Awakened Living: A Story of Healing, Self-Discovery, and Pivoting in Business

Your Dream Business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Roseanna Croft, where she talks openly about her forced spiritual awakening, by way of cancer diagnosis, and her journey through to remission.

Roseanna is a Jungian Life Coach and meditation master who helps women create a life they truly love living, in alignment with their truth. Her passion for spirituality and self-discovery helped her completely turn her life around and she now helps many others do the same. Roseanna is also an author, speaker and YouTuber on the topics of spiritual growth and personal development. KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. Roseanna's journey from cancer diagnosis to being cancer free
2. The importance of getting aligned with your version of success
3. The alignment between your goals and your likelihood of achieving them

Disclaimer: neither Teresa or Roseanna are experts in cancer or treatment for disease and illness and this episode is not intended to advise anyone on how to treat their own cancer or diagnose an illness. This is purely an account of Roseanna's personal experience including some spiritual and some scientific backed practices that she used throughout her journey. If you are facing your own cancer journey then please do speak to medical professionals and conduct your own thorough research, and choose what is right for you. LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Roseanna on Instagram Find Roseanna on YouTube Listen to Teresa's episode on Roseanna's podcast, The Mandala Effect Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook

Transcript

Teresa: Welcome to the Your Dream Business Podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. An international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast. I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you and the season of life that you're in. In each episode I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus we'll be diving into some mindset tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, and are going to stop you from getting in your own way. So if you're a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you are in the right place. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Your Dream Business podcast. And as always, I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. How the Devil Are You Doing? So this week we have an interview and I'm very excited about this interview because I'm having so much fun actually with these interviews because I'm just interviewing people I know and love, which is ace. And it was almost like when I first started the podcast or when I go back all that time ago and think about who I interviewed then it was like, It was almost my ego going and actually this is a perfect thing to talk about today, given who I've got on, but it was almost my ego going, you should have this person or you should have this person and that almost, and I'm not, I think I wasn't even open to the idea of actually interviewing people that I know and love because I was too busy thinking, oh, I need this type of person or I need this type of person. So when I bought the interviews back at the kind of end of last year. I just bought them back with like, I'm going to do this person. I'd love to chat to this person. I'd love to chat to that. And I think as time goes on as listener of this podcast, you will start to see some interviews that might be a bit different to the some of stuff we've done just because I find stuff fascinating. So anyway, today I have the very amazing Roseanna Croft on the podcast. Roseanna is a Jung, I think that's like, that is Jung. Thanks. Okay, . So this is how bad I am at intro people. Do you know, so she's a young life coach and meditation master who helps 'em create a life that they truly love living in alignment with their truth. So I'm gonna, that's all I'm gonna do about a bio. 'cause her story is part of what we're gonna talk about and that's what I would read. But the young word is written funny, just in case you're thinking she can't read the word young. It's written. J-U-N-G-I -A-N because it's Carl Jung. Roseanna: Carl Jung yeah. Yeah. Teresa: Yeah. So anyway, welcome to the podcast, Roseanna Croft. Welcome. Roseanna: Thank you so much for having me. This is exciting. Teresa: I'm excited because your story is kind of amazing. I want to just start by how we met. How many years ago do you reckon now? Five. Gotta be. Roseanna: Got to be. Teresa: Easily. So we met at a membership meetup. So it was, we were both in a female entrepreneur association and they had a Christmas meetup and we met and then just became friends ever since. And then obviously the pandemic stopped us seeing each other in person. And then your life took a real turn. And then we managed to get back on track, which is amazing. Cause I'm so grateful. That's the short version. Now let's dive into the long version. So let's start by saying, I want us to go right back. Actually. Normally I go, you know, who are you and how you got to how you are today, but let's start. So when I first met you, you were Roseanna Croft Jewelry. Roseanna: Yes. Teresa: Tell us about that business. Roseanna: Okay, cool. So, when we met, I was the owner of Roseanna Croft Jewelry, which was a fine jewelry company, and I would design bespoke engagement rings, and I would redesign heirlooms, and I did it all from my shop in rural Derbyshire. And I had a workshop and I was seeing private clients and it was amazing. And I was building this business that was at the time deeply ingrained in my heart. It was my passion and, and I loved it. And I was going to take over the world. I was going to rival Cartier and Tiffany and I had all of these incredible dreams and I was creating collections to help women fall in love with themselves. And I was. Teresa: Yes, I remember. Roseanna: I had all of these amazing dreams and plans. And then we had the pandemic and I closed the shop and I moved to London and I pivoted. So as everybody had to in the pandemic, I pivoted to offer solely online. But then I would see private clients in London as well. So I kind of, in a way, even though I closed the bricks and mortar store, I expanded, or that's what my ego told me I was doing. Teresa: It's a bit funny, this stuff that we're like, Oh, this is what this means. Roseanna: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Teresa: Let's just go with that. Roseanna: Well, as you were saying about your podcast, I was like, yeah, that's what, that's what I did, I need these names up, but yeah, so then I moved to London and, in a pandemic and, and my business was the most successful it had ever been. I was attracting clients all over the world. Yeah, just really living my dream in one sense and in another sense I didn't stop to smell the roses. I was extremely anxious, very stressed and deeply unhappy, which at the time I probably didn't realize. Teresa: And also at the time Your brand and your business fitted perfectly with how Roseanna showed up. Like, champagne, VIP, fine life, like, it all fits perfectly. Roseanna: Only the best, darling. Teresa: Yeah, well, aren't we both? But like, and it fitted that. And it almost like And obviously we'll get to the transformation, we'll get to like where we are today, but it's almost like they are two ends of a spectrum. Like we started off luxury, fine jewelry, expensive stuff, like I said, you know, private clients, drinking champagne, going to the best hotels, meeting the fanciest people. And on the surface that looks like everything that everybody wants, but you weren't happy. Roseanna: No, no, I wasn't happy because I was always chasing more and always chasing what other people told me would make, would like society tells you will make you happy. Because when I started my business, I was 24. So I opened my shop when I was 24 years old. Teresa: Which quite honestly, but. Roseanna: I had no idea what goal was. I, I just wanted to open a shop and I just, I was so naive and innocent and I just wanted to open a shop and I wanted to have this, I wanted to recreate the job that I had when I was living in Australia. We had amazing clients. We sold amazing jewelry and I wanted to make that for myself back in the UK. And then I learned what goals were. And then I learned that like joined memberships like the Female Entrepreneur Association. And I learned that. I could have anything that I wanted, but hold on. What did I want? Yeah. I wanted, I didn't know what I wanted. So I, I then latched onto what society told me success was. And that wasn't my version of success. So that made me unhappy. That made me miserable. That made me stressed. It made me always chase this idea of more so that I could make myself in some way, feel good enough to have the things I had. Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So all was going well. All was good. You, and there was a couple of things that actually about your story and where you started kind of blows my mind. One, you're young, like you're much younger than me, but you started your business really young. And actually I remember when we first met or the first few visits we had, cause we used to go for lunch. We were even back in the day, we were ladies that woo woo because we loved a bit of woo woo. But like it never seemed like you were that young. You had a very mature head for someone who was so young. So not only did you create this business when, when you were the age you were, but also you created like a proper business, like, and they say that jokingly, but like, and I say this all the time that, you know, people have bricks and mortar businesses. I'm like, You've got a real business now. I joke people. I don't think, I genuinely think we have real businesses, but, but there is something about having a business with equipment. And also, I didn't realize you did the thing. So Roseanna was the one that only designed the jewelry. She made the jewelry she could make like, and it blew my mind. So that was all crazy. So. On the surface of it, you were going along, life is wonderful, treating you really, really well, and then what? Roseanna: Well, if we just forget that little thing that stopped the whole world. Teresa: Yeah, small pandemic, move on. Roseanna: Small pandemic, 18 months. So, we came, we were just coming out of the pandemic, and I started to realize that I was anxious and that I was unhappy, and I started to address it, you know, in the way that we do address it, and I was watching some personal development stuff, I was reading more books about personal development, I started doing things like changing my relationship, upping, not just like swapping my relationship, sorry, I ended up relationship. Teresa: You're out, you're in. That's why we didn't see each other for a while. Yeah. I didn't mean to cut. Roseanna: And then I started up in my health routine and I, I was a runner, so I used to run before the pandemic. The pandemic stopped like any form of exercise for me, really, unless it was to run to drink a can of beer by the river or whatever. And then, so I started up in my health routine and I noticed that I couldn't, I had a pain in my breast. So I was like, Oh my God, I can't, this is real inconvenience, real inconvenience, but I suppose I should go to the GP because I'd had some cysts previously on my ovaries that had burst and caused me loads of pain, ended up in A& E, that kind of stuff. So I knew that I had to pay attention to my body. And I went to the GP, basically was kind of ushered through the, the motions of checks and biopsies. And I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. I'd just turned 30 and I was like, this is going to be my year. I was seeing more success in my business than I ever had. I'd just come out of a relationship. I'd just moved into my dream apartment on one of the fanciest streets in Fulham. My ego loves that part of the story. Like, oh, it's doing so well. Teresa: Do you see my apartment? It must be doing so well. Roseanna: There's a Michelin star restaurant on the end of my street. Teresa: I mean, how fancy is that? Roseanna: Yeah, but then on the other end of the street, there's a chicken shop that's also like a drug den. Teresa: Yeah, but we don't talk about that. That's not what we show on Instagram. I love it. Roseanna: So, yeah, so then I was diagnosed with, I was six days of having moved into this apartment and I was diagnosed with cancer four. Teresa: Like I can't even think like age 30, getting that diagnosis. Just explain the what you mean by, did you say triple negative? Roseanna: Triple negative breast cancer. So it is a rare type of breast cancer. And it's, it's caused by the genetic mutation of BRCA1. So, Angel this is what Angelina Jolie has, that's kind of what made this BRCA thing famous, because then she had a preventative mastectomy, so then she wouldn't get breast cancer. And if anybody's watched The Bold Type on Netflix or Amazon Prime, which is Great show and they talk about it in there, but otherwise it's quite rare. Nobody really knows anything about it. So it's a genetic mutation and it means that most breast cancers are hormone receptive, they're hormone positive. So estrogen positive, and this isn't, it's like totally genetic. So the normal treatments can't treat it so like she would do nothing for it. So it was, I was then faced with five months of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy and reconstruction or if I wanted that, which I did, to, like, it was, it was intensive chemotherapy that was apparently the only way that was going to get rid of it. Teresa: Wow. So is it as simple as saying Okay, my business goes on hold. Roseanna: No. Teresa: What was going through your head? Roseanna: So this, the first person I ran with was my coach at the time. And I said, It's, I've been diagnosed because we've kind of had some conversation, I've been, I've been diagnosed and he said to me, you have all of the tools that you need to get through this, like, this is what you have been training for, because we knew that things were changing in my life. We didn't know what the clues were there. And I'd been into personal development for years, I'd read the books, I kind of knew what was going on, so I switched on warrior mode, and I think this is what happens when most people are faced with a challenge or a transformation, they switch on warrior mode to get through it. So I switched on warrior mode, and, and I just went, right, okay, so this is This is how I'm gonna deal with this. And the, to be honest, the first three weeks were total scans. I like, egg freezing type stuff. And then I started chemotherapy. But I knew throughout that I was going to keep on running my business because it was doing so well. Mm-hmm. And being a self-employed person living in London. And I say that, you know, I kind of joke about the fancy street thing, but, but it's not, it's not cheap. Even, I mean, it got a very good deal coming off the back of COVID. But it's not cheap to live in London as a single woman running a business. Now, previous, like prior to cancer, fine. Yeah. Being diagnosed and then thinking, okay, so what now? My cut, I tell myself, like the only option I really had was to keep on working. And I did. And I actually had some of the most successful months financially, but it wasn't sustainable. It was, I needed rest, I needed to stop, and it wasn't sustainable. Teresa: If you were, if you could have gone back to yourself then, what would you have said now? Roseanna: I'd stop working. Teresa: Yeah. Roseanna: I would have put it on hold, I would have stopped everything, I would have, and it makes it quite complicated because finances, right? Like, I didn't have A, a bed. Like I didn't have a sa, I didn't have a savings account. Teresa: Well, I think most business owners don't. Most people don't. Roseanna: No. No, because we put everything back into it. Yeah. Especially for the first few years. Like I was on year six or seven of business and I did have savings, but it was at a cost to take them out. So they're in. You know, all of these like ices and stuff, so you lose a lot of it if you take it out. So, I didn't really have a financial option. Universal credit doesn't scratch the surface. So, I actually, when looking back, I didn't have another option. Really, unless I could have moved home, but even actually I couldn't because my parents had just sold the house and we're living in a caravan. Teresa: So no, that's not ideal either, especially when you're recovering. Roseanna: And I was like fate as fate would have it. My synchronicity, my flat was a five minute Uber ride from a breast cancer specialist hospital. I had one of the best surgeons and oncology teams in the UK. I had friends around me who would drive me to the hospital. Like I was in such a fortunate position, but you know, business, it was a really tricky one and to be honest, actually, it's some, it did give me some real joys having the work I designed. I had a client come over from New York and he was flying his fiancee over for her surprise 30th birthday party. I'd just had like chemo the day before Rawson's in and he, I met, they came around to my house and I showed them like a selection of yellow diamonds that this was all a surprise to her. And I showed them this selection of yellow diamonds. We were going to create this necklace for her and we did. And it was amazing. And that was one of the highlights of that time for me. I got to. It was still a positive because I loved it so much. It was still a positive, but the stress and the strain of thinking, well, how am I going to keep a business running whilst surviving physically is challenging. Teresa:...