What up guys, Lisa Bilyu here and I want to talk to you about how we dismiss ourselves and don't feel good enough. Now I'm 45 so growing up, Elmick Ferson was the supermodel. Like she just was on every single magazine cover, she was considered the body by time magazine, she was considered the body and rocking the runways and she was just owning the space and she was so damn confident. All the while I'm this 14 year old girl feeling terribly about myself getting bullied for my looks and I just wished I had El McPherson's confidence. So yes, I bet you can guess that today's guest is none other than El McPherson. But here's the cool and here is the crazy thing guys. And here's the thing guys, do you wanna know how down wrong I was in thinking that she was just gifted and had these magical powers of confidence? Because she talks about in this episode all the things that we didn't see, all the struggles that she had to go through, all the things that we just thought because she's pretty, she doesn't have to deal with it. But oh my god, them crazy, deep, heartfelt journey that this woman has been on about how to actually figure out who you are, rediscover yourself, reinvent yourself, fall on your knees, time and time again, but to be able to keep getting back up even now in her 60s. So let's be real. Who would have thought that a supermodel actually needed a fine self-love? You would have thought that we'd just look in the mirror and they would love themselves, but god damn how wrong is that? How many times do you insult yourself and other people tell you that you're amazing? And then you just beat yourself up over the thing that other people tell you great at. We somehow see ourselves in a very different light and we think that we have to be perfect. In order to show up and we think that we have to be perfect. But El Story and her lessons are so damn profound because we can all learn from how she was able to take the hits and keep getting up, how she was able to keep moving on her journey and never freaking let someone get in her way. We talk about how on earth she hit what butterman was able to turn it around and what wake up call that she actually needed. Now guys, maybe you need that wake up call too. And that isn't a bad thing in the sense of don't beat yourself up for it. But down, we've gotta stop living our lives for other people and she tells you exactly how she was able to get that wake up poor and pay attention to her life and the things she cared about. We also talk about why tuning into our bodies as women is just an absolute game changer and the fact that we don't listen to our guts enough and she talks about how she learned to listen to her that took her from nothing to being able to live the life that fills her up. And then we talk about the little daily rituals that she actually swears by to stay freaking strong, to stay grounded and to stay in your power so that you never end up letting someone walk over you or letting someone crush your boundaries.

Guys, this was such an incredible,

incredible inspiring conversation.

And that 14 year old girl inside of me

felt so much relief to be honest.

It was a relief to see that no woman actually has it perfect.

But you know what?

We can develop the tools and the mindset and the skills

to be able to then adjust and improve our lives.

And that's exactly what she did. That's why her message is so profound. Mahomi, if you're 20, if you're 30 years old, if you're 40, if you're in your 60s, this interview, this discussion, this chat is for you. Because no matter where you are in your life, it's about what tools do we use in order to be the proud woman that we've always wanted to be. So, Mahami, lean in because we're about to fricking go hard with none other than the amazing supermodel Ozzy Elle McPherson. Guys, I'm Lisa Bilyu. Welcome to Women of Impact. Time magazine crowned you the body. You are on the cover of Vogue Vanity Fair and yet things still came crashing down around you. You were diagnosed with cancer, you suffered from alcoholism, you've gone through a divorce. For so many women who think it's just too late for them, how on earth can they start to reinvent themselves and pick themselves back up just like you did? It's a series of connecting to your heart at every given moment and recognising that we are not powerless. And that's the thing that we've been conditioned to believe is that we are powerless, that we're dealt certain cards in life, but we have choice. We have free will and we have choice at every given time and life is meaningful and it's purposeful and it's valuable if you choose to learn from it. I love that saying where they say how do you eat an elephant? One by the time. And life is like that. We create all our experiences through what we think and what we feel. I always love that saying, which is what we think, what we feel, we make reals. So whatever you focus on is what you're going to get more of in life. And that is a universal wisdom. So focus on what you love and what you want for yourself, your dreams, what truly moves you and therein lies the secret to living a filled and happy joyful life. Not always easy. But worthwhile. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's not easy is the point that I really want to kind of lean into. So I want to start with your career. Right. And the things that you had to do and fight for in order to be where you are today,

where a lot of women don't feel like they have a voice, they don't fight for what they want, they don't feel like they're powerful, they don't feel like they can ask for something. And so what ends up happening is your blink, 10 years later, you don't have a life you want. So one of the stories you tell in the book, so you're just starting to model, You're young, you don't really know what you're doing.

It's early days and you're standing in front of a photographer

and he turns around and he says to you, how can I shoot beauty with a girl with brown eyes? It's a take me back to that moment when someone can be so disrespectful to you in front of your face, how on earth do you have the resilience to get through that and use it as strength? You have a choice. Either you're going to be crippled by it and heartbroken, which was not my case. I was just like, well, I better see, you know, I've got to do the best job I can with what I've got. And so that was really important to me, to be excellent at whatever did. I gave it 110 percent. I gave it my best. I didn't necessarily like the modeling part. Like that part was hard and I felt insecure about the way I looked, but really what I wanted is I wanted what modeling gave me, which was independence, financial freedom, choice. I wanted the experiences that modeling gave me. Keep your focus on what you want, not what you don't want. Or how you feel, because I think in that moment a lot of women would allow their feelings to take the reins and control it. So you're actually said, but then you did leave. So do you mind explaining what happened and what you said when you left?

Because this is really powerful because I actually think this is a, almost a slight sign you talk about in your book, you don't necessarily use these words, but like almost look of a self-sabotage. And I have been in my life what I call unself-loving and self-damaging at times, just through not using the tools and trust in myself, right? So not trusting myself. So in that particular situation, I got an offer that was with Billy Joel, he said, I'm leaving, I'm taking my plane and I was working with Whitney Houston, by the way, on this, and Christie Brinkley on this job.

And he said, I'm leaving early. I'm leaving the day after tomorrow, whenever it was. And he said, do you want to come back with me at the same, you know, do you want to fly back with me? And so I just thought to myself, oh yeah, that sounds good. I'll get on a private plane. And I'll leave. And the photographer doesn't seem to want me here anyway. So and this was one of my first jobs and so I just got up and left and

When I got back my agent at the time, she just said, L, you can't do that. You just can't let the team down. You can't let yourself down. You can't just leave and make your own rules. And that was such a sobering time for me because I realized, wow, that sort of whimsical decision just because I felt like somebody didn't like me, really was not helpful. And it wasn't self-sabotaging because I learned from it. I took the takeaway and I thought to myself, I'm never gonna let somebody's opinion of me dictate the way I behave, which meant that I was unprofessional by leaving. I was unreliable by leaving. I was self-centered by leaving. If I continued like that throughout my career, I wouldn't have a career that is now going on for 45 years? That's amazing.

Well, so here's the thing.

I think it could have been a self-sabotage act

if you didn't learn from it.

Absolutely.

And that's what I actually love.

That's why I really wanted to talk about this story

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