Studio Every Conversations: Rebekah Lloyd from This Independent Life, with Kelly Dawson from Studio Every
Rebekah Lloyd is an international speaker, consultant, podcaster, women's advocate, and founder of This Independent Life, a social impact platform that helps people to achieve personal independence in life through awareness, knowledge, and action, regardless of their background.
Using the independence triad framework of health, work, and money, Rebekah has helped thousands of people around the world to rebalance and create equity through support in these 3 core areas of life and to feel empowered to put their knowledge into action. She facilitates positive change through masterclasses, consulting, speaking and 1:1 support for corporates and communities and their clients include global thought leading organisations (i.e. Schroders, Rise Barclays, UNiDAYS, Ketchum, Whistles, Mixpanel, General Assembly, McKinsey & Company, STEMettes, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and more).
Rebekah also specialises in endometriosis and women's health and in 2023 hosted a first-of-its-kind conference on The Future of Endometriosis in London bringing together global stakeholders and perspectives to focus on how we can collectively elevate and ignite interest, investment, and innovation to make positive change a reality once and for all. Leveraging the power of business as a force for good is at the heart of This Independent Life, and Rebekah's corporate and brand partnerships support several pro bono and community initiatives.
This independent life is centred around women’s independence. Can you share with us a bit about the triad framework you’ve established towards achieving rebalance?
It was really inspired by my own experience, as well as other women I spoke to and their experiences, which ultimately inspired the business.
The framework and approach are a result of over a decade of personal, professional, and lived experience. Ultimately, we provide pragmatic and tangible steps for people to make real change in their health, work, and money and overall, their life. The foundation of the triad really is centred around how you can't just focus on one of these areas in your life if you want to truly live life on your terms.
You can be ambitious, driven and strive to earn more money, but if you're doing it at the expense of your health for example, then it's not sustainable and trying to help people to understand that is important.
It's about freedom over your choices, over your time, and having autonomy over your life. It’s about having balance and finding ways to prioritise the things you truly care about and not neglecting one area at the expense of another. You need to find ways to focus on your health, work, and money if you’re going to achieve independence, that was ultimately what I wanted in my life.
Community, collaboration, and content are key areas in which you create action and impact - can you summarise some of the key activities you’ve delivered over the last year?
So, I've done a lot of things in the last year around community, collaboration, and content. Unfortunately, still in 2023, where you're born determines the trajectory of your life. The reason that I have, ‘regardless of their background’ in my mission statement is because I'm really passionate about this.
In terms of community, more recently the Endometriosis event I held brought the endo community together in a way that hadn’t been done before. It was patient led and we made the tickets pay-what-you-can, and live-streamed for those unable to travel to join the event in-person in the UK and globally. Creating spaces to connect with like-minded people with the opportunity to gain knowledge and be inspired to take action is something I’m deeply passionate about.
In terms of collaborations, I’ve recently collaborated with some great brands, including some well-known high-street brands such as Whistles and Hobbs, and other global thought-leading organisations including UNiDAYS, Rise Barclays and Schroders, to deliver masterclasses to their employees and communities on topics including Authentic Presenting and Networking, Conquering Impostor Syndrome and Navigating Women’s Health and Endometriosis.
Finally, in terms of content, I've tried to look at different ways to make the topics and knowledge I deliver scalable. So, for example, one of the things I do to make content accessible is the podcast. I launched series one in September 2022 which went live throughout Q4 and involved interviews with some fantastic founders who have created companies that support independence for women across the independence triad of health, work, and money in their own unique way. And series 2 is now in the works to be released soon in 2023!
Making knowledge and support accessible is fundamental to everything I do with This Independent Life. When you look at a condition like endometriosis specifically, a lot of the women in my support group have spent thousands of pounds to get help for their condition, and even to spend on private surgery due to waiting lists on the NHS being so long. Many of us would love to have a nutritionist, personal trainer, a therapist, and a life coach to name a few. Unfortunately, that's not achievable for many, and I think for that reason, it means that there's an inaccessibility and we continue to see this cycle of misinformation, lack of support, and ultimately women living in pain and silence. It’s simply not good enough and it’s time for us all to stop talking and take real action to make positive change.
What prompted you to hold the recent endometriosis conference in London?
So, a lot of reasons. But in all honesty, I was just looking to attend an event, so I wasn't even planning on creating an event like this in the first place.
I had surgery at the beginning of 2022, so I'm still relatively early on in my recovery. I was pain free for a bit and then I started getting symptoms again and now I'm back in the NHS and on the waiting list. I was just looking for a space to go to learn about different things that could help me, options that are available, new developments and innovations that are out there etc.
I couldn't find one and was frankly shocked that there wasn't anything like this that existed. That's when I started my own support group and I started doing monthly Endo Educators events where, I bring in different experts to talk about different aspects that can help navigate and manage endometriosis. Things like nutrition, pelvic floor therapy and psychological support, the latter being an area that needs a lot more focus and support as currently we focus mainly on the physical side and the emotional and psychological aspect just isn't talked about and supported in the way it needs to be for those living with a chronic condition.
And then, yeah, I was I guess crazy enough to have an idea of a conference and here we are!
You are now incredibly knowledgeable and connected in the endometriosis space - can you reveal what’s next for This Independent Life around this topic?
The conference blew me away to be totally honest. I don't really know what I was expecting. I thought I would give it a go and put my all into it. If it happens, great, and if it helps and it adds value to the community, amazing. If it doesn't you know it was worth an experiment. You learn, you grow. Business, and life, in my eyes is about going with your gut and about trial and error, and sometimes just taking a leap of faith on something you care about.
Definitely stay tuned for more events and maybe the next The Future of Endometriosis conference in 2024!
Who else is paving the way for endometriosis? Can you share with us who has caught your attention?
There is definitely one person that comes to mind, Carla Cressy. She is an amazing woman and the founder, of The Endometriosis Foundation.
She's incredibly inspiring and the work that the Foundation doing is outstanding, particularly on the government and policy side of things and raising awareness on a wider scale through their amazing campaigns.
She did some beautiful work for Endo Awareness Month, including a campaign with Holland and Barrett and Parla. She's a huge inspiration to me, through her story, and her dedication and commitment. She's like superwoman in my eyes.
Are there other women’s health and wellness topics that are on the radar of This Independent Life?
That’s a really hard question to answer, because by nature I cover many different aspects of health through my work. When it comes to women's health and wellness, as I always say in the sessions that I deliver and all the work that I do, leading with personal experience is really important.
I think for that reason I imagine that in the immediate future the focus will be on things that I've experienced, i.e. endometriosis and mental health. But as we grow and scale we may broaden and extend into other areas through support with other partners and collaborators.
Overall moving forward, I would love to continue to partner with thought-leading brands and organisations to provide practical tools and approaches through my masterclasses, consulting, mentoring and 1:1 support. I’m also working on expanding my community offerings and recently launched a new 2-week group program called Career Independence Boost to support people who aren’t fortunate to have employers that value their employee and leadership development and wellbeing in this way, so stay tuned for more activities like this across the independence triad.
I really want to spread the This Independent Life framework and concept to the world and support as many people as possible through my mission, so my door is always up for a chat!
For further details on This Independent Life:
Website: https://thisindependentlife.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-lloyd/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisindependentlife/
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/thisindependentlife
