PROJECT #BEYOUROWN WOMAN:​ REBECCA LOCKWOOD

Rebecca Lockwood is an award-winning NLP mindset coach and is an NLP trainer. With a successful sales career spanning the last 10 years and setting up her first business at just 17, Rebecca now uses her own experience and expertise to educate and empower other female entrepreneurs who feel stuck or overwhelmed to pursue their biggest boldest dreams.

Suffering from post-natal depression after the birth of her first child, Rebecca stumbled across NLP which lead her to experience what she can only describe as an awakening. Rebecca is now a No.1 best-selling author and created a business that works around her two young children, working 2/3 days a week. Rebecca is on a mission to support other women in business create their wildest dreams and live the life they deserve.

At just 11 Rebecca was the victim of an attempted abduction. At such a young age she did not understand and became confused with life and the meaning of it. This lead to a troublesome teenager, struggling at school and leaving before hitting GCSE level, only gaining a college place through a dance audition due to her professional dance training from the age of 5. At 17 she found herself in an abusive relationship and not only suffered emotional abuse but also physical. Finally after two years Rebecca found the courage to finally leave this relationship and at 19 fell into a sales job by complete fluke.

Rebecca has had a very successful career in sales, she completely found her element and this was when her life began to turn around. At 19 she was earning 30k selling broadband door-to- door and by 20 she was managing her own sales force. This job is what gave her an entrepreneurial spark. At 22, Rebecca quit her job after seeing Leah Totton win The Apprentice aged just 22. Seeing someone her age be so successful kickstarted Rebecca into launching her own business.

Rebecca had no savings and so sold her car in order to finance her start-up. She started selling accessories bought from a wholesaler’s door-to-door, moving up to higher value items such as dresses and jewellery. Rebecca was quadrupling her spend, the profit allowing her to set up Re- coco Woman, a shopping party business.

Rebecca made 1k on the first party and Recoco quickly became successful. Recoco was placed on the Entrepreneurial Spark program – the largest business growth accelerator in the world – and won the Jacqueline Gold Women in Business Award. The business was about to fly and Re- becca was looking for investment but decided to try and retain 100% of the business with a supplier offering supply and demand to ease cash flow. This deal, however, fell through.

At this point, aged 24, Rebecca had just given birth to her first child. She began to suffer form severe Post natal depression after the birth of her first baby. Immediately following the birth, Rebecca was working on her laptop from her hospital bed, believing she could carry on as before when she was pregnant, working till 2am and getting up at 5am. She became emotional, feeling lost and out of control and eventually visited her GP for help. She was prescribed antidepressants but these left her feeling like a zombie. She became very low and felt hopeless but hid her feelings from the outside world and carried on plugging away at the business. She was still winning numerous business awards but felt unworthy of the success she had created and deep down still felt confused that she had a family now that loved her unconditionally.

In 2016 she made the difficult decision to close the business to focus on her upcoming wedding, but nobody seemed to understand her choice. She was offered a sales job with her old employer which she originally turned down as she knew she wanted to start another business, her husband suggested she take it in order to pay the bills. Within just one month she was running a sales team and it was here she came across NLP coach Tony Robbins.

With her new-found knowledge of NLP, Rebecca worked on her limiting beliefs, anxiety and be- gan moving past these blocks. After studying in NLP she felt an almost instant shift that her post- natal depression had gone, her negative experiences of the past became white washed and she created a whole new meaning to her past traumas and her future became brighter and full of possibility. She didn’t realise at the time, but now understands that when she closed her business back in 2016 it was due to her limiting beliefs of feeling unworthy of success, and a confusion of how she had created the success in the first place.

Now Rebecca runs her own NLP Training business, supporting other individuals to live a more empowered life and become the best possible version of themselves regardless of their past, trauma’s or experiences.

On the back of her coaching success, Rebecca launched an online community to share her business expertise with other like-minded female business owners and create a community in which driven women can come together and support each other.

Rebecca’s #BEYOUROWN WOMAN Story

It is so important for us to share our wins and our ddownfalls In a world where all we see is what is posted on social media, it is more important than ever to be open and honest about our journeys and empower others to also open up about real life and just the stuff that happens! 

Life is for living, it is normal for me to get up in the morning with my children and be covered in banana and snot by 7am and that’s ok. In fact, I am grateful for it! 

Social media and technology have been a blessing for me in my life, but also a real fall down. I became anxious and was rarely present when I had my social media apps on my phone and so I decided to remove them all from my phone and leave them in my office, I also leave my phone in the office most of the time if my kids are around. 

The impact this has had on my mental health and anxiety has been life changing and I highly recommend others do the same! I have joked to my friends that I will run a #SAYNOTOSOCIAL campaign but in all honesty, I do love social media. I just don’t love how accessible it is and how addictive they make it! 

To #BEYOUROWN Woman means to me to allow yourself to be empowered by every moment in your life. The mornings you wake up late and are kind to yourself, even if you didn’t have time to brush your hair. The times you are with your children and are sicked on before 8am and just laugh it off. 

Even in the darkest times that in the moment feel like the worse times of your life, allow them to empower you. Give them new meanings and learn from them as much as you can in a way that is positive, personal and about your future. Empower yourself by knowing you are in control of your life, your actions, your emotions and just how up as the best possible version of you. 

I recently curated a book Fearless Females: Stories of Female Entrepreneurs around the world relentless in their pursuit of success. I was so inspired by the stories the women shared, and all of them began their most successful journey off the back of the darkest times in their lives. They used these as drivers to move forward and support others who have been or are going through that journey too. 

Just be you, be kind to yourself and embrace the best possible version of you.

Instagram: @rebecca.lockwood

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaERLockwood/

Website: www.RebeccaLockwood.org.uk