Welcome. You’ve found the right place. This is where I write about hiding. Not the obvious kind. The subtle kind. The performing, the conforming, the version of yourself you’ve been showing the world for so long you’ve almost forgotten it isn’t quite you. I’m Andrea, Soulful Challenger. For 25 years I’ve worked with leaders and…
I have an email folder called Positive Strokes. Inside it are screenshots, email replies and kind words from people who’ve read something I’ve written and taken the time to let me know. The folder just sits there quietly. A bit like the thank-you cards I used to pin to my cork noticeboard above my desk…
I disappeared off LinkedIn for seven months. Not a single post. And the only reason I opened the app each day, was to get rid of those notification numbers that sat there. Probably tells you a lot about me and having things sitting nice and tidy. Anyway, a few months ago I decided to go…
At the markets, someone will stop and pick up one of my quote pieces. “That’s mine,” I’ll say. Then comes the story. Sometimes it’s one of my Dad’s sayings. Sometimes it’s one of my Gran’s. Sometimes it’s one of my own. A woman recently said, “It’s beautiful. It’s not like one of them you get from…
I was on a start-up call recently, for a leadership programme. The kind of call where everyone goes round in turns saying who they are. I sat there listening and could feel it. The performing, the proving. Where they’d worked, who they’d worked for, what they’d delivered. It all felt a bit much – like…
We’ve got rest all wrong. We plan it and there’s an element of joy in counting down the days. Three months to go, two weeks to go, one day to go. A spa day, a long weekend, a week in the sun. It’s something to look forward to, as if it’s the answer to everything that’s…
Everyone’s hiding. Most people don’t know it yet. I write about what I see. And what I’ve seen for 25 years is this: people don’t usually struggle because they don’t know enough, work hard enough or care enough. They struggle because, somewhere along the way, they learned how to disappear. Not the obvious kind. Not someone shrinking…
Hidden Clues: the signs you’ve been ignoring Most people have had moments like this, even if they don’t always notice them at the time. A sinking feeling in your stomach before you can name why. A headache that arrives around the same person every time. The Sunday dread that shows up without fail. The exhaustion that…
Something’s arrived. It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t structured. It definitely wasn’t done “the right way.” It started in September 2023 as a blog post, like I’ve written for years. Then it quietly became something more. I didn’t “write a book.” I just listened to the secret whispers from my soul, and when something came to…
Last week, I had a few “Soulful Connection Calls” with people. Something I’ve talked about before, where we move our focus from surface-level interactions on social media, to having a proper conversation on a call. I love these calls. They always spark something, whether that’s new ideas, unexpected connections, or shifts in perspective. This time,…
