Galia and Sarah met Bernadette when she attended
Professionelle's "Personal Branding" workshop in Tauranga in 2009.
The positive psychology principles we discussed that day that
underpin enduring personal brands (know and use your strengths and
your values) really resonated with Bernadette and she kept in touch
with us. When she wrote last month to share her
achievement of launching a new coaching business, a website, a
blog and a radio show, and added "the
Professionelle workshop I did with you and the other inspirational
women last year is a big reason I have come so far" we simply had
to ask her for the whole story.
If you're struggling with adversity, feeling stuck, thinking
of change, or preparing to make a big leap, we hope you will
variously find solace, encouragement, inspiration and courage from
reading Bernadette's journey.
My name is Bernadette Griffiths and recently I qualified as an
International Inspired Spirit Life Coach and this is… my life's
journey (to date)!
Early years
Despite my parents being immigrants, I was raised a typical kiwi
kid. I loved school and learning and loved the great outdoors as
well. My family was large (10 of us!) and I was raised with lots of
love - but often not much money. My parents were very religious and
two strong values I have taken from my childhood years are Family
and Faith.
Marrying very young at only 19 (religion had something to do
with that) I headed off on my "big OE" at 20 and spent the next 7
years living, working and holidaying throughout Europe. Observing
and interacting with different people from different countries with
different cultures was amazing and inspiring and to this day I
still have a passion for travel.
Real Estate
Arriving back in NZ at 27 my marriage dissolved and I entered
the exciting world of real estate - an industry I went on to spend
the next 26 years in! Starting off in administration, I moved onto
property management, then sales, management, corporate management,
national training, my own real estate business, and finally my own
training/mentoring business.
1988 was a turning point for me in my life - not only did I
re-marry (to a wonderful real estate person of course) but I
attended a Brian Tracey Phoenix Seminar and was introduced to the
world of self-development, but even more importantly to the
powerful metaphysical "laws of the universe". At the time I was a
struggling real estate salesperson. In fact, I didn't see being a
salesperson as a goal but I wanted to manage a real estate office
and for that I had to have three years selling experience. Taking
the information from the course, I put it into practice and MY LIFE
CHANGED. Within two short years I was the top salesperson in our
company - and in the top company in town!
Being an avid reader, I continued to immerse myself into self
development courses, always had a "training tape" in my car and
generally spent an enormous amount of time gathering knowledge on
how I could be a better and more successful person. And it worked,
as both my husband and I continued to climb the various ladders in
real estate.
Three Storms
But life isn't all plain sailing, and our winds of ill-fortune
arrived about 7 years ago. While we had our real estate training
business, we also were doing project work, selling apartments "off
the plan". Without going into all the details, one project didn't
go well and we made a personal loss of over half a million dollars
in commissions.
Continuing with our training/mentoring business we also started
a new business by buying the New Zealand rights to sell
motivational and inspirational products that we imported from
America. Having been passionate about motivating and inspiring
people all our lives we thought we were onto a winner - but we
hadn't done our homework. After paying for the products in US
dollars, shipping them to New Zealand (books are heavy)
the profit margin per product was minimal. Not being thwarted, we
just decided we'd need to sell HEAPS! But again we hadn't done our
homework and we found lots of Kiwi firms happier to shout their
teams a pizza as a "reward" rather than give them something
motivational to feed their minds. Net result - more lost $$$ and
had lots of wonderful stock sitting in our garage!!
They say things come in threes, and our ill fortune continued.
However, this last venture for me did have a silver lining in the
end. Determined to get back on track financially, I entered a
Multi-Level Marketing company promoting the storage of photos on
the internet. Once again I knew I was onto a winner - it was an
internet based business, it was about helping people save their
precious memories and last - but most importantly for me - I
couldn't be successful unless I helped other people be successful
too.
For two years I worked almost full time in the MLM business. On
the positive side the self-development programmes the company ran
were magnificent and I met lots of wonderful people. On the
negative side however I wasn't enjoying what I had to do to get
business and I didn't find it easy. The profits I had dreamed of
just didn't come and then the company decided to re-focus on their
core products of beauty and health and let the internet business
stay at its current level. I persevered for another 6 months but
finally found the courage to "positively quit". It's hard to admit
you've wasted two years of your life on something - but as I said
earlier - this venture did have a silver lining - it brought me to
a place where I was determined to find the "inner me" and to find a
new career path where I would once again find "joy" in my work.
Where to?
Financially it was time to go out and get a paid job in real
estate. It was difficult being employed after 10 years of being my
own boss. I still enjoyed real estate, but my earlier passion for
the business just wasn't there. All the time I knew I had to find
something else.
When you're searching for something it's amazing how it finds
you - and that's what happened to me.
Out of the blue one day an email arrived in my inbox and the
subject line was "do you want to be an inspired spirit life coach?"
and in my heart of hearts the moment I saw it I knew the answer was
a very BIG YES! I enrolled in the year's training course and my
days began to start very early (5am) as I juggled jointly managing
a real estate office with my husband, studying and then "practice
coaching"; trying to stay fit and healthy, and have "free" time for
elderly parents, children, grandchildren and friends!
Values and Strengths
During this year I also did some personal development work in
group coaching sessions and attended a Professionelle training
seminar. The work I did on finding my strengths and knowing my
values has been priceless in giving me the confidence to start my
coaching practice "The Joyful Life" and to know without a shadow
of a doubt that this is my destiny, my purpose! This is
why I was born and this is my contribution to the world that no one
else can make.
Trying something new after a few failures isn't always easy - it
takes courage, faith, belief and maybe a small ounce of
stubbornness! Through adversity and failures I re-learnt the
lessons I had originally learnt from Brian Tracey 22 years ago: to
be successful you need to work in harmony with the universal laws
and be in their flow.
New Wings
Today my business is taking flight! Together with other fellow
inspired spirit coaches we have set up a free blogtalk radio show -
Life Path Radio - offering our listeners information on how they
can "find their inner compass"at www.lifepathradio.com ; I am a member of ISOUL
(International Specialists Of Universal Law) and at the end of
April we launched an eight week tele-seminar on "Harnessing
the Power of Universal Laws - getting more of what you REALLY
desire" ; I offer world-wide one-on-one coaching and later in the year I
will be facilitating Sandy Forster's international "wildy wealthy
fast" seminars.
Grateful
This is my journey thus far - I know from my dreams and desires
that there are lots more chapters to write - but for today I am
grateful for all the experiences I have had to bring me to this
point, right now, in my life. I am grateful for the wonderful
people I've met on my journey who have supported and encouraged me
(98% have been women!). I am grateful for the opportunity to do
what I love and help people find their "inner self" so they too can
go and follow their own destiny!
I have a beautiful, supportive family - I have faith - I have a
business I love - how blessed can one person be!
Acknowledgement
Bernadette Griffiths is a qualified
Life Coach - helping women (and enlightened men) live inspired,
joyful and fulfilling lives! Bernadette's natural gift to "listen
beyond words" helps her to guide individuals to find their "inner
self". She is part of the Foundational Class of Inspired Spirit Coaches.
Email: bernadette@thejoyfullife.com
Telephone: +64 7 575 2405
Mobile: +64 27 446 3052
Skype: btmgriffiths