Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
What sets this podcast apart? We believe in the power of meaningful marketing—a holistic approach that prioritises authenticity, connection, and purpose, whilst still turning a profit.
Chantal Gerardy is an International Award Winning Marketing Strategist who empowers purpose-led businesses to revolutionise their online marketing approach and create a brand that resonates deeply with their online audience. If you're tired of cookie-cutter marketing advice, and seek strategies that truly make a difference, this podcast is for you.
If you are a business owner feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or struggling to cut through the noise online? We've got your back!
Our podcast is tailored for entrepreneurs hungry for clarity, confidence, and tangible results in their online marketing. Our podcast isn't just about boosting sales; it's about creating an efficient marketing machine that reflects your values, passion and purpose. Whether you're stuck or looking to maximise your marketing, we're here to guide you every step of the way.
Our episodes dive deep into practical skills, customer-generating strategies, and streamlined systems to help you thrive without relying on paid ads. From mastering social media, creating content that converts, ranking on google, getting your website to work, lead list building and email marketing, each episode is packed with tips and techniques to help you thrive online.
Join me each week as we explore management and monetisation online marketing strategies designed to reduce your time online while increasing your impact. With our guidance, you'll align your business and marketing team more closely, ensuring every effort moves you towards growth. From overcoming challenges to seizing opportunities, each episode is packed with actionable advice to help you thrive in the world of online marketing and effective management.
Are you ready to transform your online marketing, build a business that you enjoy, and leave a lasting impression?
Tune in to the Meaningful Marketing Podcast and unlock the secret sauce to marketing success.
📈 More from Meaningful Marketing
📥 Download our FREE Marketing Guide
🎧 Catch all episodes
👉 themeaningfulmarketingpodcast.com
🌐 Learn more
👉 onlinebusinessmarketing.com.au
This podcast is brought to you by PodPro Australia.
Social media, Google, email, marketing systems, website traffic, and the endless content creation that comes with marketing. It's overwhelming, right? Say goodbye to endless stress and hello to Clarity with the Meaningful Marketing podcast. In this podcast, I will share with you fast and free practical methods to help you manage, monetize, and market your business, all infused with a healthy dose of motivation.
Let's do this. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Meaningful Marketing Podcast. Today I have got the amazing Fiona Cullen here from Performance Performastery. I know we even practiced that beforehand.
I know you should try. Uh. Spelling it out when someone asks you your email address again.
Um, it was a good idea at the time. Um, performance Mastery. Two words. Perform
Mastery. Perform Mastery. Mastery. Perform
Mastery.
There you go. Perform mastery. Nailed it. Perform mastery. Um, and my Fiona Cullen is a leadership facilitator and I thought it would be. Absolutely amazing today to get Fiona in to come and talk to us a little bit about the B2B journey because she's in that space.
Because there's clearly a difference between B2C and B2B when it comes to the time and length inside the customer journey. And I thought it would be amazing for her to come in today and just speaking to a little bit on leadership, which she's an expert in, as well as what actually happens when you're actually dealing in that B2B space.
So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. It's
awesome to be here. Thank you.
And Fiona, she just. Storm I cruised on in, in a motorbike. So I was in the rain all the way from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast. I was like, woo, my kind of chick. Um, so thank you so much for being here. Um, start by just introducing yourself and tell us just a little bit about your story and about how you actually fell into becoming a leadership coach.
And I say fell in because most of us fall into this. Yeah.
Um, I, I feel like for me it was probably less falling and more a gradual build that was always inevitably going to get there. So in terms of like my family upbringing, um, my, my mom was a marriage educator. Um, my dad's a sparky. Um, you know, I've got three other siblings and we grew up in a family unit where we sat down to dinner every night.
Um, together as a family. Um, we, we talked around the dinner table and things like that. Um, and, you know, I did my, I had Myers-Briggs and, you know, the five love languages and things like that. Like they were just normal, commonplace, like family conversation. And it wasn't until I actually started working in the leadership space full time and um, for many years with thousands of different people that I realized my upbringing was really unusual.
Most people don't, don't get that sort of grounding. Um, and I also have had a career in elite sport, um, and my training and, and I guess, um, my university level, um, education was in communications and marketing. So I've had this really interesting kind of journey of, you know, as a marketer, as someone who does business development, marketing, um, sponsorship, um, that was all about understanding human behavior so that I could convince people and influence to.
By the things that, of the companies that I was representing as an elite sports person, um, my, my focus there was around, um, how do I drive human behavior to produce consistent, predictable results under pressure at a high level. So the blend of those two things, uh, and, and no matter what I did, whether I was working for a software company or.
Lawyers or engineers. I always found a way to run a workshop. I dunno what like, it's like I was, yeah, and maybe, maybe it was my upbringing again with whiteboards and. You know, conversations, you know, it was always, always gonna be, be the case. Um, so, you know, I always was very interested in how do I, how do I construct programs?
How do I put together trainings that help people make a transition from where they are now to where they wanna be? And you know, certainly as an athlete, that transformative process of, you know, how do I get better? How do I continue to grow? How do I develop? And so it wasn't until then I was transitioning out of my elite sporting career into my professional, the rest of my life career, that, you know, I was also working with an incredible trainer and an incredible coach, an incredible human being, the lovely Emily Diamond.
Um, and she was my, she was my life coach really. She helped me with that process of transitioning. Out of elite sport into the world. Um, and I reconstructed myself at the level of identity. And it was during that time that I really got my proper hardcore facilitator training. Um, and you know, that then led to, you know, um, I still was working in the marketing space.
It wasn't until about six years ago I that, uh, I thought, okay, I've got the opportunity to do this full time rather than just being a marketing professional who occasionally does a workshop. I wanted to flip it. Um, and then, you know, the rest as they say is history. Um, you know, I wanted to know whether, whether leadership, facilitation training was my jam.
And I gotta say it's, you know, when you find something that is like you are put on this earth to do, uh, that's how I feel when I'm at the front of the room. It's the closest thing I get to the same adrenaline dopamine hit that I used to get as an athlete, like performing and yeah. Um, being at the front of the room and creating a space where people get to learn and develop like that.
That's my absolute, you know, I just, I love it. I love, I love being part of a transformative journey that produces incredible results for individuals, but also collectively across organizations. And I think that's why I've really got into the B2B space. It's, I wasn't, I'm, I love working one-on-one with people, don't get me wrong.
Um, and that will always be part of what I do. Um, what I, what I love even more is when I can transform a whole organization. By engaging with that cross section of leaders who ultimately have the most influence across a business because they're the ones, you know, sitting in between that senior leadership and the boots on the ground.
So that's kind of the, the niche I've found. And that's, that's where I'm at. And so, yeah. That's so
good. Oh, there's a couple things I wanna talk into over there. Firstly, all coaches have coaches, right? Um, and having, coming from a sporting background myself, um, I was a South African triathlete in South Africa.
I was number three in South Africa. I think I came 80. 80th in the world, so not that great. Eight in the world. You know, how many people do triathlons?
It's like me saying, um, you know, 200th in track and field was not, was not good. Uh, that's 200 out of millions of people.
So it's pretty Thank you. Thank you very much.
Um, but what I always talk about is about, talk about the discipline that's attached to that because there seems to be this thing around, uh, people that are involved in sport. It's all that. Di discipline and that commitment, but it's also following like proven methods. Because if you wake up every day and you do the same thing, it uh, if you wake up every day and you just do everything like the shotgun approach, right?
Um, especially for triathlon, because there's three different things that you've gotta do. And then the fourth thing, you've gotta put them all together, right? So it's like running, swimming, cycling, and then actually putting 'em all together. So if you woke up every day and you just did everything all the time, you'd get injured, you'd get burnt out, you get sick, it just wouldn't work, right?
Um, so. Following a proven process, but then also having the discipline to trust the process was so important. Um, and then on top of it, you know, again, coaches have coaches. It's about investing in yourself. And I love how you said like you loved it, so you invested in it, you know, you went and got better at it and now like you're shining.
You absolutely love it. Like you can see that you love what you're doing. So I think that that's absolutely amazing. So thanks for sharing. So tell us a little bit about, um. You being a hurdle list. Talk us, talk to us a little bit about, you know, the, the similarities that you can see between like your journey as being an athlete, a hurdle list into what it is that you do now.
'cause I know that you use some of those metaphors in your business as well. And, um, and I love that because, um, I always say that. You are part of your point of difference. So, you know if you are a hurdle list and you can use those metaphors inside your business, how amazing. Yes. That's how you can differentiate yourself in the marketplace.
But not only that, you can speak into that space because you know it. So share a little bit about, about that with us.
Yeah. So, um. One of the things that I came to realize, uh, fairly recently, actually, it's, you know, this is the other odd thing, is you, you get, sometimes you're so close to yourself, you can't see it.
And that's one of the, one of the hard things about when you are marketing yourself as well. Um, and you know, I hadn't realized, but I kind of quarantined my, my sporting, um, prowess. Uh, and you know, that's, that's something I did 20 years ago. Like how is that relevant now? Um, but more recently I've, I've gone, oh actually that's incredibly relevant.
Um, and I. One of the frames that I like to use at the very beginning of, of introducing any of my leadership programs is to talk about the fact that leadership is unnatural. It's as unnatural as running full pelt at 10 barriers and, and calling that a sport and, and doing it that at an elite level, um, it's as unnatural.
So my, my other sport was Bobs. So, you know, oh my God. So, so I did, so, so I did, um, a hundred meter hurdles and, and bobsled my, my two I guess, um, sports and, you know, it is, um, one of the things that you need to learn when you are, um, learning to get good at hurdling, you've gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
You've gotta get, um, in order to, in order to clear a hurdle fast and efficiently, you need to be able to take off. Almost two meters away from the barrier. Now, like every fiber of your being, every, like, we're hardwired for, for survival and for protection. So, so all of your, when you are, when you're about to run up to a barrier, like normal human beings will happily, you know, get nice and close, jump nice and high, you know, land on the other side safely, and go, yes, I cleared the hurdle.
Um, which is fine if you, if you want to, you know, just jump over. But if you wanna do it fast. You've, you've gotta, you've gotta trust yourself. You've gotta build up to, to obviously building up your speed, but then you've gotta learn how to attack the obstacle, um, and do it with a level of conviction that it's like there's no going back.
Um, and it is an unnatural thing. You've gotta unlearn. What you instinctively, naturally, um, think to do. And I feel like leadership is so similar to that in that it is unnatural, like it, it to lead a team of people is so risky. You, you are not, when you're, when you're in a leadership position, you are no longer responsible for the outcome.
You're responsible for the people that are responsible for the outcome. It's one of my favorite Simon Sinek quotes, right? And it's that transition point of, hang on a minute, it's no longer about me. It's about what I provide to others so that they can be great. And that is. That is unnatural. That is, you know, anyone who says that leadership is easy or that it's for everyone, you know, is kidding themselves.
So, um, so it does require discipline. It requires, um, some, some really tried and true frameworks. Absolutely. Exactly what you were talking about. Um, you know, there's some tricks to it. Um, and it does, it does require. A wholehearted conviction. Um, you know, one of the things that I also do within my programs is I say very much, very up right up front.
Leadership isn't for everyone. Just because you can lead doesn't mean you should. So if it is not in your heart and is not what you desperately wanna do, um, when it gets tough, 'cause it inevitably will get tough. Um, you know, you've gotta have that sense of courage and conviction inside of you that you know what it is that you want to do is to genuinely, you know, lead, invest, contribute to others.
That's what leadership is and it's, it's not for the faint of heart, but when you, when you get it right, you know, I can probably, there's, there's maybe two, three times in my whole career and I hurdled for 12 years solid. Um, there was probably only two or three times in all of that time that I got it just right.
You know? Yeah. And it just felt effortless and it was, you know, almost a spiritual kind of experience. Um. But all of the other times, you know, it was hard. It was tough, it was disappointing. It was, you know, but you just kept going back in search of that, that level of, you know. Perfection that comes, well, perfection is not the right word.
Yeah. Excellence. 'cause perfection is a myth. Um, and one of the biggest challenges people have with leadership and confidence comes from this place of the desire to be perfect when that's impossible. And you know, I think that's the other thing with leadership is you're never done. You know, like, you know, I could go back to hurdling now and I could, and I could start learning again.
And I could it, you know, I'd, and I'd learn a whole bunch of different things now that I didn't know when I was younger. Right. Yeah. Um, so I think that's the other beauty. That's what I love about the leadership journey is, you know, just when you get to a level of mastery. You're handed a team or a circumstance or a situation that tests you yet again, and you've gotta find your next level of mastery.
And you know, that's, that for me is, you know, a beautiful, it's like
having children. Um, you know, like when my twins would get, they'd, they'd master one sort of skill and I'd finally work out something with them. Um, and then as soon as I mastered that, there'd be like, I don't know, one hour of like, relief.
Yeah. And then suddenly there was a whole new thing I had to deal with. A whole new age, a whole new stage, you know, that I had to deal with. Um, I wanna talk a little bit about, um, or bring up about the hurdles because you spoke about, you know, how you. Only had brief moments of like elation, the rest of the time is damn hard work.
Okay. Yeah. Um, and I get completely understand that, and I think that anybody who gets into business needs to accept that right from the beginning. And you said it earlier, you said they've gotta get comfortable with the uncomfortable because I'd imagine as a hurdle list you would've hit. A lot of hurdles you would've jumped and plowed into so many, I'm gonna say hundreds of hurdles, um, which would hurt you physically, hurt you emotionally, hurt you spiritually, um, hurt your ego.
Um, and then you gotta get back up again and you gotta go do it again. So it's not for the faint hearted. Um, and I love that you said that. So I always say like, it's so important that you get comfortable with the uncomfortable, um, and you're constantly working on your willpower muscle. Constantly. Like you said, you're never done.
No, you're never done. You're constantly working on that on yourself. You're constantly working on exercising your willpower. Um, it's so, so important. And then again, getting coaches to support you because you also said that when you are inside the jar, you can't read the label. Um, and love, I love that when you're inside the jar, you can't read the label.
You can't actually see what's going on. And people go, oh yeah, I can do my marketing. I know what to do. And I go, well, if you knew what to do, you'd be a millionaire. You'd be wealthy. Um, you wouldn't be coming to me. Mm-hmm. So, you know, you need somebody else to, to speak into it for you. Mm-hmm. So, I mean, that's really awesome.
So I wanted to talk a little bit about like the B2B journey. 'cause as a facilitator, your ideal client are large organizations that are wanting to bring you in as a leadership facilitator to work with their community to help them in the leadership space. Right. Um, and something I often talk about in the B2B space, I always say it's a much longer journey.
Mm. It's not like, it's not like you go into social media and you build no, like, and trust. You get the lead, you make the sale within a month. It doesn't happen like that, like B2C space maybe. Um, and it's a lot slower now, but in the B uh, in the, sorry, the B2C space, it may happen, you know, a lot sooner, but in the B2B space, it's a lot longer.
There's, there's a lot of following up. There's a lot of building rapport and unfortunately what I see in the space is that people go out, they do the know, like, and trust. They generate that lead. Or they get that inquiry and then they leave it and they go and they look for more and then they say, it's not working.
And I go, well, you actually haven't done the F word. And that is followed through follow up, like follow through, follow up. There are two F words. Mm-hmm. And fun of course. Throw that in there. Um. Yeah. So for me it's around that. So speak a little bit about like, um, as an expert in the space, what do you find in the B2B space and, you know, give us some examples of how that could look or how they could play out.
Because the other thing is there's so many other decision makers involved. Yeah, absolutely.
Um, so it's a long game. And again, I, I referenced Simon Sinal lock, but it's purely because the way that he distills stuff down, um, when he talks about the infinite game and that the goal in business is not to win.
The goal in business is to stay in business for as long as you possibly can. So there is no winning and losing. There is just outlasting, everyone else. And when you understand that. You know, you, when you, when you're going to offer something to a business, you're not, it's not the same dynamic as when you, when you're individually dealing with a person, because the sphere of influence of an individual, you know, they're in the mindset of, you know, what do I need for me?
How do I improve myself individually? When you're going to a decision maker within an organization, either it's the business owner or it's someone in a people and culture or HR type role who is looking for how do, how do we. Um, how do we as an organization continue to improve where we are headed? Um, how do we stay in this game for as long as possible?
How do we, um, develop and retain our people? Um, that's, that those are the considerations that they're thinking about. And so they wanna bring in, they, they're not looking for a quick fix. They're looking for a partnership. They're looking for someone who can. Who is as interested in investing in them as they are interested in investing in their people, right?
So. Um, you know, two, two of my clients, um, that come to mind. So my very first foundation client, um, you know, I met this business owner, um, at a, at a networking function. Um, and, you know, uh, his, he's very cynical, uh, type person, a very cynical and sarcastic, and he pretty much said, you know, um, I'm looking for something in particular.
Um, and for, for their business. Um, they have, um. They're in the construction industry of sorts, and, and they have their, their people spread up and down the eastern seaboard. So every other leadership facility, they've been wanting to invest in leadership and developing their people, and they knew that that's what they needed to do.
Um, but they hadn't been able to find a facilitator that that could retrofit. To their needs. Um, and so I said, well, no, we'll just deliver it online. And he's like, what are you talking about? You know, all the other people wanna bring them all together and operationally that's cost prohibitive for them. Mm.
So that's the other thing with B2B is you've gotta be aware of for that particular business. Like what are their. It's the same deal in terms of what's the problem to solve and you know, what, what's their biggest pain points or the rest of it. But you gotta think more strategically around how does this business stay profitable and how is what you are offering going to increase their longevity in this game called stay, stay in business for as long as possible.
So, um, I said, no, no, we'll, we'll do it online. And, um, you know, um, that will mean that they can phone in from wherever they are. And, you know, it's, it's no less valuable. I've still, we've still got the face to face, you know, we've still got all of the, the cues, et cetera. Um, and we had, you know, they had a, a really interesting, you know, cross section of humans of sort of.
Some guys in their mid twenties who were, who they identified as emerging leaders that they really want to invest in. And then, you know, the crusty old dudes that are, you know, in their mid, mid fifties who've been there, you know, for 20 years. Um, and you know, and everything in between. And you know, they, they want, they wanted to make sure, like their goal.
And I guess this is the other thing around the staged approach with B2B. 'cause it's a, it is a long. It's a three to five year engagement basically. So we started with, they wanted just a foundation. They wanted a baseline. Um, you know, everyone on the same page all singing from the same hymn sheet. You know, this is what leadership is.
So that was the first phase. Um, and so that was the first program that we delivered together. And then, um, you know, the following year all we did was reinforce that first program. Uh, 'cause it was quite an intensive delivery over three months. Um, and, but the interesting thing is once you get given the tool, you get given the framework, you know this as an athlete.
Then you have to implement it, but you don't actually get it in your bones until you've done it over and over and over again, month in, month out. So the second phase of that, the, the second year was literally taking that same program and each month bringing everyone back together again, reinforcing the, the different components, reinforcing the different frameworks.
And they, they, they had to come to those meetings with their, their latest. Um, stories or anecdotes of what they were grappling with in their real life, day-to-day stuff. So that was the other really brilliant thing about that was all of a sudden, you know, guys that. Working in different projects and different teams that didn't operationally overlap, had a reason to talk to each other because leadership was the thing that connects them across the organization.
So what they noticed as a business, one of the biggest upside was the cross connection, the cross pollination, and then the cross-communication and collaboration. Their communication as an organization improved because they had a collective bond that was no longer operationally driven. It was actually leadership driven.
So that was really, really cool. Um, and then the third phase, which is the phase we're in now, um, we've essentially, um, created a, a culture based program. Um, so it's a continuation of leadership, but each module is built around their values as an organization. And that was about recognizing that it wasn't just about, it's no longer just about, you know, influencing the mindset and the, the, the skillset of their leaders.
They needed to start. Having that seep into the other areas of the organization, other layers of the organization to be able to influence the culture of the business as a whole. So, you know, it, it really is layered. Um, you know, I've just kicked off another program this month with an, with an organization and I started that process, um, that, that.
Initial inquiry in August last year, and it only just dropped into the can, you know, this month. Um, and that came from an internal, um, reference from someone who'd done, done one of my programs three years ago. Um, and that person's a raving fan and knows, knows the, the quality and the caliber of the, the, the tools that I was able to equip her with.
And because she walked away with them, not just. A nice theoretical understanding of leader. She, she walked away with a practical, like at times shot between the, you know, she'll talk about, you know, get shot between the eyes, um, you know, um, with, with some of the staff. Um. She, she was forever changed as a consequence of that experience.
But then she was like, no, no, if, if you're gonna spend any money, you need this person to do it because, you know, she can, she can guarantee. And so, so her, her role in being the internal referee, um, and influencing her SLT, um, to around that. And obviously I then had to do the work around. Putting the proposal together, making sure that it fit for them, um, you know, going back and forth, understanding who their decision makers were.
Mm-hmm. Um, there's a lot of stuff, so, you know, we can, we can talk into the so good, the nitty gritty of how you go through a, you know, um, I guess the, the, the. The acquisition process in B2B. Yeah. Um, because you're, you're not, you're never just asking, like the person who's making the decision is never just, you know, the person you're talking with.
There's always three or four other Yeah. Key decision makers. Um, and that's a really crucial part of, I guess, the mechanics of how you convert in the B2B space. Um. And from your very initial conversation, you know, one of the questions that I ask is, who else is the decision maker? What do you need from me to help you sell this internally?
Yeah. Um, and you know, how, how, what do you need to know in terms of return on investment? What are your expectations around that? Um, how can we. Um, essentially build a business case Yeah. To so, so that the decision makers and the owners are so rock solid. Clear Yeah. That it's, and it's just a no brainer.
Yeah. And, you know, so baseline, they're gonna, they know what they're gonna get. They're gonna, they're gonna get people that are trained and equipped. Then all the other staff that is almost intangible, that then just starts like, you know, that delivers ten one thousand fold on top of that because, you know, a confident, productive, happy, you know, driven, you know, solid, grounded group of leaders who like each other, who work with each other, who've gone through thick and thin with each other.
You can't put price on that.
Yeah, it's so good. And I think, I think one of the most important things here, like generally here, what I feel you're speaking into is around how. You can't rush this process. Right. So I've got a couple s here 'cause I love my acronyms and all these s came to mind, but you can't rush the whole process of it.
And people try to rush leads. Mm-hmm. They try to rush leads into sales. Um, but there's a couple of s here and that is, it's all about building that relationship with the right people. Yep. Um, and a relationship is two-sided. So it's not just about what you want to deliver to them. The relationship is also about what is it that they're actually wanting to achieve.
So then my next star is relevancy, going what is actually relevant to them right now? Like, what's going on for them? And I always talk about connection and truly understanding what it is that. Wanting, um, and then the effective communication of it, right? So it's about building that rapport with them, um, and it being super relevant.
And, um, and then, but ongoingly, I think as well in the marketplace, you have to have a reputation. So reputation's really important. 'cause the reality is, is that there's probably like a gazillion. Leadership facilitators out there. That's the reality, right? So why you, why this so ongoing in your marketing?
Like reputation management's super important. Getting those reviews. Um, building raving fans, more oz raving fans reviews. Come on, Chantel, reputation, you've done it. I love it. Feeling more Oz today. Yeah. Um, but it's all about that, you know, and that's how you get it right now. There are. So, no, that's super cool.
So thanks so much for that. So, um. All right, so let's just talk about if people were to, we, you said about the acquisition. Okay. So you spoke a lot about the leadership side, which I absolutely love. 'cause I know that, um, again, another, oh, you've gotta get your reps in,
you've
gotta get your reps in, in anything new.
And I know for myself, when I. Became a leader by now having to have a team. When I, before I was on my own, now I've got a team of four, like I've had to learn, like mm-hmm. Um, and I did not get it right all the time. So the reality is, is that like leadership does not come easy. Like you said, you've gotta get your reps and you've gotta practice.
It's a new skill you've gotta master, right? Yep. Um, so we spoken to that a bit, but let's talk about the acquisition part of it now. So, um. If we are talking about, for example, LinkedIn, right? Because you said you got a presence on LinkedIn. Yep. You market yourself on LinkedIn. So talk about the process. Let everyone know what the process would be for you.
I mean, I've been, I've been growing that network, you know, solidly as a, as a professional over the last, you know, 20 years. Right. And that's
relationship R again. Yeah, totally.
Um, and I think probably the biggest turning point for me at the beginning of this year. And you talk about getting your reps in, um, you know, was just committing to regularly posting like just that consistency around like bare minimum, you know, once a week.
And I think the biggest thing there was also making sure that when you do. Provide information on that platform that there's value there. Mm. Um, so everything that I'm putting out there, you know, aside from the occasional, Hey, this is what I'm up to, or these are some, you know, human interest stories, every, every time that I am, I'm putting together a story, um, I'm thinking about it's, it's coming from me.
There's something that a client is grappling with, or that I've just delivered, or that, you know, I know that, you know, companies struggle with and I'm, and I'm posting, um, you know. With as much value as I possibly can around, you know, these are the issues, this is what people are grappling with. You know, these are some, these are some of the frameworks you can use to address them.
Uh, this is how you overcome it, this is how you lead it. Um, and you know, I found, um, yeah, PE I think being, being in. Uh, people's sphere and popping up. You've gotta have that consistency because you don't know. You just don't know what people are, who, who's watching. Mm. Um, you know, I've, I've got a, um, project that's kicking off next month and, um, that particular, um, lead, you know, I was, I was in the middle of a facilitation somewhere else and I, um, we got to a break and then I.
You know, picked up my phone and here's this email sitting there, um, and saying, Hey, you know, I'm a, I'm a HR manager and my CEO said to reach out to you. And I'm thinking, you know, who is this person? And then I've gone and had a look on my LinkedIn and sure enough, they're, they're part of my, they're, they're, you know, a first connection.
Um, and I haven't necessarily had, you know, uh, with this particular person, like, I'm thinking, where have I met them? You know, I can't even remember that. But it was enough to, you know, to prompt the, the conversation. And obviously then I had the, the, the initial discussion, um, with the. Uh, with the, you know, the person who, uh, engaged or was engaged to find out.
And, you know, again, inside of those questions, inside of those initial conversations, I was like. You know, who else are you considering? Am I the only person that you're getting a, um, proposal from? Um, you know, what's, what's the scope? You know, what, what are your expectations? So there's, there's all of that that happens, um, that you really need to be able to map out very clearly in, in the, in that initial scoping conversation in order to be able to put a proposal in front of someone.
They can say yes to, that's gonna actually cut through and be relevant, right?
Yeah. Um,
and you know, I think the ability to, you know, I've got my core programs and I've got some core elements that I know, you know, not negotiable. They must be in there, that they're the baseline of how I deliver, and every single one of those is tailored.
To the, to the person. So, you know, the, the framework is the same, but I, I, I work with the client to adjust to their context because they're the context experts. You know, my job isn't to walk into a construction company and tell them how to build, right? Mm-hmm. But my, so my expertise is around how, how do they, in their context, leverage these leadership tools to, to, to make it work inside of what they do.
And I think that's probably one of the. Um, you know, real powerful elements of what I do in my programs. There's, there's this real sense of authenticity, but rawness, there's another af, real and raw, you know, like, um. Uh, when we talk about, you know, conflict and confrontation, like I go, right? I get people to go back to their, their families.
Um, you know, I tell my story at the beginning around, you know, why I go back to my family of origin. It's 'cause that's where you actually learn to lead. Like from zero to seven. All of your major programs are imprinted in your brain, the way that you operate, what you believe about yourself and the world and others.
Those are all at the core of how we interact as human beings, which is the basis upon which. All human behavior and all human performance is produced. Mm-hmm. So when you understand that that is the core, you know, and you are walking into a leadership role, and you've got a belief that sits there underneath the surface that says, I'm, I'm not good enough, or I'm, I shouldn't be leading these people.
You are going to struggle hard, right? So a big chunk of being able to, um, figure yourself out as a leader is to i, is to get to the core of who am I as a leader? What's my identity? What do I care about? What, what matters to me? Um, what, why, why do I feel called to do this? You know, why would I put myself in this situation?
Which is essentially quite difficult. It's like parenthood as well, right? You know, not just, just because everyone can be a parent doesn't mean everyone should be, um, or that everyone can, and every single one of us has our own journey. You know, we can all be better though. We can all be a little bit better.
Absolutely. Right? But that's also a choice, that's a growth mindset, right? Mm-hmm. Um, you know, to, to, to take on, to have the choice to go, you know, I'm not done. I'm never done. Um, and that, that is. That is ultimately, I think the keys to life, um, is, you know, to, and that the leadership journey, you know, whenever I've, um, am in an intensive sort of three month delivery of these, these frameworks and in the program, um, you know, I'm really clear about signaling to the, to the participants.
Like, this is, this is bootcamp, right? This is like. This is the off season. Um, this is where we're doing the heavy lifting, right? Um, and once this program's done and you are released back out into the wild to inflict yourself on unsuspecting humans that you're supposed to lead and manage, um, that, that's when you, the real training begins.
You know, like you, you, you. You, it's, it's such a, you know, I could run the same program with the same group of people two years in a row. Yep. And it would be different every time. Yeah. Because what they're up against a year from now is different. Where they're at in their leadership journey is different.
Their level of mastery is different. Their sense of self is different, you know? Mm. Um, the circumstances and the scenarios that are getting thrown at them is different. So, you know, this. That's, I think the other thing that I find miraculous and beautiful about this type of work is that you can just do it over and over and over again, and.
Every time it's new, every time there's another layer, every time, you know, I, I learn as much from the people I lead and, and that I facilitate for as, as what they do. The other interesting thing as well that I wanna say about. Um, when you're in the acquisition process and, and really understanding, you're gonna understand and get in underneath as much as possible inside the DNA of the business that you're pitching to because, you know, when you really understand the, you know, what drives them, what they are, um, the game that they're playing, the mi, their mission, um, you know, what matters to them, um, where they're at.
Um. You can, you can really have an influence. You become part of the team and you buy into what they're doing as much as they buy into it. Right. Um, it's not as well, that's, that's how I do it. I'm not interested in surface level stuff. And that, that's the other thing is I'm really, really clear about if you wanna check box leadership.
Yeah. You know. Um, we, we ran some people through a really nice workshop. Don't, do not, do not come to me. Please do not, because I, like, I'm only interested in transformational change. I'm only interested in getting uncomfortable. Right. This is why I like Fiona. It is like, it's, it, honestly, it's like why would we, why would you bother?
I know. If you, if you didn't wanna make a difference.
Cool. So I've got a couple of C's. Okay. A couple of C's now. So I've got, you know, getting down to the core of it, I've got clarity. Mm-hmm. So with that Clarity. Clarity and like is awareness as well. Yep. Customizations, customizing everything that you do.
Yep. And really being customer focused, um, are really, really good words. Um, and the last one is choice. I always say you, you, everything's a choice. Everything's choice. You choose everything. You can consciously create your life more Cs. Yeah. Um, so interestingly,
one of the core things that I talk about, um, with regards to when I ver at the very beginning of any program, there's two things that have to be present in order for leadership to happen.
One is awareness. Mm. Because if you're not aware of it, you can't change it. Yep. And the other is willingness. Yes. If you're not willing. Like, you cannot lead or manage an unwilling human. Mm. Like you cannot force a human to do something that they don't wanna do. Anyone, uh, dealt with a, a toddler?
Yeah. They say you can't, you can't, you know, uh, you can't reason with the toddler when it's throwing a tantrum, like Right.
You just can't. And it's the
same. And I've, I've seen, I've seen 17 year olds act with more maturity than, you know, anyone else in the room. And I've seen 57 year olds, you know, act like toddlers. Right. Yeah. So, and we've all been there. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so I think that that willingness thing and everything is a choice.
It, it really genuinely is. And I think that's the other thing as well in my space with leadership. Um, I'm also not interested in working with companies that aren't genuinely invested. Yeah. So for me, one of my big key questions right at the start is are you looking for tokenism or you actually looking for genuine change?
And are you willing to be part of it? Yes. Because if a senior leadership team just wants to Yep. Give it to those people to, and flick if they need it. Mm-hmm. They're not willing to be part of it. Yeah. I won't touch it. Yeah.
Now the C word culture Yeah. Is so important. That's why I only work with purposely business owners because Yeah.
They're ready to get uncomfortable. They, yeah, they're willing, yeah. Willing, willing, aware, and willing. So, okay, cool. So you can consciously create the type of business that you want, um, and you can build a business that is focused on, you know, your customers genuinely caring about your customers. Um, thank you so much Fiona, for being here today.
And, um, you've got a, um. Uh, a resource that people can benefit from. They do.
Yes. So it's, it's defining your leadership purpose. So it's a, it's a pretty simple process. It's a series of reflective questions and it's designed to help you get really clear on your vision, your purpose, and your identity as a leader.
'cause it's a deeply personal thing and I don't think we spend enough time really pulling that apart. Uh, we just think that everyone should be able to lead, and that's not the case. You need to be able to find your flavor. Of leadership. Mm-hmm. So it's about really identifying that. And, um, so it's two parts.
The first part is that reflective piece, and the second part is how you can then use that to position yourself, um, on your LinkedIn profile. So actually using that as a way of, um, positioning yourself there. You could also potentially use it, um, when positioning it with your, with your new team. You know, when you're stepping straight into a new leadership role, um, one of the hardest things to do is.
Clearly communicate to the people around you, who you are as a leader, what can, what they can expect from you, um, and what you don't know and what you're still learning, um, and then inviting them to be part of co-creating what the leadership journey looks like for you.
I absolutely love that. And I think it's, it's, there's so much strength that goes behind, um, truly being aware of who you are and what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are, and then being able to communicate that with everyone else so that you can, like you said, co-create.
Love that. Thanks so much. How can people connect with you? What is your. Website 'cause I don't wanna butcher it.
Perform mastery.com au. So P-E-R-F-O-R-M-A-S-T-E-R-Y. Poor Perform Mastery, perform
Mastery. Thanks so much for Fiona for joining us. Everything will be in the show Notes below. If you happen to read.
Please remember to subscribe and rate us. This is Chantelle Gerardi from the Meaningful Marketing Podcast. Thanks for listening in. Meaningful marketing is all about you making your marketing meaningful. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please hit that subscribe button, but subscribing means that you won't miss out on future episodes.
All about marketing and motivation. Stay inspired, stay focused, and make your marketing meaningful.