Grace first left school when she was 14 and 9 months. Today she is the founder and CEO of Age Up Health, employing over 70 people.
Join our conversation where Grace shares her inspiring career journey and shares how understanding her drive and way of learning has led her on this unusual but very successful career path.
Grace first left school when she was 14 and 9 months. Today she is the founder and CEO of Age Up Health, employing over 70 people.
Join our conversation where Grace shares her inspiring career journey and shares how understanding her drive and way of learning has led her on this unusual but very successful career path.
Chris Potts (00:09):
Hello and welcome back to Careers Night, the podcast where we asked our guests, What's your job and how did you get there? I'm really excited to share with you today's episode. It's with a good friend I made during my studies in MBA and it's a, I guess a story of a very non-traditional career path to one that's now led her into a CEO and founder role at a startup that she's established. And I think it's a really difficult story and I think it's really hard to sit here and tell you what to take from it. We look to celebrate and share lots of different stories and show that everyone's path to their careers is different. I think this is a really interesting story and this is a story that includes dropping out of school a couple of times and not completing year 12 studies. And as you hear from Grace herself towards the end of this recording, it's not the lesson that she would share with students.
(01:15):
However, I think it's incumbent on us to take from this what we want, that perhaps there are people out there that the traditional education system is not for them. But I think the broader message, the stronger message that we can all take and glean from this is just that understanding of what it is you want, how you learn, and how you are gonna pursue your career is on you. And that this particular journey that Grace has taken is extremely high risk. One that a lot of people won't end up where Grace has and should be taken with great caution. However, it is a genuine story about how someone got from a difficult time in their teenage years to being a CEO of a company that's in its third year has 70 odd employees and is making a genuine change to people's lives. And I think it's one that's really worth celebrating and sharing.
(02:17):
And I'm pleased and proud that we've been able to have this conversation and I do hope that anyone listening takes from it what they can and what they need to. And I think you agree with me that Grace is an extremely inspirational and strong person and I hope that you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I did. So on that note, I'm keen to get into it. Thanks very much Grace, for joining us today. I think we started talking about this a little while ago and I think I did tell you that my motivation to finally go and record an episode was on the back of a conversation that you and I had where you quite out told me to just do it. So I did it <laugh> and that's in part how we got here today. But if you could start by introducing yourself and letting us know what your job is.
Grace Petherick (03:09):
Yeah, hi Chris. So my name's Grace Petherick. I am the Chief Executive Officer at Age Up Health, which is an aged care technology organization that I started myself about three years ago.
Chris Potts (03:21):
Very good. And I think CEO and founder would be how most people would talk to that role. Do you wanna tell us a little bit about what Age Up is?
Grace Petherick (03:31):
Yeah, so Age Up was started off the back of a personal experience that I had with my own grandparents. So my grandparents were as we were growing up, always saying to us, Don't you ever put me in a nursing home? And I think that that really resonated with myself and my family. So when they became a little less well and their health started to fail a little bit, we got some services and supports into their home to help them stay living independently. Unfortunately though that experience was really poor. We found that the company that we're working with was not delivering on what they said they would do. They weren't answering the phone. My grandparents ended up thousands of dollars out of pocket waiting for reimbursements. And in general we just had a terrible experience and I thought, do you know what? I think I can do better than this <laugh> and much to the dismay of my partner at the time, I took all of our money out of the bank and I started the company not knowing what I was doing and sort of built it brick by brick since then. So now we're across two states in Australia and developing some pretty interesting proprietary software.
Chris Potts (04:36):
So you would describe yourself as a technology company?
Grace Petherick (04:40):
We are a technology. We're technology and services. So we do a bit of both.
Chris Potts (04:44):
So what does that look like for someone who, a customer I guess, or what business model?
Grace Petherick (04:49):
So the great thing that we think is that the customer doesn't actually interact so much with the technology and that's really important cuz of the type of service that we're delivering. So very personalized services. We're sending people into homes to help people with their showering and their cooking and their day to day living. So we don't want I guess complex technology getting in the way of that human to human connection. Our software is really about decision support for our case managers and for our clients themselves and their families when appropriate. So helping them to decide what kinds of supports and services will benefit them to stay home for longer and extend what we call independent living years.
Chris Potts (05:33):
Cool. So the purpose then is to help people stay home longer, is that
Grace Petherick (05:37):
That's exactly right. We wanna keep people outta nursing homes.
Chris Potts (05:40):
Nice. And you're across two states. How many people are working for
Grace Petherick (05:45):
You? We've got a staff of about 70. So that includes a mixture of and casual staff across those two states. So enough people that I don't know them all personally, which is a pretty crazy thing when you're a founder, you build this team from scratch and you can't do all the hiring yourself and then suddenly one day other people are hiring in your company and it feels all very surreal. <laugh>, it feels like you've built an independent entity, which is an amazing feeling. It's really cool.
Chris Potts (06:14):
It is. And did you say it's three years old? The business
Grace Petherick (06:17):
Three years old now will be three in November. So next month as of this time of recording.
Chris Potts (06:23):
And I don't know much about startup growth and the entrepreneurial side of things, but that seems extremely quick to go from grace taking money out of a bank account to 70 employees.
Grace Petherick (06:36):
Oh look, I'm sure that my investors would've liked to see it happen quicker. <laugh>, it's not linear, the startup life, it's ups and downs and growth and shrinkage and we've been through redundancies and we've been through wine backs and we've been through rapid growth periods, we've done it all. So I dunno that I would say that it's very quick but it certainly feels like a whirlwind
Chris Potts (07:00):
<laugh>. I bet. And what is, it's probably pretty hard to answer this easily, but a day in the life of a CEO of a three year old company, what does that look like?
Grace Petherick (07:11):
<laugh>? Yeah, look, every day is different and I think that's the part of my job that I love the most because I'm not just a a CEO but I'm also a founder. It means I have my hands in kind of all areas of the business on any given day. So I do work very long hours. I do work very hard. My day starts usually around 7, 7 30 where I'm kind of checking in with what's happening around the company on that day if I need to input anywhere, if I need to prepare for any meetings or if I need to support any of my team to do something that they're doing that day or respond to anything that might have happened the day before for example. So I suppose my mornings and most of my days generally are filled with meetings and then between meetings I snatch half an hour here and there to catch up on emails to be responsive on our team digital headquarters we call it, which is Slack. We use Slack as messaging platform. So I'm checking in with my team, making sure that they get, respons me when they need it. And then I also work across sales, I work across marketing, I work across product development as much as possible. At the moment we're doing a big infrastructure migration project, so working with my CTO to see how that's going and where the hitches are, see if we can problem solve as we go. And I suppose that's probably the best way to describe my days. Just a lot of problem solving <laugh>.
Chris Potts (08:40):
And you're a technology company servicing age care. And we'll jump back in time shortly and cover your education and the journey to getting here. But just in brief, have you got a technology background?
Grace Petherick (08:56):
No, I have no technology background. In fact I've always been, when it comes to adopting new technologies, I was one of the last people to get a smartphone, wireless headphones in my latest gadget. So I'm always far behind on the technology front but I do always recognize the place for technology and specifically data analysis in terms of moving industries forward and creating innovation in different spaces.
Chris Potts (09:21):
Very good. And not from an aged care background either.
Grace Petherick (09:25):
Not from an aged care background either. My background is hospitality. I was a chef, it was my first job so I landed here <laugh> quite unexpectedly. But I wouldn't be anywhere else. I do love what I do.
Chris Potts (09:39):
Yeah, it's really cool. So I think we're up for a really interesting story and we'll take this opportunity to dial the clock back. And I don't want to tell you what year to start it, but <laugh>, what's the first job you can remember as a child thinking this is what I wanna be when I'm older?
Grace Petherick (09:56):
So when I was young, when I was in my early teens, I really wanted to be a vet and I remember doing work experience at school and going to Melbourne Uni to and their open day to learn about their veterinarian course and kind of really loved animals and loved the idea of we are to help animals. But the reality of that was that it required very high levels of mathematical and science capabilities. I was always very good at school but I wasn't very engaged with school. And so what that meant was my grades would suffer. I didn't wanna put in the time and effort to build my mathematical and scientific skills. So even though I was taking physics and chemistry and all things that you meant to take, I wasn't doing very well cause I was just more interested in what was going on outside of school at the time.
Chris Potts (10:45):
So to And are you comfortable telling us a little bit more about that?
Grace Petherick (10:49):
Yeah, so I think I first of stopped engaging a school around the age of 14. I was one of those strange people that dropped out of school twice on two separate occasions. So I guess the best way to describe it is that I probably fell in with the wrong crowd when I was quite young. So at the end of year eight, which is just before I turned 15, I dropped out of school and went and worked full-time for a year in a butcher shop, which was pretty cool job at the time was very cool to make money, it was cool to have colleagues who were able to buy alcohol and cigarettes and all the things that you're not supposed to do at that age. And then about a year into that I thought, yeah, I'm not sure that I wanna work in a butcher shop for the rest of my life.
(11:33):
So I went back to school I completed my year 10 half of year 11. But by that stage I had had a taste of the real world and I suppose my maturity was a little bit different to that of the students that I was in school with. So I wasn't finding it easy to go in day in, day out and be told off or wearing a wrong uniform or for being late or having to get escorted back home on the bus and all of the things that happen to you when you're a student, when you feel like you're an adult in your head. So I left school again and I picked up a job as an apprentice chef that was purely opportunistic. I didn't particularly wanna be a chef. I had no interest really in developing a career in that industry. But it was available, it was a job that I could do. It was a job that I could do close to home that I could get to. And I actually ended up being quite good at it. So I did my apprenticeship in Geelong where I grew up across two different restaurants and hotels. And for me that kicked off a long career in the service and hospitality sector, which is eventually how I ended up where I am.
Chris Potts (12:53):
So obviously dropping outta school twice and the first one at age 14, I don't even know if that's a legal thing. <laugh>. And was that with, and it's probably a loaded question here, parental support, school support at the time. What was that like for you?
Grace Petherick (13:12):
Yeah, so I can still remember the dropout age very clearly, 14 and nine months. And that's because I was counting down until I was 14 and nine months. That's the earliest you're allowed to drop outta school, at least it was at the time. I'm not sure if it's still the case. Look, I think I'm sure my parents would've loved me to have a more traditional adolescence where I went through school and graduated and went on to do university. But because I was going through such a challenging time cause I was playing up and giving them quite a run for their money, I think seeing me take control of the situation and not just drop out but get a full-time job and commit to something other than myself and my friends or whatever it was I was doing at the time for then that was a little bit of a relief.
(13:53):
And so the school itself was reasonably supportive and they were obviously supportive enough to take me back again a year or so later, even though I had been quite ill behaved <laugh>. So what we found, we had a good relationship with the school cause it was the same school that my parents and grandparents went to. So I was very blessed to be supported by them and supported not just in an educational sense but also through their counseling programs and their career advisory programs and all of these kind of extra things that we take for granted as a child. But when you look back you think, gee, that was a really, really good program. I probably benefited a lot from that.
Chris Potts (14:32):
And I think that's interesting and you sort of prompted it as I was thinking about my reaction to it and the follow up question that these conversations obviously happening in hindsight and you've achieved a whole lot more since then and gone on to some fairly impressive things. But at the time I assume it didn't feel as smooth as you, you're telling the story now. It would've been a bit chaotic and I, I'm curious whether you appreciated the support then what internally was that like for you at the time?
Grace Petherick (15:04):
Yeah, look at the time I doubt very much that I could appreciate the support that I was getting. I certainly had friends who didn't have the same supportive family networks and social networks that I had. So yeah, as you say, hindsight is a beautiful thing, but it was tumultuous time and there's this feeling when you are in high school that if you don't finish high school and if you don't do well, if you don't focus on your grades then you have no future. And that is a sort of sometimes explicit but mostly implicit expectation that you will conform to this traditional path and if you don't you'll end up working as a Garbo <laugh>. And so there was this idea of, well I'll stuff it, I've dropped out now so the rest of my life is gonna be a failure. I may as well embrace that.
(15:53):
And I think that I just got really lucky that I can clearly remember my dad at the time saying to me or finding this story of the Supreme Court judge who had dropped outta school and then gone back to university and became a barrister supreme court judge. And he was giving me her story as an example of, well yes this might be happening and this might be the right decision for you now, but that doesn't mean you can't still do whatever you wanna do. And so it was examples like that and support that kept that flame alive in the back of my mind that I actually still could have a career, which is something I had always wanted to do. I'd always wanted to achieve something great in my life.
Chris Potts (16:36):
So you absolutely believed that that was a possibility for you at the time that when your dad's telling the story about the judge and you thought it kept a flame alive for you, therefore you believed that that was a probable or a possible outcome for you to return to studies?
Grace Petherick (16:52):
I think so, yeah. Look, I think that it certainly fluctuated about whether or not I wanted to go back to studies over my teenage years, particularly when I turned 18. I could go out clubbing and do all those sort of fun things. But yeah, I guess in the back of my mind I always knew that I hadn't dropped outta school cause I was bad at school. I knew that I had the capability to do something if I wanted to do it. My mum had gone back to university at a late age as a mature age student. So I had really good role models in my life people who didn't give up on something just because it wasn't the traditional route. And so I think that whilst I wasn't consciously planning my career and planning my return to studies during that time, I always sort knew in the back of my head that there was gonna be different options out there for me if I ever did decide to do something different.
Chris Potts (17:43):
Was the conversation or the decision to go back to school a difficult one for you to reconcile and
Grace Petherick (17:51):
It was tough. I mean I think whilst I can't remember now what triggered that decision, I think that I got bored. I got bored working in the sort of retail job where I was doing the same thing every day. I've always been one of those people that needs to have stim, intellectual stimulation I suppose in order to be engaged with what I'm doing. So after a year of working and doing a job in retail, which I was enjoying, I had this moment of well maybe I need to do something to change the trajectory of my life and to make sure that I can open doors to achieving something different in the future. Look, as I said, I can't really speak to what triggered the decision to go back to school, but I do remember being quite set on it and having a moment of I wanna reopen the possibilities for my future career. And whilst that didn't work out and I did drop out that second time, at least I knew that if you want to do something it's probably a way that you could find to do it. If I wanted to go back to school, if I wanted to go back to university later on, I could probably find a way. And so that was really good as well, was a good experience.
Chris Potts (19:07):
I guess there's that sort of in and out and that, not really sure. Do you on reflection feel like the returning to school served a purpose to where you are now?
Grace Petherick (19:17):
I think everything I've done in my life serves a purpose to where I am now and I don't wanna be one of those destiny preaching people with hey everything is fixed cuz I don't believe in that. But I do think that having gone back to school at a time when I had been out in the workforce, even however briefly made me realize how much I had grown and changed in a single year. So when I was going back, I was in a very different place of a lot of my friends who were at school, they were still living at home with their parents and getting their pocket money or having their part-time jobs, which was fine, it was great, but I was still working and I wasn't living at home, I was living out of home and I was living a almost completely different life to what they were doing. And that had come about in the space of a single year. And so whilst the education piece going back and doing my year 10 was probably beneficial for later applications to universities. The experience of wow, you can really learn a lot and you can really change a lot and you can really steer the direction of your life in a short period of time just by experiencing the world. That was something that I don't think I had realized before I went back to school the second
Chris Potts (20:32):
Time. I like that and especially that bit around the, there's no regrets, there's nothing that you would've not done that everything has served a purpose and I think that requires a level of reflection and whether that was taking place at the time or retrospectively, I guess it's gonna be hard to know. But you then obviously went into the chef apprenticeship. Did you complete the apprenticeship?
Grace Petherick (20:53):
Yeah I did. So the chef apprenticeship was one of the few or the first things I completed in my life. So I was pretty proud of that. I did my three year time and worked my butt off as you do when you're in hospitality. I didn't stay in chefing for long after that, but I think just the idea of having a certificate and having completed something made me feel really good about myself.
Chris Potts (21:14):
What was it about being a chef? You said there was no sort of career design, there was no sort of purpose to why you chose that as opposed to it was there and available but you completed the apprenticeship and you spent a little bit of time there. What did you get out of that time? What was the important part that played in your story?
Grace Petherick (21:31):
So I think becoming a chef and for anyone who's ever worked around chefs or worked in that sector in general, it was a really I guess practical way to learn work ethic, essentially to learn discipline. So I think many, many, many weekends spent with hands deep in the sink or behind the grill working 15 hour, 16 hour days split shifts. I had to sacrifice a lot in order to move up in that career. So I moved up pretty quickly from not long after I can completed my apprenticeship, became a second in charge in the kitchen and not long after that worked in venue management and a couple of other things, but I was able to do that because I had to commute and sacrifice and I guess that habit of just showing up day in, day out, no matter how you're feeling, no matter what was going on in your life, giving it your best, focusing what you're doing and then I guess just working your butt off was something that I learned really early and that's something I've been able to take through even now into my startup. I'm no stranger to what they might call the grind of long days and long repetitive work and I guess that's really searched me well over the years.
Chris Potts (22:55):
So you did the chef and you were that for a while at some stage you started to think to yourself, I don't actually wanna be a chef for the rest of my life. And started considering other options. And we haven't yet touched on what you did after being the chef, but what did that look like for you? When did that start playing out and what was your thought process at the time?
Grace Petherick (23:14):
Yeah, so very similar I think to when I made the decision to go back to high school the second time, I kind of got to a point in my shift and career and it must have been in the second or third year coming up to the end of my apprenticeship where I thought this is not something that's engaging me intellectually. I'm not getting the satisfaction out of the work that I would like to have. The hours were good, the money was good, you know, got to party and do all the things you wanted and come to work the next day. And all of that was fun while I was in my early twenties, but it wasn't somewhere that I could see myself working for the rest of my life. So I did decide, I said, well if this is not it then what is it? And that's when I started to look at going back to education back into the educational system and I started with a certificate four in marketing which led into eventually into a bachelor of business first in marketing and then in economics. So I did get pushed back into university or pushed back into education by the drive to learn and the drive to use my mind and my mind to doing something more what I would consider more interesting.
Chris Potts (24:23):
I guess for point in time reference, what was your age at this stage?
Grace Petherick (24:28):
So I would've been about 22 by then, 22, 23. And funnily enough at the same time also. So at the same time I went into my bachelor business, I also picked up and moved to Europe. So it was a time of big change in my life but it was probably the beginning of a totally different chapter in my life where I was leaving behind my country, town where I grew up and that lifestyle of drinking and partying on the weekends and starting to explore what else the world had to offer. And a big part of that was education and career. And I think that was kind of where my passion for building my career was really born. It was when I went through this kind of mini renaissance when I was about 23 <laugh>.
Chris Potts (25:12):
So you went to Europe, does that mean your course was online or you studied in Europe?
Grace Petherick (25:17):
No, my course was online. I was lucky enough to be able to do the first few months or the first couple of semesters in person here in Melbourne and then I was able to take my degree online and so I did that degree over the space of about five years. And whilst I was kind of checking around Asia and Europe and living and working abroad and doing all those kind of fun things. And so that flexibility allowed me to continue to achieve and continue to learn and to grow my capabilities whilst also experiencing this amazing part of life which is traveling.
Chris Potts (25:53):
Do you think a traditional way of taking studies going to campus every day for three years would've worked for you at that point in time?
Grace Petherick (26:04):
I'm not sure that would've worked for me in any point in time. I've never been a traditional person. I find that I have always been somebody who wants to push my limits and challenge myself. And part of that is how much can I achieve in one go. So for me, whilst this might sound a little bit crazy and it's certainly not true at any point but for me going to university day in, day out and whether I had a part-time job or not, just sitting on campus doing classes just felt a little bit too easy. So I really wanted to challenge myself. I really wanted to experience everything life had to offer and I felt no reason to do that sequentially <laugh>. I just thought I would do it all together. So I'm not saying that that's the best way to do it and I not sure that I would recommend that to anybody cause I'm sure my grades would've been better if I had a stayed on campus. But it was certainly a great experience for me and I don't have any regrets about the way I lived in my life in my twenties.
Chris Potts (26:59):
I really like it. And definitely this is a unique story for what we've heard through this podcast so far. What you said earlier on that the experience of going back to school taught you that if you really want something you can get it, there's gonna be a way to make that happen. Yes. Did you need to use that and rely on that in order to get into university after not completing your studies or
Grace Petherick (27:24):
That Yes, I did. So in order to get into my bachelor's degree, I did have to take what they call or they some full a bridging course. So I did have to take that certificate for and that diploma of sort of TAFE level studies. And then I had to do quite extensive application processes to get into the bachelor itself you know, and I, Chris have done post-graduate study together. But in order to get into that course I had to achieve a minimum GPA in my bachelor. So I think that whilst I didn't come from traditional education background, I did put the work in order to be accepted into these courses and to get the middle GPAs I needed to be able to continue with my education and my education may not be finished. I've always been interested in further study even beyond the master's degree.
(28:13):
But in order to do that I still have to apply that same same mindset. Whereas if I wanna do a PhD, if I wanted to do some sort of other higher education, I probably could do it. It's just about working out what's the pathway to get there? Is it a little bit longer than everybody else? Maybe I have to go back and do a foundational maths course in order to go on and do finance for example, which is something I did have to do along the way. But just cuz it's a little bit of a longer route doesn't mean it's not possible. And in fact it's sometimes more interesting to go that way.
Chris Potts (28:47):
Yeah, absolutely it is. Yeah, we we've alluded to it, but we met through our MBA studies at Melbourne Business School. And before that you had done a bachelor studies. Is there a particular subject or unit within those studies that really hooked you in and gave you that interest? Cuz it sounds like you were always talented educationally, you always could understand the stuff, but you were really looking for something that lit a flame in you and I I'm wondering if you found that through your studies of business?
Grace Petherick (29:21):
Yeah, that's such a good question. So I think in my undergrad, even though I was majoring, I began majoring in marketing which I enjoyed. I was still sort of seeking something that really lit fire me as you put it. And for me that was economics. And I know this sounds super nerdy when I say it out loud, but I love economics and I didn't even know what economics was when I first discovered it. I think my interest was really born in, actually it was born in the early kind of naughties or the late naughties where the Cosworth struggle was happening and there was a lot of talk about acquisitions and I think West Farmers acquired one of them and there was all this sort of stuff going on that I was reading about in the papers. And for whatever reason as a mid 20 something woman, I found that stuff fascinating. And about a year later I found out that actually you could study this stuff, you could study the science of business as it were and why companies and individuals behave the way they do and why people make decisions on behalf of their companies. And there's this whole world of economics out there that kind of explained these things and explain explained market forces. When I found that out, I immediately changed my major and ever since then I've been in a total economics nerd. I've loved reading about it in for uni and also outside of uni.
Chris Potts (30:41):
And had you had any exposure to economics through school?
Grace Petherick (30:45):
No, I never did any business units in school. I only ever did science cause I thought I wanted to be a vet. So I had no prior experience or exposure to economics at all.
Chris Potts (30:56):
And I was exactly the same. I made a decision back in university at schooling that I was gonna become a in the science fields and therefore skewed my studies that way and have subsequently learned that I would've been much better off <laugh> pursuing economics or those sort of subjects. So it's really cool that you had the opportunity to course correct I guess during and lean into that. All right, so it took you five years, you're over in Europe living the life and doing your studies. Was it during this time that you decided to launch a business and to go down that avenue?
Grace Petherick (31:36):
No, and I would love to say that there was a distinctive time where I decided to launch a business, but it really wasn't for me. Starting age of health wasn't about creating a business. So it wasn't about being in business and it really wasn't about me at all. So it wasn't until I moved home from Europe, I then spent some time in Asia finishing off my degree and in exchange in Malaysia I came home, I just finished, just graduated. I was working in a big gas and electricity company on a contract and this situation came up with my grandparents and this experience of really poor service and what I would call neglectful service for my grandparents started to happen. And when I saw that that was happening, when I saw what was happening to their friends and when I was looking around at the market and that at the time this was pre covid, but there was a rural commission happening in aged care, the sector in general was quite antiquated.
(32:28):
There wasn't a lot of technology or digital transformation happening. It was an opportunity that I couldn't let go of. I got this idea in my head that geez, I could actually do something about this. I could do something that legitimately affected the experience that my grandparents had and everyone liked them and the conditions are right and I don't have anything to lose and I've got a little bit of money to put behind it. Why not? And for this kind of thought formulated and formulated and formulated over a couple of months until I just took the plunge. And I think even at that time it really wasn't about wanting to build a business or wanting to be a CEO or any of those things, it was really about how can I do something, fix something that's bigger than myself and that was really the motivation.
Chris Potts (33:18):
Yeah, that's really interesting. And as you're talking through this, the thought that comes to mind is that there would be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Australians who have gone through a similar experience to what you did with aged care. And I guess most of the world at the moment thinks they're extremely entrepreneurial and could solve these problems. What was it about your story to this point in time or who you are that meant you actually took that step, you saw the problem and said, I'm the person who can solve this, had the confidence to solve it and three years later has 70 employees and across two states and running a very successful business. So do you have an inkling as to what that might be?
Grace Petherick (34:06):
<laugh>? Look, there's certainly a luck element. Let me just put that out there for starters. You get lucky, you work with great people, you're in the right place at the right time. I think one of the reasons that I was able to do it is that I don't, or particularly this time in my life, I've learnt not to be afraid of failing. So many of us and so many people that we meet do have entrepreneurial ideas and probably could do amazing things, but the idea of failing or lot succeeding I should say, rather than failing or the idea of putting money in and losing it or losing face or whatever it is, is super scary. We've got homes and mortgages and we've got families to look after and we've got reputation to hold. And for me, because of my background and because of the kind of I would say, I don't wanna say constant failures, but the constant chopping and changing and trying new things and not succeeding throughout both my school years and later on has primed me to not be afraid of that. And even now most startups do fail and even though we're three years in, there's still the possibility that it won't work out. And I just have to lean into that and not be held back by the idea of not getting where I want to go and just give it a really red hot shot and see what happens.
Chris Potts (35:27):
And I can't help but think back to you're in school, you had made the decision schooling's not for me and you wanted to leave. 12 months later you make the decision, Actually no, I do wanna do schooling. And then again, a period of time later you fall back to your original decision and decide that you were right the first time. And I think <laugh>, I can't help but wonder if that takes a certain personality trait, a certain something that's willing to say, I don't care what everyone else thinks or that I got this wrong, going to just go back to school because schooling is a time of significant peer pressure of falling that thing. And I imagine that was a stressful time to turn up and on day one again and say I'm back. And to go through that judgment and it's probably not dissimilar to the stress or the challenges of running a startup and saying, I don't really care if this fails, I'm doing it for me.
Grace Petherick (36:23):
Absolutely. And I think it sounds crazy to say now, but I never really fit in fitted in at school. I was always a bit of a strange kid. I got bullied. I was never one of the cool kids. I had a small group of friends but they chopped and changed. So the social aspect of school is really hard for me. But I think that making that conscious decision way back then to not care what people think and just do what's right for me has carried me all the way through to now. And you realize as you go through life that the people that are meant to be in your life and the people that you wanna spend time with are the ones that don't judge you or care about your successes and failures. They're the ones that are there for you as a human being and who enjoy your company and connect with you on a human to human level. And once you have that realization, the whole world opens up because you can try anything and it just doesn't matter if it doesn't go, you can literally shoot for the moon as they say.
Chris Potts (37:20):
Absolutely. And then after all this, you've effectively been in and outta studies nonstop. You've started a startup 18 months into that you've decided to take on a masters' of Business administration. What was that about for you,
Grace Petherick (37:36):
<laugh>? Yeah, I think a lot of people called me crazy when I decided to do that cuz an MBA is very intense and a startup is very intense. So putting those these things together is not advisable. But I was building this company that was getting bigger than I was. It was bigger than my experience. I was working in a highly regulated space. I was responsible for a lot of people, both my employees and my clients and their families. And so as the company grew and grew and grew and I could see that it was going into the next level from a startup to scale up as they say or to traditional company, I felt the need to upscale and to really grow into the title as well as the company. So I made a lot of sacrifices, the sacrificed a lot of time to be able to do that mba, but I did it because I wanted to take the company into the next level.
(38:27):
And I learned so much while I was doing that study. Not just the content itself, but just learning how to speak and behave and be in the corporate world was something I'd never learn. Working in hospitality and traveling around the globe, running nightclubs or whatever I was doing. So it was learning so many levels and learning to become a figurehead and to become a late of my organization as it goes into this next phase of growth. That's what I really want to get outta the nba. And that's absolutely what I did get out of it in the end.
Chris Potts (39:04):
And one of the things I've enjoyed is seeing that growth in you and what the NBA brought out in you and how amazing that journey's been. Are you loving where you are now? Are you in a place where you are like, this is what I was here to do and I'm doing it?
Grace Petherick (39:23):
Absolutely. I love my job. I love everything about my life and I've built my life to suit me because as I said to you earlier, I'm one of those people that thrives on being challenged and filling up my cup with as much I guess as many challenges as possible. And for me, doing the MBA and building this organization and doing all the other things that come with life has been the greatest challenge I've ever taken on. And it's been hard and it's been emotional and being exhausting, but I'm at this place where despite all that I have achieved some really cool stuff and every day I get to go to work and work with people that I have chosen to work with who are really smart, really motivated people, building solutions, technologies and service solutions for a group of people in the community who I really care about and able to make a real difference in people's lives. And there is no better feeling than that to live your whole life to achieve something greater than just yourself.
Chris Potts (40:29):
And last question until we get to the last three, and it's maybe a little off topic, but it feels like certainly back at in school time and from what you've suggested and alluded to that you had falling outs with all sorts of people around you and it was a really difficult time for you. And I'm sure at times you fractured relationships with parents, with school. And I'm very much hoping for the sake of this question that you've come around <laugh>. But I'm curious to understand across that journey you must have felt like you burnt bridges at times and you're able to make amends there and you don't get to where you are today without an amazing support network around you. How has that been and how have you been able to keep that support network strong irrespective of the stress, the challenges, the frustrations you've felt at different times in that story?
Grace Petherick (41:27):
Yeah, that's a really good question. Mean, yeah, you're certainly by, I think my parents and I had many falling out out when I was an adolescent girl, but I was lucky, as you said, to have a really good sport network. As I grew up and as I changed and developed as a person and found my identity in my early twenties, I was able to, I hope, give back to those relationships and to spend time not necessarily repairing. I don't think that repairing relationships was necessarily needed when it comes to family particularly, but to I guess invest and develop in the bond that I had with people, not just family, but also the friends that I grew up with or some of the friends that I grew up with, new people that I met along the way, professors and fellow students in both my undergraduate and my mba and people that I've worked with across the years.
(42:21):
I still stay in touch with some of my employers from back when I was a chef. And that's been really important because in every sense as an apprentice, but also as a young employee, you are at the mercy of the people that want to guide and mentor you. And if they put time into mentoring you, which I was lucky enough to have with fairly employers, then that's a really great head start. It really teaches you things that you may not learn until much later on your own. So I, I've spent a lot of years trying to be grateful, trying to be humble and just trying to be there for people when they need me in the same way that they were there for me when I needed them.
Chris Potts (43:03):
And that's a beautiful message and I think that applies to absolutely everyone and might bridges nicely to the first of the last three questions, which is obviously your path has been very different and I don't wanna put words in your mouth, I presume your message to students out there is to not drop outta school at 14 and nine months <laugh>. But I'm curious as to what advice would you give students back at that point in time in their life and starting out on this journey?
Grace Petherick (43:32):
I think that yeah, you're right that I wouldn't go around preaching that dropping out of school is the best thing to do cause it certainly makes life a lot harder. But being confident in your ability to make things happen for you, it's school and that traditional pathway of graduating, going to university is not the only way to do things. If you really want something, you can have it. And that can be educationally or otherwise. If you are willing to work, if you're willing to think laterally about how you're gonna get somewhere, you're gonna be okay. And so just take a bit of pressure off because these are some of the funnest years of your life. I think everyone that I meet tells me that it gets funner as you get older and life gets more enjoyable. And that is true. But when you are going through school and going through university, that's a really, really fun time. And if you are constantly worried about what's happening next, you kind of miss the enjoyment of that. What happens next will happen and you can make whatever you want happen, happen. So take a breath, take the pressure off, just enjoy yourself.
Chris Potts (44:32):
Couldn't agree more. And my next question, and I suspect you've suggested the answer throughout, but I'll give you the opportunity to formally put that down, but anything you would change?
Grace Petherick (44:43):
Yeah, look, I was thinking about this. I'm not sure that there was anything I would change. I think in terms of things that I've done and decisions I've made, there's nothing I, no decision I would reverse. If I was going to add something, if I was gonna go back and do something extra, I would probably have paid more attention in maths <laugh>. I would've spent the time developing those really fundamental, authentic skills and learning about algebra and all the things that at the time I found absolutely painfully boring because those have been the skills that have hardly back the most as I've gotten older as a girl in school, you are told, you were told back when I was at school that girls aren't as good at math as boys and that's a total bull crap. <laugh>, yes, a socially conditioned not to do as much math as boys are, but if I had have concentrated, if I had have done a lot more math at school, life would've been a lot easier as I went on and did further studies. So that would be the only thing I would do differently. Everything else, I would keep it exactly the same.
Chris Potts (45:44):
Yeah, I like it. And you do learn that in economics in particular, things like algebra do to actually play a part. So
Grace Petherick (45:51):
Yes, they do. <laugh> a turn algebra, that's the most important lesson. Yeah, <laugh>.
Chris Potts (45:57):
And last one is, what's next for you? What does the next few years look like?
Grace Petherick (46:03):
Yeah, so for me, my whole world is age health and it will be for the next couple of years. And we've got a lot of really exciting stuff happening. We continuing to develop very cool proprietary software and mature the decision support that we build, but also like to see our services extend across more parts of Australia and overseas. So for me, the next few years is really about maturing that business and helping as many people as we possibly can to stay home and live home for the rest of their lives.
Chris Potts (46:32):
I appreciate that and just wanna say once again, thank you so much for making the time to share your story. As I said at the start, you were one of the motivations to finally hit record and to record the first one of these. And I'm really pleased to have been able to do this. And I do also appreciate the time that you're on holidays and you've taken some time out of your much leave to record this with us. So thank you very much for being here.
Grace Petherick (46:57):
Thanks Chris. Thanks for having me.
Chris Potts (46:59):
So thank you all for joining us on today's episode. That's it for our conversation with Grace. I hope you took as much from it as I did. Thank you again for coming along and I look forward to sharing the next episode with you soon.