S12 Ep 9: From Rag Trade to Garden Design & a Real-Life Badass: Angela Brooke-Smith

(I’m going to make a small bet - you’ve never met anyone quite like Angela.)Angela started off her career in the rag trade. She learned from the best and she had a wonderful time in fashion in Fulham in the 80s, living a wonderful life. But then she started to think she wanted to make a change . Deep-down Angela wanted to design gardens. She’d talk about it, tell her friends about it, but never actually did it – but then one of these friends gave her a moment of tough love (which was brilliant… Angela will explain) and everything changed.Angela created a second career not only designing gardens but growing flowers too. She returned to her beloved West Country and created a new home.But then a bombshell happened - after 30 years of marriage – Angela and her husband divorced and she found herself having to start all over again.I’m going to warn you, this is a ‘colourful’ conversation - i.e there's lots of swearing if you’re listening in front of children. But this is why I love Angela so much - Angela is Angela.In this episode we discuss: How she left the rag trade and became a garden designer The importance of knowing our worth - and how she does this The pain of a 30 year marriage ending (and a brave truth she shares with us) but how she moved through it. What it’s really like to start all over again after all that time How a group of girlfriends - and her donkeys helped save her What it takes to be a real-life Badass and what you can do to be the sameAngela believes life is simply too short not to be honest with ourselves. Be ready as she gives some tough love too. But Angela believes everything is doable - that all of us are capable of living a life we truly love and which is deep-down true to us. To learn more about Angela you can find her at: https://flowerfusions.com/about-us/The book we both love is : https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Are-Badass-Doubting-Greatness/dp/0762447699And you can  find me - my weekly-ish notes and my books (which I hope you'll also love) here: https://www.elliebarkerwrites.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenextchapterbyelliebarker.substack.com