Season 1. Episode 12. The Yes...And Podcast with Claire Darr and Special Guest Dr. Donna Elliott Co-Founder of Now Is Your Time

This week on The Yes..And Podcast please grab your favorite drink and join Claire and  Dr. Donna Elliott in a heartfelt conversation where they explore their lifelong friendship, the power of imagination, and the concept of a 'Yes And Life.' 

They each discuss how they designed their lives intentionally, overcoming challenges and limiting beliefs, and the importance of choosing thoughts that empower rather than hinder. The discussion emphasizes the significance of community, support, and the belief that abundance and happiness can coexist without compromise. Listen as they explore the importance of embracing one's unique gifts and the ripple effect of individual impact on the world. 

They discuss the journey of transformation through coaching, the significance of awareness in personal growth, and the bold decisions that lead to a fulfilling life.

 The introduction of 'Mind Coding' as a new approach to coaching is explored, emphasizing the integration of spirituality, psychology, and neuroscience to create lasting change. In this enlightening conversation, Claire Darr and Dr. Donna Elliott explore the transformative power of coaching, mind coding, and personal development. 

You'll leave this conversation encouraged and empowered to embrace your desires, trust the process, and take actionable steps towards your dreams, all while recognizing that there is beauty in small moments and the power of choice in shaping your one true life!

More on Dr. Donna Elliott: Dr. Donna Elliott is the Co-Founder of Now Is Your Time, along with Cheryl Reid. They are the creators of Mind Coding and authors of the #1 Best Seller, ‘Become The Real You’… and TEDx Women Speakers.  

After over twenty years in successful senior leadership roles in the corporate world, they run their own coaching services business. "Our goal is for women to break free from limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome and just plain fear - to become the best version of themselves by harnessing their inner power to live a radically authentic life."

Message Donna for more information about any of the programs they offer.

https://www.nowisyourtimeto.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nowisyourtimeto
https://www.facebook.com/nowisyourtimeto

https://www.facebook.com/donna.elliott.NIYT
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-elliott-nowisyourtime/

Welcome to The Yes… And Podcast, where we explore what happens when you say yes to life, embrace your purpose, and step into your fullest potential.

Hosted by Claire Darr—former corporate lawyer turned executive coach, wife, mom, and passionate believer in intentional living—this podcast is your guide to creating a life you can’t wait to wake up for.

Each week, we’ll dive into inspiring stories and practical lessons, blending soulful conversations with actionable strategies to help you overcome self-imposed limits, find balance, and build a legacy of joy and fulfillment. From courageous entrepreneurs to everyday heroes, our guests share how they’ve said yes… and to faith, family, career, and the adventures of life.

Whether you’re a busy professional, a working mom, or someone feeling stuck or overwhelmed,The Yes… And Podcast is here to empower you with the tools, mindset, and inspiration to dream big and live boldly.

Life is too short to play small. It’s time to say yes to more—and discover the yes..and life you’ve been longing for.

Subscribe now and join the movement toward a life of peace, purpose, and boundless possibilities.

Follow me on Instagram @iamclairedarr

Interested in working with me, all the links here: https://linktr.ee/clairedarr

Transcript

Claire Darr (00:01)
Hello!!!!

Dr Donna Elliott (00:06)
Hello! This is so exciting that we get to do this together!

Claire Darr (00:09)
I know,

I know, I know, know. I have been dying to do this for weeks and I woke up this morning and I was like, I get to spend time with one of my favorite people in the whole world, my sister, I've known you forever. And then we realized we'd even showered for each other and put on matching shirts today, didn't we?

Dr Donna Elliott (00:31)
Ta-da, yes, for those of you audio only, we've both rocked up with our hair down, all tousled, Claire's more tousled than me, and with navy V-neck-like shirts on, which was not what I had planned to wear and literally swapped it over in about five minutes before we were recording.

Claire Darr (00:41)
Same here, not at all what I was planning on wearing, had a different thing on and then I just looked and I was like, ooh, I'll put this on today. Isn't that funny? It's good.

Dr Donna Elliott (00:48)
it.

Crazy, it's crazy. But I

was sitting thinking this morning, if you were told little Donna and little Claire, when we were in like junior school and infant school together, one day you girls will be like live together, you'll be running businesses together, you'll be bringing up kids together, you'll be doing a podcast together. We would have said, shut up. We wouldn't have believed it.

Claire Darr (01:17)
And

we wouldn't have believed it. And by the way, I'm probably gonna cry and like, you know, do all the things because like Donna is truly like one of my dearest, best, longest, I'm not gonna say the old word, oldest not, no, forever, forever, forever, forever friends. She's that category of person who when they say it like, what is it, a reason, a season or a lifetime? She's a lifetime friend.

Dr Donna Elliott (01:33)
Old, no, no, longest.

We're lifers.

Claire Darr (01:47)
We're lifers, we're together until the day we decide not to be together. we, and yeah, I mean, I remember the day I'm, oh, like let's do a formal introduction. This is Dr. Donna Elliott, doctor. We're going to talk about that in a bit. From Now Is Your Time. And she, I'm in Dallas, Texas. She's in South Shields, UK. So we're on opposite sides of the Atlantic, which is.

Dr Donna Elliott (01:53)
Mm-hmm.

That's crazy.

Claire Darr (02:18)
a feat in itself that we're able to like make this work. And she is my coach and mentor and guide and confidant and agony and, and, and drinking partner and walking partner and do everything in life together partner. And that, that was your formal bio.

Dr Donna Elliott (02:35)
Yeah.

I love it, I love it.

And the men are just for decoration. It's like the men are just like the little thing, the little trinkets that we have. We have each other for life.

Claire Darr (02:52)
that

we have each other for life. But honestly, you say that, Lodonna, because we're going to talk about your version of a yes and like what it means for you. And ⁓ this podcast and this movement, I'm going to call it a movement. It is a movement, actually was birthed ⁓ when I was home two years ago, you know, having our many walks. But funny you throw in about the men because

Dr Donna Elliott (03:00)
Hmm.

⁓ It is a movement. It is.

Claire Darr (03:20)
I mean, me and you both designed our lives the way we wanted them before the men that are in our life, before the men's were there, before the children's were there. Like we designed it and then we talked about what it would look like and we talked about what they would be like before they were even around. And then we talked about what it'd be like with the kids. And it just so happens that my husband and your husband get along really well and

Dr Donna Elliott (03:28)
for the men's.

Hmm.

like a house on fire.

Claire Darr (03:49)
And

I mean, just really easy. And then our kids get along really well. Little Ava was like, is he like a blood relation? Is Caleb like a blood relation? And I was like, no, but it's actually better than that because he's like, she's like, so he's like my cousin, but he's not my cousin. was like, yeah, he is your cousin. And she's like, and auntie Donna, is she like really my aunt? And I was like, well, yes, she is.

Dr Donna Elliott (04:11)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (04:18)
She's like, but you're like, she's not your sister. And I was like, well, grandma, grandma did not give birth to it. No, but we are family, right? And, and even better. And so I've been explaining that to them. She's like, well, cause I've got a lot of aunties. I'm very lucky. I was like, yes, you are, you are. And so, we, we designed this life, this yes and life.

Dr Donna Elliott (04:27)
It's the family you choose, which is even better, right? It's like...

Yeah, yeah.

did like from

from scratch and it was I mean and I'll never forget that conversation it was a Saturday evening I mean my life had gone like a hell in a handcart right it was like divorce and break up and you're bankrupt and we were like we didn't look at how it was so did we we were always very good at like but this is this is like a blip how is it gonna be and I

Claire Darr (05:06)
temporary.

Dr Donna Elliott (05:07)
And you having that conversation with me got me through more than one weekend sitting here thinking, ⁓ my God, like, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do when I was going through that really awful time of life when it felt awful at the time. But I think we always knew didn't whether this was like, that it was leading us somewhere. there was always whenever we've had challenging times in our life, we've looked at it and just thought what like.

We wouldn't have used the language, it's preparing us for something then, but we were just like, it's going to get better. Like this is all happening for a reason. We don't know what it is, but it's going to get better. And at the times when we've had very little, when the money hasn't been there or the man hasn't been there or the job hasn't been there or the happiness didn't feel like it was immediately available. Let's just say we would be on the phone going, just imagine, just imagine. And like that power of imagination.

Claire Darr (05:59)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr Donna Elliott (06:02)
Like Neville Goddard speaks of this all the time. He's one of our greatest Newthor teachers, right? And that power of imagination is the biggest faculty and has gotten us out of many a hole.

Claire Darr (06:13)
It really has. And the brilliant thing about all of that, yes, what she just said, by the way, ⁓ she says it a lot more eloquently than I do. But the brilliant thing about it is when we were doing that all those years ago, mean, literally when we say we've not we've known each other since we were like four or five years old. Right. And ⁓ at every stage of our life, it's not always been easy breezy. We've both gone through a lot of stuff. It was

Dr Donna Elliott (06:21)
Ha

Hmm.

Claire Darr (06:42)
We just knew it. It's like we knew it. And now have there been little periods of our life where we probably forgot it for a bit or, you know, didn't look at it? Yes, because you get caught up in the in the life, life and at you, which but then we're able to come back to who we were and remember who we were and remember how we felt when we were dreaming and visioning and imagining as kids, because we knew.

Dr Donna Elliott (06:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Claire Darr (07:12)
We were at Stand Up, Infants and Juniors, and then Brinkburn Comp, right? And for anyone from South Shields, they know they're like the fanciest schools in town, Although Stand Up is great. Stand Up now has Anne and John Hetherington on the school board now. So Stand Up is doing things. Brinkburn, they just got rid of, but they just knocked it down. But for us then, like we knew.

Dr Donna Elliott (07:17)
You

You

They just knocked it down, it was easier.

Claire Darr (07:42)
there was going to be more for us. knew we would, we knew we could say, yes, I want this and I want that and I want that. Even though everything on paper was stacked against us in a lot of ways where we'd come from, neither of us had anyone. I think it's true of you. It's true of me and the family that had gone to university.

Dr Donna Elliott (07:54)
ends.

No, no, no universities,

no businesses, none of that. That was not the norm. It's like what we didn't travel like we did. None of it was the norm. None of what we do was the norm. Like none of this was, we didn't grow up wanting these things because we grew up seeing other people having them. Like the nearest we have to the life we've got was you watching LA Law and me being obsessed with Harry Hamlin and Grace. Like that was like the nearest thing we had to, ⁓ we want that.

Claire Darr (08:10)
didn't travel?

Dr Donna Elliott (08:31)
We would like that life, please. Not this one. I watch Coronation Street and I'm just saying, I don't want this bloody life. I want that life. I want Dallas and I want LA Law life. That's the life I want. But you went and really, really did it.

Claire Darr (08:45)
took it to the extreme. I was a bit too literal.

I was a bit literal with all of that.

Dr Donna Elliott (08:50)
Exactly, I wanted

like the money and the clothes and stuff but I didn't want you to like move across the bloody Atlantic but you did.

Claire Darr (08:58)
I I know, I know. But you know what's really funny about that ⁓ is like this yes and life we're living right now, the plan I have, I've sort of clued Brett in on it a little bit.

Dr Donna Elliott (09:11)
A little bit, just the bit he needs to know.

Claire Darr (09:13)
brings

me back around to now my yes and life involves me being in South Shields, sunny South Shields as we commonly call it, which it has been lately, Costa del Shields has me coming back and spending a huge chunk of my life there. And so it's funny at all, comes full circle, but yes, not and, not but and you and I like.

Dr Donna Elliott (09:22)
Yeah, Costa del Shields. It's sunny today.

Claire Darr (09:39)
I bet you some of those teachers from back then, we had the same teachers, so we can both like immediately, you're better at remembering people's names and stuff than I am, but those teachers, honestly, if they had a hand on heart saved, they probably would have called it and said like Donna and Cheryl will, I mean, Donna and Cheryl, Donna and Claire will go and do something, no doubt. Like they probably aren't that surprised based on

Dr Donna Elliott (09:58)
And

So I said.

Claire Darr (10:07)
who we were then too, but we just didn't know how it was gonna happen, did we? We didn't know the hat.

Dr Donna Elliott (10:09)
we showed up.

No,

I completely agree. I don't think any of our teachers would bat an eyelid if they could see us now. And some of them have seen us, right? And we know like they're super proud, which I love. yeah, I don't think, I mean, I remember I didn't, one of our teachers who was like our head of year retired the year that we left school, Mr. Roberts, because he was like, it's not going to get better than this. And we were like, oh, he was like, you're like the best kids ever.

Claire Darr (10:21)
Great.

Dr Donna Elliott (10:37)
And we were nice kids, but we were always quite old for our years. We always stuck up for people who needed to be stuck up for. We just wanted better for ourselves. And I think it's a beautiful example of how you're, you we always say like the universe is expressing itself through you. So the universe is speaking through you. A lady was just speaking, was just DMing me on Instagram before about this and she'd been doubting herself. And I'm like, but you're so naturally good at it. Like that's the universe showing off through you.

Claire Darr (10:41)
Yes, we.

Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (11:04)
So these desires, these wants, these dreams that you have, like none of them are accidental. You're having them and you're feeling them because it's possible for you. But the thing that we doubt is our ability to have them rather than, which is crazy, rather than doubting the doubts. Like the doubts are the human way of getting in the way, right?

Claire Darr (11:24)
And you know what, it's funny, I heard this ⁓ course in miracles quote this morning and I had to quickly jot it down on my phone, of course, because that's all I had with me. As an aside, before I get there, you know, ⁓ by the way, people, when me and Donna get in a room, literally, like Brett's head like does this, because it's like, it's back and forth, it's back and forth. It only makes sense to me and Donna. Like we talk in code sometimes and we bypass words or we finish each other's sentences. Did you know that?

Dr Donna Elliott (11:46)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So you're in our

room now. If you're listening to this, you're in our room now. So just like, keep up, keep up people.

Claire Darr (11:54)
You're all over the place. Yes. This is what it's like. Like

get a cup of tea or an espresso martini or whatever you want. Did you know that Mr. Roberts and his wife came and visited me in Dallas? Did you know that? I, it's funny you said Mr. Roberts, he's passed away since God love him. They were on an American tour. He knew I was here. We made arrangements. I went and picked them up, took them out, took them out for the day, took them out to dinner.

Dr Donna Elliott (12:10)
it was lovely.

⁓ So he actually got to say, you live in your best life.

Claire Darr (12:27)
He,

when you said, I thought you knew that, like he had actually seen me live in this life. Isn't that cool? I took him to my office. I took like, literally it was like, I had like my grander in town and I was taking them all over. This is where I work. This is where I live. This is like, isn't that cool? Anyway.

Dr Donna Elliott (12:34)
That is incredible.

Yeah.

my goodness,

I love that so much for him though.

Claire Darr (12:48)
Isn't that amazing? Yes. So, but I heard this whole course in miracles quote, which you probably have heard is, you know, like these limiting beliefs, which you have been an amazing teacher to me in the past, well, seven years, but you know, more structured in the past year and a half, but the limiting beliefs, noticing them, acknowledging them, and then turning them around, know, catch it, challenge it.

change it is one of the things you've taught me. I heard this thing that limited beliefs are a crazy idea. We forgot to laugh at.

Dr Donna Elliott (13:27)
Yeah, 100%, because they're so ridiculous sometimes. They're so ridiculous, but we listen to them and we give them credence as if they're real.

Claire Darr (13:38)
Right. And they're all an illusion and it's all delusional, right? mean, thinking, can't do this. I can't do that. I haven't done it before. Who wants this? I don't know. Blah, blah, blah. Thinking all of that is equally as delusional as thinking I could be the best of the best. I can do this. I can do that. Neither of them right now in this minute are a hundred percent categorically true, but which one will actually do what you

Dr Donna Elliott (13:43)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (14:08)
get you where you want to be.

Dr Donna Elliott (14:09)
where you wanna be exactly, because either of them be true, because everything is relative, right? So everything is true if you believe it. And you get to choose, you get to choose what you believe. But I went through the first several decades of my life not really understanding that, making horrific life choices a huge part of the time, I get myself in terrible situations and trouble, because I didn't think I could think my thoughts, I just thought my thoughts thought me.

And then I was just like along for the ride and like that was just like how life was.

Claire Darr (14:36)
Bye.

We believed it. We believed the lie. It is an absolute lie that the world tells us that your thoughts are you and that you have to just accept and make the best and it's just the situation. that's not, things I hate are, that's not practical. That's not realistic.

Dr Donna Elliott (14:55)
Here you are, just here you are.

Yeah, not

realistic.

Claire Darr (15:05)
You

want to ban the word realistic. Like, I know I've got to be careful. In reality, you hate that, right? In reality, you know what comes after in reality is like crap. In reality, I can't really, you know. But we believe that lie for a bit. And now we're like completely blowing the lid off it. And you are in big, humongous ways blowing the lid off that lie and have to.

Dr Donna Elliott (15:09)
Hate it.

Now let's

Yeah. Yeah.

Claire Darr (15:34)
And literally having people rewire their brains, right? That's like being your baby for the past two, three years really is really how to teach people the brilliant art of rewiring their brain and that you have it all within you, right? That your subconscious knows. And I mean,

Dr Donna Elliott (15:44)
God, Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Claire Darr (16:03)
If I could, so literally I have Donna in my ear and on my phone every day, regardless, like we talk, we're back and forth, we're doing all the things. And then even if I don't have my phone in my hand, I've got Donna in my brain and in my ear with all of the things you've taught me about how to use my brain.

Dr Donna Elliott (16:25)
use your brain, like how to literally use it. We're not taught how to use a brain, Claire. We are not taught how to use our brain. And this is the thing. It's like the program. We think that the program is the brain. So the program being, well, I'm not good enough for it. I'm not smart enough. I'm not pretty enough. I'm too old. I don't look like them. We think that is our brain and it's not. It's just the way that the thoughts that you've been having for a really long time are flowing through your brain.

Claire Darr (16:28)
use my

Dr Donna Elliott (16:52)
And if, you know how to use your brain and you get this thing where you go, what do mean I can select the thoughts? think I can actually choose a different thought. can choose a different outcome from that thought. Like that blew my bloody mind when I found that out. Like that literally. I'm like, what do mean I can choose my, what do you mean I can choose the thoughts? And then I have a different outcome based on that. What? Because I just didn't, it sounds so simple now. And I fall foul like you, right? If I think everybody now knows that because I know it, I think everybody knows it. And then I realized that.

People don't, they don't know that they, they don't know it. And they'll go, it's really hard. Well, so is living with not enough money and jobs you hate, with your life living you, with the tail wagging the dog, the, do you mean like that's hard too, you will have to choose your heart. Like, cause, cause not, none of it is going to be easy if that's the way you live in your life. I lived my life. Like I always remember the line that you said to me on a, I know it was a podcast video, a live in COVID and you said,

Claire Darr (17:23)
People don't.

People don't.

Dr Donna Elliott (17:52)
Like literally, you I outsourced my life and that hit me because I was like, shit, that's what I was doing too for a really long time with 10 people having keys to my house with, you know, five or six nominated drivers to get my kid to nursery every day because I wasn't here because I worked away. Cause I believed at the time that the sacrifice I had for living a life where I had good money and.

job and got to pay for nice things for my kid and my family because security was so important, trauma informed value which I now understand. I thought that was more important than me having to be happy, like I didn't get to have both, I didn't get to be happy. No, of course not, I was just being a greedy bitch if you wanted to do that, like you know you've got a house over your head and you're paying for nice, you know, and it sounds like it's a materialistic thing, want everyone to understand it's not, like I was from a council estate, not far from where I now live.

Claire Darr (18:30)
You didn't get to have it all. No.

Dr Donna Elliott (18:47)
with my mum and dad having a fight really hard for us to have food sometimes. So when you grew up with not enough, with not a lot and not enough sometimes, having enough and being able to have food and paper things and look after my family was a super important driver for me. Again, trauma informed, which I now understand it was trauma related, because I thought security was my core value. And I understand it isn't, like we teach you guys.

Claire Darr (19:10)
Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (19:15)
It's not, that's from what you needed. You then became that version of you, but the recipe was burnout. Like you experienced, I experienced constantly burning ourselves out in order to have fun with.

Claire Darr (19:21)
Yes.

And we thought that was what we had to do. Like we thought

you couldn't have, like you say, this and that, the house, the car, the family, the nice food, like, you know, whatever it is, and the security, yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (19:39)
security, it was the security. I wanted to make sure

that they were okay. I didn't ever want them to have to be hungry because I remember times when mom like literally didn't have enough food for everyone to go around and it wasn't because my mom and dad weren't working. They worked the backsides off but always worked in multiple jobs sometimes but it was like that's how life was. It was it was hard like you know we grew up back in like the 70s, 80s. It was hard. didn't

Claire Darr (19:53)
Your mum and dad always worked, always.

Dr Donna Elliott (20:05)
have credit cards and overdraft. They didn't, they got cash and then they earned it and then they spend it and they bought food. And so that was where my drive to look after my family came from. And like you said, I didn't think I got to have all of that. I've grown up observing my parents working really hard, not having a lot themselves in order to give. So my sacrifice was, that's fine, I can do these things for my family. can look after them. I just don't get to be with them very often because I'm always away working. That was the trade. That was the payoff.

Claire Darr (20:33)
You were never home. And I will say as an aside, I don't mean to make a joke out of this, because part of the past trauma you've had has been kind of around ⁓ enoughness and food. Like no one goes hungry in Donna's house ever. I mean, she's the best hostess ever, hostess with the mostesters.

Dr Donna Elliott (20:52)
Nobody will ever leave here thinner.

Claire Darr (20:59)
ever because she does like that's also part of you giving and some of my core memories by the way of food that I love that makes me feel safe and secure were meals I had at your house that your mom made. You know, I talked about your mom the other day I was making scrambled eggs and Brett was like, what are you doing? I was like, this is the way Dorothy makes scrambled eggs like this. I witnessed her doing this and it was like the best thing ever, you know? And so I love that too.

Dr Donna Elliott (21:13)
all house. Yeah.

Claire Darr (21:28)
So what is, because by the way, we could be here for hours on end. ⁓ What is a yes and life for you? What does that mean?

Dr Donna Elliott (21:35)
people take a seat, get comfortable.

question. I mean I this whole podcast and the concept.

feel like from somebody who believed that sacrifice was just required for maybe yes and life means that I get to enjoy my life and be happy and have overflow and abundance in all things and have an impact at the same time I don't believe that I should have to compromise one for the other when it comes to that I don't believe it's always going to be like super super easy like I said it's but there's there's hard and then there's hard there's like hard and then there's heavy do you mean like I believe

wholeheartedly that you are here with this beautiful Dharma in your heart, that the universe has this incredible, these gifts that it's given you. And as you live out those gifts and as you bring those gifts to the world, because it knows that those gifts that you have are what the world really needs, whether that's because you're this brilliant writer that when you pick the book up, like somebody has this escapism.

and you feel like you're transported somewhere or whether you have the gift of being able to create this beautiful interior design home so when somebody walks in, their family feels safe and at home or whether it's because you can sit in front of someone like you can and see their brilliance and help them be the best of themselves and help them feel activated, go and do that thing. Like whatever that is that's your gift, my job is that that is your job literally. Like that's my belief that it's your job to go and do that and be that in the world.

And that as you do that, you will be divinely compensated for doing it. like, whereas my old self believed that it involved suffering and pain and it was selfish to want more and had to be grateful for everything I got. you know, there's a lot of like, we're brought up with generational religious trauma and all these things that have been used to suppress people for so many years to keep them thinking in a certain way, because that worked for the general machine.

And like now there's this huge awakening. I'm here for it. Like I believe you get to be spiritual and sassy and you get to be like fun and sweary and you know spiritually elevating other people at the same time. Like to me it's all of those things. It's you being the biggest, grandest, boldest version of you. That's what my yes and life is.

Claire Darr (24:12)
Ooh, ooh, ooh, we shall be going back and finding that quote. That is absolutely it. That's absolutely it. And like you say, if, if I talk a lot, you talk about this too, about the ripple effect, right? Of the impact of each one of us, anyone listening, every single person listening can have a ripple effect in the world that

they could never ever measure, right? Because if you wake up with only one thing on your heart and that's to help one person and you do it from this divinely inspired, this is in me and I am here, I'm gonna reach out and help you and use these gifts that you've been giving. Every single one of us has been given beautiful.

beautiful, beautiful gifts that are unique to us that only we can use the way they were intended to be used. But you have to ask yourself, ask what it is because we know, we know we've been given this download, right? This divine download. We know what that is. Sometimes we just don't ask and or we don't listen and then we don't trust it and act on it. But when we do that ripple effect, talk about impact.

Dr Donna Elliott (25:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Claire Darr (25:37)
Talk about legacy, talk about world changing, mountain moving. I mean, cause what you do with your work is move mountains. When you were just talking about the person who writes the book, by the way, I have to say this, the person who writes the book, the person who does the interior design, these are clients of yours that you have been part of their life. This isn't, you didn't just make up a story. Like these are real people who are out there living in their divine purpose and having a.

Dr Donna Elliott (25:54)
Yeah

Yes.

Claire Darr (26:05)
huge impact in this world and the amazing part of it all you get to do that and love it and have fun and make money and and and and right

Dr Donna Elliott (26:19)
and a client messaged me yesterday. And again, I share this because to inspire anybody who might be listening today. you she was a client who much like us had been in a corporate job would say that she loved her life, like would love her job, loved it, you know, but was a lot of sacrifices that came with it that she just accepted as, well, that's just that you can't have everything. Like you would be being greedy. You have this amazing home and these beautiful kids and da da.

And she rang me, she messaged me, she left me a voice note just saying, she was crying. So I was like, I'm listening to this voice and I'm like, God are you okay? It was just this emotion. She said, I'm just sitting here, I'm at this retreat, was at this fabulous retreat at this villa, she'd been serving these incredible women who've gone on a retreat for the last few days because she's now left court but she's fully immersed in her business. And she's like, I'm sat here like literally so full of love, like so full of gratitude that.

This is my life. Like, this is my life. Like, thank you so much for coming into my life and just, like, just give me a glimpse of what might be possible for me. And I'm like, and you know, me, I'm always like, I might have opened the door, but you walk through it, right? Like you, you have to have the courage at the end of the day to come and do it. But it's that thing, just that moment of just hearing her fully in her power, fully in her presence, completely in love with her life.

Claire Darr (27:33)
Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (27:44)
No sacrifices, no compromise, no, but it would be great. Like literally can't believe the impact she's having, the money she's earning, the life she's changing, the legacy she's leaving, and she gets to see her kids every single day if she wants to. Like doesn't have to compromise.

Claire Darr (27:59)
Yeah.

And I think I know exactly who you're talking about because I know her and she's amazing and I've been following what she's doing at the minute and she does. She exudes happiness. Exudes it and unapologetic and that's how we all get to be. You just have to choose it, right? And you have to decide.

Dr Donna Elliott (28:13)
It just...

You'd have to choose it.

But you know what? And I hate to be a complete like party pooper with this, but the reality is that most of this starts with awareness of like, where are you not really happy right now? Because I thought I was happy. Like I did. You thought you were happy. And we were. Relatively, they're like seeing what my parents had grown up dealing with.

Claire Darr (28:31)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes, I'm laughing for a reason. It's like, okay, we did not plan this out, by the way, much to the chagrin of like, Donna has like some very great people who work with her who were trying to make us plan this and we don't plan. But you like segwayed into something that I knew I wanted to talk about, which was my journey with you as a coach. Because when I talk, I've talked in my podcast, I've talked

Dr Donna Elliott (28:41)
Hehehe!

I know.

Claire Darr (29:08)
on social media, I talk all the time to people in person. When I talk about my coach, my coaches, it's you and Cheryl, now is your time. My coaches, now is your time and by the vehicle of you and Cheryl, putting it out there. And it made me think about my first real coaching session with you seven, eight, eight years ago? Seven years ago, seven.

Dr Donna Elliott (29:30)
It was fun. It was real. It's like seven years ago, seven years, 2018,

yeah. Crazy.

Claire Darr (29:38)
seven

years ago, right when you started the business, right when you decided, and I do want you to share your leaving corporate story if you don't mind, but right when you decided to leave corporate and set up this business, which was bold and brave and it was divinely led, but we, I sat in your living room where you're sitting right now and I've worked through my little document you've given me, know, and I had in my head what I wanted.

Dr Donna Elliott (29:47)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (30:07)
Right. What I wanted to get out of this and I was already living my dream life or so I thought. Right. Which was I had more flexibility. I had more time freedom. I was making great money. ⁓ All the things had the family. You know, was there on holiday. All the things. And ⁓ and I just wanted you to like tell me how to make a bit more money because like in my head if I made like I had a I had actually had a dollar.

amount in my head, if I made that much money, then everything would be easier and better. Everything would just, everything would be yes and, if I made that much money, right? And so I sat there with you and like, you didn't tell me how to make more money. Like you didn't just like, I was ready. Like I was like, okay, let's step one in making more money, right? And what you did instead was deconstruct things.

Dr Donna Elliott (30:48)
Yeah.

Switch it.

Claire Darr (31:05)
and dig through the rubble, as you call it, and find limiting beliefs and find things that were actually holding me back from stepping into this version of me that I was supposed to be. And I didn't like it.

Dr Donna Elliott (31:23)
Didn't like it. There was definitely resistance.

Claire Darr (31:26)
I was a little teeny tad bit resistant. I was like, what is this? Like, no, this is not what I want. I think I said to you, this is not what I was wanting. This is not what I wanted. And like, I didn't think this. And I was super skeptical. And you just like...

Dr Donna Elliott (31:38)
This is not what I was signing up for.

mean, Brett

called it boo-hucky, remember? Brett was like, it's boo-hucky. Just the process,

Claire Darr (31:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

just the process.

And I mean, and then I was leaving and so I went away with stuff and then you and I and Cheryl, I continued my coaching journey. That was before I knew what Zoom was. It was before any of us used Zoom. just, you had, how many times you had to explain how to use Zoom. And I remember sitting in the old version of this house at the dining room table, cause that was my office. And I was like 60 pounds heavier. That was one of the things by the way we discovered that

Dr Donna Elliott (32:07)
yeah, we had to explain how to use Zoom. It was fun. A lot.

Yeah, that was like

one of the major, major things for you, was just like you felt like you couldn't be you in that body.

Claire Darr (32:29)
Yeah. And I remember coming out of that first session go, well, say, so I wanted you to tell me how I was going to make more money. And you just told me that the root cause of my problems right now that I'm overweight and I don't like it. And I was like, seriously, seriously? But I stuck with it, right? There was, I kept stuck with it, kept coming back for more, kept coming back for more of the, this is where you're stuck.

Dr Donna Elliott (32:47)
You did, you were a hero.

Claire Darr (32:57)
And through doing the work consistently in looking at where I was stuck and the limiting beliefs and what was holding me back and the stuff that was not pretty and the stuff that I had been avoiding and putting plaster on and burying and all of that.

And it's like, I woke up seven years later and I'm in a dream house in a body that I love in a, in a, in in my own business, living out this life that I literally wrote down one day after talking to you was my magical day, my magical life. I designed this house. I designed this life. I designed it all from morning to night with such

Dr Donna Elliott (33:20)
in the dream body.

Claire Darr (33:43)
clarity and detail and I'm literally walking around in it right now and then what do you say to me? I get to then do more and and now what's next?

Dr Donna Elliott (33:52)
Get to do more. And

what's next? Let's keep going.

Claire Darr (33:56)
And

so, you you are my coach and you've always been in that kind of coaching leadership capacity, right, in the jobs you've had. I mean, you've got 30 plus years of this experience.

Dr Donna Elliott (34:15)
really depressing, it? When we say it's like, cause

when we started the business, was like 20 over like, no, it's like nearly 30 years coach experience now. That's really scary. ⁓

Claire Darr (34:23)
So, but you made this kind of hard shift. It wasn't even a little pivot. I mean, it was a full pivot out of... So that was, I presume the pursuit of a yes and life. Like how did you do it? What was behind that?

Dr Donna Elliott (34:29)
It was a burn the bridges pivot.

Yeah, and do you know, I love sharing this because I just think so many of us have these moments in our lives and then talk ourselves out of them. Like I won't be the only person that's had these moments, but I think so not enough of us sit up and listen to them. I think a lot of us did in COVID. I think that made a lot of people sit up, but I feel like the apathy set in now in a lot of different ways, but like coming around on the cycle again. Yeah. Yeah. Fine. Ah, scariest word ever. Fine.

Claire Darr (35:00)
The com- the comfort, ⁓ I'm fine. The F word that I do not like to use.

Dr Donna Elliott (35:09)
But yeah, for me, it was like one of those beautiful universal sequence of events that just kind of these drop-ins and it had started with the fact that I had never, ever, ever, ever, ever not worked. Like I literally left uni and I was in work right the next, and that was it. Like I would be made redundant and in the car, like knowing that I was going to redundancy conversation, I would have lined up the next job. Like I was that good, do know what I mean?

And I found myself in these periods, this period where I had had months where I'd ended a contract in my own, had a consultancy business and hadn't taken another consultant contract. Like it was quiet and I was like, Oh, enjoy it. I went to New York, spend a lot of money, know, like did all the things. And then it got to New York and I was like, Oh my God, I probably need to find a job now or find another contract. And it was quiet. Nothing was happening. And I remember having a conversation with a lady at the time in the January who had left her job very well paid at Canary Wharf.

and had set up her own business as a health coach online. And I'd never heard of anything like that. I'd literally never heard of it. And I was like, you do what? And I remember my mind being blown because was a Friday afternoon. And she was like, right, well, I've got to go now because I'm walking the dog and I'm to the pub. And as a corporate girl, I was like, what? Like, what? Because even though I was looking for contracts, I wouldn't let myself like leave the kitchen island or the kitchen table. I would work looking for something or doing something or.

Claire Darr (36:20)
Good.

It was

your job, yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (36:32)
right, rewriting procedures

or doing something for the business up until five o'clock. I tried to like a job. And, and that case, so that kind of blew my mind. And what she said to me, and I said, I can't imagine, I can't imagine that. And she said, but what would your life be like if, if this was your life? Like, and, and I got so upset, I virtually hung up the phone. Like I couldn't, because I was like, these are flights of fancy love. It's all right for you with your ex-Canary Wharf job. You probably got hundreds of thousands in the bank. This is what obviously the human me was saying.

Claire Darr (37:00)
You built the story.

Dr Donna Elliott (37:02)
Yeah, I was like, it's all for you, but I've got like a mortgage to pay and parents to look after. Like I can't just like, you know, la la la la la la. And then, and then, you know, as the universe has it, she will keep giving you nudges. So when you are not listening to her and in a one friend, I was like, this is so weird that I can't get a contract like monthly. I'm like, this is crazy. Like what's going on. And I remembered her saying, you know, I don't know why this is happening, but it's happening for you. Like something great is going to come from.

because this is so not like you're not doing work. Something amazing is going to come and I'm like, well, what is it? I'm ready to find out now. And then had this other conversation with somebody who said, well, what would you really look if you could do anything? Well, I'd love to have a coaching business. I spoke with this lady a few months ago and she had this business and she didn't work Friday afternoons. And I said in five years, and she sent me the, and I said in five years, I will have, by the time I'm 50, I will have started a coaching business and will be able to exit corporate. That was the plan.

was the 4th of April and by June our business was set up and all I committed to was 15 minutes a day and at the time Cheryl's dad passed away at the end of May but the seed had been planted and I think this is the thing is when you just make the decision I made the decision that I was going to set up a coaching business and I gave myself five years grace to do this and I you know this people in our world we say when's it gonna happen they say five years we're thinking five months in our head we just nod along politely we'll know what his time will collapse

as soon as you make that decision a new timeline opens a new pathway is is you know literally like it's like the quantum field goes here you all have it and and straight away in that moment you are already already quantum jumping you're already there it's already done in my head it was already done so within months and then that was how it happened because i just once that seed was set and it was like it grew so rapidly there was just never any going back

Claire Darr (38:43)
already there. Yeah.

Dr Donna Elliott (38:57)
there just wasn't, there just was never any, did I have moments where it was hard in that first year and we had no money coming in and I'd be like right okay do I have to go to job? I would think it but it didn't, it never happened, you know to me it didn't, it just didn't work that way and and for me that's what when you really listen to your Dharma, when you listen to your heart, when you tune in, Cheryl and I always said it was like

We would have days where it was hard, but it was just a different hard. Like we'd have worries. wasn't that we didn't have worry. We literally left, we burnt the boats. We didn't have hundreds of thousands in the bank to spend. had the bit I had had, had gone and spent in the months when I was still trying to look for a job thinking why can't I get a job? You know what I mean? So it was very, but it was just the most liberating feeling. Like I just remember thinking I'm so scared and so happy every single day.

Claire Darr (39:38)
Yeah.

Dr Donna Elliott (39:50)
And that never felt that kind of happiness other than having my child. Like I'd never experienced that freedom of, because I just literally was so in love with my life. Like it was, it was nothing that I'd ever experienced in my corporate job. And it's not about the corporate job. There are plenty of people out there who get that same high from their corporate job. I'm not saying everybody has to leave, but what I'm saying is it's like have that awareness of like what really lights you the F up, right? Like what.

Claire Darr (39:54)
Yeah.

Great.

Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (40:18)
what really really lights you up, not what you think lights you up, like what lights you up at a heart, soul, somatic level, like where you literally feel like a Christmas tree every day.

Claire Darr (40:29)
And not what you think should, right? Because that's a lot we think we should or well, I've already spent this much time doing this. So let's just throw more time on it, you know, but.

Dr Donna Elliott (40:31)
Not what you think should. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's the diminishing

returns mentality that so many people have. Well, I've spent so much money becoming a lawyer. I've spent so much money becoming a doctor. Like I've spent so much time in this marriage. I've spent so much. And it's like, well, I'm in it. And how many people would say to me, well, you know, but I'll retire. And I'm like, how old are you? 45. When do you retire? What, another 20 years? You're telling me that you're just going to sit it out and then enjoy your retirement? What if you don't make it to retirement? Why do you want to wait until you're nearly 70 to enjoy your life? What the hell is that?

Claire Darr (40:43)
Yes.

when you could be doing it right now. And that's, think, what you have lived out since starting the business. And part of it as well is you had certain things that you required for your family, right, to get to spend time and the time freedom and those moments where it kind of back to when I was outsourced in my life and you were, you know, so that you didn't have to miss.

Dr Donna Elliott (41:11)
NAH!

Claire Darr (41:38)
Caleb coming home from school. You didn't have to miss his lovely school events and yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (41:43)
Doctor's appointments, do remember that? And do remember doctor's

appointments where I'd be like on speakerphone with my sister from 180 miles away while she was in the room with my son and me, scrying and saying, it's not good enough, this has been going on for months with them. And she's just like holding the phone up and you know, all those moments and Neil would miss them too, right? My husband, he missed him being in the plays and doing the things and had this inflexible job where he could not get time off unless he booked it months in advance.

Claire Darr (41:52)
Perfect.

Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (42:12)
and miss some plays in school and sports days, then you'll never get to have that time back. And that was one of the best things, because Neil works in Now Is Your Time Now as well. And you know, that last, he's been with us since COVID, so like five years now. So Caleb doesn't remember Neil missing things. He doesn't remember me missing things. doesn't remember Neil, his dad missing things. And for Neil, just every time he stood on that field at sports day, it made my heart like,

swell with love because you could see how much it meant to him. So it hasn't just changed like my life and like I get this one around and go and speak here and speak there and I mean I'm in Menorca speaking for a week at a retreat like in a couple of weeks like how was that even my life people right and then but it's not that it's just changed my life it's changed our whole family's life like my mom needs to go to a hospital appointment great one of us can definitely take care.

Claire Darr (43:05)
Right.

Dr Donna Elliott (43:07)
She needs some help

Claire Darr (43:07)
Right.

Dr Donna Elliott (43:07)
with something, not a problem. One of us can be there in the next few hours. Like my parents aren't old, but they're getting older and we to be able to help them. Exactly.

Claire Darr (43:14)
where they need support. Yeah, yeah.

And it all starts with you stopped buying into the lie. I stopped buying into the lie that it had to be hard, that there had to be sacrifice, that you couldn't have it all, that scarcity was to be expected. There was always a trade off. There was always this, that, and we stopped buying into the lie.

And we decided we were worthy of more. We decided we got to have more. could have, now, neither one of us has sat back just like, you know, I'm in our way into a business and a life that we love. Neither one of us has done that, but we decided what we wanted. We decided we got to have it all. And then we listened and we took action. And that's the thing. You're one of the hardest working people I know in terms of you, you are.

constantly working on something, you're constantly thinking and growing and reading and working on things that are developing you and expanding you always. You do do it from the garden every once in a while where I get to see your legs, you know, and, you know, go and check out some of the posts lately. She's been doing a lot of really mind blowing work from the garden, right, in the sunshine.

Dr Donna Elliott (44:43)
100%. When

the sun is out in England, you make the most of it you work in the garden.

Claire Darr (44:46)
You make, make

hay in the sun. You make hay in the sun. The work that you are doing, I mean, you started this and I do want people to know a little bit about mind coding and the rewiring because by the way, now our children, Caleb, Lydia, Ava, our children use the words actively rewiring. Like my kids say rewiring all the time. Do I need to rewire that? Do I need to recode that? Do I need to?

That's something I need to work on. Like they understand that their brain is not set the way it is and these thoughts in this world is not the way it has to be. They know now that they can fire all of these, ⁓ what are they called? The synapses, the neurons, you know, yes. And they can rewind. And so our kids now just presume that's part of life. That's legacy building that our kids will never buy into that lie anymore.

Dr Donna Elliott (45:29)
neurons, creating new connections.

Claire Darr (45:44)
But will you explain what mind coding is? Because I talk about it a lot. I remember it was a thought you had, an idea you had, and you told me about it one of our walks two years ago.

Dr Donna Elliott (45:57)
we were walking, when you

were home and we were walking along the pier and we loved it, we would get so many good ideas when we were by the water and we were like, what's the next five years gonna do? And we were like, well, we've got this thought, we've got this idea because at the end of the day, ultimately we can coach so many people. Let me back that up. When I first started the business, I remember one of my old bosses, I was chatting to him the other day saying me, will you teach other people to do what you've done?

Claire Darr (46:05)
Beautiful.

Dr Donna Elliott (46:22)
And I said, I probably will when I get to a certain level of success. I don't know what that is, by the way. Again, it's one of these fictional bullshit milestones you make for yourself. And I checked myself a couple of years ago and we're like, yeah, this is, how successful do you be before you share what you do? But I got very, I think jaded with how I say coaching being done. And I feel like there's, we've evolved past. I mean, I never coach like you've all standard coach anyway.

anyone that I ever coached. was never, that was never me. I could just see people, not dead people, but just see them. I could see everything. So they come and sit in the room for the one-to-one. I could just see them. I could see what they were capable of. And I wanted them to see it as well. I'm a reflector in human design, which means that generally speaking, my gift is that I don't have to do anything and you can be around me and you can see something in you that you probably haven't seen before. So my encoding really was

Charlie and I had this vision of what if coaching wasn't just coaching anymore? It's like, it's this bridge we created with Mind Coaching where we're bringing together neuroscience and psychology and the somatic connection to all of it. but that everything is underpinned by spirituality, not religion, I hasten to add, because it's like, I'm not anti-religion by any way, or form, but like spirituality is like agnostic, isn't it? It's about the...

underlying principle that sits under all of that, this oneness and connection that we all experience and we all really seek deep down. And mind coding was the vision was always that it would bring that all together so that when you're coaching someone, you are really genuinely coaching them at a spiritual, psychological and a somatic level so that because you need all three of those things to shift to get the result from when we're sitting coaching,

is still done in the mainstream in a very results oriented fashion. So people are sitting, talking about the results, talking about your weight or talking about the money that you're earning and trying to change that. But that's the end result of everything else, of the spirituality, of the identity, of the things that you're thinking about it, of how you're feeling about it. Because we manifest based on how we're feeling. We live in a universe that is

It's language is frequency based. know, Einstein said that Tesla said that this isn't a main thing. But what we understood is it's like people understood like they've got a bit about law of attraction and they got a bit about neuro size, but they didn't know how to then change their life. didn't know how to change their brain, the actual technology of the brain and change the program, the software that's in the hardware. They didn't know how to do that. And we're like, we know how to do that. We do it all the time. That's, that's create something that shows them.

but helps them feel purposeful because it's really about legacy, right? For all of us now, we get to a certain point in life and we worry less about the money we're making and the impact that we're having. We wanted it about you understanding how powerful you are, like you said before. We always think we haven't got the answers that somebody else has, but you haven't, you've got the answers. And we wanted them to have this prosperous life, which is...

Claire Darr (49:32)
You've got the answers.

Dr Donna Elliott (49:36)
not prosperous just in money, but prosperous in this overflow of abundance of health, of joy, of love, a feeling like you belong, a feeling like you matter. So we knew we could do that for our clients, but it was like, how do you then show people how to do that for their clients or how they do it for themselves even? And that was really the vision of Mind Coding. And honestly, from you were one of our, in our first ever collectives, cohorts of people to...

I've a credit practitioner of mine coding. There's been another one since you and just seeing the difference it is making. Because the kind of crazy effect was the impact it had on your life. Even though you've been a student, even though you've been a client of it, being the student, it's like going behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz isn't good. Well, this is the tool we using when we did that. And this is the framework we're using. And this is the blueprint we're using. And this is the blend. And you all had such huge personal shifts going through the program.

Claire Darr (50:28)
Right, right.

Dr Donna Elliott (50:34)
to learn the tools and then the ripple effect is then how many more people than you guys then impact through using the tools in your families, in your communities, with your clients. It's like better than anything we ever even envisioned.

Claire Darr (50:49)
It truly is incredible. I, me along with a few others, you know, said we would come to the opening of an envelope that you had, right? And whatever it is you do, we're there for it. And so I just jumped in not understanding one jot of what it was going to be, right? And jumped in and fully participated during, well, I'm just going to go on record as saying the hardest year of my entire life.

Dr Donna Elliott (51:18)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (51:19)
⁓ I haven't gone into a whole lot of detail around it, but you know, the hardest year of my entire life. And I jumped into this science backed. Intense because there was a lot, there was a lot went with it, right? Certification program on top of working and being a mom and a wife and all of the things. And I jumped in thinking I'm crazy for doing this. And that's the very reason I need to do it. And.

Dr Donna Elliott (51:33)
intense. Yeah. Yeah.

Claire Darr (51:48)
Immediately what I was learning through the program real time helped me in the struggles I was having at the time and getting through a lot of it and not just getting through it, but thriving through it and experiencing and living through it without shutting down. But I was also immediately able to start using it with my clients because I had active clients during that period and starting doing.

Dr Donna Elliott (52:09)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (52:18)
And they were starting to have real world, real time shifts in their lives where I've seen the light go on with them. They were telling me, and I work with really top performing, high capacity, high earning people at the top of their game who find themselves stuck. Stuck is the word I hear all the time. I'm just stuck. And on paper, everyone wants their life, right?

Dr Donna Elliott (52:41)
Chug.

Claire Darr (52:47)
And they're stuck. There's some aspect or many aspects of their life that just aren't working. And in doing some of the mind coding work with them and entrusting them my divinely given gifts, and I've never been a coach and I have people because these are top performers, they've worked with coaches in the past, right? They've worked with, their companies have paid for coaches and they're wanting me to give them

the outline and the matrix and the things, right? And the structured plan thing. there is no, there is a plan because it ends up being sent real time, right? But we work on what is in front of them and where they'll get the best result for themselves in that moment, not the thing. goes back, no, it's not cookie cutter. is not a one size fits all.

Dr Donna Elliott (53:18)
Mm. Mm.

Not the cookie cutter.

Claire Darr (53:44)
It goes back to what I experienced with you in my first coaching session, which was I wanted you just to tell me how much, how to make more money. And you told me to go work on this, right? I didn't know that was the thing that, and most of my clients come to me not knowing what the thing is, right? I've been able to see people's lives shift in such monumental ways where people are telling me their marriages are better than ever. Things are happening in their business and their careers that they could have never imagined.

Dr Donna Elliott (53:52)
Yeah. Yeah.

Claire Darr (54:14)
They're healthier than they've ever been. They're happier than they've ever been. They're more equipped to deal with the life has still been coming at them. It's not like all of a sudden they hit the easy button on life. They didn't, but they knew how to show up every day and they trusted in that and time does collapse and results do show up.

You've just got to trust in the process. so mind coding is back to what you said to Brett all those years ago. Mind coding has been phenomenal for me and I've seen the ripple effect. You and Cheryl will never know these people that mind coding has touched that I get to work with. then everyone else, mean, and on a lovely little walk to the beach two years ago when you told me about this idea.

Dr Donna Elliott (55:00)
It's crazy.

Yeah, and we're like, I think we need to do this.

I saw, it's like when I see you quoting like things that your clients have said, it just, it's like literally like the biggest hug. I saw somebody else who was a mind coding practitioner on LinkedIn and somebody had posted and tagged her saying like, this woman is literally the best coach ever. Like my money mindset has completely changed at my businesses. And I was like, and she doesn't know who I am. And I'm like, I'm reading this book and it's like the...

Claire Darr (55:31)
Great.

Dr Donna Elliott (55:31)
the best feeling ever. it is, it must be like when you, went into, I'm watching Caleb doing something and you just really, it's that, it's that thing. You just, it's the peeing it forward.

Claire Darr (55:38)
Yes, he's doing

it. He's doing it all, but you've got to be a part of it too. And you've got to activate it. And yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (55:44)
Yeah, you would just, it's the activation.

Yeah. We, and again, we can only give you, we can give you the tools, but it's you get to use it and align it to your Dharma, to your greatness, to bring out the best thing that you want to do in your business and your legacy and in your life. And you know, it's something you said before, where you said about, you know, everyone, it's the ripple effect. If everyone going away and just doing.

just doing something and just, you know, making some one person's life better that day. something really struck me when you said that is because I think as women, we can get in our heads and have our imposter syndrome, our comparisonitis take over a lot as well, where we go, oh no, but I haven't written a book. I'm not a doctor, I haven't done a TEDx. I haven't built my own house and designed my own house. haven't done, and honestly, it's not about that.

My favorite moments are when we paid forward or when we're just out of our heads and get out of our own arses so much that when we're sitting opposite someone and we can see they've had a crappy day and we're like, how are you? And we really mean it. Do you know what mean? You'll say, you look beautiful in that. I remember seeing this lady on holiday a couple of years ago and I loved her, someone called her, was leopard print. Someone was like, oh my God, I love your costume. You look beautiful. And she just stopped and looked, she said,

Thank you so much. I've been crying for an hour in the room. didn't want to come out of the room.

And we are still friends now. We still keep in touch now. And it's like, to me, it's those moments, like that to me is when you have an impact on someone, when you just see them. But we're all running around in our own troubles, in our own worries. It's not about writing the book. It's not about doing those things. It is about you just like getting so present in your life that you notice these moments where you can be of service, where you can have a connection, where you can connect with yourself, where you can connect with your child, with your husband, with your partner.

whoever and just be and I just, you know, I stood yesterday in the park, I kid you not. And I must have stood for five minutes just watching the cherry blossom blow from the tree. And I literally just couldn't get over how beautiful it was. That was it. Like, and then I also got my phone out and tried to film it and I was like, it just doesn't look the same on the phone. But it's like, and I was like, just had to just have to stand, Neil gets me now. So he'll just stand patiently and wait for me to have my moment. And I could literally.

Claire Darr (57:57)
doesn't know.

And Gabby will lie

down while she's waiting for you.

Dr Donna Elliott (58:06)
had a lie down,

Bulldog has a lie down and I literally was moved to tears just at the beauty of that moment of this cherry blossom, this magical confetti rolling around.

Claire Darr (58:11)
Just watching.

And I saw this amazing post on LinkedIn, I think yesterday where it had a comparison because you are all about the brain as well. And you are all about, you're about the woo and the witchy woo, but you're also about the science, right? And you love a bit of science and there is no one who is more researched and, I mean, you've literally got a doctorate in this, right? Than you, so you love the science behind it and

Dr Donna Elliott (58:27)
Love a bit of which you will, yeah.

Claire Darr (58:44)
and the research and you've written on it many times, but there was something I saw on Facebook and it had a before and after of a brain. It had a few slides. So it was a brain looking at Instagram, like, it showed you what was lit up in the brain. You know, was like dopamine and something else. don't know. A brain looking at a tree. Everything fired up, right? A brain, you know, buying something online.

Dr Donna Elliott (59:00)
Yeah. Yeah.

It fires up.

Claire Darr (59:14)
a brain giving a gift to a friend. I mean, it was like, it was all of these things where the things that we think are going to make us feel better, like scrolling on social media or, know, whatever it is, all of these things are not these things that are being part of the world, getting outside, getting in nature. I know it's something you do every day and you've inspired me to do that. Going for a walk, looking at a tree. I mean, if you want to hug the tree,

Dr Donna Elliott (59:16)
later, later Christmas tree.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Claire Darr (59:43)
Hug the tree, hug the tree.

Dr Donna Elliott (59:43)
Hug the tree! The tree will love it.

Claire Darr (59:46)
The tree will hug you back. But I have started going down that path of like, you know, the science behind trees.

Dr Donna Elliott (59:52)
my God, I talked to the plants, I'm planting

plants at the minute and I talked to every single one of them and setting intention when I planted honestly, like we've gone to the dark side.

Claire Darr (59:58)
We are all connected. We're all

connected. Lydia is like, mom, mom, seriously, it's cringe. Mom, stop it. ⁓ but all of that is, it shows you what is happening within our brains. in the pursuit of fast and more stuff and this and that and this fast moving world, we're doing ourselves a disservice. And we're doing our brains, we're doing our kids' brains a disservice. We're doing everyone.

a disservice. And so I love and I don't doubt for a minute you stood and looked at the cherry blossom and you probably, if you had a chance, brought other people into it and said, look at this cherry blossom, you know, because yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:00:39)
and they're gorgeous,

yeah. It is, life is, the older I get, the more I just know that life is made up of a compilation of all those small moments. It really is, and getting present in it. And from a science perspective, you cannot, I mean, you used to talk all the time, about white-knuckling your life and white-knuckling your manifestations. The thing that was beautiful about us sitting as those young girls, dreaming up our dreams and designing our life was,

Claire Darr (1:00:51)
All those moments.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:01:06)
We had no attachment to it. We were just in the wonder and the awe and everything was possible. And when you can stay in that, like, this is the science that you're always creating new synaptic connections. You're always creating new, you know, new brain cells, new pathways. When you are thinking like that, when you're, when you're dreaming it up and you're getting involved without the, and it has to happen or else life will be shit or it has to happen or else I'm a crap mom or hell. We were just in the aura of God, what might happen.

And I think some of us somewhere along the line lose that. think life can knock it out a little bit and we let our doubts and imposter syndrome take over. And I think, well, if we can just stay in that, if we can just stay in the possibilities of the what ifs of, you know, was with a friend last week who, you know, she's an incredible woman and she has now set up three seven figure businesses in her fifties now, you'll start a business around the same time as we did.

And she's like going, she's just bought a dream house and she's like driving through the double electric gate going, I can't believe this is my house. I feel like I'm in an Airbnb, it's like it's someone's house. And I'm like, isn't that amazing? But the woman who was tens of thousands in debt in a very unhappy narcissistic relationship a decade before that wouldn't have believed that version. because it's like, what have you got to lose? Like what have you got to lose all those years ago when we started the business?

It was, yes, I want to have an impact on someone. And yes, but there was part of it that was just literally like, I'm going to be in that box of Charles Dutton one day. And I don't want to be saying, well, I would like an extra couple of years to do something because you were given all these years, like, what did you do with them? Did you make them count? Or did you scroll your way through them on Instagram, looking at other people doing it?

Claire Darr (1:02:39)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Right.

other people doing it, having FOMO, comparisonitis, letting the imposter take over, letting the limiting beliefs win, ⁓ because it was safe and it was known and what if and what if and what if and instead choose the other delusional thought. Be delusional.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:02:57)
Yeah.

overwhelm you.

Yeah.

Choose the other, choose the, be delusional and give

yourself a break because there's nothing wrong with you that you're scared to do that. Like your whole system, your brain, your body, everything is geared to keep you safe and sat in that armchair flicking on Netflix every night, like everything. It doesn't want you to do anything out of the ordinary. It just wants you to be.

alive. Like that's all it's trying to do. It doesn't give two shakes of a cat's tail whether or not you're happy. And it certainly doesn't give a shit if you're in overflow. Like it just wants you to be alive. So you are going to have to learn, which again, like I guess that's what my encoded is about as well. It's like, how do you become a master of your technology? How do you change the software? Because if you're watching a film and that's the movie of your life and you don't like the film, there is no point throwing things at the screen.

Claire Darr (1:03:49)
Yes. Yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:03:57)
that you've got to go in and physically change the film, that you've got to put a different film on, you've got to go into Netflix, you've got to go into the menu, you've to put a different film on. That's what we're doing effectively in mind coding. And we want everyone to have the tools on how we do that because, I don't know why we're not teaching it in schools, I really don't. I mean, what was the point of algebra? Like, I have no idea, but this stuff would actually make a difference. But it's the...

Claire Darr (1:03:59)
change it.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:04:20)
All we can do is the power of one. We're learning it, we're sharing it with you guys, you guys are sharing it with your kids, you guys are sharing it your communities. Like that's what we can do. And we are in a time when it has never been more important for us culturally as a collective consciousness to wake up and play our role in this. It has never been more important for us to do this than it is right now.

Claire Darr (1:04:41)
And that's something that I've fully embraced and embodied from doing the work with you is that my part to play in this, no matter what its size is important and valuable and needed. And if we all were able to just do our little bit collectively, the world changes. And I'm so glad you did say it's normal to have

Dr Donna Elliott (1:05:03)
Yeah.

Claire Darr (1:05:10)
all of those fears. And it absolutely is the hard work is doing the work to see them. That was one of the best things I ever learned from you. They're not my enemy. They're not there to sabotage me. They're there to keep me safe. And so when you can give the healthy respect that's due to our systems, our bodies, our brains trying to keep us safe and see it and

give it a little bit of air time and say I see you okay and I choose this instead and I choose this instead and to continue doing that it gets easier and easier by the way you get faster and faster at it and but it's something I do every day do you do you have to work on this every I do it every day every day

Dr Donna Elliott (1:05:43)
Exactly.

Every single day,

every single day there is a new challenge or a new mountain. Sometimes small mountains, sometimes small hills, sometimes big mountains. And that's good for me, that's healthy. On days where I don't have that, I'm like, ⁓ what am I doing with my life? But it's, you know, it's perfectly normal to have those fears. It's perfectly normal to feel paralysed by them sometimes, but it's a choice. It's a choice to stay paralysed. It's a choice to keep living in the fear.

Claire Darr (1:06:11)
Right, right.

It's choice to keep watching

that program on Netflix.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:06:25)
It's a choice to keep scrolling 100%. And like when you,

as my angel said, well, you know better, do better. Like once I learned that actually could choose the thoughts that I think and therefore choose the results that I have, I'm like, well, I can't unknow that now. And you can't now, you're listening to this, whoever's there, you know that you actually have more power than you ever believed was possible. Like you can't unknow that now. So.

Claire Darr (1:06:51)
No,

no.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:06:51)
It's

a choice then what you do with it. It is a choice. I just knew I did not want to go to the grave thinking, please God give me another day or give me another week. Cause what have you done with the ones that I gave you? Yeah. I do want to have any regrets. just want to, I can say, what if it goes wrong? What if it goes wrong? I can say, if it goes right? Like both things will take up the same amount of time. One will take up lot more energy than the other. One will have more of a pleasant outcome than the other.

Claire Darr (1:07:01)
Give me some more time. Give me more time to do something. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Both. Absolutely.

It's it is absolutely the best way to live it. I want people to know. I love that you said you can't unknow this now. Now that you've heard it, you can't unknow it. What you do with it next is up to you. You know, some people will file it away and remember it at some point. Some people want to take action on it right now. Some people will ignore it and it'll keep prodding at them. You know, someone will say something you go, oh, it was just like those two girls from South Shields.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:07:45)
Mm-hmm.

Claire Darr (1:07:50)
said the other week, oh my goodness, whatever happens is the right thing for you at the time. I want people to know that. I've gotten really good at knowing that. Timing is everything and you are where you're meant to be. If people want to work with you, how do they do that? I know, I see the book behind you on the shelf. You have a book. I mean, you have actually written the book.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:08:15)
Yeah, wrote the book, it's unorigible, become the real you. The book is a great place to start because you can get on Amazon, it's super easy, become the real you. And it's got free resources to help you find your purpose and all the rest of it. You can go watch the TEDx talk on, just put my name in or Cheryl's name, you'll find it on YouTube. Or we've got this great resource as well called the Impostor Syndrome Solution, because most people, it's their imposter syndrome in the way and it's...

Claire Darr (1:08:28)
Mm-hmm.

It starts with that, yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:08:41)
It starts with it.

So come and jump into Instagram at now is your time to, I know all the shows, they know something in the showreel and stuff, but I'll just come and drop us a DM if you don't know where to start. But like, just do something. Like don't, none of us all of a sudden woke up one day and we're like, I've got all the confidence in the world to chase these dreams. No, you will get the confidence on the way to doing it. so if the confident, most of you will say it's the confidence. Like if I was more confident, would, if I didn't know if I didn't doubt myself. Like no.

Claire Darr (1:08:47)
Yes, yes.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:09:09)
just take that off the table, go and download the Impostor Syndrome solution and then that's that one dealt with. Because just start, just start, because it's the not starting that you'll regret. You'll never ever ever regret starting. I started with 15 minutes a day of working towards my dreams and look where we are seven years later.

Claire Darr (1:09:14)
to start.

Well.

And that's something I talk to my clients about a lot. It's the small, incremental, consistent changes. We all tend to go, we need to go big and then we don't keep it up and then we don't get the results and then it proves the whole thought press that it doesn't work. And...

Dr Donna Elliott (1:09:41)
Evidence that it doesn't work, yeah.

Claire Darr (1:09:47)
Time will pass anyway.

Me sitting in that living room seven years ago, the stuff I've done between now and then to unpack and to dig through the rubble. Yes, I resisted. Was it? It's been very messy. And look at where I am now. And it's not about the things. What it... This is where I could get it. What? What it's about.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:10:00)
Yeah, messy. It has been messy at times.

Claire Darr (1:10:20)
is the, I get to wake up every day and have that feeling and I feel it even no matter what's coming at me. I feel good. I feel good inside. If I have a moment of not feeling good, I know how to get myself to that feel good place. And because it starts with me, once I can get myself to this place,

then I can reach out to my kids, to my husband, to my loved ones, to the person that I'm going to go see at the grocery store and maybe just because I've got the energy to do it, because I've got it in me to do it, I might be able to just switch their day just a little bit. And that's what it's all about. And so the money and the stuff and the stuff is fabulous and I love it. And I'm never going to say no to it. And neither will you.

But the fact that I get to wake up into this life that I couldn't have imagined eight years ago, you helped me start imagining it seven years ago and I've continued and it is only gonna get better. It gets to get better and better and better is the dream. And I get to live in my dream every single day. And I don't even want to think about what it would have been like without this.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:11:48)
I mean, it was quite the sliding door. Can you imagine? We'd still be in those jobs counting the seconds till we got home to see the kids, panicking that what else we'd missed, feeling like crap mums, feeling like it would just be all of that. Like, cause nothing would have really changed. I still see people sometimes from my old life and they're still something's at the same businesses and it's the same things they're worried about. And it's the same, and it's like, know that would have been me. So I would have just stayed on the hamster wheel doing the same things, just earning more money, just losing bigger and bigger bigger chunks of my soul.

Claire Darr (1:12:03)
Nothing would have changed.

But honestly, Donna, I don't know that my body would have kept up though, too, because my body started shutting down on me. That's where it went for me. I could keep going mentally in so many ways, but my body started giving out on me. that, you can't get that back. You can't get the time back. You can't get the health back once it's gone. And so that's where ⁓ I feel so ⁓

Dr Donna Elliott (1:12:23)
yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Your body was.

Claire Darr (1:12:48)
fortunate that I get to share my experiences and my teaching what I'm learning from you and what I'm learning from life and what I'm learning from my my inner guidance with other people to hope that they don't ever get to that point where something gives you should you and that's I think that's what I want people I want you to leave people with something but what I want to leave people with is be that the

Dr Donna Elliott (1:13:02)
Yeah, I totally agree.

Claire Darr (1:13:15)
Yes, and life is about you getting to have it all. And that includes you get to have a beautiful life that you live and and nothing has to give. Nothing has to give. You do not have to sacrifice one thing for the other. Your health for the client, your marriage for the money, your kids happiness for the whatever it is. And I can help you get there. Donna can help you get there and

We believe in this to our very core because we've lived it and we've seen it work over and over and over and over and over again for people. ⁓ So I just want people to have that little bit of hope that you don't have to... What do you want to leave people with?

Dr Donna Elliott (1:13:57)
men.

It builds on what you've said really. It's almost like two, if I could split it to be really indulgent. One is that the desire that you have in your heart, that thing that you think is a pipe dream, that thing that you think is just like, well, if I had all the money in the world and I didn't have to worry about money and I didn't have to worry about time or whether or not like I had, you know, back fat on my nose was too big. I would love to go and do this. Like that's the thing that you are intended to do. That's the thing, the God universe source.

Infinite intelligence quantum field has imprinted in your, in your plan, your life Dharma for you to go and do. So like trust it, like lean into it. Just explore. Don't keep writing it off as a pipe dream. It's, it's, it's there with you for a reason and it won't go away. That'll be the thing that you regret not doing if you don't do it now. And then like the, like just building on what you were saying, it's, you don't have to, the second thing that people will see they can't do is cause they don't know how to make it happen.

You don't have to. That is not your job. Your job is just to listen to the universe, speak in that wish through you and follow it. And it's always about one step in front of the other and the path will be revealed. Like I think it was Rumi said, like it's not that there is a path, like the way is the path.

Claire Darr (1:14:57)
Thank you.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:15:18)
Like you create in it as you go and there's a million different ways it can happen. You don't have to worry about that. Like let the universe God take care of that. Like you just get to be in your power, follow your purpose and the path to all of that gets to unfold before you. It's the most fun, exciting, exhilarating, terrifying, my God, is this my life kind of experience? But it's so much fun. Like just let go of the reins. You don't have to white-knuckle this bit.

You won't believe how easy it will be when you start walking.

Claire Darr (1:15:49)
Mm-hmm. So I'm so glad you talked about the how, because that was where my brain went. Because a lot of people will dare to do some of the dreaming part of what is it I want. And then that little voice, that limited belief pops up, well, how? How will you do it? How is it? It hasn't been done like this. How, how, Don't, don't worry about the how. Just keep asking yourself the question, which is the best question you can ask. What is it I want? What is it I want?

Dr Donna Elliott (1:16:18)
and

just open it up to that infinite intelligence that gave you the desire in the first place. Like, tell me how to move. What is my next step? Show me, I'm ready. And when you start every day with that prayer, with that mantra, with that intention, the way is revealed. It is always revealed.

Claire Darr (1:16:36)
It's always revealed. I start every day with that prayer, thanks to you. And I actually go to sleep every night with a similar prayer, which is, you know, I'll say what it is I want, you know, what it is, the desire that I have. And I say, show me how. I don't know how. I don't know how. Give me some ideas. Show me how. You know, open it up, whatever it is. And often I'll get dreams.

people will pop into my dream and I'm like, ⁓ is that how? Okay, I don't know, I'm gonna pursue it. It will come to you if you ask for it and you listen.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:17:15)
And the universe is always speaking. Be still, be still and know it's on my arm. Be still and know it's like to remind me when I'm looking for the answers to no, no, it's going to be still and know it's going to come.

Claire Darr (1:17:16)
That's one of your favorite quotes, right? Be still and...

Be still and know.

Be still and no.

We could talk all day, obviously. Every day. Well, yes, I will. And I will say something. I was talking to someone the other day who she was telling me she's not always lived here and she was feeling sad and isolated. know, like she hasn't made a really close friend group here.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:17:35)
Every day. All day, every day.

Claire Darr (1:17:57)
She's lived here a long time that she thought she would. And she said, you appear to be really happy and connected and what have you with the world. where did you find your friend group here? And I was like, I was like, if I think about it, actually the people I am most connected with and the people that I have the most love and interaction with are actually not in this city.

They're not in the state. They're not in the country. They're in a completely different country. And it is, it's you, it's ⁓ the other women in our mastermind, Limitless, which is a whole other story. We need to come back for, we need to talk about that. And it's our other friend, Elaine. It's these bonds. So you don't have to be confined by geography. Technology has allowed us to...

Dr Donna Elliott (1:18:38)
of this story.

Yeah.

Claire Darr (1:18:52)
talk to each other every day and we take full advantage of that. And this has been an absolute dream. It's now late for you and you've got your family coming home and I know you want to love on them and kiss them all, give them kisses from me, but thank you for taking the time to do this for all of your wisdom and your vulnerability and thoughts and

Dr Donna Elliott (1:18:56)
Yeah, we do.

Claire Darr (1:19:22)
I know people will benefit from reaching out to you. I know they will. I have, my life has changed and will forever be better because of you. And I just hope people take a chance on that. they feel it in their heart, like they need to do something or reach out to me and I can put you in touch with Donna and I'll put stuff in the notes, but you are my love. I love you.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:19:44)
you and thank you for listening to your call and sitting in the discomfort as many times as you have. Like, you know, when people say personal development, it's messy, it's a messy journey, but the rewards are always worth it. Whoever, however you do it, whether it's buying a boot or watching something or speaking to us, like however you do it, just do it ⁓ every day of the week, just do it. It's ongoing work and it's always worth it. So thank you to you for shining a light and for doing this podcast and just for

Claire Darr (1:20:09)
always with them.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:20:13)
sharing that message that you can have your own life absolutely fricking literally.

Claire Darr (1:20:16)
Yes,

every single one of us can. Well, I love you, my love. Thank you for everything and will you please come back? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, my friend, Dr. Donna. I love you. Talk to you soon.

Dr Donna Elliott (1:20:21)
Love you.

If you'll help me.

A few.