Is it time to re-write the story you are telling yourself?

We all have the opportunity to alter where our life takes us. Often it takes someone else to see the potential in us and when that happens we grow our confidence and start believing in a future we may have not seen before.

In this episode with Leanne, I ask her:

1. What was the turning point in her life that led her to believe she could be the icon that she is in the Real Estate industry.
2. Does she ever still suffer from imposter syndrome?
3. How can we give others the opportunity to re-write their stories?
4. And so much more.

To watch this inspiring episode, click the video link below, or if you would prefer to read the full transcript click the blue button under the video.

[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]