I met Ali over 2 years ago while I was teaching a workshop for Women in Business for a local council.

I was asked to do a workshop for the women on work-life balance, something which always makes me smile as I'm not actually a fan of the term**.

Anyway, it was this workshop that led me to Ali. She was one of the 50 or so women in the room who all wanted to hear about how to achieve a more balanced life. And at the time Ali was juggling, well a lot!

She was working part time as a Primary school teacher. She was also a Pilates instructor and ran her own Pilates classes 'on the side'. In amongst all this, she was trying to spend time with her 2 young children, keep a home and help her husband who was ill at the time and unable to work. To say she had a few things on her plate would be an understatement.

Ali, said that she felt pretty overwhelmed at the time, and she knew she needed some kind of external input to help her to make the changes she'd been aware she'd wanted to make for some time...so in today's interview you get to hear all about just that.

In this interview Ali candidly and generously talks about her struggles prior to our working together. She tells you all about the decisions she had to make around leaving her job and going into business full time, and also how our work, and ultimately the APE Model, helped her to achieve that.

Ali has achieved so much in the time we've worked together. And like a lot pf people I work with, the person she is today is, to some degree, unrecognisable as she's made so many significant changes...so to find out exactly what she's doing now, may I present Ali Baker...

I hope you enjoyed this interview.

I'm so grateful for Ali in sharing her story with us so openly. She really is an inspiration and epitomises what is possible if you not only put your mind to it, but also your thoughts into action!

To be honest, I have to say that many people also struggle to talk about this kind of work and to be open about asking for help...but the way I see it, it's just like having a coach in a sporting context. You can't assume to change or get better without really challenging yourself and having someone else help to achieve that with the tools and experience they've gained from doing it themselves.

Anyway if you'd like to know more about Ali then do head over to her website (which she is still working on) to find out more. You can do that by CLICKING HERE.

Also, you heard me say that I'm encouraging her to try social media and so for that you can find her up and coming Facebook page HERE. Why not go over and say hello.

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Until next week!

(**I prefer to use the term 'life-life balance', after all you show me someone who professes to have a perfect work-life balance and I'll show you another 50 people that don't. Also, its funny how these trainings are often put on by work places, in the hope that they'll make you more productive and able to compartmentalise somehow...essentially bringing more oomph to the company. The trick, that some employers do embrace however, is to first honour the individual, everything flows from that point on!**)