The Wise Why

Hello and welcome. Today, we’re going to discuss leadership, empowerment, inner confidence, and how you can achieve and become whatever you want to be, as Karen Sigalas has joined me. But as usual, The Wise Why is not about me, it is about my guest. So I’m going to go straight over to Karen and say, ‘Karen, please introduce yourself, because I think you’re epic.’

What an introduction. Thank you. How do I follow that? I’m epic. Well, oh my word. Thank you very much. I’m a leadership coach and a reputation coach. I work with mindsets to help people own their worth and unpick the idea that you are more than your job—it doesn’t define your worth. I help people get recognised, get promoted, and gain confidence and self-worth. That’s me. Oh, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. Forgot to say that.

It’s really important because, whether you’re a man or a woman, if you’ve been in a job for a while, you can sometimes lose yourself. We often talk with business owners about what it’s like to run a business. But in this case, you’re not necessarily coaching business owners, are you? You’re much more focused on getting someone to gain that next promotion.

Exactly. That’s exactly right. And for a lot of people, what I’ve noticed is that they don’t apply for a job unless they feel 100% ready. Don’t do that. We really need not to do that. Apply even when it’s messy. Apply even when you think you haven’t got a chance. Because the mere act of applying sets us in forward motion and desensitizes the stress about applying when you’re not 100% perfect. I tend to work with really ambitious and determined people, and they want to be perfect.

That is the biggest misstep we can ever make because it sets us up for failure. Perfection just doesn’t work. It’s about turning up messy, taking action, and learning from it. Even if you don’t get the job, it doesn’t define you—your next actions do. It’s all knowledge in the end. One of my biggest tips is to treat success and failure the same. If you get it, great—what did you do? What enabled you to succeed? What skills did you embody? What mindset did you have? If you didn’t get it, great—what can you learn? What could you do better? It’s about treating both outcomes as learning experiences.

Really interesting. As you were talking, I thought about people who don’t get the job. It’s easy to talk about success and getting the job, but what about those who don’t? Sometimes they’re scared to ask for feedback on why they didn’t get it. But feedback is positive, right?

Yes, I would agree. A couple of things around feedback—people aren’t always great at giving constructive feedback. So we need to ask the right questions to get the feedback that will actually help us. For example, you might say: “Could you tell me what skills I need to build on to be in with a chance next time?” or “Could you tell me one thing I was missing?” or “Could you tell me one area where you saw potential but I wasn’t quite there?”

You talked about being a little bit messy. Now, I love messy because when we embrace the mess, we can make magical mistakes. Could you expand on what messy means and what limiting thoughts stop people from allowing themselves to embrace the messy?

Oh, I love that—limiting thoughts. Messy is that feeling of “I need it to be just a little better, a little more perfect, a little more polished. I won’t do it yet because it’s not there yet.” That doubt stops us. If you break it down, we’re just worried about failing. We’re worried that someone will say, “No, you’re not good enough.” But they’re not actually saying that. If they didn’t pick you, they’re saying, “No, you’re not there yet.” It’s just information. Showing up messy means showing up when you’re not ready. For example, my first LinkedIn post—I had joined LinkedIn 18 years ago, but it took me 18 years to actually post something. I kept thinking, “It has to be perfect. Look at so-and-so, they have it so polished.” Finally, I just decided to post about being a class rep for my child’s class—how nobody wanted the job, so I took it, and ended up loving it. That was my first post. From then on, I haven’t looked back. Of course, I got better, more structured, and now I have a content planner. But I didn’t need all those things to start. If I hadn’t posted that first post, I’d still be stuck not posting on LinkedIn. It’s exactly the same thing.

I love that. My first post was an animated social media post in Canva. I had no clue what I was doing, and it was awful. But I didn’t take it down. I look back at it and smile because it was my starting point. Did I compare and despair? At the time, no. But now, I might. Can you talk about comparison and despair, and how it leads back to negative thoughts? How does the power of “yet” help us overcome that?

First thing—compare and despair? Just don’t do it. You are running your own race, in your own lane, defining your own success, in your own time. If we look at others and think, “Why am I not like them?” it doesn’t serve us. Other people’s successes don’t take away from your own. Instead of envying others, use them to inspire and inform you. What are they doing well that I can learn from? I could have said, “I wasted 18 years procrastinating on LinkedIn,” but no—I just hadn’t realized its power until now, and now I’m all in. The real tip is to understand why you are doing this—why you’re applying for the job, posting on LinkedIn, or taking the leap. If you know your “why,” you’ll stay motivated when self-doubt creeps in.

Absolutely love it. What I love about your coaching is that it’s backed by science.

Yes. I started coaching 20 years ago when coaching was often seen as a charlatan practice. Some people just took money without delivering value. But I trained with the Co-Active Training Institute, got certified, and built my practice on referrals. I’ve never needed to advertise—clients refer me because my work gets results. I also deliver science-based training backed by psychology, neuroscience, and research. That’s what sets me apart.

That’s brilliant. Can you share a success story where you helped someone go from self-doubt to success?

I’ve had many clients transform. One client wanted more but didn’t know exactly what. We worked together to define their goals, and they eventually landed a senior leadership role. The key thing holding most people back is their mindset—fear of imperfection, fear of failure. I always use the analogy of climbing a mountain—some people spend forever analyzing their route, while others take the first step, stumble, and keep going. Progress comes from action.

Brilliant. We’re often limited by our conditioning—society tells us, “Don’t be arrogant, don’t boast, stay in your lane.” But if you truly believe you can, you will.
Exactly. The best bet you’ll ever make is on yourself. I’ve coached people into promotions, career changes, and huge life shifts. But it all starts with mindset. It’s the one thing you control.

I absolutely agree. My mindset has helped me through tough times—homelessness, trauma, setbacks. But I now have the best life. You can survive anything if you take that leap of faith.

Yes! Even if you don’t know your final destination, just take the next step. There’s no right or wrong—just learning and growth.

I think that’s the perfect note to end on. Thank you so much for your time. I loved this conversation.

And I hope your audience did too.