Foreign.

Hello, welcome to the Promoted podcast.

I'm your host, Felicity Fury, co founder of We Aspire speaker and engineer.

And I'm joined by fellow speaker and engineer Renee Wootton, who is in.

Oh my gosh, I forgot your title, Renee.

Just doing amazing things at Lanzajet.

We'll just call it that.

Kicking goals, traveling the world.

I'm just say one.

Yeah, because I'm on Gubby Gubby country today.

Where are you calling in from, Renee?

I'm calling in from incredible Larrakia country.

I just landed back from the US yesterday, Had a fantastic trip away, but very happy to be home and very excited for this conversation.

Felicity.

I got out of town for a week.

I flew over to Chicago, which by the way, took me 30 hours each direction.

It's such a big trek, but I always come back so inspired and excited to make change and even, you know, bring ideas back to Australia or share ideas with people that I meet over in the US about what we're doing over here in Australia.

So always finding the most exciting moments and opportunities in my career to travel.

And it got me thinking.

I think that we have a huge amount to discuss with people around the importance of changing your environment to grow your mind.

Tell me about your weekend and also, do you think that this has relevance in your personal life and in your professional career?

What have you been up to?

Yes, we have been talking before hitting record today, and I feel like I had a very social weekend, which I'm a little bit tired from, but loved it.

I'm very much a social butterfly and love connecting with people.

And it has, it was actually a really interesting reflection because a lot of the people I was catching up with are quite different from say, five, 10 years ago.

And it was a reflection moment for me to say, oh, okay.

I feel like my environment really is changing and a lot of the people that I was meeting with and catching up with socially were business people.

And I love having business as people in my environment because it just gets me thinking so differently.

I grew up in a very, I would say, like, employee based culture where it was, you know, go to work, get a job.

Business wasn't really a thing that was discussed or talked about.

And I think this is also quite a generational thing.

And it's something that's been front of mind for me recently because we're hearing a lot about millennials in the workforce.

A lot of millennials are in that phase of buying their first home, saving money, having families.

There's a lot going on and you're probably navigating leadership roles as well.

So I think a lot of that, you know, strategy that boom has had isn't very effective in the world and our work today.

So, yeah, for me personally, I had a great weekend catching up and socializing with people, and it was a very interesting reflection that my environment has changed a lot.

And I think it can have you, like you said, Renee, grow your mind as well, have new ideas, change your perspective.

So while I didn't go to Chicago, it was my local neighborhood of business people on the Sunshine Coast.

I still really got to expand and grow my mind and think of things.

Like, it can be like, one line.

Like the lady who hosted this dinner party, she said to me, one line like.

Like six months ago around how if you.

She said.

I didn't agree with her at first.

It was, don't make your business your passion.

And I was like, whoa, my business is my passion?

What is she talking about?

What she meant by that was, if you get really hooked in your pass, it can be hard to see how do you make the business function and optimize your business to be effective, to generate the revenue to grow it?

And how do you have that outside perspective where you're not really attached to that passionate outcome?

So that was a big game changer for me.

So I loved going to dinner at her house and saying, thank you for that.

Just like, one sentence that helped me shift my perspective and actually had our business have a bigger impact because I was able to change my thinking on it.

How about you, Renee?

You've gone, you know, had lots of mental.

We talked about that on previous episodes.

Yeah.

I feel like getting going on a plane for 30 hours, a long way to turn up for work, but sounds like it was a huge game changer in terms of shifting your environment for a week.

What did you learn?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I guess the reason I really wanted to call this out is because you kind of, you know, we can put so much effort into building a great workplace.

We can build such a great effort in, you know, forming friendships and who we spend our time with week to week.

And that can all be really great.

But I do find that it can, I guess, prevent you from thinking about new things or consider a different mindset or.

I don't want to say that it's sedentary, like, things slow down or you kind of plateau in your growth as an individual if you're not bringing in new influences and thinking outside the box and even visiting new places.

But I feel as though every time I go for A walk in the beach or, you know, speak to someone new or travel to a different location, it just helps me think outside of the box or it helps me bring in new considerations or just excitement, inspiration to think about what I'm doing today.

And it can just be such small things like whether it's going to a social dinner on your weekend or whether it is traveling for work or even just going to the beach and having some alone time for you to just think about what's happening in your world.

There's just so many opportunities if you can just change your environment.

If I think about that on a day to day basis, let's say you do your eight hours in the office, then you go home, you go and have dinner, you go to bed and you do that on repeat week to week.

What could inspire you or change your thinking if you went to the gym or went to, you know, a networking event or manage to get a little bit more alone time than you normally would as a parent, for instance, going for that walk.

So I just find, you know, we forget to talk about the importance of changing up your routine and making sure that you're, you know, doing that check in to make sure that you're not holding yourself back or you're not feeling flat or uninspired.

And I find working from home full time, whilst it's incredible in that it gives me flexibility in my day to day life in ways it can be quite lonesome at times and not that inspiring at times, even though I'm on the phone to people that I work with, even though I'm working on projects constantly.

So for me, I just got back from a trip overseas and it was such an exciting, thrilling experience.

Probably one of the best work trips I've ever had.

And it was because I got to attend a conference and meet so many interesting people.

And it got me thinking about, you know, what can we do in the US versus what can we do in Australia and what are the opportunities for change.

And then on top of that, I had some time in my office, in person in Chicago, at our LanzaJet headquarters.

And again, just the power of being in person with the people that I work with.

I do about two trips, maybe three trips a year to the US So very small amount of time in person with people that I work with daily.

And so, you know, just building those relationships, going out for dinner and, you know, hearing about what they're up to outside of their work environment is so important for building those relationships and just, you know, helping you make connections or be Inspired about other things that you're also seeking in your work or your personal life.

So yeah, that's kind of the call out here is like change your environment, grow your mind.

And I think that that just been a really important reminder this trip that you know the impact that can have on the ideas that you chase or the business that you run or you know, how you spend your time.

So yeah, I think really powerful too when you might be in a job or in a role which is something that you know that you need to do to progress, but you might not have the environment that you want in that role.

And I've certainly had those positions where I'm getting the skills I want because I can see that it's going to help me build and get to and the next position or the next role.

And it can be really tricky.

So I think, you know, if you're listening to this going, oh, I've got a, my environment isn't that great at work but I know I need to be here, which for me, as I said has been the case a lot in my career.

It can be helpful to have those outside reflection points or those outside mentors and I think there are, you know, small things that you can do in that work environment to change it.

One rule that I implemented was not to gossip with my colleagues.

And that I think is a really, that's an important value for me and a tricky one because in some positions I've said to people, hey, I please don't gossip about other work, work colleagues with me.

I'm not going to engage in that conversation.

And first of all that can be really tricky to say because you're putting yourself out there.

And the other bit that I found was I didn't get invited to things socially as much.

And that's kind of like the cost and the payoff.

It actually was great because I was like, oh, I don't have to, I don't have to feel bad in these conversations and it's not aligned to my personal value.

I did have to work harder to build relationships with people at work.

Whether it was having one on one lunches with people or you know, doing things like that that had me build those relationships because I wasn't getting access to that socially.

But it did get to a point where, and I'm a human being, I have slip ups.

I gossiped about, I mentioned something about something, you know, some drama, bigger company wide.

And my colleague said, oh, I think that's gossip.

And I was like, oh, that's actually amazing.

That she remembered, that was my boundary that I set.

So the environment, it can be almost like.

It's like the water that you swim in.

You almost don't even notice that culture that you have sometimes.

And I'm learning a lot about myself in terms of the.

The workplace I have been in have often been quite negative.

So I often don't notice when it is a toxic work environment.

Just because I got so used to that kind of, oh, that's just how work is.

There's often things I actively have to go, that's not okay with me.

Okay, I do have the power to change it.

It's going to take some courage and some effort to do that, and it can be actively standing up for it.

And then, like I said, sometimes I've just gone to outside sources and gotten.

I feel like.

I feel like the juice from somewhere else.

Like, if I'm in a role and I'm not really learning that much, then I might go to mentor and go, hey, I really want to up my learning.

Can you help me this while I kind of get through this position that I need to.

So if your environment's great, if it's not great, I think there's still things you can do about it to achieve those career goals as well.

What do you think, Renee?

Yeah, I love that example.

Around, like, the environment is sometimes a culture that you don't really realize is kind of like, become the norm for you.

And so just having that perspective to step away and realize that other businesses run differently or other people speak about different things.

And that can really influence whether it's gossip at work or whether it's starting a business or trying to get access to a group of people to mentor you.

Or, like, there's just so many different examples, quite small, medium, large, in terms of the influence that it can make in your life to really gaining perspective, skills or influence that you want to achieve.

So first thing I would probably say is, have a think about what do you want to change in your environment today to grow your mindset.

A great example for me that I actually just took on board recently was a colleague of mine.

I noticed that they were spending their own money to attend work events because work didn't have any more budget left for professional development.

But they still were so curious and really excited about the possibility of getting more involved in other networks and learning other key skills that they started to go out and actually spend their own money on attending networking events.

And I thought about that for a moment and I was like, well, that's incredible.

Because as we know, Felicity, the power of expanding your environment is that opportunities, career growth, again, just all the things that we've been talking about, like the growth in your mindset, can be such an inspiring instigator that, I don't know, just influences so much change in your life.

So I think it cannot be undervalued how changing your environment can just lead to so many incredible opportunities.

So, taking the advice of my colleague, I've actually signed up to go to a conference in Sydney in a few weeks.

And I'm really excited by the prospect.

Yes, I'm now paying for that myself, but I'm really happy to do that because I know how essential these skills are for me.

I'm going to meet more people that can continue to help me grow and build on those skills.

So sometimes things aren't in your control.

If work doesn't have budgets or, or, you know, something is outside of your direct job.

But you're still really curious.

This is just a call out to say, chase that curiosity.

You can always do something small, medium, large, with your time, with your money, with your network, if you find the opportunity.

So find the opportunity, I guess, is the call out today to, you know, change your environment, grow your mindset with any.

I think my final thought is that one, you shouldn't put up with toxic workplaces.

I will also call that out.

I'm not saying that's a good idea.

I wish I didn't do that so much, but that was just so.

It was just normal for me.

And I think once you start to.

If you have someone who says something like, this is possible, and you think, no way, that's just the world they live in.

Like, I just think about when we did our first Power of Engineering event.

I met a mentor.

She's like, this could be a national charity.

And I was like, she crazy.

And then I went, well, she's like the CEO of this company, basically.

And she also is in the Reserve Bank Board of Australia.

So she probably actually knows more than me.

And her environment was different.

Her environment was these things could be possible.

So you might have people that say, you know, these things could be possible.

It might seem like crazy or strange to you.

They're just from different environments and like, neither one is good or bad.

It's just different.

So I think if you do have goals and you do want to change where you're at, this is something that is a really powerful accelerator to do that.

And you might be going, I literally know no one who I could talk to.

Listening to podcasts, getting on YouTube.

You can find these mentors in other ways.

It doesn't have to be that you personally know them.

Follow them on LinkedIn, see what they're up to, go along to events they're going to.

There's so many different ways that you can start to change your environment.

And before you know it, I think for me my journey has been, I've started to do that.

There's been, I've worked with a lot of CEOs and amazing people like that who've been my mentors where their world is, oh, all these things can happen.

That's just very normal.

And I've adopted that mindset.

And now looking back, it's interesting to talk to people who might be in that toxic workplace or who are in that rut and think, oh, that's just not possible for me.

And oh wow, my mindset has actually changed slowly over time and I think it's much easier to see that looking back.

So yeah, I'd really encourage people if you are not where you want to be or it's not feeling like the place for you, then who is someone who you could have a conversation with that is different from these environment that you're in and see what change could be possible.

I love it.

So exciting and such a simple tool.

We wish you all the best.

Have a great week and we hope you find the thing that inspires you to make change and grow your mindset.

Thanks so much for curiosity.

Thanks Renee.

I'll see you in the next episode.

Bye for now.

Bye for now.

Sam.