent and well-educated, and was raised to have high moral standards, but was always painfully shy as a child. I was also incredibly trusting, and possibly even sheltered, so when I hit 15, that rebellious teenager hit, coupled with a rock-bottom self esteem, and I was making big choices with life-long consequences. I didn’t become a hardened criminal or anything like that, but my choices resulted in me leaving school half way through year 12 (after I’d entertained dreams of being an architect, concert pianist, or fashion designer), and married at age 20.
I loved my husband with everything I had. We had a son when I was 23, but by age 28, we’d separated, and my husband moved from Melbourne, across the whole country, to stay with his uncle in Western Australia. I followed, with our son, the following year, and we eventually patched things up, then made a happy home for ourselves in a little country town. We had another 3 children, 1 more boy, and 2 girls. We were complete, we were happy.
I worked from home as a bookkeeper, but after 10 years or so of doing this, I became restless, and knew I could be more. I was also a sucker for committees. I was president of my children’s school P&C (parents and citizens) association, and turned down being chairperson of the newly formed local sub-committee of our chamber of commerce, in favour of being secretary instead.
The quest to lift my career lasted years. I attempted to launch an online training series (way before it was the big industry it is today) and fought and failed at many variations of this.
I wanted to make enough money to allow my husband to escape the toxic work environment he was in (he came home from work every day a little more dead) so he could spend his days pottering around on the little farm we were in the process of building. I stumbled onto business coaching, maybe this could be my thing??
It was right about then that my dear husband, after 24 years of marriage, up and left. It hit me out of the blue, and completely destroyed me. Exactly 4 weeks after telling me we were separating, he tells me that we’re over for good, and then moved into his new girlfriend’s house (who was a recently separated friend of mine).
The betrayal, the heartache, it was unbearable. I went to a friend’s house to cry on her shoulder, and she described to me afterwards how the universe told her to what to say.
She said: “How wonderful this will be for you! I can’t wait to see the amazing, strong, and powerful woman you become now! Like a magnificent Phoenix rising from the ashes, you are going to be astounding!”
I blinked through my tears, a little taken aback. I wasn’t expecting that! But it worked, she got me thinking.
I knew about the power of forgiveness, enough to know that I would never fully heal or grow unless I could completely forgive my now openly-adulterous husband, in our little tight-knit small town. I had to forgive her, too.
I just had to be an example to my children, of love, hope, forgiveness, and strength.
It was really hard.
But, as I leaned on my support network, and consciously made deliberate and difficult choices to demonstrate words and actions of forgiveness and love, it worked. I healed.
I even healed enough to have a thought keep coming to me about her ex – “I need to catch up with him.”
So one day, I did. Turns out, he wasn’t ok. Her leaving him had completely destroyed him, and their son was the only reason he had left to live, but he was down to seeing him only every second weekend. I offered to look after him before and after school, so he could have his son stay with him week on, week off. 15 months later, we were married – but that’s a whole other story!!!
The point is, I healed. I got brave, I found my roar.
I attended a free coaching seminar, and used my mortgage money to pay a deposit on the coaching certification course in Sydney a few weeks away. It was the single most emotional business decision I’d ever made. I asked friends and family to help me get there, and raised over $7000 in less than 24 hours.
Coming back from Sydney, I was on fire. I can’t exist if I’m not a coach. It’s my true calling! The new skills I’ve gained blend perfectly with my natural and innate abilities. I combined that with everything I know from decades of passionate experience in small business.
A year later, I’m having a moment of quiet reflection. I was thinking about how I want to build an earthship, but how can I turn it into a business? (because that’s just how I roll)
And the idea hits me to build an earthship as an accommodation and conference centre on a self-sufficient organic permaculture farm, and run business retreats, events and functions from there.
If I’d had this idea a year or two earlier, it would have been discarded as some crazy thing that could never work. But after the growth I’d had, after learning about how you can make the universe conspire in your favour, after discovering the impact that you can make on your life simply by elevating your frequency, I’m game.
It’s a massive project, and will be years in the making. But everything I’ve done towards this goal has resulted in evidence that it can work. I can somehow pull it off.
I attended training to get a permaculture design certificate, and re-ignited the passion I’d had to live in harmony with the earth, and now I can help others to do the same.
Because of my small business background, I am focused on supporting small business owners to achieve green tick certification. We can all do our little part in giving love back to the earth.
Until the earthship is ready, I’m continuing with business coaching. I connect best with people who are owner-operators. Awesome at their craft, but not much business know-how. Being a business owner, or even just self-employed, is a tough gig, and not for the faint-hearted.
I’m still with the school P&C, just a little less hands on. I’m now the chairperson of the chamber of commerce sub-committee for our town. I am always busy, and I am happy. I am confident. I am powerful.
I still get visits from the old me, that can’t believe that I can really pull this off. Who the hell do I think I am? I know she will always be there, so I make room in my heart to accept her presence, and appreciate the growing gap between who she was, and who I am now.