#awinewith Megan Ferguson
MEET Megan Ferguson, Founder of Megan Elizabeth Coaching
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
So good. Megan, welcome to Spark tv.
Megan Ferguson (00:08):
Thank you, Danny.
Danielle Lewis (00:10):
I'm so excited to have you on the show. I feel like it's going to be a good one. We've already just been chatting and had to do the, we should hit record. Otherwise I'm going to sit here and talk all day. So let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Megan Ferguson (00:25):
Can I ditch the glasses please? Because for some reason I'm steaming up.
Danielle Lewis (00:29):
Oh my God. Go for it. It's total cash vibes here. You do whatever you like. I was
Megan Ferguson (00:34):
Like, yeah, I'm like, oh, that's not going to work very well. Sorry.
Danielle Lewis (00:38):
No, go for it. So let's kick things off by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Megan Ferguson (00:45):
I'm Megan Ferguson. I hate using the term that I'm a founder and business owner. I like to say I'm me, which ironically is the initials of my business as well. So I am Megan Elizabeth, coaching the founder and coach. And for me, I hate all those roles that we put on ourselves when we say who we are. So it's like I'm me. I'm energetic, adventurous, I love systems, love my little people, my nieces and nephews, love, adventure, all of those kind of things. And also a founder of my business, which is all about helping other women to find their true selves and live their life and their business their way.
Danielle Lewis (01:32):
I love it. And do you know why? You are probably only the second person out of over 200 interviews who have actually said, well, I'm actually a human and this is all about me. However, I'm also this business owner. I think it's so hilarious that we do, I know I'm so guilty of this, totally identify as our businesses. Our whole identity is wrapped up in being a business owner, and it can be really hard to separate the fact that you are an actual person outside of your business.
Megan Ferguson (02:08):
And I think that's something I've probably been juggling this year, particularly moving into my own business. And I think I kind of come to this realization with my career, and as I was saying to you earlier, leaving a career and having that whole, for so long, my identity was wrapped up in my career and it was all about that. And it's like, yeah, it's been unpacking that and kind of letting go of that. So it's like, who am I? And not the roles I play. I used to be, oh, I'm a crazy auntie, I am a supply chain optimization specialist. All of those things. And it was all the roles. I like to think of it as the roles I play, not who I actually am.
Danielle Lewis (02:50):
I love that. And it's interesting, so you talked about being a coach for other women to help identify their true selves. And I think it almost is what you're talking about actually having that moment of realization, who am I? What roles do I play? You've kind of gone through a bit of a process, and I think it's a process that a few of us don't go through. We don't think about it like that. We just get so wrapped up in the building of our businesses. And yes, we look after families and we do all those things, but we probably don't stop and take a step back and evaluate where our passions do lie. What's someone going through when they first come to you? Where are they at in life usually?
Megan Ferguson (03:44):
I've had a few that's always different. And for me, I'm very much about meeting the person where they're at and helping them through that. So I've helped clients through where they're in a relationship and it might not be the right relationship and thinking that it was and they wanted to keep it. But then after working with me, realizing it wasn't, and going from being caught up in that drama of that relationship and holding onto that to actually uncovering who they are and what they want more. I've also worked with one lady that had came to me around health issues and it was really around she wasn't doing those things that she needed as well. And it was even helping her to work through grief that she had been holding onto from losing her dad 50 years earlier.
(04:42):
And it is working through those things. I've also had one client that came to me around her career. She wasn't happy, but she didn't know where to go. And it was seeing that, oh, this is just, I've always done this thing. And not being able to see that there was other avenues and not knowing what she was passionate about. So trying to work with her and help her to uncover those things so she could move forward as well. So that's where I liked, and I know this is probably controversial to some what coaches say you should do.
Danielle Lewis (05:15):
I love it already.
Megan Ferguson (05:17):
My approach is very much like I'm an adventurer. I love adventure, as I said. So it's kind of like, where are you now? Where do you want to be? And let's go on an adventure to see where you can get to because this is the thing to me, life's an adventure. And quite often we try to control and we say, oh, we want to get from X to Y, and we get so fixated on that journey that then we shut down all the other possibilities and it's like, well, how do we actually just start to be going, okay, here's where we are, here's where we want to go, and we just take one step at a time to see where we end up
Danielle Lewis (05:54):
And
Megan Ferguson (05:55):
Open ourselves up to those possibilities as well.
Danielle Lewis (05:58):
That's so cool. And it's really interesting that I think as business owners, we kind of do that for our business. We're like, okay, this is the goal. This is how I'm going to get there. Perhaps sometimes we don't really know why we chose that goal. Sometimes the goals are a little arbitrary, but I love the idea of doing it more broadly for your life as well, and having someone like you, I love that you just called it an adventure, that guide on the adventure of business or life or career or relationships. Somebody that can kind of hold space for you while you are figuring out that journey. And I love also, what if the opportunities come up along the way. Sometimes we do get so fixated on that thing that we wanted to do and we forget to enjoy the adventure along the way or even try things that may be better for us.
Megan Ferguson (06:57):
And I think this is the thing, a lot of the goals we set is just the things that we thought we should
(07:02):
Have in
(07:02):
Our lives because of what society has told us that we should have the career and all of that. And for me, I've even debated that life coaching and business coaching. So I came into coaching from a life perspective. I was in a really bad place. I'd lost my sister to suicide. I had thrown myself into career and travel and everything to not deal with that. And I ended up in a really toxic relationship where my self-worth was at the lowest I think it's ever been. And that was the point. I reached out to a coach and working with a coach, it helped me to finally deal with losing my sister and also to see all the other things that I was doing in my life that wasn't actually resourceful. And I never thought I'd become a coach. I resisted becoming a coach for a long time because it wasn't the career that I had it.
(08:03):
I wanted to be supply chain manager for a business. And the funny thing is, before quitting my corporate job, I actually could have applied for that dream role, but by that stage I'm like, actually, that's not what I want to be this year. It has been really funny stepping away from that corporate environment, I was like, okay, do I want to, I've been tweed with that life coaching, business coaching, all of that kind of stuff. I'm like, actually, I want to do both. And some people might say, no, you need to focus on one. And I'm like, okay. But the thing for me is, and I can remember even saying this a few years ago in the corporate space, when we talk about life and business, the one thing that's in the middle is us as a human being.
Danielle Lewis (08:51):
I love that so much.
Megan Ferguson (08:54):
I think we that and it's making sure that our goals are actually our goals and not somebody else's. And making sure that the way that we get to those goals is actually how best suits us as well. Because we quite often in business it's like, okay, to build your business, you'd need to do X, Y, Z. And I was like, well, if that's not the things that are right for you, then no, you shouldn't do that.
(09:22):
It's
(09:22):
Not going to actually make you happy. Having a business isn't going to make you happy. And that's where, for me, it's really about being able to help people embrace a humanist as I call it, and actually go, okay, how do we help you as a human reach the things that you want to do?
Danielle Lewis (09:39):
So how do you figure out what you want? So it's just a really interesting thing. So you've made me think about goals. And so this will actually be coming out, this recording will come out in January. And so I know it's that time of year where there's so many people who are listening to different podcasts and they're probably reflecting and planning for their year ahead. And I'm interested if there are things that we can do to start to get towards what we do really want. How do we actually not pick arbitrary goals that perhaps is somebody else's definition of success? Do you have any tips for somebody to hone in on what's right for
Megan Ferguson (10:22):
Them? The big one, which I think most of us would've heard is why. What's the why for that goal? And I think this is the time. It is taking that time to actually think about our goals. I know for me, I used to just probably write a goal down and didn't really think about it, but it's understanding why. And if you're not sure, it's writing the goal down and then going, what's the purpose of that goal? And even just keeping on asking that question to make sure that goal is actually yours. The other thing I would say is I think we put so much on our pressure on ourselves to figure it all out in January. Now for me, January is actually a tough month emotionally it's the anniversary of losing my sister and it's, it's not a fun time of the year. And to me, we put so much pressure on having to know exactly what our goal or what our vision looks like. And the thing is, it's trial and error and allowing it to change over time. I think we can set a goal. And for example, at one stage I wanted to run a half marathon. Now, me running a half marathon at the time was probably because I loved running because I was running to escape the emotions that I hadn't dealt with.
(11:33):
So I was running because that was the one time that I didn't think because I was just running. So I think it's really also sitting down and having that reflection of is this really my goal or is this goal that I'm putting in place because I'm avoiding something? Am I just keeping myself busy with all the goals? I'll confess that so many times I've written down a whole heap of goals and there's no way I could have achieved half of them. And it's funny, even goals that I set probably five and a half years ago when I started being coached myself, some of them I'm still working on. That's okay, that's okay. And this is the thing, and I think we do it in our businesses, we do it in our lives. We go to trying to set up everything to perfection, but it's really an evolution as we go and we can. And I've always ended up in continuous improvement roles.
Danielle Lewis (12:41):
So
Megan Ferguson (12:43):
For me it's like how do we continuously improve ourselves rather than going on January 1st, we have to have our goals written down. We have to know exactly what we want in life and just giving ourselves some, I don't know, room to actually just play and go, is this goal something I want? And if you're writing a goal down and it doesn't light you up, is it really something that you want in your life? And being okay that those goals may change over time.
Danielle Lewis (13:14):
I love that. And I love that you mentioned the idea of continuous improvement because it is really that we write down a goal and it's like, well, I should achieve that tomorrow. And it is, we think that something's going to explode in our business. We're going to go viral, everyone's going to discover us. It's like we always expect the transformation to just happen overnight, and that once we've written down that goal, the world will just align and it will happen. But that can be really overwhelming. If you are somebody that's like, I want to make a million dollars, it's like, cool. But looking at that post-it note that says a million dollars, it can actually be super overwhelming. It's like, well, how the fuck am I going to do that? So I love the idea of how can you actually break it down and just keep getting a little closer or a little better every day or doing a little tiny thing towards that goal and then like you said, playing with it and just seeing if there's something else that comes up along the way.
Megan Ferguson (14:27):
Yeah, and I think that's the thing. It's my analogy is I love hiking. So it's the top of the mountain. And look, there is a mountain, it's one of the highest in southeast Queensland that I've climbed numerous times. And every time I look at it, I think, what am I thinking? You say it looks so overwhelming looking at the top of that mountain, and it's just actually about taking one step at a time. And the thing is, especially the first time you climb that mountain, you don't know what every single step looks like. And we've even been with a guide that has actually taken us down a wrong path and we've had to backtrack
(15:12):
And this is the thing, and every time is different. So it's like how do we break it down to feel less overwhelming? And this is actually something I saw and got frustrated by a lot in corporate, and I see people do it, and I know I've done it myself. It's like, oh, I want to do all these things in my life, so I'm going to do 'em today. And then I get overwhelmed and I sit there and I do nothing or I try to map out what that next 12 months or I try to map out what the next 12 months looks like and then I go, oh, that's so overwhelming. I don't know. And in corporate, I saw it being that there was a lot of talk about innovation, ai, all of that kind of thing. And it was like, oh, we wanted all of these systems in place straight away, or there was this solution that we wanted to put in place and we wanted to go from here to here in an instance.
(16:02):
Whereas
(16:03):
It's like, oh, you don't have the basics. And the business I was in, it was like, we don't have fundamental things like a standard process. So you can't necessarily then go and automate something because we don't even have a standard process that we know how do we actually do this job and this is the thing, it's like, where are you at? And actually just taking those first little steps towards that rather than going, okay, I have to work out. And we might know some of the big ticket items, we might know a few things, but it's like how can we break it down a little bit so that we don't actually end up in procrastination because we're just overwhelmed?
Danielle Lewis (16:43):
I love that. It is just the best advice to think about things in bite-size pieces. It makes such a huge difference. You think about all of the things that we have to do when we put that big goal in front of ourselves sometimes it's just so, it just seems so out of reach. So I love that approach.
Megan Ferguson (17:07):
Sorry. The other one I'll share is, and this is a realization for myself this year that coach I was working with helped me to realize was the impossible deadlines we put on ourselves.
Danielle Lewis (17:18):
Oh my god, yes, I know I do that because I've got a whole list in front of me of things that haven't been done,
Megan Ferguson (17:26):
And we put those impossible deadlines on ourselves. And I was like, but who is? And I can remember I did a post after having this realization for myself. It's like, if we died tomorrow, nobody would care. That to-do list would not be important to us. And this is the thing, and this is where I'm very much because of, I've gone through significant loss in my family. I've lost my dad and my sister within the last 10 years, and it's like that has really showed me the importance to get out there and live. And this is why I do love adventure. I do love travel because it's so many of us are stuck in all these never ending to-do lists that we don't actually get out and live and do what we want to be doing.
Danielle Lewis (18:12):
How do you get past the guilt? So I have a really hard time with, if there's something on my to-do list, I feel guilty that I'm going out and living my life and enjoying myself and not being a slave to my desk. Do I just have to slap myself in the face and get over it?
Megan Ferguson (18:32):
I think it's also, and one of the things I've been playing with recently is going out and enjoying yourself. Does that actually give you more energy to come back and do that thing on your to-do list?
Danielle Lewis (18:44):
Yes. I like that.
Megan Ferguson (18:46):
So it's like, and if you're beating yourself up while you're going and doing that thing, you're not going to enjoy it. But it's like if you just go and enjoy that thing and then come back and go, oh, okay, cool. Last week I nearly didn't go to the beach. I was just like, I just need a morning at the beach. And I nearly got into that guilt of, oh, well, I've got all of these things to do, and then I actually still went to the beach and the ideas that I came up with and the reflection that I had and the energy that it gave me actually helped me. And I think this is the thing we get so caught up in that to-do list that we are not doing the things that actually bring us energy.
Danielle Lewis (19:28):
I love what you said about all of the ideas flowing to you while you're at the beach. It's so funny, if I read, I'll often get really good ideas. It actually takes me forever to read a book because it's like my brain actually just activates when I have reading, so I have to keep stopping and writing things down. But I barely do it. I love it and I get all of this clarity and all of these ideas, but the idea of sitting down for an hour or even a half an hour and reading, I just go, oh my God, I should be doing all the things I haven't got back to that person. Everyone's mad at me. I need to make dinner. All of those things. But you're so right. When you do them, you actually get so much more benefit than just knuckling under and working more.
Megan Ferguson (20:22):
And I think that's the thing, it's understanding ourselves. And I used to have a term with one of my team members that it was slowing down to speed up,
Danielle Lewis (20:30):
Oh yeah, my husband says sharpening the saw or something.
Megan Ferguson (20:35):
And it was kind of more that stopping to reflect. And I think our goals and stuff actually taking that time, whether it be at the end of the year or it be any time throughout the year, I think so many of us get caught up on the new year kind of stuff. It's like you can set goals and you can review your goals anytime of the year. There's no rule about that, but it's even just slowing down and doing something you enjoy to then get that inspiration. Because for me, if I sit at this desk and go, okay, I'm going to come up with ideas. There's nothing, and I know for some people that might work for me, it does not work. And this is where I say for me, my term in my business is your life, your way, your business your way. I love that.
(21:20):
And
(21:21):
It's really helping people to understand themselves. So that actually can do that. And for me, I'm like, okay, I actually need to schedule more beach walks into my routine because it is where I get the most inspiration. It's little things like, okay, as much as I don't like the whole microphone that I carry with me and all of that, I need to take that because I do record some really good videos, but there's always background noise and that's just annoying to try to remove and all of that. So it's understanding yourself and understanding the ways. I've always been someone to find the easy way, and I think this is why I end up in business improvement. I don't like doing things the hard way. I think we've been so conditioned to do things the hard way and it's like how can we understand ourselves enough to know what's our easy way of doing things? How does it flow for us mostly? Is it that reading a book is where we get all our ideas and if we actually do that each week, that actually helps us in our business and brings us more energy as well.
Danielle Lewis (22:24):
Oh my God, I think that is so incredible. I was even just as you were talking about that, I was reflecting on, so I did schedule half a day and I was like, I'm going to do my vision board and journaling and planning and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I did it, but it was interesting. So over the last few days of recording podcast interviews, I've had so many people talk about their word for the year and all this, and we've been unpacking different ideas. And even a YouTube video that I watched, I was like, I've just been getting clearer and clearer and clearer on where I want to go. It's almost like you need time and you need space and you need inspiration. You are so right. You're not just going to sit at your desk and oh, everything. I have all of the solutions to all of my life problems and it's done. It really is that culmination of all of those little things that give us that mental space and clarity. So it's so important. I love
Megan Ferguson (23:23):
It. I think it's building in that space in our every day so that we actually have that. I know for me this year, as I said to you earlier, quitting corporate and probably going from very structured, basically not having a lot of time being at work, eight, nine hours a day plus travel, all that kind of stuff, and not having the energy, because I was doing a lot of things that didn't actually bring me joy
(23:51):
To having a year of space. And that has at sometimes been really uncomfortable and probably gave myself a little bit too much space at times. There was, but I also needed that from a burnout recovery kind of point of view. And like I said to you, I'd underestimated how long that would take to actually recover from being burnt out mentally and emotionally because of everything that had happened both and also in my personal life. And it's also given me a lot of clarity, and I'm glad I've done that. And for me, it's also continuing to make sure I give myself that space to align myself to make sure that I'm doing what I want to be doing. I think there's so much information out there of how we can run our businesses, how we can improve our lives, and we actually then forget to listen to ourselves as to what's right for us and get to know ourselves. And like I said earlier, for me, I used to keep busy to avoid the emotions. To be honest, this year has been a tidal wave of all the things I hadn't dealt with completely have come up. It's allowing ourselves that space to play with different ideas, to not just be about, oh, we need to get this done now. Because quite often it then becomes about, oh, do, do, do.
(25:22):
But then we are not doing the things that we actually need to be doing
Danielle Lewis (25:28):
And that will actually get us to our goals or make us feel joyful. Sometimes it gets trapped in that I am being productive if I'm crossing something off a list and then that's it.
Megan Ferguson (25:40):
And that doesn't actually, and I like to think of about as intentional action.
Danielle Lewis (25:46):
Love that
Megan Ferguson (25:46):
Because, and it doesn't have to be big. I know I've heard massive intentional action. I don't like massive intentional action. I feel like that can make it scary. I was like, what's just intentional bits and being okay to play and trial and error. And I've always been someone that's probably had that more innovative mindset, the problem solving and all of that. And this is what I loved, even when I was still in the corporate environment because it was, and I was in a male dominated industry, always made it interesting. It was very much about that do. I loved when we went from working from home because I could be at my desk and then if I was trying to problem solve something, because when I need to get away from my desk to problem solve, I could walk down downstairs, I could walk down to my little back courtyard and things like that without somebody watching me going, you got to be doing, you are not being productive. And I think this is the thing we've been so conditioned to being productive is doing,
(26:48):
Whereas it actually takes that reflection and go, what should we be doing? Is this the right idea? Is this the right solution? And quite often we go, oh, okay, here's a solution. We'll put that in. That's what we need to do. But we don't actually take the time to reflect if that's the right solution. I did a video the other day that was kind of like, the problem is not usually the problem and the solution is not usually the solution. And this is something I source time and time again, especially working in business, business improvement. People would come with solutions and I'm like, well, what's the actual problem? How's that going to solve it?
(27:26):
And
(27:26):
It was like, well, that's actually not the solution. You're just putting a bandaid over it, or you think that's the solution, so let's go and do that. And it's like, actually it's not because it's actually not going to solve the problem you're trying to solve. So that's where I used to come at it. Okay, what do you think that's going to solve? And kind of defining that problem to be solved rather than what is the solution?
Danielle Lewis (27:53):
I love that. And sometimes I think we just do things because other people are doing them and we kind of go, well, they're successful in our minds. We don't ever really know and they're doing that, so I've got to do that. And then we go, well, why aren't I hitting the goals that I want to? It's like because just copying someone and you don't even know if it's working for them, right? Half the time we see things on social media and people make these outrageous claims, there's no way to tell if it's real or not. So if we're just following along, you're so right. We might be solving a problem, that solution that we thought doesn't solve that problem, or it's not even the problem that we had,
Megan Ferguson (28:35):
Or it's just not our way of doing stuff. This is something that I've really, I think lent into. And I've kind of got into the human design space as well, which opens up a whole new can of worms, but has helped me to understand myself, but at an even deeper level, but more so accept myself and that some of the strategies that I was told to do
(29:04):
That I went, oh, I don't like that. There's a reason for that. It is just not my way of being and it's not something, and if I'm going to do it, it's going to be from a very forced energy. And at one stage I was really, really frustrated because in the coaching space, it is looking at what are you blocked? And yes, there can be sometimes that we are blocking ourselves from doing something that we need to be doing, but it's also, is this the right thing for us? And I kept on getting this question, oh, well, whenever I'd said, oh, that doesn't feel right for me, I was like, no, it just doesn't feel right for me and it doesn't feel like my way of doing business. And this is where for me, and I'm still uncovering this. And to me, it's a work in progress. It's continuous improvement. It's like, what is my way? What is my way of getting my brand and my message out there rather than what is somebody else's way?
Danielle Lewis (30:04):
Oh my God, it is just so good. I love it. It just feels like such a beautiful, aligned way to run a business, but it also feels so practical. It feels like, why wouldn't you take the time to figure out what you actually want in life? Why wouldn't you then experiment and play and experience along the way in case there's something that you don't even know that you love yet? And then why not choose action steps that are so in tune with how you like to operate on your way to achieving said amazing life goal. I just think it's so awesome and oh my God, we could talk all day, but I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Megan Ferguson (31:02):
Keep it simple and trust yourself. Trust your intuition of what is right for you.
Danielle Lewis (31:09):
Wow, that is so powerful and yeah, so important. Thank you so much, Megan, for sharing your wisdom and your journey and your insights, and yeah, I just know that everyone tuning into this episode, yeah, it's really going to hit home for them. So I'm so grateful for your time.
Megan Ferguson (31:29):
Thank you very much for having me.
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