Unknown Speaker 0:00
Welcome to Episode Number One of Nable My Business - The Podcast. The theme of this podcast has been tweaked slightly since I first recorded this episode with Nat late last year. Initially, I was going to focus more widely on franchising and small business in general, weaving in various aspects of starting a small business and how to make it a successful one.
Unknown Speaker 0:21
But as you probably know by now, my background is in the media. And so a lot of what I get asked by various different organisations and other small businesses is about how I get such phenomenal PR and media exposure for my business, and how they can too. It took me a while but it dawned on me that this was my superpower. Combining my skills and experience in the media in my past life, with starting and scaling a small business was a very unique set of skills that not many business owners had. Ironically, a lot of the existing guests I had already recorded podcast episodes, were in the media, so I probably should have taken that as a big fat sign that this is what I was meant to do. So I thought for a long time about who I wanted to have as my first ever guest on the show. I wanted it to be someone really special. And then one day when I was working in my bricks and mortar business, Nat Barr walked in. She's been a member with us for years. But at that moment, I thought YES! NAT is the perfect guest to christen my show. So here I am with my fabulous first guest, none other than Natalie Barr host of Sunrise Channel Seven's very successful morning television show. Nat happens to be one of my favourite media personalities. On a personal note, she has been a client of my business for many years. But on a professional front when I was still learning the ropes in a TV newsroom, I watched her in action from the sidelines. Nat is a rare breed of television presenter, who is one in the same behind the scenes as she is on camera.
Unknown Speaker 1:55
So this first episode is called Passion, Persistence and Patience, and Nat has all of that in spades. Plus, she comes from a family of small business owners so she understands the challenges and dynamics we, as small business owners, face. I won't recite Nat's resume for you because we do talk a lot about how she got started, and the rise and rise of her career. But I will say there is no element of luck to Nat's success. She has worked bloody hard to get where she is today. She's humble, self deprecating, and she's just a really, really nice person in real life. This is Nat'ss fascinating tale of passion, perseverance, and a hell of a lot of patience that one day her big break would come. While you're listening, have a think about why this story might resonate with you so strongly, and why the way she tells her story makes you want to keep listening. Later this season, we're going to learn how you can tell your brand or business story in the same way.
Unknown Speaker 3:03
Hello, I'm Liz Nable. And you're listening to Nable my Business, The Podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see, my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't any more. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight shift again. And now I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made news and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces for large newspapers, and been listed in the Top 100 List of women in business and in my industry...and I've never spent a single cent on PR. I know that I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret and they too could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and my behind the scenes experience and take their business from Best Kept Secret to well known brand simply by following my formula. Welcome to Nable My Business, The Podcast.
Unknown Speaker 5:06
Thank you so much NAT for joining us today. It's such a pleasure to have you as our inaugural guest.
Unknown Speaker 5:13
Oh, well, it's a pretty special thing to be here!
Unknown Speaker 5:17
We'll see how this goes. It's gonna be interesting. Guys, my first guest on the show is Nat bar and everyone will know everyone will know her as one half of the Sunrise duo with David Koch, and she's well known to myself and to my husband and business partner, Adam. Nat has been a longtime client of ours at Xtend Barre Mosman. We opened about 10 years ago now and Nat was a client from the very early days and she's always been very humble and low key and never been, you know, a starlet with an entourage. We love Nat and I know that Nat might seem like a bit of a random guest to have on a small business podcast. But Nat comes from a small business family and she's always been very supportive of our business, gives us little shout outs whenever she can on Sunrise. And I think she's, you know, she's going to talk to us today a little bit about her journey. And we're going to layer in the subjects of patience, perseverance and ambition. So thank you Nat for taking time to join us today.
Unknown Speaker 6:24
Oh, well. Thanks for having me. No, it's great to talk to you. I love you and Adam, we love your business. I feel so terrible that you and 1000's of others have been slaughtered by the pandemic. So yeah, it's great to be here.
Unknown Speaker 6:39
Yeah. Awesome. Thank you and hopefully reopen soon, fingers crossed. So let's start with your from Perth. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? And you know, leading up to you know, the start of your career, I guess in journalism?
Unknown Speaker 6:56
Yeah, I grew up in Bunbury two hours south of Perth. So it's a regional centre. It's like heaps of small towns in Australia. Well, it became a city when I was a kid. My dad was a real estate agent. My mum stayed home and looked after the kids, it was a pretty traditional upbringing. I was taught pretty early on what small business was like, there was a certain amount of money that you had to earn to turn those lights on every Monday morning, there was no guarantee of earning money. They also had a building company that went through ups and downs, different years were great, some were not so great. But I guess I was brought up, I was taught there is absolutely no guarantee in life. You work hard, as hard as you can for what you get you and no one owes you anything. That was sort of the fundamental belief that was sort of sent through my veins as a as a kid growing up. I went to the Catholic school for 12 years by local Catholic College. I suppose one of the biggest things that happened to me as a kid, I was 15. And I got a disease that started eating away my spine. And I yeah, I'd been playing netball and people thought it was cancer. Well actually I went to a doctor and he sent me to a physio. They thought it was just muscle ache, I'd pulled a muscle. and weeks and weeks and weeks went on until the physio sent a note back to the GP. And I never saw the contents of that letter. But that afternoon, I was sent to an orthopaedic surgeon. And that night I was in hospital flat on my back. And I'll never forget the moment that I was sitting, I was lying, actually sitting up in hospital and mum was by my side in the chair. And we're thinking, Okay, what's happening because I had had the pain have been getting worse and worse and worse. I couldn't even sleep through the night it was so bad and we didn't know what was happening. I'm 15 I'm sitting in this country town thinking "what the hell is happening?", and the surgeon came into the room and said, lie down or you will never sit up again. So I had two vertebrae that had been eaten away by Osteomyelitis, a pretty common bug but not that common to land on my T 11 and T 12. And it had eaten over two vertebrae so I was my spine, it was crumbling. So then I was flown to Perth in the Royal Flying Doctor plane where I could that was the only place I could get a lumbar puncture because you couldn't do that in a regional centre like Bumbury in those days. So I went to the big hospital in Perth, had a lumbar puncture where they put this almighty big needle in your spine find out exactly what strain of bug is in there and and went back down to Bumbury and then spent the next two months flat on my back being pumped full of high dose antibiotics and my spine vertebrae grew back together. So I have a few couple of years being really sick, which you know, it's not the end of the world. But I suppose mum and dad were really worried. No one we knew had never had anything like that happened to them before. And I think at that point, I realised that I may never walk again, I can remember sitting in a wheelchair for a long time, I was flat on my back, and they had to sort of tip me up to do the sponge baths and everything. My whole system shut down, you know, your bodily function, shut down, all those sort of graphic things that happen when you don't move. It was awful. And I was then able to sit in a wheelchair, and I was so weak and my spine was obviously growing back together. I thought, I'm not gonna walk here. I, I can still remember that to this day. So after that, I guess, maybe I had some kind of make the most of it.
Unknown Speaker 10:53
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say was the moment you feel like you're looking back that was a bit of a, like, that's quite a traumatic thing to go through at 15?
Unknown Speaker 11:03
Yeah, yeah, I really think it was. I remember a lot of it. I remember my school teacher coming in, and I couldn't even concentrate. So I lost a whole term, we had three terms in those days, I lost the whole middle term of work, they just gave up because I couldn't even concentrate. And I do think it made me think, you know, when you're young, and you're a teenager, like our teenagers lose, they think nothing is going to hurt them. Nothing's going to affect them, that sort or mentality. We all did. And so did I, until then. And then I knew, then I knew that you could be put in hospital, and you could sit in a wheelchair. And that was overnight that literally my life changed forever. So I think it has spurred me on when I look back, it wasn't a moment that I thought, I'm going to conquer the world. But I do think it's in the back of your mind that your life can change overnight.
Unknown Speaker 12:00
Yeah, it does make you feel a bit more mortal or something, doesn't it? To have something like that happen? So did you always think that you would go into journalism? Was that always something that you aspired to be? Or was there a point along the way that kind of, you know, you saw a little snippet of the industry and you decide that that's what you wanted to do?
Unknown Speaker 12:22
From very, a very early age, I would listen, I'd stay up and sneak out and listen to my parents conversations. They used to have dinner parties and I just be fascinated with the adult conversation much more than the kid conversation, and dad would sort of, you know, someone would come up to the bathroom. I remember my dad would say, Oh, well get your notebook out. Are you taking notes here? And I think Oh, yeah. I'm just interested in what you've got to say. Do you guys talk about some juicy stuff? Yes. So I think from an early age, I was a curious kid. And then after the back situation, I had missed work experience in year 10. This is your 10 hours in so I organise my own work experience at the local TV Station. I'd always been good at English as a total busybody and thought, "Oh, well give this a go". From the moment I went, I went in my own Christmas holidays. From the moment I walked into that newsroom at the Golden West Network in Bunbury I thought that's it if I could one day, get into a newsroom and do what these really important really cool people are doing, that'll be my life. I thought I was too daggy, too dorky, too introverted. I guess I didn't think I could do it. But I thought this is just the coolest place I have ever walked into.
Unknown Speaker 13:44
I think a news room. You know, obviously I was a news reporter for a minute, like 10 years ago. It's sort of an addictive place. Isn't it? A newsroom? This sort of adrenaline. There's lots of stress, is that what you were attracted to?
Unknown Speaker 13:57
Yes, I love the racing to 6pm. I love the racing to that deadline. I loved there's a new show on ABC called The Newsroom, which is set in the 80s. I don't know whether you've seen it?
Unknown Speaker 14:09
I have seen the ads. And I'm just going to write that down. I've got to watch that show.
Unknown Speaker 14:13
It's really good. And you know, there weren't all great times. But it's quite true to the time in that if you stuffed up you were yelled at. It was very, it was not politically correct. No one had heard of that term back in the 80s. It was harsh and it was brutal. You were screamed at and you just thought okay, well, I've stuffed up, I'll go home, I'll cry and I'll come back tomorrow, or I'll cry in the toilets. And then wipe my mouth, put my makeup back on and get back out there. It was a tough environment, but I still loved it.
Unknown Speaker 14:48
It really is and that's exactly what I loved about it too. Like it's such a and it's so different these days. I'm sure newsrooms are probably still the same now. Because there's such a it's such a sexy industry. For want of a better word and people are desperate to get in. They can still afford to be tough. You can if you're not if you don't, if you get asked to work on a Saturday night and you say; "Sorry, I'm going out." The News Director is like..."Next!". Like it's not the kind of place where you can pick and choose what you want to do and you are doing what you are told and and you know, come back with that story at four o'clock. Don't come back at all.
Unknown Speaker 15:25
Yeah, exactly. When I was my first I got to uni first one in my family to make it to University in Perth so that there were no unis in Bumbry. After about a year I thought there these people are way too cool for me do not understand them. I'm not in my haven't found my people yet, at the moment, so you can only drop out if you get a job. So I wrote to everyone, every TV station, every radio station, every newspaper, and I got basically one response from a local newspaper, the one around the water of times, they printed all the local papers. And he gave me Hartley joint, what's his name, I will never forget his he's actually just passed away. He gave me a job on the basis of my essays that I'd done in the first year of uni. He then had to tell me how to drive to Wanneroo where the head office was at that particular newspaper because they ran about 10 newspapers I was that night, I didn't even know where to go because I was in the city of Perth. So it's sort of like being in the centre of Sydney and then be directed how to get to Liverpool or something. I didn't care anyway, so I had a great time. I spent about two years there, then did some voice lessons, got to Kalgoorlie, got a job in Kalgoorlie, which is six hours out of Perth and a bit of an eye opener. And that was probably the heart still almost the hardest job I've ever had in that the news director was one of those brutal old guys. He'd scream down the phone. And I had to have two stories every day when I called in at eight o'clock out of Kalgoorlie. It's like a regional centre. And plus I had no idea what I was doing. And I'd read the paper and try and say, how about this? How about this, and then he'd yell at me or hang up. So many times, I was just in tears at the end of that phone call. But you still keep going. I don't know how we did that.
Unknown Speaker 17:20
All the men who ran them in those days were intimidating and really scary. I remember once when I was working at Prime in Wagga, he used to comment on what I wore, and like tell me like it was so you know, they would never be able to happen now. But I think in their essence like what I loved about it was that it was this there was this expectation of you to hit the certain mark or or come back with a certain level of news story like you say there was never any cushioning it was never like let me hold your hand and show you now remember wandering around edit suites with just no idea what I was doing. I have no idea who to even ask to edit my story, too scared to ask anyone but I just knew it's like a real like baptism of fire into any, like a news career I think is pretty tough when you start out and you just have to sink or swim.
Unknown Speaker 18:08
Yeah, yeah, absolutely scared out of your mind. And you know that if you don't do it, there are lots of others behind you. So work it out, ask somebody or it'll be someone else that get to the back of the line honey.
Unknown Speaker 18:22
100% And there's a lot you know, and as you age as well, as a woman I felt like there were a whole bunch of 21 year olds who take your job in a heartbeat. So you really had to keep to the end it's every day right? You've got to keep delivering every day you're only as good as yesterday's story. I haven't even bought beds and so tell me a little bit have you that journey with so you were in Calgary baptism of fire with the old news editor. And then did it sort of Snowball from there? Like how how did that happen?
Unknown Speaker 18:57
Well then it took a bit of a detour because I spent about 18 months there, learned a lot and then went back to went back to Perth for a little while and worked in radio and then my boyfriend at the time. Who is now my husband got a job but it's got a good ending. He got a job in Los Angeles. So around about the same time as I was just offered a job as a reporter at Channel Nine in Perth. So you know golf comm bhambri 90 Watch it was doing Channel Nine in Perth call and I'd done a bit of freelance for them and visit the job offer is there. I have to turn it down to go to LA or I would lose the boyfriend who's now the husband. So obviously I turned it down. Michael Otto got the job. He's done. He's done okay. I now sit next to him sometimes on the set of sunrise. cohosting he's, of course had an amazing Korea at 60 minutes. And now he, you know, read seven years. And so I went to LA again back into the I don't know what I'm doing sort of phase. And I called, I found a book on a bus, which had a whole list of TV stations on it. And in it, and I started ringing from the first one through and in LA, it's obviously there's just about the population of Australia in LA. So it's a massive because no idea what I was doing. And I thought I'll just start calling round. You know, just be honest. So I started calling and I'd say, Honey, we do sitcoms, goodbye, bang. You know, honey, we do documentaries, goodbye, Section saying, who to ask for but it's gonna give me a job. Hi, I'm a reporter. And I'm from Australia. Yes. Yes, honey, we do sitcoms, goodbye. They literally were hanging up on me, I'm thinking, Oh, this is gonna be a bit harder than I thought. So then I keep doing this for a few weeks because it was a a bit of a book. And I get through to the PA for a news director at K BC. So one of the major affiliates in Los Angeles. And before then I either had receptionist or they'd put me through to HR, you know, human resources with, you know, 1000s of people across America trying to get into an la TV station, of course. So somehow I got put through to the news directors PA and I say, Hi, I'm a reporter. I don't care what I do. I'll come in and make him coffee. I actually said that. I actually said that. You know, I just want to start from the ground up and I must say, expirations, idiot. I distinctly remember offering Jamaican coffee. So then the line goes down and I thought I was about to hang off though. Okay, she's hanging up on me. Then a man's voice comes on the phone. Hi, I'm whatever his note is. I've never I want to speak to the Ozzy on the other end of the phone who's offering to make me coffee. Oh, my gosh, that was the news director of KBC in Los Angeles. Wow. So I'm sort of trying to do them, you know, Oh, this guy's important. Yeah, no, look, I'm you know, I'll just do whatever you need. And I'm not desperate. Ah, yeah, I can ride I'm really good. I've been I basically had about, you know, three days at Channel Nine in Perth than the rest of the country. And here I am trying to talk my way into An Ally session. He gave me an interview. I got freelance work. And that was the first work I got at KBC. And from then, I did months and months of work with them. I was producing packages for Bill Clinton's, you know, election that year. And it was an amazing experience because that got me work at other stations in LA. Yeah, KTLA Casey. Okay, so then I was freelancing, so I was playing them off against each other. And I was going from an overnight shift, and finishing at about two in the morning, and then starting on another, not an overnight shift and finishing at six in the morning, and then doing a going home for two hours having sleep then going and doing a daytime shift, and then going back to do an overnight shift at a different station. Wow. So I thought I was really playing these guys.
Unknown Speaker 23:39
Good preparation for the no sleep career. Yeah, exactly. It's so interesting, though. Because as you're talking, I'm thinking, it's a real, it's a real quality when you work in an industry where you know that you desperately want to make this a career, but it's so competitive. And you know, there's 50 people behind you waiting for a job. It's not like you're going for working in journalism, I feel like is not like going for a job where perhaps, you know, you're in a public health system or something where, you know, there's a quantity of jobs there for the taking. It's it kind of I feel like it breeds something in someone like you where you know, that you somehow you have to make it happen. And you get rejected a lot and like how do you feel like that's kind of crafted your career and helped you you know, deal with things like rejection, and you know, you've made obviously 400 phone calls for that book, and everyone's gone. Give up after that. 300
Unknown Speaker 24:36
Yeah, but the other thing is, I've got a friend who has worked in human resources, and I don't know how to apply for a job. I've never looked in the newspaper and got one that way. I don't even know. I couldn't tell you the last time I wrote a resume. When my son needed to write one we had to google how to write a resume. I actually don't have any idea because our industry has always been stopped ringing and don't stop until you get a job because that's the job of journalism. And when people young people come to me and say, Oh, well, you know, I've run a few times, I'm like, we'll keep ringing because your whole career is ringing and begging people and staying in, you know the distance, because that's how you get interviews, you don't just ring twice before lunch, and hope they call you back, you will never be a journalist, if that's what you think the job is.
Unknown Speaker 25:29
Yeah. And it's interesting how those skills are really relevant for so obviously, the audience for this podcast is small business owners. And interestingly, they pretty similar skills to trance. And that's what I've probably learned from having those skills and coming into small business. I didn't do it consciously. But either it is those skills of not taking rejection personally. And just knowing that at some point, someone will say, yes,
Unknown Speaker 25:55
yeah, I think that's the most important thing we used to rejection. I guess that's what I tell people to, if never, first of all, my number one tip that I always give young kids is never expect anyone to call you back. And they sort of look at me and go, so 15 minutes, I really thought it would be more interesting than that, like not, because a lot of other things can be sorted. But if you go in thinking that, then you'll get somewhere because you will always be hungry. That's the job of a journalist to be hungrier than the next person. We would it was drilled into us in that channel seven newsroom in the 90s. If you if Channel Nine comes back with something we are all sitting around at six o'clock at night. And the news goes on. And the news director is standing that if Channel Nine has a better shot, a better grab from an from someone they've interviewed. A better anything a better angle. You better not, you better not stick around honey, because you are in charge. Whoever it is you in my office. That's how we grew up. And some people have today probably think that. That is just probably a fearful way to rule. But that's to help. That was our that was our first 20 years live
Unknown Speaker 27:24
100%. And you know, it's so funny. I never worked in the CHANNEL SEVEN NEWS room. But I did work at at nine. And on the six o'clock news. It was the same thing. Yeah, you would have been doing? Please don't have please, please. I hope you didn't get that witness because I didn't get them because I tried to follow them all day, but I just couldn't really hope that you haven't got them to.
Unknown Speaker 27:42
Yeah, why didn't you knock on that door? You went the wrong way at the siege you not on the wrong doors and got the wrong witnesses? Or why did you put that out. And it wasn't, it wasn't the camera man's fault that he didn't get the shots, it was your fault, because you didn't consider asking him to get the shots. It's always your fault. That's what was drilled into us.
Unknown Speaker 28:03
So many times I drive home in my car, and I'm sure you've had this feeling so many times, because it's such an immediate, you know, even I guess presenting on Sunrise, if you make a mistake, you know that it's been witnessed by other people. And so I used to drive home in the car and go the whole day. I just thought I'd nailed it. And then the final minute something happens. And there's this feeling of it's a mistake that's gone to air and you can't take that back. It's done.
Unknown Speaker 28:28
Yes. And now as being on Sunrise for all these years. So it's been that my, my eldest is turning 20 On Sunday, and he was nearly 18 months old when I started. So it's been a while. Yeah, so So now I have that same feeling. Of course, there's immediate feedback. And there's, you know, social media service hate and everything. And you I turn off notifications to try and protect myself from a whole bunch of, you know, feedback. There's helpful feedback, and then there's just sort of absolute abject hate, which is not going to go away. I just think you have to be smart and protect yourself a bit from that. But now there's there's probably nothing worse than the feedback you have for yourself, because I'll get out of the interview with Scott Morris and then thank you absolute idiot. Why didn't you follow that? That answer with that question. And why did you do that question first, because that should have Why didn't you phrase that question better and you spend the net you can't spend the next three and a half hours, sort of kicking yourself because you've got to you've got to continue on with the show. And then you've got the mum of 16 kids to interview. You got to put yourself in her position and then you've got another epidemiologist about what where the Melbourne should open up again. And then you've got you've got all these topics so you can't keep kicking yourself about the Scott Morrison interview.
Unknown Speaker 29:55
You got to move on. Yeah. And like again, it is it It is similar, I guess those skills and trends, translated, I see those skills you're talking about now. And I think it's the same when you're making mistakes. When you're building a business, you can't spend too much energy dwelling on it or going back over what you should have done. And live television, you're forced to move on, you might make a big mistake in three minutes from now. So you've got to try and focus right. You got to try and move on, which is really important advice to anyone, I guess it's just about resilience. And, and you have had obviously a really good training ground for being able to just pick yourself up and keep going.
Unknown Speaker 30:38
Yeah, you know what people say that, but it doesn't mean I don't go home and cry. I cry a lot. I actually think. Yeah, I do. I'm a real crier. I didn't know that. Yeah. The first not the first time. But one of the biggest difficulties I had was after I had my first baby, who's the one who's turning 20. He was a bad sleeper. And, you know, like, millions of other babies around the world. And so I've been this sort of high achiever, you know, head girl of the school and sort of work my way up into my career at certain point. And then I'm hit by this baby who won't sleep, like a lot of us were. And so 18 months in I was, I'd gone to counsellors. They tested me for postnatal depression. And I then they just said, No, I think you just hate it. I think you just really have stuff because I don't think you have postnatal depression. I just think you don't like being a mum sometimes. Like, oh, is that allowed? Is that allowed? Like, because sometimes it's really, I don't, they don't. But no one says that. No, they don't. It's like, Where's where's the, you know, the the Kleenex commercial sort of shots. And it was horrendous because I was so tired. From him not sleeping. I was so exhausted mentally. That was about the time I was starting Sunrise. Sunrise was the job I got that kind of got my life back almost. Because it got me out of the office. And it got me back to being me.
Unknown Speaker 32:22
Yeah. And that's obviously where you where you thrive is is, is having the career as well as the baby's good on the side.
Unknown Speaker 32:31
Ha ha! That sounds terrible. Because now I'm going to get hate mail - they're going to say...
Unknown Speaker 32:37
I understand you wanted a little bit of yourself back. And that's what that enabled you to do. And why not like it's...
Unknown Speaker 32:43
Yeah. So, so I think I was a bit a mum stepping out. I mean, I was lucky enough to only have to step out for part of the day. You know, I did late news. And then I did you know, Sunrise, that's the way it happened. But then in those early years, it's like anyone who'd like you, if you juggle two things. If you are working, it's hard enough, being a mum, if you're staying at home, I think that is the hardest because I couldn't do it. I could not do it. I felt, I honestly think I felt that I had to get out of that house because I wasn't a very good stay at home mum. So I went back to work. And then of course, like mums who work, it's really hard doing the juggle, and you don't complain about it. But gee, you fall in a heap a lot of the time. Those years are hard. They read those when they really live. I mean, now they're in high school. You know, I mean, they sort of look after themselves, you just have to keep cleaning the kitchen a million times and giving them food and being there being there to talk to them when when they want to, you know, talk to you and go through things, being there, I think is is important, but those little when they're little it's it was it was really hard. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 33:56
Tell me a little bit more about the entry into Sunrise and how that happened. That was obviously a bit of a sliding doors moment. Was it for your career? Like obviously you'd, you're a really hard worker and you you know, you made it as a freelancer in LA and that takes a lot to establish yourself in another country, particularly news reporting and doing that sort of stuff. How did you segway back here and then you got a slot back in here and also to get that's a pretty coveted job newsreader on Sunrise?
Unknown Speaker 34:22
Not bad. Yeah, I know I well, I didn't think it at the time because so I come back from LA I've interviewed at Channel Nine and Channel Seven and they, Channel Seven and Sybil do we do you want to do some freelance over over Christmas? So reading? No, no, no news reporting. So I'd run mum because I'd fly and I but I'd actually come back from LA for Christmas. Right. So I said to mum look in Bunbury. I'm just going to duck over to Sydney to do a couple of interviews. So then they say "Well, do you want to start tomorrow?" Do some freelance so I rang mom said "Sorry not coming home for Christmas." Wow. Yeah. See I didn't think anything of that it's that's really bad, isn't it?
Unknown Speaker 35:08
Well, that's TV again like you don't do that because I just go next.
Unknown Speaker 35:12
Yeah. And mum by that stage knew what sort of person like, okay...
Unknown Speaker 35:19
there were no kids yet it was just us. No no
Unknown Speaker 35:21
no, no, no. So I was like 26 or something. And so Oh, I could get some freelance with this big network it Channel Seven Yeah, drop everything who wants to go home for Christmas whatever. So yeah, had Christmas at the canteen at Epping. Oh, well, CHANNEL SEVEN, whatever, who cares? It was probably like leftover meatloaf. But I did not care because I had my in, you know? Absolutely, didn't even question it. So for the next month, the next few months I freelance then that we're putting on two reporters, a sports reporter and a news reporter in March - and I got the gig. been there ever since 27 years? Wow. I know. That's how old I am.
Unknown Speaker 36:06
And that my friends is how you get a job in TV! Don't go home for Christmas! Ha ha!
Unknown Speaker 36:11
Don't go home. Yeah, so I spent eight years on the road as a reporter. And, Oh those first that first year I didn't even know where Macquarie Street was. Again, it's like the Wanaru Times I had to be instructed on how to get to Wanaru from the city of Perth, because I did not know what any street was in the centre of Sydney. I'd been I think, to Sydney once from WA we weren't like country bumpkins. And there
Unknown Speaker 36:38
was no Google at that time. Was it? No! We didn't even have, there were three...
Unknown Speaker 36:45
I was sitting with the cameraman in the front seat. And I was in the passenger seat holding the Gregory's Guide instructing him on where to go. Because often we didn't even have a sound guy. Or woman. And no, there were three mobile phones. Those be bricks that were charging at the Chief of Staff desk you probably remember this. Yeah. And if you didn't, if you didn't get it early enough, you didn't get one. So you'd have to stop on the side of the road and call in your story...At a payphone. We're so old!
Unknown Speaker 37:15
and you know what, that's the hard knocks. It's the you know, it's so easy these days, you just Google, Google Maps, find a location. How hard was it?
Unknown Speaker 37:24
So I did eight years of that, but boy did I learn. I love doing that everything from you know, protests to see just sitting outside in the gutter out somewhere where someone was, you know, sort of barricaded in some house and the police sitting in the police cordon for 10 hours and then doing doing my makeup, you know, with my Torchlight in sitting literally on the curb, and then doing a live cross at all that I you just love it. You did every didn't care what story I did - learnt a lot. Then had Lachlan - had the baby went off on maternity leave, came back three months later, oh, by that stage, they've given me Late News. Sorry, the year before. So I've done I've done about six months of like news. So then I come back three months later, from like, you know, ready to go back into Late News. And they called me and said, yeah, we've hired someone else to do like news. And forward. The queen of Late News had been hired to do Late News. And I'm like, Oh, I can't really compete with her. So what do I do now? So I then I cried, of course, because I was upset. So yeah, cuz I'm a bit of a crier. And I said I went away and this was a pinnacle moment and I've spoken about it before I went away and someone said you should consult a lawyer because you've come back from maternity leave after three months and they haven't offered you the same job. So talk to a lawyer and then I thought this is not me this is not me, I'm not going to try and get heavy. I didn't even know whether I could get heavy but I'm not I'm not That's not me. So walked back into the News Director's office and said let's do a deal. I can't come back full time. But what else have you got? You know, I wouldn't have come back after three months if I was coming back to be on the road because on the road reporting as you would know hearing these baby it's very heavy the baby you don't know where you're gonna end up you could be on the you know, the rotor Wollongong at six o'clock at night. At the drop of a hat. 10 to 12 hour days. early mornings. It's erratic. It's hard to do with a baby. It's not like you're sitting in an office for the hours in your know where you are. So he said Yeah, sure. Okay, well, so this is Ian Cook, to his credit, said to me, okay, you can be out for the next few months. You can be fill in News Readar, so whenever someone is sick, or on holidays, you can be it. So it's amazing how many people were sick or on holiday. So Every different shift, and I could get my babysitting organised. And then now and then I'd have a week off. So it was perfect. Then Adam Boland, who just started Sunrise called, I don't know seven months later and said, "Do you want to be the News Reader on this new little show? I've got going called Sunrise. I've got Kochi and I've got Mel that only had the two of them and I need a News Reader. And I'm like, I don't know. I know. It's silly, but it was. It was rating in the toilet. Today Show were thrashing us. They were the only show in town. We were negligible. We were the needle wasn't even sort of play you know, blipping it was it was rating virtually nothing, negligible at that stage. So lucky. I said yes. What do you said? Yes. Yeah. I said yes. And that was 18 and a half years ago. And I've hung in there.
Unknown Speaker 41:05
so many lessons today, Mel, Mel, Nat.
Unknown Speaker 41:10
Oh, no, well Mel was there too! Mel and I had babies together grew up together. I cried together in the change room.
Unknown Speaker 41:18
there how long we've been use read out while Mel was. So
Unknown Speaker 41:21
So Mel did the first sort of 11 years or something? Yeah. And then and, and we had kids the same age. So we really did grow up a bit together. That was a great period. And then of course, Sam took over. So that was another just under I think eight years. Yeah. So now I've done six months. So it's been a been it's been an amazing ride with all the hosts. It's been this incredible, crazy. privileged. I hate that. It sounds really sort of wanky when people say privilege. But it absolutely has they have, not only has it been an amazing job, I kind of felt like I had to hang on while the kids were little. Yeah, get hardly any sleep. But just hang on, because it was such an amazing job. And then as it got easier every year as they got older, and you had to juggle less, but I just thought I can't I just have to hang on to this. It is too good. And the main thing was, I absolutely love it. Yeah, just by some, by some bit of chance, and good luck and a bit of work. I have landed this job, and I absolutely have loved it. They've sent me around the world. They've sent me to all these amazing stories that I've stood there and witnessed and covered. And I just can't believe it.
Unknown Speaker 42:43
I was gonna say because I think you would have to really love what you do, because it is a big sacrifice. Would you say to work those hours and for such a long time? And I know you're probably used to it now. But can you tell me a bit more about like those early days when the kids were little and you? Was there ever a time we were like, I can't do this anymore. I'm not enjoying it. You know, when you're tired? You feel like crying the whole time. Was there any point where you felt like this was just too hard? Like you obviously have an end goal which you've now achieved, which is incredible. But it must have been hard those years? What first
Unknown Speaker 43:19
of all, I never pay I never had this end goal to host I was no and you said that to me? Because and I have and people don't believe it. Because I always people always think you want every single interview I've ever done. People have said, you know, oh, well, you know, what do you want to do anyway? I'm like, Isn't this good enough? Like, wouldn't you be happy to be here, I'm really happy?
Unknown Speaker 43:39
Pretty amazing gig though to be there on a really high rating, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 43:45
I was honestly really happy. It was it was great. But it and the trouble with saying how hard it was in the early days is that, you know, compared to a lot of people it wasn't, you know, so many people have such hard lives. How can I sit here and say, oh, yeah, it's really hard getting up at three in the morning. And you know, I'm paid well, I've got a job I love. I've got healthy kids. Like what part of that is hard? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I just I mean, I refuse to complain about my anything happened to me in my job in my career. It's not again, a big problem, because it's very people get stuck on that. Plenty of time on the road. And there are plenty of people out there delivering bread and milk and taxis and paramedics and nurses and doctors and there are so many people out there with me. But people get stuck on the fact that you know breakfast TV host get up at three in the morning. You know we get it. We also get off early. I'm home by lunchtime now you feel like Willie I was at woollies it you know, 11 o'clock today doing my groceries and you finished your day's work. Yeah, exactly.
Unknown Speaker 45:01
It is a really refreshing perspective, though, because I, you know, I know I've done some morning television hours in my time and I don't know if I was human at two o'clock in the morning, like I struggled with that you're clearly a much better person than I. But I do think but you obviously have sacrificed like in in I know, I've heard you say this to a lot on Sunrise and I know you refuse to complain, because you've obviously got a really good idea of in perspective to the rest of the world, you are really not lucky because it's luck. It's hard work. But you are in a fortunate position as as many of us are. It's a really refreshing perspective to have. But it must you must have been sleep deprived. You must. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 45:43
absolutely. Yeah, no, when they were little, I had a non sleeping baby.
Unknown Speaker 45:49
recipe for disaster on morning TV. I don't
Unknown Speaker 45:53
know what saved me is just as I was starting Sunrise, I got help from the sleep whisperer Sheyne Rowley. And I'll never forget, she walked in the door because I'd had 18 months where Lachy hadn't been sleeping. And she's called the Australian Baby Whisperer. And someone had told us about her. And so she moves into your house for about five days and teaches your baby how to sleep and we're at wit's end, we've been to Tresillian we've done control crying up, the Yin Yang, you know, like, we've done everything you could think we were not scared to let this baby cry. We were not those people who go, Oh, my God, he'll be shattered when he's 18, believe me. He's having a great
Unknown Speaker 46:30
life. That's fine. He's just fine, everyone. He's just fine. He seems
Unknown Speaker 46:33
quite normal at down in Melbourne at uni. So yeah, she walked in, and I was so upset and exhausted. That she said, we sat on the lounge, and I still have a picture in my mind. She said, Don't worry, I've done 400 kids or however many she'd done, she comes into your house and teaches them. She's and most of them were boys. And most of them just didn't need to sleep much. So we were putting them into the wrong pattern. And she said, Don't worry, I will teach Lachlan to sleep within a couple of weeks. So be sleeping through and I burst into tears. And I sat on the floor and I said, No. We're gonna be able to ones where you fail!
Unknown Speaker 47:21
We'll be the exception to the rule? Yes. We'll break you.
Unknown Speaker 47:25
When you don't you don't understand. You don't have to sell what it's like? This is not going to work. This is going to be your failure. And she's going okay, you need to go make a cup of tea. Yeah, go to sleep. I'll sort this out, so... Yeah, of course that that was the that was the my first month on Sunrise. That's how I started. And yeah, did you
Unknown Speaker 47:50
ever feel like you was sacrificing other things? When you're, you know, when you're in a job that's quite high profile? You can't just have a week off whenever you want? Or do you feel like there were other limitations that you obviously love what you do. So perhaps you didn't feel affected by sacrificing social life? Or did you ever feel like that or you were just like, This is my calling. This is what I'm going to do. I'll do whatever it takes.
Unknown Speaker 48:13
Well, my my philosophy was to fit in things around it as much as I could. So when the kids were little, I made sure I was the class Mum, you know, when I couldn't be I was baking things at the you know, at the fate of the school fete. I was volunteering on the ticket stand, you know, at the fair, I was I was doing all that stuff and being present in the kids life as much as I could. Because remember, although I was getting up early, I had the rest of the day. So if I could just get a bit of sleep in and I could just get into bed early enough. When they weren't waking up all night. If I could just manage my sleep, it was a really good sort of, you know, situation the hours were really good. But there were you know, there was times you know, where I was at, literally at the Easter Bonnet parade in my power suit with my heels on with the taxi waiting at you know, at the at the gate, ready to take me to the the airport to fly to Melbourne to go do a show. Like there were quite a few points that were like that and I thought Oh, am I is this am I cutting it to fine? And I say to the boys, but I sort of felt like I really tried to do my best. And I say to the boys do you reckon I did? Do you think you missed out?
Unknown Speaker 49:37
you're not there that at that concert I didn't notice.
Unknown Speaker 49:41
Do you think do you I have actually said in quite a few jobs. Do you think you missed out? Because I was a working mum? Do you feel that? You know because I'm surrounded by quite a few of my friends or working mums but quite a few aren't. Do you wish that I wasn't and they you know they're both been really honest and said, nah. Well, we probably, I think I really probably got better food. I'm on a rotation of about five meals that they really sick of. From that, I would have had time to read some recipes maybe and get better, mince 50 ways and a bit of chicken. They're good. Yeah, they seem really normal, but you'll have to interview them later.
Unknown Speaker 50:29
Would you say you're an ambitious person? But you just loved the career.
Unknown Speaker 50:34
I loved the career. My husband has sort of forced me to be ambitious. I was always really scared. I was that person that I'm now telling to pick up the phone and keep calling. Yes. And who put the phone down? 50 times ago? No, no, I think I need to do what not I think I might do it tomorrow. Oh, no. He sounded a bit curt on the phone. Oh, well, why isn't he called me back. I was that person. So I was scared. I'm, I don't. It sounds silly. But I don't think I was that ambitious. And I was I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. But I wasn't striving I didn't have an end goal. I wanted to I wanted to work at a TV station in Perth as a reporter that was I my imagination did not stretch to Sydney or Melbourne. I didn't even consider that. I thought if I can get into one of those big cool newsrooms in Perth, I will have absolutely made it. So I that's why I think I drive over that bridge every morning. And so many times. I just think I'm so lucky. I can't believe I'm here. So when people say oh, you get up at three in the morning, it's like yeah, and yeah, it's really
Unknown Speaker 51:52
Yeah. So would you say maybe you're more driven then then ambitious? Because you obviously you stood out for you know, those those news directors to give you you know, obviously you can anyone can talk their way into some freelance work, but you didn't have to prove yourself with the freelance work, which you obviously did, to then get to the next point to then get to the next point. So would you say maybe you're just a driven person like you're, you're resilient? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 52:15
Yes, I think I think resilience is important. I think getting along with people not being the most annoying. I know it sounds silly, but not being the most annoying person in the room. Yeah, over the years. When you look back, how do you teach kids that life lesson? Life lesson Don't be the most annoying person
Unknown Speaker 52:35
and pulling that out? You know, that's going to be the quote of the podcast.
Unknown Speaker 52:40
And then people we've worked with or worked with me will say, Are you kidding me? What do you mean she wasn't the most annoying?
Unknown Speaker 52:47
They self aware
Unknown Speaker 52:48
that Yeah, yeah, take a look back we're self aware. Now you may not have been in the I definitely driven I've wanted to do it. I'm also I love a routine. I will I will just get I will give it my all I will work so hard. Like when I go away. When we fly out to a big story. We will just work all day and half the night and if we get two or three hours sleep, great. Get back up the next morning. No one's thinking it's just if we could get a coffee. Great. You live on muesli bars for a week fine. Don't care. Is there a bathroom anywhere near you know he like it is sort of like camping almost wherever you are in this foreign city. Just get the story get the story, get the story. I've had some of the crews say "Do you reckon we can, we could get some lunch? Yeah. I'm that person who's going? Yep. Don't worry if we could just get near the fire. We could sleep in the car. Going? What? Like on that I just want to get the story. I'm sort of I've had the producer sort of say I think someone wants to actually maybe not - can someone go to the toilet, please. Yeah. Maybe we could talk this over while we get breakfast after the show. We don't have to shoot straight away. We could maybe just have, Yeah, right. Okay. Okay. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 54:07
sure. Yeah, guys. No worries. So would you say you're competitive? Because you got to be competitive to be journalist, right? You want to get this story? Yeah, get this over everybody else getting it? You either want to get the best story get the first story?
Unknown Speaker 54:20
Absolutely. You have to we were taught to just beat the other person at all. Not at all costs. But it was. Mostly it was. I mean, but sounds well, I mean, people used to say at all costs, but it didn't mean that. It was just to get the best, the best interview and the best pictures to get onto that screen. That's what we're taught to do. And even now, when I'm out doing something, it's sort of Oh, do you reckon Today Show have got it? What is someone here from there? What did they got? What have they got? Is anyone seen their crew? Like we still think you still think like that and I just love being out on the road thinking like that. I love being in the studio. But
Unknown Speaker 55:04
yeah, and you know what? It's really interesting, though, because it's that pressure. And the same again applies in small business. Like if you're competing amongst the best to be the best. That pressure from the Space Shuttle, whoever the competing crew, well, the news pushes you to rise to the top right, you need that kind of competition to be a constantly striving to want to do more or be better or you know that. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 55:33
don't think it's healthy to be out there on your own. I think competition, although maybe sometimes you want to be but you're right, that you've hit the nail on the head. You want. You can't strive if someone's not right there pushing you. Absolutely. And it would be exactly the same from a business perspective, because that's where you get the adrenaline hit.
Unknown Speaker 55:57
Yeah, isn't it? Absolutely. You need you want? Yeah, it is it is. And it is the same in business you've got to be, it's easy to be the best if you've got no competition. And then once someone's snapping at your heels, you have to push yourself to level up a little bit more or go the extra distance or do things better, or, you know, it does push you to be at the best of your game. Always. I wonder also if do you look like do when you're covering those news stories? And you're being you know, there is you covered the the Biden election didn't you're the
Unknown Speaker 56:32
new earth? Yeah, yeah, no, the. Yeah, I've covered the Biden election, the Trump election and the Obama inauguration.
Unknown Speaker 56:42
Yeah. So that that's the real feeling of your job is relevant, like you are contributing to this massive moment in history. Like there must be something that you feel that you love about being in the mix in those kind of those kind of major historical events.
Unknown Speaker 56:59
Oh, yeah. The first time I went to the Obama inauguration that we were, you had to stay on the outskirts of town, they shut down the entire centre of Washington, DC, and everyone had to walk into the centre of the city. And you're walking with this, no matter who you were. I mean, I'm not look, I'm sure Obama got a ride in but we didn't. Your Yeah, we were walking. And so we're walking through these tunnels, you know, which would normally you'd drive on, but everyone was been sort of shunted through and people were chanting, oh, bah, ma, oh, bah, ma. But like, it was just this sort of, Wow, the whole world here, the whole world is here. People had flown in literally from around the world, there were 2 million people in and around that precinct that day. And I was on a riser, you know, makeshift riser that we had about one and a half metres by one and a half metres. And that was me, and my game or the CO anchor, and the camera, cameraman, and that, and that was it, and a producer, and we sat in that little one and a half metre square for about 10 hours. We didn't even if you drank water, you'd have to somehow go to the bathroom. And honestly, these are the logistics, you don't think about the portaloos were so far away, then you've got no time to get down off the riser, go and come back. Because that's about, I don't know, 45 minutes at least, and then you're off air. So what's gonna happen then is it's gonna be one of you. I mean, look, if it was an emergency, you would have been able to go, but it was about minus eight degrees. I had 50,000 layers on there. The windchill factor was enormous. My face peeled off in the days afterwards because of the windchill. And I mean it was amazing. But then in the background, you've got the guy standing on the building who that was built by black slaves being sworn in as the first African American president and there was absolutely that exact sense. The whole world's attention is right here at this moment. And I'm here and I'm from Bunbury. How the hell did I manage this?
Unknown Speaker 59:11
Yeah, it's pretty, like a bit of a pinch yourself moments, those moments.
Unknown Speaker 59:16
Yeah, absolutely. And even just even when we have I mean, I went to the the the Nice terror attack, the Ariana Grande bombing in Manchester, the Japanese Tsunami, we were one of the first crews to get into there. I was. I was shooting. I was actually flying into Vietnam to shoot another story. And they turned us back around and we got the last three seats on a Vietnam Airlines flight into Tokyo before the airport closed and I was the only Australian TV journalist to be broadcasting there for a couple of days before anything closed down. And then we're literally flying over the moon. Mesa Reiko the little place where 20,000 people lost their lives in that horrific tsunami and again, a world event where everyone is watching. And you're right there. It's Yeah, amazing.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:13
Can you explain to listeners a little bit about what it's like when you. So obviously, the inauguration is different, because it's a pre planned event that you can plan for it. But like something not predicted, like a tsunami or a terror attack, when you land on the ground, just give people some sort of indication of so you land on the ground? And then what do you do? Like, what do you like? It's quite chaotic, isn't it? You've got to kind of really think on your feet and create these stories and work out what's the biggest priority? And then, you know, like, that's, it's quite full on.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:45
Yeah, like, when we went to Manchester, you know, the bombing at the Ariana Grande concert, we were on air that morning. And there was some sort of report that there was some kind of explosion, and then they thought it was fireworks inside the stadium. And people were actually attacking us saying, I can't believe you're making something out of nothing, then it obviously became the bombing. I was driving home at about midday, and the producer rang and said, We want you on a flight, could you get on a flight at 3.45pm an international flight, so this is midday. So I quickly the first thing I do is Google what the weather is like in that city. Because you've got to stand there for hours and hours. And if it's snowing, or if it's you know, 40 degrees, you go No. And so you quickly packed get to the airport spend, I flew from here to and I think you know, Dubai and then London and Manchester. So you've been travelling for, I don't know, 30 something hours and without any sleep. And then you get on the ground. And it's daytime, it was sort of I think it was the morning. So then we spent all day shooting, because you've got to have something to show that you're there, you can't just usually don't just pop in front of the camera. Of course, on the way, you've been researching every bit of information you can about that story, and taking copious amounts of notes and sort of like studying, you know, for an exam or for uni, you take it I just find to get it into my head, I start taking notes in sort of an old fashion, I take a big notepad. And I take notes and notes and notes. If I know I'm going to something like the US election weeks before I start taking notes. So I'm getting all that into my head. People listen to podcasts. Now we I do a bit of that too. But I just find something written is good. And so then you've got to, you've got to start, you usually pick up a cameraman on the ground on the ground often they can help you because they're local, but not always. But then you've got to start working out how you find the story. How do you work? How do you find the witnesses? How do you go to the scene, you start talking to everyone around and you look and you listen, and you talk to shopkeepers in the area. You you look at people who are walking around, you approach people who may be off to the side start talking, you start talking to people and start listening to what they say. We found the we found the the accused at the Nice terror attack, we found the accused guy's apartment and ended up getting in up into the apartment building and doing a piece to camera right near his door. And that was just through talking to people getting information. Now you get a lot of information online, following sort of leads and talking to people and
Unknown Speaker 1:03:46
do you think patience is one of the virtues that you have now from being a journalist like obviously patience in you've been in television a long time and patiently rising through the ranks patiently? Do you think patience is something that you is a quality that you've had to kind of use along the way?
Unknown Speaker 1:04:05
Yes, I think patience is very important. I've seen lots of people think that the grass is greener. And sometimes it is sometimes it works. But I've seen people leave because they've hated the boss or they've hated someone they work with or they just thought you know, they didn't like the direction the network was going or you know, for a million different reasons or personality clashes often it's a personality clash, which I think is not a great reason to leave necessarily because you never know when that person is gonna pop up somewhere else. They can they can they do, but also they could be gone next week. Hmm. You the person you have trouble with could be gone. Yeah, and I've seen that too. So I think it's important for you to try and work out a way to sort out that problem that you have But also, remember that they're not You're not everyone is going to be your friend. It's what we teach our kids today. It's okay not to like people in workplaces, that that's fine. That's normal. They probably is a bunch of people who probably don't like you. But as long as we can get on enough to get the job done and be really civil to each other, that's, that's what we've got to aim for. I wouldn't leave a place because of that. But I have seen people do that. And I've just always thought that I've loved I've actually loved Seven, I've, I thought that they've treated me, you know, amazingly well, I've had, you know, two pregnancies, I've, you know, put on 20 kilos on air for both pregnancies have been so supportive, supportive. And of course, people would say, well, so they should, yeah, in those days, it wasn't necessarily like that 20 years ago. Yeah. But they're also support, it's also been, they've also been supportive in that if you have something happening in your family, just don't even ask, just leave. Yeah. Yeah. That sort of support.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:11
Now that you're? And are you going to hate this? Because I'm going to say you're in the top job. But do you look like if you look back now? And are there lessons that you would? What are the top lessons that you share with people, whether they are looking to aspire to a career like yours, or, you know, in life in general, because all those qualities do really translate? If you're in a small business, resilience, patience, determination, perseverance? What are some of the major lessons that you would pass on to people who are at the start of whatever their journey is?
Unknown Speaker 1:06:42
Well, besides, never expect anyone to call you back, and I enjoy the most annoying person in the room? Exactly. But the don't expect anyone else to call you back. That's, that's still resonates. That's still really important. That's part of perseverance. Keep going. Don't expect anyone, don't expect. Don't expect too much from people that you can never put yourself in someone else's shoes, you have no idea why they're not calling you back, or why they're not responding in a certain way, or why they're not giving you what you want. At a certain point, often down the track, I found out why something hasn't worked out. It was nothing to do with the convoluted story I had in my head. Never is No, try not to go down that path in your head. I'd say try and be open and honest, without being aggressive with people and approach them personally about things. People don't necessarily do that, too. If you have if you have problems in the workplace. I think I think having resilience in the workplace means realising that there are going to be ups and downs. You know, there, it's not going to it's the trajectory. It's like the it's like your your baby's baby weight. It doesn't go up. Yeah, you know, an even sort of trajectory, and your careers not like that, too. There have been times when I've been despairing or I would I can honestly say I've never sort of thought I hate this job. I don't want to get up. I've never felt like that. Because I haven't. But there have been times when I've been really burnt out and probably not realised it and not taking enough time off. Yeah. And I started getting grumpy towards people. That I think resilience. So therefore, if I had reacted in a different way, things may not have worked out well.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:50
Yeah, that's right, because you are doing it on a whim, you know, in a bad moment. Yes. I know. There's a generation now. And even I feel this because I wouldn't say I'm the world's most patient person, but because, for me, it's a 27 years. You just say you've been television?
Unknown Speaker 1:09:06
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, I was full time. 95 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. December, 94
Unknown Speaker 1:09:15
that is commitment. because not a lot of people do that these days. And I know that I'm not the world's most patient person. But I do know that with social media and, you know, entrepreneurs being the sexy thing to be or, you know, a TV News host people look at that and go, I want that. But I want that now. And there's a real there's so much to be said for being willing to put in the work and stay the course. Because you know, 27 years is a lot that's committment.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:44
Yeah, when you put it like that it is but it feels like I went through phases though. I didn't you know, I had my eight years as a reporter and learned so much and had that was a great period of my life and I liked and again I get to do that. because when I go out on stories, I'm back there on the road, and I'm doing that sort of thing that I love. And I would, you know, if this all ended I I'd love, I feel like, I feel like that's my, that's my backup. Like, I can always go out I love, you know, finding stories and yeah, and talking to people and getting to the bottom of things. But, um, I sort of think, yeah, I guess I guess it's patience. But sometimes it just seeps up on you. I never, I wish I was happy. So I never sought something else out. And at the moments when I wasn't happy when I was, you know, finding it frustrating with juggling the family life and work. I don't know if I was lucky enough to be still loving the job enough to not go seek it out. I'm a different case, though. You know, it's an unusual thing to be on this show. I mean, to be having the sunrise newsreader gig, it's just it's not like a normal job.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:10
No, it's not no. It's hard to compare. I know. He's saying,
Unknown Speaker 1:11:14
yes. I don't think I could tell anyone else what they should be doing. Like, oh, hang in there. It'll work out. Because yes, it's just a it's one set of fluke, but some people might not. But you still you've got to maintain a standard. You've got I mean, I spend most of my day, a lot of my day researching reading news, keeping up to date, like a lot of people do. Because you've got to go out at any moment you you've got to go in there and interview someone about a topic that you probably don't know much about. You've got to, you've got to be informed. Yeah. So.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:58
So any parting words of wisdom? In context, I know that, you know, I know that you're saying your job is it is different. It's very dynamic. It's interesting. It's exciting. You've got your honour. But take that part out of it, like someone who's starting out on the business you're in might be in their business journey already. Anything that you've learned along the trajectory of that career that you would say, is a really important quality to maintain?
Unknown Speaker 1:12:29
I'd say don't lose yourself. Yeah, I think I see a lot of people I see some people try and be things they think people want them to be. And we've all been there yet, you know, I was sitting in front of that cassette tape trying to read like the ABC News Writer, when I was a teenager. So which was ridiculous, because I had didn't have the same voice. Why would I be sitting there doing that? That's what we all do. But that's a tiny, tiny example. But people extrapolate. you extrapolate that and people become, they change their personalities, they change their values. They, they changed the way they speak up or don't speak up in meetings. A lot. And I think the older and the, the older, I suppose And why's that? And also, with the older and wiser you get, the more you realise that you can move away from what people expect, you can go back to yourself.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:48
Yeah, be true to yourself and stay the course. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:13:51
it's okay to be your daily self, or to have a different opinion, the amount of times I say, Well, hang on. Can we just go back to that point there? And honestly, half the room will be thinking that no one has had has had the guts to ask the dumb question. Yeah. And I'm sure business owners would find that all the time.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:15
100% 100% Yeah, they're trying to do what everybody else is doing and not staying true to what what they started out to do in the beginning.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:22
Yeah, or they're just or they're just not, or maybe you're just not asking the really obvious dumb question. I as journalists, I think where it's always okay to ask the dumb question, because honestly, most of us are thinking that you don't have to do the highfalutin one. Often, most of us just want to know. So what are the submarines therefore, again,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:42
I was gonna say that this going over is gone. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:45
exactly. What did they do again? Like that's, it's actually okay to ask. Yeah, ask the dumb question.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:53
Ask the dumb question. parting words of wisdom. Yeah. Thanks so much that it's been so Good to talk to you such a such a delight to have you as my first guest. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:04
Well, pleasure. Good luck with it. Liz. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:08
Thank you for listening to this episode of enable my business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you, my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at Liz at Liz nable.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to Liz nable.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, a franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
