[Music]
well hello and welcome to the wine and
wisdom show welcome to spring
and good riddance to winter
i am in the spring color of pink
it is also my birthday month so i love
the beginning of september
but welcome to you all if this is your
first time here tonight thank you so
much for coming along and
cheers to you i’d love to know what have
you got in your glass i’ve got a buttery
chardonnay as per usual so predictable
and if you are returning i you know i
just truly love it when you come back
time and time again and i see your
comments so please put them in the
comment box tonight so we can see
that you are here and uh with us tonight
but
before we get started i
really want to firstly uh
start with an acknowledgment of country
and i
first of all we want to acknowledge the
traditional custodians and elders spread
across the many lands that we’re all
located on tonight um in many different
places so
i’m personally coming to you from the
lands of the birrabirragal people in birch
grove sydney
but i’d love to know which land you’re
coming from and perhaps you could
put that in the chat to let us know
which of these traditional lands you’re
coming from
i i’ve got so much gratitude to all our
traditional owners who have
nurtured and protected
this wonderful country for the last 65
000 years
that
we’ve all had the opportunity to work
live and play in so
yeah i’d love to hear from you about
where you’re coming from tonight
but you know what we’ve got an amazing
guest and uh as you know being the wine
and wisdom show
my whole goal is to
have a little wine with you
but also to bring you the wisdom of
the really courageous
and resilient
self-leaders that i have been lucky
enough to surround myself with uh over
the years and
yeah tonight is no exception to that
uh of course it feels like we’re just
going to talk about wise words and have
a little have a little vino together but
in fact
this whole show is about connection
and i
bet what you think like i think what
we’ve learned more than anything
over this last 15 16 17 months i don’t
know where are we what day is it i mean
look down
that
connection is more important than
pretty much anything else in the world
and when we can connect with
other great humans who bring a smile to
our faces
bring some warmth to our hearts
and some wisdom to our brains
uh we’re really on a good thing and
tonight
all of those three things are going to
be ticked because we have
the amazing
leanne pilkington tonight with us hello
leanne hello my friend how are you
cheers to you
cheers
what have you got in your glass um i’ve
just got a little bit of a cheeky south
blanc
oh a saplong nice yeah
yeah i can’t have shardy unless i’m
having food
really yeah i can truly have shotty at
any time really
yeah you
only the buttery type it’s just i don’t
know i’ve just got a thing with it as um
yeah i’m addicted to it i think but and
covert hasn’t helped really i’m addicted
oh tell me about it yeah absolutely
nothing wrong with that
nothing wrong with that
well everybody who’s listening um
welcome to this amazing episode that
we’re going to be able to share with
leanne and
for those of you and i’m sure many of
you who will be listening either now or
later know that she is a complete icon
in the reality real estate industry uh
40 years she has
started from you know when she was about
two obviously to have been in the
industry since then and
beating every part of
the industry in sales and property
management
and leadership and
right now
not only is she she’s the president of
the real estate institute of new south
wales
but what it what’s the right right term
leanne for like
is it c c i am the ceo of langan simmons
yeah yes you are the ceo of laguna city
of miami
i mean this this woman has reached the
pinnacle of her career in this industry
and uh you know what what i’m gonna like
well what i’m gonna love to bring to you
tonight is
the wisdom that she has around
rewriting your story and you know what
does that mean and we’re going to unpack
that a little bit tonight on how all of
us um
you know we can go down one path we
might not end up there but
what what we have control of and what we
can influence is our story and leanne
has certainly done that
leanne
can you share with all of us um
what
what you feel is the positivity that you
are sprinkling
you know within your industry within
australia
what what are the positive things that
you know that you’re doing day in day
out that mean a lot to you
i think i do most things with a smile on
my face
um and
just because i take what i do really
seriously doesn’t take it doesn’t mean i
take myself really seriously
and
there’s enough negativity and enough you
know
difficult stuff going on in every
industry ours is no exception
um but i think you can deliver it with
the way in a way that makes people
i don’t know happy to listen to you and
and um and make people feel just a
little bit better
about what is going on so yeah i’m
trying to communicate
as transparently and as openly and as
frequently and as clearly as i can
yeah with a smile on my face yeah
and you know it is that uh it is that
balance right of
you know that credibility piece which
you’ve obviously got from being in the
industry for 40 years the
immense amount of knowledge that you
you bring but also to bring your
personality and your sparkle and like
you you mean you are
you are unique and you have a real
um sparkle about you and there’s this
beautiful fine line i would imagine that
i don’t know if it’s a struggle for you
i think you actually it appears it
definitely appears that you
you kind of play it out really easily of
the the credibility piece
with the personality piece
yeah it’s interesting i um i
i was a recruiter for a very short time
in my career a long time ago and i was
only ever allowed to wear
navy
um beige or black suits
uh and so as soon as i left that job my
wardrobe just exploded in colour
and i’ve never looked back and so i’ve
kind of become quite well known in the
real estate industry for colour
um and for sparkles
yes
but um
yeah i think also you know the older you
get the more comfortable you get with
just being who you are and and
yeah just because i don’t
look like all of the other presidents um
yeah before me of the real estate
institute doesn’t mean
that i don’t have their credibility
because i do
so it’s been it’s been a really
important lesson to me that i can
deliver
um at this level and still being true to
me
yeah
yeah i love that and
deathly thank you for letting us know
i’m not sure if i’m pronouncing it
properly you you and country um i
appreciate you saying that and cheers
also to you emma i’m glad that you’re
here with us
um cheers emma
cheers you know it’s so interesting you
say that and before i leave you know
already within a couple of minutes it’s
going to go off tangent here but um
leanne you know when you said that it
just reminded me when i i sold a
business uh in 2015 and then i kind of
came into this
role that i’m in now and i suppose you
know in a corporate i work with
corporates and and do what i do
um
but i started off
doing that position
and i thought i had to dress really
corporately like i was doing the full
suit and blouses and
you know the tailored pants and whatever
which is
so not me at all but i thought i just
had to do it that way to fit in and
it kept feeling like there was this
disconnect which of course he was
because
i’m trying to be me but i’m not really
me and
i don’t know what the tipping point was
but there was a tipping point where i
just went oh i just can’t be that person
i just got to be me and me is pretty
dressers color
big earrings and it doesn’t make me less
credible at all it just makes me me and
i think
there’s a lesson in that isn’t there
because when we can be ourselves we’re
in flow
and we can show up
and give our best to whatever we we’re
trying to do yes so true i remember
reading an article um
uh about julie bishop the previous
foreign minister and she was maybe the
minister for aging at some stage and she
was told she had to wear you know twin
sets and blah blah and she so she tried
it but exactly what you said wasn’t her
didn’t feel right and she went and i
forget that i’m an imani girl all the
way and that’s what i’m going to do
yeah good honor i love that
yeah so
tell us you know talking about tipping
points um
what what got you here like you know was
was it choice was it chance
the magi we had this i had a guest last
year he talks about the magical dance of
choice and chance and
what was it for you
it was um
yeah there was no
you know i was always i was always
really ambitious but i never saw myself
here
i never saw myself as um as a
you know i become an industry leader
which i still find
um
i don’t know yeah i still find it a
little bit bewildering i suppose but i
was in the fortunate position where i
found my place and i found my people and
that was when i started at langan
simmons that was nearly 26 years ago i’d
had quite a varied career prior to that
um and the business was bought by a
couple of wonderful guys um
tony anderson and rob farrell
back in the late 90s
and um
and they
saw more in me than i saw in myself
they gave me opportunity and i took it
and i’ll be forever grateful uh to them
for having that faith and for seeing
more in me than i could see in myself
and i think that’s a lesson for all of
us right um if you value people around
you and if they are convinced you can do
something
give it a crack yeah
yeah
and look you know i think all of us can
see things in other people that they
don’t see in their selves right
when we’re in a we’re in an opportunity
to actually call that out and lift them
up
far out we should be doing it because
there’s that sliding door moment and it
might have been there for you that if
they hadn’t seen that in you and really
helped you
lift up you might not have
no because you didn’t you didn’t think
you were worthy or whatever it is about
it
no i mean i tell people um i tell people
a story about when i was first promoted
so i always saw myself as a really good
number two and i was working for tony he
was the gm he was the charismatic leader
that everybody wanted to be around and i
was the one running around in the
background getting stuff done you know
he would go out and say we’re gonna do
these wonderful things and i’d go okay
right let’s get on to that and i would
just get the stuff done and i was really
in my happy place and then he
said to me one day on his way out the
door um to go on holidays he said oh
kiddo i’m away for the next two weeks
but by the way you are much better at
this franchising stuff than me
i’m gonna make you the general manager
and i am going back to selling
commercial real estate all right i’ll
see you in a couple of weeks and i’m
like
what who gets promoted like that that’s
just random yeah
and so i rang every one of my um
franchisees so for those that that don’t
know me i’m a franchisor we’ve got 45
real estate businesses around new south
wales and i rang all of them and said
look
this is what’s happened and i was
expecting them to be disappointed
that when tony had the opportunity to
fill this really important role that he
chose me so i thought that they would
actually be a little bit disappointed so
i wanted to
kind of get on the front foot and
address it with them and everybody was
really overwhelmingly happy
and it got i got to the end of my phone
calls
and i i rang a few people back and said
you know how i just spoke to you and you
were really happy about me taking over
then um
can you tell me why you were really
happy about it
[Laughter]
and overwhelmingly they all said a
version of the same thing you know we
know how much you care we know how much
you love the brand you know we know how
much you care about us and our business
and that’s what people want from their
leaders they want to know
that you genuinely care about them and
their business and their people
yeah
yeah
absolutely they do so you know and i
mean what i’m hearing is like this kind
of major imposter syndrome type thing
went off
like
yeah yeah is that what it was
yeah yeah for sure
yeah for sure and it took a long a long
while because that was that was a long
time ago now that was 20 years ago that
was the year 2000
um and so it took me a while to feel
like i was the leader that the business
needed
and then i went through it all over
again
when i was asked to
um put my hand up to be president
of the of the um you know the peak
industry body
and i was like oh god because i’d been
on the board for a while and i’m like i
can’t do what all of those blokes have
done before me yeah and then i thought
you know what
if people that you value think you can
do it why not just have a crack i’m all
about saying yes to opportunities so
yeah
so yeah
later right
exactly yeah that’s right that’s what
they say yeah build the plane on the way
down
and um and you know our ceo tim said the
nicest thing and you know we’re not nice
to each other mostly um but he said the
nicest thing to me um
only a couple of weeks ago you know i i
took over as president from a really
high profile
very well regarded like
elder statesmen of the industry if you
like and dim said to me you know what
lei i worried for you i didn’t know how
you were going to go taking over after
john and that’s like no nor did i he
said but honestly you’ve made it your
own
and that’s a lesson to everybody that
they shouldn’t worry about what’s gone
on before
um just have the confidence to go out
and make a difference in the way you can
make a difference
yeah of course
i mean easier said than done right when
you’re in that position where your your
knees are shaking your heart’s thumping
and you’re celebrating thinking
i don’t know if i’m good enough i’d love
to know from those who are watching
either now or later
have you ever worked in a position or in
an industry where
you’ve had to go into something where
you felt that full imposter syndrome um
i i mean i certainly have i
i know you know years ago i became the
president of the personal trainers
council of new south wales when i was
doing that and that was like
what like you know i just going around
in my runners and my activewear like how
am i gonna do
who am i to lead anybody like seriously
exactly
yeah why would anybody listen to me why
would they want to know what i’ve got to
say yeah yeah i mean and it i mean it
comes up i like i still feel it
on different when different
organisations reach out to me and
ask me to help their people i’m like
well who am i to think
that i can actually make a difference
and yeah
this whole self-talk is sometimes really
difficult that our our thoughts just
take over i often talk about you know
you’re either the slave to your thoughts
or you’re the boss of your thoughts but
um
you’ve got to you’ve got to be really
you’ve got to go through a process to
kind of flip that right to
go from no i’ve actually got what it
takes to do this
and
i actively talk to myself at times
um and i talk to myself in the third
person
yeah right okay i’m not sure if that’s
weird or not but
um and it is just like you know what
like you can do this you know you can do
this yeah um get over yourself
yeah and talk about giving myself an
attitude readjustment you know give
yourself enough a cut and get on with it
because you know you can do it yeah you
can do it absolutely and we all can it’s
just yeah it looks that impostor
syndrome that rears its ugly head
and it doesn’t do us any favors at all
no absolutely
leanne i’d like to come back to
something you just said about when um or
two things that
you know you talked about when you were
made gm and you thought well all these
these 45 like uh licensees franchises
and judges yep yeah franchising who why
would they think that i can be of
service to them and also you became
president and
both times you mentioned um being female
so i just wondered you know is there a
diversity issue gender diversity issue
within real estate have you have you
noticed that as you’ve come up
with
so yeah massively there’s certainly it’s
it’s an interesting industry because um
about 50 percent just a shade over 50 of
the employees in the real estate space
are women
but the majority of them are in admin
property management support roles so
there are a few fantastic
female sales
people out there in some areas um but
only so about 20 of the business owners
within the lang and simmons brand are
women and that’s probably
pretty typical across the actual
industry it’s very hard to get the stats
but and from a leadership role as far as
franchisors go
there’s hardly any there’s a there’s a
there’s a couple of other female ceos
but hardly any
and um you know from the real estate
institute i’m only the second female
president that they’ve had
in 115 years
whoa
i know
oh my god i know
yeah i think they make that a precedent
for um the second female
prime minister that we have in this
country i know exactly that’s right you
don’t want to wait um and um certainly
the first one christine castle was
probably
oh i’m prob i’m going to get it wrong
but she was probably 15 18 years ago um
it was it was quite a while ago
um so
that’s and it you know it’s interesting
is that is it that the women aren’t
getting the opportunities is that the
women are not putting their hand up um i
think there’s a combination of a number
of things but one of the things that i
was committed to doing when i took over
as president
was increasing the female
membership on our board and so in fact
tomorrow morning i’m running a um a
women on board’s breakfast
that’s the fourth event that i’ve done
um
about encouraging women you know put
your hand up because i didn’t
i didn’t volunteer to go on the board i
was tapped on the shoulder and i’m like
um why would anybody care what no i
don’t have anything
value to add in that space and again
people that i valued thought that i did
so i i joined and i’m so glad that i did
and leanne does that i mean you know
when we talk about um our topic tonight
you know is it time to rewrite the story
you’re telling yourself yeah how does
tell me how that fits in with what
you’re just saying right now
well i or i’ve always um
i’ve always second guessed myself and as
i said at the beginning i’ve always been
ambitious but i never really saw myself
as a leader and if i reflect
now back on all of the different stages
of my career
you know
if if i could tell my younger self
something it would be you are capable of
so much more than you ever imagined
so much more yeah and i think um i think
there’s a lot of us out there that just
need that and when i was first voted in
as president it was like you know
hashtag
if she can i can too
yeah and that’s you know
that’s what it’s all about
so for people who are listening either
now or later on you know
if they’re struggling with you know can
i take that next step am i good enough
um
is this is this
really like are people just going to
really know that i’m not up to scratch
which of course is the whole imposter
syndrome and thank you to you make it
love nobody knows nobody knows because i
do it every single day do i make it um
yeah but what i mean what is what what
is a real practical thing that you think
people can do when they’re struggling
with that mindset because we all do so
what should we do
when we’re just feeling oh i’m not good
enough
[Music]
breathe
take a deep breath
and then just be realistic about it
don’t be
humble don’t be
underestimating yourself just be
realistic about what you can and can’t
do and also realise that you don’t have
to be perfect and you don’t have to know
everything you can find
people
around you to actually communicate with
right
to ask the questions i’ve got lots of
diff i don’t have one mentor
um anymore but um i’ve got a lot of
people that i take advice from
um
for various various things i have
different people that i call for
different reasons and there’s nothing
wrong with saying um
[Music]
it’s not my you know it’s not my
strength yeah this is not my strength
i’ve just been appointed to the board of
rei super
which i’m really um i’m really chuffed
about
but
you know i’ve already had a number of
board members reach out to me which i so
appreciate saying you know there’s a lot
of jargon there’s a lot of technical
stuff so don’t get overwhelmed with it
yeah and it’s so nice for all of those
people to reach out and want to be able
to help and most people do want to help
you they want to see you succeed
yeah
and how like you know it’s kind so nice
it’s just it’s an act of kindness to do
that yeah and what a gift i mean i think
you know obviously
you i mean you have a reputation
obviously leanne that ensures that
like people do want to see you succeed
so they will be kind they will help you
and
and and that’s happened because you’re
kind to others and you’re genuine
genuine generous to others and genuine
others as well
yeah right i think that’s really
important to um i think that’s oh thanks
mandy
um
i think it’s really important
that you do help people on the way up
i’ll never forget in fact my chairman
now at langan simmons um was my very
first business mentor and we worked
together i was a shopping center manager
and i had to build a business plan and i
had never
i’ve never been a shopping centre
manager my only um my only experience
for that job was that i’ve always been a
really good shopper
but managing a center completely
different conversation writing a
business plan i had no idea and
and
this man
helped me he he
helped me build my business plan and
i’ll never forget how hard he worked to
try and make me look good
for no other reason other than he was at
the top of his game and he could see
that i had potential and now
i um i appointed him as my chairman you
know
30 or 40 track i can’t even remember how
long now but law of reciprocity right
totally yeah
beautiful i’d love to know if those are
listening if you have
for one ever felt impostor syndrome in
anything you’ve done um over the years
and if you’ve you’ve worked in an
industry where it has felt like there
has been inequity and you’ve had to work
harder than others for whatever reason
it might be gender but it might be for
other reasons um but yeah let’s let’s
share that because i think the more we
share and this is the whole idea of
things like this
that if we can share others that we’re
not that feeling of we’re not alone
because we’re hearing from others that
it’s
tough
and it’s not easy and just because all
of a sudden leah
so by the way leanne she she just pre
pre me going live slips on she’s been
into
she’s been on channel seven news tonight
like you know
people are looking at her going oh she’s
got it so easy look at her she’s got it
all together
it’s she she does it so well she’s on
the news she’s a drink president
cheers to that um
but you know the real stories the real
stories behind this success me are that
it hasn’t always been easy right leanne
you’ve had to work really bloody hard
yeah and put in the hours and put in the
effort and
[Music]
yeah that’s so true and
yeah
but you’ve also got to be brave enough
to walk through the doors that are open
for you
um i i certainly i remember very early
in my time at langan simmons the
business was sold
and i had um the the owners i didn’t
think because the owners owned a lot of
different businesses and i didn’t think
that they even they would even recognise
me if i walked down the street let alone
know what i did
but they had said to the people that
were buying the business whatever you do
hold on to leanne because she’s the one
that’s running the show and i thought
well that was such a powerful lesson for
me back then because it’s all about the
things that you do when you don’t even
realise anybody’s watching
and that’s what’s really um set me on my
own on my own path
yeah um so yeah it’s been a lot of hard
work but i have
um i’ve been brave enough to step
through the doors that have been open
for me
yeah and that that is really beautiful
and i i take two things from that
firstly that
all of us no matter what we think no no
exactly what you said no matter who we
think is watching
people are
yes they are always so always turn up
and be the best you can be yeah
under the circumstances you’ve got
because
who knows
when that will come back and
help you
secondly
who is around you that
you could be that person to tap them on
the shoulder and say wow
you’re doing a great job we don’t want
to lose you or i don’t want to be
disconnected from you or you’re a great
friend
and
like whatever it is but
you know
none of us have esp
we don’t know this unless it’s said out
loud so i mean maybe we could all make a
commitment in the next week to say it
out loud to one person like seriously it
could change their life because those
conversations change lives like it has
to yours leanne hasn’t it and the um
i’ve got a i started a networking group
called real women in real estate back in
2015 and i was nagged to death to do it
because people kept saying to me
leanne you’ve got great contacts and you
know
we should all get together i’m like yeah
but why why would we do that i don’t
understand why i don’t i never thought
that i needed that women’s network and
it’s pretty funny that i’ve sort of
become the poster girl for women in real
estate almost when it’s something that i
avoided right i i didn’t go to the
women’s events i would have no part of
it because i was so busy trying to fit
in
with that with what i saw around me and
what i saw around me was all men
and so we finally um i finally had one
of these events and
it sold out within two weeks we had 65
women turn up to sydney two weeks notice
and i looked around and i thought
i still do know not know what the hell
we’re doing here but what i can see
is that there’s a need for it
and you know five or six years down the
track what i’ve realised is um
i wasn’t looking for a new group of
girlfriends out of it but that’s what
i’ve got i’ve got the most amazing group
of women around me and what i love about
them is that we’re always looking for
opportunities for each other
and so it’ll be like oh you know you
she’s a great coach yeah you need you
need this coach you need this buyer’s
agent you need this you know and we
connect each other to great
opportunities and it’s just a wonderful
gift
it is a wonderful gift and when you’ve
got a whole team of people that you
they’re not they’re not actually in your
team really you know proper team but no
they’re out looking no and potentially
could see each other as competition
right
as well not that we’re necessarily in
the same space but we’re all sort of
in leadership
most of us are in leadership positions
in the industry um so potentially we
could see each other’s competition but
that’s just not the way we look at each
other no oh it’s beautiful and what
you’ve created and so leanne you started
with 65 where are you at now
um oh gosh
well we’ve got um about 3 000 members
around the country um and we have events
around the country um we’ve got groups
in new zealand we’ve got a group would
you believe in los angeles um i do love
a tax-deductible reason to travel oh
yeah so um i’ve i’ve i’ve done a couple
of events in um in la
we’ve had groups go to new york and
vegas we were meant to be going to the
greek islands
oh my god gosh in june
but covered you know covered
so yeah and you know i’ve got to be
honest i haven’t been doing as much with
that group as i should have because
they’re all about live events
and so yes we do um do some zoom stuff
but it’s not you know i like to gather
it like get together and drink shampoos
and you know anyway
that energy together is yeah
but yeah it’s an amazing group we’ve won
a couple of awards actually the you know
uh community uh programs of the year for
um um the real estate industry and stuff
so yeah it’s been it’s been quite a
journey
oh amazing and yeah i’m all for i’m all
for tax deductible travel for particular
reasons absolutely if you could invite
me to uh one of those conferences you
can come and speak absolutely
it was actually hot on my list if you
could um organise something there so i
can drink i’m a girl
i’m your girl i can make things like
that happen just like that
i’m supposed to be speaking in singapore
uh last week
and i had a trip to the male dives like
post conference but anyway yeah i just
have to wait now for leanne to ask me
yeah no worries i’ll get right on it
thank you very much no problem leanne
you’re a pretty busy girl you’re on
channel 7 news you’re on a billion
podcasts a week you’re the president of
the industry association and you are the
ceo of a pretty large organisation here
in australia that is going through major
adaptions nearly on a daily basis with
the current environment
sure
it would be very easy for you to
have all these challenges chip away at
you
and
um
spiral you sometimes and i’m sure it
does happen um
but i i’d imagine it would be pretty
tough sometimes just to get up in the
day and face it
what is what is the one thing that you
do that is
really helpful to ensure that you can
cope
with all the challenges and curveballs
and cannonballs that just keep getting
thrown at all of us
but
at use specifically because we all are
affected differently
yeah i think you’ve got to know yourself
um i think you’ve got to know yourself
really well um and
act accordingly so for me i need to
exercise
yeah um i need to
eat well i know it’s really boring
advice right
um
but i was um i was doing a podcast with
somebody and they said to me
write down three things that make you
happy
and i’m like okay
um i love to read
i love the sunshine and i love to dance
and i looked i read i i just
automatically came out and i read it and
went
wow it’s been a while since i’ve done
any of those things
oh um just just like bring this up now
do you mean like when you were dancing
with me perhaps with feathers and
fishnets oh
mardi gras that kind of dab
that’s too funny
that is too funny and you know what’s
really funny about that photo
is that that was taken right outside the
real estate institute of new south wales
was it really yeah
yeah
i didn’t know and so if we had turned
around you would have seen the rei sign
and can i tell you another story about
that photo
yeah one of my girlfriends
um this photo
yeah that
oh my god
like sir look at this we’re like we’re
in vegas or something i just like
heaven’s above we were
we weren’t happy with louise but right
rigging us into it but you know i’m glad
we’ve got the photo to prove yeah
exactly
um i um a girlfriend of mine related
story and um her boss was having a
one-on-one with a team member and he
said do you have any um female role
models in the real estate industry and
this young girl said i don’t know leanne
pilkington but i have a lot of respect
for you know everything she’s achieved
blah blah blah this guy i don’t know how
but he didn’t know who i was so he
googled me and of course that was the
photo that came up
and then just said oh no i don’t think i
don’t think she’s a very good role model
i’m not sure about her credibility i
know um and so i actually went on to
write a linkedin post so it’s like what
does a mentor look like
um and um and you can really make a
mistake right from judging people too
quickly
because looking at that i don’t know
what people
i don’t want to think about what people
think when they see that photo of me to
be perfectly honest but
you know they probably don’t see a you
know a ceo and a president when they
look at it
that’s what’s behind all of those
sparkles and feathers yeah yeah
i mean what in a way heidi those are
online like can what would you think
this is like a ceo of a you know a big
and
president of an industry
association like yeah
that was a funny night
i think we that photo was actually used
for um qantas actually used that photo
for something actually did that
yeah yeah they did my royalty check must
be in the mail i’m sure it’s in mine as
well i just got to quickly daisy just
has to say hi um if louise her fairy
godmother is watching
she knows that daisy’s very annoying and
has to be in my things anyway
um
yeah well i’m glad you know so it’s
interesting leanne that you say you
acknowledge that the three things that
you know you
that really helped you you hadn’t been
doing i hadn’t been doing no right so
then what happened
did you intervene on yourself
yes i did i absolutely did and so
every weekend and this doesn’t sound
like a lot to people but you know the
only thing that changes for me on a
saturday and a sunday is that i’m
wearing different clothes when i’m
sitting in front of the computer right
i’m in my gym gear or in my gardening
gear and i’m still working
but make sure i have an hour lunch break
on a saturday and a sunday and i sit in
the sun and i read a book
instead of planting in front of the
television or doing whatever and the
other thing you’re going to love this in
fact i had to move it because wednesday
night is dance party night at our hill
oh and um and so we’ve moved it to
tomorrow night um
no that’s okay that’s okay
um and my husband and
i told somebody that we did this and and
she didn’t know me because i don’t have
children
and um and she said to me
oh dance party what fun how old are your
kids it’s like
no kids it’s just me actually my husband
sits on the lounge driving the you know
bringing up all the dj music on the big
screen and i’m just dancing like a
crazy person in my sequined pajamas oh
my god i love it i love that honestly i
just
love it it’s it’s so much fun makes me
smile
yeah and this is what we this is the joy
part right what brings us joy like
seriously schedule it in make it
wednesday night because if you don’t
schedule it in it won’t happen because
we can easily just keep on working
because
it just feels like those and you can
kind of think oh you know
it’s been a big day we’ll just watch
some telly but it’s not it’s like no
pump up the tunes let’s go
[Laughter]
oh my god i want to see you live doing
this so far it’s not pretty
you know i’m a child of the 80s i danced
like a you know i danced like i’m back
in the 80s yeah
i love the pogo
exactly the same
leanne you started a podcast a couple of
years ago
called courageous conversation but i’m
going to put the link in the um
i think after we go after we finish so
for everybody to have a look at you know
obviously courage is a huge thing for me
i’ve written a book around it
it was so interesting i didn’t know that
you had this podcast um
on something that to me is you know what
i love to do is to talk to courageous
people and have courageous conversations
so yeah can you tell me about how that
started and what it was all about and
how it’s evolved and how you’ve adapted
it to this new world yeah i don’t even
know i’m you know i’m a bit like that
though i don’t really know how it
started i just have these brain snaps
and think i can make that happen i can
do that you know that’s the joy of being
me i can just do that yeah yeah and so
i’ve always been really interested in
talking to people and understanding the
stories behind their success so i don’t
you know i don’t need to see the you
know the the
airbrushed version
um i want to know about the difficult
times and the challenges because we can
all learn from that because
we all have that right we’ve all got to
be you know that take that 30 seconds of
courage
um and just step into the you know
stepping out of our comfort zone and so
i just started to have conversations
with people and
and i thought oh courageous
conversations is a great name bit of a
brainstorm with some girlfriends they
thought yeah let’s just let’s just do it
and so i just started interviewing some
of my girlfriends um from the from the
women in real estate network and it’s
just gone on and on and on from there
and so we’ve partnered with elite agent
which is a fantastic magazine in the
real estate space which i’m super
excited about because
that means that more people are
listening to the conversations and it
really is
it’s it really is about
demonstrating to people that just
because you know you and i look like
we’ve got it all together right
where you know we’re successful and we
well we do where you know we’re happy
smiley shiny people that’s just who we
are
yeah
but we have our you know we have our
issues and we have our doubts and and
everybody’s got a story and some of them
blow your mind right
um and i just want to share that with
people
yeah
and for like as i said i’m going to
share the actual link but um if you just
want to have a look at what it looks
like which
i don’t know about you but i love
that look
i love that there’s a red stiletto in
the middle of it yeah totally
even though i do think covert for
allowing with especially with my plantar
fasciitis not to wear high heels as much
as i used to
um
i do love a good stiletto yeah yeah
i’m known for my shoes but i’ve got my
boots on right now i’ve got to be honest
yeah
yeah i know you’re known for your shoes
i’ve got one last question for the night
i’d love i’d love you to share with us
uh what is the
best piece of wisdom uh that somebody
has given you
in your lifetime and
who was that and
what impact has it made for you
in various situations perhaps
oh gosh
i don’t even know the answer to that i
should right
um i i’ve got a favorite saying that
came to me from a very good friend of
mine um in melbourne
and he said to me if you don’t value the
person don’t value the feedback
and so at the time um i
was
my profile was increasing and i was
getting a little bit of um
stuff on social media um that i kind of
you know
you know you can dwell in it right
yeah and and that’s what he said to me
don’t value the people person don’t
value the feedback and some people might
say oh you’ve got to take um you’ve got
to take uh
that kind of negative feedback on board
yep absolutely i’m all about taking on
board constructive criticism that’s okay
yeah
but not from people i don’t value no
i love that and it’s
far out like you know people ha people
have their opinions left right and
center it doesn’t mean that they are
they’re of value to you
no that’s right they’re entitled to
their opinions yes
they are and you know like we i can’t
remember what the actual ratio is but
you can be given what
10 pieces of positive and one of
negative and you focus on that negative
but if you can try to keep in your mind
that
unless that person really has your back
and he’s giving that that feedback
for to help you grow
yeah it’s not worth it and they don’t do
that on social media they don’t put
negative feedback on social media they
help you grow no they try and tear you
down
yeah they do no
yeah it’s a beautiful piece of advice
thank you for sharing it yeah my
pleasure
leanne thank you so much for tonight
it’s been so wonderful to chat with you
i know that people who are either
watching now or later will have gained
so much about
you know imposter syndrome and you know
going the career up the career
ladder and
rewriting that story believing in
yourself but also
you know
giving the gift to somebody else to
believe in them so that they have
opportunities that they can’t even
foresee at this stage because that
i mean that’s where it started right for
you someone doing absolutely
yeah
yeah none of us get here alone no we do
not surround yourself with great people
who bring that smile to your face and
some warmth to your heart and some
wisdom to your brain i tell you what
great things can happen
thank you everybody for tuning in i hope
you have enjoyed our wine
and wisdom show cheers
cheers if we do it like that it’s such a
it’s the opposite
um yeah thank you emma i and i just do
want to you know make note of the fact
that i think my pink face compared to
leanne’s lovely face is a reflection of
my dress not because i’ve had too many
buttery chardonnays over covered i don’t
think it’s just my light i’ve just got a
good light
thank you everyone have a wonderful
night thank you for being here and i
look forward to seeing you on our next
episode stay well
be well and live courageously good night
good night
[Music]
About Leanne Pilkington:
