Hello, my lovelies.
How are you?
Welcome to a new episode
of unleashing brilliance.
And today, what I thought
I'd share with you is a
little bit of my backstory.
I'm often asked, I've received
so many emails over the years
from people saying, where
did it all start Janine?
How on earth did you
get to be doing what it
is that you're doing?
My response to that is I am
totally an accidental and if
you actually look at my life,
I reckon every 10 years, I've
pretty much reinvented myself.
In fact, my speaker agent,
often refer to me as the
queen of reinvention, which
I remember at the time
hearing it, having a little
giggle and going, really?
And it was only on
reflection of my story that
I went, actually, yeah.
I have changed things up
every decade pretty much.
So, in response to all
of those that have asked,
this is what today's
episode is all about.
And I hope that by sharing
my journey to here, it will
give you permission to know
that you have everything
inside of you to become more
brilliant tomorrow than you
are today and to give you
the courage and the bravery
to unleash your brilliance
even more to the world.
So where did it
all start for me?
Well, I was actually born
into a farming community
in the north of England.
My dad was a farmer
and my mom pretty much
was a stay at home mom.
And I grew up with, lots of
words of wisdom from my dad.
He used to say where there's
muck, there's brass love,
which essentially meant,
if I work really hard then
the results would come.
And on those days where
I'd come home from school,
it'd be like, Oh my God,
this is the worst day ever.
He'd go, it'll be reet.
It'll be reet.
Which pretty much went,
you know, you know, put
on your big girl pants
and you'll be fine.
school was, pretty
average for me.
I was a real bookworm.
And I was teased quite a
lot at school for, know,
being probably a little bit
quiet, had mousy brown hair,
lots and lots of freckles.
I was a bit of a slow
developer on the puberty side
of things and you know, found
me with my nose in a book.
So I was teased quite a lot
until, around the age of 17 or
18 when I discovered Madonna's
fashion style, Princess
Diana's or Lady Diana's
electric blue eye shadow and
mascara as it was at the time.
and of course, hair
dye, you know, hair
dye changed my world.
And through school, I was
getting really great results.
And I remember a teacher
saying to my parents at
a parent teacher evening
one night, you know,
your, your daughter
should consider applying
to Oxford or Cambridge.
Now, as a North of
England girl, it didn't
even enter into my mind,
into my psyche at all.
And in fact, what I did
is I instantly went into
that box of, why would
I want to go there?
And why on earth would
anyone accept me?
So from an early age,
this lack of self belief,
really started to...
take root in terms of
the decisions that I was
actually making for myself.
But what it did do is it
triggered off a curiosity.
And, because nobody
in my family had ever
been to university.
And so we'd never really
had those conversations
around the dinner table.
But this conversation
with the teacher triggered
off a curiosity for me.
And I, so.
I started applying and I
actually got into, Aston
University in Birmingham
to do a Bachelor of Science
degree and, super excited.
I had to achieve certain
results at A level, but
we faced another challenge
then because as a family
we couldn't afford to
send me to university.
So thankfully at that time
the UK government, offered out
a grant system and I applied
and I was fortunate enough
to be given a full grant, to
be able to attend university.
There's no way I would
have been able to go if it
hadn't have been for that
grant system at that time.
And I'm forever grateful for
that because, that pretty
much changed the trajectory
of my world prior to that, my
dreams had been on a certain
level, subsequently to being
given the opportunity to go
to uni, everything changed.
And so at the age of 18,
I packed my backpack, and
off I went in England.
Those of you that are
listening that are from the
UK know that in England,
we tend to leave home and
we go and live on campus.
And at the age of 18, I left
home, and never returned.
Uni was brilliant.
I graduated, you know,
after four years with a
bachelor of science degree,
a whole heap of memories.
Thank God, social media wasn't
around then and a hell of a
lot of debt at the time, or
a big overdraft at the time.
And this time I packed my
backpack and I headed off to
London to start a graduate
training scheme at a company
called Coats Viyella.
So I started my corporate
career working in
the fashion industry.
And in fact, only the other
day I received a note from
two incredible women that I
met on that very first day
of that graduate training
program saying, Oh my God,
it's 30 years since we
started day one, it's like.
Goodness me.
So yes, 30 years ago,
I moved to London and
I started a graduate
traineeship at Coats Viyella.
And over the course of
the next seven or eight
years, I worked my way up.
I ended up in the position
of group marketing manager.
And it was at this time that
I'd met my now husband, Jason.
So we met on the shop
floor, we met at work,
we fell in love, he was
an Aussie, he was from
Perth or he is from Perth.
And I.
decided to move to Australia.
So, in the year 2000, on the
1st of December 2000, I packed
my backpack again, and this
time I arrived in Melbourne.
I arrived in Melbourne with
the trusted backpack, my
permanent residency visa,
a resume and my husband.
And that was pretty much it.
And suddenly I had to rebuild
my career in a country where
I had zero social proof.
I had to rebuild my network
in a country where I knew no
one and apart from you know,
my brother was here and I
had to rebuild my life, which
let's be honest, my vision
of my life in Australia had
been created from watching
endless episodes of Home and
Away and Neighbors at uni.
So I had a certain view of
what Australia was going to be
like, but to say it was scary,
is really an understatement.
I reckon it's one of the
scariest things I've ever
done, to be honest, moving
to a country where I
thought it would be easy.
you know, we speak English.
My understanding was it was
pretty similar to where I was
from, but it was one of the
hardest things I've had to
do in terms of rebuilding my
career, rebuilding my network,
rebuilding my confidence here
and learning to navigate,
the different cultural
norms that existed here.
So, over the next 10 years,
those of you that are really
smart will be working at
my age by now, but over the
next 10 years, I rebuilt
my corporate career and
I ended up becoming the
group marketing director
at Oroton Group looking
after two incredible brands,
the Ralph Lauren brand.
I was looking after that
here in Asia, Asia pac and I
helped, relaunched the Oroton
brand, its website and worked
with the creative director
at the time to take the
Oroton brand into Hong Kong.
But at that time, I still felt
there was more, you know, I
had three awesome children.
At the time they were, I
think three, five and seven.
I've still got them by
the way, but they're a
little bit bigger now.
You know, had a home,
had a career, but I felt
like there was more.
I was giving a lot to
other people, giving
a lot to my team.
To, the EC, the executive
committee, the executive
board at Or to Mr.
Lauren over in the U S to the
media, to key stakeholders.
I was coming home and then,
you know, giving a lot of
my time to the children, to
my children, to my husband.
And to be honest, in
all of this, I felt like
I was losing myself.
I knew I was great
at doing my job.
I could do it
standing on my head.
I loved it.
I, I loved playing around
the edges and, creating
and launching brands
and rejuvenating brands.
I loved everything about it.
I was traveling the world
going to Fashion Week in
New York twice a year.
It was fabulous, but
something was missing.
I felt like my brain, wasn't
being challenged in the way
I wanted to challenge it.
And so I decided that there
was more and that, I had to
take ownership of that more.
And it's a whole other
story, which you'll hear in
future episodes, :but I left
my corporate career and,
guaranteed set out on my own.
And I started building
my first business,
LBD Group, a women's
networking organization.
It was totally bootstrapped,
totally self funded.
And about two years into
that, the big hit came in
that my husband, Jason,
lost his corporate job.
So the company that he
was working for went
into receivership.
We had zero cash coming in.
The company was still
bootstrapping and we were
racking up credit cards.
Quite frankly, it was,
you know, everything was
going on the credit card.
And it got to a point one
day where, Jason told me
we had 50 left in the bank.
And.
that evening, it just
hit me and it hit me.
right do I have to
follow my dreams?
What right do I have to
pursue something different?
I can go and get a job.
I can turn this around.
What right do I have
to put my family and
my children at risk?
And they were at risk
because we'd had to move
out of our house into the
shittiest house in the street.
We'd had conversations with
the kids about Christmas
and birthdays are on pause.
Don't ask us for
milkshakes at the weekends.
We'd even spoken.
a little bit in jest, but
also a little bit seriously
to some friends about we might
need to camp in your backyard.
Things are getting
quite serious.
And the reality of the
50 left in the bank hit
home and I just lost it.
I just, burst into tears
and Jason found me crying
my eyes out at my desk.
And I said to him, I'm
going to go and find a job.
I'm going to go
and find a job.
What right do I have
to put you to put the
children under pressure?
What right?
I can go get a job.
I can do marketing
standing on my head.
And he turned around to me
and he said, don't you dare.
Don't you dare do that Janine.
I believe in you.
And those words, I believe in
you was all that I needed to
relight the fire in my belly
because I went, you know what,
if he believes in me, if my
husband believes in me, then
I've got to believe in myself
and it relit this fire in me
and over the next 10 years
since then, 12 years almost
now, I've built and I've
sold the LBD group, so I've
built and sold a business,
I've run a non for profit
where over five years we,
created a gift giving circle
and supported an incredible
community of women and
kids, here in Sydney to help
break the cycle of poverty
and prostitution and drug
dealing being the only jobs.
I've written three
bestselling books.
I've traveled the world,
speaking on stages
with incredible people.
and I now work with
individuals to help
them unleash their
brilliance, to achieve
the growth that they want.
I also, a couple of years
ago, I got invited back to
my university to be given an
honorary doctorate of science.
And to give the speech at
that graduating ceremony
this year, that is a moment.
Honestly, when I got
that letter from the
UK, another moment where
I burst into tears.
So that moment where Jason
said to me, I believe in
you changed everything.
And the reason I'm sharing
this is not about, Hey,
look at what I've achieved.
Hey, look at how I've,
grown myself and grown
this business out of being
on the brink of disaster.
How I turned, you know,
a 50 left in the bank to
a seven figure business.
It's not about any of that.
The reason I want to share
this story is because of the
personal learning that I had.
You see, for so long, I
was striving and proving
that I was good enough.
This relentless quest to
prove that I was good enough
left me often exhausted on
the brink of burnout and
constantly battling imposter
syndrome because I had
this crazy fear failing.
And it was only when I
stopped, it was only when
Jason said to me, I believe in
you, it was only that moment
where I stopped and I realized
that around me, everything
is constantly changing.
Everything is constantly on
the move and we're seeing
it right now, aren't we?
We're seeing this constant
change around us economically.
Where we're being challenged,
in terms of, our businesses
and where the money's
coming from, we're being
challenged financially in
our businesses, but also
financially at home, we're
being challenged in terms
of all of the uncertainty,
politically and globally,
we're being challenged
with what we're reading
and seeing in the media.
We're being challenged from
a health perspective on
the back of the pandemic.
And now we're being challenged
socially, in terms of how all
of this is filtering down.
So the reality is there's
change is constant.
It's happening at a macro
level and it's happening for
all of us at a micro level.
And I realised at
that moment that Jason
said, I believe in you.
That despite all of this
change, I faced it before,
despite all of the change at
that time, I faced it before
and what I realised is the
only thing that is constant
amongst the chaos is you.
Who I was being, who I
wanted to become, and
the same is you, right?
Since I owned that, since I
went, you know what, who am I?
Who am I being
every single day?
And who do I want to
become since I owned that?
Since I stepped into
owning me, into owning my
brilliance, into owning my
expertise, into owning the
fact that I can experience
heartache, tough situations,
I can pull myself out of it,
owning the fact that I have
this experience of life.
It was only when I started
being intentional about owning
that, about stepping into
my brilliance, about knowing
the impact that that makes
every single day, only by
doing that did things change.
And I want you to think
about this because the
same can happen for you.
Everything around you is
changing all the time.
Businesses are changing,
your clients are evolving,
the economy is evolving.
Everything is changing.
But the only thing that
is constant is you.
Who are you?
Who are you being and who is
it that you want to become?
When I started owning that.
When I started stepping into
my brilliance, that is when
everything around me changed.
That is when I
started becoming the
author, the speaker.
When I started owning
the clients that I
wanted to work with.
When I started really
committing to the business
that I wanted to build, but
also building it on my terms.
Committing to the life that
I want for myself, for Jason
and for my three children.
I want you to imagine
what more you could
achieve if you could step
into your brilliance.
The questions I want to
leave you with in this
episode are Who are you
not to be more brilliant?
Who says you can't
be more brilliant?
And the second question I want
you to consider is what will
change when you are brilliant?
Because here's the thing.
Undertaking any meaningful
endeavor requires each
and every single one of
us to be exceptional.
It requires you
to be exceptional.
And when we can accept
our own imperfections and
stop beating ourselves up
for what we don't have.
When we can start
accepting our limitations
and stop making excuses
for our mistakes.
When we can start owning
who we are, who we are being
and who it is that we want
to become, accepting those
imperfections, accepting
those limitations, when we
can do that for ourselves,
we give permission to those
around us to do the same.
Stepping into this
space is a choice.
It is a practice and
it is a discipline.
And I want you to think about
because who you are, who you
are being, and who you want
to become is all your choice.
Thank you for listening
to this episode,
where I've been.
I wanted to share
with you my story.
It hasn't all unicorns
and rainbows and
champagne popping moments.
There has been a lot of
challenge, a lot of picking
myself off the floor and
a lot of really digging
deep of deciding and
making the choice around
who am I in this moment?
Who am I working to become?
And who am I being to
everyone around me?
Until next week, enjoy
and have an awesome week.