Category: Generously shared stories by others

Finding space for your own business

Leave a comment
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
Words by Fiona (me) based on an interview with Cindy.

Cindy was my first international story sharer and I am grateful she gave up time in her evening to talk to me. She was also my first example of starting your own business! 

After working for a Canadian bank for 15 years, Cindy took a year’s leave of absence. She initially took a few months to spend time with her children, then when they went back to school “I now had to figure out what my sense of purpose was, without having a job to get up and go to every day. I hadn’t realized how much my sense of identity came from my work.   

“Going into my leave, I did have an idea that I might be able to start a business focused on providing financial advice and consulting to business owners and so I planned to spend some time talking to business owners through the fall.  But I was still quite nervous about the idea of going out on my own.  I set a structure for myself where I’d work for an hour and a half on my business plan, then take a half hour break.  Early on, I found that every five minutes I’d check to see how long I’d worked for and if I earned my break yet.  I was just so panicked at that time having thoughts like “What am I doing?  Can I actually do this? Can I make a go of this?” 

Cindy is has decided that she can make a go of this and has recently resigned from her job and incorporated her company, Lightbulb Finance Inc.  

If you are like me, you love to know what motivates people to make such big changes.  In Cindy’s case: 

“I had a few situations at work that had all happened at once and were all challenging to deal with. I thought, ‘I’ve done this for long enough that I know I can get through this. I just don’t know that I actually want to keep pushing like this’. I learned from every challenging situation I dealt with but I was not really sure that I needed to keep going through those sorts of things.” 

Cindy has four clients already which is fantastic. 

Cindy’s main changes have been about her identity and even just changing the schedules around how the household runs. 

But also “there are so many times filled with joy and happiness. I love this. I love having the flexibility. I love being able to walking down the street at 10am on a Tuesday and not be tied to an office schedule. 

“So there were there were definitely joyful times mixed in there with the panic and the nervousness or the ‘what comes next’ feeling as I tried to figure everything out” 

Working on her own is different to being part of a team, having to deliver on her own.  It can also be a bit isolating, but Cindy went gliding mid-week a few months ago to compensate! 

Cindy talked to me about the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone (something she does do regularly!) “It’s a chance to learn more about yourself, learn more about the world out there. I mean, I’m fascinated by this, within the first month of taking my leave of absence, I met this whole new group of people, mostly entrepreneurs. I think learning more about yourself, learning more about the world, and then what kind of possibilities can you fulfil in the world” 

As always, Cindy gets the last word of advice about stepping out of your comfort zone: 

“I think first of all, knowing yourself and knowing how you deal with change and with new things.   

“Then you’re preparing yourself as much as possible. That might be planning and figuring out what structure you need as you go through a change, and then figuring out who’s going to support you, and who’s going to be there when you’re having challenges and celebrate your successes as you succeed.  

“I just encourage people to do it in a way that’s that works for them. And that is comfortable for them. And for some people, it might be trying new food, for some people it might be making a big life change but I just encourage people to, to try it and see what else is out there for them.” 

Gaining Something New

Leave a comment
Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash
Words by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Elisa

Elisa shared a different perspective with me – she carefully considered and attempted something specifically to get herself out of her comfort zone! 

“I actually regularly get out of my comfort zone when I’m at my work. If there’s something new and shiny to try – count me in! Nobody else would like to tackle a complex problem – I’m there! You want an early adopter or an exemplar to be used as guinea pig – Yes please.   

At the beginning of this year I realised that trying out new things at work is no longer “getting out of my comfort zone”. I needed something else to challenge me. I came up with these choices:  

1. Publish a book (this will take time and still scares me so much. Brene Brown didn’t manage to dare me for this yet)   

2. Jump from a plane over 10k feet and sky dive (I’m very scared of heights and I heard that sky diving will fix that. The only thing stopping me from doing this is well my anxiety attack. I tend to feel faint if I go higher than 4th floor of a building)   

3. Learn something physical, which I haven’t done before – either dance, music, martial arts   

Luckily both my daughters are karate students and since I’m already spending half our Saturdays at the dojo I might as well learn like them! So, I’m now into my fourth month of karate. So far, so good I haven’t received any real combos, but I do get bruised sheens from all the kicking.” 

Elisa had other good reasons for choosing karate “I chose karate out of all the challenging things I can do because right now it’s the most realistic challenge that I can sustain for more than 2 tries. I also wanted to see how I learn using my body, coordination, fitness (or lack thereof) and focus. I noticed that I love learning, but most of my learning have only been applied using my head and my mouth for talking a lot about it. This time I would like to learn differently.” 

I asked Elisa about her emotional journey, and she described it well “Before my first class, I was a ball of nerves. My oldest daughter is a brown belt and I’ve watched enough of her classes for the last 3 years to know how physically intimidating and exhausting learning karate can be. I worried about the fact that I don’t know how to do push-ups properly, I am not the sportiest person and don’t have stamina, and if [I would] able to follow the karate combos they will teach my class.   

The Saturday class is a “mixed belt” class which means I’m learning with the higher belts too! My first class was brutal! I had to be slammed (dropped) a few times during my class. I think I did more push ups and sit ups in a span of 20 minutes than all the push ups/sits ups I’ve done in the 42 years I’ve been on this planet. I struggled, felt like my heart would be ripped off my chest at some point. I was wiping sweat off my face every second wondering where the waterfall down my forehead was coming from. The higher belts kept telling me I was going well for a first-timer, which I guessed encouraged me to not leave the mats in the middle of the class and throw up.   

After my first ever class finished, I sorely walked to the change room. I felt totally wasted. But by the time I reached the car I wanted to go back in and do it again! I didn’t realise how fun and exhilarating it would be to get slammed.  

I’m now coming into my 4th month of learning. I have my eye on that yellow belt. I’ll take this one belt at a time. I’ve also noticed a confidence I’ve only seen in bad-ass heroines before. Wow, do I have my shoulders more upright and my head higher. And damn can I push up!  

Regarding stepping out of her comfort zone again, Elisa was clear “Yes. I’ll be working towards going up that list of challenges. I do somehow someday would like to deal with my fear of heights. And also publish a book. The interesting thing is seeing which will come first?’’ 

Elisa’s last words are: “Leaving a comfort zone for me means learning something new. It may be about something, about ourselves. If we frame it this way I feel more people would be bolder and take more risk. Because it’s not about losing our comfort, it’s about gaining something to improve ourselves, to feel fuller and well, new-er?   

“Thanks for letting me share my karate story! Happy to share how my grading will go in 4 months’ time.” 

Thank you Elisa! 

Being true to you

Leave a comment
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Words by me (Fiona) based on Maddie’s generously shared story

This week I spoke to Maddie, and I have the great honour of sharing another very personal story about stepping out of a comfort zone. 

Maddie explained that stepping out of her comfort zone was necessity, not choice. She believes that ‘’when we have that mindset of ‘we have to do this’ you’re more likely to do so’’. 

In 2017 Maddie came out as transgender, and she started with the huge step of telling her partner. To be able to get through this major step she called her partner and then sent an SMS while on the phone as she could not bring herself to say the words. Maddie’s partner at the time was “quite supportive” in her words. 

I asked Maddie about what she went through before she told anyone, and she said for a while she had specific thoughts and feelings about “wanting to be pretty and being able to express that side of herself”. Initially Maddie didn’t know that how she felt was deeply embedded, and described as transgender, she just knew that she had to be true to how she was. 

Coming out to her mum and family was the hardest for her. Maddie had mentally and emotionally prepared to tell her mum on a shopping trip, and ironically her mum spent a lot of the day on the phone! Anxiously waiting until her mum got off the phone, they were on the way home and Maddie couldn’t help blurting it out! After taking a day to process everything, her mum started worrying about how this would impact Maddie. At one point hoping she could be a drag queen instead (Maddie tells me she is definitely not a performer!). Since then, “Mum has definitely been the star. She’s definitely been the best support that I’ve had. She helps me buy shoes and knows what dresses look good. I feel like I’m very lucky to have a good mum.” 

Getting pronouns correct seems to be the hardest part for most people, other than that Maddie has been really pleased with how everyone has adapted. She loved legally changing her name. She worked in a small team at the time and when the system updated someone called out “who is Maddie?” By this time Maddie was confident about telling her colleagues as she had done this a few times already – but the fear of someone reacting wrongly never completely goes away. 

Maddie still has tough times, gender dysphoria being one of the hardest things to deal with, but she wanted to focus on the positives for this interview (though she was happy to answer all my many questions!). I asked Maddie what was the best part, and her answer was quickly “Definitely wearing the dresses!”, but also getting joy from being accepted and allowed to be herself. “I still get a little bit giddy when a friend gets a pronoun right, or seeing ‘Maddie’ in my email signature. It took a lot to get all that stuff, and it took ages to decide the name!” 

Being true to herself has enabled her to become more confident and put herself out there more – aiding a youth group on her weekends, advocating for causes such as ‘Wear It Purple’ and organising events in the workplace. 

The good days are slowly outnumbering the dysphoric ones. The best days being when she almost forgets she is transgender! 

Maddie’s final notes were “Thankfully, my coming out, and leaving my own comfort zone, meant that I didn’t have to go through it alone – I’m spoilt with support from family, friends and co-workers that I don’t have to worry. I knew that I had to eventually, and I’m relieved I did it earlier rather than later.” 

“If anyone out there is hesitating to leave their comfort zone, as soon as you’re ready, try having the mindset of ‘I need to do this’ – depending on your situation, it might be easier to imagine the scenario if you don’t try.” 

“Lastly, for anyone going through something similar, I’m more than happy to pay it forward and help support you, even if it’s just a chat – email me at maddie.sumner@team.telstra.com” 

About Maddie: 

“Maddie Sumner has recently joined Telstra as part of the Graduate Program, leaving her last job to continue learning new technologies. She studied at Swinburne University, under the Bachelor of IT scholarship program. 

Beginning her career whilst changing her identity has encouraged her to reach out and participate in additional activities; such as running a youth group, becoming an executive member of ‘Wear It Purple’s Melbourne team, and leading the D&I team at her last workplace. 

Maddie is a proud member of Telstra’s ‘Spectrum’ network – a yammer group for all LGBT+ and allies within Telstra.” 

Your Whole Self

Leave a comment
Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
Words by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Sarah

Sarah and I connected via SheEO, she responded to my #ask for people to share their stories with me. We have, as a result a brave, story about Sarah bringing her whole self into everything she does. 

Sarah finds some things much easier to do outside of her comfort zone “In the realm of work & business I’ve pushed myself more than in the areas of creativity, physical challenges & romance. But I consistently found that the things I wanted to achieve or create were on the other side of my comfort zone. They were in the unknown.” 

Sarah’s big step was to bring her whole self into all her endeavours “One thing I really used to struggle with putting my spiritual, material, creative and project manager parts of self together. Showing up fully & vulnerably instead of ‘being in the spiritual closet’ in some situations because I was afraid it wouldn’t be received or understood.” 

It took time and practice to consistently achieve this, but the benefits were real “Once I had consistently confusing communication with a supplier. It had gone on for months [with me not bringing my whole self to the meetings]. At a [particular] meeting she asked me a practical question and I answered with an intuitive answer. She paused. I thought she was shutting down. Nope, she was opening up. We talked for the next three hours, we’ve since book swapped, she customises things for us, and she just made me a laptop case and other custom unexpected gifts. This was what happened when I brought ALL of me. Getting out the of comfort zones of relating beyond surface level stuff can be challenging and exposing but also magic.” 

As with many of the stories I share, Sarah had an ‘aha moment’: “I was on a panel at a large festival speaking about women’s health, I had a few speaking engagements which was very new for me. I’d been to this festival as a punter, volunteer cleaning toilets, managing stages and now I was part of it. This was a goal I’d had for years. I was nervous and all the self-talk about who are you to speak about this etc etc came up. Before the session one of the other panellists, an indigenous midwife, pulled me aside and said “I see you, I can see you are speaking from a deep space connected with spirit”. In that moment I decided it didn’t matter if people thought I was woo woo or airy fairy, I witnessed how seamlessly she brought all of her to the way she spoke and everyone in the audience received her with such depth. I had to bring all of me and by doing that maybe I give other people the chance to bring all of them. People will see the world from however they are going to see the world. At one of the other presentations I cried on stage because I was so moved about what we were speaking about, it tested me to bring ALL of me to what I’m doing & that some salty water coming out of my eyes is ok!’’  

For those that know me, the public tears are something I can relate to! 

And the outcoming of brining Sarah’s whole self to a public speaking event? “People gave amazing feedback & all received great insights from what we shared.” 

Sarah had advice about any one considering stepping out of their comfort zone. She would do it again because “it’s where new possibility’s live!!”. And for you “Find mindset practices, communities, habits and systems that set you up to win in whatever area you want to shift. Having things in place to support you/propel you embeds a new way of being into you.” 

And Sarah’s last words are a challenge for herself (and a promise to come back to us!): “I’m going to do something physical that gets me out of my comfort zone & report back! :)” 

Thank you Sarah! 

A bit about Sarah:  

Sarah has worked within the arts, community, entertainment, well-being and business sectors in Australia and internationally. Sarah is the Co-Director of Myoni making reusable, recyclable, ethically Australian made Menstrual Cups. She’s a trained primary school teacher & works now as a key collaborator for Flexi Flow, a learning innovation and wellbeing social enterprise working in creative events & innovative program delivery. 

Using capital to create the world we want to live in

Leave a comment
Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash
Words by Fiona (me) based on a story shared by Lisa

The title of this blog is something that really resonated with me when I chatted with Lisa. She talked about the fact that what we invest in is what grows, and we need a diversity of people making those decisions. 

Lisa “had a pretty traditional comfort zone to start with, I mean, I went live on the Gold Coast, went to school on the Gold Coast, went to university, studied Business and Commerce, and started my career at Deloitte as an accountant. And, you know, had a fairly exciting career in my 20s, I went around the world, and I got to meet lots of interesting people and do lots of interesting work”. 

Then things changed when she had her first child “things kind of shifted for me in a way that I probably didn’t necessarily expect. I quickly realized that working around the world for six to eight weeks at a time wasn’t going to work anymore. And that jobs that are extremely intense, like [a] 60 or 80 hour week [became] very, very difficult to maintain.  

“So I got really passionate about what does this mean for women, and the gender investment gap, and the gender gap in general?” 

“Whilst I was building my career, I’ve also been really interested in investment from a young age. So I brought shares at 15 or 16, I bought my first investment property in 19. And then I brought five more investment properties through my 20s.  

“When I first had my children, and I started to realize work is not going to be defined the same for me. First, I tried to make it exactly the same. And that didn’t work. And then I realized, I need leverage for my time, because that’s what I’m short of. So I started to get really passionate about investment, and looking at alternatives and investment, and in particular, looking at investing in businesses. 

“And I started to realize that there was a real language gap. They talk about gender, pay gap, gender, investment gap, those sorts of things, but I felt that there was a really big gender language gap as well. I’d gone into rooms with men that were talking about investing in businesses. And I feel like I’ve had a fairly good background. I’ve studied, I’ve worked in those environments, I should be able to understand.  

“But that wasn’t always the case. So I felt that it was really important to kind of turn up in those environments and participate.” 

Lisa felt that stepping into these environments was out of her comfort zone, but also realised that women being involved in business investment should be very normal! 

Lisa not only stepped out of her comfort zone to participate and learn, she then encouraged other women to join her. There is a “cultural kind of norm around numbers and money not being a woman’s forte.” 

This bothered Lisa, as confusing language aside, investing in business is relatively simple “Do you have something that people want to buy, do more people want to buy it?” is her wonderful summary of the basics. 

And are women great investors?  “You start to realize that actually, when it comes to sharing, networking, connecting, they’re all very, very, strong skills that most women have, regardless of their educational background.” 

Lisa was initially daunted by the challenge of being a business investor in a very masculine world, but continued regardless. She found it hard at times to admit to strangers that she didn’t know things. But she loves learning and research so 18 months later is feeling much more comfortable… so she commenced her next challenge of involving more women! 

Lisa’s why was a real ‘aha’ moment for me: “I feel quite strongly that in the next 10 to 20 years, with the way that we’ve got technology changing, and the way the world’s changing, that we are going to have massive shifts and wealth. And the way that the world will be is going to be a product of who invests. So I do feel like it’s really, really important that it’s a diverse group of people that stand up to be investors, that it’s women, that it’s people of colour, that it’s people from all different backgrounds, and beliefs, so that we actually see capital kind of create the world that majority of people want to live in.” 

Lisa has a pattern of stepping out of her comfort zone, and then making it comfortable by inviting others to join her, and then stepping out again. I must admit after talking to Lisa I want to join her in whatever direction she heads next! 

Lisa did have a fabulous last piece of advice: “We don’t have wait until we are at the top of the mountain, we can have cocktails on the way.” Celebrating the little wins is an important part of making progress. 

Thank you Lisa 

About Lisa:  

Lisa Brincat is a senior Strategy and Change consultant with over 15 years of experience. Lisa has Big4 experience from Deloitte, is a qualified Chartered Accountant, a CAPM Project Manager and a Certified Exponential Organisations Coach.  
 
Her experience spans over Mining, Oil and Gas, Government and FMCG industries. Lisa has worked predominantly with top 500 multinational clients including South32, Rio Tinto, Anglogold Ashanti, BHP Billiton and Johnson and Johnson.  
 
Lisa works with and supports CXO’s and General Managers to design and implement business improvement initiatives. 

Facing your Fears

Leave a comment
Image supplied by Taniya
Words by me (Fiona) based on Taniya’s story

Taniya shared with me a story about facing a fear again and again! 

Taniya’s tale starts about 5 years ago “I went snorkelling with a few friends in Exmouth and I got caught in a rip. I didn’t know what to do. Another friend of mine was swimming with me but he was far ahead. I screamed out, tried to swim again it – no one heard me, I was absolutely exhausted and I thought that was it! My friend finally realised that I wasn’t there and he swam over to save me and help me back to shore.” 

You won’t be surprised to know that this caused Taniya to fear swimming anywhere her feet were not firmly on the ground. “I tried a year later to face the fear but I absolutely could not, I kept panicking and my body” 

This situation continued until 2018.  At this stage Taniya would only go out in water that was waist deep. And then: “My partner picked up a new hobby – kite boarding. I would sit out on the beach and watch him and the rest of our friends kite board out in the ocean, they would come back in at the end of their session and be loving life.” 

Taniya decided that enough was enough! It was time for her to give kite boarding a go. “It wasn’t easy, not for me and I definitely didn’t make it easy for my partner. Kite boarding was literally taking the kite and going into the deep water, if you lose your board you need to drag yourself in the water with your kite, if you lose the kite then somehow you need to remain calm and relaunch it as you get carried out into sea, sometimes things can go wrong and you need to self rescue yourself and use the kite as a sail as you physically hang onto it the water to get back to shore  and god forbid, if your kite blows up in the mid-air, you’ve got nothing there to save you!” 

I must admit that sounds pretty full on even without a fear of swimming in deep water!  Taniya persisted “I was a very slow learner, at first I would only go to beaches which had a long stretch of shallow water. This was an easier way for me to step out of my comfort zone but not jump into it all together. And now one year later, I can say that I’m a pretty confident kiter. I can go into deep water however I still can’t do a down winder yet (kite from one suburb to another in the ocean). That is my next chapter to conquer.” 

And it is easier after a year of kite boarding? 

“It’s not a happy ending story, every time I go out it’s an internal battle for me, do I go out into the deep? Do I just stay where it’s comfortable and glide along in the shallows? And sometimes I don’t get out of my comfort zone, I just stay in parts which are shallow, but I’m still proud of how far I’ve come and I’ve got a long way to go but I’m working on it! 

I’m proud of Taniya too! 

And Taniya’s last words: “I hope you enjoyed the story, not only did my experience teach me about resilience in my personal life but I’ve definitely learnt to implement that in work too.” 

About Taniya: 

I’m a HR consultant in the IT industry 

I’m passionate about the outdoors, traveling and animals 

If you don’t find me at work or the beach you’ll definitely find me at a restaurant

I also love hearing about inspiring stories from people so if you have one I’d love to hear about it 

Encouragement can lead to amazing outcomes

Leave a comment

Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash
Words by me (Fiona) based on a story shared by Yasmin

I first saw Yasmin as she and 4 other fabulous women walked in unison to the stage at the SheEO summit to acknowledge their success as the inaugural Australian SheEO Venture cohort. Women across Australia generously gave money to create the base of a perpetual fund and then voted on which women led Australian businesses were most deserving of this years’ interest free loans. Yasmin, and her company – Worlds Biggest Garage Sale – was one of the amazing women who were successful. The criteria included making a positive difference in the world, which World’s Biggest Garage Sale certainly does.  

Yasmin’s most recent experience of stepping out of her comfort zone was with regards to applying to be a SheEO Venture. 

“I wasn’t going to apply, predominately because as an Activator, I felt that I had already been able to get involved in a network globally shaping change. I was encouraged by someone close to me to apply, which I did with some hesitation.  I felt like we had a scalable and investable company, however a small part of me had some form of imposter syndrome emerging.  I wasn’t sure what it all meant at the time, but I pushed through and ignored the voice inside my head, instead, listening to my heart and gut, both of which were telling me to push through and apply.” 

I love that Yasmin listened to her heart and applied as a Venture. She did have some hesitations though: “I was weary getting into a ‘female only’ thing, I have always pulled away from this kind of group.  Having never really subscribed to men/women only movements, it was uncomfortable at the start to align myself to a ‘single sex’ initiative.” 

Despite the reservations, Yasmin moved forward with her application: “I did it to step out of my comfort zone, because that’s where the magic happens after all.  Since doing so, I have grown significantly……not because of any single one person, but because of the collective strength of a team of people passionate about real change in the world.  It’s quite humbling to know that I am a small part of something really big!” 

“Other than the honour of becoming one of the Australian Ventures (which is amazing and we’re incredibly grateful for the support from the Australian SheEO Activators!!), the outcome was also some deep personal growth in the realisation that there are many women out there doing exceptional work, which is often understated. I am also thrilled to have spent a few days with the 4 other Ventures, finding myself connecting to 4 strong women, each building a scalable and sustainable business that’s changing the world.  These new friendships will go beyond the SheEO movement, which was the most surprising and wonderful bonus of all.” 

When I asked Yasmin how she felt about stepping out of her comfort zone this way, she had some really positive outcomes. “I felt awkward to begin with, but it quickly transformed into a deep sense of connection, which ignited something inside that really moved me.  I felt connected to a new ‘tribe’ of people who were going to help beyond the basics.  It was a feeling that I’ve not experienced, where I can equally contribute generously, where giving and receiving of time, experience and even love was encouraged and embraced. It unlocked something inside that has me doing things that I might not have otherwise done had it not been for this.” 

And Yasmin’s advice for anyone considering stepping out of their comfort zone? “My advice is simple! When you step outside of your comfort zone, and I mean really take a giant leap outside of it… it is here that you will find what you have been searching for.  I have always dabbled in out of the comfort zone experiences, and I have never ever regretted it.  This experience was a big leap, and I’m glad I took it.  

If something inside of you feels right, but you’re worried about how others might perceive it, or whether you will yourself enjoy taking that new road, I say DO IT.  You know inside of your soul what feels right, so any last words from me here will simply have you nodding along knowing what you need to do.  So what’s stopping you?  GO!!!!” 

Thank you Yasmin! 

About Yasmin: 

I’m the girl that sat in the front row in class, a firstborn child with energy to burn, having worn many hats throughout my career including: sales, business development, manager/leader, project management, training & admin, HR, customer experience, intrepreneur and most recently an entrepreneur.  

Best summed up as a multipotentialite!  

My WHY? is simple!! To make a difference and create meaningful impact daily. 

Sage Advice

Leave a comment
Image by me (Fiona)
Words by me (Fiona) based on a story generously shared by Joanna

I interviewed Joanna on a cloudy Thursday morning in Melbourne – but in Bend, Oregon where she resides it was a sunny Wednesday afternoon!  I was really privileged to hear Joanna’s story – not just because she reached out to me from the USA – because she shared what she learned from her experience of stepping out of her comfort zone. 

Joanna found herself a successful lawyer on the track toward partnership, living in a wonderful place. “I was a top young antitrust associate in terms of popularity and the go-to person. I was in Silicon Valley. I was literally walking down pretty streets and basking in the wonderful weather down there.” But despite of that and, for a variety of reasons, “I wanted to leave and do something different.” 

Initially Joanna went to grad school and ended up being an urban/environmental planner. “This new career was so at odds with what I had to bring to the table. I ended up jumping back into the law.  I worked in a certain area of law that exposed me to regulations around safer consumer products.” 

Joanna was inspired to start a software company around those regulations as a result. Due to a number of reasons, her start-up struggled and over a number of years it slowly wound down. “I was building a compliance tool and relying on regulations that had already been passed and I never anticipated that they would politically collapse and implode on themselves; as a result, I had to reinvent our compliance tool as a sustainability tool. And at some point we just ran out of steam as a team to keep pushing forward.” 

Joanna went through some really difficult times. “Some bad news would hit just I was scheduled to go present to a big audience and I was just feeling as if physically my body was turning to ice or stone.  At the time, I did not know how to deal with that.” 

Out of the experience Joanna had some really great insights. She discovered she was most interested in the customer discovery aspects of entrepreneurship “in terms of understanding your customer and using customer insights to inform the whole entrepreneurial process including your products, your marketing content, and your business strategy. And so I started focusing on that. And through that process, I started to really understand that my techniques of customer discovery were the key.” 

Her learning was not limited to developing her own customer discovery techniques, Joanna also took time to really look at her mindset: “I was really unpacking what was going on with me emotionally. I mean, there were so many layers of shame going on. There I was, coming from this successful law background, and in my view I had failed. And failure is always relative, always subjective. There are people who have made millions who consider themselves failures and kind of disappear in a hole. So it’s very subjective. And I also started to figure out that so much of what I was capable of doing at any given moment was very much driven by my emotional body. What I have packed in, what I had learned to internalize, what I assumed about myself and the world. Over time, it almost became like this revelation about having the right mindset.  If you’re an entrepreneur, you really have to have this entrepreneurial mindset that allows you to tap into what’s going on with yourself, what fears you have any in any given time. And rather than do what we all do (which is to shove that emotion away as quickly as possible), it’s actually [important] to steep in it on a very physical level. Physically feel the churning in your stomach, the burning around your heart, etc. And so that’s been a big part of what I’ve been focusing on and sharing with other entrepreneurs to help them become successful.” 

Joanna believes that flexibility is the key, and that the most successful people in school and as employees are often the ones who find it hardest to cope with failure as entrepreneurs. They are not emotionally prepared. Joanna herself thinks that she should have let herself feel the anguish she was experiencing as she pivoted her start-up, instead of bottling it up. Hiding from the feelings let the problems drag on. 

And what has Joanna done with all this amazing experience and insight? “I started a consulting firm—DESi Potential (desipotential.com)–to help emerging companies and innovators gain market traction, do the customer discovery, and figure out what’s going on with their mindset. Some of the startups I work with are much more advanced; many have been around for three years, five years, even 10 years, but they’re still sorting stuff out. And that’s what I help people with – sorting that stuff out in terms of the product and the customer in their market fit. Using what I learned, my own experience to help [them] avoid the same pitfalls. After my personal experience, I can really see it in people’s faces and behavior when they are struggling in certain areas. You can totally relate because you’ve seen it in yourself and your peers. And then once you see it in yourself, you see it in a whole bunch of people.” 

For other people thinking about stepping out of their comfort zone, Joanna had an interesting point of view. She thinks that “entrepreneurs and innovators tend to be more comfortable with risk and with new stuff; however, society in general tends to be more risk averse and more ingrained in their habits. It is important to understand these differences and how they play out when you’re talking to prospective customers.  This means really understanding their lives, their motivations, their habits, and where things are risky and uncomfortable for them.  And I think that a lot of entrepreneurs don’t have a sense of that because they’re more willing to try new things while the majority of society is not.” 

And a last piece of excellent advice:  

“Be proactive before you invest your energy, your time, your resources, whatever it is. Go out and validate and ask questions. We have this view of overnight millionaires, as if entrepreneurship and risk-taking are like playing Russian Roulette or the lotto. They are not. The majority of risk taking is not about taking blind risks. You need to lower the risk for yourself. And turn your efforts into a much more organic growth process by going out and asking questions to validate your assumptions. And a lot of times we are hesitant to do that. We just kind of assume things instead.  We are hesitant to ask other people about things because we are afraid of looking like we don’t know. And sometimes we don’t ask because we don’t want to really hear the answer or are scared to hear the answer. But you have to do these things even if they scare you. Not for the purpose of sticking your head out. But for the purpose of getting the information you need to make a decision about what is the next right thing for you to do.” 

Very wise advice!  Thank you Joanna. 

Joanna Malaczynski founded DESi Potential, a consulting firm that helps innovative and emerging companies gain market traction.  Her work focuses on helping her clients understand their customer and develop an entrepreneurial mindset.  She brings 15 years of experience in analytical and creative thinking techniques to her work, drawing upon her background in entrepreneurship, economics, law, planning, sustainability and design.  Learn more at www.desipotential.com. 

Closing Your Eyes and Jumping

Leave a comment

Photo by Jordan Donaldson | @jordi.d on Unsplash
Words by me (Fiona Whitehead) based on a story shared by Lisa

I do love it when someone shares more than one story with me!  Welcome back Lisa. 

Lisa told me about moving from home (and familiarity) to Australia (a country she had never even visited!). 

“Nearly 7 years ago, we packed up our family and moved to a country we had never even visited – Australia!  I had travelled many times overseas but never here – my husband and daughters had never even travelled internationally before.” 

And why would Lisa and her family take such a huge leap?  “We knew that living in our country of birth was becoming untenable and that we had to seek an opportunity to give our daughters a better life.  We knew that it would take every last cent that we had to re-establish ourselves in a new country and it was like starting all over again.” 

It wasn’t all smooth sailing with the initial plan falling through “After a great deal of investigation and work, we managed to travel here on a 457 visa through my husband being sponsored to work here.   We were originally going to Perth, and after that offer fell through, we made a last attempt to leave.  I always say that Melbourne chose us – we didn’t choose it.  When the offer came through we grabbed it.  We closed our eyes and jumped!” 

It was a tough decision for many reasons, “We were leaving behind many family members, long standing and deep friendships, very well-established and successful careers and uprooting our daughter in the middle of a school year and fairly close to the completion of her schooling journey.  We didn’t know whether financially we would make it as the exchange rate was 10/1, so we could just see our savings disappearing so quickly.” 

Even once in Melbourne there were doubts, but one special conversation laid those fears to rest: “I questioned very deeply what we had done – I missed my home, my family and friends.  The verification that we had done the right thing was when one day, on an adventure out, my daughter and I were walking through the beautiful botanical gardens.  She said to me “You know what’s so nice, Mum?”  I asked her what – she replied “That we can just walk together like this and enjoy the beauty instead of worrying about whether someone is going to jump out from behind the bush and attack us.”  It shocked me to the core – that any child would have to grow up with thoughts like that…..and in that same moment, I felt a great sense of peace knowing that we had made the right decision.” 

Would Lisa step out of her comfort zone again?  “Yes – it’s an adventure after all.  New places to see, new people to meet – I do love Melbourne and the life we’ve created here.  I think if there was a great opportunity for us to experience something different, yes I would.  The caveat to that is that I would always want to return home……to Melbourne.  And we have been extremely blessed that our new country has embraced us and allowed us to become citizens.  As a very dear friend said to me “Roots in Africa….thriving in Australia” – you can truly thrive anywhere you plant yourself if you have a positive attitude. 

“You learn about yourself – the good the bad and the ugly!  You realise that the baggage you have you take with you…..you can’t just leave it behind and pretend that it never happened….it’s part of you and you have the power to re-invent yourself over and over again.  You meet new wonderful people and create awesome memories.  You also may need to give yourself the time and the space to mourn what you’ve left behind, be grateful that you’ve experienced what you have and be positive about what new things you’re learning.” 

Thank you Lisa! 

About Lisa: 

Started as a leadership business partner on the transformation journey and ended up running the entire program.
Have worked in manufacturing, financial, consulting and telco industries for the past 25 years.
Seeing people learn and grow through their journey is absolute fuel for me.
I have been privileged to work with leaders from all walks of life and continue to be surprised and delighted 

That is where the gold is!

Leave a comment
Picture and words by me (Fiona Whitehead) based on an interview with Nolle

When Nolle was 19 when she moved to London, and at 23 she moved from Dublin, Ireland to Melbourne, Australia. 

She emigrated permanently with no family in Australia. 

Yep, that is sure to be well outside of a comfort zone! 

Why would she do that? “Because back then in Dublin there was very high unemployment. And it was hard to get work. There were no real opportunities and I just wanted more from life.” 

And once Nolle arrived?  “Well I was very, very homesick. I had really bad migraines. I used to cry every night with a picture of my family under my pillow. And I didn’t have any family here. I think I had a couple hundred dollars, a suitcase, and a boyfriend (he didn’t last long after I got here).” 

“And I remember thinking, what have I done. When I was in London, and I applied for a visa, I applied for a one year working holiday visa, and they sent me permanent residency. I thought they sent me the wrong papers. but I might as well apply because I can come home after a year anyway. And the year went by like that! I came home from my first visit, and I realized the grass was so much greener in Australia, so many opportunities.  

“It was great to see my family again. But I had planted the seed to definitely come back [to Australia] and I came back, and the rest is history.” 

Nolle’s next check in point was when she had children – she always planned to take them back to Ireland so she and they had family support. But once she had her children, she decided that even though things in Ireland had improved, the life she could offer them in Australia was a better one. 

“They [Nolle’s children] have a great life here. They don’t realize how lucky they are and then I feel lucky, because I know what it’s like not to have much. I couldn’t think of any more of a stretch than going from having no children to children.  Apart from apart from having my kid,s emigrating to Australia is the best thing that ever happened to me.” 

On Nolle’s first visit back to Ireland she spoke to her Mum “I said to my Mam, ‘you know, everybody, seems different’. She said ‘no, you’re the only one that’s different. They’re all the same. They’re doing the same thing day in, day out but your world is a much bigger place now, you have experienced so much more.  This made it hard for Nolle to fit back in. She also loves the much healthier and more outdoorsy lifestyle here in Australia. 

 And would Nolle step out of her comfort zone again? “Absolutely!  Because that is where the gold is. 

‘’So, when we look back at anything that’s happened to you in your life, that stretch is where you get the most reward. And even though you might have to go through difficult times to get there, that was all part of your journey. Part of your learning and you have to push yourself. You have to take that leap of faith, you have to take that risk, you have to take that stretch. 

“And this is what I tell my children. Don’t take the easy road because it seems like you might get there faster, it all about the journey” 

“Because your automatic reaction as a human being I believe is, is not to go outside your comfort zone it’s to protect yourself. Safety, mitigate against any risk. But then to actually to put yourself out there. That’s where the gold is.” 

And as always, the last word goes to my interviewee. 

“Just do it. Because ask yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen, and if you can live through the worst thing that can happen, then just do it. Why would you not? Life just goes too fast, way too fast. No regrets. I’ll use my grandmother’s saying, it’s ‘What’s for you won’t will pass you by’. 

“’What’s for you won’t pass you by’ really means that you take that leap of faith, you stretch yourself outside your comfort zone, and if it’s meant to be for you it’ll be for you and if it’s not at least you’ve had a go.  

Thanks again Nolle. 

A bit about Nolle:  
Currently working as a Business Partner Principal in the Transformation Delivery Office at Telstra. 
Background:  
Having worked in IT & Business roles spanning over 2 decades in Australia in various different sectors including Health, Media, Technology & Telecommunications  
Working primarily in the project and program space, moving into leadership and management roles and over the last few years into partnership and engagement roles  
Moving to Australia at 23, married with 5 children (blended family) loving life and all that it brings