Being Boldly Brilliant in 2026: Finding Your Confidence Again with Becky Lotto

This week on the Girls in Property podcast, I am joined by our first formal guest for 2026. The incredible Becky Lotto, for a really honest and uplifting conversation all about being boldly brilliant as we move into 2026.

This episode is full of truth, encouragement, and real life perspective. Becky shares her story openly, including everything she has been through and how she has chosen not to let any of it hold her back. We talk about growth, confidence, community, and what it actually looks like to back yourself even when things feel uncomfortable.

If 2026 has not quite gone the way you imagined so far, or even if it has and you want to build on that momentum, this episode is here to help you reset, refocus, and properly kickstart the rest of your year. It is about moving forward with intention, leaning into who you really are, and giving yourself permission to be boldly brilliant.

We also dive into practical tips to help you supercharge your 2026, from letting go of what no longer fits, to breaking big goals down into manageable steps, to understanding that sometimes stopping is just as brave as starting.

This is one to listen to with a cup of tea, a notepad, and an open mind. 

Enjoy x 

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Transcript

0:01

Good morning everyone and welcome to today's episode of the Girls in Property podcast. So we are in the second week of January. How is everyone feeling? Are we literally having like the Christmas blues? Are we thinking, Athena, we have hit the ground running, or are we thinking, Athena, I need a little bit of help. For me personally, I'm back in the gym, which is amazing, which is super exciting. I'm on the treadmill, I'm going, I'm actually, do know, one of my friends actually gave me a recommendation, which was, says, Athena, When you reply to your DMs, because I reply to your DMs every single morning, she says why don't you walk and reply to DMs and then you're getting exercise whilst you're actually doing it as opposed to just sitting still. So my my sort of 2026 New Year's resolution is to actually walk while I DM you, voice note you now. So if I sound out of breath when I'm voice noting you guys, I do apologize. I'm walking. Um, right guys. Okay, so you've probably seen the title of this episode today and thinking talk to me about being boldly brilliant and you probably know who my guest is because of the fact that the title is called called boldly brilliant but if you're sat there and thinking I think I really need to kick up the bum today we've hit January I had the best intentions but it hasn't quite hit the mark lives taken over works taken over then today is your episode If instead you're sitting there going, Athena, I've been taking action. I'm going, I'm ready. Then today's even a better episode for you because it is just going to give you that extra fire in your belly to really, really get you going for the rest of January and into the rest of the year as well. So I love this person. I think her energy is amazing. You know me, I always talk about energy and frequency. I think she is boldly brilliant. I think she is unapologetic. I think she is the perfect recipe for our episode today for our first guest returning for 2026. And that person is Becky Loto. Hey, Becky. Hi, Athena. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, this is super exciting. Like me and you have been talking about getting you on the podcast for some time now. And actually, do know what, Becky? You know me, I'm a big believer in the universe. I think you were always meant to come on in January, 2026. I think it's the perfect timing to talk about being boldly brilliant. Yeah, absolutely, because everyone that I work with has this brilliance inside them and I love seeing it. I find it very easy to see that brilliance inside them. I call it chispa, which means spark in Spanish. So I want that chispa to shine out really brightly so people can basically live the life that they want to, have the business they want to. Yeah, gorgeous. I absolutely love that. So Becky, let's get into it then. So first of all, welcome to all of the new listeners listening, because I know that you've got your own sort of world and community. So if you're part of Becky's world and you found Girls and Property today, welcome to the crazy dysfunctional family that is Girls and Property. And of course, if you're a loyal listener, thank you so much for listening and thank you so much for coming back for 2026. And I hope to bring incredible guests to you all. So Becky, for those who don't know you, who didn't meet you at the retreat and who haven't seen you sort of speak on stage before, can you please start by telling us your, your kind of like a bit about you, like your story and why you now are so passionate about this notion of being boldly brilliant. And also one thing I'd love to know about you, Becky, is actually something that maybe somebody doesn't know about. Like to tell us almost something that you meant, you know, I bet you didn't know that about me, because I think that would help people to get to know you really well. Wow, okay. Thanks for the heads up. So grew up in a mixed culture household. My mom's from South America, Guyana, and then she grew up in Barbados and my dad's from Cornwall. So a real mix growing up of those different cultures. At 22, I left the UK and came back 21. Yeah, 21 I left the UK and I came back 21 years later. So I had lots of adventures. I've been boldly brilliant, but at the time I didn't think I was being boldly brilliant at all. I was just doing what I wanted to do. Call it being young and naive, more than being bold maybe. But I had a great time, you know, living in different countries, traveling, met my Argentinian husband, you know, came back with a Mexican daughter as well. So yeah, I've had a great time living in the Caribbean. As a scuba diver, working at a legal company in Grand Cayman, doing video and photography in Bahamas for underwater with scuba divers. Same again in Dominican Republic. We ended up in Mexico where we lived there for the last 10 years. And that's where I set up my own business, underwater videography and photography. Literally myself, a Mac laptop and one video camera and one camera for photos. And that was it. helped the owner of the dive center negotiate a contract with the cruise ships in the US and then suddenly business boomed. So I remember going to New York, investing, buying six of everything and then thinking this better work. I I now have absolutely no money at all. It did work, really successful business for four years. Built a house there, which was interesting as well. It was very eco-friendly. So we've got all the rain collections. Yeah, very, very eco-friendly and off-grid as much as possible. We then had, unfortunately, a category five hurricane that came along, Hurricane Dean, and squashed the whole town completely. Unfortunately, a couple of fatalities. The cruise ship pier was wrecked completely. So everyone in that town of Machawal lost their business or their job overnight. So it was literally, let's pivot quick. because there's no other option. A lot of Canadians and Americans and people from Mexico, uh largely Mexico City, had houses along the beachside and they got in touch saying, you know, is my house there? Are my caretakers there? Is the roof still there? Like, can you just please check? So it started off very organically how I got into property in Mexico. And then it grew quite quickly. The owners wanted to let out their holiday homes. So started holiday letting. Then the service of the laundry was too slow for the sheets and towels coming back. I just needed them super speedy. So I opened a laundrette with my brother and my husband. I thought that problem solved. So I was running there and I remember one night on Christmas Eve when Mexicans celebrate ah Christmas on the 24th, I was there folding sheets and towels with my husband and with an employee thinking, what am I doing? You know, this is crazy. I'm not enjoying this. So sometimes the boldest thing you can do is actually to stop something. So a lot of the times I see those motivational quotes, keep going, keep going, like, hmm, look at everything, assess it. Do you have to keep going? So sometimes the best decision is to be bold and stop what you're doing. As soon as we closed the laundry and we sold that, the property business skyrocketed and I ended up selling beachfront lobs in the Caribbean, Mexico, gorgeous palm trees, white sand. turquoise waters for hundreds of thousands of US dollars because I had the time to dedicate 100 % to the property business. When my daughter was three, uh moved back to the UK, just wanted to be next to one side of the family, decided UK rather than Argentina, came back to the UK, worked in corporate for a marine safety company, an engineering company, and within a month I was back in Mexico attending a trade show. That was a great job. working with the Brazilian and Mexican navies, like working from Canada right down to Argentina, the whole of Americas, lot of travel, a lot of speaking on panels. You know, I managed to do it in Spanish and in Portuguese at various times. So it was interesting. But then the pandemic came, no more travel. I realized I don't like this job because there's no travel. I like the meeting. I like the community, the networking. That sort of part of the business, which was obviously not going to happen via email to the same extent. So jumped ship to a job, which I knew was only for five months. It was with the growth hub as a business advisor. Everyone thought I was absolutely crazy, leaving this well-paid corporate job, international, know, travel when it would come back. And I just thought, no, I'm not happy anymore. I'm not traveling. I've just got to that. stuck in a rut stage. So I took the leap knowing I only had this job at a lower salary for five months. And it was the best thing I ever did. Because I was talking to business owners, just talking about my experiences, listening to them, helping them, you know, all the challenges are the same. People want more money, more time. It's always the same, whatever industry you're in. So I said, what is this sort of job? And they said, it's business mentoring, business coaching. was like, wow, this is incredible. The next job was at Falmouth University, working there. I had a massive imposter syndrome thinking I've just got this job. I didn't know how the heck I've got it. My boss had employed me on my previous business experience of having three businesses set up in Mexico, but I thought, oh, I need a certificate, I a certificate. So I got my Institute of Leadership and Management, level five, executive coaching and mentoring, then thought I need something else, I need another certificate. Got my certified business strategist certificate. And it did serve to cement that what I was saying was actually good. I was actually giving people good advice just from my lived experiences. And I learned that you don't need a certificate. You just need to get on and do it. I started my business one year later because of waiting for those certificates. So I wasn't that bold then, but I realized you just got to go for it. So now I have my business, Tides business, where I empower. business women to speak up boldly. So that's whether they're in the boardroom, they're having their voices uh interrupted, or they haven't even got the opportunity to speak up, whether someone wants to go live on social media, or go on stage. So that's what I'm really focusing now is letting the women's voice be heard and be boldly brilliant. Mmm, gorgeous, gorgeous. I love that. Do you know what, Becky, I literally wrote so much that I wanna talk to you about as you were speaking, but I just, do you know, I just had a thought there as you were speaking, which is this, which is, this is why I love the podcast because I've obviously known you for some time and obviously we've had loads of conversations, but this for me is where I really get to know people. This is for me where I get to build these incredible relationships. because I sit and I listen to your story and I sit and I listen to inspiring women on this podcast. And I almost want it that my professional job going forward is to just take women for dinner and sit and listen to their stories. That's actually what I would love to become. I'm just going to sit and just listen. I guess that's what the podcast is in a way, but I just love listening to your story and people's And there's so many things that I didn't know about that. So. Let's slowly unpick some of that as it were. You didn't tell us by the way. Well, I guess I asked you to tell us something we didn't know about you and I didn't know any of that about you. So I guess that kind of wraps into one. First of all, I love the fact that your first business was this underwater photography. I mean, what a brilliant business. So did you sell the photos? Like let's say that you took a photo of a beautiful array of rainbow fish or whatever it would be. Would you then sell those to people to hang on their walls or was it of actual people? How does it work? I was more with the people and to be honest, I always preferred the videography and I switched them beforehand and said, you know, depending their level of um scuba diving, because I'm a scuba dive instructor, I thought there was no problem down there. I would assess their levels and how often they had gone diving. So get them to take out the regulator and blow kisses to the camera, do some assaults. It was all fun. It's always based on having good people. The more I got them and then a turtle in the background or sometimes a manatee or dolphin, know, the beautiful coral reefs. was just, know, them plus this incredible scenery. So I prefer the photography as opposed to the photography, but yeah, it was all good. So then my question is, you have this life abroad, and I feel like when I speak to various women who have this incredible life abroad, and then they come back to the UK, and to have lived where you've lived, and to have your Argentinian husband, and actually your roots because of your mum being South American, how did it feel actually coming back to... The UK are now living in Cornwall. I mean, what a change in lifestyle. I mean, how have you adapted to that? yeah, it was really, um I think every country has good and bad Athena, and I think one year, you're in a country, it's very easy, everything's so wonderful in another country that you're not yet there. But for us, when our daughter was three, where we were living was just two remotes, it was an hour and a half to the nearest doctor, chemist, supermarket, bank, cinema, dance class. So, you know, she would be very good at swimming, kayaking, scuba diving, and that's it. We wanted to give her more opportunities and also we wanted to have uh some sort of family engagement. So it had to be either UK or Argentina. And because of the political situation being quite unstable and not very uh stable economically either in Argentina, we decided the UK. So that's why we did it. But every winter we're like, what the heck have we done? Why are we left with some caribou to come back? imagine, I can imagine, yeah. you can move. Sorry, didn't interrupt. yeah, when my daughter's three years time and she's 18, we're off somewhere, destination unknown, but definitely somewhere very cold with snow in the winter and very hot summer. That's the idea. I love it, so you still have the seasons. It's not just all year round summer. You need to have the seasons. Yeah. snowboarding and yes, I've worked for three winters in France. That's, when I started off my ventures after being at Aupare. Three winters in France and then I learned to ski and snowboard and it's like, wow, I've got the bug now. I love it. beautiful. I love it. I love it. So we're gonna we're gonna come on to so many of the of the topics of what you've just spoken about Do you know one of the things I wrote in capital letters as you were speaking is I wrote this word problem-solving So I feel like whenever you were going through your businesses and creating new businesses The businesses were built on the back of problem-solving. So your laundry issue, for example of the towers You're like what we'll just set up our own laundry. Do you feel like do you feel like I always think that being entrepreneurs is literally where you take a problem and you basically create the solution to the problem. Do you feel like that's what you did a lot of when you were building your businesses? Yeah, absolutely. mean, the first one, excuse me, the first one was really for that passion of scuba diving, capturing people. I'd worked for a previous sort of six months in the island of Cozumel in Mexico for someone else. And then she had me managing the whole time. Then she was off sunning herself. And I thought, you know what? I need to do this myself now. What am I doing this? And, you know, getting this tiny wage for, I might as well just do it all myself. Obviously very naive. That's huge expenses as a video owner. especially if you're dealing with very high tech equipment and you're working from a mobile caravan with no electricity. It's connected up to a car battery when the solar runs out. So I think that one was um just doing something I liked, but the laundry was definitely solving a problem. The property one, definitely solving a problem. People needed my help. They knew I was bilingual and knew I was physically in that place. So I solved that problem. Yeah, greed. That's the best business practice, I think, when you've got something that you love, plus it's solving a problem for people. That's the golden business, isn't it? the golden nugget if you enjoy it and solve a problem, I think you're on to a winner literally And I'm gonna come on to this this next comment this next topic in a second Which is where you were talking about actually stopping doing something is as bold as doing something and I'm gonna come on So I think that's a whole topic in itself But before we do Becky as you know with the podcast because I know that you listen to girls and property You know that we love to celebrate Now we are in 2026, so I want us to celebrate boldly, brilliantly from the rooftop, sing it. So what are you going to celebrate for 2026 January? 2026, I am celebrating the community that I have around me from my love of networking and the belief that networking is for that community, that support, you know, those people you can call when things don't go well and you're like, what the heck? And they, you know, they just calm you down and you carry on again, or they give you advice. or to celebrate your wins. So for me, having that supportive community around me is something that I'm always going to nurture and grow because it's fundamental. It's not always, you I never look at networking or what can I get out of that? You know, it's because what I can get out of it is support that you only get from a community of like-minded people. It's invaluable. that and do you know what my my celebration is actually really similar to that because I was thinking about what I want to celebrate 26 and Becky I'd to get your opinion on this actually because I know that you you know we'd have a good good conversation about this last year I talked quite openly about my frustration when it comes to people saying to me that they have a community it actually used to frustrate me because I'd know some of these people let's just say and for me it wasn't a community at all they didn't know half, if not a fraction of the people. And it was effectively they would have a WhatsApp group or they would have a Facebook group or something. And for me personally, I don't think that constitutes, and people could disagree with me, I don't think it constitutes a community. For me, community is exactly what you just said. And I see you, Becky, online. I see you with the girls and everything and you creating those meaningful connections. And for me, that's what community is. And that's why I decided to put out a post that said, right, do you know what? All of you people who want to have a community, I'm going to put you to the side. I'm not even going to say that I'm in the same world as you, because for me, mine isn't a community. Girls and property to me is my family. Like it's actually my family. Yeah. Yeah. It's my family. And you know, know, when you really know that their family is when you go through life and you go through really tough times and then they're there just like picking you up. Yeah. And I get emotional thinking about it because they're just so important to me and like life. I don't know why I'm getting emotional, but I know I'm getting emotional. Becky, I spoke about this recently, right? No, no, no, I spoke about this recently. I've just come off the pill. So it makes me emotional. But no, the hormones, I know. But you know what? They just mean so much to me because when you go through really, really tough times in your life, they were the ones that literally were like, we've got you. Like, you've always had us, we've got you. And they just sent me like flowers and gifts and chocolates and took me out to dinner and created this, this, um, we went out and then they all surprised me and then we all went out together and just, for me, like that's more than just a glorified WhatsApp group or a glorified Facebook group. Like to me, that's community, genuine community of girls and property and a family that I love. And they just mean the absolute world to me. And When you were talking there about community, I love seeing you with your girls in Eurysy down in Cornwall and you do all your bits together. And I love seeing it because for me, think that's where meaningful connections actually truthfully happen is in the realness. Not because somebody says I have a thriving community written by chat GPT and all they have is a glorified WhatsApp group. It actually bothers me to my core. Because I tell you why, Becky, I know your opinion on this. I think it takes time to nurture that and it takes time to build that. And something that we should absolutely celebrate for 2026 are our families, let's say. What is it we say in Spanish? Familia. Familia. I always talk about family because I've lived abroad for so long, away from my uh biological family. I do think that friends can be family and I, I talk about it, I just say family. You don't have to be a blood or DNA relation to have a good relationship with someone else. Exactly. we choose and I love it. So I think that's the best celebration we can actually do is to celebrate both of our beautiful communities. And obviously, you saw a bit of it, Becky, when you, because I should mention it, like when you came to the retreat last year, the Girls and Property retreat, because of course we've got our next one coming up in, my goodness, a couple of months time, which I can't believe, by the way, that it's already been a year, but I should also celebrate. the fact that you were there and you were in red, you were fabulous, you stood out beautifully. And what did you feel about that day? you really enjoy it? What were your sort of main takeaways from that retreat when you were there personally? uh I love meeting your mum, that was the highlight. Forget about you and your community. Your mum is a superstar, absolutely loved her. I I always gravitate to people who have lived abroad, who've done different things, have, you know, just naturally, and then I find out, I've lived in A, B and C, I'm like, okay, I didn't realise, and it's just something that seems to happen, a honing radar I have inside me. But the retreat day was fabulous, because it was a good variety of the... excellent expert speakers in different fields. know, so you've got, you know, planning expert, m planning game with Ella, you've got Kim with all the mortgage and the finance. So everyone was talking about different subjects. So even if you didn't know a lot about one subject or you didn't, you could, you know, you could gain something from all of the speakers, lunch, you know, good quality and healthy food as well. So often we go to these events and I'm like, my God, I don't want chips now or nachos. I want something that's going to nourish me because I don't want that three o'clock slump so that I love the food venue obviously with peacocks in the gorgeous gardens was incredible. And the afternoon with the round tables was really good because you could then hone in on, I really want to know more about finance or this or that or legislation. it's, you had a good mix of everything, I think, and also enough time to network because a lot of these events I go to, incredible speakers, incredible people in the room, but By the you have this break and you go to the loo and grab a coffee, that's it. I haven't had time to speak to anyone. So I think the combination of everything I've just said plus the drinks in the evening, then going on to dinner, that was incredible. Because that's when you're like, ah, right, I've listened to all the speakers. Now let's get to know the people in the room as well. So yeah, hats off, 10 out of 10. Highly recommend to everyone. 24th of April, see you there. Oh, I love that. And I love how you mention the food, because obviously I'm half Mediterranean, so I cannot do sandwiches and chips. It's not my thing. Nope. Can I have a nice messe? Good food. Absolutely. I love that. Brilliant, Becky. So we've done our celebrations, which is fab. I didn't mean to get upset. I don't know why I keep getting upset. So silly of me, but there we are. It's real. What can I do? it's not silly. And I mean, going back to your community, I would just say, you know, my thoughts on that is everyone has different versions. Don't worry about anyone else crack on and be you Athena. Don't worry about what, and you know, I'm living in Cornwall. I'm very aware of being so far from everyone. That's my choice to live here. And it's a massive, you know, schlep and always one night, at least overnight. So I go to any event, which obviously makes it more expensive, but The communities, you for me, I do like some Facebook groups because that's where I can continue the conversation. Otherwise it's just, can I, what can I do? So I just say, crack on, be you, do what works for you, which obviously does, you know, those girls love you and adore you. You're there for them, they're there for you. And just, yeah, don't worry about anyone else. You can't control what other people do or think. So forget about them. 100%. I completely, completely agree with you. Absolutely. So Becky, let's talk about this because you said something really beautiful earlier, which is you said to be to, know, paraphrasing here, but to be bold is also to stop doing something that you have been doing. That's equally as brave as doing something. So talk to me a little bit more about that and what you mean, because the reason I'm saying that to you is there might be some listeners out there. who potentially are on a path at the moment, where they are doing something that they feel they should be doing, or that they have been told this is what they should be doing, or they've invested so much money in something that potentially just isn't working. And what would you say to those people right now listening? I'd say take a pause, get a massive, well, bit of paper or A4 sheets of paper and write down all the things that you're dedicating your time to. Like on each bit of paper you have a different topic. For example, one for me would be family, another one would be gym, another one would be property, another one would be uh mentoring, speaking. So write down all these things you're doing and then really look at each one and see which one you like doing. I mean, it's all, we've got, I don't know how much time we've each got here on earth. You we've got to make sure we have a brilliant time doing something, marrying what we love with what is going to bring us money. And I think so often we get stuck in this rut. You know, I was, the laundrette was very successful. We're making a lot of money. had all the rental houses in the area, not only the ones that I manage, but others. Then the hotels joined onto us because when their own laundrettes were so busy. They then sent the sheets and towels to us. like, oh my God, it was a very successful business, but I just wasn't enjoying it. I was exhausted. you know, 24th, when I should have been celebrating, I was there folding sheets for someone else. like, this is not... So my brother actually said, you know, good person knows when to stop because I felt guilty because it was successful. You know, it was making money and I just, oh, was something that was plaguing me for quite a long time before I made that decision to stop. But once I got the okay from him, because he'd invested funds as well, I just thought, right, we've got to do it. And since I stopped and then dedicated 100 % into the property business, the feeling first of all, was relief. And it gave me more time, more time to dedicate to the property, the sales went up astronomically. It was in a place where it's really like wild west. It was myself and American guy there and then couple of other people, but you know, we were the top dogs, so to speak. And it's a little bit competitive, let's put it that way. So it was just, I thought, right, let's go for it. And yeah, and it really worked. So I'd say a lot of times people don't give things enough time to have the traction. So I see this a lot with my clients is they have what I call is the blessed curse. They've got so many brilliant ideas, which is fabulous. It's a blessing. curses, they want to do all of them this week and be millionaires, which you can do. This is something unfortunate I suffer from as well. So I know what it's like, but do what Richard Branson did. Get a, get a notebook just for these brilliant ideas, because even if it's something that you, you want to explore, let's just park it for a minute and work per quarter, plan per quarter, focus on that per quarter. Once you've got your missions, you know, your mission, your vision, your values, any decision that comes in ad hoc within that quarter, is aligned with your mission, vision, values, grab the opportunity and go for it. If it's not park it, and then you can deal with it in another quarter because this constant scatter brain doing this, doing that is just, is just going to get you exhausted on the breakout, uh burnout, sorry. And you're not going to get anywhere. You can just going to get frustrated. So really look at everything, see what you like. see what lights you up, gets your brilliance, that chisper shining out of you and then see if it's going to make money and then just follow one thing at a time. Yeah, don't be scared to stop something, but yeah. I love that. I think that's so brilliantly said. And I mean a lot of women who have brilliant ideas, absolutely brilliant ideas. But I know what you mean. think from what I've seen from myself actually and others, I think you have an idea or you do something. And I remember once I spoke to somebody and I'll give you a really good example of this. This was about a year ago, a year and a half ago. And she predominantly did HMOs. So she was known as the HMO person in her area, which was Southampton. She's like, I am the HMO person in Southampton. And I remember I was at a networking event with her and I used to see all these, all these investors bringing her deals, which were mainly like service accommodation or just simple buy-to-laps or BRR or anything. And she kept saying, no, no, no, no, no, I only do HMO. And she kept rejecting them. And I said to her, why are you doing that? Why don't you explore something else? You've got all these opportunities. And she said, no, everybody knows me as the HMO girl. that's who I am, that's what I am. And I said to her, like, well, you don't have to just do that, you know, you could explore something else. And this was before I even had anything really, or was mentoring or anything like that. And I remember the next day she messaged me, actually no, it two days later she messaged me. She says, do you know what, Athena? She says, I thought about what you said to me and I'm gonna have a look at service accommodation and doing HMOs and service accommodation. you want to, yeah. from that, ended up loving service accommodation and got rid of all of her HMOs and just went full time service accommodation, changed her handle, changed her marketing, changed everything. And I thought to myself, so many times I think that we can pigeonhole ourselves through comfort zone, through fear, whatever that reason is that we pigeonhole. And I think one of the ones I've learned from a lot of the women recently, when I asked them, why they are doing what they're doing. A lot of the times, the reason is, is because they've invested so much money already in that idea. So for example, let's say Rent2Rent, because it's a property podcast for argument's sake. Let's say that they're like, Athena, I've already spent so much money on the mentor for Rent2Rent, the marketing for Rent2Rent, the company for Rent2Rent. my God, the postage. Let's not even talk about postage. Jesus Christ. Oh, me too, Becky, me too. Let me tell you. And so, and so I then say to them, and I've actually had to sit some of them down really quietly and just say to them, you can either continue to do this because you believe you've invested all of this money, but the one thing that you are investing that you is going to be priceless for you and you are going to lose, I said, is your soul because you don't enjoy it. And I can see it in your eyes that you don't enjoy it. And I said to them, You either need me to give you permission to stop or you need to give yourself permission to stop. And it's okay if you stop, just go and try something else. And I think Becky, too many people are afraid of admitting that something didn't work or admitting that it went wrong and they failed. Great. It didn't work. Nevermind. Let's try again. And that's okay. And I want that to be our statement for 26 on this podcast. It's okay. to try something new. um absolutely. I've got so many failures. We'll be here for five days or more. Five weeks. It's just that you've got to keep going. that's another kudos to my brother. When I was at Au Pair in France and I didn't know French, I had this sudden urge to go and speak French for some reason. Someone took the mick out of me mispronouncing a French wine label. Anyway, so I thought I'm going to show them, go to France, be in Au Pair, got there. They said, you've got to speak English. And I thought, what the hell? So I was whining to my brother on the phone. He goes, well, go out there. You know, no one's who's going to knock on your door. No one knows you're there. And that always stuck with me because it's like, if you, you've got to make an effort and go out there and create your own opportunities. If you don't is I think that's why a lot of people are stuck. They're afraid of, you know, try it, you know, try it. It doesn't work. Okay, let's go again. And that's again, coming back to the community. Cause I know we're quite passionate about that book. It's, you know, ask the people in your community because sometimes they know you better than you know yourself. And they can say, you know, for example, recently with my friends at Christmas time, we're all talking about speaking. said, oh, you know, I want to do a lot more speaking, this and that. said, well, why don't you, you know, focus more on bringing out women's voices? You know, I said, oh yeah, I didn't think about that. said, well, yeah, we've been seeing you speaking on all these stages all year. You love speaking. Why? You know, I thought, okay. That's where your community can help you suggest things you can do maybe and then it suddenly clicks. It's like, yeah, let's go for it. Do you know what find though which really fascinates me and I watch it every time? People are brilliant at giving other people advice or giving other people a kick up the bum. Right? You go do this, you go do this. I watch all my community girls doing it for everybody else and then I'll message them and I'll go, oh, you're do that for yourself then? It's just the most funniest thing. Yeah, that's why you have a mentor. That's why I have a mentor as well. It's like we all need someone else. Even if that person is going to tell you exactly what you would say to your client, you need someone to tell you yourself the same thing, don't you? 100%. uh I believe personally that if you're going to teach others or mentor, even just be a community leader or whatever it may be, I think that learning as the leader is one of the best things you can do. So I've got coaches myself because I need people to lean on as well. I need people to say, Athena, you know, you're at this level, but let's go to this level. And I go, Oh, wow. Because it's very scary when you're growing a business. It's terrifying. We all have imposter syndrome. We all feel that we have these, these niggles as it were. And actually, do you know what I've invested in this year, Becky? And I'm the most excited I have been in a very long time. I have invested in a subconscious coach. yeah, so I've signed up with her for a year and we are going to be doing subconscious work this year. And do know what's really interesting? I made a decision. I could either invest in a particular person who was predominantly a strategist, a business strategist. And her main predominant thing was that she was like, right, Athena, we're going to, we're going to double your turnover. We're going to double your revenue. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. And then this other person was like, Athena, we're going to do subconscious work. We're going to do subconscious beliefs. We're going to really unpack you and repack you for 26. So that in 20, you know, don't get me wrong, business is still going to boom in 26, but from a place of the subconscious work, because one thing I've learned Becky for me is that there's just some deep rooted psychology that lives within me. that I just haven't had the opportunity to unpack yet, which is for me a beautiful thing because I'm ready to now, I'm in a position where I'm like, you know what, I'm now ready to unpack these things. And so I've invested in that coach for this year. And I think that's going to be really exciting because I have no idea the version that's going to come out. This is Athena version five or six or whatever it is. It's going to be incredible. God, I don't know. Yeah, I think it's just, I think, I keep saying, I keep saying to people, I feel like I will be a new version and people keep disagreeing with me, who know me, they're like, no, Athena, you'll be your true version. That's what they keep saying to me. You'll be your true version. And I'm like, can't wait to meet her. Like, I'm so excited to meet her. So yeah, we're no longer keeping small, Becky. We are being boldly brilliant and accepting all of our... flaws and all of our ridiculousness because we don't need to be perfect. It's exhausting to be perfect. Oh, tell me about it. So Becky, you've spoken on so many stages. You've spoken to men, you've spoken to women, you're brilliant in doing it. When you speak on stage, what do you think are the main takeaways that people really take from you that we can help the listeners with today to really give them jam-packed value on this podcast? I think my story of being bold, leaving the UK at 21, not speaking French, going to France, like I said before, Athena, naivety maybe, I just did it anyway. So I think for me, what most people get from or they comment on is the energy, the level of energy that you bring to the room is phenomenal. And I didn't even realize that, I'm just being myself. The other thing is the fact that you can fail, I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. I've had disasters, but you just carry on going. And the main route of being boldly brilliant for me is try it. If it doesn't go right, you can always come back home. It's not necessarily a geographical place, but it's that safe place. this is, hats off to my parents always said with food, try it. If you don't like it, that's fine. But if you don't, can't say I don't like that without trying it. So I always encourage people, try it, know, go for that holiday on your own or I don't know, you know, there's this calculated risk as well. Obviously with property, you're about big numbers, but try it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter. You can come back to that safe place, but you're never going to live with regret of what if. So yeah, go for it. Always try it. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think, I if I think about all the conversations I've had over my time, particularly with women, it is fear. Fear is the biggest thing that holds people back. And when I try and delve deep into that in terms of this, and again, this is why I'm doing my own self, my own subconscious work, because I understand the fear. I understand it. And this notion of, what if I fail or what if people see me and The main conversations I have with a lot of the women within the community or within the accelerator program that I teach them, I say to them, tell me your narrative. I say, tell me the story that exists in your head when you do something. I said, what's that narrative? And they say, the narrative goes that I post something or I do something. And then people say, oh, why is she even trying that? What's she doing over there? Why, who does she think she is? And I said, who's ever said that to you before? Who's ever said that to you before? And in some instances, they say, my mom, my dad, my friend. And I say, right. I said, that's their narrative. That's not your narrative. And in some instances, they say to me, no one's ever said that to me. And I said, I said, that because that's what you think about other people? Is that why that's your narrative? Because you sit there and you question everyone out there and they go, no, I would never do that. And I said, so where does this narrative come from? Where does it exist from? And they're like, I don't know. And I'm like, It's within your subconscious beliefs. Your subconscious believes it. And it's really interesting because it will probably then end up stemming from something in their past or something like that. And for me, until you can experience those things, until you can go back to those moments, that's where you then set yourself free. Like literally free. And that's where you become unapologetically bold and brilliant. Because you're then like, okay, this is the narrative that I have lived with for X amount of years. I thank that narrative, but now I know how to manage it. And it's no longer going to cripple me and it's no longer going to stop me going forward. And this is why I started the program, Becky, the accelerator program, because it aligns soul and strategy. And so I've got Actar doing the subconscious beliefs and I'm doing the strategy. And it is just the most bizarre, bizarrely brilliant thing watching these women just... out of their shells and just allow themselves to just be free without fear. Well, they probably actually have fear, but have fear and still do it because we're behind them all the way like an army, you know? And I absolutely love that. what do you think would be a really good thing if someone's listening to this today? Let's do two versions, Becky. Let's do it together and help me out here. Okay. Version one. Someone is listening to this episode. So hello, hello listener. I can hear you listening now and you're sat there and you're thinking to yourself, do you know what, Athena, I had the best intentions for 2026. Unfortunately life got in the way. um School runs, kids, everything has all got in my way. And I need this podcast today to give me that real boost of energy to help me to really go out and do that thing I've been putting off. What is our advice to that person? First of all, listening. I would say break it down into baby steps because so often we procrastinate and the thing that you want to do is too big. So break it down to baby steps. I did it with my own website. was like, do website was on my list, know, to do list, do website. Like what the hell? Get, get, create website. Exactly, you're going to break it down to baby steps and then so I'd say first of all, whatever that thing is you want to do, break it down into baby steps and say to yourself, I'm going to do this for 15 minutes. 15 minutes when you're in the car waiting to pick up your kids from school or swimming or whatever is better than nothing because those 15 minutes add up. And I think what I would love in a perfect world. I've got a day to do just that one thing and really get into the nitty-gritty and get into the flow of it. I know because of my lifestyle and doing different things and also having a family and different responsibilities, I'm never gonna have that luxury, so to speak, of doing that. So I have to work in increments of time. So I'd say break them down and just get on and do it. And what was the other thing you asked? Was that it? yeah, so I think that's brilliant. So for those who feel overwhelmed at the moment that they're not quite hitting where they wanted it and we're only the second week, ladies and gentlemen, like let's be kind to ourselves as well. But we're just gonna give you that little bit of a push. Love it. Break things down, you know, and just take incremental chunks. Beautiful. Okay. And then what if someone is listening to this who has hit the ground running in January, they are like, Becky and Athena, we are out the door. We are good to go. We're off. So what is our advice for those listening today? I would say, hold on, hold on. Because I unfortunately have had, I don't know if it's burnt now, extreme exhaustion a couple of times once after working full time and then doing the conversion of a three bed to HMO during the pandemic and also having sciatica for nine months. So I know that your body tells you at some point stop. So what I'd say to those women, brilliant, well done. You've got your action plan, you've broken down your tasks, you're taking action, fabulous, excellent. Make sure two things, number one, in your calendar, you have time for yourself. And that is either, you know, having a massage like Athena, finally, finally listen to me. I did, I did. Thank you, Becky. a monthly massage or walk with a dog, coffee with friends or whatever that thing is that works for you, which is just for you. It's not, you know, involving the family or anyone else. It's just for you that makes you feel good, like a treat almost. Plan those into the diary. And the other thing you need to plan into your calendar is nothing. White space. Because having white space is when we have that time to reflect. And they always say, I say they, the experts, business experts, you never get great ideas sitting at your laptop at home. You get it when you have that white space, when you're on a walk, when for me, it's when I'm surfing, when I'm in the water, I have zero distractions. I mean, in that moment, that's my moment of meditation. And I have these incredible plans, know, big vision thinking. So have that white space in your calendar. It's not bad. It's not lazy. It's reflective time. That's when you can look. What's going well? Okay, rinse and repeat. What's not going so well? What have I learnt? If we don't have that white time to reflect, we carry on going like the hamster wheel, full power, and then we get to the end of the year or even before shattered, burnt out, exhausted. So white time, definitely, and time for yourself. Beautiful perfectly said, you know, it's so funny. So I two things I remember when I saw you at the retreat last year and you said to me you're like Athena you need to book yourself a massage you and I was like I will Becky I will you were holding me accountable the whole time Yeah, and you kept texting me going if you booked it yet if you booked it yet and I went no No, no and it took me about a year to actually book it in just shy of a year And then I sent you that photo I've booked it in, I'm here, I've done it. But I remember you saying that and I genuinely, remember thinking to myself, God, Becky keeps, in a beautiful way, was like, keeps messaging me, I need to do it. She's holding me accountable, I need to do it. And then I did it and I thought, why has it taken me so long to book this? I'm booking another one. I thought, this is great. So you sometimes need that person in your corner just to say, you know, and it doesn't have to be about business, it can be about something else. The other thing is my favourite kind of days, my favourite kind of days are when I, in the evening, I look at my diary for the following day and I see white space. And I go, I go, my God, I don't have a call. I love you all dearly. Like when I speak to you and I mentor you, I love you all. You know I do. But when I literally see that white space, I'm like, my God, just a day for me. my God. And usually my brain goes to just pure admin. Like what can I catch up on? What can I do? but I don't have a structure. don't have it at two o'clock. have to be somewhere or three o'clock. I've got a call. My day is mine to do with as I please. And I highly recommend white space. As Becky said, it's a beautiful, beautiful color in your diary. It's gorgeous. ah both brilliant Becky. Perfect. That's exactly what I was hoping you were going to say. And then just to finish off the podcast then, um I asked this question. You don't know my question I'm going to ask you by the way, deliberately. So yeah, you'll love it. You'll really like this one. So I've asked this question last year to a handful of my guests because I was really curious to know their answer to this question. And the question came along because I was asked it when I was a guest on a podcast and it did something that's very difficult to do with me. It silenced me for two minutes. Wow Athena, I can't wait for this! It silenced me for two minutes while I sat there and I went, no, I thought what hell is the answer to that question? So my question to you is this, Becky, what is one question that nobody has ever asked you that you wish someone would have asked you? Very interesting. I think I need more than two minutes. Yeah, that's a good question. Right, I'm going to leave you in silence with that thought. Thanks. I would think that would be more about, you know, my childhood, you know, what it was like living in mixed culture household, maybe. And yeah, that's probably the base of a lot of the things that I do and love and say is based on that. Like, like many people are childhood, isn't it? So I was highly embarrassed to my mum growing up and I know most children are of their parents. But we're in Cornwall, um the demographic is very white, and it's very English, in very Cornish even, which is fabulous to a certain degree. But uh mum was different because she spoke with an accent. She's Guyanese, but her accent is also half-Basian from going to school in Barbados. So, you if she ever met Guyanese, it's, no, you're not Guyanese, you're not Bayesian. So it's like always in in-between stage. And none of my friends could understand her growing up. And I always just felt, you know, like odd because of her. And then my dad was going around on a moped with a huge fisherman's cape, which his dad had given him. I'm like, yeah, he looked like Darth Vader. used to come to hockey matches and watch, watch. the hockey matches and then at halftime come down and give tips to the coach. I was like, who is this? Becky's dad. was like, no, it's not my dad. don't know. So I think, yeah, more of that because I think how you grow up, the experiences you have as a child shape you enormously. I'm very much nurture as opposed to, you know, nature. But yeah, so I've said a little bit more about that, but they both taught me that, you know, you shouldn't be embarrassed about who you are. My dad, well, both of them always said, you know, as long as we're not hurting anyone else. just crack on and be yourself, you but I remember like dying with embarrassment, so different to everyone that I grew up with. Yeah, I think that would be the answer. Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? I love that answer. And um at the end of 2025, I asked this question to Alice Dartnil, know, Alice, time management, Alice Dartnil. And she gave me the same answer. She said what it was like growing up. Yeah, because she's half Japanese and half half and half English. it's yeah, and it's really interesting, you know, because obviously I'm half Greek and half Cypriot and half English. And so we were talking about and it's really interesting, Becky, you know, when you talk about We talk about childhood and growing up where we're not quite the right color almost for the right people in a way, or have the right food in the right environment. We spoke about this and my takeaway from these conversations and it's my takeaway from this conversation, my takeaway from Alice's is it's really fascinating that as a child, I feel like all we ever try to do is fit in. Like that's our prerogative. Our prerogative is to say, Why? This is my environment. I need to fit into this. I need to be accepted. I need to feel like I'm part of something. And so we get embarrassed by our parents. We get embarrassed to look different and we get ashamed of them. And then what's really weird for me is that then in later years, we are beautifully different and we stand on stages and we say to everyone, I love the fact that I'm different. I love the fact that that this is my route. So now when you introduce yourself and you did on the beginning of this podcast, you did it with such pride and you said, this is why I am who I am. And I always think to myself, and this is something that I'd love to have conversations with psychologists on, because I'm so into psychology at the moment, Becky, it's ridiculous. I always want to take like a master's in psychology. Yeah, it's like, where does that difference come from? That the moment that you go through life and you realize, this is now the moment that I am happy to be different. And what happens to you at that moment? So Becky, I don't think you know this about me. I'll tell you something that people don't know about me. So you'll be like, Athena, of course you did. That's such a you thing to do. So when I was 16 years old, I was 16 years old and I still didn't like who I was at 16. I still didn't like my name. I still didn't like the fact that I didn't fit in at 16. And so I remember I got the documents. No, I can't remember how I got these. I think I ordered them online and they came in the post. And I went to file a genuine court thing at the time, whatever it was, that you could formally change your name. That you could actually change your name. And I was gonna officially change my name. I didn't tell my mum, because I knew that she'd absolutely freak out if I changed my name. But do know the name that I wanted to be called? and would have legally changed my name to unless my mum found the documentation in my cupboard. So I'd just done it without telling her. Superstar. I wish, I wish. No, I was going to legally change my name to Amy Smith. you legally I was going to change my name to Amy Smith because Smith was one of the most common surnames at that time that I found out and Amy was just a lovely name and I was like yeah Amy I was like I just want to be called Amy because Amy's an English name Amy fits in so when we'd go on holiday I remember that I would get the kids to call me Amy because I say what's your name and I say Amy and so I remember one day this this we were playing volleyball or something and then this child shouting out to me, Amy, and I literally had no idea who they were talking about. And then I remember my mum going, why are they calling you Amy? And I was like, don't worry, mum, it's just a story, don't worry. And I used to get posts delivered in the name of Amy, and then my mum eventually clocked it, I wanted to change my name. And she said to me, one day, Athena, she says, one day you will thank me for your name. It's not today, but one day you'll thank me. And I think that day came when I was about 21 years old, and I started to love me and my name. and my heritage and I really sort of grew into it. And now I thank God every day, every day that I did not change my name and that I kept my roots. But it's tough, it's tough when you, yeah, yeah, Amy Smith. So that's one thing that people might not know about me, but it's a very me thing to do, going to like, change your name legally. It's a very me thing to do. Bit wacky. there because now you stand out even more. I think, yeah, something about the whole being bold, which is fabulous for all your listeners is the very, very good news is the older you get, the huge advantage is the bolder you can be because you don't give a beep about what anyone else thinks about you. Like genuinely, you know, people say to how could you go live with your hair wet and you've got sand on your face? You've just finished the surf. I was like, why not? Why? Why wouldn't I? This is me. I'm not just on the stage, you know, glammed up with my makeup and hair done. This is who, all of me, who I am. So yeah, you just gotta go for revenue. You do, you do. And I think it's liberating. think it's sustainable. I think it's liberating. I think it's free. And I recommend it as the most beautiful medicine for anyone listening to this today. Take mine and Becky's advice and set yourself free and just go and be your whole heart and self because people will love you. And the people who don't are not worth the energy at all. So just keep the good energy. Yeah. that, Athena, even Beyonce has imposter syndrome. After she was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, she leant forward and whispered, did I do okay? And I said, girl, you're Beyonce. Like, hello, of course you did okay. So like even if she has imposter syndrome, worrying about what other people think, you know, you know, it's a human condition. We all have these fearful thoughts of what if, what if, but something Again, getting older, you realize is not everyone is looking at you. Everyone's actually paying more attention to themselves than they are to you. So just get on and be yourself. It's time short. We've got to enjoy ourselves. Absolutely. The human race is extremely selfish. Absolutely. Brilliant, Becky. So everyone is going to want to get in contact with you after this because they're just going to want to be in your presence. They're going to want to, you know, if you're down in Cornwall listening to this or even if you're nearby and you want to go for a sea swim or just learn more about being boldly brilliant, where can they find you? So Instagram, Becky Lotto strategist, Facebook, Becky Lotto, LinkedIn, Becky Lotto, Rebecca Lotto, just look me up on any of those three and I'd love to chat to you. Brilliant, brilliant. And as always guys, I'm Athena Dobson, underscore official and girls and property on Instagram. For 2026, if you are genuinely looking for a new way to be or a new environment to hang around with or just something just to keep you going and keep you accountable, then come and join the girls and property community. We are over 120 members, as you can tell, I love my girls, probably a little bit too much. And it is just the most brilliant place to be. We do two calls a month. I'm actually introducing some new things for 2026. They've been announced to the girls now, but yeah, come and find out and come and see where our calls happen on the first Tuesday and the third Tuesday of every single month. We do business, we do property, we do a bit of a mixture of everything, and we just hold one another accountable so that you don't ever have to feel lonely. If you're sat there feeling lonely, feeling like, you know, the people in your circle don't understand you, put a stop to that today. Come and join Girls and Property and I'll see you there. And then as Becky beautifully said, don't forget on Friday, 24th of April, I've also got my girls and property retreat. Um, we've got limited spaces left now. think we've got, I think 80s the maximum. think I've got about 40 left. So come along, come and join. Um, it is my favorite day of the whole year, genuinely. Like I love it. Um, it's beautiful. I'm to be announcing the speakers soon. and yeah, we've got the expert tables and it is just most fabulous thing. It'll be happening in Hertfordshire. So it's a penny manor in Tring. Friday 24th of April and I will see you there. oh Becky, I'd love to give you the parting words for our listeners today to round up this podcast. So what are your parting words? You are brilliant, so go out and be bold, grab those opportunities. If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter, you can always come back to home. Beautiful, beautiful. And that's it guys. You are set, ready for 26, ready for January. Thank you so much for listening today. Please do not forget to like, share and subscribe. Leave us a review. Let us know what you thought of today's episode. I love you all and have the most amazing week. Take care everyone. Have a good week. Speak to you soon. Bye.