Powerfully Sober with Annie McDonnell

My guest this week is Annie McDonnell - an Australian executive with a difficult start in life followed by a 20 years career in the wine industry.  These days she's thriving in her alcohol free life and inspiring others as a Sober Coach. In this episode:- Annie’s father had a drinking problem and her parents had a difficult marriage – in fact her mother left the home when Annie has just 14 Unsurprisingly Annie felt angry and abandoned and it was about this time that she discovered that alcohol which became her best friend Unsure of her career ambitions Annie chose random subjects to study at university – one of them being Viniculture which she loved She went on to join Australia's burgeoning wine industry and loved her job Of course she got to hang out with her best friend alcohol every day and a tasting at a 9am sales meeting was not unusual! Annie enjoyed this lifestyle throughout her 20’s and 30’s but in her 40’s she crashed and burned She’d known that she had a problem with alcohol for years but just couldn’t imagine life without alcohol I was the same and we agreed that it was the fear of life without our best friend alcohol that keeps us trapped I sometimes wish I had a time machine that I could put some of our new members in – those people who are struggling – scoring a few alcohol free days and then giving in to a craving.. In early sobriety its impossible to imagine just how different your life will be if you make this change Annie came up with a great analogy about rocks – she said that when you are drinking it feels like you are carrying a backpack of rocks and when you stop you put it down….and life feels so much better, so much lighter you marvel at how wrong you were to fear alcohol free living It does take a few months of hard work but then you are free and your life starts to evolve in the most extraordinary ways so people need to have faith just like my favourite MLK quote Take the first step on the staircase even if you cant see the top – if you're ready to take that first step just go to tribesober.com and hit “join our tribe” and we’ll take care of the rest! Annie described her “not this” moment which came in her mid forties as a result of severe anxiety which had left her unable to drive, unable to see people or even to lift a spoon to eat some soup.. "Not this" moments come to us when we are at rock bottom, we know we just can’t do this anymore Annie signed up for a 100 day challenge and felt great relief that she didn’t have to think about her drinking for 100 days That’s a great attitude to go into a challenge with – we have our annual 66 day challenge starting on 1st September so if you’d like to join that just go to the homepage of tribesober.com Annie and I talked about the power that we begin to feel as we become more aligned with who we really are in sobriety – we take control and no longer feel that things are just “happening” to us Like many of us who have been sober for a few years Annie felt pulled towards helping others so she trained as a Sobriety Coach and we talked about the Sacred Walk experience that she offers You can find Annie at her website powerfullysober.com, on LinkendIn of via email  [email protected] More Info Subscription membership – you can join up HERE. To access our website, click HERE. If you would like a free copy of our “Annual Tracker” or our e-book 66 Days to Sobriety, please email [email protected]. If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community, just email [email protected]. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program.  If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our program and subscribe HERE Help us to Spread the Word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help.  Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast, then please leave us a 5-star review on Apple podcasts. Take a screenshot of your review, and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page – see PS below for instructions. We’ll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. You can join our private Facebook group HERE. PS: How to Leave a Rating/Review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS Device) Open the Podcasts app. EASY. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (e.g. Recover Like a Mother) into the search field. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes). Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews. Click Write a Review underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate the show on a 5-star scale and write a review (you can rate without writing too but it’s always good to read your experience).