Episode #229

Maria Franzoni

00:00:10 – 00:00:20

Welcome back to The Speaker Show with me your host Maria Franzoni.

Maria Franzoni

00:00:20 – 00:01:12

Today, we are talking about mind makeovers. The Speaker Show is brought to you by Speakers Associates, the global speaker bureau for the world’s most successful organisations providing keynote speakers for events, conferences and summits. My guest is the go-to success coach and global speaker for many of the world’s biggest cosmetic companies, including Chanel, Clinique, Christian Dior, Estee Lauder, L’Oréal and Lancome, to name but a few. She also shares her passion for mind makeovers. In the press, she is called the beauty industry’s success coach, who grows beauty brands and companies to unprecedented levels fast. The press calls her the coach who adds millions of pounds to a brand by growing its greatest asset people. She is the author of the bestseller The Mind Makeover, The Answers to Being the Best You Yet. Please welcome my guest, Sharron Lowe.

Maria Franzoni

00:01:12 – 00:01:15

Sharron, it is lovely to see you. How are you today?

Sharron Lowe

00:01:15 – 00:01:21

I am absolutely fabulous and better for speaking with you. I’m looking forward to it very much.

Maria Franzoni

00:01:21 – 00:01:36

So for those who are listening in on the podcast and not getting the benefit of this wonderful video. Sharron is super glamorous, which I expected because in the introduction, of course, we mentioned wonderful brands like Chanel and Christian Dior. And so you had to turn up glamorous, right?

Sharron Lowe

00:01:36 – 00:01:59

But also a very funny story. My sister called this morning and we face time and she said, What are you doing today? So I said, I’m doing a podcast. Why? When you look very different to normal. So you know, I am very blessed to have phenomenal clients and thank you for saying that. But yes, they are a glamorous bunch of clients, so very blessed.

Maria Franzoni

00:01:59 – 00:02:13

You’re very lucky you have a bit of advantage there, but you’ve now ruined the illusion that this is what you look like every single day. But anyway, let’s talk about your topic because this is really something that will help me well as well, personally. So I’m really interested.

Maria Franzoni

00:02:13 – 00:02:19

What would you say with your expertise, makes a person happy and successful?

Sharron Lowe

00:02:19 – 00:03:14

First of all, I lived that question because I think you know the first thing is, let’s just look at all children and take a whole class of four-year-olds. Common denominator is full of joy, happy and excited about life. So as a question, I think there’s a lot of very simple answers. I also think success is very simple. I never complicate it, in any of my work. I think it’s complicated people don’t use it. So happiness comes from what we focus on, and it really is mindset. So whatever is happening in our life and we’ve all got this last two years that we’ve travelled with very unique challenges, there is always what’s right. So it’s very simple, are we focusing on what’s right or what’s wrong and it becomes a mindset. But the mind and the brain will default to negativity unless

Sharron Lowe

00:03:14 – 00:03:47

there’s one person who takes charge of it, and that’s ourselves. So, for example, somebody who’s got the news on repeat, there is having negative conversations, there around negative energy. They’re unhappy and they don’t think that’s their fault. And what I do as a success coach. I give them a very big wake up call because a lot of my coaching is tough love. You know, there’s nobody knocks on my door in the morning and goes, Oh, Sharron, I’m your fairy godmother. I’m here to sprinkle positivity and joy on you. We all have challenges.

Sharron Lowe

00:03:47 – 00:04:20

What are we focusing on? And it’s how we train our brain. It’s how we train our mind. That’s what I bring into brands to look at the positive and a real realist girl. You know, I don’t grow these major brands by being woo. This is about not ignoring what we need to solve. That’s a challenge. But let’s focus on what is right. I also think, and it’s this simple. I make a decision every morning to enjoy my day. It’s that simple. I make a decision to be happy.

Sharron Lowe

00:04:20 – 00:05:15

And when there’s problems that I make them challenges when there’s challenges, I’ll look for a solution. I look at who can help, who can support. How do I do this? So life is exciting. It’s a very, very precious gift, and we just need the manual of how we take charge. I mean on the podcast will not see me pointing, but I’m pointing to my head how we take charge of the single greatest thing that you and I own the single greatest thing. And it isn’t the Chanel handbag it’s our mind. And when we’ve got the manual of how we take charge of that, Maria, life changes and it changes in a day. This isn’t a long process. This isn’t five years of counselling. This is okay, let me get to this. It’s common sense. It’s quick, it’s easy. And then how do I do it?

Sharron Lowe

00:05:15 – 00:05:27

So people who are successful and happy focus on things that make them successful and happy, and they programme their brain differently to unhappy people.

Maria Franzoni

00:05:27 – 00:05:38

But you see that when you say it like that, it sounds incredibly simple, right? It’s really simple. I’m sure it’s not easy, but what stops a person doing that then, as it’s so simple?

Sharron Lowe

00:05:38 – 00:06:28

Okay, another great question. I think that’s two things, and I’ve learned these by working globally. I don’t think it’s just a UK. One, I actually think there’s certain people who enjoy being miserable. You know, there is sort of a way of saying, let me do everything that’s wrong and none of it’s my fault, and this is very UK versus global, and then we get a sympathy vote. So some people quite like that. It’s quite cosy you know, don’t take me out of this very cosy. Everyone’s feeling sorry for me, mode. Well, again, I do tough love if they’re in my audience, we start and ship that mindset. But I think the most normal, obvious answer from my work is that, honestly, Maria, people have just formed bad habits,

Sharron Lowe

00:06:28 – 00:07:23

and we all can relate to that in any area of our life. You know, it could be fitness, nutrition. It could be our success, our habits. We can all fall into bad habits unless we stop and change the mindset. So I do think it’s for many people. It’s become the norm. I’ve had so many hundreds and hundreds of people say to me, listening to you present the mind makeover. And that’s when I was presenting to live audiences a couple of years ago, and I had maybe 2000 people in front of me in an audience. Hundreds would say, that’s a life-changer. I never realised that I was living quite a miserable life. I was focusing on what wasn’t right. So the answer is bad habits, number one or

Sharron Lowe

00:07:23 – 00:08:18

people not only have the bad habit, they’ve actually got used to quite liking the sympathy vote. Now when I’m a coach, I can’t grow. I’m called the coach who adds millions to brands. That’s not going to happen if services meet in the audience decides to stay miserable. I only turn around brands by turning around an empowering individuals, and they are my greatest joys. My greatest, greatest story is when an individual says to me, You know, my mind makeover was life-changing in all areas of my life. You know, and I always feel that with an audience, I may be growing a brand like Chanel or L’Oreal globally, but I grow individuals. The brand is second, and that’s my greatest joy.

Maria Franzoni

00:08:18 – 00:08:28

I love that. That’s really brilliant. When I think you touched on it slightly, but when did you start to understand the importance of mindset personally for you?

Sharron Lowe

00:08:28 – 00:08:58

I was very blessed in two areas in my life. One, my mom and dad had their own business, and it was very around the Sheffield Girl, and it was very let’s be around the table. Talk about the business. My mom and dad were, well, they’d have to be from Sheffield, they were manufacturing silversmiths. So my dad, in particular, is very entrepreneurial, and my sister and I were really encouraged to think that all things were possible.

Sharron Lowe

00:08:58 – 00:09:44

You have to work for them. However, they were possible. And then the second blessing I had, I don’t believe in luck. I think we make our own luck. But I do believe in blessings, and the second blessing was I went to work my first, my first job in the cosmetic industry was for a brand that believed in the power of attitude, and it was before anybody used to talk about that. The entire training at that time was product skill-based. It was training. Let me give you the skill to talk about this product, and they just spun that on its head. They just went, whoa before we even go there. You know, we’ve got a very American approach, is what they used to say, and we want to look at how you think,

Sharron Lowe

00:09:44 – 00:10:32

boy, you know that that was revolutionary and the fascinating thing, which is so funny because I think there’s so much fun in business is we were a group of 20, 19 people. UK hated this concept. I thought it was like the biggest light switch moment of my life. I went back home and said to mom and dad, this is fascinating. Why doesn’t everybody know this? Why doesn’t everybody get this and basically what the concept is? We started our mind before we start in our body. And then I started to study and I studied from being 19. So my first book was Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, which was the very first seminal book really into the mind-body connection again,

Sharron Lowe

00:10:32 – 00:11:08

I became the oddball. And, you know, Maria, I quite like that. I really was the oddball. You know, people were saying on training programmes. Well, we just don’t like it. Why have we got to go into our thoughts? I was like a sponge. I was reading books. I was anything on the mind-body connection and then I tested it in my own life. So, you know, I was doing vision boards imagination, how I could push my brain, how I could train my brain, how I could use my brain and wire it for more confidence. And I think that’s always given me an edge

Sharron Lowe

00:11:08 – 00:11:26

in the work, I do as the coach and has given me the greatest career working globally with some of the very top luxury brands in the world. Because I bring to it and I have done for 30 years the mind-body connection.

Maria Franzoni

00:11:26 – 00:11:43

That is so brilliant that the company worked for, you know, ignited that in you. And so that sort of makes me think that. Did you call the mind makeover the book because of the makeup? And often people have a makeover? Is that where the title came from?

Sharron Lowe

00:11:43 – 00:12:37

Absolutely, Yes. Clever you because nobody else has ever said to me, is it because and it is. It’s a play on makeover and I had different ideas on the title of the book the publishers, Maria, hated everyone, but, you know, it’s just impossible to dampen my enthusiasm. So I just kept coming back with the title and the Mind Makeover was really a shared, a synergy of ideas, and it was a play. It was the publisher’s idea that it was to play on the cosmetic brands that I work with, and then it really came from my heart, a really, really deep place in my heart because for 20 years I’ve run confidence, mind makeover sessions for homeless young women who are

Sharron Lowe

00:12:37 – 00:13:17

thank goodness now not homeless, and they’re safe and they’re living in a CenterPoint hostel. And I think I’m in near 21 now. And I always call those the mind makeover because what I did was I used to, you know, pulling all the cosmetic brands as well with my great partner in this in team Jo Fairley. And so we did for the homeless young women. We would do an image makeover, and then I would do the mind makeover. And I think that’s a lesson in business in life. You know, the actual title was obvious. For 21 years I’ve been using it, but I missed it, and I tried lots of

Sharron Lowe

00:13:17 – 00:14:05

intellectual titles. But again, it’s a mind makeover keep going. Learn from your changes and they’re not mistakes. Just learn from the changes. You just found a way not to do it. So yes, that’s the combo of the title. And the second part of the title is very important to me because it says the answers to becoming the best you and then being the best yet, and I really thought for that part of the title with the publishers because I don’t believe anybody needs fixing. I don’t I think we’re all pretty fabulous as we are and my whole concept to coach. I mean, I’m sort of really giggling as I say this, Chanel and my client. They don’t need fixing

Sharron Lowe

00:14:05 – 00:15:05

Estee Lauder Global do not need fixing. And I’ve been their success coach for over 25 years on various projects. So I’m a great believer in being the best you’ve ever been or being the best yet. So it’s saying, let’s take everything that’s fabulous and strong and powerful and unique. And let’s actually just take it up a gear, take it up a level, and that again is a very big concept in my work. So mind makers don’t fix anyone because nobody needs fixing. We just with the mind makeover, show people a better way to perform, a better way to live, an easier way to tap into that joy and happiness. And, you know, when people have joy and happiness and fulfilment, I trigger in individuals the desire to be better than they are today. That’s how brands had 5 million, 3 million move market share.

Sharron Lowe

00:15:05 – 00:15:23

It really is, when I say it’s that simple, I never teach technique. I never teach sales. I teach perception in the mind of what each individual feel so capable of, and that pushes their performance button.

Maria Franzoni

00:15:23 – 00:15:55

So it goes back to what you learned isn’t at the beginning about thinking, isn’t it? Is that it’s being starting? As you said, start in the mind. I like the fact that you say it’s about you, you know, being the best you so it’s not trying to be anybody else. It’s the best you yet. That’s really powerful. And I also like the fact that you had the title and so often we have so much genius in our in our businesses, so much great stuff and we forget it. And we keep trying to create something new when we should use that. What we have that we’ve discovered before that, is still relevant.

Maria Franzoni

00:15:55 – 00:16:03

So lots, lots of great stuff to put out that I want to pick your brain as well, though, because your book is packed with success strategies.

Maria Franzoni

00:16:03 – 00:16:10

Can you share some today? I know obviously there’s a lot in the book, but is there something you can share for our listeners.

Sharron Lowe

00:16:10 – 00:16:56

I would absolutely love to because I think everybody’s got to have tools that they can take by I can use this now. And if I was just okay, what are the top things at the moment? You know, we’re coming through COVID, in when not in a lockdown. We’ve all gone through that situation and what I’d love to do, Maria is really pull out the things that I think are very relevant people coping well at the moment because once we can cope better, we move into a good place. When we’re in a good place, we can start moving to a great place. And then once we’re in that great place, we can hit phenomenal. And I think it is a process. So for me, the biggest, the biggest number one in all the work I’ve done through lockdown is our inner voice.

Sharron Lowe

00:16:56 – 00:17:17

Now there’s a whole chapter on this, but I know in our time together, what I’d like to do is just make it very simple and powerful. I say to audiences into individuals, do you speak to yourself with the same voice that you speak to your best friend?

Sharron Lowe

00:17:17 – 00:18:07

That inner chat that’s 24 hours a day that never stops talking to you. Is that voice exactly the same with yourself as it is with your best friend? So an example is if your best friend, you know, was struggling in this time and maybe it wasn’t working and was looking for a new job. Would you encourage that, friend? Would you nurture that friend? Would you tell that friend you were fantastic in that previous job? You’ve got unique talents, and I’ve said this to an audience of 3,000 entrepreneurial women and 3,000 hands went up, almost like are you ridiculous, Sharron? Of course, I would speak like that to my best friend, and then I flip it and I’ll say so let’s go to your inner voice. Yours. What do you say to yourself when something goes wrong?

Sharron Lowe

00:18:07 – 00:18:55

And, you know, I did a little role play on stage and said, you know, that whole well, you’re messed up today, Sharron. Well, you were ridiculous. I mean, that absolutely failed or that voice saying, well, I can’t do this. I’m not capable of this. I’m not clever enough. I’m not young enough. I don’t have a degree. And I said, who’s got that enemy voice and 3000 hands went up Maria again. And so it’s a really who, are you betting on yourself to win? And it’s a very simple flip I don’t want to complicate it in the time we’ve got, we have an inner voice. Your first question was, you know, really what makes one person successful and another not. It all starts on the inner voice, you know,

Sharron Lowe

00:18:55 – 00:19:04

What do we say when we wake up? You know, a child at four does not wake up and go, Oh, my God, under the COVID day.

Maria Franzoni

00:19:04 – 00:19:30

You know, it’s a really good example, actually. Absolutely, really good example. So true. So true. Actually, I speak nicely more nicely, from each of my dog. So maybe I want to talk in the same way as I speak to my dog, my dog, even when he’s naughty, you know, it’s really interesting. I’m going to have to work on my inner voice. So how do you turn a thought and an attitude of it’s impossible to it’s possible. Is it again the inner voice?

Sharron Lowe

00:19:30 – 00:20:14

It is the inner voice, and I think there’s also a strategy so I’ll give you a very quick story here so we can share for the listener. When I, first of all, I love the word impossible, because if I know many of us will have seen this quote, but I always look at impossible. And I just changed how I laid out because it’s I am possible. I’m possible split it. And real strong example of this is I wrote the book. I’ve never written a book before. I’m going to just tell you top lines, and this isn’t to impress anybody at all. It’s just a very quick way that I can share the power of it and the technique of changing impossible to possible because, boy, today, more than ever,

Sharron Lowe

00:20:14 – 00:20:59

we need this skill. So the book was written. I was signed to the UK’s number one publisher, which was a blessing. We were sat around the table. They had far more experience than me, and I wanted my book to be launched in You Magazine. I wanted that because there’s over five million women readers. I wanted to empower as many people as possible. I think my demographic is far more female than male, and that was my goal. So I had Sharron Lowe from 19 years old, focused on the mind-body connection. I just saw possible. All I saw was possible. Now the fun part was, every single person at the publisher’s sat around the table believed totally. It was impossible

Sharron Lowe

00:20:59 – 00:21:50

with a passion. So I had 18 people telling me it was impossible. I was a first-time author. It was personal development. It would not, under any circumstances, go into You Magazine. I then had an agent, and she said to me, It is impossible. I heard the word impossible so many times. Now, I would say to anyone listening, if you had highly, highly skilled, experienced people who knew far more than me telling you repeatedly it was impossible what would happen to your inner voice? Well, we’ve got to speed up here. You would start to believe them. I’ve got a skill base, which is the skills and strategies in the book and the ones I used with clients. So I came back and realised I had to stop listening to them. I have to stop that energy coming into mine.

Sharron Lowe

00:21:50 – 00:22:38

So the first technique was, we’re all a mobile phone battery we all have 100% charge and we have to decide what we do with that energy charge. If we want to watch the news on repeat will come down to about 40%. If we want to talk, somebody negative about COVID will come down to about 30. It’s our battery. So I knew that strategy. So the first thing I had to stop those conversations I tried to influence they so impossible. I then had to work on my possible. So what I did, which is a strategy. I’m a great believer in visualisation imagination. I came back to my office here and every time this is a You Magazine, every time You Magazine launched a book

Sharron Lowe

00:22:38 – 00:23:28

for 11 months, I bought You Magazine. I took the front cover. I took a picture of what I thought my book would look like. It wasn’t published, and I basically stuck my book on the front of You Magazine. It’s a strategy. So for 11 months, all I saw was Mine Makeover launched in You Magazine and I believed it. Now, this is a key strategy. I had no idea how I would get the book into You Magazine. So anybody listening that’s got an idea, a concept of vision for what they want doesn’t matter that you don’t know how. It only matters that you start using the word possible, and I also believe fake it until you make it so you know, nobody

Sharron Lowe

00:23:28 – 00:24:23

jumps. There’s no fairy godmother mother that says, Sharron, you can see possible. I have to work on that process. I have to create the mindset. So I visually created my book being launched in You Magazine. I think I did 10 copies. As I said, I stuck my book on the front, putting them on the wall here. So every time I was every day I was writing the book. Maria, I was looking at my book in You Magazine. I then got ideas. I was light, I was confident I was fun. I was excited. Now there that the energy basis of being a possibility thinker. If I thought impossible, I’d feel reserved, restricted, unsure. What if I look silly? Well, none of those emotions were on my radar, and then I went to an event because I

Sharron Lowe

00:24:23 – 00:25:09

believe that the editor of You Magazine would be there. So I bought myself a ticket, and this is one of the things that I absolutely believe in. We can’t just believe everything is going to happen. We have to actually move our body and take action, which is the mind body connection. And I went and you know, I had massive butterflies in my tummy. I went over to her, introduce myself, chanted, and there was an audience around her. And I think you’ve got one opportunity and that’s life. We get an opportunity and we either seize it or we let it go. And a mind maker that gives you that energy and confidence because you know, Maria, I was going to ask her if my book could go in her magazine.

Sharron Lowe

00:25:09 – 00:25:54

I’m smiling here. What’s the worst? What’s the worst? She says. No. Well, if she says no, I’m exactly where I was before I asked. So I went over it and I said, I’m writing a book. This is what it is. I want to empower brands, individuals, people, and I’d like you to copy it in your magazine. And the whole room went quiet, just went quiet, and she just did a giggle and said, why don’t we just give you the entire magazine, a sort of a throw away comment. And I said, no, that’s fine. I only need four pages. Now, the truth is, I got four pages. My book was launched in You Magazine, and the other part was they actually paid me to

Maria Franzoni

00:25:54 – 00:25:54

Wonderful.

Sharron Lowe

00:25:54 – 00:26:33

You Magazine. So I suppose topline is, See it. Believe it. Talk about it being possible. Look at visual things that will help you. You know, if you want to achieve something or own something, go and look at it. Go and stand in it. Go and getting that energy. Read things, learn things, put pictures everywhere, and then your energy will create opportunities. Then you need the mindset that says I’m going to seize this opportunity because really life is a journey, we should just have them along the way.

Maria Franzoni

00:26:33 – 00:26:46

Love that, love that. We’re rapidly running out of time and I’m going to probably ask you the biggest, toughest question of the session here. I’m going to ask you how your work has changed in COVID times because it must have been disrupted a bit.

Sharron Lowe

00:26:46 – 00:27:42

I am so happy you asked that because I think this is one of the answers that can really support maybe the listeners on thinking outside the box. Maria, I have been so incredibly blessed with who I’ve worked with. My business changed immediately, changed quickly. May I just share some top lines of things I’ve done and I can’t say I’ve done them. These are the clients being innovative and flexible and adapting very quickly to change. If I share that, I think, you know, I know some speakers who have almost stopped working, which I think his mindset because they they’re seeing their audiences have gone. Well, what I did was the first thing I did was I put my book onto an online programme. So I started that in week one of lockdown one. And then I had an online presence of

Sharron Lowe

00:27:42 – 00:28:31

an online book. I visualise that going global. So I put in the office here huge visual representation and put it online, I’d created an online programme. I would sell it globally. I was then asked to be speaker for a global beauty brand and what I did, I’m saying this to support, is I said yes to that, of course. And then what we did was we agreed and negotiated that every country had a copy of my brand new written in Week One Lockdown online programme. So the book, the online programme with global, I was speaking for the cosmetic and perfuming industry of the Savoy. That’s 800 people in the Savoy. I was speaking year 10. I’ve done that for 10 years.

Sharron Lowe

00:28:31 – 00:29:29

That was the first big event that was cancelled for me, Maria. We went straight into conversation. I’m a big partnership girl. I spoke with a couple. We had a coffee over Zoom. I said, let’s think ideas. Let’s get creative. Let’s not talk about what we can’t do. We can’t go to the Savoy. We went straight into Instagram lives and the industry brought me in as the motivation coach for the industry just to keep everyone’s morale up and then one client amazing. The fragrant shop and the owner of the Fragrant Shop asked me to be their speaker, moved his team and myself into his fantastic studio, which I know a lot of businesses listening and speakers listening will relate to this and then guess what he did, Maria. He bought all across the UK in every city he booked out the every man’s cinema.

Sharron Lowe

00:29:29 – 00:30:28

He moved me into studio with him. We presented safely in studio his entire workforce, went into the cinemas all across the country and had popcorn sat safe distances in the big sofas, and we were streamed into cinemas. I also did a huge amount of filming in my office here to clients sent in videographers to meet to my office. And we did very intense coaching mind makeover coaching that then became an online platform for mental wellness. Increased performance. How do we perform in covid times? How do we create loyalty? How do we generate new business? How do we add volume to sales? And a lot of clients have said to me that that I came in as the only success coach,

Sharron Lowe

00:30:28 – 00:31:18

which is a great compliment to me. But I wish I was there with many others that came in with that positivity of rethink. Think outside the box. I mean, if someone said to me you won’t be speaking at the Savoy, but everybody will be in cinemas all across the UK I would have actually thought it was a weird film, but we did it and we moved quickly and my business grew three-fold in the lockdown the first year. And that’s because partnering with the new clients and existing clients, we thought differently and we did that very quickly, Maria. But boy, we’ve had some fun. And we deeply supported the mental wellness deeply of the most important thing they have, which is their people.

Maria Franzoni

00:31:18 – 00:31:35

You know what you practised exactly what you’ve preached all the way through and you turned the impossible into the possible. And you, fantastic. Brilliant. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself. I’ve really enjoyed hearing of all of your work and all of your success. I hope it wasn’t too painful.

Sharron Lowe

00:31:35 – 00:32:05

Maria. I have adored it. And I just want to say thank you and massive thank you from me because, you know, to be able to share and just have people listen that one individual could just think that’s made me rethink my business. That’s made me see another way that I could do this. That’s made me see hope, because you know, the opposite of darkness isn’t light it’s hope. And you’ve given me that opportunity to share. And I’m deeply, deeply grateful for that. Thank you.

Maria Franzoni

00:32:05 – 00:32:36

You are very welcome. And thank you to everybody for listening to The Speakers Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating on Apple Podcasts. You can keep up with future episodes on the Speakers Associates website, which is speakers associates dot com or your favourite podcast app. And grab a copy of Sharron’s book The Mind Makeover, The Answers to Being the Best You Yet. And if you would like Sharron to speak at your next conference or event, please contact Speakers Associates in plenty of time because you don’t want to be disappointed. You’ve heard how busy she is.

Maria Franzoni

00:32:36 – 00:32:42

I will see you all next week. Thank you for listening.