In this week's episode, Trevor Holland, Australia New Zealand managing director of Lululemon, discusses the fear of walking away from his passion to start a new career, taking lessons from his favourite audio book Atomic Habits by James Clear, and searching out mentors to guide him through his career.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Australian Financial Review. It was because I didn't want
to say that I wasn't a performer anymore. My ego
didn't want to say that I was no longer in
that industry. And it was because it felt like I
was a failure. It's such a simple concept that really
(00:29):
is around creating habits that support you in being the
best version of yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hi. I'm Sally Patton, editor of Boss from the Australian
Financial Review, and welcome to fift Demons with the Boss,
a podcast about success and failure and everything in between.
And along the way we're having to get some great
advice from our leaders. Day is Trevor Holland, the Managing
(01:01):
director of Lululemon in Australia and New Zealand. Hi, Trevor,
how are you great?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Thanks Sally, how are you.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Very well? And thank you so much for coming into
our Melbourne studio.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Great to be here, Trevor.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
As I said, you're the MD of Lululemon in Australia
and New Zealand. Lululemon being an athletic clothing retailer, but
I must admit I still think of you as a
retailer of Fantastic yoga pants and tops. The company is
headquartered in Vancouver in Canada. In Australia and New Zealand,
you have forty one stores and globally there are now
(01:38):
around seven hundred and sixty stores. In Australia. I believe
you've got about thirteen hundred employees, and in terms of merchandise,
I believe you're moving into outfits that can be worn
both during exercise and casually as well. So are you
a bit of a yoga fiend yourself? Do you get
up and do yoga in the mornings.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I am not a consistent practice, but I do practice yoga.
I find every time I do do a yoga class,
I'm reminded of how much it actually supports me mentally,
how it frees my mind, and how it really grounds me.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I must have been. I'm always reminded about how much
it hurts. But still so, Trevor, We've only got fifteen minutes.
Let's start the clock right now. My first question is
about your morning routine. What time do you get up,
what happens? Are you a coffee drinker?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I'm absolutely a coffee drinker. My alarm goes off around
five point forty five and about four times a week,
I have a consistent workout that I like to do.
The other mornings, I really listen to what my body needs.
Sometimes I'll get up, I'll run, sometimes I'll go for
a walk, but just depending on where I'm at on
that day. And I like to be in the office
(02:46):
somewhere between seven thirty eight o'clock depending on what the
morning routine has been. But as far as the coffee goes,
I have a ritual where I like to tick off
something that is on my to do list, depending on
how long it takes, one to three things, and then
I reward myself with a coffee. The concept of eat
that frog, which is do the thing that's hard and
get it out the way for the day, and then
(03:07):
I head off to get a coffee.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And in terms of the routine that you do four
days a week, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I go to a workout called strong So it's a
forty five minute class mixed between strength and cardio. It
is on a reformer Pilarate's bed and it's linked with
either a rowing machine or a bike and you change
between strength and cardio.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, now, Trevor, tell me about a pivotal moment in
your career. Was there a project you worked on, or
something that you did, or a promotion you were given
that changed the path of what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Musical theater is my background, and that was, I would say,
my first career. It was what I'd always strived to do.
It was, you know, I danced from a young age,
and I always thought that I would remain in that
industry one way.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Or another, say as an administrator.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Whether I was performing or potentially like on the creative
side of things. As my body slowed down and I
got to a point my husband and I had just
worked on cruise ships for five years, and I was
teaching six days a week, and I just became burnt out.
I was having to be creative for my job to
pay the bills, and the creativity was dying, and so
(04:20):
I came to Lutle Lemon. My thought was, I want
a job where I don't need to think about anything
creatively and I can switch off and during that time,
I'm going to start to work out what is next.
I felt like I was at a phase where my
performing was slowing down and it was time for something else.
So I came to lule Lemon, and it's almost seventeen
(04:40):
years I'm still here. But I think the pivotal thing
was where I really shifted mentally from it being a
job to seeing that there actually could be a new
career in this for me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And what was your first job at Little Lemon?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I was an educator, so I worked on the shop floor.
It's like a sales assistant, and I was literally working
one day a week.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So how did you move from becoming a casual shop
assistant to where you are now?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
About a year in I'd progress through the retail roles
and became a store manager and that's where I could
really see that there was a future there. And I
actually spent eight years of my time at the company
in learning and leadership. So that was where I started
on my own as an individual contributor and developed across
(05:27):
the eight years to become the manager across Asia Pacific.
But I would say how I got here is a
whole lot of leaders who were invested in my development
and then working hard to get there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So did you go and purposefully find leaders who would
invest in you? Was that part of your trajectory I did?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I think I had a mix of leaders who were
my manager, who were really invested in my future and
where I wanted to go, and then also connected with
people that weren't necessarily in side the company but could
give me insights, could give me development, could give me
understanding outside of the business as well.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, I love that. My next question is what is
the best piece of career advice you've ever been given?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
At Lilman, we have a practice of vision and goals,
and it really is around creating a vision for your
life sometime in the future and in creating goals to
be able to get there. And that is from a
career perspective, personal life, health, any sort of realm that
is important to you. And so early on I had
a very clear vision that my future would be somehow
(06:35):
involved in the arts and in the industry of performing
and the advice I got was have that vision, hold
that vision, and be okay that how you get there
may be different to what you expect, and then be
okay for someone else to open a door that you
don't necessarily see as a possibility for you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Interesting and what's your current vision.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I've recently moved into this role five months ago, and
so so I have a vision around how I lead
and the team that I support and develop and inspire
team is how we get results. Any results come through people.
I find that I work best when I work in
a group and in a team, and I think bringing
in everyone's skills and everyone's strengths is where a team
(07:20):
works best. It's like a sporting team. Everyone knows their
role collectively is when they come together is where they're
they're most effective. And I find that you know from
a cast from performing, it's the same sort of thing.
You're leveraging people's strengths, putting them in the right places
on stage, whereas this is not on a stage, but
it still is leveraging people's strengths.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Trevor, on that note, don't go away. We are going
to take a short break and when we come back,
we're going to open the chatterbox. I'll see you soon.
Welcome back to fifty Men's with the Boss. I'm here
with Trevor Holland, the managing director of Lulu Lemon in
(08:07):
Australia and New Zealand. Now, Trevor, this is our section
called the Chatterbox. Normally I would ask you to pick
out questions from the box, which today has got about
fifteen questions in it. But because you're in Melbourne and
(08:27):
I'm not, you're going to have to trust me to
pick out questions on your behalf. Sorry about that. Are
you ready for me to start fishing on your behalf? I?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I am, Okay, let's go here we are. If you
could swap jobs with somebody else for a week, who
would it be and why or what type of job
would you step into.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I always saw myself stepping into a creative role, whether
that was a resident choreographer, a resident director of a musical.
That's where I thought my path would go. And I
stepped into Lulle Lemon before I stepped on that path,
and I often just have little thoughts of how would
that have been? Would I have enjoyed it? Would it
have been what I imagined it to be. So I
(09:09):
would love to step into that role and see if
it was everything that I have in my mind, and
I guess would I be any good at it? So?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
At what point did you decide that you were going
to actually give up dancing? How difficult was it and
what made you think that you could make a success
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I was about a year into my Little Lemon journey.
I was a store manager and I was working forty
hours a week for lutlle Lemon, and I'd got rid
of more and more teaching, which was how I was
making my money prior, and I kept one day of teaching.
It was because I didn't want to say that I
wasn't a performer anymore. My ego didn't want to say
(09:50):
that I was no longer in that industry. And if
I saw someone, I would still say to them, I'm
teaching quite a bit and I'm still working out Little Lemon.
But I made it sound like Little Lemon was my
side job and it wasn't that way. And it was
because it felt like I was a failure in that industry,
stepping out and stepping into lul Lemon. And I would
(10:11):
say I had an internal struggle around that for a
good year of really enjoying what I was doing at
lul Lemon, but worried about what people thought. And I
got to a point where I was like, this is
making zero sense. I love what I'm doing, I love
who I'm working with, yet I want to put on
(10:31):
a different face for everyone else. And so I would
say the more I became confident with what I was
doing at lul Lemon. The more success I saw and
the more pathway I saw for a future career allowed
me to really disconnect from the performing And I would
say that the final straw was actually being able to
(10:53):
disconnect that performing was what I did, not who I was,
and that was probably the pivotal moment that allowed me
to step into a new career.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So that very moment that you decided to finally give
it up, do you still remember that moment?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I clearly do. I remember the day that I thought
I'm going to let go of this last piece of teaching.
I remember having the conversation with the dance studio that
I was working for at the time. And while there
was I guess a sense of sadness it was becoming real,
there was also a sense of relief which truly allowed
me to go okay. I can now fully look ahead
(11:31):
and not feeling like I was still a little bit
in the past.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And how old were you at the time, thirty five?
So what would you say to someone creative or not
who's wondering how they go about making that switch?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I think being open to what is out there, what
is beyond the performing What are the skills that you
have as a performer that are actually transferable into another industry?
You know, think about what excites you, where do your
passions lie, where your strengths lie. That can help you
identify a different path. And I'm not saying that that
(12:05):
is easy. When I first stepped into my leadership roles
at Little Lemon, the imposter syndrome would often come up
in financial situations, and I had a fun little thing
that I would say, Oh, my association with numbers is five, six, seven, eight,
And that was my way of trying to deflect where
I felt like I had a gap. And over time
(12:26):
I knew that that was where I needed to focus,
where I needed to upskill, and where I needed to learn,
and so I could reframe it as an opportunity as
opposed to a gap or a weakness. So what were the.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Key skills that you realized that you could transfer to
a different industry. I'm guessing that teamwork and collaboration would
be one of them or two of them.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Teamwork and collaboration. Even in the performing industry, I was
in a leadership role. I was a dance captain, which
would look after the shows, look after the team. When
I was teaching, I was in front of a room,
I was public speaking, I was facilitating, so a lot
of those skills I use now. I think facilitating a
room is like performing, you know, So it's very similar
(13:09):
and I feel very comfortable in that role.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, interesting, I'm going to on that note, have another
fish in the box on your behalf. Here we go.
What's your favorite podcast or streaming show?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And why I don't listen to a lot of podcasts.
I would listen to an audiobook before a podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And can you point to any audiobooks that you've really
liked recently?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
A previous book that I've listened to that really resonated
with me was Atomic Habits and James Cleary. Yes, that
really is around creating habits that support you in being
the best version of yourself. It's such a simple concept
and linking those habits to what you're doing every day
in your day to day to really build habits.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Can you explain that.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
If you're wanting to implement a new habit, think about
the times or the things that you do frequently each
day and link it to that. So it's not creating
it out of nowhere, it's actually linking it to something
that's already happening.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So for example, if you're making a cup of coffee,
you could add something to that like drink more protein
or do some stretching. You could link it to the
making of the coffee.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You could or you're brushing your teeth, and that's your
time for mindfulness, you know, to maybe close down your
eyes and to slow down the mind.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, I'm going to have another go here we go.
What is your number one health hack.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
In the past, I would have said physical health, whereas
these days my mind first went to just then was
mental health. How I actually disconnect, How I take time
to slow down, to clear my mind, to have a
mindful practice. Sometimes in the middle of the day, if
a call finishes early, or if I have a fifteen
(14:57):
minute break, I'll actually walk away and go for a
lot around the block just to remove myself from my screen.
I feel like sometimes my mind can feel like it's
got multiple tabs open at one time, and so really
taking that time to close down some of those tabs.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So what are the other things that you do to
try and disconnect and become mindful and calm your mind down.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I'm an introvert. I like time on my own. One
of the things that I do when I drive home,
I actually don't generally have anything on, so I listen
to audiobooks, sometimes, I radio sometimes music. On my way
into work. At the end of the day, when I'm
driving home, I actually don't have anything on and I
find that really calming. That allows me to decompress. It
(15:45):
allows me to think through anything from the day in
a different way. And then my drive home is around
forty five minutes, so by the time I get home,
I feel like I've disconnected from work and I'm ready
to be present for the evening.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
On that note, you have passed the chatterbox section. I've
now got one final question, and that is, if you
weren't doing what you're doing now, if you weren't the
MD of Little Lemon in Australasia, what would you be doing.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
In my past, I worked on cruise ships for five years,
so I got to travel quite a lot. And in
that industry, though, you can dock into a location and
dock out later that day and you don't get to
really experience the culture. I think travel is so important.
I get so energized by experiencing different countries, different cultures,
(16:42):
different people, and so if I wasn't doing this job,
it would be something around travel.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So specifically, where do you want to go?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Germany is on my list of places that I haven't been,
and one of the places that I've been and not
enough that I want to spend more time in is Spain.
I recently got married and so we are creating a
honeymoon desired destination list right now, and Spain is the
top of the list for both of us. So I
think taking the time and being able to explore the
(17:12):
entire country.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Okay, well, I wish you well on your honeymoon in Spain.
Thank you very much, and that is our time up. Trevor.
I really loved talking to you about how you have
made an effort and consciously searched for mentors. I love
the advice you give us about stepping away from a
career which you clearly love but you know you can't
(17:34):
do forever, and how you go about making that break,
making that change, and I agree James Cleary's book at
Tomic Habits, I love it, and I love your pickup
that you need to create habits that support personal growth.
And lastly, but very importantly, I hope you have a
wonderful time on your honeymoon. Good luck with all of that,
(17:55):
and thank you so much for allowing us to spend
fifteen minutes with the Boss. Thanks and thank you to
everyone for listening. Sadly, this is the last episode for
our head of podcast, lat Fan. Lap has been a
formidable force in putting this podcast together every week and
we really will miss him and we wish him luck
(18:16):
in his next adventure. If you like the podcast and
would like to hear more, consider sharing the podcast or
writing a review, as it helps us to reach more
people and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. At
The Financial Review, we investigate the big stories about markets,
business and power. For more, go to afar dot com
(18:38):
and you can subscribe to The Financial Review the daily
habit of successful people at afar dot com slash subscribe.
This podcast was hosted by me Sally Patton and produced
by Lapfan. Our theme is by Alex garr. Our head
of Podcast is lap Fan and the head of Premium
Content is Fiona Beffini.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review. It was because I didn't want
to say that I wasn't a performer anymore. My ego
didn't want to say that I was no longer in
that industry. And it was because it felt like I
was a failure. It's such a simple concept that really
(00:29):
is around creating habits that support you in being the
best version of yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hi. I'm Sally Patton, editor of Boss from the Australian
Financial Review, and welcome to fift Demons with the Boss,
a podcast about success and failure and everything in between.
And along the way we're having to get some great
advice from our leaders. Day is Trevor Holland, the Managing
(01:01):
director of Lululemon in Australia and New Zealand. Hi, Trevor,
how are you great?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Thanks Sally, how are you.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Very well? And thank you so much for coming into
our Melbourne studio.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Great to be here, Trevor.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
As I said, you're the MD of Lululemon in Australia
and New Zealand. Lululemon being an athletic clothing retailer, but
I must admit I still think of you as a
retailer of Fantastic yoga pants and tops. The company is
headquartered in Vancouver in Canada. In Australia and New Zealand,
you have forty one stores and globally there are now
(01:38):
around seven hundred and sixty stores. In Australia. I believe
you've got about thirteen hundred employees, and in terms of merchandise,
I believe you're moving into outfits that can be worn
both during exercise and casually as well. So are you
a bit of a yoga fiend yourself? Do you get
up and do yoga in the mornings.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I am not a consistent practice, but I do practice yoga.
I find every time I do do a yoga class,
I'm reminded of how much it actually supports me mentally,
how it frees my mind, and how it really grounds me.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I must have been. I'm always reminded about how much
it hurts. But still so, Trevor, We've only got fifteen minutes.
Let's start the clock right now. My first question is
about your morning routine. What time do you get up,
what happens? Are you a coffee drinker?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I'm absolutely a coffee drinker. My alarm goes off around
five point forty five and about four times a week,
I have a consistent workout that I like to do.
The other mornings, I really listen to what my body needs.
Sometimes I'll get up, I'll run, sometimes I'll go for
a walk, but just depending on where I'm at on
that day. And I like to be in the office
(02:46):
somewhere between seven thirty eight o'clock depending on what the
morning routine has been. But as far as the coffee goes,
I have a ritual where I like to tick off
something that is on my to do list, depending on
how long it takes, one to three things, and then
I reward myself with a coffee. The concept of eat
that frog, which is do the thing that's hard and
get it out the way for the day, and then
(03:07):
I head off to get a coffee.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And in terms of the routine that you do four
days a week, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I go to a workout called strong So it's a
forty five minute class mixed between strength and cardio. It
is on a reformer Pilarate's bed and it's linked with
either a rowing machine or a bike and you change
between strength and cardio.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, now, Trevor, tell me about a pivotal moment in
your career. Was there a project you worked on, or
something that you did, or a promotion you were given
that changed the path of what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Musical theater is my background, and that was, I would say,
my first career. It was what I'd always strived to do.
It was, you know, I danced from a young age,
and I always thought that I would remain in that
industry one way.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Or another, say as an administrator.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Whether I was performing or potentially like on the creative
side of things. As my body slowed down and I
got to a point my husband and I had just
worked on cruise ships for five years, and I was
teaching six days a week, and I just became burnt out.
I was having to be creative for my job to
pay the bills, and the creativity was dying, and so
(04:20):
I came to Lutle Lemon. My thought was, I want
a job where I don't need to think about anything
creatively and I can switch off and during that time,
I'm going to start to work out what is next.
I felt like I was at a phase where my
performing was slowing down and it was time for something else.
So I came to lule Lemon, and it's almost seventeen
(04:40):
years I'm still here. But I think the pivotal thing
was where I really shifted mentally from it being a
job to seeing that there actually could be a new
career in this for me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And what was your first job at Little Lemon?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I was an educator, so I worked on the shop floor.
It's like a sales assistant, and I was literally working
one day a week.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So how did you move from becoming a casual shop
assistant to where you are now?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
About a year in I'd progress through the retail roles
and became a store manager and that's where I could
really see that there was a future there. And I
actually spent eight years of my time at the company
in learning and leadership. So that was where I started
on my own as an individual contributor and developed across
(05:27):
the eight years to become the manager across Asia Pacific.
But I would say how I got here is a
whole lot of leaders who were invested in my development
and then working hard to get there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So did you go and purposefully find leaders who would
invest in you? Was that part of your trajectory I did?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I think I had a mix of leaders who were
my manager, who were really invested in my future and
where I wanted to go, and then also connected with
people that weren't necessarily in side the company but could
give me insights, could give me development, could give me
understanding outside of the business as well.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, I love that. My next question is what is
the best piece of career advice you've ever been given?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
At Lilman, we have a practice of vision and goals,
and it really is around creating a vision for your
life sometime in the future and in creating goals to
be able to get there. And that is from a
career perspective, personal life, health, any sort of realm that
is important to you. And so early on I had
a very clear vision that my future would be somehow
(06:35):
involved in the arts and in the industry of performing
and the advice I got was have that vision, hold
that vision, and be okay that how you get there
may be different to what you expect, and then be
okay for someone else to open a door that you
don't necessarily see as a possibility for you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Interesting and what's your current vision.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I've recently moved into this role five months ago, and
so so I have a vision around how I lead
and the team that I support and develop and inspire
team is how we get results. Any results come through people.
I find that I work best when I work in
a group and in a team, and I think bringing
in everyone's skills and everyone's strengths is where a team
(07:20):
works best. It's like a sporting team. Everyone knows their
role collectively is when they come together is where they're
they're most effective. And I find that you know from
a cast from performing, it's the same sort of thing.
You're leveraging people's strengths, putting them in the right places
on stage, whereas this is not on a stage, but
it still is leveraging people's strengths.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Trevor, on that note, don't go away. We are going
to take a short break and when we come back,
we're going to open the chatterbox. I'll see you soon.
Welcome back to fifty Men's with the Boss. I'm here
with Trevor Holland, the managing director of Lulu Lemon in
(08:07):
Australia and New Zealand. Now, Trevor, this is our section
called the Chatterbox. Normally I would ask you to pick
out questions from the box, which today has got about
fifteen questions in it. But because you're in Melbourne and
(08:27):
I'm not, you're going to have to trust me to
pick out questions on your behalf. Sorry about that. Are
you ready for me to start fishing on your behalf? I?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I am, Okay, let's go here we are. If you
could swap jobs with somebody else for a week, who
would it be and why or what type of job
would you step into.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I always saw myself stepping into a creative role, whether
that was a resident choreographer, a resident director of a musical.
That's where I thought my path would go. And I
stepped into Lulle Lemon before I stepped on that path,
and I often just have little thoughts of how would
that have been? Would I have enjoyed it? Would it
have been what I imagined it to be. So I
(09:09):
would love to step into that role and see if
it was everything that I have in my mind, and
I guess would I be any good at it? So?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
At what point did you decide that you were going
to actually give up dancing? How difficult was it and
what made you think that you could make a success
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I was about a year into my Little Lemon journey.
I was a store manager and I was working forty
hours a week for lutlle Lemon, and I'd got rid
of more and more teaching, which was how I was
making my money prior, and I kept one day of teaching.
It was because I didn't want to say that I
wasn't a performer anymore. My ego didn't want to say
(09:50):
that I was no longer in that industry. And if
I saw someone, I would still say to them, I'm
teaching quite a bit and I'm still working out Little Lemon.
But I made it sound like Little Lemon was my
side job and it wasn't that way. And it was
because it felt like I was a failure in that industry,
stepping out and stepping into lul Lemon. And I would
(10:11):
say I had an internal struggle around that for a
good year of really enjoying what I was doing at
lul Lemon, but worried about what people thought. And I
got to a point where I was like, this is
making zero sense. I love what I'm doing, I love
who I'm working with, yet I want to put on
(10:31):
a different face for everyone else. And so I would
say the more I became confident with what I was
doing at lul Lemon. The more success I saw and
the more pathway I saw for a future career allowed
me to really disconnect from the performing And I would
say that the final straw was actually being able to
(10:53):
disconnect that performing was what I did, not who I was,
and that was probably the pivotal moment that allowed me
to step into a new career.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So that very moment that you decided to finally give
it up, do you still remember that moment?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I clearly do. I remember the day that I thought
I'm going to let go of this last piece of teaching.
I remember having the conversation with the dance studio that
I was working for at the time. And while there
was I guess a sense of sadness it was becoming real,
there was also a sense of relief which truly allowed
me to go okay. I can now fully look ahead
(11:31):
and not feeling like I was still a little bit
in the past.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And how old were you at the time, thirty five?
So what would you say to someone creative or not
who's wondering how they go about making that switch?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I think being open to what is out there, what
is beyond the performing What are the skills that you
have as a performer that are actually transferable into another industry?
You know, think about what excites you, where do your
passions lie, where your strengths lie. That can help you
identify a different path. And I'm not saying that that
(12:05):
is easy. When I first stepped into my leadership roles
at Little Lemon, the imposter syndrome would often come up
in financial situations, and I had a fun little thing
that I would say, Oh, my association with numbers is five, six, seven, eight,
And that was my way of trying to deflect where
I felt like I had a gap. And over time
(12:26):
I knew that that was where I needed to focus,
where I needed to upskill, and where I needed to learn,
and so I could reframe it as an opportunity as
opposed to a gap or a weakness. So what were the.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Key skills that you realized that you could transfer to
a different industry. I'm guessing that teamwork and collaboration would
be one of them or two of them.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Teamwork and collaboration. Even in the performing industry, I was
in a leadership role. I was a dance captain, which
would look after the shows, look after the team. When
I was teaching, I was in front of a room,
I was public speaking, I was facilitating, so a lot
of those skills I use now. I think facilitating a
room is like performing, you know, So it's very similar
(13:09):
and I feel very comfortable in that role.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, interesting, I'm going to on that note, have another
fish in the box on your behalf. Here we go.
What's your favorite podcast or streaming show?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And why I don't listen to a lot of podcasts.
I would listen to an audiobook before a podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And can you point to any audiobooks that you've really
liked recently?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
A previous book that I've listened to that really resonated
with me was Atomic Habits and James Cleary. Yes, that
really is around creating habits that support you in being
the best version of yourself. It's such a simple concept
and linking those habits to what you're doing every day
in your day to day to really build habits.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Can you explain that.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
If you're wanting to implement a new habit, think about
the times or the things that you do frequently each
day and link it to that. So it's not creating
it out of nowhere, it's actually linking it to something
that's already happening.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So for example, if you're making a cup of coffee,
you could add something to that like drink more protein
or do some stretching. You could link it to the
making of the coffee.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You could or you're brushing your teeth, and that's your
time for mindfulness, you know, to maybe close down your
eyes and to slow down the mind.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, I'm going to have another go here we go.
What is your number one health hack.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
In the past, I would have said physical health, whereas
these days my mind first went to just then was
mental health. How I actually disconnect, How I take time
to slow down, to clear my mind, to have a
mindful practice. Sometimes in the middle of the day, if
a call finishes early, or if I have a fifteen
(14:57):
minute break, I'll actually walk away and go for a
lot around the block just to remove myself from my screen.
I feel like sometimes my mind can feel like it's
got multiple tabs open at one time, and so really
taking that time to close down some of those tabs.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So what are the other things that you do to
try and disconnect and become mindful and calm your mind down.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I'm an introvert. I like time on my own. One
of the things that I do when I drive home,
I actually don't generally have anything on, so I listen
to audiobooks, sometimes, I radio sometimes music. On my way
into work. At the end of the day, when I'm
driving home, I actually don't have anything on and I
find that really calming. That allows me to decompress. It
(15:45):
allows me to think through anything from the day in
a different way. And then my drive home is around
forty five minutes, so by the time I get home,
I feel like I've disconnected from work and I'm ready
to be present for the evening.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
On that note, you have passed the chatterbox section. I've
now got one final question, and that is, if you
weren't doing what you're doing now, if you weren't the
MD of Little Lemon in Australasia, what would you be doing.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
In my past, I worked on cruise ships for five years,
so I got to travel quite a lot. And in
that industry, though, you can dock into a location and
dock out later that day and you don't get to
really experience the culture. I think travel is so important.
I get so energized by experiencing different countries, different cultures,
(16:42):
different people, and so if I wasn't doing this job,
it would be something around travel.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So specifically, where do you want to go?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Germany is on my list of places that I haven't been,
and one of the places that I've been and not
enough that I want to spend more time in is Spain.
I recently got married and so we are creating a
honeymoon desired destination list right now, and Spain is the
top of the list for both of us. So I
think taking the time and being able to explore the
(17:12):
entire country.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Okay, well, I wish you well on your honeymoon in Spain.
Thank you very much, and that is our time up. Trevor.
I really loved talking to you about how you have
made an effort and consciously searched for mentors. I love
the advice you give us about stepping away from a
career which you clearly love but you know you can't
(17:34):
do forever, and how you go about making that break,
making that change, and I agree James Cleary's book at
Tomic Habits, I love it, and I love your pickup
that you need to create habits that support personal growth.
And lastly, but very importantly, I hope you have a
wonderful time on your honeymoon. Good luck with all of that,
(17:55):
and thank you so much for allowing us to spend
fifteen minutes with the Boss. Thanks and thank you to
everyone for listening. Sadly, this is the last episode for
our head of podcast, lat Fan. Lap has been a
formidable force in putting this podcast together every week and
we really will miss him and we wish him luck
(18:16):
in his next adventure. If you like the podcast and
would like to hear more, consider sharing the podcast or
writing a review, as it helps us to reach more
people and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. At
The Financial Review, we investigate the big stories about markets,
business and power. For more, go to afar dot com
(18:38):
and you can subscribe to The Financial Review the daily
habit of successful people at afar dot com slash subscribe.
This podcast was hosted by me Sally Patton and produced
by Lapfan. Our theme is by Alex garr. Our head
of Podcast is lap Fan and the head of Premium
Content is Fiona Beffini.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
The Australian Financial Review
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