Today we're talking about leadership, but not in the way you might expect.

We're talking about it through the lens of a pop star.

Yes, I went to the Taylor Swift concert.

Yes, you can officially call me a swifty and yes, you can also

call Evie my 12-year-old a Swifty.

Oh, swifties.

Yay.

Yay.

It was one of those moments where you look at your child and you think

this is super special, especially when they're singing their heart out.

We were in this together.

Dad made us bracelets.

We had the hats on.

The concert was extraordinary, not just because of the music,

not just because of the costumes.

Not even just because of the scale of it.

It was the energy.

There was joy, there was kindness.

There was this like collective sense of people wanting to do the right thing.

We had strangers swapping friendship bracelets, people

helping each other find their seats.

That kind of shared generosity.

You don't always see in big crowds.

And then we watched the documentary because we are real

swifties, and that's what you do.

And that's where something really shifted for me behind the

glitter and the stadium lights.

What I saw was discipline, boundaries, energy management, and leadership.

And I thought, oh my goodness.

There are business lessons here.

There are business lessons here.

Even if you're not swifty, you'll get it.

I reckon I've got five for you.

Lesson number one, protect your energy.

Like it's the asset.

One of the things that struck me most in the documentary was how

Taylor, she spends much of her time alone on tour in the middle of one

of the world's biggest productions.

She's not constantly surrounded by people.

She's not endlessly accessible.

She's not available to everyone all the time.

She protects her voice, she protects her body, she protects her energy.

And I thought about how many business owners do the opposite.

We overbook ourselves.

So we can't even go to the bathroom.

We say yes to everything.

We let anyone into our calendar, and we are constantly reacting.

Then we wonder why we're so exhausted.

Your energy is your asset, not your Instagram following, not

your email list, not your revenue.

Your energy.

If your energy is off, everything is off.

So let me ask you something.

Where are you leaking energy in your business right now?

Is it a client that drains you?

Is it a team member you've not had the hard conversation with?

I know how those go.

Is it constant access to your diary?

Is it being available on every platform all the time?

Leadership sometimes looks like closing the door.

Not because you are unfriendly, not because you're aloof, but because you

understand that you cannot perform at a high level if you are depleted.

And if someone running a global stadium tour prioritizes solitude and recovery, I

reckon we could give it a crack as well.

You know, we are not that special.

Lesson two.

You do not have to be the loudest voice in the room.

Shock and surprise.

I know there was a moment in the pre-show huddle.

You expect the big motivational speech.

You expect the star to stand in the middle and pump everyone up.

But she did not dominate.

She facilitated, she asked questions.

She created space.

She allowed other people to speak.

She let the dancers, the band, the team, hold the energy together.

She was still absolutely the leader.

There was no confusion about that, but she did not need to prove it by talking

the most and that hit me because in business, especially when you are the

face of the brand like me, it can feel like you have to carry everything.

Like you have to have all the answers, like you have to set the tone,

you have to be the one speaking.

It's exhausting and mature leadership often.

Looks like inviting other voices in letting your team step up, letting

your community contribute, trusting that you do not have to hold it all.

If you are constantly the only one talking in your meetings, what would it look like

if you asked better questions instead?

If you are constantly the one solving every problem, what would it look like

if you let someone else take ownership?

Ooh, scary.

I know sometimes growth is not about doing more.

Sometimes it's about releasing control.

That's especially for my A Types law.

Lesson number three, be kind and be strategic.

This was not accidental.

Taylor is kind.

Taylor is generous, and Taylor, she creates cultures.

We've seen it, but she's also wildly strategic, rerecording her

own albums, owning her masters, controlling her narrative.

That's not fluffy, that is business acumen.

And I think this is important for women in business.

We often separate the two.

We think you can either be kind and community focused or

strategic and commercially smart.

Nah, you can be both.

I'm both.

Well, I like to think I'm both happy to feedback.

You can create a beautiful room and still know your numbers.

You can hold your clients with care and still have

boundaries around payment terms.

You can lead with warmth and still make bold business decisions.

Kindness ladies is not weakness.

In fact, when paired with clarity, it is absolute power.

So many lessons here.

Lesson four, curate the room.

Another thing I noticed was who was around her?

It wasn't chaotic, it wasn't random.

It was very curated.

There were people who knew their role, people who were aligned,

people who respected the mission, and that made me reflect on

community and also business spaces.

And I've gotta be honest, there was a season in my own business

where my discernment had to go up.

I realized that if I am the leader of a room, it is my

responsibility to curate it well.

Not everyone is meant to be in every space, and that's not about

exclusion, that's about leadership.

Who is in your business world right now?

Are they aligned?

Do they lift the standard?

Do they respect the culture that you're trying to build?

If not, you don't need to burn it down.

Please don't go and burn it down, but you may need to.

Tighten it up.

Leadership is not about just about attracting people,

it's about choosing them.

We want the right people around us.

And lesson five.

My favorite scale does not mean losing yourself.

One of the most fascinating parts of watching someone at that level

is seeing how personal she still is.

It still feels intimate, even in a stadium of thousands, and that is so hard to do.

And as your business grows, there is a temptation to distance yourself,

to automate everything, to hide behind systems to disappear.

And systems are important as is structure.

Both very important, but we do not want to lose the essence of you, your voice,

your values, your way of doing things.

The magic is not in the scale.

The magic is in the alignment.

So some practical takeaways from my raving about Taylor Swift.

If you were to take a page out of her leadership style and

apply it to your business this week, what would that look like?

I have five little tips that you can do.

Number one, you need to audit your energy.

Look at your diary for the next two weeks.

We've talked about this before.

Circle what energizes you cross, what drains you make one adjustment.

That's it.

Number two, facilitate.

Don't dominate In your next meeting, ask more questions than

you answer oh and sit on your hands.

Number three, strengthen your boundaries.

Review one boundary that has slipped, reinstate it clearly and kindly.

Number four, curate your room.

Think about the spaces you are building, who fits, who does

not fit, and tweak accordingly.

Number five, blend warmth with strategy.

Look at your numbers this week.

Look at your revenue, your pipeline, your proposals.

Hold them with the same care.

You hold your community.

You can be generous and you can be commercially smart.

You can be visible and still protect your energy, and you can be the

leader without being the loudest.

I find that amazing.

And maybe the real takeaway is this, leadership is not about performance.

It's about stewardship of your energy, of your people, of your vision.

And if a global pop icon can model boundaries and discipline and generosity

and strategic thinking all at once, then we can absolutely bring a little

slice of that into our own businesses.

So my final question for you is this.

What kind of leader are you becoming?

Not what are you building?

Who are you becoming as you build it?

That's the work.

That's the work that counts.

Speaking of curating rooms, I have an event, it's called

Business with the Queen.

It is 90 minutes on Zoom, a networking event for women in business.

You can come in your pajamas.

We don't mind.

You can join from all Over Australia, any place, we put a bit of content in

front of you, it means that you come in a little bit more relaxed and you've

got something in common with the people in the rooms that we put you into.

It's 90 minutes, it's 25 bucks.

It's awesome.

I'd love to see you in there.