I've got a secret.

I have never felt smart.

I mean, you might look

at me and think beautiful

blonde hair and gorgeous

woman, and looks like

success on Instagram.

And you know, maybe that

is true, probably not.

But I have never felt smart.

Let me just tell you a

little story to back this up.

When my parents split,

which is on another episode,

go listen to that one.

I repeated year 10.

Because I didn't feel smart.

Actually it was 'cause

my grades were so bad.

and I put that down to my

parents' divorce, but that's

just really an excuse.

Anyway, I repeated year 10

and my grandfather, bless his

soul, would pay me for a's.

And I can tell you I didn't

get paid very much money.

I wish that he had paid me

for a C 'cause CS were good.

I was good at cs.

I've just never been

academically bright.

You know the ones where

you have a a high a task

score, you got your head

in the book all the time

and that's how you learn.

That is not how I learn,

but for my entire childhood.

From grade, probably

four through till 12.

I never felt smart and I feel

a bit sad saying that actually

because I'm very street smart.

I'm very street wise,

but that is not what you

get graded on at school.

Our society gives you grades

based on if you are book

smart or not, and I was not.

I had this conversation with

my dad when I was in grade 10.

I remember it very clearly.

It was work experience time.

What are you going to do?

I wanted to be two things.

One, I wanted to

be a social worker.

I. Two.

I wanted to be a mechanic.

I loved pulling stuff apart

and putting it back together.

I loved getting my hands

dirty and feeling my

way through a puzzle.

I loved looking at an

engine and thinking,

could I put that together?

it sounds random, doesn't it?

But anyway, and my dad

thought in his wisdom,

social work might be nice.

And also I was a chatter

box, so that might

actually work, even though

that's not anything to

do with social work.

Anyway, another day and

over his dead body would

I become a mechanic?

His words not mine.

Anyway, so I went

on with life.

I have to tell you

a story about this.

At our dad's 70th birthday,

which was five years ago,

he told this story about how

he, when he was in grade 10.

He went to his mum

and dad and said, I'd

like to leave school.

I'd like to become a mechanic.

And his parents said,

sure, go do that some.

No, they did not.

They said,

"Over my dead body will

you go and be a mechanic."

Now, I was like, I

never knew that story.

No wonder you had that

response to me because

that's what you wanted to do.

Anyway, we had words, I can

tell you right now, because

I was like, I would've not

only been a mechanic one, I

would've been a short blonde

mechanic, differentiation

plus, and I wouldn't have

stopped at being a mechanic.

I would've owned.

Some mechanic shops for sure.

maybe I still wanna be a

mechanic anyway, so I am what

I would call street smart,

and it's taken me years.

Years to own this and even to

this day, some days, ladies,

I like everyone else, fall

into that trap of comparison.

They seem smarter than me.

They seem to be able to do it.

I don't have those smarts.

I can't push out

content as quickly.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I have to actively work on

my mindset to go, no, no, no.

I'm street smart.

I know what to do.

I know how to run a business,

which by the way, everyone

in my life bar my immediately

find me are so surprised about

because I'm not book smart.

I went to uni, yes,

but I also went to uni

and I worked full time.

I did both loads at the

same time, and I literally

just went to uni to get

that piece of paper.

That was it.

Now I have a

Bachelor of Commerce.

I've never pulled that

piece of paper out.

I've never put it

on a wall actually.

It doesn't actually

mean anything to me.

And also because I was a

mature age, full-time student

at the ripe old age of 25,

I kind of sat in the back

and went, Hmm, that doesn't

actually happen in real life.

Oh, in a work context, that

doesn't actually happen.

Anyway.

And yet here I am saying to my

daughter, what would you like

to be when you grow up, honey?

You can be anything

you wanna be.

And the other day she

said to me, mom, I need

some help with maths.

My biggest nightmare.

And she's grade six.

And I'm like, okay.

And she said, but you are

not very good at maths,

so I'm going to go to dad.

I'm like, cool, cool.

and.

Our other daughter was sitting

there at the time, she said.

Hey, iffy.

Um, mom actually runs a

business and so she must

be okay at maths because

her business is successful.

I'm just curious what

you mean about that.

And I thought, oh,

that's very nice.

Anyway, iffy was like, oh,

I know you run a business

and you deal with lots

of money, but you don't

understand this six maths.

You know what?

She's blowing, right?

So annoying.

I don't understand it,

and I'm okay with that.

So, you know, dad's the

teacher, she goes off to dad

and I'll go print some money

somewhere else, shall I?

So what I wanna say

to you is just because

you are one thing.

It's important

to everyone else.

Doesn't mean you have to

be defined by that thing.

I had to redefine what

I thought was smart.

I had to redefine what it

meant to me to be smart.

I have business smarts.

I have entrepreneurial smarts.

I have smarts with people.

You give me a test,

I'll fail that.

I'm okay with that.

But I am almost at the age

of 50, only now coming to

terms with the fact that

Books and me academic me is

probably not where I wanna go.

Having said that, I've

written my own book.

I have so much intellectual

property content, I

run my own business.

I do my own thing.

I read books.

I have at least three on

the go at any point in time.

So I am a avid reader, but I

don't value the academics of

learning for learning's sake.

That's just who I

am, and that's okay.

Now, I'm gonna be nervous

if Evie ever repeats

these words back to me.

So she's not allowed to

listen to this podcast episode

because I want her to feel

like she can go and be a

mechanic if she wants to.

She can.

Have a business

if she wants to.

She can go to uni if she wants

to, and she's academically

bright and we always say,

thank goodness she got

her father's brain from

an academic perspective.

He's awesome and I think

she's going to be that

way inclined as well.

That's not the only way.

So I wanna encourage you that

if you feel like, yeah, I'm

not academic bright, but you

are running a business, it's

almost like having a different

side of your brain to use to

build and grow a business.

Being an entrepreneur, you

have to take all these risks.

You have to show

up as yourself.

You have to manage your

own finances, you have

to manage your own time.

Business it, all the things.

And if you are not

smart, you can't do that.

So I know that the smart

situation, it's just a

narrative I need to leave

behind and I work on

that every single day.

But I'm street smart.

I'm street wise, I know how to

get a result when I need it.

And that doesn't necessarily

fall out of academia, right.

So if you're sitting

there and you're going,

yeah, I felt the same way.

I wanted to do all these

things, but I wasn't smart

enough, let's get rid of that.

Let's reframe that to say,

I'm smart in this way.

I'm smart as I run

my business, I make

smart decisions.

I can do hard things.

That's what smart's all about.

It's not just about not being

able to read a text in a

textbook, not being able to

take a test, all those things.

None of those things

actually matter when you

get through high school.

I think when we have kids that

are in high school and ATAR is

everything and all the things,

I think it's really hard

for them to see past that.

But now I've got a bit

of hindsight, a bit of

wisdom behind me, a bit

of lived experience.

I know that I can sit

opposite someone who's

academically bright and we

can both be smart together

and isn't that lovely?

So if you are feeling like

you're not smart enough,

all the things, just think

about What narrative are

you telling yourself?

Are you telling yourself

that you're not smart

and therefore you can't?

Or are you saying, "I'm

smart in a different way

and therefore I can"?

I would love you to take that

away and I'd love you to share

this episode with someone

who you think needs it.