If this conversation resonated or brought something up for you around money and leadership, don’t ignore it. 

Email katy@centredexcellenceteam.com if you’d like to learn more about Beyond Beliefs or the deeper work we do.

 

Episode Highlights:

  • Discover how inherited money beliefs influence financial decisions inside a recruitment business

  • Learn what happened during the midnight ceremony and why it reduced long-standing money anxiety

  • Understand how emotional release translated into clearer cash flow thinking and more confident growth planning

 

Episode Summary:

In this episode, Katy Green speaks with Lucy Bayliss, a recruitment business owner who attended Beyond Beliefs, our immersive leadership retreat designed to help founders uncover the beliefs shaping their business performance. 

Lucy arrived at the retreat running a stable recruitment agency yet carrying persistent money anxiety that influenced her investment decisions, cash flow visibility and approach to growth. 

Although revenue was steady, financial conversations felt loaded. Long-held beliefs about security and responsibility were shaping how she led. 

Stepping away from the daily demands of her recruitment business created the space to examine those beliefs directly.  

During a midnight ceremony in the woods, Lucy confronted unresolved financial stories she had been carrying for years. What followed was a tangible change in how she experiences money, makes financial decisions and approaches leadership. 

This episode explores the connection between money mindset, recruitment leadership and agency growth, and shows how addressing personal beliefs about money can directly influence business strategy and confidence. 

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If this conversation resonated or brought something up for you around money and leadership, don’t ignore it. 

Email katy@centredexcellenceteam.com if you’d like to learn more about Beyond Beliefs or the deeper work we do.

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Money Anxiety in Business Ownership 

Lucy describes leading a successful recruitment agency while carrying a constant undercurrent of tension around financial decisions. Investment choices and cash flow conversations felt heavier than they should have, even though the business itself was performing well. Externally the numbers were steady, yet internally she did not feel that same steadiness when money came into focus. 

This is common among recruitment founders and business owners in general. Revenue and performance metrics can look strong on paper, while inherited money beliefs sneakily influence behaviour. Lucy shares how scarcity thinking and early experiences shaped her approach to risk, investment and growth without her fully recognising it. 

The Midnight Ceremony and Confronting Embedded Stories 

A defining moment of the retreat was a midnight ceremony designed to bring unresolved emotional weight to the surface. Deep in the woods, Lucy spoke openly about unfinished conversations and long-held beliefs around money. 

The experience reduced the emotional charge attached to financial decisions. Instead of reacting from tension or caution, she began approaching revenue, cash flow and investment from a calmer, more grounded position. 

Financial Tension to Leadership Clarity 

Since returning to her recruitment business, Lucy describes greater clarity in how she approaches growth planning and financial visibility. Investment decisions feel more deliberate, and conversations about revenue no longer carry the same emotional charge. The reduction in money anxiety has strengthened her confidence as a leader and influenced how she plans the next stage of her agency’s development. 

This episode shows how money mindset influences recruitment leadership, how financial anxiety can affect agency growth and how personal development work can create measurable change in business performance. 

Key Takeaways 

  • Money beliefs formed early in life can shape recruitment leadership decisions years later 
  • Addressing money anxiety improves clarity around cash flow and growth strategy 
  • Emotional release can influence financial judgement and investment confidence 
  • Leadership identity and financial strategy are closely connected in agency growth 

If you are a recruitment business owner or founder who recognises tension around money inside your business, this conversation offers insight into how those patterns form and how they can change. 

To learn more about Beyond Beliefs or upcoming retreats, reach out directly for details. 

Katy Green (00:05)
Well, hello, a good day. Good day. I don’t know if it’s morning or afternoon. So welcome everyone. Today I am joined by the fabulous Lucy Bayliss Hi Lucy.
 
Lucy (00:18)
Hello, hi Katy
 
Katy Green (00:19)
And Lucy is very kindly, she is here to talk to us about her recent experience on one of our business transformation retreats, which was called Beyond Beliefs. So Lucy, thanks so much for doing this with us. First of all, really appreciate your time. So would you mind just sharing a little bit with us about what life looked like for you before you came on the retreat?
 
Lucy (00:36)
Welcome.
 
It was very much all work, really. Over the course of the year, we changed the business model, my role had changed, and I’d been grinding out the days a bit. I think I’d kind of got to that point where it felt like everything felt like it was just a bit too much, a bit too difficult, you know? A bit of a strain. I’d actually stopped kind of looking after myself as well.
 
Katy Green (01:12)
Hmm.
 
Lucy (01:18)
you know, rather than going to exercise at lunchtime and, oh, I’ll just power through, I’ll, you know. So, yeah, yeah, I was sort of feeling the, feeling the strain, I think it would be fair to say.
 
Katy Green (01:18)
Right.
 
Right, okay.
 
And what about from, that’s your work perspective, what about from, you know, your life perspective?
 
Lucy (01:36)
similar,
 
just sort of at the end of the day I’d kind of just flop, flop in front of the telly or do a bit of doom scrolling, you know, not really doing much more than okay, right, you know, absolutely exhausted, eat, sleep, do it again. So there wasn’t a lot going on. Weekends were just kind of like, thank goodness I get to sleep for a bit, you know.
 
Katy Green (01:52)
Yeah.
 
Yeah, now,
 
absolutely now it’s like, right,
 
surviving rather than thriving. And it’s like, right now I just need to take some time for myself. ⁓ Okay, brilliant. So tell us what drew you to say yes to the Beyond Beliefs retreat.
 
Lucy (02:04)
Yeah.
 
Well, a couple of things really. mean, ⁓ when you sent out the emails about it, I think one of the things that had sort of been mentioned was identity and how important it is for your identity to kind of, for you to step into the right one for the next stage of your business. And I felt quite aware that I didn’t feel like my identity was certainly at the place that it needed or I wanted it to be. ⁓
 
Also, I think one of the emails, it sort of says, if this speaks to you, and I thought, you know what? It kind of does. I would really like to go on this. But even at that point, ⁓ I needed a push from the very excellent Jane, ⁓ who discussed it with me and she thought it was going to be a good idea and it would be helpful for me in the business. ⁓ that was what kind of got me over the line with it, really.
 
Katy Green (03:05)
so sort of that identity piece, knowing that there was something that you wanted to dive into personally. And then, yeah, knowing that you were gonna make those sorts of shifts within yourself. Yeah, great. Okay, and so for you, what was…
 
Lucy (03:13)
Mm-hmm.
 
Yeah.
 
Katy Green (03:29)
What was the most meaningful or maybe memorable, maybe you got two, one, more than one part of the retreat? What did you?
 
Lucy (03:36)
⁓
 
I think the most memorable part without question was the Sweat Lodge. I mean that was something else, you know, it was amazing. I feel very proud of myself for having gone through it. However, I think the most memorable and the most sort of, I suppose the most useful part for me was actually the night before when we’d done the Death Lodge. It was, because I was surprised really, I’ll be honest, you know, sort of doing sort of…
 
rituals and talking about things and going off and all the various things that we did would not normally be my bag. I would like, you know, yeah, it’s not normally my thing. However, going out, actually doing it, saying all the things out loud, I don’t know, psychologically having a kind of clear out really, that helped me almost from the moment that we’d done it. I just felt…
 
a lot lighter in my mind, my spirits. It was, yeah, I think it was that.
 
Katy Green (04:37)
Share a little bit, because for people listening, they’re probably thinking, what is a death lodge? What does that entail? I mean, the name itself says a lot. Tell us a little bit about, yeah, what is a death lodge?
 
Lucy (04:42)
Yeah.
 
It is going out and very purposefully finding a place and thinking about all the things and people that you want to kind of finish business with. So either something that you want to say goodbye to and get rid of altogether or just some kind of, I have got to get this off my chest type of sort of…
 
Yeah, talking out loud, thinking things through, going out there and sort of the way that we did it, so was going out at midnight. Or at midnight, it was very late, wasn’t it? It was dark, out into the woods by yourself and sitting in a ring of stones and yeah, talking away to anyone and everyone that you might have unfinished business with or just some…
 
something that you needed to say because it could be positive or negative. ⁓ And so, yeah, just the very act of going out and doing that on your own as well in the quiet in the woods. It’s sort of, yeah, it had a really strong impact. And I was surprised because I didn’t think it would.
 
Katy Green (06:05)
Yeah, and I think, you know, that’s so true, isn’t it? And I know this, the first time I heard about that ceremony, that ritual itself, I was like, really? Like, what is, what’s that gonna do? It sounds a bit strange. Me sitting in the middle of, you know, the woods on my own, talking out loud. But what have you noticed off the back of it? Like, what was it? If you could put it into words, what is it that’s shifted for you?
 
Lucy (06:16)
you
 
I feel like my sort of internal, my self-talk, I’m much kinder to myself. have sort of, it’s like I’ve been able to step into a new sort of pattern of thinking. ⁓ Like maybe a negative sort of thought or way of being sort of might come up, but I can quite easily dismiss it. I think somebody else on the retreat mentioned that as well. I like, I just don’t think like that anymore. I don’t do that anymore.
 
It’s like it… It’s just made a lot of concerns that, you know, probably shouldn’t have been concerns. It’s allowed me to just release them, I suppose. I can’t think of a better way to put it than that. But yeah, I’ve just let go of them.
 
Katy Green (07:10)
Yeah. Yeah, like it’s…
 
Right. And it’s an unconscious
 
thing, isn’t it? It’s almost like that’s just been cleared for you. So what might have bothered you before? And that is what you’re saying, an identity shift where, you know, you’re one person when you entered the death lodge and you do literally come out a new version of yourself, lighter.
 
Lucy (07:21)
Yeah.
 
Mm.
 
Yeah,
 
lighter as well, just sort of as if everything’s a lot easier. Yeah, it’s been really nice.
 
Katy Green (07:41)
Hmm.
 
So for anyone listening who maybe again, they’re sort of similar to how you felt Lucy and myself before I did something like this, which is where you’ve got these parts of you that you feel like you’re in conflict with all the time. And they’re almost running around, aren’t they, in the background in your brain sort of chatting to you, but you just can’t move past them or they impact you when you want to do something. And they change the emotions and the state of you.
 
Lucy (07:58)
Hmm.
 
Mm.
 
Katy Green (08:14)
actually
 
can be shifted through this type of ceremony.
 
Lucy (08:19)
Yes, yes, and
 
I was like really surprised that it would work. Because when we started it, I’ll be honest, I was thinking, well, you know, everyone seems very sincere and it seems like a nice thing. Well, I’ll just, you know, I’m here. I’ll just do it. And then afterwards, I did feel genuinely sort of I found it very moving as well, you know, it’s like. think there’s a lot more forgiveness going on than I thought there would be.
 
Katy Green (08:32)
Go along
 
Lucy (08:47)
You know, when you’d said, write down a list of all the things that people that you’ve got unfinished business with. was like, yeah, I’ve got some things to tell people, you know. But I was surprised at just how much more it was. I just, you know, can let this go now because I don’t need to be angry anymore and I don’t need to be, you know, all the different ways and things that I’d, I’d been sort of unconsciously thinking as well. Because it’s not things that you consciously sort of having the front of your mind all the time.
 
Katy Green (09:17)
it’s so true. It’s sort of like a program in the background, isn’t it? Yeah, that you can’t always put your finger on it either. I find sometimes it’s quite hard to explain. It’s just, don’t feel, I don’t feel an alignment. There’s something that’s out of sorts. Yeah.
 
Lucy (09:16)
but they affect you. And yeah.
 
Yeah, yeah.
 
Yeah. Yeah.
 
I did feel very much more aligned after we’d done that. I did just nicer in myself. yeah, everything felt a little bit easier.
 
Katy Green (09:43)
Great. Well, let’s talk about that then. Yeah. How has the retreat impacted you? Like what have you noticed?
 
Lucy (09:51)
⁓ Well, I mean, directly after it for about the first week, I mean, I just felt fantastic, like really great. Like my spirits have been lifted. My body felt great. Just was eating better. I started exercising. In fact, over the weekend, when we first came back, I came and I cleaned the office from top to bottom. And it’s also a really nice place to be now. ⁓ But also…
 
I’ve been doing all those things that I’ve been putting off. there are some standard operating procedures that I’ve been meaning to make, but never finding time to make for them, which once I’ve done will make my life a lot easier. ⁓ Also, ⁓ all the things that I’ve been putting off like doctors, dentists, opti… I’ve just been to the opticians this morning. ⁓
 
I mean, I’ve been putting off wanting to be able to see properly, but not even thinking that that was a problem. But it’s a problem. You need to take care of all of those things first. And so I’ve just kind of, yeah, just been motivated to sort of clear out everything and do everything to feel better. And of course, it makes you feel
 
better. Seems obvious. No, you say it out loud, don’t you? But, you know.
 
Katy Green (11:06)
Isn’t it interesting?
 
Yeah,
 
so when you work on yourself and you’ve cleared out things within yourself in the psyche, you’re now like, right, okay, so if I’ve done that now, it’s cascading and it’s sort of spreading itself back as you come back into the world, into the family and into your business. Like, right, okay, what do I need to clear and let go of and yeah, sort within my business.
 
clear focus.
 
Lucy (11:33)
Yeah, it takes care
 
to clear up and exercise and eat properly. And I’ve been getting up and doing yoga in the morning. I haven’t done that for a number of years, you know, it’s so yeah, it’s it’s sort of had a really good knock on effect on a lots of things that are very positive and healthy, I would say.
 
Katy Green (11:51)
Brilliant,
 
What about family or relationships? Has anything shifted there?
 
Lucy (11:52)
Mm.
 
I feel like actually I do feel like I’m a lot more patient. ⁓ yeah. Which helps everything. Yeah. Yeah.
 
Katy Green (12:01)
Mmm.
 
doesn’t it? yes. That’s always a good
 
one, isn’t it? And again, that’s where you’ve let go of things. Because often our frustration comes, doesn’t it, from things that are being held inside that we’re not even again aware of. It’s just that, you know, we’re full. We’re full inside. And when we can let go of those
 
Lucy (12:15)
Mm-hmm.
 
Yeah.
 
Katy Green (12:26)
things, it can give space for creativity and for clarity. And things just don’t bother us anymore. It’s interesting. I had exactly the same conversation with
 
Lucy (12:34)
you
 
Katy Green (12:37)
somebody else that did a Death Lodge actually about two months ago on a Vision Quest. And he said to me, do you know what, Katy, I never thought until I did the Vision Quest that I had anger in me. And when I did the Vision Quest and we did the Death Lodge, he said, I realized that actually I did get pissed off quite a lot. He said, and ever since then it’s gone.
 
Lucy (12:42)
Mm.
 
Mm.
 
Katy Green (12:59)
what kind of feels different for you? Is there anything else that feels different for you now compared to before the event?
 
Lucy (13:09)
Anxiety around money, that’s drastically reduced. ⁓ I’m able to sort of look at it just as figures and no drama. It’s like, you know, it is what it is rather than bringing a whole host of irrational thoughts to any kind of money situation and sort of having negative expectations maybe or…
 
Katy Green (13:30)
Mmm. ⁓
 
Lucy (13:37)
You know, now I’m just, I feel very much more sort of calm around that, which of course enables you to make better decisions. And I feel like my clarity on the vision of where I want the business to go, I feel that’s, I feel very clear on what the picture is going to look like. And with the sort of thoughts around money as well, being a lot calmer and clearer, it’s been able, it’s allowed me to make plans.
 
⁓ And so I’m starting to look at what’s going to be happening in the next few months, next year, and the direction of travel sort of in the meantime as well. So that’s been very helpful.
 
Katy Green (14:19)
For those listening, because I do think money or beliefs and aspects around money can often be a challenge or a blocker, isn’t there? It’s quite a lot of us that maybe can resonate with that, you know, ⁓ for good reasons because money gives us choices. But would you mind elaborating a bit about how it was for you before the retreat around money?
 
Lucy (14:47)
Well, actually just my sort of attitude towards the paying for the retreat, know, I was like, oh, I was talking to Jane, I was like, I’d love to go back, I can’t afford it. you know, so we talked about that and it’s, I’ve very much sort of come into everything with a, you know, if it’s not absolutely necessary, then, you know, you can do, because we, suppose I came from a family that kind of had that as the, you know, it was very much that.
 
Katy Green (14:56)
Hmm.
 
Lucy (15:13)
those sorts thoughts around money, which, oh, you you don’t need it, you know. That’s fair enough. mean, my father’s family had been refugees. I can understand how a lot of, hey, you don’t need that, was true, but he’d certainly passed that along. even, you know, it’s a different time, a different age, and I’m in a different situation. Some of the things that might have been useful for, you know…
 
Katy Green (15:17)
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
 
Lucy (15:40)
him and his family when he was a little younger certainly aren’t helping me and they were blocking me and stopping me from getting any further. ⁓ But so yeah, I was kind of like sort of in, what is it? Not abundance, the other one. I was not in abundance mindset. Yeah, I was in a lack. So I think that was coming to everything to do with money with that kind of frame of mind, which of course doesn’t then give you options. You can’t sort of, yeah, think of.
 
the best case scenario is if you’ve always got this sort of one eye on, well, yikes, what if? ⁓ Whereas if you just got a more sort of, I don’t know, practical way of looking at it, then without the drama, yeah, if you can just take the drama away from it, then you’ve just got figures and then you can kind of look at what your options are and what they’re gonna be. ⁓ So yeah, it’s helped me a lot with that, I would say.
 
Katy Green (16:37)
Yeah, great. And as you say, then you potentially make decisions based upon, well, like you’re saying, a place of lack. And also you’re stopping yourself from actually accessing things that are going to move you forward two or three steps versus, you know, it sort of keeps you stuck, doesn’t it? you’re, you know, you’re watching the pennies because you’re always then stuck in almost no man’s land. You can’t move forward. Yeah.
 
Lucy (16:43)
Mm-hmm.
 
Yeah. Yeah.
 
Mm-hmm.
 
Yeah.
 
Katy Green (17:06)
you’re not taking those steps of okay because we do have to take an element of it’s not a risk it’s the wrong word but you know what was it what was the old saying used to be to you know to ⁓ not co-create but to populate you know you have to you have to be able to take a step in a different direction don’t you to like to actually gain something ⁓
 
Lucy (17:33)
Yeah, yeah. ⁓
 
I think I know which one you mean, but I can’t remember it either. It’s sort of on the tip of my tongue.
 
Katy Green (17:37)
Anyway, yeah, you know the saying,
 
you know, yeah, to anyway, I’ll look it up afterwards. absolutely well, I can blame that on the menopause but you know, all right. If someone was considering coming on a retreat, a similar retreat to this, or even the Beyond Beliefs retreat, and maybe again,
 
Lucy (17:47)
Yeah, it’s going to come back to us the moment we’re off of this.
 
Mm-hmm.
 
Katy Green (18:03)
not aware or they’re unsure a little bit like you were, what would you say to them? What are they gonna gain? What would you say to them?
 
Lucy (18:12)
I would say go to it with an open mind. Just go to it. It will help you in ways that you don’t know that you need.
 
Katy Green (18:15)
Mm.
 
Yes.
 
Excellent. And in terms of value, what do you think,
 
if you were an investing person, what would you say a value is to something like that?
 
Lucy (18:37)
I mean, just in terms of sort of what we got as we sort of being there, I feel absolutely 100 % happy with the price that we paid for it. I feel it’s going to be one of those things that will be sort of even better value sort of longer term when the impact to the things and changes that I feel that I’ve made personally on the changes that were made in the business when they sort of do more to sort of pay off. But absolutely fine.
 
Katy Green (18:37)
doesn’t have to be pounds ⁓
 
Mm.
 
I’m not.
 
Lucy (19:06)
Yeah, I think it was excellent value. I’m thrilled to bits. I’m so glad that I went.
 
Katy Green (19:13)
Yeah, wonderful.
 
So, okay, is there one word or phrase that captures your experience?
 
Lucy (19:22)
It was amazing and I will never forget it.
 
Katy Green (19:26)
Wonderful,
 
life changing. ⁓ Lucy, thank you so much.
 
appreciate your time and your feedback and sharing that with other people so that they can also, if they’ve got any questions or clarity, they can see that. So thank you, Lucy. thank
 
Lucy (19:43)
No problem,
 
Katy Green (19:45)
you very
 
Lucy (19:43)
more than welcome.