Ep : 214 - Lea Turner on Authenticity & Building a Thriving Business Community with No Budget!

Show Notes

What role does personal authenticity play in business success?

Ever fancied a no-nonsense guide on how to thrive in the business world?

What motivates someone to build a supportive business community from the ground up?

In this episode of the Fearlessly Curious podcast, join me with Lea Turner, a LinkedIn expert and the founder of a vibrant online community for small business owners called 'The HoLT.'

Lea shares her journey from a struggling business owner to a LinkedIn sensation, discussing topics like the importance of being yourself online, overcoming imposter syndrome, and providing valuable insights into the world of digital marketing and community building.

The conversation also touches on Lea's personal experiences with ADHD, being a single parent, her unwavering drive motivated by the early loss of her father, and the lessons she's learned along the way.

Don't miss this episode filled with inspiration, practical advice, and the honest truth about what it takes to build a successful business community.

Connect with Lea :

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-turner/

Instagram: @leaturnerholt

Website: https://www.leaturner.co.uk/

Highlights from this episode:

00:00 Introduction

01:46 Lea Turner's LinkedIn Journey

03:19 Building a Business During COVID

06:23 The HOLT Community

21:01 Personal Reflections and Future Goals

37:28 Facing Fears and Personal Growth

38:53 The Role of Labels and Belonging

40:35 Identity Beyond ADHD

41:36 Launching a Podcast

46:03 Personal Motivations and Inspirations

46:23 Legacy of a Father

59:14 Breaking Stereotypes

01:02:04 Speaking Up and Handling Criticism

01:09:07 Final Thoughts

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Resources:

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If you enjoy this episode, please SHARE, RATE and REVIEW the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

About Me:

I help you lead with fearless authenticity by smashing the self-imposed heteronormative stereotypes that keep you playing small through emotional healing inner child and inherited intergenerational trauma. Create a purposeful life of your unique design by disrupting societal norms and expectations of who you should be. Explore mindfulness, fearless curiosity and loving kindness through the lens of Human Design to thrive as the person you are born to be.

Learn more about my coaching method and join my emotional healing, mindfulness, and music community at melissaindot.com.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Melissa: And welcome to another episode of the Fearlessly Curious podcast super excited, super fangirling all the way from snowy UK because I can't remember exactly which part of the UK.

[00:00:10] Lea Turner. Lea, thank you so much for being here today. 

[00:00:14] Lea Turner: Thank you so much for having me and it's Manchester, very, very snowy here. 

[00:00:20] Melissa: Manchester. Yeah. And you know what? I'm going to ask the question that all Mancunians or anyone who, and you're not Mancunian, are you? Are you a Mancunian? 

[00:00:27] Lea Turner: I, so my dad's from up round here, but I grew up in the South and I've sort of come back to my roots by coming North.

[00:00:35] Melissa: Okay. So not technically, and I don't sound 

[00:00:38] Lea Turner: like it. 

[00:00:38] Melissa: No, no, you don't. You give me a perfect reason for me to completely code switch into my British accent because I lived there for half of my life, which, which I love. But enough about me, Manchester, because I am originally from Malaysia, that's where I'm born and bred.

[00:00:54] Malaysians are crazy about footy. And crazy about one particular Manchester football team. Do you have a preference of which football team are we talking? 

[00:01:06] Lea Turner: Well, my son made the choice when we moved up here and he went red. So we are Manchester United fans. 

[00:01:13] Melissa: Is the correct answer. 

[00:01:15] Lea Turner: Yeah. 

[00:01:16] Melissa: Brilliant. Okay. So Yeah, I'm, I'm, as I said, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast and we are going to get fearlessly curious with you.

[00:01:24] I'm just going to let everybody know how I know you. I know you from LinkedIn and you know, you, anybody wants to know more about why Lea's known for LinkedIn, you can find out yourself, she'll touch a little bit on, I'm going to ask Lea to mention a little bit, like, what were you known for in LinkedIn, but more importantly.

[00:01:41] Where you're going next, what 2025 is holding for you. So, Why LinkedIn first of all, Lee, if you could just, you know. 

[00:01:49] Lea Turner: LinkedIn was a last resort, if I'm totally honest. I was in a position where I had a very small business. I had a young son at home and I'm a solo parent to him. Always have been, probably always will be.

[00:02:01] And, I had no marketing budget and no way of getting more clients because I'd always worked with word of mouth referrals up until that point. I've been running my business for about eight years and never had to do any marketing, which was great. And I'm, you know, really grateful for that, but I wanted to grow the business and I wanted to get like better quality clients and more specific industry clients.

[00:02:23] And I thought, I have no idea how to do this. Kept getting those LinkedIn emails about people viewing my profile. And I went, Hmm, I wonder and went onto LinkedIn and absolutely hated it and felt completely like a fish out of water. I didn't look like anybody else there. I didn't sound like anybody else there.

[00:02:42] I was just like full on imposter syndrome, like God, what's, I've just got a little typing business. I'm a single mum. Who's going to listen to me? I don't know anything about all this corporate professional world. But I didn't have many other options, so I just kind of figured out how I could make it work for me and decided to have fun with it rather than just try and be like everybody else.

[00:03:03] I was just going to make it fun for myself. So even if it didn't work, at least I was enjoying it. But it, but it did work at quite a massive scale very quickly. So yeah, and then it was working, I kept doing it. 

[00:03:18] Melissa: And, and then you built a training. 

[00:03:19] Lea Turner: Yeah, six months after I'd started using LinkedIn, COVID hit, which affected my transcription business.

[00:03:26] I couldn't, my clients couldn't see their clients, weren't generating any work for me. And I, by that point I'd gone from just me to me plus a team of five people helping me with my transcription. And I'd had over a hundred LinkedIn in, in the first year. Six months. Yeah, it, it happened really, really fast.

[00:03:46] I'd grown a massive following really organically and without really meaning to, I was just sharing my thoughts and writing humorous off the wall posts, being quite authentic and sharing stories about my life as a single parent, traveling business struggles, funny things that happened in business, all sorts of stuff.

[00:04:08] And so many people were saying to me, like, how are you getting all this business from LinkedIn? Like, how are you doing it? And so when I was, when COVID sort of ripped the rug out from underneath my business, I had not many other options. It's like, well, what am I good at? I'm good at LinkedIn because people keep asking me how to get better at LinkedIn.

[00:04:27] So. I started showing people how I was doing it and how to make it work for them. And it, it was really effective and word spread quickly. And I, so I started booking out one to one trainings with people. Amazing. And, and you've had a massive following on LinkedIn. You have built an incredible community from those trainings and The most exciting thing, I guess, most recently for you is two things, I imagine.

[00:04:54] Melissa: One, which was bringing that to a close and I was privileged enough to be able to attend your very last live LinkedIn Masterclass. Yeah, that was emotional. That was that was, that was, I'm, I'm a huge fangle. So I'm so happy to be able to make that live. And one of the main reasons actually, Lea, that I loved you on LinkedIn is that authenticity you speak about, you know, you, you don't, you, I saw a piece of me in you, that's what I related to it completely, you know, it's like just not feeling like I fit in on LinkedIn.

[00:05:25] And I moved from Instagram over to LinkedIn. And I'm like, wow. Not only is she freaking cool, but She, I talk about being myself, but you, and I try my best to be myself and that sounds kind of weird, but you were like making it look so easy and seamless and I was, it was very, very magnetic and I love how you combine sort of being, having a very professional outlook, right.

[00:05:50] But just being, having, it's putting this humor in it which really does make it relatable, everybody talks about being relatable, but just With such a breath of fresh air. And one of the biggest things that I loved is that you said for your community, the HALT, which I'm going to ask you what that stands for, is that sign behind you.

[00:06:09] I believe that is a no, no, no sign. That's one of the taglines of the HALT, which is the amazing community that which is a community for business entrepreneurs, the small businesses and entrepreneurs, which I absolutely love. Could you tell us a bit more about the HALT? 

[00:06:24] Lea Turner: Yeah. So one of the things I noticed when I was doing lots of LinkedIn training is I was working one to one with a lot of people and there was a real lack of focus.

[00:06:32] knowledge around marketing particularly. So it wasn't just they needed help with LinkedIn, marketing as a whole, they didn't understand sales, they didn't understand other social media platforms, they didn't understand about lead magnets and email marketing and it was all stuff that I didn't understand about when I first started.

[00:06:49] I hadn't got a clue, no clue whatsoever, I didn't know how to build an email list, I didn't know how to make a landing page, I had no clue what my website needed and And I realized that there was all these people making money off of courses, and a lot of these courses are shit, quite frankly. Like, you pay four, five hundred dollars for a course where you get maybe 30 minutes of value and the rest of it's fluff and padding, but you have no idea because they're so good at selling it that you don't know how rubbish it is until you've spent the money.

[00:07:18] Yeah. And there was this huge lack of skills, because people come into owning a business because they're good at the thing that they sell. So they're a really great coach, or they're really good at hypnotherapy, or they're really good at helping you to lose weight, whatever it might be. But they don't know all of the other bits, all of the other hats that you have to wear as a solo business owner.

[00:07:37] And I was like, well, hold on a minute. I've got all of this huge network of amazing professionals that are constantly asking me to be on their podcast, present to their community, do them a favour, offer them some advice. And I was like, all these people owe me a favour or they want to get in front of my network.

[00:07:55] Yeah. And I've got all of these people in my network that need the skills of these people that, that want to associate with my brand. So why don't I put these two things together and give the small business owners who need the skills access to the experts that want my audience and charge them a low monthly fee, which is totally affordable when you're right at the beginning of your business to learn the skills that you need and know that you're getting good experts that aren't just going to be filling that hour with Yeah.

[00:08:24] And so the idea sort of formulated in my brain over about 12 months, and I felt quite nervous about doing it because I thought, you know, there's one thing having a following on the internet, but it's quite another thing monetizing it and getting them to trust me to provide an actual community. So I thought, I'll give it a go for a year, see what happens.

[00:08:41] See if it works out. And we're now two and a half years in we're at nearly 600 members And we've taken it we've taken it beyond what I initially expected it to be like we're doing in person networking events We've got a product line coming because people want to wear the brand they love it that much which is wild we've got so we've got like a light membership where you just get access to the master classes for the people that really don't have the time or the money to pay for the full community.

[00:09:10] I say like can't afford like 65 pounds a month. It's, it's not a lot for what we've just put the price up a little bit. But we do like, One of the things that came out was that people were lonely and they wanted that, like, accountability. They wanted to have conversations. So we started doing community calls once a week where people can drop in and meet one another.

[00:09:32] We're just introducing, like, body doubling sessions next week, which are just, like, silent co working sessions where Set your targets for the two hours in the chat and then at the end, we just go around and say, you know, who's, who's managed to get what done. Is that like an 

[00:09:48] Melissa: online sort of co working, co working space?

[00:09:50] Yeah, literally, just 

[00:09:52] Lea Turner: log into Zoom, have it on your screen, you don't even need the camera on, you say what you're going to achieve in that two hours, and then at the end of the two hours, we all have to, on audio or video and say what we've managed to get done. So it's like that accountability, productivity session.

[00:10:08] We do, we've got a wellbeing clinic. We've got a LinkedIn clinic that I host. We've got a tech clinic. So rather than having to pay like a tech expense, But hundreds of pounds to fix a tiny problem because they've got like a minimum hourly fee. You just drop into our tech clinic and our tech person will fix it for you as part of your, your membership fee.

[00:10:27] So it's like all these things that have come about and it's grown and I've been just listening what to what the community want and going, okay, how can I accommodate that? And it's been. a massive learning curve for me, but what we've created is something that's so valuable that our best marketers are our members now.

[00:10:44] And that feels like, like the luckiest place ever to be. It is that we, our members love it so much that they want to tell their friends about it without like us having to do, we do obviously do a lot of PR promotion for it, but having, being in that position. You've got all these 

[00:11:02] Melissa: ambassadors. You've basically got, even if it was, you know, like, even if it was 10 percent of your 600, there's like 60 ambassadors out there talking about the whole, and I'm definitely, I mean, I love that the community, I don't get to go in as much as I would like and even then I'm going to be very honest, it's so rich.

[00:11:20] with resources, right? And so rich of, with information and people who just genuinely want to help each other. It is incredible. So if any of you watching, you've not heard of the whole, you're curious, it's a no brainer. It was a no brainer for me actually to join. And even though, like I said, I don't get into go, I don't get to go in that often.

[00:11:40] I, I just, 

[00:11:41] Lea Turner: It's hard because of your time zones, isn't it? But we are a global community, which I love. But we can't paint it at all time zones, and so if you are in like the East Coast of America and you're what, like eight or nine hours behind us or if you're in Australia where you're 11 hours behind us or ahead of us, it's really tricky.

[00:12:01] You can still access all the masterclasses and go into the chat channels. You'll get answers to your questions, but it's, we can't, we can't have masterclasses on at like 1am my time because We don't have enough members. I think if we had enough members in Australia and New Zealand, we'd probably bring in experts in those regions to specifically do masterclasses for their times, but we're not at that point yet.

[00:12:26] We've only got a handful of members in, in Australasia. 

[00:12:29] Melissa: But you know what? That's, that's exactly my point. It's, it's okay. It's fine. Because like, for me, I still want to be a member of the Holt because I know there's a wealth of resources there. Like I need anything. And even though I can't make those, some of those live sessions, if I have any questions to ask, like the tech, they're there for me.

[00:12:47] You know, and it's, it's a beautiful, you can still ask in the 

[00:12:51] Lea Turner: channel and they'll, they'll solve it for you. Exactly, 

[00:12:54] Melissa: exactly. And just that community, that, that sense of community, so many of us now are working online, you know, so to have that online community is super, super powerful. So I'm a proud member of the HALT.

[00:13:06] And you, you mentioned about the vault, you've mentioned the difference of the vault. So that is that literally just basically all the resources are available to, to the members, but they just don't have access to the live sessions. 

[00:13:18] Lea Turner: Yeah, so one of the things that we heard from people when they were like leaving the whole was that they just don't have time for the community and said, it's really valuable.

[00:13:26] It's amazing, but we don't have time for the community and we feel like we're paying for something that we're not getting the benefit from. And so I thought, well, hold on a minute. If we've got people leaving that don't have time for the chat and the live stuff, why don't we just create, duplicate the library of resources that we've got?

[00:13:43] Create another membership where there's no chat, there's no live clinics, there's none of that, but every single masterclass we've ever hosted, which is like drawing close to 150 now that's all in there. So they only pay 20 pounds a month for that. So you think about like, there's less than a gym membership at most gyms.

[00:14:02] And you have access to 150 different experts on every business skill that you could need right at your fingertips. So you're, you're thinking about going into. Starting email marketing, right? Go and go and watch the masterclass on 10 ways to create a killer newsletter and setting up your landing page and automation and and how to do a great welcome sequence.

[00:14:22] So you can literally learn all three and they're three hours of masterclasses and you've not had to pay, what, 500. For or maybe more to learn three different courses and you know the experts to go to because they posted the masterclass if you want to go a bit more in depth you know that actually maybe that person did a great masterclass i'll go and buy their course because i know that they actually do great stuff now and i feel like i can trust them and also for the masterclass hosts They're getting potentially a future customer, which happens a lot, which really motivates people to want to deliver a masterclass for us.

[00:15:02] So everybody wins. And I think, I feel like I've just hit gold with it, that you go, hold on a minute, the masterclass hosts win, the members win, they're help, they're learning something, getting better at it, improving their business, making more money, then they're going to promote this person and hopefully hire this person in the future and it, and it's working that way and yeah.

[00:15:25] That is a win for 

[00:15:26] Melissa: everybody and, and the sense of fulfillment for you must be incredible because you're connecting the dots. Yeah, hugely. 

[00:15:32] Lea Turner: Yeah, massively. And for our external masterclass hosts as well. So when we bring in people that aren't already members, we pay them 100. But we give them the option of taking the 100 themselves, or donating it to a charity of their choice.

[00:15:50] And the vast majority of Select to donate it to a charity. So even better, we are compensating people, but more often than not a charity benefits as well. So it's like, like hit the trifecta, everybody wins. And I just, they're going. Bloody hell, no, this is great. 

[00:16:07] Melissa: And, and that's something else that I, I also admire of you is, is your commitment to giving back to community, not just, I mean, this is a way that you're giving back already, even though it's a paid membership, you are giving back, you're, you're tapping in, you're remembering how difficult it was when you first started.

[00:16:23] You've built a network and you're leveraging on that network to help other people because you could charge more. And there's nothing wrong with money. We all need money, but you're really thinking about how to maximize and make it sustainable and broad. But going back to the fact that you give back to community as well.

[00:16:39] Sorry, go ahead. 

[00:16:40] Lea Turner: Yeah, like I, so when I was doing the LinkedIn training, it started off very affordable and then because the demand was so much, I, I've sort of moved to high ticket and I was following what everybody on LinkedIn is saying, you know, if you're in demand, if you'd creating this value, you need to charge more.

[00:16:55] And so when I finished, it was nearly three grand to 3000 pounds to spend three hours working with me, which I was like, Oh my God, that's, that's That's outrageous. That's what, like double what I used to make in an entire month of working like 60 hours a week. So I was like, this feels audacious. And while it was exciting that people would pay that, it didn't feel good inside me, like in my soul, it didn't feel good.

[00:17:25] And it felt unaligned. And the reason for that is because I was helping people that in the majority could afford that was like, It was easy. It was easy money. And it was, don't get me wrong, like, I'm not, I'm not that person that's like, Oh no, poor me, I'm earning all of this money. Like, that's not, but it didn't feel good inside me.

[00:17:46] I was earning more than I possibly needed, which is, is, I was in a very privileged position. But I wanted to help the people that needed the help more at the beginning of the journey, that felt better to me. So when I was working, when I started the whole, it was 50 pounds a month. I was like, every small business owner can afford 50 pounds a month because what you're saving by not needing to buy all these other resources.

[00:18:12] So really, it's a no brainer that you can learn all of this stuff that you need to know, and it's actually costing you less than one course. So but that feels more aligned for me because I'm, I'm helping the people that I was five years ago and people that are on my level. There's people that are earning millions that are in the hole as well.

[00:18:32] Like that's, we have a really, really big range. But it, it just feels more aligned to me to be able to offer something lower, lower costs to people that really need it. than high cost to people that, you know, they'll benefit from it, but, but it's not like a, it's going to change their life kind of situation.

[00:18:52] I've, it feels better to me to be able to give people something that feels like they're going to change their life for not a life changing amount of money. And that's 

[00:19:00] Melissa: alignment. That's exactly what alignment is about a feeling and what gives you fulfillment, right? I mean, at the end of the day, and you have fun with it.

[00:19:08] You're in the community. I see you. You're, you're, you're commenting. You're there. It's like you, you, it's all you, you know, I mean, of course you've got an amazing team, but you're very present there. It's not like a lot of communities where they grow, they hire a team and then it's like crickets from the founder.

[00:19:24] You know, every now and then they drop it. Yeah, like I 

[00:19:26] Lea Turner: can't promise that it's always, I'm going to always be as involved as I am now. Because obviously, one of the, one of the goals for me is to work less. But the thing is, being in the whole community doesn't feel like work for me. And I can't envisage a day where, Where I'm not, like, wanting to hop in and see what's going on and say hi to people.

[00:19:45] Because I built the community I wanted. And I built the community that I needed. As that solo mum sat at home, lonely and isolated during Covid, with a small child and no one to talk to. And I spent hours on places like Clubhouse just to feel like I was having conversations with other adult humans rather than a burbling toddler all the time, loving the pieces, but I wanted to actually have an intellectual conversation.

[00:20:11] So I would go to places like that and I was like, right, what did I enjoy about Clubhouse? What do I enjoy about LinkedIn? What do I hate about these places? Let's make sure that that isn't included in it. So I, I built the community that I, and I'm continuing to build a community that I needed and that I wanted, and It's attracting people that, that need and want the same thing.

[00:20:34] And so those people are like, I haven't caught stuff in common with those people. So why wouldn't I want to spend time with them? 

[00:20:40] Melissa: Yeah. So you were on Clubhouse. I think that's the first time I, I heard you now, now that I'm remembering back because I loved Clubhouse. Well, kind of, we kind of didn't have a choice, did we?

[00:20:49] There was nothing else to do, nowhere else to go and actually no one to speak to. So like you said, it was a fantastic opportunity to meet people and talk to people such an incredible place. And, and. I kind of want to sort of transition now, sort of segue, go across now to kind of more personal stuff.

[00:21:05] Okay. So we talked about the business, talked about how you started, how you, you know, you grew your business on LinkedIn, then you pivoted, you shifted to community building and now you have kind of two built, two communities per se. And that's going to be your focus, right? And from 2025 onwards. Okay. And you said your goal is to work less.

[00:21:24] Which in actual fact, Sounds like you're kind of already doing that because when you do what you love, it doesn't feel like work. I'm going to ask, what's your, what's your biggest vision for this community? Where do you see it going? Where do you want to see it going? You're on 600 members now. Do you have a vision?

[00:21:42] Lea Turner: I really struggle with this question because I don't know yet. I, my next goal is to get us up to 800 members by the end of this year. I'd love to see that. But we're really strict on how we grow it. So we only allow 25 new members in per launch, which we do once a month because we don't want to overwhelm existing members.

[00:22:02] And it's not like a big scarcity tactic. It's literally, we want to grow it gradually and we let like referrals in, we drip feed those in. But I don't know, like lots of people have, have suggested like franchising it. And I'm like, Oh, dunno, like that's. , that's a risk with quality control. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm

[00:22:20] And it could lose the magic. And I, and, and then I think for me. I do like the idea of having like local factors, factions of the HALT, so we'd have like a main community where all of the questions and the masterclasses are hosted, but then like regional offshoots across the UK and then maybe in different countries where they've got access to everybody in the main community, but also local people so that we can set up partnerships with local co working spaces where members can all go and meet on a set time of, of like, set day of the week, every week, like big picture.

[00:23:00] I, I really like the idea of that. And maybe that would be like a premium membership that if they wanted that included, they would pay extra, but there's, there's lots of different options. And I think, So far in business, winging it and seeing where it leads has done me very well. Right, spaghetti on the 

[00:23:20] Melissa: wall, see if it sticks.

[00:23:22] Lea Turner: Yeah, and like try new things, see how it works, see what the community wants. We're definitely going to be doing more in person events this year in the UK. Because the majority of our mums are based in the UK. We do have lots of them. We've got about 200 members. It's sort of Europe and the rest of the world, but about 400 in the UK.

[00:23:42] So we're going to be bringing in more in person stuff, but I think it's just You've definitely got 

[00:23:47] Melissa: one from Malaysia, so I'll fly the flag. Yeah, we did 

[00:23:50] Lea Turner: have two from Malaysia actually, but unfortunately he left because it just wasn't aligned with what he was doing next. Well, I hold 

[00:23:57] Melissa: that 

[00:23:57] Lea Turner: seat proudly 

[00:23:58] Melissa: for now.

[00:23:58] Lea Turner: And yeah, I mean, I, I love, I, I had the, I had the privilege of attending one of your in person events and I was actually through Chris, good old Chris James, cause I'd went up, I was part of C2C and I was there with him him and I got into your Christmas party. It was a Manchester 

[00:24:13] party, wasn't it? In the summer.

[00:24:14] Melissa: Yes, it was, was it 

[00:24:16] Lea Turner: the summer? 

[00:24:16] Melissa: Yeah. It was in Manchester. Yeah. And I missed this year's Christmas party. I mean, last year that would be 2024. But yeah, I aim to be there for this year, 2025. 'cause I've aimed to be in the UK for Christmas this year. Amazing. Or December, November, December. So I'm hoping that I'll catch it.

[00:24:31] Lea Turner: I, I will. It's, I think we've gonna have to try and just like get a date locked in fairly soon so that people can just make sure it's. Like, yeah, 

[00:24:41] Melissa: yeah, me, me, definitely. And I'm just having a total brain fart moment cause I knew what I want to ask. It's totally, ah, did you. Ever imagine, okay, did you know you were going to be a community leader?

[00:24:53] What did, I mean, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, community builder, rather, if someone had said to you, by the way, I can see the future and in 15 years, you were gonna be this incredible community builder and have this powerful community for small business owners and entrepreneurs and you're going to start your own podcast.

[00:25:13] What would your response be? What would have been your response to that person? 

[00:25:16] Lea Turner: I think at that point in my life, I was spending most of my weekends getting absolutely hammered at nightclubs and house parties and strip clubs and waking up on the beach in Brighton. So, if you'd have told me then that I would be doing this now, and as a solo parent, No, I wouldn't have believed you in a million years because I was still working.

[00:25:41] I wasn't, I hadn't even started my first business at that point. I was just working as like a secretary in an office for a construction company. Like, no, I wouldn't have in a minute, even 10 years ago when just before my son was born I was struggling to make ends meet, working crazy amounts of hours, doing a job that was unbelievably boring, but I thought that's all I was good at.

[00:26:04] Like, cause I grew up in, you know, my teachers were just like, you get a job. You finish school, you do your two years of college, you go to university, you get a job, you work for somebody else until you retire, then you die. 

[00:26:18] Melissa: That 

[00:26:19] Lea Turner: was just the path everybody's on. Is 

[00:26:20] Melissa: that the dream then? Well, 

[00:26:22] Lea Turner: it's 

[00:26:22] Melissa: just the thing that they talk 

[00:26:24] Lea Turner: about at school.

[00:26:25] There's no, we might start your own business. No one even suggested the idea of starting my own business. I don't really know anyone that started their own business. Like I wasn't around those people. My parents worked minimum wage jobs. My dad. Like, left the Navy and was a window cleaner until he passed away.

[00:26:41] Like, there was no entrepreneurial spark in anyone in my family. I didn't, it wasn't something that I saw. So I just kind of assumed that was my path. And it wasn't till I worked for two guys who had this, It was a building contractors that we that I've worked for. And they both started the business when they were 27.

[00:27:00] And I think that was where I first sort of started thinking, like, they were 27 and they started their own business. And like, they're smart guys, but it's like, I think I'm, I think I'm as smart as these guys. I could do something and then I started traveling. I'm traveling. My first solo trip to Thailand was where I went, I need to make more money because I'm not going to be able to afford to do this again.

[00:27:24] And I really want to travel more. So that was where I first decided I would start like a side hustle to make a bit of extra money. So no, there's no way. Even 10 years ago, you would have convinced me that this would be the path that I would be on. Especially not like having loads of followers on the internet.

[00:27:43] I, even now it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me cringe because I don't, I don't like being the center of attention. I like my privacy and I like I'm an introvert. I like being in my house. I don't like going out loads. So yeah, I think I still mentally struggle with so many people paying attention to me.

[00:28:06] Like when I'm on my computer, it's like a whole other world and I'm still the same person. But no, if you'd said to me, you're going to have like hundreds of thousands of followers online. And I'm People will know your name in the street, I would have gone, God, no, I'm never doing that. 

[00:28:24] Melissa: And you know what they say about never, never say never, right?

[00:28:26] I mean hello from a fellow introvert over here. I definitely identify as an introvert too. But I know that you've also got yourself on stage at the comedy club, didn't you? Now that must have been quite, that must have been quite what a challenge for yourself, doing that as an introvert and comedy.

[00:28:41] I mean, can you tell us a bit about that? That's a hard 

[00:28:43] Lea Turner: one. Yeah, it was Ian from Agency Hackers messaged me on LinkedIn with this really weird message, like, as a proposal, and I was like, that sounds like a mad idea. I said, yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. Yeah, I, I said it straight away. I was like, sounds like something I'd give a go.

[00:29:01] So he called me and I was just like, yeah, I mean, I, I like to say yes to things before I can think through too much because then I'll get scared and say no. That's how I ended up up the bloody mountain, up Kelimanjaro last year. I say yes later. Yes. First. And then I'm like, I'll figure it out. Are you as clear about your 

[00:29:18] Melissa: yes, as are you as clear about your yeses as you are with your nose.

[00:29:23] Lea Turner: Yeah, it's the gut thing. If my gut reaction is yeah, do it. I'll do it. If my gut reactions don't do it, I, I, it's just a no. I bet you're a generator, a manifesting generator in human design. Have you heard of human design? Are you manifesting generator? Yeah, we had, we had a masterclass in the hall on human design with Julie Chiardi and she made us do our human design.

[00:29:44] Oh my God. I've got to 

[00:29:45] Melissa: catch it. Cause I'm a human design, total human design nerd. I love human design. Are 

[00:29:49] Lea Turner: you? 

[00:29:49] Melissa: Yeah. I can't 

[00:29:50] Lea Turner: remember what the numbers were, but 

[00:29:52] Melissa: yeah, it was quite. I think you've definitely got a three in your numbers. 

[00:29:56] Lea Turner: No, it was a, it was either six fours and twos. I can't remember if it was a four and a six or six and a four.

[00:30:01] She did, she did me a she does a podcast. So she asked me a load of questions and then she analyzed my human design on episode two. So that's, yeah, it was an interesting podcast to do actually. It's very interesting. Like human design is interesting. 

[00:30:14] Melissa: But 

[00:30:14] Lea Turner: yes, I'm very led with my gut on pretty much everything except dating.

[00:30:19] I'm really not so good at listening to my gut when it comes to dating, but I'm getting better. 

[00:30:23] Melissa: Well, you know what they say, well, and at least what I believe about human design is that the minute you know that you need to follow your authority, in your case, it's the gut, your sacral, right? You know that, that that's going to put you in alignment.

[00:30:34] If you then you consciously choose not to, not to follow that, it's also for a reason. It's because you're, you know, you're looking for the lesson, so to speak, the experience, which is also full, full of wisdom, but anyway, coming, coming back and that's my, my brain now. Getting distracted. I can't remember what we're talking about.

[00:30:51] Cause I'm just like, yeah, my God. Have you been on an ADHD podcast by any chance? 

[00:30:57] Lea Turner: I, well, other, with other people that have it, 

[00:31:00] Melissa: yeah, I don't think 

[00:31:01] Lea Turner: I've been on any podcasts about ADHD, I think I'm, I'm a little bit like resistant to doing that because while I'm open about it, I also don't want to be pigeonholed.

[00:31:11] Melissa: Oh yeah, sure. Having said that, has it got in the way? Not that I'm pigeonholing you, but has your ADHD got, got in the way as in, because our world is not built. That's let me, let me phrase, let me give you the context for that. Has, have you struggled in life? You know, whether you were as a child growing up in school or even with business and even doing business with people because people didn't understand ADHD because that's something else that I, I really respect about you is that at least on LinkedIn, I see you call people out.

[00:31:46] In the best way, hold people accountable for their lack of knowledge, encourage them to do their research, like get better educated in particular. There was someone who recently talked about being sick and tired of being called out for being along the lines of being a straight white man and the privilege of being a white man.

[00:32:04] But that, that feed went round and, and what you wrote something and I was kind of like, Like, yes, that this is what the world is about. We, we, it's not about not, it's not about shaming or guilting anybody for not knowing better. It's about knowing that we have a responsibility to know better, especially when someone gives us the opportunity to.

[00:32:27] So I've, I've just gone around the houses. Let's go back to the ADHD. Has that got, yeah. How has the world been for you in that sense? 

[00:32:35] Lea Turner: I didn't know I had ADHD until a couple of years ago. Okay. And I only really learned about it because I saw other people talking about it went, Oh my God, this explains this would explain so much.

[00:32:47] So in hindsight, yeah, like looking back at my childhood there was a lot of things that potentially could have been easier had I known my hyper fixation when I was, A kid was reading and because I was a girl and because I would read, and I mean obsessively read, like I would have a book in my hand while I was crossing the road.

[00:33:09] I would sit in the playground and read a book. Like I would go through 10 books a week. My mum used to have to take me to the library and I would come away with like a stack of 10 books and we'd be back the next week. I was obsessive. I'd read all night with the torch under, under my duvet. Like you could, I could not read enough.

[00:33:28] I, God knows how many thousands of books I must have gone through in my childhood. And I started reading from an early age, like, I was only about four, I think, when I was five. Were you, were you Enid Blyton reader? Oh yeah, yeah, Enid Blyton, all the Enid Blyton books, all of the Judy Blume books, as I got a little bit older.

[00:33:42] Oh, Judy Blume. All of the point horrors and point romances and like, I was, I, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, I read Harry Potter, I read as they were released. I read as they were released. So that era Lord of the Rings, I think I read by the time I was my son's age, about nine. And I just would pour over anything I could get my hands on.

[00:34:03] So nobody really noticed 

[00:34:05] Melissa: and I was 

[00:34:06] Lea Turner: well behaved. And I think. Because I was well behaved, because I got good grades at school, because my hyper fixation was reading, no one ever really noticed about the things that I would struggle with, but, but I would struggle with things. So I had like sensory issues and then as I became a teenager, my behavior really spiraled.

[00:34:24] I struggled with insomnia, I struggled with my mental health, which was partly because of the grief of losing my father so young and other things that were going on in my life, but I really went off the rails. The rails in my teens people just put it down to like brief trauma. But actually it was my inability to like process my emotions.

[00:34:43] So I struggled with like self injury as well. And now I understand that I'm, so I'm, I'm diagnosed with ADHD, but during my diagnose for ADHD, they said, there's a, there's a high chance that you're also autistic because there's, there's a lot of signs pointing towards autism. within this diagnosis and something called alexithymia, which is an inability or a difficulty with understanding and processing your emotions.

[00:35:13] So I'm not very good at processing my own emotions in the moment. I, I like someone dies. I don't cry about it, but I'll think back on it later and then have to analyze what I'm supposed to feel. in that moment. So, and it's a weird combination because I'm extremely empathetic, but I don't attach myself so much to emotions, and it can sometimes make me seem cold or I can be like overwhelmed with things that are happening.

[00:35:42] Last summer when I was, I was dating someone and there was a lot happening all in one go and he was very full on and I was like, I don't really know how I feel with this about all of this yet. So I just sort of went along with it. And then I had time to process when I had some time to myself and went, actually, this is not, this is all I'm quite uncomfortable and I'm, and I'm not happy about this and, but I can't do it like instantly.

[00:36:04] And yet, when I'm watching, say, a film or reading a book, I can feel those emotions because I'm being told through the words and the music how to feel about it. So I can then So like, if someone dies in a film, because I'm literally being guided into that emotion and told how I'm supposed to be feeling by all the things going on in that movie, I will have raw and real emotion.

[00:36:25] But someone says to me, like, your grandma's dead. I'm like, oh, that's You know what I mean? That's sad, but I, but I won't have emotions. Show it. You won't, you won't, you won't, sort 

[00:36:36] Melissa: of, connect with the emotion in that moment. Yeah, 

[00:36:39] Lea Turner: yeah. It's, it's a, it's a weird disconnect. And so there's all sorts of things where that's manifested over the years, and I didn't know that's what it was, I just felt weird, and, and, I didn't know how to feel my feelings properly.

[00:36:51] Melissa: Yeah. 

[00:36:52] Lea Turner: And now I'm just kind of comfortable with who I am. And I understand it so much better that I just go, well, I'm not weird. This is just how my brain works. And I accept it. And now I understand how my brain works. I'm able to, Put things in place. So like someone sends me a load of forms to fill in for something.

[00:37:08] I'm like, I'm not doing that. Send it to my VA and he'll just fill it all in for me. And I sign where I need to. I've got my house set up to lend itself to my brain. I know what helps me to focus better. And I create environments like that. I don't force myself to do things that make me that drain me.

[00:37:26] I'm very, I like doing things that make me uncomfortable because I like to grow from them. Like standing on stage and doing comedy. I was like, this is going to be scary, but I'll grow as a person and I'll have had a richer experience in my life for doing it. I'm not going to make a habit of it. I'm not planning a career in standup comedy, but I'd always look back and go, Oh, I should have done that.

[00:37:49] Like Robin Williams stood on that stage and all of the legends of comedy have stood on that stage. Why would I say no to that? It's just 20 minutes of feeling scared and then I go, look at this thing I did. So yeah, it, I, I just, I understand and forgive myself more and I'm not hard on myself. And I just go, that's just me.

[00:38:09] Not like I don't want to push my problems onto other people and I'm not like making excuses for it, but I'm like, I know that I'm going to react this way. So therefore I can either make accommodations or not do it or find someone else to help me to do it rather than. Just like struggle and force myself and create discomfort for everybody involved.

[00:38:33] So yeah, it's definitely in high, it definitely makes parts of my life harder, but it's easier now that I know because I can put, I can put things in place to help me. 

[00:38:46] Melissa: You've used it to kind of know yourself better, which is, which is what I think, like. Sort of this sort of diagnoses can do. And I love what you said earlier is that you don't, I mean, as much as you identify with ADHD in terms of the symptoms of it, or the patterns of behavior that are, that we label as ADHD, but you don't want to be labeled as it, I find that really powerful because, you know, The thing, that's a weird thing about humans, right?

[00:39:09] We, we all want a sense of belonging. We want to be identified with something because then it kind of validates who we are or the behavior that we have. And it gives us a sense of belonging, but you know, when we attach to the labels, they become limits and then people perceive us, they pigeonhole us for it.

[00:39:23] So I, I really, I really love the way that you put that. I find it 

[00:39:26] Lea Turner: really strange as well. I love the, I love how labels can bring people together because they can find like their people. And that really helped me to find other people to learn from about ADHD. But then I went to some, like, events that were specifically for people with ADHD, and I was like, this is fucking awful.

[00:39:44] Because, because I, like, some parts of my neurodiversity are really triggered by things that other neurodivergents do. So when I'm around someone who has absolutely zero sense of, like, personal space, I hate that, I, that makes me so deeply uncomfortable, makes me want to immediately leave. Or there's people that are a super extrovert ADHD, make me recoil into myself, because especially if they feel like they know me already.

[00:40:14] So it's like, just because we both have ADHD doesn't mean we can both be friends. If we both got, like, ADHD that complements each other's ADHD, that's great, but just because, you know what I mean? Yeah, I see, yeah. I'm a vegetarian doesn't mean I'm going to like every other vegetarian in the world. And I think sometimes That makes me feel a little bit like I don't want to just be, and I don't just want to be an ADHD influencer.

[00:40:42] I find there's nothing wrong with it, but I find that people tend to make it such a huge part of their identity that they lose other parts. Do you know what I mean? Those people that are so into CrossFit that their entire life is about CrossFit. Or they're a vegan, so everything in their life is about being a vegan and it's all they talk about.

[00:41:02] There's nothing wrong with being passionate about something, but I don't want to be that one person that's pigeonholed into one thing. I'm not just sober. I'm not just someone with ADHD. I'm so multifaceted. So I try not to talk about any one of those things too much. 

[00:41:20] Melissa: Do you know what 

[00:41:21] Lea Turner: I 

[00:41:21] Melissa: mean? I do. So we better move on then.

[00:41:24] So, I mean, you've had such a colorful life. I mean, what you've shared with us so far and you've, and you've, you've shared, you know, you've been on many podcasts, you, you, as much as you are an introvert, you know, you are very much out there. And of course, now you also have your own podcast. What's it called?

[00:41:39] Lea Turner: So it's alongside the whole brand, so it's called the Holt Survival Guide for Small Businesses. Okay. Okay. I. Yeah, and we've done season one so far and we're starting to record season two next week. Okay, and in that podcast you feature experts? 

[00:41:54] So the first season was people that are in the membership.

[00:41:58] Melissa: Okay. 

[00:41:59] Lea Turner: Because we sort of had it as a, as a bonus for people that signed up for a lifetime membership, which is only available to people that have like hit a few people, basically. We did it as a limited run for. for a reward for loyalty for people who've been there for so long. The next season is, is a variety of people but everybody's a small business owner with a varying degree of like how far, how long they've been doing it and how much success they've reached and understanding like what got them, why did they start their businesses, how are they running their businesses, the big lessons they've learned, the failures they faced.

[00:42:34] So it's kind of the antidote to all of these. Like, super famous, really rich business tycoons, or, you know, Do you know those big podcasts? Yeah, you know, two white men telling each other how great they are, kind of thing. I want to talk to real people with real experiences, which does include white men as well.

[00:42:57] But we've got, yeah, it's, I wanted to talk to people that are still on the journey, not people that have already reached that sort of pinnacle of success and are living the dream. I wanted to talk to the people who are still in the weeds. And because I think it's more relatable, like I want to talk to people who are still going through those struggles, who are still learning the lessons, but still feeling imposter syndrome every damn day.

[00:43:22] And what are their coping mechanisms and normalize the gritty reality of owning a small business or being a freelancer, not, not the glamorized instant gram version of it. So season 

[00:43:34] Melissa: two going to be different. 

[00:43:36] Lea Turner: Yeah, season two, we've got a real variety of people. We've got people that business isn't going so well.

[00:43:41] We've got people that we've got one guy who's really successfully franchised his business. We've got someone who just trying to think of who the guests are. We've got a guest who's struggles with Tourette's and it's an adopted, he's adopted a little boy. So he's, he's a parent. He lives with Tourette's and he was told he was never going to work and started his own business and is absolutely thriving.

[00:44:05] We've got a real variety of we've got an introvert who runs a marketing networking business which I really like as well, and another neurodiverse person. We've got a freelancer who's like the most no bullshit person you'll ever meet which I really love. So it's a real variety of people, but they're all very much still running their businesses day to day, involved in it.

[00:44:28] Some have managed to create it so it suits their life. Some of them are still working towards that. Some of them are very much like, well business was going well and now it's tanked and here are the things I'm doing to try and fix it. Because I think that's, that's reality. And no one ever talks to those people.

[00:44:46] Everyone wants the big shiny, like, people at the finish line showing you what, what's possible. Like, I want to show you the people that are still trying to figure out how it's possible. 

[00:44:55] Melissa: Yeah. 

[00:44:55] Lea Turner: Cause that's. That's what, where most of us are, most of us don't reach multi billionaire status. So, yeah, it's the, us with the little guy.

[00:45:04] Melissa: So you're in the middle of recording season two right now? Did you say? Start next week. Oh, yeah. Start next week. Okay. Yeah. Starting next week. You better go check it out. It's all on YouTube. I love the shorts as well. Let me see. The Bolt. The Holt. The podcast. I keep skimming over. I keep wanting to get into, you know, more about your life and, and you've already shared quite a lot about it.

[00:45:24] I do want to ask that with all the different. Chapters in your life that you've navigated and the different businesses and the amazing ideas you've had, including being a single, sorry, an idea of being a single parent was not what I meant to say, all the amazing business ideas you've had and the journey of becoming a single parent.

[00:45:40] And, you know, you've always shared about your son. I'd like for you to share with us, like. What is it that has got you through like the hardest moments? Is there any one thing or any, any sort of, in your own personal toolkit that's really, when you look back now, that's got you back, got you through those really, really shit fuck days?

[00:46:02] Lea Turner: Now it's my son. It's, he's the guiding light that makes it all worthwhile now. Before my son, it was my dad. So my dad passed away from cancer when I was 10. It was a long battle from when I was about 8 to 10. He was only 41 when he died. Gosh. So it was really, really, really young. And I always felt, now I'm not religious in any way, shape or form, but I, in my head, sort of imagine him sat on my shoulder going, you can do it, like you've got to do it.

[00:46:34] And I think I've always just been, when he passed away, so he was a window cleaner and he used to sort of go from house to house, having a cup of tea, whistling away you know, proper stereotypical window cleaner of the days of old. And when he passed away, his, the church was absolutely packed. Like it was a big church and there was, must've been 300 people there.

[00:46:57] And I sat at the front with my mum and my sister and sort of turned around. And I remember turning around and seeing this church that was absolutely packed. And I don't think I really registered at the time, the significance of that moment. But when I look back on it, I think, I remember thinking, if I can, if I can live a life.

[00:47:18] where 300 people will mourn my passing and know that there will be a small gap in their life without me, then I've done a really good job. Like, even if I can get half that amount of people, the fact that he made people's, that many people's lives a little bit better, a little bit happier, and that they were going to miss him.

[00:47:39] It's like, that is a life well lived, and he was a very poor man, he could barely read, like he left school at 15, barely ever went to school anyway, grew up in like, the, the back ass countryside of, of the north. And I, I just sort of thought, if a man like that can make this much impact on so many people, with so little, then that's a good life.

[00:48:02] And so I think that's always just guided me. And it sounds so twee to say stuff like that, but I think it is. It's always, like, would he be proud of me? Am I making an impact? Am I living my life to the full? That if I died at 41 as well, because that's next year for me, I turn 40 in, in spring. If I die at 41, Yeah, yeah, it may, it's the Zoom filter, but thanks.

[00:48:27] I'm being single, I'm never marrying, that's kept me young. Sorry, I didn't mean to take away from what you were saying. No, but, but, but seriously, like, I always just, I've always lived, I think, with that kind of deadline in my head, like, what if I don't live past 41? Have I lived a life that's packed as much into it as possible?

[00:48:46] Have I said yes to the opportunities? Have I done loads of cool stuff with my son? Is he going to have enough amazing memories with me? You never have enough memories of, of a passed away parent, but like, have I done my best? So that's, that guides me and it keeps me going. And to see my son so happy every, every day and The love that he has for me and that we have for each other.

[00:49:11] Like that now is my guiding light. And he's, he's like a little piece of my dad still that looks back at me and goes, you're doing a good job, mum. 

[00:49:18] Melissa: That's, that's beautiful. That's really beautiful. I mean, that's the legacy that your dad has left, right? And that you, that, that keeps you going and inspires you.

[00:49:28] And what, who is it that said, is it Maya Angelou said, Angelou who said, it's not what you do. It's not, people don't remember what you do, what you say. People remember how you made them feel. I mean, obviously 300 people. Right. Remembers this amazing man who whistled and was jolly and had cups of tea and been there with us.

[00:49:45] And he was so humble. Like, 

[00:49:47] Lea Turner: honestly, a guy that can, he was five foot six, five, five, five foot six. Tiny, tiny little guy. And he was, he honestly couldn't read. He could barely, barely read. anything. He could barely write and yet he would just pop in a van and take his, take his ladders and bucket and go around have a cup of tea.

[00:50:07] He was constantly coming home with pets, like unwanted pets from his customers. He'd just show up at home with a new rabbit and a guinea pig that some of the kids hadn't wanted so we now had more guinea pigs. Like he was just a very simple man but a good man and I think like doing good doesn't have to be complicated and I take, I took that lesson from him and it's, it's weird because obviously I wasn't this 10 year old having all this insight into looking, you know, my dad said, here's, here's 10 lessons you can learn about life from the past.

[00:50:38] But like, I look back on it now and I think of all the lessons that I have taken from it and I take those forward. In how I show up in the world. So, 

[00:50:47] Melissa: yeah, I mean, cause we don't learn, we don't actually learn, but from our parents and what they tell us, because the truth, I think, I think you'll agree with me, for sure, whatever my parents tell me, I do the opposite because who likes being told what to do, but we observe.

[00:51:00] It's that ADHD again, demand wins. We, We, we observe them, right? We observe how they behave. We observe the interactions. I mean, again, at the time, you're not eight years old taking notes and like homework, observe mom and dad, but that's where animals were still very much that sort of primal part of us. And that's really beautiful.

[00:51:20] Thank you for sharing that about. You know, this beautiful memory you have of your dad and his legacy and how he lives on what you said that he lives on through your son. You know, you see, you see that in your son, that light of inspiration. It's very beautiful. I'm just going to ask one more thing about your dad which is what do you, I mean, if you had to choose one thing that you love and miss the most about him, what would it be?

[00:51:43] What quality? 

[00:51:44] Lea Turner: It's hard really because like I didn't know him that well, I was a daddy's girl, but I didn't. I don't have a lot of memories, but I think one of the things that I inherited was the love for travel. So he was in the Navy and he traveled, he went around the world twice and he had a real thirst for adventure and and doing things that made him happy.

[00:52:05] I think probably he had ADHD based on what I've been told about him. And he was quite like reckless and spontaneous and did not like authority at all. And I'm like, Okay. Like this is sounding quite familiar, but yeah, he was a big travel lover and I think that's something that's definitely come out in my life.

[00:52:25] And he was also covered in tattoos, Navy tattoos. And I think part of why I started was a way to feel closer to him. Okay. Although, my mum used to tell me that he hated tattoos on women, so, sorry dad. But, I think my mum probably just told me that so that I wouldn't get more because she doesn't like it very much.

[00:52:45] But yeah, it's I, I think, I don't know what I'm, I think the thing that I miss is having that, that person to turn to, to go, dad, how do I do this? Or, dad, I need my car. I need to take the car to the garage. If they tell me this now, I've had to find other people in my life to help me with that. And I've got an uncle nearby who's great.

[00:53:08] My, my dad's. Sister's husband and he will sort of step in if ever I need things like that. But I've only just moved up here a couple of years ago and I've, and I've really never had that in my adult life, so I'm kind of not used to asking for it. Sure. But it's like even just having someone to help me put a shelf up or my fence is broken and I'm not sure how to fix it.

[00:53:30] Dad, can you come and help me out? Or, Dad, what do you think of this guy I'm dating? Give me a moment of perspective. Like, it's those moments that I think I just go, I've just never known what that's like to have because it's been so many, you know, my entire adult life and most of my childhood without him.

[00:53:48] And, and even when he was there in the years that I do remember, he was too poorly to really be there. involved father. He was, you know, mum was coming from a home. So yeah, I think that's, that's the tough bit. It's not having that father role to turn to when you need a male perspective or, or the dad support that you miss.

[00:54:09] You know, I always used to think if I ever did get married and not, not having him to walk me down the aisle, that sort of thing would be really sad. So probably won't get married now, so it's fine. 

[00:54:21] Melissa: Is, is mum still around? 

[00:54:23] Lea Turner: Yeah. My mum, my mum lives like six hours drive from me, which is a pain, but she, she remarried and yeah, it's, it's just a long old way.

[00:54:32] Don't see her that often, but we talk like multiple times a week on the phone. And she's, she's happily married with a guy that she met that lives down in the South. West of England and so she's living a little country lifestyle and she loves it. She must be very proud of you. Yeah, she, yeah, she's really proud of me.

[00:54:50] I don't think she really still quite understands what I do or why it makes the money it makes, but, but she is proud of me. 

[00:54:59] Melissa: Who are you more like you think? Mum or dad? Or do you think you're really a bit 

[00:55:03] Lea Turner: of both? Oh, I definitely have both. I definitely have a bit of both. But I think my, my soul is more like my dad.

[00:55:09] I'm, I'm, my mum is like Mrs. Play it safe. never takes a risk, never, she's got not a single shred of sarcasm or sass in her, bless her, got a very like childlike sense of humor and outlook on life and it's super sweet, it's so wholesome, she's like the most wholesome person, whereas I am. Like, I've got a filthy sense of humour, I've got a dirty laugh, I've got an absolute thrill seeking nature.

[00:55:38] I'm very much like, yep, let's do it, let's go. I'm high as hell on edibles, but I'm going white water rafting down the Colorado River. Cool, let's go. Like, that actually happened. So yeah. Wow, that must have been 

[00:55:52] Melissa: pretty thrilling. 

[00:55:53] Lea Turner: It was a, it was a trip, it was a LinkedIn speaking event that I went to collar, went to Denver and you did 

[00:55:58] Melissa: edibles 

[00:55:59] Lea Turner: into the, and illegal edibles are like legal of course.

[00:56:01] Yeah, of course. Yeah. Good to mention that. 

[00:56:03] Melissa: Good to mention that. 

[00:56:04] Lea Turner: Yeah. So I had some edibles and I'm not, like, I don't, I don't smoke weed. I don't take any other, I don't take drugs at all. Yeah. So I was like, yeah, fine. I'll have one. And I was like. I was not in a good way. 

[00:56:16] Melissa: Oh, you weren't in a good 

[00:56:17] Lea Turner: way. I was not in a good way.

[00:56:20] The altitude really screwed with me as well. So I was proper, I felt like I'd drunk a couple of bottles of wine. And they all went through. And then a small group of us decided to go. There was another couple of people that were like, have big online followings on LinkedIn, and they're like, should we go whitewater rafting?

[00:56:37] I was like, and he said, it's a two hour drive where I was like, well, hang on a minute. Had it kicked 

[00:56:43] Melissa: in near the edible? And you still said yes. 

[00:56:47] Lea Turner: Yeah, 

[00:56:48] Melissa: yeah, 

[00:56:49] Lea Turner: yeah. And then I was sat there in like the wetsuit, about to get on and I was thinking, I don't think this is a good idea. I'm probably going to die. I think like, this is really, and the guy I was with is he's massive, like six foot five.

[00:57:02] He looks like Aquaman, like actual looks like Aquaman. And he's like, don't worry. I'll look after you. And I was like, okay. And I'm just sat there like trying to row. I'm trying to like focus my eyes going, well, if I'm going to die, this is a good way to go. But yeah, we were fine. I didn't even fall in.

[00:57:22] So. 

[00:57:22] Melissa: So what's, what's on your bucket list of crazy fun things to do or do you not have one? You just live in the moment. Oh no, I haven't. 

[00:57:29] Lea Turner: Yeah, Have you bungee 

[00:57:31] Melissa: jumped? Yeah. 

[00:57:32] Lea Turner: I haven't bungee jumped, but I've skydived in New Zealand. I want to do wing walking. What walkie? Wing walking. Where they Wing whatie?

[00:57:41] Wing. On the plane? They strap, they strap you onto a wing of a plane and then it flies. So I wanna, I wanna give that a go. Me and my son went zip lining and swimming through caves in Mexico last summer. That was amazing. I really want to do like a race day. I think I'm going to do that this year. So I want to drive a fast car as fast as it goes.

[00:58:01] And I don't mean like a normal road car. I mean like a proper, proper racing. Yeah. So I don't know if I'll be allowed to do that, but it might have to be like, I'm in a fast car going as fast as it can go, but I'm going to see about doing that. Well, like in Silverstone, they do those race days there, don't they?

[00:58:16] Melissa: In Silverstone? 

[00:58:17] Lea Turner: Yeah. Yeah. So I think I'm going to try and do that one this year. I, I don't know. It's constantly evolving. I'll like tick something off and then I'll get two more ideas, but yeah, I've done a lot of the like, 

[00:58:30] Melissa: a lot of bungee jumping is, is on the list or not. 

[00:58:33] Lea Turner: I don't really, I'm not into the idea of bungee jumping.

[00:58:36] I don't really like the idea of like dangling. At the end of it, like, I liked the jump, the skydive was brilliant fun. But I don't really like the whole, just like dangling around. I don't want to do that. So please, 

[00:58:47] Melissa: please don't do base jumping. Okay. That's a little bit excessive. Scuba diving? 

[00:58:52] Lea Turner: I've actually swum with sharks, yeah.

[00:58:56] I took Dexter with me and we went paddling with sharks in Cape Verde. But they were friendly sharks, but they like swim all around your leg. It wasn't great because he sat on my shoulders and screamed the entire time because he was scared. So, I'm an evil mum. He did calm down eventually. But yeah, we, we've done that one already.

[00:59:13] Melissa: So, one more big question before we we kind of wrap this up, which is, I, I got, I like to ask this question because, you know, we've been talking about labels and kind of fitting in and not fitting in and feeling awkward, like when we first mentioned about LinkedIn and being neurodivergent. Neurodiverse what would you say are the kind of stereotypes you feel you've disrupted in, in kind of life in your journey so far?

[00:59:35] I mean, I'm kind of looking at you and I, and I think that some people will be looking at you and we're already judging because you know, inked, inked girl, not quite as inked as you, but that might be one of them. Are there any others that, you know, less obvious ones that you can think of? 

[00:59:49] Lea Turner: I think there are stereotypes about single mothers, solo parents not being able to raise their kids.

[00:59:55] Yeah. good emotionally intelligent well adjusted sons because they've got this father figure missing. My son is probably as emotionally intelligent as I am, bless him. I think the business has to be boring and beige. I've been trying to smash that ever since I got on LinkedIn because I refuse to do business in a boring way.

[01:00:16] My team are all people that I have the most fun, fun with, and I don't have to nag them or get cross with them. I'm the opposite of a micromanager. I'm like the anti micromanager. I'm just like, yeah, cool. That needs doing you crack on. Let me know when it's done. And like trust people to do what they're good at.

[01:00:34] I hope people don't think I'm a dumb blonde. So that would be that. So hopefully I've broken that one. And yeah, obviously the way I look has always been You know, it's been a great marketing tactic. Certainly not why I started getting tattooed all those years ago. But I think there's, that taboo is definitely, the needle's moved on that.

[01:00:55] Like, people are not so quick to judge people. Tattoos are so much more common. I still get a bit of pushback from Americans mostly, that are a bit more conservative still, but. Really? Yeah, if it is going to be from someone, it will usually be, almost exclusively these days a conservative American that thinks that still is sort of stuck in that.

[01:01:19] You need to wear a shirt and tie for work and tattoos are unprofessional and unladylike and all that. I'm like, fuck off. I don't care about being ladylike. I don't want 

[01:01:28] Melissa: to work with you. Right. Obviously not your person then, definitely not 

[01:01:31] Lea Turner: your person. Yeah. I don't really go out consciously to break like, Oh, that's a stereotype.

[01:01:36] Right. I'm going to break that one. But I think just Just by being myself, I think I've broken down. Just owning who you are, yeah. I can't have it all as a woman. If you want to be a mum, you can't have a good career as well. And I'm like, well, Let me show 

[01:01:49] Melissa: you, let me show you. 

[01:01:51] Lea Turner: Yeah, that's it. Isn't it? It's that, is it that sort of fuck you attitude.

[01:01:55] Don't tell me what I can't do. Cause I'm just going to go and do it. And that's, that's, that's me to a T really. Yeah. 

[01:02:03] Melissa: And, and you to a T in, in, in speaking up and That's, as I mentioned right in the beginning, is something I like to see specifically with people who do have big followings online. I mean you, you, you have a profile that what you do call people out.

[01:02:18] And is it, is it something that again comes from the gut when you see an injustice Well, you see something that's been stated that's kind of sort of very a fuckwit comment. I'm just going to say it, you know and I don't mean it in a rude way. I'm just being very honest. It's like, what, what compels you to speak up on it?

[01:02:36] Lea Turner: I think sometimes I'm reticent because I don't, I know that because of the big following that it's going to garner a lot of attention onto that post. And if it's someone just being outright hateful, I don't want to comment on it. Because I don't think it deserves any more attention. So actually by me commenting, and opposing it, it's going to get so much more attention, which potentially means that the people that's about that will be offended may be triggered and upset by it.

[01:03:05] So I'm sort of like, when it's just someone being an absolute deliberately offensive idiot, I just ignore that. I very, very rarely see that on LinkedIn. Anymore, but like the one we were mentioned, that you mentioned earlier, where it was someone who just completely misunderstood what privilege means and had been deeply offended by the use of the word in relation to him.

[01:03:31] And the whole thread, the whole comment section, I was just like, these people just don't understand what the meaning of it is in this context. So I politely explained. And then my comment brought masses of attention, which caused people to go through his content and it became quite obvious it was also very transphobic and that led to even more comments when people have figured that out from other things that he said, it's like, oh, so it became this big thing.

[01:04:02] I think I try and be as respectful as possible but there's a point where I have to step away because I'm like this is actually annoying me now this is making me angry because they're not listening and you're banging your head against a brick wall and you have to just choose peace but 

[01:04:15] Melissa: yeah 

[01:04:15] Lea Turner: I do have to pick my battles because I am aware that my words when I leave a comment it can be boost that post visibility significantly and I don't want a pile on where it becomes like a witch hunt of people going for somebody and so I do have to be very careful with if I'm going to get involved in this conversation because I, gut feeling says I need to then I have to be very diplomatic with how I word it and not incite a bullying riot because that's not ever going to help someone to learn and be better.

[01:04:57] Melissa: I thought that you, you handled that. The words that you use, your approach was, in fact, I wouldn't even use the word polite. I thought it was very clear and the perspective that you were giving was powerful. And for someone who is not white and is not, doesn't have white privilege, obviously, because I'm not white, I felt immediately, and so many of the comments that came after that, I felt like, yeah, you know, I felt seen.

[01:05:22] I felt heard, and I felt protected as not being a white privileged person. And I do find that, I think it's very important for, for this, for us living in this world where we are on social media and we are sharing how we feel. And the guy was just sharing what he felt, right? Is that we have to be open to people giving us an, another version of the truth, right?

[01:05:45] A version of the truth where we're not blindsided. And rather than kind of jump to the defense, which is, I guess, very normal. We want to defend what our point of view is, is kind of just to take a moment and kind of say, well, let me look at, let me really hear what they're saying. So I didn't really follow the thread all the way after a while.

[01:06:02] I mean, I left a comment as well. I had 

[01:06:04] Lea Turner: to turn notifications off because it was too distracting. 

[01:06:07] Melissa: I stopped after a while, but. Yeah, I just wanted to ask you that question because, you know, like I said, you, someone with a big following you do have to be, I imagine you do have to be so mindful because it can be counterproductive in the sense of bringing more attention to.

[01:06:21] Lea Turner: Yeah, I've seen people like tag me in posts before and. You know, I've offered an alternative point of view and people have, there are, there are a few people that are quite sort of sycophantic and they will literally just support anything that I say because it's me that said it and I don't, like, me, that's not, like, don't just support me because it's me, support me because you agree or you have, you know, the same opinion.

[01:06:44] or some connection with what I'm saying. But I have, I, it has happened in the past where I've said something as just like a flippant offhand comment in response to something. And then there's been a huge pile on and it's, it looks to other people, it looks like I've got some sort of like little gang that are attacking people that I disagree with.

[01:07:06] And I'm like, I have nothing to do with this. This is just my comment has put it onto their feed and they're jumping on with their own volition. I don't ever want to incite any kind of like, attack on any kind of person because that's not who I am. My opinions are my opinions, but, but don't just support me blindly, you know?

[01:07:25] So yeah, a bit tricky sometimes. Well, thank you. Thanks for answering that question. One last thing. I keep saying last thing. I know I'm being very greedy. I know, I was gonna say I've got 

[01:07:34] a call in 

[01:07:34] Melissa: 10 minutes. Okay, okay, I'll, I'll, I promise, I'm gonna, I promise I only have 10 more questions now. I promise just two, two.

[01:07:41] What is the favourite thing behind you on your shelf there? Which is your favourite ornament to put 

[01:07:47] Lea Turner: back? Oh, do you know what? Now the logo is out of date since we had the rebranding, but one of the HALT members, Michelle Hartley, her mum crocheted this little frog and it's, it's backwards, but it has the old, the original HALT logo on it.

[01:08:01] And how cute is it? it's crocheted. I 

[01:08:03] Melissa: love it. Yeah, she's crocheted 

[01:08:05] Lea Turner: it. And it's got a little button on its butt that says, it's not from that. 

[01:08:08] Melissa: So is that going to be part of your merchandising? 

[01:08:11] Lea Turner: No, sadly not. I wish we, I wish it could be, but I don't think she's equipped to produce at scale, unfortunately.

[01:08:19] And this, this logo behind me is getting replaced with a Holt logo at some point soon as well. Okay. 

[01:08:23] Melissa: And I've asked you this question before, if you were a song, what song would you be? And no worries, nothing shows up. Some people have one, some people don't. I, mm, that's a Just right now in this moment, what, if you were a song, what song would you be?

[01:08:39] Lea Turner: Right now in this moment there's a song by Frank Turner, and I can't remember what the name of it is. But I'm going to have to send it to you. I can't, I can't even remember the lyric, but it, it makes me happy every single time. I mean, all of his songs are fantastic, but that particular one makes me happy every time.

[01:08:58] So I'm going to have to send it to you and people are going to have to check the comments for the, for the song. I can't think of what it's called. 

[01:09:04] Melissa: Perfect. Okay. One thing you'd like to leave our listeners today, sorry, one thing that you'd like to leave for our listeners today, our viewers today 

[01:09:13] Lea Turner: don't be a d1*k It's the only rule you need in life, but yeah, let's keep it simple. 

[01:09:18] Melissa: Thank you so much for saying yes and being on the, on the podcast. I've loved having you. I'd love to invite you back already because I'm just a greedy person. If you're watching all the information you could ever want and desire is going to be in the comments, the halts, you have to check it out.

[01:09:34] Vault, check it out. Podcast, just check everything out. You won't regret it. And. All I can say is just, it's been an absolute pleasure having you. I can't wait to see you again in the UK and all the best for this year with everything that you do. Keep sprinkling that no dick attitude and that generous heart and bubbling personality you have.

[01:09:57] You're a true gift to the world. Thank you so much, Lea. 

[01:10:00] Lea Turner: Thank you, Melissa. Take care. 

[01:10:02] Melissa: You too.