Courage Is Calling with Mel Wiggins

About four years ago, I was barely keeping my head above water. I was running a home. I was running a charity, I was running this business – Assembly, I had a two year old and a 6 year old and a marriage and other responsibilities to manage and I was right in the deep end. I needed to make some changes. Not only did I need to get some help medically, I knew I needed to work out a better, easier wa...

For anyone who is out there trying to do something, put something out there, create something new, offer out their skills or expertise, feedback can be super alluring and super terrifying. It’s almost like we have this push-pull relationship with feedback and validation that means we want it, but it also has the potential to crush us. In today's episode I want to talk about what feedback we actual...

In this episode I want to talk about success and feelings. Ultimately, the idea of success is so subjective. How one person measures success is not going to be the same as the next person. Most of us are so disconnected to our own desires and needs that we end up defaulting to ascribe to the measures of success that seem easy and palpable: -       Hitting a certain nu...

This week on Courage Is Calling I want to talk about the importance of women making money. I want you to know that me feeling comfortable talking about making money in my business is something that has been about 4 years in the making. I took on a coach to help me with this stuff, I started opening the conversation in my community about money and I’ve learned a huge amount about the massive import...

Today's episode is entitled The Trouble With Hustle Culture. Hustle culture is the idea or the message that our productivity is the most valuable thing about us. Or that if you work harder and faster and more that somehow your value increases. The reality is that lessons on the dangers of hustle culture are often learned by burnout. The messages of 'rise and grind' or 'if you want it hard enough'...

This week I want to talk about what we do with the fear of failure. It’s so so important that we address this as an elephant in the room for anyone who is contemplating doing something new or putting themselves out there in any way with their ideas or work. At some stage or another in our lives, our businesses or in our attempts at creating, we’ve all felt the sting of failure or disappointment. -...

Building a business is tricky and even though I absolutely LOVE my job, I would hate for anyone to look in at Assembly and think that it magically and easily appeared. In that spirit, I thought that this week I would share three things that I’ve learned about building a business that I feel don’t get talked about enough in entrepreneurship. It's true that the most amount of effort that I’ve had to...

Today I thought it might be fun to get practical and talk through where to start when you have an idea or are coming up with a new project or offering in your work or creative life. It can feel so exciting when an idea or a new thing lands in your mind right? Tingly, interesting, fun, scary, thrilling. All of those feelings have come up for me when I’ve contemplated something a bit new. And if you...

In my work, coaching women, it is a common theme that one of the hardest parts of being brave and showing up as your truest self with your work and ideas is the risk of not being liked. It feels so viscerally terrifying to contemplate that someone might not like us. In this episode, I'm talking through why likability has been such a big deal for women, how it shows up in life and work and how fixa...

I believe that intuition is a superpower that we all possess – a gift within us that is our most sacred, trustworthy, brilliant internal guidance system. Like a compass that we can use to understand ourselves more deeply. And yet most of us dismiss it, or forget about it or override it because we live in such a fast-paced, quick fix society where we want other people to tell us the answers to all...

I wonder what comes up for you when you think about an ambitious woman? Is there an image or a set of feelings that you might attach to that word: Ambition? I KNOW so many women find it really hard to admit that they are ambitious. The fear of coming across as ambitious feels really scary for us because our culture hasn’t allowed women to celebrate their desire for more. As if wanting more for thi...

The concept of 'self-care' is having a bit of a moment lately, right? That sounds good, but what if it isn't enough? What if what is pitched to us as self-care actually feels like another thing to add to an already full to-do list. It sounds like we need a revamp of what it really means to care for ourselves and in this episode I'm going to walk you through the two core components that I believe l...

I'm not sure what it is that brought you to this podcast today, but I imagine that for whatever reason, you need some bravery for something. Maybe you've been thinking about a challenge or you've got an idea that you are toying with or thing that you really want to say or do and all of the feelings are showing up for you.  Maybe you've maybe you've dipped your toe in the water of something ne...

In today's episode, the first ever episode of Courage Is Calling, I thought it would be good to introduce you to what I call The Courage Concept. This is a culmination of my work, research and experience over the last number of years and is the framework that I have developed to help women understand the components of building courage. Because it's really simple and really hard. 

Hello, and welcome to the Courage Is Calling podcast. My name is Mel Wiggins and this podcast is the go-to space for brilliant women who need a courage pep talk from time to time. Hands up if that's you!  Building courage in our lives and our work is hard. It's hard. And it's hard because courage is built by taking action and trying things out and taking action and trying things out means oft...