Shannah Kennedy and Colleen Callander - Elevate in 2024

Is it time to unlock your extraordinary power and elevate your life?

Powerhouse duo, Colleen Callander and Shannah Kennedy think so and in their new book Elevate and in this week's episode, they're sharing exactly how each of us can elevate our lives to have greater impact.

I loved this conversation with Colleen and Shannah because not only do we explore holistic methods of achieving personal and professional growth, but each of them share strategies to help us redefine our definition of success, no matter where we are in our life journey, and level up from ordinary to extraordinary.

If you're looking for inspiration in 2024, need a word of the year of a bit of motivator from these inspiring leaders, then 'Elevate' might just tick all the boxes.  Enjoy!

Elevate is available in all good book shops now, so go, grab your copy, we would all love to know how you’ll be elevating in 2024, so please reach out and share with us on socials.

Connect with Colleen here.
Connect with Shannah here.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

You're listening to the Secrets of Successful Business podcast, your go-to source for business tips, tricks and proven strategies that will help you create a streamlined and profitable business. We chat to the best minds in business about their journey. It's my business and I'll do it my way, how they started, rather than going harder to get more focus on growing more with what you have, what they learned along the way. How long are you going to give this?

Speaker 3 0:29

What compromises are you going to make? Just because you can do, it doesn't mean that you should do it.

Speaker 1 0:33

It's really important to remember that it's a long game and, of course, we'll ask them for their secret source for creating a successful business. If you're not feeling you're not doing it right, you should be struggling at times. That is part of the journey. Join us as we take a sneak peek behind the curtain, talk solutions for those business pain points, working smarter, not harder, mindset and the challenges of bidding it all in with the demands of today's busy life style. If you're a business owner, side hustler or just starting your business journey, this podcast is for you. Now here's your host, business coach and content creator, justine McLean from Fawcay Creative.

Speaker 3 1:13

Hello and thanks for joining me on the podcast today. In case we haven't met, I'm Justine, a small business owner on a mission to uncover and share the secrets of creating and running a profitable, sustainable and successful business. I've been in business for over 20 years now and I get to use all that I've learned along the way to help other women in business reduce the overwhelm, gain visibility around their numbers, charge what they're worth and make more money. It's about designing a life you love that fits into your definition of success. So if I can help you create the profitable business you deserve, please reach out Now without further ado. Let's dive into today's episode. Today, I have the absolute privilege of welcoming back to the podcast two incredible women who have teamed up to form a power couple whose combined knowledge will undoubtedly pave the way for a new narrative of success in 2024.

Speaker 3 2:13

Colleen Callender served as the CEO of two iconic fashion brands in Australia and, with an impressive 30 year retail career, has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in building brands and establishing winning cultures. Shana Kennedy is a master life coach and life planner with more than 20 years experience working with elite athletes, ceos, entrepreneurs and high performing individuals and teams to help them take control of their lives and achieve their visions and goals. Together, they present Elevate, their groundbreaking new book that empowers you to rise from ordinary to extraordinary, one step at a time. Whether you're pursuing personal growth, professional goals or overall well-being, elevate is the key to achieving outstanding results and, according to Colleen and Shana, the word of the year for 2024. I'm excited to talk to them today about how we can all elevate our lives through their stop, start and keep method. So let's dive in. Welcome back to the podcast, colleen and Shana. What a treat to have you both here. How are you?

Speaker 4 3:18

Oh, thank you so much for having us. It's wonderful to be back here. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but we're back here as a duo, so we're super excited to share that with you today.

Speaker 3 3:28

Yes, I am absolutely thrilled to have you both here. I introduced you in the intro to this podcast as the dynamic duo and I don't think true words have been spoken. Now, before we kick off, can you both share a little bit about yourselves with the audience and, in particular, what you're doing now? I'm sure people know you from the individual podcast you've done, but just in case we've got some new listeners out there Welcome, by the way. Love you to share.

Speaker 4 3:55

Yeah, sure, about us individually or about us as the duo.

Speaker 3 3:58

Well about you individually, because I think that's really important, because you've both got some great stories.

Speaker 4 4:04

Sure, sure. So I was fashion retail for 30 years. I was with the Sports Girl Suzanne group for 20 of those years and 13 of those as CEO six years at Suzanne and seven years at Sports Girl. So I absolutely loved the fashion industry, loved my role. But at 20 years I decided it was time to write that next chapter. And that chapter was really about Shana and I collaborating. And Shana was actually my life coach for a number of years and actually coached all of my executive team as well, and we always said we'd love to do something together and bring our different sets of skills which we'll talk about today together and really do something really fabulous with that. And so we've created this business called Human Elevation. But my whole wheelhouse is leadership and culture and brand and really putting people at the centre of everything we do and all of the decisions that we make in our organisations. Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 2 5:02

Fantastic. Well, I'm Shana and the other part of the dynamic duo, so isn't it great to be able to collaborate and lift each other up? I think it's just awesome, and so many people are afraid of it. But my background is, you know, executive coach for 20 years, coaching elite athletes, celebrities, ceos, business owners, right through to stay at home moms like anybody who is really interested in high performance living and it's something I've been doing for a very, very long time about creating life plans with people and helping people gain clarity, purpose and direction in their life. And working with Colleen was just an incredible experience because she invested so much in her team, in herself, in her people and how to really support the people to show up the best versions of themselves. So when she finished her role after 20 years in the business, you know we had that talk about. Well, why don't we just do something together? And it really started out as let's just do a keynote together to just blew into a whole business literally overnight Wow.

Speaker 3 6:08

That's amazing and, as you say, you're really on a mission now to elevate humans and help us redefine our success. And you've actually said that you want elevate to be the word of the year in 2024, which I love, love, a word of the year. So why this book and why?

Speaker 2 6:26

now.

Speaker 2 6:26

The book came about because we thought, you know, everyone needs a manual at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 6:31

And how can we put all of Colleen's amazing experience with leadership, culture, brand behavior, along with my well-being, high performance, sort of look over everything values, vision, habits, goals, all of that kind of thing into a book where people take an action plan and elevate means, step up how to, you know, improve yourself, you know, one percent at a time, basically. And we put it into a book so that people, at the end of every chapter, are asked to take a little bit of action. Yeah, personally, it could be relevant to someone at university, it could be relevant to a CEO or an Olympian, it doesn't matter. But we put the high performance slant over it to say we can all make change and if we all just really define what we want to stop doing and what we want to start doing and what we want to keep doing, then we can take some really great action. So the book is really about the two of us, all of our skills put together in a skill set with some action around it.

Speaker 3 7:33

Yeah, I love that idea of that incremental change. You know those one percent changes, because I think so many of us think if we're going to elevate in our lives that it needs to be this big. You know all or nothing. You know we need to kind of, you know, climb the mountain or forget about it, and so you've mentioned that there. You know that one of the aspects in the book is to start. You know, stop, start, keep method to help bring that clarity and to, you know, fuel action. I wonder if you could share a little bit about that with you know a bit more about that with the audience and I guess how it can be applied to transform. You know both the aspects of our life. You know personal aspects of our life, professional aspects of our life, business aspects of our life as well.

Speaker 2 8:19

Well, as a coach, you know and Colleen did this the whole time with her team as well is they had the word of the year. And then also, you know, we need to stop doing what's not working for us. So it could be the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you move your body, what your habits are. It could be the way that you approach your emails for that day, it could be the way that you wash your hands and ground yourself. It could be the way that you lead your team and your people, some of the mannerisms you might have.

Speaker 2 8:47

We need to stop doing what's not working to then think about starting. What will work? What will I replace that with? What's my focus going to be? And then we also need to think about what do we need to keep doing, because we're already doing a lot of fantastic things. So let's make sure that they're in front of mind as well and we keep doing them because they are working. So it's a little game at the end of every chapter, really, that invites action and nothing changes if nothing changes.

Speaker 4 9:15

We always say and I know, colleen, you probably want to put your two cents in, but that's a real basic summary of it- yeah, no, I think that's a great summation of it and you know you can do that in every area of your life your personal life, your professional life, your career. So it's really about just identifying those things Start, stop, keep. Really simple strategies. We always find the most simple strategies are the ones that work and really being clear and focused on what it is you want to achieve, what's the goal, and then what do I need to start, keep and stop doing to achieve that?

Speaker 3 9:51

Yeah, and I know that one of the things that you both really talk about and particularly you, colleen is, you know, life, leadership, longevity. They're central to your work and they're really the three pillars that you sort of focus on. You know, I wonder how those areas apply to our lives and you know why it's crucial to really understand those different aspects of our lives and how we can implement those 1% changes to help us elevate in those different areas.

Speaker 4 10:24

Yeah, we talk just in about people first and human first and you know, the life, leadership, longevity pillars came about again with Shana and I really talking about what are our skills that we can pull together. And you know there's a lot of people out there that talk about leadership. There's a lot of people out there that talk about health and wellbeing and there's people out there that talk about longevity, which is avoiding burnout and self-care, but there is no dynamic duo in this country, female dynamic duo, and there is no one that actually is saying these are the foundations of self, our life, our leadership and our longevity and they all need to be working in harmony. So for us it was always about and for me it's sports girl and with Shana as my coach there, it was always about I wanted people to be the best version of themselves outside of the organization so that they could turn up to me every day and the organization being the best version of themselves. And you can really only do that when you have those pillars in balance.

Speaker 4 11:22

So those pillars are things like self-care, mindset, habits, planning, culture, leadership, burnout and you know, as we said, we need to really identify in each part of those areas. What can we keep doing, start doing and stop doing just to elevate those a little bit? And often people think they need to have these big sweeping changes in their lives like massive change, but they actually don't. Now we talk about small change, big impact, and we think lots of small changes. As you said, those one percenters, they add up quite quickly. So we really want people to think of themselves as human first. We want organizations to think of people as human first. And you know, that's really when people turn up to your doorstep every day in that mindset. That's really when the magic happens in organizations. That's when you have incredible organizations that really thrive.

Picking a Word of the Year

Speaker 3 12:16

Yeah, and also people are more in sync, right? Absolutely yeah. And so your book. I mean, as I said, it's called Elevate. You want Elevate to be the word of the year in 2024 and for me I always choose a word of the year because it's like that anchor for me. What do you think the benefits are of picking a word of the year? Because you know we're kind of at that point where we need to be picking our word of the year.

Speaker 4 12:40

Absolutely, shana, and I have done this for a long time. I did it every single Christmas. My team would expect it at our Christmas party. You know, as I was finishing the afternoon, I would always say now remember to think about your word for the next year, because people don't. You know, we all go out with these great you know news. Even we're like this is going to be my new year's resolution and I'm going to do this. You know, by about day seven, majority of people have forgotten about what that new year's resolution was. So it's just, it's not sustainable. But when you think about a word for the year, that is that is sustainable. We absolutely believe.

Speaker 4 13:17

Elevate is the word for 2024, you're going to see it everywhere. You're going to see our book everywhere. But it was really amazing too, justin, because when we'd come back from the new year in the organization, everyone would be talking about their word. Some people would stick it on their you know their desk, but it was really great because it actually helped people accountable. We talk about writing things down. When you can see things, when you can write things and you have a clear visual, things start to come alive. So it became this really powerful thing within the organization that people were just continuously trying to elevate themselves by this word that they've actually decided on for the year. So it is a really, really powerful tool and we believe the word Elevate is the powerful tool for next year and just on that idea.

Speaker 3 14:03

So you know, you've got a business. You've got all these different staff members. Everybody comes back with their own word of the year. To me, as a business owner, it might be tempting to have a business word of the year. Is that something that business owners could think about too?

Speaker 2 14:15

Yeah, I think absolutely, and I think that even if everyone has a different word, if they are all up on the wall, everyone's words, it's a vision board right there. It's very, very inspirational. As Colleen said, you want to be able to see it all of the time, and in our book, elevate, our action of the year to go with Elevate, is a printout for people so they can download it off the website or they're writing it actually in the book, and the whole idea with high performance is you must see things on the wall, you must stand up or the screensaver up, and when you've got the word of the year, you just apply it to everything that you're doing. So a company one or a personal one definitely highly encouraged.

Speaker 3 14:59

And that's what you mean, because you say you want it to be more than a word. You want Elevate to be a concept. You know, a way of life that drives purpose and achievement in every area. So let's say you know, we've got people listening and they're thinking that sounds like a really good idea and I'm sure they're going to go on by your book. But if we really want to embrace Elevate in 2024, where can we start?

Speaker 2 15:24

Well, I think we just start with the foundations. So the book actually takes you through the foundations and we always start first with your own set of values and making sure you've got clarity around them, you know, because they're really about what's most important to you. And then, if we know what's most important to you, what's the one step you could take to elevate that? So if health is most important to you and the reason we we actually chose Elevate is because we've been through COVID, we've been through burnout, that's all done. Now it's time to step up. So say health is your number one value. It then asks you well, what do you need to do to stop, start and keep to elevate your health and your? So you start with the foundations of you, which is you know values, vision, where are you going, your confidence, how you're going. You know improve your confidence. What can you stop, start and keep doing? And it gives you lots of examples all the way through. So you just start with the basic of you first. That's who you are, where you're going and how you're going to get there, what are some of the goals. And then you move into how you want to lead yourself and really put that leadership over everything. And the longevity is all about how do we have a long term, sustainable career, how do we not burn out in doing all of this? Lene and I both had burnout when we were much younger, but we've had 20 years now without burnout and really performing at the top of our game, and we really want to share how that's done. So longevity is all about finding the depth, the fulfillment, not being an achievement junkie, but actually finding fulfillment and joy and gratitude in what you're doing every day.

Speaker 2 17:03

And it talks a lot about celebration, and Colin and I love celebrating. You know we're very good at high fiving, we're very good at going out for lunch and celebrating. We really do want to enjoy the journey and I think for a lot of people that forgotten the art of celebration. So we want to bring that right into. So when we start celebrating, the more we celebrate, the more we have to celebrate, the more that we become grateful for something we can live a life of gratitude. So we want elevate to be the word forever, Because no matter what age you're at or what stage you're at in life or what season you're at in life, we can always look to do a one percent tweak, we can always look to just what's not working for me and what could I replace it with, and I think that's that's just across the board for all humans.

Speaker 3 17:49

Yeah, I mean, the book sounds amazing. I can't wait to see it because I think it's so important. And I think, as you've said, Shana, post COVID, we're all kind of, you know, we've been a bit stuck in this world where it just seems like COVID's over and then something else is going on. And something else is going on and there's that sort of sense of doom and gloom around and I think just to have such a powerful and positive word to go into a new year is amazing. It's so important. And so I guess, Cole, can I start with you. What does elevate mean to you for 2024? How are you going to elevate?

Preparing for the Third Act

Speaker 4 18:31

Yeah, sure. Well, for me, elevating is really just doing that little bit better every day. You know, taking the simple things in life and saying I can just improve that a little bit. You know some people. I don't go out and say I want to be a runner and run a marathon. I go out and say I'm just going to run from this lamppost to the next. That's elevating. I can then run some more and some more. Ok, 2ks, 5ks, 10ks. Every day is about building on the person that I am, I suppose.

Speaker 4 18:59

So yeah for me, it's just doing that a little bit better every day, just improving a little bit. One, those one percenters, as we said, they really add up over time. So everyone can elevate that's the thing right Every human on this planet. This is not a book for a certain segment of person or a concept for just you know, those entrepreneurs over there. This is a book and a concept and a way of life and a mantra that every single person on the planet can do and it will elevate and enhance your life.

Speaker 3 19:29

Yeah, totally. And what about you, shana?

Speaker 2 19:31

For me it means like unbelievable self-awareness. And when you live with chronic fatigue, like I do, self-awareness is everything. It's really being in tune with what's happening, with how you feel and how you think and what you're programming the mind with the computer program for your mental health. So for me it's total self-awareness. And how can I fine tune physical, mental, emotional wellness? Because then I can really show up to elevate all of the work around me, the way that I parent, the way that I show up in the business, the way that we can collaborate, the way that we can share. The message is, for me the foundation is always fine-tuning and that elevation and trying to take a step up a little bit further.

Speaker 3 20:14

And it's interesting that you say that, because I know that a lot of my clients at the moment, a lot of people that I are speaking to, I'm sure they don't have chronic fatigue per se, but there's a lot of people who are really tired right now. And so what's one thing that you do, shana, to help help you? You know, tweak that self awareness, breathe.

Speaker 2 20:38

Yeah, it's a simple, boring answer, isn't it? But a lot of people don't breathe. They're holding their breath all day. So most of the listeners out there I've been haven't taken any conscious breaths today. So when we breathe and we breathe really slowly and deeply, even just when you wash your hands, if you take three deep breaths, it's like you ground yourself, you connect with yourself, you're checking with yourself and if we're running around all day, you know, colleen, and I say you know, every day is a marathon and if you don't stop at the drink stations you're just going to burn out and cross them, you're just going to be exhausted every night. So if you're not, every time you're washing your hands, taking the breath and just calming the nervous system down and checking in.

Speaker 2 21:18

For me, that has made me able to work at such a high level for so long. Raise the family, be really fit with chronic fatigue by that total awareness. I think, and I think a lot of people just don't have it. They're just human doings, not human beings, and we need to. If you want to hyper-perform, we actually need to master the art of breath.

Speaker 3 21:41

Well, thank you for reminding me because, honestly, I now remember that from our podcast, when you talked about going and washing your hands every time you go to the bathroom and breathing at the same time. So thank you for that reminder, michelle. I love it.

Speaker 2 21:56

I've had one habit.

Speaker 3 21:58

Now, we're all women in our 50s here today and honestly, I think it's so wonderful and refreshing to have women of our age, at our stage of life, who are stepping up and speaking out, and I know that there's plenty of listeners in the same age bracket who are listening to this podcast. Jane Fonda, who I love listening to, refers to becoming 60 plus as the third act of life, and certainly it's approaching for me, probably a little faster than I would like, but obviously, all being in our 50s, it's approaching for all of us at some point over the next few years. So how are you preparing for your third act? What do you think that is going to look like personally and professionally for each of you?

Speaker 2 22:54

Colleen, I'll go over that, no problem. 50s, I think, is definitely not quite the third act. It's the 60s. So the 50s is all about wisdom. It's about really thinking about what's worked for you in the past and what bits do you want to take into the future and what bits of your job did you love doing and what's your strengths in taking them into the future. So when we sat down, we said we want to combine our wisdom.

Speaker 2 23:22

We definitely want fulfillment in our job. We're both achievement junkies, but we need to find the depth and the fulfillment in everything. That's why we're doing the walking the world and taking people on the Camino track and Japan, and we're really bringing into the business things that give us great fulfillment and collaborating together in our 50s. So there's a whole decade of work ahead of us. So it's never too late to reinvent or never too late to start a business. We've got a lot of life left in us to work at least 80. So that's 20 years away. So I think we've got a lot to do ahead of us and we can make it really exciting and, instead of being daunted by it or a bit sad about it, let's get really excited, and I think we've never been more excited to start a business and start creating. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 3 24:14

And what about you, Colleen?

Speaker 4 24:16

Yeah, we've always talked about our life in decades. We're in our 20s, our 30s, our 40s and if you think about that journey, they're all very different decades. And now we're in our 50s and for us, we actually think that this is going to be one of the most exciting decades for us, because our children are grown up. They're both in school, so I mean, shannon's got one in one more year and she's done. But our children have all blossomed and we've given them the great foundations of life to go and actually do life now. So we've done that. That. Big jobs ticked, we've got these incredible careers and we have these incredible lives. And the thing that we're really passionate about in our 50s is actually taking that and actually serving others as a leader.

Speaker 4 25:02

It's always been my real passion to say great leadership is about being in service to others, and why keep all of this incredible knowledge that we both have to ourselves? We want to see women elevate in 2024 and beyond. We want to see more women in CEO roles, we want to see more women in leadership roles. We want to see more women in all roles, and so we really want to give our knowledge is as females and not just females, because, again, elevate is for everyone on the planet, but we really want to share our learnings, our successes, our failures, our fears, our frustrations, our desires to really help other people, and particularly women, elevate and really be able to live that best life, which is the only one that they deserve.

Speaker 3 25:51

Yeah, and no matter where they are, as you say, no matter what decade, and you mentioned walk the world before. I'm fascinated. Can you want to be shared a bit more about that?

Speaker 2 26:01

Yes, well, we love walking. We, you know, colin and I have done a lot of walks together. We've even had trips with our husband walking Tasmania, et cetera, and we thought, you know it's really passion of ours is to walk and talk. Because when you walk and talk you think quite differently than if you're sitting at a desk or in a cafe and you become very creative and you're out back in nature. So imagine walking and coaching people on as we walk and they get to journal every night as well and capture the thoughts of being in big nature. So we partnered with Wandering the World, who is a wonderful company here in Melbourne, and so every year we'll be doing two walks the Camino every April and another destination every October. So this October is Japan, next October is Italy, where we walk through Tuscany and every I know, every morning we do a lecture and then we help you on the track. So we walk with you, we coach you and then every night you journal and we give you journal properties as well. So it's really fulfilling for us. We get to really share our knowledge, we get to really support people.

Speaker 2 27:07

But people become very, very creative and there's also the power of a group. So when people don't think they're fit enough or anything like that, like we just had on the Camino Trail. People just do incredible things because of the power of a group. They often do a lot more than they think that they can. So it's a really exciting thing for us to share as well. And success shared is, I think, a lot more fulfilling than just doing things on our own. So we can go on stage on our own or we can write a book and sell it on our own, or take a walk on our own, but doing it together. That's a shared life experience and you've got someone to really share in the joy but also reminisce with, and I think that's really important for human beings.

Speaker 3 27:51

I love that idea. I am going to pop a link to that in the show notes and I think I know what I'm going to be doing in October 2024. I'm going to be walking through Tuscany with both of you. Sounds like a dream.

Speaker 2 28:04

That's what we're trying to create the dream absolutely.

Speaker 4 28:08

And just, we very rarely take time out for ourselves, right? You know, we're almost on that sort of treadmill and we're always looking after other people and running our businesses and all of these things. And it is unbelievable what happens when you actually stop, remove yourself from your day to day and really open your mind. And people walk away from the Camino or Italy or any of the walks that we do, with this unbelievable self-awareness that they just haven't had clarity on before and unbelievable plans for their future, really thinking about themselves and where they want to be and how they're going to get there. So it's incredibly rewarding for us to do, but it's also incredibly rewarding for the person, because they come out of that with this whole future plan for themselves.

Speaker 3 28:59

It sounds incredible, and I think you know we only get this one life. So, yeah, I'm definitely checking that out after we have entered this podcast Now. Listeners love this question, so I'm going to ask you both, collite. I'll start with you. I'm going to put a little twist on it, though. When you think about your business, you know what are the secrets, or secret, of running a successful business, and if we want to elevate our business in 2024, what is your number one tip?

Speaker 4 29:34

For me, I will always come back to the power of people, and you know, everything starts at the centre. The centre of your organisation is actually people. You know a lot of people. When you talk to leaders, you know, say what's your secret source, and it'll be our strategy or our innovation or our product or our processes or whatever that may be. And you know all those things you find on a spreadsheet right? The thing you don't find on a spreadsheet is people, and that's the thing that they forget to look at.

Speaker 4 30:03

And so, for me, I think the number one focus is people with purpose, and passion equals profit, and a lot of leaders look at it the other way around. It's always about, you know, profit, revenue margin, shareholder returns. I've never looked at a business like that. Of course, that's important. Like money makes the world go around, we have to have profitable businesses, but that's not the way I've ever looked at it. The way I've always looked at it is that when you have passionate people with purpose, then that's when the magic really happens in an organisation. That's when the success you know becomes apparent. That's when the revenue starts to go through the roof and people thrive. But that actually has to start with having incredible people and an incredible culture that they want to come and show up to every single day.

Speaker 3 30:50

So I'd say that's the secret source and just on that, I mean, I think there are so many people who you know, whether it's a small business or a big business, and this is going to sound like a silly thing to say, but they're almost afraid of the people that it's like oh, I have to deal with people in this job, so what is your, I suppose, tip for working with people? And you are very clever and have always been clever in your career in bringing team together and achieving amazing results. So what's the tip? To start doing that.

Successful Business Secrets in 2024

Speaker 4 31:31

Yeah, I think that I've seen it over many years in different organisations In fact, across my 30 years is that people hire great people and then they tell them to sit in their chair and do the job they want them to do Just do the job description. People don't want to do that. You know. People want to turn up and feel bigger than the seat they sit in. So I think for me, it's about hire great people, hire enthusiastic people, hire people with the right skills. Most importantly, hire people with the right attitude and then allow them to be experts in their field. You know, too many CEOs want to do the job, and CEOs role is to actually have incredible people around them to do the job. A CEO is a visionary of an organisation. That's what a great CEO does. They inspire, they empower, they impact, they influence. That's what they do. So, hire great people, but let them do their job. Let them actually be experts in their field.

Speaker 3 32:26

Yeah, that's amazing and you know, and I suppose you know, in doing that it's about helping them with those incremental changes or empowering others, if you're the CEO, to help the staff with those incremental changes as you go, you know, through the life cycle of work, of business.

Speaker 4 32:45

Absolutely, and I think you know. Just talking about that, justin, you know I used to talk about the circle of safety. You know, when you create an environment where people know you've got their back, people know that they can try new things, that they can step out of their comfort zone, that they can share their voice. That's when people do amazing things, because they know if they fall over, you've got to be there to pick them back up again and give them another go. So it's also about creating this circle of safety where people feel that they can be their authentic self and they can share their voice and have a bigger impact on the business than, again, just that job that they have. So that circle of safety is really, really key to the success of any business.

Speaker 3 33:27

Yeah, and Shannon, what about you? What's your secret of running a successful business and what's your tip for elevating business in 2024?

Speaker 2 33:37

Well, I think the secret is clarity, clarity, clarity. And I think a lot of people even small business owners or solo business entrepreneurs they lack the clarity and they have nothing up around them to remind them. So the brain needs a map. It gets very confused, it gets very doom and gloom, it always looks for problems. But if you put a high performance on that, the athlete always knows exactly where they want to get to and how they want to get there.

Speaker 2 34:05

And for a lot of businesses they haven't done that step, so they're just working, but they might not be actually working in any kind of direction. So clarity is key and when I work with people and when Colleen and I talk to people about this is you want to elevate, you need to know where you're going, you need to create the map. You need to know what the vision is for the business, what it stands for, what the mission is, what the values are and then what are the habits that have to be instilled in the business around the goals. And I just think a lot of people haven't sat down and really thought that through and a lot of people who have started their own businesses haven't thought it through properly Really what it takes to run your own business, and where the clarity needs to be and what the non-negotiables are and where the boundaries are. So there's a lot, but it all starts with clarity.

Speaker 3 34:55

Yeah, and I think what you've said is exactly right, because once you start your business, you get into the busyness of the business and spend all your time, invariably working in the business, particularly if you're a small business owner and never take that time to work on the business. So perhaps in 2024, just really setting aside that time to get that clarity and to work towards that end goal and obviously using elevate as a tool to be able to do that, is a great way to start this year, when we sat down, we said, ok, well, what's the vision here?

Speaker 2 35:30

We had to ask ourselves the same question, and it was two women with one mission to elevate humans. And how are we going to do that? We're going to have a book, we're going to have a key notes, we're going to have masterclasses, we're going to have an immersive offsite day for people to really delve into their life, their leadership and their longevity, and, on the side, we're going to walk with people as another way for them to find out their clarity, so that they can elevate. We can't take a step up anywhere unless we know what we're trying to achieve. So I think it all comes back to clarity as well. So there's a lot of things that people can do, but really think about 2024 and think about what is it that you really want, where do we want to go and how are we going to get there? Amazing.

Speaker 3 36:14

Colin Shana, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Now for listeners who want to join the Elevate Movement, what is the best way to connect with you both and do just that?

Speaker 4 36:26

Head to our website, wwwhumanelevationcomau and jump on the contacts and send us a message We'd love to hear from you and a book. You can actually head to our website and get our book there as well.

Speaker 3 36:39

And now, before we go, if you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be? Shana?

Speaker 2 36:45

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Speaker 4 36:48

And Colin Mine would be go for it, Because we believe that there are people out there that will tell you your dreams are too big, your aspirations are too high, you're never going to get it done. Someone else has done it before you and we're going to tell you you can do anything that you want to do in life if you elevate and you actually go for it. So that's our message for 2024 as well is you can do and be anything you want to be if you want to put in the work and elevate and just go for it.

Speaker 3 37:19

Amazing. Thank you again. Elevate is available in all good bookstores, so go grab your copy. We would all love to know how you'll be elevating in 2024. So please reach out and share with us on socials or shoot us an email. Thanks for listening everyone. Until next time. Bye.

Speaker 1 37:41

Thanks for listening to the Secrets of Successful Business podcast. For more information on all things business, head to focicomau and make sure you hit subscribe on the show so you don't miss another new episode. If you're enjoying the show, please give it a quick rating or review, share it on your socials or with friends who might enjoy it. Catch you next time.