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When You Can Afford To Stop Working – a conversation with entrepreneur Sharon Critchlow
11 Plays6 days ago
Sharon Critchlow sold her share in the business she had helped to build. She could afford to stop working. This is what Sharon does now.
Sharon Critchlow is an entrepreneur who sold her share of the business she had helped to grow.
That sale meant that Sharon could have enjoyed a comfortable life, but sitting back is not Sharon’s style.
In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance podcast from Abeceder Sharon explains to host Michael Millward how she reinvented her life so that she could spend most of her time doing the things she loves.
Sharon left school with serious problems with reading and writing, so she was not expected to have a career as an accountant or to be a partner in a successful accountancy firm.
When she was asked to write a chapter in a book, she discovered a passion and decided to change how she lived.
In this engaging episode Sharon explains how she created a new lifestyle.
You can find more information about both Sharon and Michael at ABECEDER.co.uk
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Rest and Recreation' Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
on zencastr Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abysida. I'm your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida.
Sharon Critchlow's Financial Independence Journey
00:00:19
Speaker
Today, Sharon Critchlow is going to be telling me about what you do when you are confident that all the bills are going to be paid and you don't actually need to work anymore.
00:00:30
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, rest and recreation is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform that really does make every stage of the podcasting production process so easy.
00:00:44
Speaker
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr, all the details are in the description. Now that I have told you how wonderful Zencastr is for making podcasts, we should make one that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
From Compliance Director to Author
00:01:02
Speaker
As with every episode of Rest and Recreation, we won't be telling you what to think. But we are hoping to make you think. Today's rest and recreation guest is Sharon Critchlow.
00:01:17
Speaker
Sharon is joining me from Spain. She'll explain why later. When I travel to Spain, i make my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club. because that is where I can access trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays and all sorts of other travel related purchases.
00:01:36
Speaker
You can also access those trade prices on travel by joining the Ultimate Travel Club. There is a discounted link in the description. Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Rest and Recreation.
00:01:52
Speaker
Hello Sharon. Hello, how are you? I am extremely well, thank you very much. And I hope that you can say the same. Indeed I can. Tell me, how did you end up in the situation where you could say, I'm going to do what I want to do, get the nine to five?
00:02:09
Speaker
What happened?
Embracing Life Changes and Joy
00:02:10
Speaker
To give you a bit of background, I'm a qualified accountant. I was a ah compliance and operations director at a very large, very successful financial advisory practice in the UK.
00:02:22
Speaker
And i was a shareholding director I'd been doing this for 17 years. When I met my now business partner, Nikki, she'd said, could I write a chapter in a book? So I wrote a chapter about leaving school, struggling to read and write, and how I went from there to becoming a qualified accountant.
00:02:39
Speaker
And obviously that was quite an emotional journey, you writing about yourself and and telling the world about yourself. ah Particularly when, in my case, I had quite a sort of a status-driven position.
00:02:49
Speaker
But I thought, no, i'm I'm quite proud of this. I can remember the day that this went out in a book. I was watching it go up the Amazon charts. And my business partner at the time came in and he was earnestly telling me about something. And I thought, you know what?
00:03:01
Speaker
I want more of this writing stuff and I want less of having to deal with this business and with all the responsibility and things that come with it. Being a financial planner, or being an accountant, I had a look at my situation. I thought if I sell my shares, actually, I could have a lot more flexible life.
00:03:17
Speaker
I could make some other decisions. No, I won't have the same level of money. But does that actually matter?
Identity Shift and New Skills
00:03:23
Speaker
So I had to think about the things that gave me joy, me happy. And the thing I never had time for or energy for really was music.
00:03:30
Speaker
And yet it was the thing that I always really loved. so And I looked at some of the things that Nikki was doing and she was desperate for some help in the business. And I thought, you know, I've got so much experience that could help with that. But at the moment, I don't have the time.
00:03:42
Speaker
And so my mid 40s, I made that decision. I just said, do you know what, I'm out. Just like that. Yep. I stepped into the unknown. And actually, i didn't have a plan. And I thought I deserved to not have a plan because I have been planning and scheming and making things happen for a long time. What I really need is space.
00:04:02
Speaker
And if there's the one thing that I learned in trying to create a new life is that first of all, you need to let go of something. And that can be an attitude. It can be a physical thing, it can be an emotional thing, it can be a relationship, a business, and whatever. You need to have some space for something new to grow.
00:04:19
Speaker
So I had this moment. I'd done the deal, I'd left, got the money that been transferred to my account. I was actually going to a gig a friend of mine was at. And I can remember having a little bit of a panic thinking, well, what am I now? Because of course, when you give up the job, you give up the status, you give up the title, you give up the identity. What am i Who am I?
00:04:37
Speaker
I wanted to go back living in Devon where I grew up. I thought, well, what if I don't fit in there anymore? What if I don't belong? And then a wonderful thing happened. I turned up at this gig and the person whose gig it was, he came out into the foyer, he came over to me and Oh, Sharon, darling, how's the book going?
00:04:53
Speaker
And he said, she's an international author, don't you know? And I thought, oh, now I know what I am. So that helps. Later, I realised that this person had also been given an award of one of the greatest Devonians ever. So I was ah officially welcomed back into Devon by one of the greatest Devonians ever.
00:05:09
Speaker
who told me what I was. That put the panic to one side and i thought, well, there I am. I've been officially welcomed home and I'm an author. then Having sorted that one out, what am I going to do? And Nicky said, oh, could you have a look at my business and what do you think I can do? That's where we decided to move a bit more into the corporate space. I had a lot of experience of training people.
00:05:28
Speaker
And that's where the adventure really began because Nicky had been in sort of personal development for quite a a few years. And even though I had been around it a lot, it had never been the day job for me. I had to learn a new perspective around Things like deadlines and creative process, because, you know, I no longer had somebody who could amend my IT t stuff or sort out the website. And we couldn't in the beginning afford to spend lots of money on things. I thought I've got to learn a few more skills and I've got to work out what works for me and also manage my time so that.
00:06:03
Speaker
I'm putting myself back into a a corporate grind, but that I have some space for the music.
Balancing Passion, Joy, and Work
00:06:09
Speaker
That's an interesting point that when you leave the corporate machine, leave you your identity behind as a corporate person, you leave your support mechanisms, the IT department, the person who's going to answer the phone,
00:06:23
Speaker
the post room. exactly You lose all of that. It's freeing because you can do whatever it is that you want to do. But you also i do start, I think, to realize just how dependent you are on other people. And I can understand the temptation to try and recreate that infrastructure around you, almost like as a security blanket. You've got to pick all of these things up yourself and and learn them. Yeah, so it's an opportunity to learn lots of things, but also an opportunity to rewrite what your day looks like. I can remember getting up sort of beginning of January and out of sheer almost panic, I thought, what am i going to do? I'm at home now.
00:07:02
Speaker
I started writing all the lists of things I wanted to get done. I was ticking it off like an Olympic sport. But to be fair, you know, my house needed a number of things doing. And I did it and with the same level of pace, if you like, that I did to my corporate job.
00:07:15
Speaker
And I think the house probably benefited from that. But what I also had to sort of recognise is that, yes, I still have a day book with my to-dos in. But I allow myself the space to be more creative and to decide what happens where and when a bit more.
00:07:30
Speaker
I'm a bit more picky. What goes on there and who takes my time? Because this is the other thing is if you don't have a vision for what you want, you're bound to end up just fulfilling someone else's vision. Because what will happen is you'll get an organisation will come along and say, oh, yeah, we need volunteers for this. And you'll think, oh, yeah I could do that. And next thing you know, you've got another corporate job and now you're not being paid for it. yes And there's some great things in volunteering. What I would say is think about the things that it really give you joy and make sure that you put those in the diary first. And actually, even if you're not entering into retirement or giving up a business or whatever, you should be doing that anyway.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yes, it sounds like when you are an employee, you put other things, other people first because you have to do otherwise you're not going to earn a living. You have to put an organization that employs you first during your working hours. And to many people, it becomes the first thing they think of in non-working hours as well, which
Volunteering and Unexpected Opportunities
00:08:25
Speaker
isn't good. Indeed.
00:08:26
Speaker
But if you have given up work through retirement or through doing the sorts of things that you did, it's a big challenge to drop thinking about other people and other things first and rather to put yourself first and think, why am I doing this?
00:08:43
Speaker
These are my passions. I'm a better person for the other people. Mm-hmm. when I have satisfied my own need to fulfill my passions. And I totally agree with you that we were more engaged and a happier at work, perhaps, if we answered the question first, why do I do this job? If you find your passion in that job, then absolutely amazing.
00:09:04
Speaker
But sometimes you can even find satisfaction in your job. Yes. By knowing that you've done you've done a job well, you've taken care of that thing well. But again, boundaries. This is all about boundaries, whether you're working, not working, or what you're doing in your life.
00:09:18
Speaker
It's about those boundaries of what do you let go of at what time of the day, what time of the week, whatever, so that other things have the space to
Exploring New Horizons in Spain
00:09:27
Speaker
bloom. When you're in a working situation, your diary time is determined by objectives and helping other people to meet their objectives or meeting clients. What you're saying is that when you leave that corporate environment alone,
00:09:43
Speaker
That structure, all of that disappears. But also one of the things that gives that corporate world structure is having a diary where you know who you're going to be talking to at what time on what day about what subject.
00:09:57
Speaker
And when you no longer have that, you can fall back into that type of other people determining what you're going to do. What you're saying is that you have to think, first of all, about why was it that I made this decision?
00:10:11
Speaker
What am i hoping to be able to do as a result of that? And then what do I need to be able to in order to facilitate my aims? So you're taking much more control of your existence and what it is that you do. I agree, indeed. So the great fun, I think as well, is in thinking about, well, what if I could do anything, I know that I couldn't fail, because at the end of the day, you know, what's failure, it's just giving something a go and getting a different outcome.
00:10:39
Speaker
If I could do anything, what would I do? one of the things I found interesting about Nikki's business, as it was then,
Creative Business Ventures with Track Dogs
00:10:46
Speaker
is that she used to do this corporate speaking stuff. And I thought, well, I'd quite like to give that a go. And I actually got in, she invited me along to to help her with one. So Before you go any further, who is Nikki? Nikki's my business partner and her business is Discover Your Bounce, but I'm now an equal shareholder, an equal partner in it as well.
00:11:04
Speaker
But when I first saw it, I thought, oh, that's really interesting. She asked me, what what do I think she could do with it? It was a personal coaching business to start off with. And I said, well, I think that there's a lot of space in the corporate world for this.
00:11:17
Speaker
Now, this is before people were talking about well-being in the corporate space. And we have spent a lot of time educating people and talking to people, not so much since COVID. I think everyone's kind of got the message a bit more now. But so reposition this business, i invested into it, not just as a non-exec, which was the original idea, but I said, I think we need more hands on deck here. So Let's give it a go. and since then, we've also grown a publishing company where I left school really struggling to read and write properly. now you're a publisher. I know. find it. You know, anything's possible is what I would say.
00:11:51
Speaker
Anything's possible. And also that nobody comes out of the womb being able to do this stuff. So um if somebody else learned it, so can you. Very true. If someone else has learned how to do it, you can learn how to do it as well. You may not learn in the same way.
00:12:05
Speaker
You may not learn it as quickly, but you can do anything that anyone else is able to do. We are all human and all equal in that respect. I absolutely agree. So we started having fun with this business and it's a real passion of mine because having seen so many people in the corporate world burn out and then watched all of that experience just disappear out the door where they've just gone, no, I can't do it anymore. There's got to be a better way. And so this has been a real passion. And I would say to anybody else, what are you passionate about? And if you're not sure, i'd have a think about it. If you don't know, then ask your best friend or your partner or or your mum or somebody.
00:12:40
Speaker
What is it that you rant on about? Yes. Where does your brain go when it has no nothing else to think about? Yes. Or, as happened when I was talking to another rest and recreation guest, Olivia Buckland, she was
Juggling Roles and Lifestyle Flexibility
00:12:54
Speaker
saying how she'd been made redundant from one role and was going for interviews and had the feeling that when people asked her about certain aspects of her career, she felt her mood lift and she's she glowed when she was talking about that particular topic, more so than when she talked about anything else and then decided,
00:13:15
Speaker
that that was the subject, that the area of life that she needed to focus on if she was going to be achieving the lifestyle that she that she wanted to live. Absolutely. It's exactly like that you say yourself, it's like, what is it that you're passionate about? Find your passion or get someone to help you find it and then live it. And that's absolutely it, which is why i started going to a lot more gigs because I could be a lot more flexible with a bit of travelling here and there and and getting to know a few more musicians, which which has been an absolute delight.
00:13:45
Speaker
you're a rock chick. It's something like that, isn't it? and i would I would say as well is curiosity and getting out of your own way, asking questions and being curious about how things work in other industries, other sectors, or for other people in their lives. How do they live their life?
00:14:04
Speaker
How does this work for them? What do they get out of it? I think that curiosity can spark your own creativity around what it is you want to do or what it is you might enjoy.
00:14:16
Speaker
and um And I'd say try lots of different things because it's all experience. And you might try something and think, oh, well, that was interesting, but I don't know if I'll do it again, but I'm glad I did it then. Or you might find something and go, oh, I really like this.
00:14:28
Speaker
It is just a case of not limiting yourself or not allowing yourself to be limited by what other people say. Too many of us are susceptible to being told and believing other people when they say, oh, you'll never do that.
00:14:45
Speaker
That's not for you. People like us don't do that. Oh, no, if if if you do that, people will think you're weird. Well, maybe I am weird. Is that such a bad thing? Define weird for me, will you? You know, how can you do, if we we're all individuals, and we all are individuals, then the word weird is obsolete, really, isn't it? Because every single one of us is unusual to the point of weirdness. It's just that For some reason, we seem to as society, want to conform to something which, if we really tried to investigate it, we would never probably find the person who said, like, this is the way someone from this housing estate who's gone to this school should be living their life 50 years after they've left that school.
00:15:31
Speaker
And yet, that's the sort of thing that happens. Indeed. Some of the interesting things in this is that Other people's thoughts on what you're capable of aren't actually relevant because they don't know you as well as you know you. yes So why
Book Projects and Men's Health Focus
00:15:46
Speaker
do we even listen? It's lovely when somebody says, encouraging things and says, I've seen something in you and I think you can do this.
00:15:52
Speaker
When was about 18, 19, eighteen nine I had decided to embark on a career as an accountant. My parents said, well, as long as you you don't feel disappointed when you fail. and And also that people like us don't become accountants. When you fail, not if you fail.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, when. And that people like us don't become accountants. Other people are not the experts on everything. So that might be a view.
00:16:22
Speaker
And I think that that was just them trying to protect me. and not wanting me to be disappointed or feel let down or feel like a failure yeah or feel any of those other things. Whereas actually my perspective was, I've looked at this and there's 14 exams. And if I get as far as exam seven, I'll be part qualified. And that's still a thing. That's still something.
00:16:41
Speaker
And if I can't make it further, at least I know how far I got. Yes. Knowing how far I got was more important to me than actually getting all the way to the end. I needed i wanted to be judged against that standard.
00:16:52
Speaker
And if it if I didn't make it, I was actually okay with that. I just wouldn't be able to live with not having tried in the first place and and been a, I could have been a. Yes, but you don't know if you could, you you don't really know.
00:17:04
Speaker
and I'd rather be in a situation where, yeah, I've tried that and this is where it is. And then I think there's a level of comfort in knowing that you've done your best. yeah So suffice to say, I did actually qualify. And actually one of the things that I did after I'd solved my business is I volunteered.
00:17:22
Speaker
So I put myself forward for council at ACCA. So ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ah which I qualified through in the mid-1990s. Council role is an elected role, and it's to sit at the strategic board at the top of the organisation, basically. So we agree strategy with the exec team and we hold the exec team to account.
00:17:44
Speaker
And also we sit on things like audit committee, remuneration committee, and so on and so forth. What I did is I volunteered my time for that. I put myself forward thinking it's a very competitive thing to get onto that. that i might not get i might not get on, but I did.
00:17:58
Speaker
And I was re-elected another two times. And I'm coming near the end of nine years now on that on that board. And what that gave me is an opportunity to work with a different group of people that were All accountants, yes, but from all around the world. There was lots of different perspectives there, which I found really interesting.
00:18:18
Speaker
But also that give back thing, which I think that you learn a lot from volunteering.
Passion and Fulfillment Post-Corporate Life
00:18:23
Speaker
You have opportunities to do things that perhaps you wouldn't have done otherwise. And a lot more speaking and and those sorts of opportunities came up for me through that.
00:18:31
Speaker
But also it gave that sort of corporate itch, if you like, a little bit of a scratch that I still had without having to go all out for a full time job. So that's been a good way of looking at how you perhaps you step away. But then you go, but I still I still have something to give and I want to give it and I still want to give my brain that intellectual challenge. Yes. So um I think there is space for that as well. So if you plan your life out, then you can say, well, I don't want to give it up entirely. Well, then don't.
00:18:59
Speaker
Make a space and find something that fits that space. But the important thing is that you are structuring a life around activities that you enjoy. Like you say, there is a niche, I want to scratch it.
00:19:12
Speaker
So you find an activity which enables you to do that. Mm-hmm. Whereas if you get too involved in the nine to five grind of corporate life, you can go a long time having itches that you simply can't scratch.
00:19:27
Speaker
Exactly. What's worse is sometimes you can even forget that you have those in the first place and think that you, I quite often now as somebody who coaches other people, listen to people who say, well, what is it you want of life? And they just say to get to Friday.
00:19:42
Speaker
So, you know, it's very, and it's very difficult when you're stressed to actually think anything further than next week. Yes, I can appreciate that. yeah You've got a house in Devon, that's where you live, but yeah you're in Spain. So what's happening in Spain? Why are you there? I'm in Spain because I can. First of all, I am trying to learn a new language because I thought that would be an interesting thing to do. And it has been a lot of fun.
00:20:06
Speaker
The obvious frustrations aside. the Immersion techniques though, eh? Also, the weather is a bit better here and I thought that would be good. I can work from anywhere. So a lot of the things that I do with Discover Your Balance are done online.
00:20:17
Speaker
I have had to pop back to the UK in the time I've been here once for a board meeting. But apart from that, I've been here to do this and also to go to lots of gigs because as I said earlier, I love music.
Final Reflections and Contact Info
00:20:28
Speaker
And so one of my curiosities in having a chat today ah with one of the bands that I thought, hu I really love their stuff. And I don't know why they're not more popular or why yeah they don't sell more tickets. They should be everywhere.
00:20:41
Speaker
And I started thinking about what a band is. And it's actually a small business. In a lot of ways, it it has exactly the same problems as any other small business has. And so in getting to to know this particular band, who are based in Madrid, I've ended up spending more time over here because I come to some of the gigs and I hang out with the guys.
00:21:00
Speaker
And we chat we chat about strategy and about putting structures. So some of the stuff that I think is quite simple for me to be able to do, where them as musicians find it way outside their comfort zone. Whereas I'm like, oh, I can do that. And um and I'll do that for you.
00:21:14
Speaker
It's been a really good, fun environment. And also because I'm starting to do some music myself, it's really nice to be able to hang out with other people who do those things. So I can ask questions and learn from them.
00:21:25
Speaker
right So you're like managing a band as well. So, I know, it's hilarious, isn't it? What is the band called? The band's called Track Dogs. Track Dogs. And their website, yeah, and their website is trackdogsmusic.com.
00:21:40
Speaker
They tour the yeah UK. We've also did a tour of Ireland earlier in 2025, which I helped to manage for them as a tour manager. And they're sort of Latino bluegrass artists.
00:21:54
Speaker
kind of sound so it's Americana so it's it's all good fun lots dancing tunes alright sounds great doesn't sound like you're working at all ah well the thing is and people say well how can you do all of these things you've got ACCA you've got Discover Your Band you've got the publishing you've got the band you've got your own you know and and also I sit on the board now of Clarion which is a housing association As I say to everybody, I don't have to do everything every day. And this is the the thing you get into. I think the mode that you get into with your head in your head is that when you do a job, you do that job every day, five days a week, six days a week, whatever the deal is.
00:22:30
Speaker
When you have this kind of portfolio career or a different life, then some days you do this, some days you do that. And it's very it can be very varied. So even though I have a lot going on, I also have a lot of space and freedom to decide when it goes on.
00:22:44
Speaker
And how much of it I do. And you're having fun. I'm having loads of fun. I can tell. I like the way in which you talk about It it does some make me wonder, though, do you wish you'd so like made this career change earlier? Or was it the right time with everything lined up, the finances, the the home, the opportunities were lined up or could have been lined up and the biggest opportunity being of course that you get to work out what it is that you want to do but it sounds as if all the planets aligned and and you were able to see the opportunity and and took it yeah and I think there's there's something in that I mean in my 30s I had um
00:23:24
Speaker
I had ME for most of my 30s, so I didn't have a lot of energy. And into my 40s, I started to recover. I started to get a lot better. And that was the best time for me then. And also the business had grown to a particular threshold. So it was that alignment of things. So I thought, actually, I'm now at the stage where I think a change can be made.
00:23:43
Speaker
And a different life for me. so And of course, even though I had money like when I came out of the business and a pension and and all sort sorts of other things, yeah I was going to have to cut my cloth accordingly because it was not the same level of income.
00:23:57
Speaker
But that didn't really matter because I didn't have the same level of stress. So I wasn't combating it with the same level of you know big holidays and everything else to try and cope with it. So actually, it fitted quite well. And it's not that I don't earn income now, because I do. I probably earn 50-60% of what I earned before. And it's more than enough for the lifestyle I have.
00:24:17
Speaker
My fitness is the other thing i used to see in financial services. I used to see people carrying on the treadmill a lot because of the fear of what would happen if they didn't. And they hadn't actually taken that at stake.
00:24:28
Speaker
strategic step back and go well what have I got and if I didn't do this what would I do and how much would it cost and quite often they'd had more than enough yes and quite often I think sometimes people can end up working not to have a a living or a particular lifestyle they're on that treadmill it's almost as if they're doing that job for other people to either impress other people or fulfill other people's expectations of what someone who was really good at school could be doing, should be doing. And we live our lives not for ourselves, but to meet the expectations of other people, to impress people that we might not necessarily like.
00:25:12
Speaker
And it can be a huge leap of faith in ourselves to actually say, okay, what is the life that I really want to lead? And how could I go about doing that?
00:25:25
Speaker
And it ah it is, like you say, yeah it might be 50, 60% of the income that I used to have is what I earn now. But the lifestyle, you don't measure wealth in in pounds, shillings and pence. And you certainly don't, sure, at my age there, you don't measure your happiness. You can't give a put a price tag on happiness, really, can you?
00:25:47
Speaker
And it's like, if I wanted to make the same level of money, i could ramp up. either you know either one of my businesses um I could get another non-exec director role I could do any of those things and make up that difference if I chose to and I choose not to because I don't need to it is about choices it's about choices yeah yeah you know Sharon one of the things you haven't mentioned is the title of the book that sort of started this all off so what is the title of the book that you contributed that first chapter to So that was The Missing Piece in Bouncing Back.
00:26:18
Speaker
Interestingly, i think there was about 23, 24 people that wrote their stories about Bouncing Back in that book. Just before the first lockdown in the UK, Nicky said to me, I think we should do another one of these books. So we did, called The Bounce Back Journey, and we got another 24 people to write chapters.
00:26:35
Speaker
During the lockdowns, we brought out five books in that series, all different Bounce Back titles, Bounce Back journey of women's health bounce back journey of men's health which is the book everyone said could never be written because men won't be honest and open and and want to write in that and yet we found people who did and there's some very really interesting stories in there it's not true that men don't talk about their health if you're if any man ever goes along to a day surgery and the waiting room everyone's talking about
00:27:05
Speaker
their various different operations and everything. And it's like, take me home now, take me home now. given the opportunity, I think men do have those conversations. It's just like we say, the expectation is that men don't talk about that.
00:27:18
Speaker
But given the opportunity and the feeling of supported and safe, they will do it. And that's what we wanted to do for the other book that we actually wrote during the lockdown, which was our kind of give back to the world, which was Love Your Life, 100 Tips for More Peace and Happiness.
00:27:33
Speaker
We will put a link to the books in the description. box For today, Sharon, it has been really interesting. That's really great. Thank you very much, Sharon. I really do appreciate your time today. It's been interesting and inspiring.
00:27:46
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me. My pleasure. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abusida. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Sharon Critchlow.
00:27:59
Speaker
You can find out more information about both of us at abusida.co.uk. A key element of enjoying life is being healthy. Staying healthy is easier if you know the risks early.
00:28:10
Speaker
That is why we recommend health tests available from York Tests and especially the annual health test. York Tests provide an annual health assessment of 39 different health markers including cholesterol, diabetes, various vitamin levels,
00:28:26
Speaker
ah liver function, inflammation and a full blood count. The annual health test is conducted by an experienced phlebotomist who will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace.
00:28:37
Speaker
Hospital standard tests are carried out in a UKAS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory. You can access easy to understand results and guidance to help you make an effective lifestyle changes anytime via your secure personal wellness hub account.
00:28:55
Speaker
There is a link and a discount code in the description. I'm sure you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Rest and Recreation as much as Sharon and I have enjoyed making it.
00:29:06
Speaker
So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abusida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:29:23
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye.