🌟 Bonus Episode: From Mona Lisa to Miss Brightside

In this special bonus episode, Lisa opens up about the journey behind her positivity. Far from being “sunshine and rainbows” all her life, she reflects on her anxious teenage years, her nickname Mona Lisa for constant whinging, and the struggles of finding her place in the world.

She shares candid stories of early jobs that tested her resilience, the painful experience of being dismissed as “lonely” during a probation review, and the turning point of finding a supportive team who mentored her with patience and kindness. Most importantly, Lisa celebrates the influence of her HR mentor, John Davis, whose encouragement sparked her transformation into the uplifting voice she is today.

The episode also takes listeners to Canada, where a two‑week reset with chosen family gave Lisa the clarity to start afresh, embrace growth, and commit to seeing the good in life’s challenges. From career lessons to personal reflections, this heartfelt story reminds us that positivity is a practice, not a personality trait—and it’s never too late to begin.

✨ A raw, inspiring look at how setbacks, mentors, and moments of reflection can shape us into brighter versions of ourselves.

Welcome back to the Power of Positivity podcast with me, Ms. Brightside.

This podcast is a little bit different.

This is my journey and me telling you a little bit about how I got to be positive.

Because let me tell you, I haven't always been this positive person.

I've been a really negative mood hoover.

This is me opening up.

So please be kind.

This is my journey from negative to positive.

In the words of Pitbull.

Let's go.

Just a reminder before we get into things to follow me on Instagram missbrightside25 and you'll find a link in my bio to sign up to my emails.

But don't worry, I won't spam you.

I haven't got that much time to write emails.

So let's get into it.

This is a little bonus episode for you.

It may go on a bit of a tangent on this one, and it may be a little bit longer than normal.

I thought it's really important for me to explain why.

Why I am the way I am.

And now I became this positive person because let me tell you something, I have not been sunshine and rainbows my whole life.

I was very much an anxious teenager.

I didn't realize anxiety existed, really, if I'm honest with you, it wasn't something that was talked about when I was like, you know, 12 or 13.

I had really big issues controlling my frustrations and anger, which I think everybody does when they have hormones raging in their body.

And I struggled to regulate my emotions well, which meant I argued quite a lot with people, and I was really, really pessimistic.

That went on into my early teens, all the way up until 18.

My friendship group revolved around my best friend's friendship group.

I did make friends, but I was really negative.

I never saw the good in anything.

I would complain and whinge about absolutely everything.

There was a Nick, you know, a nickname for me, like Mona Lisa, literally.

But yeah, Mona Lisa liked the painting.

But genuinely, I was a Windra.

I never saw the good in anything.

I went through quite a while of.

If somebody asked me now what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd still say to them, now I have absolutely no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

I've fallen into the job I do, and it's worked out for the best.

And I've worked really hard, I'd say, in the last 10 years, to develop myself, but I still don't know if that's what I want to do forever.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that?

I used to get really frustrated when I was in my GCSE year, particularly around teachers asking me, well, what do you want to be?

I'd be like, I really have no idea.

And when I was in sixth form, there was five of us who didn't want to go to university.

And I'll always remember the Head of Year sitting down with the five of us and saying, put a UCAS application in, you need to go to uni, you gotta do it.

And I will tell you something now, you don't need to do anything.

You have to follow the journey that you want to follow.

People peer pressure us a lot.

I think they were just trying to get a school results up, if I'm totally honest with them or reflection looking back.

But I really didn't want to go to uni and loads of people said to me, oh, you'll regret not going.

But I am telling you now that I do not have one iota of regret for not going.

I think it was absolutely right thing for me to do going into the world of work and I still had an experience of the uni life.

Thank you to my best friend, she went to Swansea Uni and I got to tag along and go on the nights out.

I didn't drink at the time.

There's nothing wrong if you don't drink alcohol now.

But I didn't particularly like drinking, which is absolutely fine.

But I still joined the nights out and when I was ready to go home, I go.

I had a part time job in retail and then I went into my first ever full time job and oh my God, it was absolutely hell.

I don't regret it at all.

And a lot of people will speak about regret and how they look back.

It made me who I am today.

I would never put up with that drama now, let me tell you.

But it was in a professional environment.

I'm obviously not going to say where exactly where it was, but there were some lovely people who worked there, but there were some absolutely horrid people who worked there.

And that's why I pride myself now on never ever letting somebody go through experience that I did.

What happened was I worked there for about three months, I'd go into work.

I didn't really particularly have hardly any training.

I was literally just left my own devices.

I was making some phone calls, somebody was really kind to me and advised me, oh my God, don't say that on the phone.

You can't say say that.

Like I was really young and naive and I had Been coached on what you was allowed to say and what you weren't allowed to say.

Didn't do anything controversial.

I just needed to be given a bit of guidance because it was a professional setting.

But oh my God, the place made me so sad.

I hated going to work every day.

And it came to my first ever probation reveal.

It was after a month of being there.

I went downstairs and I sat in front of my then boss and she said to me, what's the matter, Lisa?

You don't seem to be, you know, fitting in okay.

You seem to be daydreaming.

And I was daydreaming a little bit, but I was working and I felt like I was working to the best of my ability at the time with not a lot of training.

And I explained to her that all my friends had gone off to uni and that my dad was really unwell, he had cancer at the time.

It was awful.

And I was struggling to like come to terms with all of that.

And she wrote down in her diary in front of her, lonely.

And underneath that she wrote, father ill.

I will never forget that experience.

I left there really, really upset.

I went home, I told my mum what had gone on and she was like, lisa, don't stay in a job you hate, leave.

My mother wanted to go down there but it wasn't the right thing to do and I left that job and my mother said, take your time, find a job that's right for you.

So sad, pessimistic.

Lisa spent three months, was it three months?

I think it was three months trying to find a job.

I took my time, I did nice things in between.

I didn't ask my mother for any money.

I kept my money for my last wage from there and I literally drip fed to myself.

So I made sure I had plenty money.

I was applying for loads of jobs.

I went for a fair few interviews and oh God, there were some terrible places I went for interviews.

I just didn't get that nice vibe from them.

Luckily I didn't get the jobs either.

Then I stumbled into the most fabulous team people and I thank them for who I am today.

I fell into a job in a factory in South Wales with some absolutely amazing people.

And to this day I credit them and the people who work there and me because I would work hard when I was there to becoming who I am today.

I wouldn't be where I am in my career without them.

I started off as a quality assistant and HR assistant there and, and they guided me, they were patient with me.

I worked with Two amazing boys who I say boys, they were men who give me the care, time and training that I needed.

There was never a question, there was too much.

There was never anything that I could do that was majorly wrong.

They literally mentored me.

They mentored me to become good at my job and I messed up in the first week.

I'll never forget, I got all the paperwork in the wrong order and they were so patient.

One of the boys sat down with me was like, lisa, you've got all this wrong.

Let me talk you through you again.

And they were just kind and patient with me.

And pretty much every person who worked there was patient with me and it allowed me to grow, stop feeling sad and start to feel a little bit more me.

And in that journey and in that environment, I met a wonderful guy and I'm gonna name him.

His name was John Davis and he was my ment in hr.

And oh, my God, what an absolute ray of sunshine and inspiration he is.

He made me believe that I could do anything.

And he started me off on my positive journey.

He gave me that regular encouragement and he coached me and mentored me to be able to grow into the positive person I am today.

Also, while I was going on this positive journey, he really encouraged me to say, lisa, I really do think you've got a flair for hr.

I really think you should go and do it.

And I was like, oh, I don't know.

I don't know if this area is for me.

I don't know if I could do it.

He's like, lisa, you have a sparkle when you speak to people.

You can definitely do this job.

So he coached me from the sidelines.

While that was happening, I was still a bit lost.

I didn't realize how negative I was being towards my friends.

I argued with some of my friends at the time, not realising how miserable and negative I was just before I met my mentor at work.

And I thought to myself, I feel utterly lost.

What on earth do I do?

So as any rational person does, I booked a flight to Canada.

I booked a flight to Canada where I met up with Katie and Kent, who and Dalen and Elliot.

I'm gonna name drop them.

They what we call our family, we're not related by blood, but as far as I'm concerned, they are my family.

They took me into their home for two solid weeks and my whole life changed.

I had time to reflect on who I was, what I wanted to be and where I wanted to go in life.

And I came back transformed.

And I know that Sounds really cheesy.

I just needed a two week reset to come back, reflect on.

I have a choice now to continue on the road, I am feeling the way I am, or I have a choice to come back and start afresh and start to change the way I'm looking, make some apologies, reflect and grow.

And that's what I did.

I came back, I spent nine years in that organization.

They grew me into the HR person I am today.

And without them I wouldn't be in the career I'm in.

And then my journey continued into many other places.

But what I'm saying to you is I wasn't always this positive person and you can start at any time in your life to start to see the positives.

So what I do in my life now is if something's going wrong or something's gone wrong, I try to see the good in that situation.

And it's not always possible.

If you've lost a loved one, it can't happen.

But in things like somebody didn't get a job, I think to myself, well, that job wasn't meant for you.

There's something better around the corner.

Or little things like my dad bumped my car and he rang me and he said, lisa, I've just hit the car.

And I didn't overreact.

Which Lisa, 10 years ago would have absolutely lost her patience.

I just went, okay, dad, are you okay?

That's all I'm at is he's like, yeah, doesn't matter, will get it fixed to the insurance, all sorted.

What's the point in stress and over things I can't control?

So I try my best to take a step back from things I can't control and focus on the good things in life.

Don't get me wrong, it's not always easy, but in every time, every situation, I will try and see the good.

Like the other day I was on the way home from work and it was torrential rain and I missed my eyebrow appointment.

Now that might not seem like a big thing to everybody else, but when you add the bushiest eyebrows on earth at that moment in time, I was like, oh, blinking neck.

And I thought to myself, the weather was awful, I've got home safe.

So it doesn't really matter.

I missed my appointment, I can always rearrange it.

And I did.

And I know that's like something really small to think about, but instead of me whinging, going, oh my God, it was the end of the earth, I couldn't go to where I wanted to go.

And it was Raining and being all negative, I just flipped my mindset and I'm just going to take you back to the point I made a little bit earlier about university.

I reflect a lot on that and the pressure that I was put under that time to go.

I wasn't in the right state to do that then and I did my qualifications while I worked, which was much better for me.

So this is my little message to anybody out there that is struggling and maybe is being put pressure on to do something.

You will find your way.

You will find your way, your own way.

And to be honest though, I'm immensely proud that I did what I did.

And don't get me wrong, I have grafted and I have done my hard work to get what I am and I am immensely proud of myself.

I think sometimes it can be seen as, oh my God, she's big headed because she's proud of herself.

No, you should be proud of yourselves.

If you've done achieve something, no one else is going to cheerlead you as much as yourself.

Bloody cheer you.

Lead yourself for your achievements and if you've got a cracking family and friends around you, they should be cheerleading you too.

But university isn't for everybody.

I am going to university.

Debt that I've got to pay back now.

My courses were paid for by the companies I worked for, so it's all worked out for the best for me.

So you'll find your way, you'll find your journey.

So this is a little bit about me and why I came from being an extremely negative person to an extremely positive person.

And I can't put a brave face on every day.

Yes, I have bad days, yes, I have rants and raves.

Ranting is really good for you in a positive way, I think.

Lets out your frustrations and anger.

As long as you do in the right place and you're not doing it at somebody and just telling a story, then that's fine.

Yeah.

So this is me, Lisa, 37, from South Wales and my journey from being a negative Nelly to a positive Pete.

You will find your way.

So keep listening and hopefully we can have a giggle along the way too.

Chat soon.

Thanks for listening.

If you've liked what you've listened to, do you fancy giving me a cheeky review on Podchaser?

Or if there's something you'd like me to discuss, just write a comment under one of my posts on Instagram just to finish up.

Remember, see the positives even in the little things.

Have an absolutely amazing week.

Chat soon.