A foundation of self love
On this week’s show, we speak to people-person Ruth Penfold (#actualsize) about self love and she provides us with her definition;
“Real self-love is the conversation you are having with yourself when no one else is around, it’s the way you treat yourself when things don’t go that great, and it’s how you’re able to forgive yourself – that’s self love.”
Ruth’s path into recruitment started at University were “like most recruitment goofs, I fell in” – after 8-years, she progressed to be a Director of that agency-side business before she “jumped off the ledge and moved into Shazam” which was her first in-house role. More recently, Ruth joined BP Launchpad as Director of People where she says “their core value is love”; a fitting match of individual and company!
Ruth shares with us her journey to self-love as she tells us, “I was in a wilderness of no love at all for self, trying desperately to love stuff around me that wasn’t working”, at this point, she “pressed eject on life, the relationships and even the work relationships and gradually started to build within myself a foundation of love”. Guiding us further, she reveals that she has learnt; “what I have seen is that the relationship I have with myself has a direct correlation with the relationship I am able to create with the world around me”.
Your vibe attracts your tribe
From a work-perspective, Ruth advises that
“Even a work relationship has to have love in it. I try to adopt as much of a coaching mindset as I can” and how she will “challenge them (her team members) to grow as leaders within their own role.”
We also ask Ruth about her blog and why she feels compelled to write, “I’ve managed to create total change in my life” and for this reason, she feels she has “a sense of responsibility to shine a light for others” and we learn that “writing helped me to be brave”.
To close the show, we ask Ruth what one piece of advice she might give to someone at the beginning of that journey to self-love, and she shares that they should find “just one thing they can do to be kinder to themselves”.
If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Ruth talk about:
- Different forms of meditation – it’s not all about yoga!
- Audit how you are living and working
- The value of co-mentoring
- Hacking your team meeting
- Foundations for a high-performing team
- Learning from your team
