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Hosted by Chief Purpose Activist, Carolyn Butler-Madden, The For Love & Money Podcast is a show where business and social purpose meet to inspire a movement for positive change – business as a force for good; brands driving profit through purpose. The two essential ingredients we explore through our podcast interviews? Firstly, Love. Love of our home planet; of humanity; people; culture. Love of what you do and why you do it. The love that employees, customers and clients have of a business built on love. Secondly, Money. Yes, profit. We explore how purpose drives profit. Also how being profitable allows purposeful businesses to scale their impact. The objective of the show is all about inspiration. We want to help our listeners to answer the question so many of them have in their minds: How do I build a purpose-led business in a way that is meaningful, profitable and inspires me and everyone in the organisation to use our business as a force for good?
Episodes
Monday Apr 22, 2024
Monday Apr 22, 2024
Danielle Owen-Whitford founded start up Pioneera in 2018 to improve our mental health by tackling the crippling issue of workplace burnout and improving “positive” productivity.
Pioneera's purpose is to unleash everyone's potential to be happier, healthier and more productive at work.
In this episode we explore the transformational role of artificial intelligence (AI) in preventing workplace burnout. Danielle narrates her inspiring journey, explaining how her personal experience with burnout led to the creation of Pioneera, a platform using AI to foster positive mental health and safe workplace atmospheres.
Their world-first solution uses artificial intelligence informed by evidence-based psychology, to identify signs of burnout and provide tech-assisted early intervention. Ahead of it’s time, Pioneera's award-winning solution is now the only product in the market that can provide real-time mental health data to meet new safety regulations and ESG reporting requirements and is gaining strong interest across both large and small Australian businesses. Pioneera's app won the social impact category of the 2022 Australian Good design awards and was recognised as a World Changing idea by Fast Company in 2021.
Productivity in the modern workplace and the delicate balance between efficiency and wellness are explored in-depth in this interview, providing listeners with valuable insights on these critical issues.
Our conversation highlights the disturbing prevalence of 'toxic productivity' and the need for systemic changes in the way productivity is measured. We explore the corrosive effects of a relentless drive for efficiency on both work quality and employee mental health. Danielle provides a fresh perspective on combating workplace stress, focusing on the value of 'positive productivity' -- a productivity paradigm that prioritises mental clarity and wellness over sheer output.
Our discussion further examines the innovative role of Pioneera in promoting systemic change. By using data and AI, Pioneera not only detects signs of burnout but also encourages organisations to change outdated productivity measures and create healthier workplaces. Discover more about Indie, the groundbreaking app designed to provide real-time, data-driven feedback to individuals and teams. Tune into this insightful conversation to understand the necessity of reassessing productivity measures and embrace systemic change for the mental well-being of employees and society as a whole.
The conversation also sheds light on trust-building, risk-management, and fostering productive workplaces through technology. Gain valuable knowledge about organisational dynamics management, especially during challenging times. This episode is a must-listen for employers, leaders, and individuals interested in enhancing workplace safety and productivity. The inspiring journey of Pioneera, from a personal hardship story to a game-changer in workplace environments, leaves listeners with an impactful realisation about the immeasurable potential of AI in transforming workplace cultures.
GET A FREE HEALTH CHECK FOR YOUR ORGANISATION
Danielle is offering a free health check to assess where your organisation is and where you want it to be. To claim your free health check, email Danielle with Free Health Check in the subject line.
Connect with Danielle
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Desmond Campbell is a proud Gurindji and Alawa-Ngalakan man from the Northern Territory and is the CEO of Welcome to Country with a background in consulting, social policy and Government services. Desmond joined Welcome to Country to continue to build a platform that is First Nations led and operated, contributing to economic independence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and by sharing the world's oldest continuous living cultures and languages by First Nations people on their terms and cultural integrity.
Our yarn starts with Desmond sharing his own identity and the proud legacy of his family which flows through his blood. It weaves through to his role at Welcome to Country, why this organisation exists and how it serves its stakeholders. And it ends with a powerful and emotional vision for the future.
For those of us who believe we should be proud and fiercely protective of the oldest living civilisation in the world, through this interview, Desmond opens a door which he invites us to walk through.
Highlights:
- Desmond shares his family background including his legacies from both his mother’s and father’s side. He highlights on his father's side his relationship to Vincent Lingiari, his Great Grandfather, who Paul Kelly’s song “From Little Things Big Things Grow” is about; and his mother's Uncle who was awarded a Member of the British Empire Medal for, amongst other things, diagnosing leprosy in Aboriginal people throughout the Northern Territory
- We talk about the importance of identity and Desmond shares his approach to leadership and his mission to carry forward his cultural legacy through his role at Welcome to Country
- He shares his view on leading with emotion despite being told that it might not be appropriate and we discuss the human value of emotion in leadership
- Desmond takes us through some of his childhood experiences which made him feel like a second class citizen, but contrasts this with his deepening curiosity and pride as he started learning about the history and legacy of his mob
- He talks about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have always led events to connect language and culture and connect to our past so we can move forward together. By acknowledging our traumatic past and walking forward together
- Desmond describes himself as a “walking billboard”, sharing a couple of stories about being approached at the pub by two different non-Indigenous people separately to talk about things related to his Aboriginal identity. He explains that while he doesn't mind it, there is an emotional cost to him of engaging, which is why he offers some advice to non-indigenous people who might want to ask questions of or discuss relevant issues with an Aboriginal person
- Desmond introduces what Welcome to Country is all about and its purpose – to support greater economic independence for First Nations entrepreneurs, sharing the language and culture with the world on their terms
- He shares what Welcome to Country has achieved so far since launching in 2019 during the bushfires and leading into the pandemic
- He tells us about Welcome to Country’s new location in Glebe and his vision for what the space will enable as a vibrant cultural hub, including a shop. He highlights the Open Day that is planned (dates tbc will be shared)
- Desmond explains the challenge of balancing cultural integrity with the need to educate those organisations that want to be connected with Welcome to Country and more widely with Aboriginal culture
- Desmond’s dream: he shares his vision of what he’d love Welcome to Country to look like in 5 years time, but he also shares what he’d love our world to look like in that time.
- Desmond closes the episode by sharing what Australians who voted YES in the referendum on the Voice can do to continue to show their support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Connect with Desmond and Welcome To Country
Welcome To Country on Linkedin
Monday Mar 25, 2024
Monday Mar 25, 2024
My guest is a woman after my own heart. Aga Bajer is obsessed with the opportunity to create thriving cultures by understanding what it is that people need to do their best work.
Aga wears many hats as the driving force behind CultureBrained®, where she steers the ship as both founder and CEO. Beyond leading her company, Aga is an author and a captivating keynote speaker, known for sharing insights that resonate deeply with her audience. She's the voice and brain behind the CultureLab podcast, where she dives into the intricacies of organisational culture, and has built a vibrant community for culture leaders around these conversations. Her impactful contributions, books and thought leadership in her field have earned her a spot as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices of 2024, marking her as a must-follow for those interested in the world of company culture and leadership.
I absolutely loved our conversation. Aga challenges some of the ‘truths’ that we as a society seem to have accepted with very little rigour. She shares the insights she has uncovered through her research as well as her own experience. For Aga, her work is personal and this shines through our interview. The need for people to feel a sense of belonging is the central theme of this episode and Aga also shares with us what it takes to help foster a sense of belonging in organisations.
Interview highlights:
- Aga shares and expands on her insights on the 3 things people need to do their best work – fun, meaning and belonging
- She shares her fascinating career journey from starting an ice cream factory aged 22 to later joining large consulting businesses, in a quest to understanding how to build an environment where people can thrive.
- Her fascination and obsession with understanding the impact of environment on people and their ability to do great work and to thrive.
- She introduces her consultancy CultureBrained® and it’s “crazy dream”, a mission to make work synonymous with fun, meaning and belonging.
- Aga explains CultureBrained’s approach:
- Codify culture
- Embed and activate it
- Evolve culture
- She shares that a big part of this is focused on creating a community of practitioners, a creative space for heads of people and culture, CEOs, CMOs, all finding new better ways of cultivating healthy cultures
- We talk about the Fireside Chats that Aga hosts for her members – a small, deep, intimate format. She confesses that, as a business owner, this can be quite terrifying to run this kind of format, when the rest of the world seems to be pulling in the other direction of big, mass, scaled.
- Our discussion moves to Dunbar’s number – Robin Dunbar’s theory that the maximum number of people we can manage to be ‘friends with’ is 150 people – and how this inspired Aga in how she manages her CultureBrained community
- Aga shares the story of how she came to be writing her book, which originally started as an exploration of the concepts of fun, meaning and belonging, but eventually moved to single-mindedly explore the topic of belonging
- She shares a fascinating insight into scientific research which reveals that belonging is actually the Number 1 human need (in conflict with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
- Aga takes us on a deeper dive into the topic of belonging and why she is so personally invested in exploring and understanding it. She talks about her personal experiences as well as what she has observed in organisations and teams
- She explains the three things we need to generate Belonging, providing deep insight on what it takes, including being valued as well as creating value
- The strong link between belonging and organisational performance, which is backed up by scientific research
- The cost of “Unbelonging” and the benefits of Belonging
- Aga’s ambition for the next five years towards a more regenerative society and what that could look like for business
Connect with Aga and CultureBrained
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Can you imagine loving your bank?
Can you imagine your bank being a reflection of how you see yourself, in the same way we choose fashion brands to reflect parts of our identity?
Well, perhaps if your bank is Bank Australia, you might not have to imagine too hard. From today’s interview, this bank is one that I can easily imagine loving and identifying with.
My guest today is Georgia Windrum, Manager Climate Action Strategy, Bank Australia. Georgia leads Bank Australia’s work to reach their ambitious net zero by 2035 target. She has previously worked on climate strategy, policy and campaigns at Climateworks Centre, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Our conversation uncovers the unusual way that Bank Australia conducts it’s business, from being customer-owned, to not paying out bonuses or dividends and to serving their purpose – to inspire and empower our customers to use their money to create a world where people and the planet thrive.
There’s much we can learn from this Australian bank and one of their ambitions is that other financial institutions use and adopt their model. This collaborative mindset comes from the ambition they have to use business as a force for good.
Interview highlights:
- Georgia shares her background journey from growing up with a strong connection to nature to her role at Bank Australia today, managing their climate action strategy
- She explains what it means to be a customer-owned bank, including what it means to have values-aligned customers as your shareholders
- Georgia highlights Bank Australia’s four key impact pillars – climate action, affordable and accessible housing, nature and biodiversity and First Nations reconciliation – and some of the ways they support these areas
- She shares Bank Australia’s 2035 Net Zero target and highlights some of the initiatives that have come from this target
- I ask Georgia to share an initiative that she’s particularly passionate about and she highlights their pilot home electrification program in Victoria, getting their customers off gas
- We discuss the benefits and challenges of having customers who are so aligned and emotionally invested in the bank’s activities
- Georgia shares what it means from an employee perspective to be part of a purpose-driven bank
Connect with Bank Australia and Georgia
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
I first came across Neal Foard about a year ago. I saw one of his videos on Linkedin and I was hooked. Since then, I light up every time I see the distinctive black backdrop with his smiling face inviting me in for another immersive life lesson.
Neal is a storyteller. He shares beautiful, heart-warming stories – always with a powerful takeaway. In an age where many of our political leaders and media personalities encourage us to think the worst of each other and to focus on the rage, Neal highlights the best of us. Through his stories, he inspires the best of us.
Neal’s background is in in advertising and marketing. Thirty years spent creating award-winning campaigns for global power brands like Budweiser, Sony and Nokia. For his work on Toyota, Neal ranked among the top ten most awarded creative directors in the world in 2002. As the author of an innovative talent development series, Neal was named Worldwide Director of Creative Learning for global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. He has consulted on creative messaging for Fortune 500 companies and universities and been a featured speaker at TEDx conferences. Most recently, Neal has gained a sudden following on social media for his inspirational videos about the kindnesses of everyday people.
Today, I am so excited to introduce you to Neal. This episode is filled with stories and insightful nuggets of gold. Ultimately the message that rises up is the immense power of stories to connect us in a disconnected world, to build trust and to inspire the best from us.
Highlights:
- Stories – many of them - littered through our chat. You’re welcome!
- Neal shares a story about a car dealer friend, whose philosophy is to be prepared to lose a little money to make a friend. I’ll leave you to figure out how healthy his bank balance is!
- We talk about how the best leaders bring a real energy when they walk in the room; they don’t just have that energy, they inspire it in others
- Neal shares his belief that brands are not only defined by what they do, but what they don’t, or won’t do
- We talk about trust and Neal shares his view (which I share) that trust is the most valuable commodity a business can offer. He shares the story of Sandra, a hotel receptionist who left an enduring impression on him through her thoughtful and playful approach
- Neal shares his background story of thirty years in advertising, along the way he shares the insight of what great brands do – enable people to be seen. He uses the Barbie movie as a great example of this.
- He explains what Storyfire does and why it is so important – words, persuasion and most powerfully stories, allow us to relate to each other, which build trust
- We explore the idea of energy, the magnetic gravitational pull, that stories can inspire
- Neal loops back to the story of Sandra, sharing a deeper explanation of why the impression she created was so powerful – by making him the hero of a story he could share with others, she had played to his narrative (one we all share) of being the hero of his own story. There’s a beautiful insight here around ‘Story Gifting’ and the power we all have to do this.
- We explore the value of being our unique selves and attracting the people and opportunities that reflect who we are – connecting to our identity. Neal shares a personal story that demonstrates the Pygmalion effect – when you set a standard of behaviour and expect people to live up to it, they usually will.
- Neal explains why he shares stories of human kindness; through his own personal experiences, to combat the confected rage that is being stirred up by elements in society
- We discuss the importance and power of stories to inspire the best of us. Not brand stories or marketing stories, but everyday stories that reflect our identity.
- Neal explains why he believes CEOs should be the greatest tellers of stories, to infuse a culture with belief… “Stories are the CEO providing a vision and warm safe place for people to be their best self; for them to think of new ideas because they’re not terrified of losing their job tomorrow” (had to include that)!
- He also shares why CFOs ought to be storytellers – to tell you where the numbers are headed; and of course, why sales people too should be storytellers
- Neal envisions his dream for the future: travelling America to tell the stories of American small businesses – relationships, truth telling, values, old fashioned traits - people taking care of each other
Connect with Neal
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Sasha Titchkosky is the co-founder and CEO of Koskela; Australia’s leading sustainability practitioner in the furniture and design industry. She has become an influential voice for circular business and social impact as she transforms Koskela towards total circularity by 2027 and absolute-zero emissions by 2035.
She also leads programs that use design skills to support Australia's Indigenous communities.
Sasha founded Koskela in 2000 with her partner Russel Koskela, both leaving behind lucrative jobs in the corporate sector in a bid to create a company with a courageous mindset and strong social conscience.
Today, they work with some of the world's leading corporations and educational institutions to create work and learning spaces of the future, from Airbnb to Pinterest, Apple, Google, and Australia's leading law firms and banks.
In 2017 Koskela became Australia’s first certified furniture B Corporation.
Sasha is committed to manufacturing Koskela’s range in Australia and is a fearless advocate for using design skills to affect social change.
Our interview covers Sasha’s career journey leading to why and how Koskela started 24 years ago.
Sasha shares the story of Koskela’s evolution from a business that started with the principles of designing furniture that was affordable and sourced and manufactured locally, to their commitment to achieve total circularity by 2027.
It’s a story of innovation and leadership and one that I’m certain will provide inspiration and insight to others who want to understand how business can solve some of society’s most challenging problems.
Interview Highlights:
❤️ Sasha introduces Koskela, highlighting their two impact pillars – reconciliation and environment
＄ She shares her background journey from law and working at the ASX to how she and her partner started Koskela
❤️ The problem Koskela set out to tackle – the horrific level of waste in the way commercial tenancies worked
＄ The evolving thinking of Koskela’s founders on certain climate certifications and why they decided to move beyond carbon neutrality
❤️ Sasha explains their move towards creating their own carbon budget and she highlights and recommends the tool they’ve adopted, through The SME Climate Hub
＄ She shares their ambitious 2027 deadline to become fully circular
❤️ Sasha explains the scale of the problem they are tackling, highlighting both waste and health factors.
＄ This provides the context for her to share how Koskela have designed their shift to circularity, including their ReHome second life program
❤️ Sasha shares the next exciting phase of Koskela, a subscription model award-winning concept that is currently in development
＄ We discuss the importance of profitability for a purpose-driven business
❤️ Sasha outlines her vision of what Koskela could look like by 2030
Connect with Sasha and Koskela:
Koskela's 2027 Circularity Action Plan
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Monday Jan 29, 2024
Lucy Piper is the Director of WorkforClimate and a passionate voice for moving the needle on climate change. After a decade in the corporate sector working in advertising and film production, Lucy faced her own climate reckoning. As a new mother, hearing the voice of Greta Thunberg addressing the UN, "We will never forgive you", echoed in her mind and she decided to turn her skills towards climate solutions.
In 2020, she left her much-loved role as the Global Head of Creative at Intrepid Travel to join WorkforClimate – a non-profit that equips climate-concerned professionals with the education, resources and community to make impactful change. Since then, Lucy has spent her days empowering Australians to push for change within their workplaces so that more businesses can set and achieve ambitious climate goals.
Lucy believes that businesses are key to solving the climate crisis and that employees are critical to its success. “You don't need to quit your day job in order to have a big impact on climate change.” She says. Her team is helping build a ‘green collar’ workforce and increasing practical climate literacy in every role and department.
My interview with Lucy was such a boost of energy and I hope it flows through to you. It is exactly the kind of energy we need, because it comes from a place of empowerment. A recognition that we all have a role to play in the climate crisis. And we can do something. And that something – no matter how small it is – can level up into something bigger.
Work for Climate is an antidote to the philosophy that little old me can’t do anything. Yes you can.
Interview highlights:
❤️ Lucy shares her background from the perspective of – as she describes, a “geriatric millennial” – starting work at the intersection of the analogue and digital worlds.
- Her ten years at Intrepid Travel – from starting on contract to becoming Head of Creative; and why she loves the company so much
- How the catastrophic bushfires in Australia in 2019, combined with Greta Thunberg’s inaugural speech at the UN became a catalyst for Lucy to join WorkforClimate
💲 Lucy explains the concept behind WorkforClimate – empowering people to take action on climate change within their organisations
❤️ She recalls and describes a powerful Venn diagram concept shared at the 2023 Purpose Conference by Adaptation Architect Digby Hall, explaining how we all need to respond to the Climate Crisis today – at the intersection of mitigation and adaptation. She connects this with what corporate organisations must do now to meet their stakeholders’ needs
💲 Lucy explains the specifics behind WorkforClimate and the four comprehensive action areas they support, which include the tools and resources for employees – leadership skills to influence others in their team; and technical skills
❤️ She fleshes out the four action areas:
- Energy – switching to renewable energy
- Emissions - Getting the organisation to have a science aligned ambitious target to reduce emissions
- Money – investments, default superannuation funds
- Influence – Lobbying efforts and what they call Scope X – advertised emissions (what emissions are you enabling? Who are your clients? Using your influence to minimise the expansion of the fossil fuel industry).
💲 Lucy passionately describes the imperative for everyone to take some form of action. Because the alternative is to be a bystander!
❤️ Lucy shares the dream for WorkforClimate – that “every job should be a climate job” - to grow the community exponentially globally, for employee-led change, across industries, sectors, companies, to accelerate what is possible in the corporate sector.
Get Started now in your climate job here
Connect with Lucy
Monday Jan 15, 2024
Monday Jan 15, 2024
There are 40,000 victims of modern slavery on any one day in Australia, as reported by the Australian Federal Police. Shocking right?
My guest on this episode is Sally Irwin, Founder and MD of The Freedom Hub, who is committed to create a world of freedom by ending Modern Slavery.
Sally has a career background in the corporate sector, but in 2008 she moved to Germany when her husband took up a Diplomatic post in Berlin. There, Sally was confronted with the issue of human trafficking in Eastern Europe, and established a charity in Berlin to fund organisations that supported the victims. She became very active in a centre supporting women trafficked in prostitution and was personally involved in helping a number of these women return to their country and begin a new life.
After four years working face to face with trauma victims of modern slavery, Sally returned to Sydney in 2012, keen to apply her experience in Australia.
She found a gap in Australia’s care for slavery victims, resulting in the creation of The Freedom Hub (TFH). In March 2014 Sally founded TFH Survivor School, that rebuilds the lives of slavery victims and is the ONLY specialised long-term support in Australia. TFH trauma informed classes train, equip and provide work experience to survivors of modern slavery in Australia. With over 14 years of frontline experience TFH is now a leading organisation in this field.
Sally is such an inspiring leader committed to creating change and this is an episode you don’t want to miss. What is remarkable and what I absolutely LOVE is how her commitment to tackling this problem has led her to creating an innovative organisational model that creates value for a range of different stakeholders.
Her story and that of The Freedom Hub is utterly compelling and will – I have no doubt – inspire you. My hope is it inspires you into action. Small steps or big leaps, it doesn't matter. One action almost always begets another, as Sally's story confirms and as the quote featured on TFH's website also supports...
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
~ Saint Francis of Assis
Interview highlights:
❤️ We learn about the shocking scale of the problem that is modern slavery in Australia.
💲 Sally describes the problem that she discovered – not just the existence of Modern Slavery in Australia, but the absence of long-term care for its victims.
❤️ Sally shares her extraordinary story that saw her move from a corporate career in procurement to being posted overseas as a diplomat’s wife, to eventually starting The Freedom Hub, the only organisation that exists in Australia to support victims of Modern Slavery with long-term care.
💲 Sally tells us about the origins of The Freedom Hub - a cafe in Surry Hills, Sydney - that then became an event venue
❤️ How the Modern Slavery Act 2018 led to Sally expanding TFH into ethical business consulting for corporates, leveraging the work of TFH as well as Sally's earlier corporate expertise in procurement.
💲How Sally's passion to eradicate the problem of Modern Slavery has led to TFH also running Zoom training sessions for smaller organisations to do it themselves as a voluntary exercise, making improvements over time. She also talks about the business opportunity for medium and small organisations supplying corporates.
❤️ The galvanising statistic! 75 per cent of global slavery in the world is in Asia-Pacific - Australia's shopping ground, for our government, businesses and consumers. Meaning WE, Australians can dramatically impact global slavery just through conscious buying.
💲Sally describes the 5 pillars of TFH's Survivor School - the human-centred journey for survivors, the length and depth of which can vary for each individual; and which links to TFH's employment program.
❤️ Marking TFH's 10 year anniversary, Sally shares her inspiring 5 year vision of success and what she needs (businesses, please take note - there is so much opportunity for business partners in this, corporates and small to medium businesses alike)!
Connect with Sally
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Monday Nov 27, 2023
In the last episode for 2023, I reflect on the interviews that have aired this year and some of the themes that have emerged.
When I started this podcast back in 2021, it was only meant to be a limited 12-episode series and yet here we are at Episode 52. I guess I have become a bit addicted to interviewing people who I consider to be true leaders of our time, who are charting a new and better path for business.
Our 2023 interviews covered a range of topics including:
❤️DEI – Diversity Equity and Inclusion
💲Social Enterprise, BCorp and Fair Trade
❤️Brands leading change
💲 The power of community and collaboration
❤️Creating more human-centric workplaces
💲Challenging the purpose of business
❤️Leadership
💲The Environment
❤️Cultivating Resilience
And I then dive into two key themes that consistently emerge through these interviews and my conversations with others on purpose-led business. And that I believe are intrinsically linked:
❤️ The proliferation of women driving purpose-led change
💲The importance of connecting profit with purpose
I also talk a bit about an article by author and researcher Thomas Klaffke on “Pleasure Activism”. It is such a perspective-altering read about the organising principle of the modern world being pain and the opportunity that reframing it to one of pleasure offers us.
If you're enjoying this podcast, please rate/review it on your favourite listening app and share with others who you think may also enjoy it.
Connect with Carolyn:
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Heidi Dening is a professional keynote speaker, author and trusted expert and educator on resilience. She regularly features in the media on this topic and believes that education changes lives.
Combining the insights she has learned from surviving a paralysing illness, a gunpoint kidnapping, a life-threatening tsunami, and petrol bombs with her impressive business and health education background, she has a unique ability to elevate the professional resilience of leaders and their teams. This enables them to make better decisions, be more innovative, have more energy, optimism and empathy, and successfully deal with change, stress, and uncertainty.
Heidi has dedicated her career to inspiring thousands of people globally with practical strategies that improve resilience, self-leadership and wellbeing, from small children on remote Pacific Islands to professional teams across numerous industries.
In this episode, Heidi shares her story that brought her to becoming one of Australia’s foremost experts on resilience. She generously shares some strategies for cultivating resilience and why it is so important.
Why is this relevant to a podcast that explores the intersection of Love & Money (Purpose & Profit)?
Well, leaders of the movement for purpose-led business will face many bumps on their path to purpose. There will be resistance to the change that becoming truly purpose-driven demands of businesses and leaders. Cultivating resilience in yourself is vital if you are going to go the distance. Clearly it is also a vital trait for teams, but today’s episode is for you. This is about cultivating resilience for yourself.
I hope you get value from this episode. Heidi is amazing and has so much wisdom to impart on this subject.
Interview Highlights:
- Heidi shares her back story into how she came to become a trusted expert and keynote speaker on Resilience
- She shares her actual “petrol bomb” moment – a frightening and confronting life-changing experience for Heidi – and relates this to a metaphor for the “petrol bomb moments” we all face in our lifetimes, offering advice on how to prepare for those moments
- We talk about the Voice Referendum result in Australia and the impact of the No result on First Nations People, as well as non-indigenous supporters of the Yes campaign
- I ask Heidi to share her thoughts on how those of us who were committed supporters of the 'Yes' campaign can respond to the feeling of disempowerment that comes from the 'No' result. She talks about the vicarious trauma from bearing witness to traumatic events and the deep need for connection with likeminded others at this time.
- She also shares one powerful practice we can do that is all-important at times like this – scanning for the “micro-wins”
- We talk about the unrivalled resilience of First Nations Australians and what we all might be able to learn from that, including our moral obligation to honour the resilience of our own ancestors, by showing up to do the right thing for future generations
- Heidi shares her insights on how we can give the world "the best of us, not what's left of us". Link to the mental health plan template she mentions here.
Connect with Heidi