Stripping Back the Layers: Leanne Brown’s Path from Cheshire Housewives to Holistic Healing

Hey, it's Dawn McGruer, the business growth coach, and welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast where we talk all things health, wealth and happiness, and where founders share the good, the bad and ugly of being an entrepreneur. So welcome to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and today we've got the amazing Enaam Ahmed. So thank you for joining. Thank you.

Obviously, in our Private Islands series. So we haven't met before and talked today, so thank you for joining the experience. And some, well, most of our viewers will probably know you better from Cheshire Housewives. So give us a little bio of what you're doing now.

Firstly, thank you for having me, and just how warm you are. I feel like I've known you for ages already, same with Bonnie Metz today, because obviously the girls have met you before, but it's just lovely being here. I feel so much warmth from everyone. Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Yeah. So when we think about, obviously, you, most people will know you from the TV, the Enaam Brown, Cheshire Housewives, which we'll definitely delve into. But obviously, what are you doing now? Because people who've been following you on socials will have seen the myriad of things that you're doing, but give us a little snapshot of what is the newly...

The newly... So my, obviously, my main focus has been the retreats for the last three, three and a half years. We've just come back from France. Yeah, the [unclear] chateau.

Yeah, so that went really well. And, yeah, I do wellness holistic coaching one-to-one as well. So I've done a few different clients, but I am now, I've also taken on a job doing a private members club as well. So this is exciting.

This is exciting because... It's been, it's been a real struggle in the sense of I've always talked about stripping back the layers and trying to find myself, like the truest authentic version of me. And that's just been a real incredible journey in itself, understanding why I've put up certain things and attracted certain people. And I think we do get to this point in our lives, that midlife point, when we kind of do like a life audit and think, you know, who am I?

What do I really want? Who's in my circle that shouldn't be there? And who do I want to attract that, you know, that I deserve? And, you know, finding my worth.

And I talked a lot about that midlife awakening and I've almost created a bit of a format around that, what I use with my one-to-one clients that I've done as well. But taking on the role, there's always been taking on this new— oh, sorry. It's, I've always, I always loved chatting to people. I always loved networking.

It's part of the job that I've done with the retreats. With the retreats... It's been a bit of a bumpy ride because my business partner got pregnant and she has now got a two-year-old. So we were doing them very, very regular.

We had a space in Anside in Cumbria, and her parents that owned that, we were renting it, and it was going quite well. And then she fell pregnant, so then that was a bit of a more of a disjointed setup, and then they sold the place. So it's kind of been, with a lot of the things I've done, it's kind of been a bit like I'll get so far and then something will set me back, and then I'll get so far and then something will set me back. And we were speaking earlier about, like, that iceberg of the layer of things that people only see, the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah. And I know that everything that I've done so far has been that layer, that everything underneath the iceberg that no one sees. I mean, they have sort of seen my journey because I've been very open and honest and documented a lot of stuff. So, but yeah, I've done so many things, like you're saying, I'm doing lots of different things, things that I haven't quite got over the line that I now know that having this other stream of income that is allowing me to mix in amazing circles.

The one thing that I feel like I was lacking is not having that business mindset. I'm very, very creative, and so is Sophie, my business partner. She's got an amazing story in her own journey and for her healing journey, which is why she does what she does. But we're both Aquarians, so we're both very creative, and that's why I think the business has took a lot, like a longer to get to where we are, and still building.

It's still building. It's not something I'm forgetting about or doing it all on this. Yeah. So this role is, it's called the Club by Sarah Restrick, and it's a high net worth private members club.

This club, and essentially we curate different experiences and events to allow people to connect business. So it's amazing because it's getting me out there. Like I say, meeting people, I get fed, I get watered, I get to go on the trips. But also it's giving me insight into businesses and people that are successful in business, like super successful, and that's so valuable in anybody's life, and especially anyone that wants— Because we're always learning from other people, and I think just sometimes it's the conversations.

It's like today, we've had a gazillion conversations, but everyone's learning, everyone's listening. And sometimes it's that different perspective, isn't it, that just re-energizes the focus and kind of brings you back in. So you've got this amazing role at the moment. Everyone wants to know what happened in Cheshire Housewives.

Did you love it, and why did you leave? Did I love it? Originally, it was fun because it was exciting. It was brand new, and all the girls that were on it that got picked, we all knew each other.

Apart from, I didn't know one of the girls, Lauren, I didn't know before went on it. And yeah, it was obviously portrayed like it was going to be really inspirational women that loved each other and linked in harmony together, and people like, Have you seen the American ones? You know, they're backstabbing and fighting, and my mum didn't want me to do it. My partner, my ex-husband, didn't want me to do it.

And anyways, I just thought, I'm just going to be myself and do it, be myself and be on it. And I know they could edit things, but they can't if I don't give them anything to edit. And yeah, so that was. It was a real rude awakening when you go on something and put yourself out there.

I mean, I had a taste of the spotlight because Wes being a footballer, but only, like, going to events and being papped of and that again, but nothing like being on TV and putting yourself up for scrutiny. And we were talking earlier about, you know, absorbing negative comments and taking that on as, like, an identity. Yeah, exactly. And I had lots of love, I had a lot of people saying lovely things, but you're always homing on the negative.

Yeah. So I've grown a thick skin very quickly, and, yeah, the journey on Housewives, when it become really difficult, is towards the end, and there was lots going on with the friendship dynamic within the show, and I knew that I just wasn't in a healthy place. You know, I was on the verge of a breakdown. I was crying all the time.

It consumed me, because obviously if you're on the show, you're talking about it between each other, or you're talking to the producers of what's happened, and then you come away from it, and then the other ladies that are on it are then calling you, what you said in the scene, or then your friends ringing you up and say, What happened? So it was a constant consumption of, they say, reality TV, when actually it was, a lot of it was reality for my own personal thing that was going on. Yeah. But there was aspects of it that weren't said, so it was, you know, or— Twisted.

It was curated for TV and for the drama. Yeah, yeah. And so I just knew I had to step away from that. And, yeah, it wasn't—I thought about it a lot, but I knew it was the best decision for me.

Towards the end of the show, when I knew that it was sort of coming to the end, I got back in touch with Jean Anderson, who was the founder of One Woman at a Time, who—she didn't have the charity at that time, but Jean was actually the hypnobirthing teacher for my third daughter, Marla, and she's an ex-midwife. And I really wanted to promote hypnobirthing because I felt so disempowered in that environment, and I wanted to do something that felt empowering to others and to myself. So when I got back in touch with Jean, she told me that she'd been over to Kenya working with a charity for female genital mutilation and forced marriage, and that was like a grassroots charity. She'd been traveling around, and she'd found a lady that had died in childbirth and then left six children.

Two of them were girls; they were going to be sold to a man that she was little enough to be their grandfather and have the procedure done. So she then sponsored them. So she told me this story, and then I sort of switched from promoting hypnobirthing to then wanting to do something with the charity. So that was a huge shift in my journey because when I left the show, I just absorbed myself into doing the charity work, and I didn't know where it was going to lead me, and I was also writing.

Lots of things that I began to learn. Tanya actually introduced me to, like, the angels and sort of telling me about gratitude and asking your angels for help and connecting with them, and gave me my first book about angels, the Kyle Gray one. And that sort of spurred me on to go on that journey. Yeah, I met him in L.

A. Oh, did you? Amazing guy, yeah. And I think also, if anyone's new to kind of the angel world, I think he's got a great way of putting it across.

So what was your background then in sort of like the holistic side of things? Were you kind of, did you put yourself into the more woo-woo side from meeting Tanya, or like what was your perception around, like, angels and things growing up? Some people always believe. Yeah.

So I, my brother was a bit of a goth when he was younger, so he was always into, not very, but the Ouija boards. Do you remember the Ouija board? I think he got quite deeply involved in it, but then he sort of was always going to the mind, body, spirit festivals and the tarot cards. And so I had a sort of exposure to that kind of stuff.

And then we experimented with hallucinogenics when we were younger, magic mushrooms that were grown in our fields, like near where we lived, so lived in a little village. And yeah, so I think my mind was sort of, was opened at a young age to that this isn't just it. There's more that you can open your mind, even though I didn't really understand it then. But yeah, so we've had many trips licking magic mushrooms when we were younger.

So yeah, so my mind was quite open to, I guess now knowing it's like different dimensions, if you will, that's how I would describe it. So I had a crystal healing before I met Tanya, actually, before I went on the show. And she always talked about angels, so it was Tanya that sort of really reinforced that and then gave me the book, and that was a lady called Flicky Gard. I don't know if you know Flicky Gard.

Yeah, she's lovely. So then, from leaving the show, so Vicky had seen me signing books, and she said to me, You must just write. You know, start writing about what? She said, Just anything, like anything that you feel to, a journal or, you know, anything.

Write about things that you're learning that resonate with you. So I did, and started reading lots and lots of things, and then did a meditation course and yoga course, and did some healing therapies course, the theta healing, the belief coding, and I was just almost like a sponge, I think, when you start to, that shift of being in that environment and a very—we're talking about money earlier—it was a very materialistic world, a very money-orientated world, and I come away from that, and I knew that there was more to life than just being desperate to buy the new bag that was coming out. Yeah. And my regular trips to Harvey Nichols were ridiculous.

Like, there was nothing wrong with buying nice things, but that was sort of my main focus of, right, I have to have this bag, I have to have the new season stuff. And do you think that realistically was a replacement for something? Was it a crutch, or did you just like buying? Well, yeah, I did like buying because I didn't really have anything that was fulfilling me.

In that sense, I knew my relationship was fractured. There was always a longing for more from a relationship, so there was a space there. There was no communication other than that surface level. But because our house was so full all the time, and we had money, and we were going on nice trips, nice holidays, and, you know, we had a nice house and the car, the housekeepers, and at one point I had two housekeepers and a gurkha, and, you know, lived in a house— What's a gurkha?

He's like a Nepalese guy that does martial arts, but he has knives and all this stuff. He wouldn't become in the end, like, he was literally about four foot. It was hilarious. And anyone would come the gate, and he would have to climb up the gate to see.

But it's just madness now when I think, you know, it's just all so unnecessary. And that was to do with, like, the friendship that, no, you need this, you need that, you need this, you need that. Just keeping up with the Joneses, if you will, you know, and just think that was the sort of what was expected and just sort of got tied along with it. But yes, it was a deeper meaning and understanding that I wanted to do something for me, and I did.

So one of the reasons why I went on the show is because, going back now, because I wanted to earn my own money, and I always felt like the money that was being earned wasn't mine, and that would come up from time to time, so then it made me feel inadequate and unworthy. So I really wanted to do something for me, and I got to the point where the kids were, well, Lola was only like three, but I thought I'd make a children's clothing range called Kiss Frogs. And naively thought just going on the show and exposing, get on the show would be enough to sell, like, lots of things. And this show would tie a bit of business on the show anyway.

And actually all the exposure, it wasn't, because I realised you need to do a lot more grafting before you make a business successful. So that was, yeah, so my first part of wanting to do something for me. And then, like, fast forward, I just absorbed myself, like I was just like a sponge, absorbing myself in doing all these different, like, courses and things like that. And I released my Grace Gratitude Grit book, which is a self-help journal.

It had a little autobiographical bit in it, when I went to Kenya and a bit about my journey. But I've actually written another one which I need to release, and other things that spiked sitting there, as well as my six children's books that I was speaking about earlier. But yeah, I know I'm going to get there. I know I'm exactly where I need to be, and it's all a process of there's a reason why it's not got over the line yet, because I think it needs to come into...

I think different things landing at different... At different times. And I think it's so interesting what you say about the fact that you thought, like, go on the show, and my brand is going to take off because 70% of influencers are not monetizing their brand. And, like, when we see that, it's like, I think we're exposed so much now to things like Love Island and all of these different things.

Like, we assume visibility equals cash, but it doesn't actually. And I think this is a really important point for people starting a business, that it's the visibility and the networking. It's like you talk about the members club and things like that. It's going in the right circles for the purpose that you need at that time.

And when you think about all of these amazing things that you're going to be launching over the, you know, the next year or so, it's exciting. And I think sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves just because we've done the thing to launch it, and we can move our timelines. You know, no one said, like, just because we've said it. And I do this to myself all the time.

Like, I've got a jewelry range coming out after my mantra cards, and that was supposed to be, like, coming out sort of like July. Well, we're in July and it hasn't happened because other things took precedence. And I just think, you know, sometimes we put too much pushing behind something, and we're like, we are our own deadline, but to what purpose? Like...

Does it matter if it comes out in a month's time or whenever? And I think sometimes our emotional state or physical state or mindset is a big part of it. There's sometimes a point, isn't there, like a pinnacle moment that something just lands and we're like, now is the time. So it's an evolution.

And when all of these things come out, like the timing would be amazing. So tell us a little bit about what's coming. Like, what can we expect? So what's coming?

The children's book, like I say, I've written like a series of six, and I almost launched it a couple of years ago, and something happened, then I didn't, and then last year, the end of last year, I had it uploaded, ready to go, and something stopped me from doing it then. And so now I'm changing all the illustrations of it, and I'm going to be launching it in August, the first one. And I've actually started writing my book up to this date as well, and I've given myself a goal because I'm 50 in February, so that's my goal for my book. I'm not going to tell you the title, but I know the title already.

And I almost, like, I see that, you know, I know the format of it. I know how the chapters are. I've already started. I'm writing, honestly, I'm like a mad professor writing this script.

But when you're in it, you're in it. Yeah, I think that is it, and you've got utter clarity. So you know that, you know, you've got the conviction behind the story, it's coming. When something doesn't feel right, you know, that's when you stall.

So, like the fact that you delayed your kids' book, you know, because of the illustration, but then when it's ready and you know that it's right, you'll stand behind it. So you've got the book coming out, and when are the next retreats coming up? So we have, well, actually got a retreat with the club that I'm doing a collaboration with Sarah, which is in October in Ibiza. That's like super, super, like luxury, gorgeous.

Yeah, but we had a beautiful retreat in France, a French chateau, which we are now rebooking for the end of June next year. Yeah, it was amazing, beautiful location, everything. And I can give the details perhaps if you want. Absolutely.

And yeah, what else have we got coming up? Yeah, I've got a few things that I want to do. The actual goal, I was—

telling Susie earlier, we want, Sophie and I want to have somewhere that is a retreat, but almost like a healing centre. And as mentioned earlier about Sophie's story, and she had a pancreatic tumour, 15 centimetres removed. She's only 38 now, so five, six years ago. She has two small children, and yeah, so she had that removed.

She had a spleen removed. She had part of her bowel removed, and then she got secondary liver cancer 12 months later, but she's never— she said she went into diabetic, but she's never actually took any medication for anything. And she has a lot of people coming to her to help with that healing process that are either poorly or coming out of it. And then with myself, you know, the mindset and, you know, the belief coding and things like that.

But yeah, we'd love to look into having somewhere that is specific as well specifically for people to reduce all the toxicity and, yeah, you know, as much as so much in that. So that's sort of the dream, preferably in somewhere warm. Yeah, into that one as well. Yeah.

So if you think about the past few years, it's been really turbulent. There's been a lot, and you've made some brave moves, and you've got through it, and you've got some really exciting things to come. But there's obviously points where it's scary to make those decisions and to make the moves that you did. What advice would you give to women who either want to make a change, get out of something that's not feeling right or aligned, either friendships, relationships?

Like, a lot of people stay, and how would you— Give advice around making the move, because it's easy sometimes to stay in the comfort, like you said, and how lots going on. You know, it was probably masking a lot of things. What would you say? It's hard to, like, when you're in it, the familiarity of it has to become so uncomfortable, so you have to make that move.

And it is about just making small changes and reaching and saying about asking for help. Yeah. Knowing that there's always somebody that will help if those are situations where you're so frightened that you're not going to be able to provide for yourself. And I mean, I tell you, I've had some pretty little points of saying earlier, I've literally sold everything, like my jewellery, my bags and everything.

And I'm not ashamed to say that because I know it's literally stripped me back to the point. And this is one of the things that I've, I'd always struggled with people's perception of what they assume my life looks like and thinking that I'm okay because, yeah, I'm married a footballer and, you know, even though, you know, he's not financially in that same position, but, you know, he's still, you know, providing and I'm still living in the big house, which I'm not. And literally it's not been easy at all, like to the point where I've not known what I was going to do, like from month to month. So I think it is just having faith and knowing that, I think looking, saying about the life audit and the midlife thing, you know, look at your life in five years' time and can you really see yourself in the same position, having the same thoughts and the same feelings and, you know.

Do it now because life is so short, and we talk about how the life expectancy is around 80 years old, would you say, average. And when you get to that midlife point, let's say 40, I always look at it as summers. I've got 40 summers left. I've actually got 31 summers left.

Yeah. And wow, it doesn't seem that much. So, you know, are you gonna stay where you are and endure it, and still feel the same pain at the end of it? Yeah, good point.

And it is, it's stripping back, like understanding yourself, loving yourself enough, and so many of us don't love ourselves enough. And that's why we stay, because we don't believe that we're worth more or that there is more for us. And I'm not gonna say it's easy. I'm not gonna say you step out of that, you're talking about comfort zone.

It's not easy. It is a difficult situation, a difficult decision to step away from a relationship, especially 25 years, what it was with me. And there has been moments when I thought, have I made the right decision? Only because of the, like, the family fractured, the financial side of it, and just being that, it is being having that comfort of knowing somebody's there as well, even though it wasn't, like, great, toxic at times, we had some lovely times.

And so, yeah, it's... It's knowing that knowing your worth and understanding that there always is a journey ahead of you, and whatever difficult decision that you make, but, yeah, to put them boundaries in place. And the more small steps you will take to do that, then the more you will unlock within yourself, and then the more you will bloom. Like, yeah, I just totally feel, like I say, it's been a bit of an up and down journey, but I know when I'm in alignment because I feel like I can totally be myself and my personality comes back out, and I can be goofy and daft and fun and laugh.

I've just been to Paris with some of my friends, and, oh, it was just belly laugh the whole time. It was so beautiful. Yeah, find really true friends as well. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, self-worth is a big part across the piece. Like, every time I talk to women of varying levels and stages in a journey, everyone has some self-worth piece, and it could be that it comes out at certain times of your life. And I also think sort of, like, I think of it like seasons of life. Like, sometimes we feel more in our kind of energetic, confident side, and then sometimes things change and it knocks us a little bit.

So obviously having friends is a big piece of advice, but is there any book or recommendation that you think our listeners should turn to just to kind of help them in their journey? It could be self-worth or confidence or inclusive mindset. Oh, just so many books. I love the Gabby Bernstein books.

There's so many. Universe Has Your Back, I think that's The Peaceful Warrior is one that is a beautiful book too, and it resonates with my journey, especially just because it's— Knowing that everything happens for a reason. And obviously the Peaceful Warrior is a gymnast, isn't he? And then he has the bad accident, and he thinks he's got all his...

That's kind of like I was in this world and I was thinking everything's fine, and I was going shopping and, like, just trying to fill that hole and that void. And actually it's only when it's taken away from you is that when I've really had to dig deep and, like, then really find myself. And what's coming out now is just beautiful, and just knowing that you are exactly where you need to be. And, like, you're a season of bloom.

Season of bloom, and with my buttercup, there's still areas of, like, and the buds that are going to be blossoming as well. Well, we call this my favourite time of the podcast, which is always the embarrassing story. I feel like I live for it. It's kind of a weird addiction that I've got.

Like, I just love hearing. I think it's because I have so many embarrassing stories, which I always talk about, and I'm not bothered about people knowing. But I think it does kind of give a different dynamic to people. So what is your embarrassing story?

So I've probably got a few embarrassing stories. So the one I was thinking of telling is, oh gosh. So when we, yeah, on the retreats, we always talk about poo, right? Because, yeah, because it's a...

yeah. And obviously with Sophie's journey as well, she had to do enemas like three times a day when she was going through that process. So she always talks about that. And because she feeds us lots of beans and pulses on the retreat, so...

and then getting people in happy baby position and their yoga poses, you know. We had a men's retreat, actually, and this guy, he came to the door and we were like, Oh my God, he looked like this bodybuilder. He was, like, huge, like muscly. He was just, like, such a...

Pussycat, you know, it was so lovely, yeah. And I had him doing this yoga pose, and we were all laughing, and he let out—we were talking about trumping—and he let out the biggest trump, and we all obviously, like, had laughter. So I was telling this story to—we had a couples retreat a few months after, or the next year or whatever, and we were talking. They were all then doing the happy baby again, and saying, Oh, well, funny story.

They were like, Oh, why are you giving us beans and then getting us in this position? And I said, Oh, well, funny story. I was telling this story about this guy that trumped, but they were all laughing, and then I started laughing, and then trumped myself, run out of the door and wet myself, because I was laughing so much at Mike Reed trumping, telling me this story of trumping.

Yeah. So yeah, that was, yeah, that was my thing. I mean, the pelvic floor needs work, yeah. Children.

So can I just say, like, when you ran out, like, did anyone notice? Well, no. I think I just told everyone I'm going to come back in. Well, you did say to me when I was like, Is there anything I can't ask you on the podcast?

And you were like, No, I've got no filter. I actually did wee myself again at the next couple of the tree. But this is honestly, we were out, had them out on the beach, and there was one guy who was comedy, honestly, and we had them doing this sat nam mat, like stomping and everything, and this guy started doing this wiggling. Well, I just couldn't stop laughing.

And Sophie was with us, and they all then walked off, like, we were still laughing about it. And because I was laughing that much, I couldn't hold my wee in, and they were walking off, and I was like, Sophie, I've literally done a full wee. And I had a good job I had a jumper on because I literally had, like, completely wet myself. So yeah, I've done it a couple of times, I think.

More people are going to your retreats now. Yeah, you're going to be a particular active existence, which you are. I need to do the pelvic floor. If my mum's always done it wet herself when she's laughing that much, and so does my daughter, so I think it's hereditary.

Oh my God. Oh, well, the time has come that we're going to say goodbye because we've got a white party to have now and a glass of fizz. Yeah. So if people want to follow your journey and find out more about your retreats and things like that, where can they find you?

So there's Eat Pray Self Love is the name of the retreat that we do. The website is eatprayselflove.co.uk, Eat Pray Self Love Instagram, and then I actually have another website, which is with Lovely Ann, which you can connect with me on there, and I've got some guided meditations on there and things like that.

So that's where I'll put the octopus book as well. Really? Yeah. Insane with an octopus today.

No, yeah. It's all underwater themes. Olive the Oracle Octopus. Oh my God, I love it.

And it's got crystals in there and stuff like that. A really beautiful message. And it's your more beautiful gift. Yes.

All right, well, thank you so much. Thank you. And yeah, thank you for coming today to the private island, and thank you for sharing. Thank you.

I've got room myself. I probably still won't wait, unless you really make me laugh. She did say she was going in the pool. Yeah.

Maybe I'll just wait. You've got that diet. Thanks for listening to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast brought to you in association with the Her Power Community. This initiative was founded by myself, and it's all about empowering female founders to recognise their limitless potential and pursue their ambitions with confidence.

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