Summary
In this episode of Best Fails, host Alison Beckles sits down with Gail Weithers, who opens up about the deeply personal and traumatic experience of losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gail recounts the shock of discovering she was among those affected, especially after years of compromising her own well-being—within her marriage, family life, and mental health—for the sake of her career.
She reflects on how the loss shook her sense of identity, and how reconnecting with gardening unexpectedly became a catalyst for her healing journey. Through her story, Gail underscores the importance of self-compassion, boundary-setting, and the profound impact of simply having someone who will listen.
Ultimately, her journey is one of resilience, illustrating how moments of failure can become powerful opportunities for growth, clarity, and reinvention.
Takeaways
- Self-compassion is important
- Bitterness can evolve into something positively powerful.
- Failure teaches lessons that success cannot.
- Community support is crucial during tough times.
- Reinvention requires introspection and action.
- Setting boundaries is essential for emotional health.
- Gardening can be a therapeutic outlet.
- Life is about managing expectations and preparing for the unexpected.
Soundbites
- “Learning anything new is a process”
- “Excellence is pain and excellence takes practice”
- “Practice really equals progress”
- “I was divorced as a result of not paying attention to my marriage I thought I had paid the ultimate price.”
- “I felt like I was a failure because I wasn’t prepared.”
- “Your job owes you nothing except your paycheck. Your job wants you to owe them loyalty, but they don’t necessarily owe you loyalty.”
- “Is not about a degree per se. It is about proof that you can do what you say you can do,”
- “You need to manage your expectations.”
- “Introspection is very valuable.”
- “Nobody’s coming to save you.”
- “Life happens and it is okay to be bitter. But that doesn’t mean after you’re bitter, you can’t become better.”
Gale’s Profile
Born and raised in Barbados, Gale Weithers has built a career grounded in resilience, creativity, and service.
Starting out in the field of Administration, she moved into Conference & Events Management, followed by a stint in Sales & Marketing before finally finding her true calling in Training and Development.
For more than 10 years, Gale has led customer service initiatives for well-known petroleum brands such as Shell, ExxonMobil and SOL across 23 countries. This experience afforded her the rare insight into how global brands navigate diverse service expectations while striving for excellence.
A Certified Instructional Designer & Virtual Trainer, Gale has also trained with the Disney Institute in Leadership, Employee Engagement, and Quality Service Standards. These credentials, combined with her global facilitation experience in training more than 65,000 people, enable her to design programs that are practical, engaging and results driven.
As the Founder and Lead Training Consultant of nVision Training Solutions, Gale is proud to partner with leaders genuinely interested in facilitating workshops built to empower teams, grow brands, and transform workplace cultures into environments where people thrive, customers feel valued, and service excellence becomes second nature.
This is why her passion lies in designing customized training programs that successfully blend Caribbean cultural insights with the development of positive service mindsets for individuals as well as leaders.
An international best-selling author and Barbadian Creative Writer Award winner, Gale is also the proud mother of one adult son, who is a qualified physiotherapist living his best life.
Contact Gale
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galeweithers/
Website
Episode Link
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5fCg0r8y3BM56Eh29bR2kd?si=MmKtiZMTS-OU7s9Yrrc-FQ
YouTube: https://youtu.be/tCfjw0ZSiDw
