Elizabeth (Liz) Willetts, founder of Investing in Women, joins Nicola Semple to discuss her journey from a 17-year career in recruitment to creating a job board that empowers women seeking flexible and fulfilling work.

Her new book, "Flex," offers a dynamic guide for anyone looking to advance their career amidst life's challenges, covering essential topics such as skill stacking, CV writing, and interview preparation.

Liz shares her personal experiences of navigating motherhood and career transitions, highlighting the importance of finding roles that allow for work-life balance. She also shares insights on how to effectively navigate the job market and the significance of showcasing your unique value to potential employers.

Takeaways:

• The importance of recognizing your own value and relevance when applying for jobs.
• Networking and building relationships can significantly enhance your job search effectiveness.
• Creating a personal brand on platforms like LinkedIn can attract potential employers and opportunities.
• Tailoring your application materials to specific roles can improve your chances of standing out.
• Understanding the nuances of cover letters can influence a recruiter's perception of your application.

Links referenced in this episode:

• nicolasemple.com/backyourself
• investinginwomen.co.uk
• Buy Flex: Smart Strategies to Build a Succesful Career Around Your Life
• Buy The Career Confidence Toolkit: Take Control of Your Career and Fulfil Your Potential

Foreign.

Welcome to the Career Confidence Podcast where we share inspiring stories, practical strategies, hints and tips so that you can build your career with confidence in this ever changing world.

I'm your host, Nicholas Semple, a career and confidence coach and author of the Career Confidence Toolkit.

Today, I am delighted to welcome you to episode 101 of the podcast.

Now, as I mentioned back at the end of episode 100, we're switching things up a little and rather than just having me talking to you and giving you hints and tips, I'm embarking on a series of what I'm calling Career Confidence Conversations.

I'm going to be talking to brilliant people who will be sharing their career story, offering their perspectives and giving you insight into how to build a career that brings you happiness and fulfillment.

Because ultimately, that's what we all want.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Elizabeth Willets, who is the founder of Investing in Women.

It's a female empowering job boarding community that helps family friendly and forward thinking employers hire professionals looking for fulfilling, flexible and part time work.

This is exactly the kind of job board that the world needs.

It's full of high quality roles and they can all be carried out either flexibly and often working from home, which is just brilliant.

Liz set up Investing in Women after being made redundant from a 17 year career in recruitment.

She had a young family and she wanted to create a job board with the types of roles that she herself was looking for.

I'm so pleased to have Liz here, but I am particularly pleased to have her here today because her debut book, Flex has just been released.

It's a dynamic guide for anybody that wants to build a successful career and it's available on Amazon and in your local bookshops.

So let's hear what Liz has got to say.

Liz, hello.

It is wonderful to have you here.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

I'm really excited to chat with you.

And it's a very special day, or it's, it's a day after a very special day.

So your first book came out yesterday?

Yes, it did.

Flex came out which is aimed at anybody that wants to advance their career, whatever life throws at them.

So it's chapters about identifying, you know, what you're good at, what you want within your career, what your values are, what success means to you, and if you wanted to do career pivots, there's advice on that.

If you actually have done some assessments and find found out you're in the career for you.

And there's advice on skill stacking and how to get to the top of the career ladder.

There also chapters on CVS, cover letters, LinkedIn interviews, even a chapter on starting your own business.

And of course, a chapter on managing the juggle.

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

We're definitely going to talk more about that later, but let's start at the beginning.

So you know you've written this book to help others flex.

Yeah.

Talk me through a little bit about your career journey because you started from event management or your.

Oh, I did a bit of qualification, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Take us.

Take us from there and walk us through what you ended up doing.

So I did event management at university because I didn't know my mum and dad were like, you need to go to university.

And this was before horrendous tuition fees.

Yeah.

May have made them thought think twice by the time.

Yeah, we didn't have like the thought for nutrition fees, so they were like, you need to go to university.

You know, you have a great experience.

I did not know what I wanted to do.

I was 18 and at that point I just like going out.

So I like parties, so I'm gonna do event management.

So I went to do event management at university, thinking.

And it was at the point is like, remember the Wedding Planner?

Oh, yes, With Jennifer Lopez.

That was like at the cinema as well.

I'm gonna be a wedding planner.

And then I did this event management course and there was no wedding.

Not much wedding planning in it.

It was all.

It felt like very health and safety risk assessments.

Not me at all.

And a bit boring.

So I thought not gonna do that.

It was all like, basically how you'd organize events for the local council and things.

And I literally got in thinking I was gonna be like Jennifer Lopez.

So then it was my final year of university and I was on the milk round board for graduates.

So I was on that saw a job advertising for headhunters in the city.

And I knew I wanted to work in London.

I mean, I'm from Yorkshire, but I had family in Surrey.

And I thought, yeah, I want to see bright lights.

And it was like, you can earn up to 30 grand a year.

Which sounded a hell of a lot for like 20, 21 year old.

So I said, I'm gonna apply.

And then flied and went through some, you know, several interviews, assessment centers.

And I applied for some other companies that were doing the same thing.

So, because I just absolutely loved it, did the assessment center.

I was like, this job sounds incredible.

This job is for me.

And then got offered the job and I was, you Know I got off the job maybe January, February, and then I knew I was going to do that.

Started in July when I'd finished graduated, did this little grad scheme with Hayes.

Just absolutely loved it.

Honestly, I just loved it.

Right.

It's not often you hear people saying, oh my goodness, I love my job.

So what was it about the job that you loved?

I loved the buzz.

Yeah.

It was so exciting to come into a really.

I really liked it.

Being quite a loud office and people were shouting.

It felt a little bit like a trading floor, like because people have you got someone that can do this role?

This role's paying this much.

We've got something.

People would be shouting, you people like two phones to their ears.

And we were in the city, our clients were all big banks so we would go to these amazing offices that I would not have had a hope in hell of going to.

Normally, you know, be going like in canary warf, like the tops of all skyscrapers.

And I remember people were like, do you want a little tour?

And I'd be like, yeah, great.

So we have these like office tours.

And it was, I just love sales.

It was the buzzer making sales and like making deal.

Felt like a bit of a wheeler dealer and really like the people worked with because I didn't know anybody in London and they just.

Everyone was really sociable, outgoing.

We'd got drinks every night, like that point in my life.

It was brilliant.

And they became like a bit of a surrogate family.

And yeah, I know recruitment is not for everybody.

I think you do need to have a certain personality to do quite well in a recruitment agenc.

But yeah, it was definitely the job for me.

Okay, so you were at Hayes, you were loving it, you were.

Loved it.

And then unfortunately, then the credit crunch happened while I was there, a year in Lehman Brothers went closed and there was the credit crunch and then it wasn't quite as enjoyable after that and then it became a little bit more regulated a bit more.

Before we'd had like access to all the hiring managers and it had been, it felt a bit more.

It was definitely more deregulated.

And then, and then after the credit crunch happened, obviously banks, there was a lot more scrutiny on our clients and then they started getting much stricter PSLs, which preferred supplier lists.

They brought in in house recruiters.

So you were no longer dealing with the actual hiring managers, you started dealing with the in house recruiters and it became a lot more.

It felt a lot more process driven rather than that relationship.

Yeah.

That I'd really Enjoyed.

So.

Yeah, but I stayed there for a long time.

I mean it was a brilliant experience.

It was a completely different type of company to Hayes.

Yeah.

So I'm, I'm really curious about that transition from being agency based to moving in house.

Yeah.

Tell me a little bit more about that and what, what that felt like.

I mean, I think over the time I'd been at Hayes, it sort of professionalized in a way.

Yeah.

You know, like in those seven, eight years because you know, when we started people would be playing golf in the office, people be doing like playing games in the office.

It was very.

Imagine like students basically just gone a bit crazy in an office and it would be like that and people.

We'd have like games in the office where you'd shave like all the blokes legs and stuff.

You know, it'll be maybe for charity or something.

Maybe it wasn't even.

It'd be like that.

We'd have drinks coming around on a Friday and.

And then over time it had professionalized.

Yeah.

And the office has become a little bit quieter.

But then, so then when I moved to Deloitte it was quiet.

Everyone's like working in their headphones and like we'd have never ever had that at Hayes.

But I, I think it's these little things that tell you a lot about the culture of an organization.

So I, I can remember I was working at KPMG and I went for my interview at Ernst and Young and I sat in the reception and just looked around and I was like, people walk quicker here.

Oh right.

Yeah, I.

And it, I, to me it reflected a different pace in the organization and the culture.

Yeah.

There was much more of a sense of purpose of where people were going and.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

It was older people at Deloitte because Hayes recruit people, a lot of students straight from university.

So it's quite bottom heavy at Hayes, whereas Deloitte it was quite top heavy.

So it was a lot more mature, the organization.

We got flexible working and this was pre pandemic that I would have never had at Hayes at all.

You know, Hayes was very much, you've got to be in.

We were, we were contracted halfway to six, but you had to be in well before half eight.

And it would be a bit like, why are you leaving at 6 if you left at 6?

Yeah, yeah.

So You.

So you're moving into a very different.

Culture, very trust, much more trusting, you know, because you could work flexible, you could work from home, had this thing called agile working, so they promoted that.

And you could suppose, you know, you could work from coffee shop, work from ever.

And they had a gym on site.

There was nice things.

They had a gym on site.

It was very corporate.

They had.

We had a restaurant on site which was all subsidized, so it was nice.

And how did you feel working in that environment?

I liked it because this is quite an arrogant thing.

But, you know, when you'd say you'd work for Deloitte, you instantly, you might have got this.

When you were like in the Big four, you instantly got respect.

People.

Oh, gosh.

You know.

Whereas Hayes people have quite.

They don't.

No one likes recruitment agencies and recruitment agents.

But if you say you work at Deloitte and then people want to work for Deloitte, so then they'd be like, oh, how'd you get into Deloitte?

Can I send me, you know, you my cv?

And it was really easy to recruit at Deloitte because of the brand.

Okay, but you left.

What happened?

Left because I was made redundant like a lot of people.

So I left.

I was there for five years.

I left at the end of my second maternity to leave just as I was about to return and couldn't.

And then I was part time at that point.

I had struggled a bit to get part time, but I'd finally got part time and then I couldn't get another part time job and my children were 1 and 3 and that is what I wanted at that point because I had struggled to have children.

So my eldest is ivf and so I just knew that I wouldn't want.

I couldn't work full time, you know, after struggling for so long to have her, I didn't want to miss any more milestones than I had to.

And so then, and every time I applied for a role and I said, oh, well, because I was actually getting a lot of, you know, approaches from recruiters on LinkedIn and Things.

And I said, oh, well, they consider part time.

It was like, no straight away, or ghosted me.

And then I was members been to my friend and she'd been a teacher, she trained really hard to be a teacher and asked for flexibility.

They'd said no.

And then she ended up taking like a part time admin, minimum wage job just because it fitted around her kids.

And I thought, this isn't right.

And I could see what Happened so many people where they were exchanging, you know, things that they'd worked really hard for, I trained really hard for in exchange for that flex like Hayes.

I.

There was no, there's not, no way.

I mean they did offer some people part time, but realistically there's no way I could have done that job, you know, properly the way I'd wanted to with two small children because it was that, not that sort of culture.

Yeah.

And so this then led to pretty.

Major pivot for you.

Yeah.

So then I founded my own business.

I mean it's still recruitment, but.

Yeah.

So then I found a business, my business, Investing Women.

So I launched that in the June and it's a business that helps people find flexible part time and home based jobs and obviously those forward companies that want to tire them.

So yeah, it's interesting because I look back then on my career and at that point I'd recruited like probably about a thousand people if not more.

And I'd never recruited anybody part time and we never even registered them at Hayes and you know, we never, I never placed anyone part time at Deloitte either.

And so you're now in this place where you're on a bit of a mission.

So you are, you're supporting women like you find decent work.

Decent work.

I am.

By decent work I mean both intellectually challenging and financially rewarding.

Yes.

And so when you were approaching organizations or were you approaching organizations or were they coming to you?

They came to me because I if that obviously my background's recruitment.

I don't particularly like cold calling, I'll be honest.

So I did.

I had a coach when I first started who was brilliant and helped me sort of start build because I have no money.

I had five, I found a 5,000 pound redundancy payout.

So I didn't have money for ads or anything like that.

It was literally me.

So I was like.

She helped me develop a bit of a personal brand on LinkedIn, advise, you know, what post to do.

So then I started getting these inbound leads.

We made it free initially.

It was free to post for the first few months and that started to build that bit of momentum and then.

Yeah, and then obviously moved to paid after probably too long.

But you know when you first start, you've got loads of imposter syndrome and then.

Yeah, so it's been going now for like three and a half years and I've got like a little team which is, was always a dream of mine to have a small team that all work from home, school hours and yeah, we've got some really nice clients.

So tell me a little bit about those early days.

So, you know, you're, you're posting on LinkedIn, you're building up your brand.

What were the, let's call them the mind monkeys.

What, what were the things cropping up in your mind that were making you think, oh, my word, what on earth am I doing?

Oh, my gosh.

So many times I wanted to give up.

So many times I really did want to give up.

First of all, like, I had massive imposter syndrome.

And that's even really being in recruitment for such a long time.

It was actually only when my business coach was like.

And this was at this point, I was still like two years in, so I was starting to be.

And she's like, I don't know why you got imposter syndrome, because other people that are doing something similar, none of them have the recruitment experience you do.

So.

And actually that was helpful, that reframing.

Yeah.

And actually, where was the imposter syndrome coming from?

Was it about your ability to recruit or run your own business?

I think it was both, really.

And looking at other people and seeing what.

I'm very bad at, looking at other people and seeing what they're doing and comparing myself to others.

And that is something I'm trying to get better at.

But especially in the early days, it wasn't something I was brilliant at and I think it was just overwhelm.

My children were still small, like at that point, you know, they were two and coming up to four and it was.

I was trying to do it.

I set it up in their nap times and I just remember frantically.

I've never typed so fast in my life because I'd be worried they were going to wake up, you know, that the baby monitor by the laptop and then they'd come down and, you know, even now I still feel guilty about it.

I put them in front of the tv, you know, I'd finish off an email, whatever, or reply.

I speak to, I mean, like, spoke to clients and stuff while they were watching tv.

I'll be working in the evening until very late.

And actually looking back now, it wasn't very healthy.

But I don't know if you have to go through this as a business owner, especially when you have a lot of money to get it to a certain point just to get it off the ground.

Yeah.

And now it has got easier.

Like I said, now we have team.

Now I can pick them up from school, now I can spend that evening.

So probably was Worth it.

But at the time it was really, really difficult.

And actually when you were talking about the time you spent at Hayes, the.

The word that was coming up in my mind was it was very entrepreneurial.

So I love.

Yeah.

You know what, looking back now, so entrepreneurial.

You had your own desk.

They said you had to view it as a business.

It's quite cutthroat because you are constantly compared.

They have boards all around the office, whether it's the whole or not.

And they have everybody's name, everybody, sales that month, previous month, the months going forward.

So you.

And you could see how you were performing compared to everybody else in the office.

You'd get the KPIs coming around every day, how many calls you've done, how much time you'd have on the phone.

This is why it doesn't suit everybody.

Yeah.

But looking back, I think it was the best training ground for starting a business because you sort of know what it takes.

But also, if you then think about when you did start your business.

Yeah.

It's probably no great surprise that you were then comparing yourself to other people.

Yeah.

When that is the.

The.

I always talk about, like, the place you grew up as in the place that you had the early days of your career.

I think so much of the culture and the learning you get at that point in your career stays with you.

I think you're right.

And there used to be a thing, you're only as good as your last month.

That was the thing you were told all the time, you're only as good as your last month.

That's quite.

Not very nice.

And basically.

And that put that worthy.

Putting that worth on you, that you were only as good as last month.

And they meant how much you'd build, how much you'd sold.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So having grown up in that culture and only being as good as your last month and comparing yourself to everybody else in the team.

Yeah.

What have you had to do over the last few years, I guess to be kinder to yourself?

Because that.

That's a really difficult situation when actually you're inflicting that upon yourself.

You're doing it to yourself rather than it being an external force doing it to you.

Yeah, you're right.

Oh, gosh.

I don't know really.

I think that is something probably because every month I still cover all my spreadsheets, even though it's not.

Obviously there's no one else.

I can't see no LC spreadsheets.

And we'll see how much we build this month compared to last month, you know, how many sales we've made, etc.

But I try and be a kind of manager.

I think it's helped me actually having a team because I make sure that I don't message them after three, try not to message them after three of if it's after three, I will put the schedule send on so it goes to the next day.

And actually it started to being like I started to think, oh, if I mean this nice to them then I should be this nice to me as well.

So I think that's actually been quite helpful.

And then I've had some instances where I've nearly burnt out and made myself poorly.

And at that point I've known I've gone too far and I've had to push, pull back.

And so I think whether you are running your own business or whether you are working in a corporate environment, so many people get to that point of wait a minute, if I don't do something I'm going to end up in quite a unhealthy situation.

What for you were the warning signs.

When did you know you were getting to that point of almost burnout?

Because I'd be working until like 2 in the morning, which is ridiculous.

And then I'd be poor, trying to function with the kids the next day and being sick.

Yeah.

I'll be honest, I was vomiting because I was that getting so tired and poorly.

And then at that point I thought, I can't do this.

I know actually what I've come to realize is everything costs.

Yeah, everything costs.

And obviously when you first start, if you, if, if you don't, don't have investment, it's a lot.

You don't have financial resources, so it's your time that costs.

But as soon as I start getting financial resources, I've always paid myself the bare minimum.

I've paid myself enough.

So, you know, it doesn't feel I'm doing this for free, but actually I've always reinvested in my business and whatever reinvested in is other people.

Yeah.

Because then I got to the point where I was like, I want to have Fridays with my little girl before she started school.

So I'd have paid for a VA that could cover on a Friday, paid for a developer so I didn't have to learn how to code WordPress.

It's, you know, midnight.

Because that's just not healthy.

And then I think that has been the best thing is actually realizing that everything costs.

And at the time, you know, I am at my life, I've sold This business.

So this is to help other people.

But I've also set it up for me, because I want to set it up so.

So I didn't have to do nine to five.

And one of the ways that you are massively going to be helping other people going forward is with your book.

Yes.

Yeah.

Out in.

Yes.

So it's just come out.

So.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, tell me, how did it come about?

So I was on a podcast a bit like this, and then somebody from Wiley, who are my publishers, listened to it, and she sent me an email and said, listen to this podcast.

Would you be interested in a book?

And first of all, it went into my junk, so I didn't even see it for a few days.

And then I saw it, I was like, the spam.

You know, I replied.

And.

And anyway, it turned out it was true.

And so then she's like, can you pitch?

So I did a pitch.

I've literally had no idea what I was doing.

I'll be honest.

I use chat GPT me a little bit on that pitch.

And then.

And then they offered me a book deal.

And.

And at a point, I was working my coach again.

I was like, do I take it?

Because I'm so busy.

And she's like, yeah, if you don't take it, you'll regret it.

And it will.

And I'm so pleased.

I took it and I actually did.

I was worried I wouldn't fit it in, but I learned.

I read.

I listened to a podcast just before I started writing.

So I got the deal, but it was just before I started writing.

And it said how it was.

It was titled how to Write a Book Fast.

And it was.

The person on the.

The podcast was saying, if you just break it down into 30 minutes a day, most people can find 30 minutes to do something.

Yeah.

So I did it in the evening, 30 minutes day.

I'd set the.

The timer on the Alexa and then I would just write.

Listen to Magic.

I'd write.

And then after 30 minutes, it's sort of.

If I was on a roll, I'd carry on.

But if, you know, if you don't want to do it, you can sort of drag yourself to do it for 30 minutes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the.

The guy in the podcast is saying, don't go back and edit it.

The hardest thing is writing.

As you, you know, it's all Nicola.

The hardest thing is writing.

And then once you've written it, it'll feel so much easier to go back and edit it.

So that's What I did.

And so I got it written in.

A few months and that's brilliant.

I.

And again, for anyone listening to this, who has a big goal, whatever that might be.

Yeah.

Whether.

Whether it's a personal goal, a career goal, whatever, it.

It's that whole thing of how do you eat the elephant?

You break it down and you do it one chunk at a time.

And Liz is a perfect example of that.

So how, over what time frame did you actually write the book?

Like five and a half, six months?

Yeah, yeah, I.

And by doing it in those 30 minute chunks.

And I'm sure there were times when you spent more than that.

Yeah, because if I was on a roll, if the Alexa went, you know, the alarm went off, and then I'd be like, no, I need to finish it, I would finish.

But if I didn't feel like it, I would of myself to the time.

I'd keep going, I'd keep going.

And actually, I think the hardest is the first couple of minutes writing.

I don't know if you found that.

And then once you get over that first, it's like.

Do you know what it reminded me of?

Swimming.

I used to sometimes swim in the sea and I always find the hardest is the first few strokes, then once you get in the rhythm, you're all right.

Yeah, Well, I think it's the same with any kind of exercise.

I'll go on the cross trainer and the first couple of minutes I'm like, what am I doing here?

And then you just settle into it and you get on with it and before you know it, half an hour's gone and you can get off and you can go off and you can go off and carry on with your day.

Yeah.

So the book's written.

It was released yesterday.

I will make sure that I include a link to the book in the show notes so that people can read it.

But what's the end game?

What's the purpose?

Why have you written it?

I've written it because I think there's a lot of people don't know about what goes into finding a job up, like actually what recruiters are really looking for.

So I literally give away all the secrets that we had, you know, at Hayes and Deloitte, and also a new perspective now because I'm a hiring manager now, which actually has really enriched that experience even more.

So I feel I've got lots of perspectives on how to stand out and the different people you're going to have to stand out potentially to when finding a job, whether that's the request, you know, your local recruitment agent, the in house recruiter or the hiring manager and they're all looking for slightly different things.

And there's things about like counter offers, cover letters, obviously the CVs as well.

Because I see so many CVs and it's what makes a CV, you know, good or not really.

And what makes a CV stand out?

Interviews.

Because I've interviewed so many candidates.

So it's what actually works in an interview.

And you know, how to convince the person interviewing you that you're right for the job, but also how to know whether that job's right for you.

So there's going to be heaps of really practical advice in there.

I've tried to keep it practical.

If there's anyone listening just now who's about to embark on that job search journey, what's the number one thing they need to be thinking about?

I think it's basically showing your relevance, A, your relevance to the app, to the job you're applying for and then B, the value you can bring.

Yeah, and that's, that's basically it really that and that is basically it within the interview as well.

So if you carry that through.

I was speaking to a recruiter last week who told me they receive well over.

If they advertise a role as remote, they receive well over a thousand applications for that job.

So you're gonna, people have to work hard at the moment to get, you know, get their foot in the door and it's very easy to apply for jobs.

Actually I do think it's better to do quality over quantity.

So try where you can.

If you see a dream job, then it's best to try and tailor your application to that job.

Cover letters.

I know not everyone like is on board with COVID letters and I think it depends on the size of the organization.

But when I was recruiting for my own, it was the COVID letters in the end that sold those people because they got a feel for who they were in their personality.

And the people that hadn't included a cover letter just looked like they weren't bothered.

And we're just doing a spray and pray with, you know, numerous applications.

So it's things like cover letters.

The person that got the job was the person that actually told me what she'd done in her previous employer for her previous employer and how she had directly impacted them.

And seeing that, you could then see the potential value she could bring to our organization.

And it's things like that is quantifying it also another thing is like the we.

So you Know when you're interviewing somebody, I will get a lot of weird this, we did that.

Yeah.

And it's very hard to know when someone says we, what was their actual involvement in that?

Were they on, you know, more of a backseat person, were they driving it?

It's so much more powerful if someone has the confidence to say, I, I did this.

And from everything that you have said there, the, the common theme, I would pull out from it.

So you're talking about how you're relevant, what you bring to the role.

Yeah.

Your personal contribution.

Yeah, all of that.

You just want to make it easy for the person to hire you.

Yeah, yeah.

You just want to be in a weird way like the no brainer choice.

Yeah, yeah.

And then, you know, and then you go in, go into an interview and then it's a much more.

If you can go in and be quite straight away demonstrating what the value you can bring, it becomes less of an interview and it actually starts feeling more of like a consultation and more of a conversation and more of a peer chat.

And I think if you can get to that point where you're seen as an expert, credible figure for the role, you know, within your field, then you're going to find it a lot easier to, to get a role.

But if you're doing a pivot, it's about pulling out the most relevant experience that you have and really highlighting that on your cv.

So you'd be leading with that first in the bullet points.

For example, you'd be talking about that in your cover letter.

You may be explaining why you feel, you know, this career privilege.

Right.

For you, etc.

Amazing.

So I'm still waiting for my copy of the book to arrive, but I have no doubt that there's going to be a whole wealth of super practical tips that I can share with my clients.

Yeah.

And also refer them to the book as well, I.

And it feels a little bit like it's a culmination of all the knowledge and experience that you have gained over the course of your career.

Yeah.

So if you were to go back to 21 year old Liz, who is fresh out of her event management degree.

Yeah.

What would you tell her?

They just enjoy it.

Like, you know, you have bad days, everyone has bad days in their jobs, but actually just enjoy.

It's a journey, isn't it?

Every.

We're all on a journey and we're all.

I now fundamentally think, since COVID we are just all so lucky to be here.

Yeah.

You know, and nobody is here actually for a very long time.

Even if we live to like 90s, not the longest.

So just enjoy it.

It's just enjoy the journey.

We're lucky to be here.

And, and actually I, what I have learned since starting my business is we have so much more control than we think we do over the direction our journey takes.

And if you have the right mindset that can do mindset, you can honestly achieve anything.

So I think it's that it's working on that mindset and mental health piece as well.

And so, you know, you're at a point in your journey where investing women is really flourishing.

You've got your team, you've got your book.

What comes next for you?

I don't know.

Yeah, well, we maybe like we talk, we often we get messaged messages a lot from people asking if we'll take it to their country.

Okay.

So potentially that's obviously another whole, whole other ball game.

Oh, okay.

So like let's just fantasize a little bit here.

If you could pick your country, where would you go?

I don't, I mean we get asked a lot by people in a.

Usa.

Yeah.

New Zealand and Australia and Ireland and they feel, I think just because they're English speaking countries, they feel the most natural place for us to go.

So potentially.

But that is a whole.

Because you'd obviously then have to replicate the team here, there.

So it's all, you know what it's like when you're running members.

It's always finances as well, isn't it?

It's like how much is this going to cost?

But yeah, potentially.

So there is the potential to go global.

I love it.

Yeah.

I mean wouldn't it be good if we could go global and work from.

Still all work from home.

Because that's another thing.

I don't have any plans to get an office.

So I would love to show that recruitment doesn't have to be, you know, eight till half six in an office somewhere with like millions of cold calls.

You can run a successful business as a kind of business to its employees.

Amazing.

So tell the listeners where they can find out a little bit more with you and connect with you if they want to find out more.

Oh yeah.

So I'm on LinkedIn, Elizabeth Willits and our website is investing in women.co.uk so definitely visit there if you want a flexible job.

We've also got free CV templates on there, templates for how to put flexible working requests in.

We also offer career coaching as well.

Swipe.

Career coaching.

So the CV, CV review, LinkedIn and profile makeover and strategy advice, interview confidence book boosting sessions.

And also what's really popular is our Career Crossroads consultation where we unravel your previous experience and aspirations and make a plan for where for you to go next.

And also tell us one more time.

Yeah, that's the name of the book.

And where can we find it?

Is OnFcall Flex.

You can buy it obviously from Amazon, Waterstones, Foils, WHsmart, if you're in America, Target, all bookstores.

Amazing.

Well, it has been wonderful to spend some time with you and especially today, the day after the big book launch.

Well done.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me and thank.

You for being here.

I hope you enjoyed listening to Liz as much as I enjoyed chatting to her.

I've got some great guests lined up over the next few months, so be sure to hit subscribe on your podcast app of choice so that those episodes are delivered straight to your device when they become available.

That's all from me for today.

Remember, you can buy my book, the Career Confidence Toolkit on Amazon where it's available in paperback, Kindle and audio format.

And if you'd like to keep in contact, be sure to download my free guide Back seven Step plan to build confidence and achieve your career goals.

Just go to nicholasimple.com backyourself as well as getting instant access to the guide, I will send you my fortnightly newsletter with Career Confidence hints and tips.

Thanks so much for listening and I'll talk to you again very soon.

Bye for now.