Build your business by being exactly who you are with guest Michelle Hartley
In today’s episode of The Show(Off) we find out all about how Michelle Hartley got to be so ruddy fabulous!
Spoiler alert: She was always fabulous but along the way the mask slipped on for the purpose of fitting in and doing what she thought was the right thing.
During her corporate career she found herself in a spiral of working too hard, getting burned out, collapsing, recovering then working too hard again.
One cycle too many and she finally made the changes needed to follow her joy and be fully her self setting up as a coach, trainer and vibrant community host.
Michelle’s Find Your Awesome – HR Business Partner Programme.
Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn (you’ll be glad you did).
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Show Notes
Janine Coombes hosts The Show (Off) and interviews Michelle Hartley, who describes herself as ‘the brightly coloured, slightly sweary HR woman off of LinkedIn’.
Michelle is also an HR trainer, speaker, coach, and community host. As well as a miriad of other things!
Michelle explains how a period of severe burnout while working as a corporate HR director led her to realise she was wearing a “corporate beige” mask that drained her energy, and how she began “following the joy” by being more herself and saying no to work she doesn’t enjoy.
She shares that burnout had been a long-running pattern in her career, culminating in 2019 after her CEO died and she had to manage the situation for others while not processing her own grief; she also notes therapy, coaching, and reflection helped her recover, though she believes she should have taken more time off.
Michelle discusses her “Beige to Brilliant” ethos and how being openly herself drives self-selection in her business, attracting the right people while repelling those who aren’t a fit.
She outlines her offerings: one-to-one coaching, a 10-week Zoom program called Find Your Awesome blending HR and personal development topics (including commerciality, imposter syndrome, storytelling with data, talent and succession, and strategy), her WhatsApp community the HR Geek Squad, and corporate training delivered in a fun, engaging style she calls the “salt bae of training.”
They also talk about her event The Great Geek Together—an unconventional, theme-led people-focused event (this year on authenticity, next year planned on belonging) that includes non-HR speakers and high-energy moments like box-smashing and crowd surfing.
The episode closes with advice to show off, be yourself, accept that not everyone will like you, and choose authenticity over exhaustion.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome to The Show Off + Meet Michelle Hartley
01:27 Following the Joy: Energy, Self-Employment & Saying No
02:23 Burnout to Breakthrough: Dropping the Corporate Mask
07:20 Beige to Brilliant: Authenticity as a Personal Brand
08:16 What Michelle Actually Does: Coaching, HR Geek Squad & Fun Training
10:54 Reclaiming ‘Showing Off’ After Being Told to Stop
12:01 The 2019 Burnout Story: Grief, Overwork Cycles & Recovery
16:16 Always a Work in Progress + The Great Geek Together Explained
19:46 Be Yourself, Attract Your People: Quotes, Find Your Awesome & Final Advice
26:02 Wrap-Up: Thanks, Subscribe & Where to Find More