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Welcome to this week’s episode of the HRDQ-U In Review Podcast, where we bring you the latest insights and practical tools for enhancing soft skills training within your organization. This podcast is brought to you by HRDQU.com, and I’m your host, Sarah, Learning Events Manager at HRDQ-U. And today I have Steve Brookes joining me to discuss the webinar, Seven Steps to Eliminate Anxiety in the Workplace. And Steve has joined me on the podcast before, so welcome back, Steve. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you very much. Good to be here.

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And for any of our new listeners, those folks that haven’t had the chance to maybe tune into the webinar yet or are new to our podcast here, can you share a little bit about who you are and what you do? Yes. So they could be here, as I said. So my name’s Steve Brooks. I work with my fantastic business partner, Serena Ittoo, and we help corporate professionals, particularly women,

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overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, and stress to identify, work through, and eliminate the root cause behind what’s really holding them back, which then frees them to live more of a life they love, doing more of the things that really matter to them. We support this transformation by providing the tools needed to help them work through their emotions and develop rock-solid confidence, basically in who they are. We’re both master practitioners

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NLP practitioners, master practitioners of neurolinguistic programming, and we specialize in all areas relating to self-confidence and self-esteem, and really guide clients to embrace, explore, and be excited to show who they are with confidence, and this is supported by the experience, knowledge, and skills we’ve both gained through our overcoming our own struggles and journey in life.

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As I become more confident, for example, and develop more skills and become more effective in my life and growing my business, I’m just giving back. That’s how I feel to share the tips and the tools that have helped me to help others to overcome similar issues around high levels of anxiety holding them back. Wow, that’s amazing. Your dedication to helping individuals build up their confidence is really commendable.

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And it’s clear that your personal journey just from being able to connect with you and listen to your webinars that you’ve worked with us on has really fueled your passion and transformation. And so what changes do you see happening in L &D space right now? That’s a really great question. So the way I see it, more and more people are getting stressed out, uh dealing with overwhelm, getting burned out.

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having their anxiety levels rising to a unhealthy, really high level. And thing is they lack the skills, knowledge and tools to help them manage and overcome this. And this can lead to people in this situation feeling isolated. And as though they almost lack focus, clarity and purpose to move forward in their life and career. So in effect they become stuck. They feel out of standstill and all of this of course negatively impacts.

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the other key areas of their life and their mental health and overall well-being as well as their relationships and their own growth as a person. So more and more people I believe and from my experience are becoming aware of their anxiety and what they really want from their life. It’s like too strong. It’s realising anxiety is holding them back in a big way uh and then once they start to realise that and work through that it’s…

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the question they ask themselves, what do they really want in their lives? And that is becoming more more apparent as well. Now the great news is the internet age is allowing, of course, increased access to information, technology and tools. And the trick is for people to find the right support, techniques and guidance on how to deal with their anxiety, stress and overwhelm. Which is where I help. Yeah, I appreciate your perspective on that. And the rise in anxiety is definitely a significant challenge that we face today.

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And so what exciting things are you up to next? So as I said, myself and Serena are in through our business expressing the authentic self. We’re continuing our mission to help corporate professionals, particularly women overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety, self doubt, burnout, stress, to eliminate what’s really holding them back, what’s causing their anxiety, what’s triggering their anxiety so they can…

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do more the things they enjoy in life and begin to live a life of truth, happiness and fulfilment. So we provide our transformational value, which is exciting, by creating a tailored and practical personal development plan and approach which is right for each individual client to move forwards and overcome what really is holding them back. And when we do this with clients, they open up.

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it changes their perspective, their outlook and they begin to make more confident decisions, take action and move forwards to achieve balance, clarity and purpose in their own life, their career, their relationships and personal life. It has that effect which is transformational and really exciting. We’re also launching a series of new products and I’ll just focus on one for now which is our online anxiety breakthrough program.

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In this program, over six weeks, members and people who sign up have access to our online course platform with a range of guided videos, exercises, techniques and tools to take you step by step and help you work through your emotions and develop inherently that rock solid confidence in who you authentically are with group support in WhatsApp and LinkedIn. And as Sarah mentioned, we also do regular

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webinars and these topics range quite interestingly actually in all areas relating to anxiety and confidence and one webinar we’re concentrating on next is titled Making Peace and Starting to Overcome Past Trauma because what we found with a lot of clients is their trauma, their triggers that generate anxiety so often originate in their childhood.

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and the beliefs or limiting beliefs that are formed then. Well, it sounds like you have some really exciting projects in your pipeline for the new year. Absolutely. And so we recently did this webinar together on the seven steps to eliminating anxiety in the workplace. Can you share what the key takeaways were for our registrants at this event? Yeah, sure. So firstly, people who attended this webinar understood

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and had a kind of an overview provided about what anxiety is and how their relationship with anxiety in the workplace can really impact and affect multiple core focus areas of their lives. It’s a seven step process and the second step, well the first and second step was learning to self reflect on their own relationship with anxiety in the workplace, common background.

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and when reflecting on their own levels of anxiety in the workplace where they may become unhealthy and high levels of anxiety this allowed attendees to just realize a bit more about what’s going on and what’s likely to be holding them back because attendees then learned how to look inwards and narrow down their self-reflection answers to ask better questions to identify what’s really holding them back and how to narrow down those answers to

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kind of give a really good indication of what’s holding them back. I mentioned limiting beliefs and there was an exercise in the webinar on limiting beliefs like fear of feeling judged, fear feeling not good enough. So it looked into that and people kind of had a good think about that to get a really good overview. Then the third step was around emotions that are limiting people’s choices and decisions. How to manage those a little bit better and become aware of those emotions that come up when

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that revoke by what’s holding people back and then there was the fourth step on how to think in a more healthy way and think on purpose and change perceptions a way of thinking to stop those unhelpful emotions coming back. The fifth step was then to when you’re thinking a little differently when you’re managing those emotions when you’re starting to overcome what’s holding you back you can then connect more in the present and reconnect with joy.

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and start to build more trust in yourself and your abilities, which led to the final seventh step, where attendees learned the importance of understanding the power of expressing their authentic selves and the value in speaking their truth because the world needs your truth to be spoken. And one of the questions we received during the webinar, which I’d love to hear you speak on a bit more, was by going through these seven steps, what

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could it cause you to become overconfident? That was a really, really good question. And I’m glad you asked it again, because it’s really important to recognize when you go through these seven steps, when you identify what’s holding you back and begin to work through that, and also identify what really matters to you, what brings you joy and to connect to that and have more of that in your life to be more true to who you really are.

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overconfidence really just does not come up because you’re being true to who you are you’re being more authentic to who you are and who and yourself and when that happens it’s almost like a uh magical feeling where you’re just you and when you’re just you in my own experience with client feedback it’s just you it’s not about confidence I’m doing the right thing I’m doing the wrong thing it’s trusting your intuition and who you are

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and enjoying that most natural feeling in the world. Yeah, amazing. And so you talked a little bit about your six week anxiety transformation program. Can you share a little bit more about what that is and how it works? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So myself and Serena, we offer uh six week programs, a number of six week programs based around a client’s level of anxiety and we tailor it

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There’s a base structure but we tailor our programs to the client’s individual needs. having said that, these are based on three core products and the first one, the higher end product is a full one-to-one anxiety breakthrough transformation program which is six weeks of weekly one-to-one coaching, access to an online platform, numerous exercises, audio files, tools and tips.

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It’s a whole process which basically goes through the seven steps identified in the guided attendees through the webinar last week. It goes through those seven steps tailored to you with one-to-one support and exercises and tools and techniques online as well. And there’s work every day for uh people who sign up to do in the online platform.

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but the one-to-one weekly coaching is really powerful because we use techniques of neuro-linguistic programming and we often go back into clients’ childhoods to really identify what’s holding them back and help them work through that and then help them through guidance to create the life they really love. Now, this is also in an online anxiety-breakthrough program, again over six weeks. No one-to-one coaching, but the idea is of this to lower the cost, make it more accessible to people.

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and to really create that breakthrough online with LinkedIn and WhatsApp group support as well. a um third product that we offer over six weeks is based around a specific personalized development program, um a touchstone tool that creates more focus, balance and purpose in clients’ lives. And this is through tailoring, monitoring and enhancing

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a set of tailored activities across clients’ relationships, across their finances, their personal growth and their physical and mental well-being. all of these are six-week programs and it just depends which is the best fit which we decide after an initial consultation. So yeah, thank you for asking the question.

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Yeah, and so you have these really great programs that you were just uh sharing that really seem like they help improve the quality of people’s day-to-day lives. And could you share why clients should choose to work with you? Yeah, no, absolutely. So as I said, Serena and myself are both master practitioners in your linguistic programming from our own struggles.

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basically and the skills and knowledge we’ve learned we do specialise and really understand how it feels to be stuck in that high level of anxiety, self doubt, being overwhelmed, feeling stuck and we guide our clients through our own learnings and skills through a process to naturally overcome what’s holding them back and grow confidence and really develop trust in who you authentically are. I would say behind all this

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we believe there’s a missing link. This is the concept we work on. There’s a missing link required to guide and support you in your own personal development, growth and route to self-confidence in a way that’s right for you. And we see this very much like a tree that requires strong foundations and roots to enable its full growth, to maximise its potential. And we are dedicated to working one-to-one with our clients to ensure their personal transformation.

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to become the best version of themselves, to develop, work with you to develop your roots so then you can grow, grow tall and shoot up a bit like a bamboo tree. But it’s a development of those roots and those unseen foundations such as self-esteem, courage, self-belief that we work with you to develop and embed so that you can then deal with whatever life throws at you basically. And just to finally say

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We pride ourselves on not providing band-aid solutions because our programs are not a temporary fix. It’s really important to say our programs offer the full system you need to overcome anxiety and get that happy, balanced, fulfilling life with purpose that you want. And you spoke a bit about your 121 personalized development program. Can you share, you know, what does that do and how do you offer these coaching sessions?

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Hmm, that’s question, thanks. by tailoring and aligning set activities through your very own personalized development tool, this opens up and provides uh an amazing opportunity to enhance and transform the quality across all areas of your life. um this includes, across your relationships, your relationship with yourself and with others and those close to you, your physical health.

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health and mental well-being, your growth, you’re pushing yourself, stretching yourself to be a better version of yourself and being true to yourself and your financial prosperity is linked to that, that’s one of the core areas but not the only one. So the main benefits you receive, clients receive by having their own personalized development tool.

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is they grow and become a better version of themselves, they develop more rewarding relationships as I said, they improve their financial future and they become a healthier more fulfilled person and this is through designing basically a life in which they feel authentically valued, true to themselves and really committed to living and following a purpose and acquiring new skills.

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as well to incorporate into the daily routine new skills that are right for them, for each person to help them grow based on their own values and what’s important to them. And to set up and enhance this touchstone we offer a range of packages within this weekly, bi-weekly or monthly one-to-one sessions where you have our dedicated support to help you keep track and achieve the goals that I mentioned through your very own tailored touchstone tool or personalised development tool.

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And Steve, before we sign off today, where can listeners go to learn more about your work, connect with you, and just be able to gather more information if they’re interested in these offerings? Yeah, so there’s a number of places. You can click on our website. think Sarah’s going to share the link, www.ExpressingYourAuthenticSelf.com. Our LinkedIn profile, where we post regular content and share regular insights and tools and techniques, that’s a really good place to…

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check us out and see what we’re doing. Of course you can email us personally at stevenserrino@expressingyourauthenticself.com and uh I’d recommend just contacting us and setting up a call so we can explore how we can best help you move forward and which of our packages is best for you and how we can tailor it for you and I think Sarah’s you’re going to share that link to book a call as well.

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Yes, all of this information will be available in the description below. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you very much. It’s pleasure. And we hope you enjoy listening to the HRDQ-U In Review podcast available on all major streaming platforms. If you haven’t had the chance to watch the webinar, make sure you do so. That is also linked in the description below. And if you did enjoy today’s episode,

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Make sure to give us a follow and leave us a five-star review. It really helps us continue to produce this content for you every week. Thank you all for tuning into this week’s episode of the HRDQ-U In Review podcast brought to you by HRDQU.com.